Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.Filmography

Emerging Chaplin

Actors: Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.

Synopsis: Emerging Chaplin profiles the talent of the best-known actor of silent comedy, Charles Chaplin. Follow the emergence of Chaplin's genius, from his early films, to his stint at Mack Sennett's Keystone studios, to his classics: Kid Auto Races, The Bank, The Tramp, The Rink, and Easy Street. Read More

B.L. Stryker: Auntie Sue

Hollywood

Synopsis: Produced for Britain's Thames television in 1979, Hollywood is a 13-part overview of the silent film era, lovingly assembled by historian Kevin Brownlow and David Gill. Each episode runs one hour, and each concentrates on a separate aspect of the art of the silent cinema. Chapter titles include Read More

Hollywood Uncensored

Synopsis: The history of censorship in the American film industry is recorded in this documentary hosted by actors Peter Fonda and Douglas Fairbanks Jr. Shown are scenes that were ordered removed by the censors from such films as King Kong and Peeping Tom. Actress Mamie Van Doren reminisces about Read More

Strong Medicine

Synopsis: This two-part, four-hour TV miniseries was adapted from the same-named 1984 novel by Arthur Hailey. Pamela Sue Martin headed the huge cast as Celia Gray, a young woman who rose from humble drug store clerk to become the head of a major pharmaceutical manufacturing firm during the 1950s and 1960s. Read More

George Stevens: A Filmmaker's Journey

Actors: George Stevens, Jr., George Stevens, Montgomery Clift, Brandon de Wilde, Fred Astaire, James Dean, Cary Grant, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Katharine Hepburn, Rock Hudson, Sam Jaffe, Jean Arthur

Synopsis: The man who assembled the remarkable documentary George Stevens: A Filmaker's Journey had the benefit of knowing the subject intimately: the film was written, produced and directed by George Stevens Jr. Utilizing pristine-quality filmclips and interviews, Stevens Jr. details Stevens Sr.'s rise Read More

AFI Lifetime Achievement Awards: Lillian Gish

Synopsis: Hosted by the American Film Institute, this video is a tribute to career of Lillian Gish. Included are excerpts from: The Birth of a Nation, Duel in the Sun, The Scarlet Letter and other films. ~ Tana Hobart, All Movie Guide Read More

Metropolitan Museum of Art: La Belle Epoque 1890-1914

Synopsis: This video was featured at a show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, celebrating the age known as La Belle Epoque. This "beautiful era" was from 1890 to 1914. Some of the leading figures of the times, including Jacques-Henri Lartigue and Enid Goulden-Bach, provide recollections Read More

The Sacred Music of Duke Ellington

Charlie Chaplin

Synopsis: A profile of Charlie Chaplin, most noted for his lovable "Little Tramp," from his childhood in England through his early career in vaudeville to his stardom in Hollywood. ~ All Movie Guide Read More

Ghost Story

Actors: Fred Astaire, Melvyn Douglas, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., John Houseman, Craig Wasson

Synopsis: This 1981 John Irvin picture constitutes an adaptation of Peter Straub's colossal, bestselling novel. The central plot -- shared by both book and film -- revolves around the four elderly members of the Chowder Society (Fred Astaire, Melvyn Douglas, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. and John Houseman), who Read More

The Hostage Tower

Actors: Celia Johnson, Peter Fonda

Synopsis: Suspense novelist Alistair MacLean wrote Hostage Tower directly for television. A master criminal takes over the Eiffel Tower, holding the mother of the President of the United States hostage. The criminal demands a $30 million ransom or the tower will be blasted into oblivion. The cast is quite Read More

The Crooked Hearts

Synopsis: A million-dollar cast was assembled for this high-gloss TV movie. Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and Rosalind Russell play a pair of ageing con artists, plying their trade with the members of a lonely hearts club managed by Maureen O'Sullivan. Complicating the schemes of the tricky duo is the presence of a Read More

Birth of a Legend

Synopsis: Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks were the stars of note in Hollywood in 1926. This documents some of the ways in which they gained their status off the silver screen. ~ All Movie Guide Read More

The Great Chase

Synopsis: The art of the movie chase sequence hardly began with Bullitt or The French Connection -- no thriller of the silent era was complete without a hair-raising chase scene, and this compilation pulls together highlights from some of the great films of the early 20th century. Starting with The Great Read More

Days of Thrills and Laughter

Synopsis: This is one in a series of entertaining cinematic compilations by Robert Youngson that reviews aspects of the history of film (The Golden Age of Comedy and When Comedy Was King directly preceded this release). As in its predecessors, this compilation looks back on the more distant past. Renowned Read More

Chase a Crooked Shadow

Crew: Producer

Actors: Richard Todd, Anne Baxter, Herbert Lom, Alexander Knox, Faith Brook

Synopsis: Why has total stranger Richard Todd shown up at the villa of wealthy Anne Baxter? Why does he claim to be her long-lost brother? Is Todd planning to finagle Baxter out of her inheritance? Is someone going to end up seriously dead? The answers to these questions can be found in Chase a Crooked Read More

The Silken Affair

Crew: Producer

Actors: David Niven, Geneviève Page, Ronald Squire, Beatrice Straight

Synopsis: Directed by Roy Kellino, this British comedy stars David Niven as Roger Tweakham, an accountant for a silk manufacturer who finds himself digging deeper and deeper into trouble. Not only is he suddenly smitten by a French model (Geneviève Page) despite his marriage to his wife (Dorothy Alison) Read More

Forever My Heart

Crew: Producer

Synopsis: Forever My Heart appears to have been fashioned from two half-hour episodes of TV's Douglas Fairbanks Jr. Presents. Fairbanks produced this 52-minute effort, and appeared in both of the short playlets offered herein. The first story takes place a hundred or so years ago; a male and female prisoner Read More

Destination Milan

Synopsis: This anthology is comprised of three stories. In the first a naive American tycoon boards the famous Orient Express and finds himself victimized by con-artists until a helpful train guard comes to aid him. The second tale centers on an impoverished Irishman's daughter who wants to marry the son of Read More

Thoroughbred

Synopsis: Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. stars as a horse trainer who's turned to the dark side in this equine drama. Fairbanks' character peddles false information to his rich clients, which is all well and good until he falls for a woman he's swindled. ~ Michael Hastings, All Movie Guide Read More

The Last Moment

Synopsis: This drama is comprised of two short films originally made to be shown on British television. The first short is the story of a scientist who invents a miraculous new drug that no one pays attention to. Distraught, the scientist is just about to end his life when his drug saves a child's life. In Read More

The Red Dress

Crew: Producer

Synopsis: This film offers a trio suspenseful dramas. In the first, an unhappy wife refuses to mourn the death of her husband, a miner who was trapped in a mining accident. Instead, she gets herself a new lover. Unfortunately, the husband survived. In the second episode, one sister saves the other, who has Read More

Three's Company

Crew: Producer

Synopsis: This British anthology was put together from the television series Douglas Fairbanks Presents. In the first two stories, Basil Sydney plays a surgeon who must operate on a man shot by his own daughter, and George Benson unwittingly becomes involved in a murder. The final story is a bit better, as Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. Read More

The Genie

Crew: Producer

Synopsis: This anthology contains three loosely related tales. The first is set in a POW camp where two men fight for a seat on an escape plane. In the next story, a son is bitterly disappointed to discover that his late mother was not perfect. In the final tale, the love between a genie and a human is Read More

Abbott and Costello: The Christmas Show

Actors: Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Margaret Whiting, Ingrid Bergman, Gary Cooper

Synopsis: As originally syndicated on television in late 1952, Abbott and Costello: The Christmas Show presents approximately one hour of holiday-themed musical and comedy variety material by the titular comedy duo. Guest stars include Gary Cooper, Buster Shaver and Olive, Ingrid Bergman, Douglas Fairbanks Read More

The Kate Smith Show, Part 2

Mr. Drake's Duck

Actors: Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Reginald Beckwith

Synopsis: After Mr. Drake's Duck, Douglas Fairbanks Jr. dropped out of filmmaking for seven years to concentrate on TV work. It isn't fair to hold this film responsible for Fairbanks' defection to the small screen, since Mr. Drake's Duck is pretty good within its own farcical limits. It all begins when Mr. Read More

Another Man's Poison

Crew: Producer

Actors: Bette Davis, Gary Merrill, Emlyn Williams, Anthony Steel, Barbara Murray

Synopsis: Bette Davis co-stars with her then-new husband Gary Merrill in the British melodrama Another Man's Poison. Adapted from Leslie Sands' novel Deadlock, the story concerns one Janet Frobisher (Davis), a successful writer of suspense novels. Janet's life is thrown into turmoil when her disreputable Read More

Mister Drake's Duck

Crew: Producer

Synopsis: This early nuclear satire offers a twisted retelling of the old fairy tale "The Goose That Laid the Golden Egg." The story begins as two American newlyweds move to live on an English farm recently inherited by the husband. Unaccustomed to the ways of British country auctions, the husband Read More

The Great Manhunt

Actors: Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Glynis Johns, Olga Lowe, Jack Hawkins

Synopsis: It isn't surprising that The Great Manhunt invokes fond memories of Alfred Hitchcock; the film was scripted by Frank Launder and Sidney Gilliat, the two former Hitchcock collaborators responsible for the screenplay of The Master's The Lady Vanishes (38). Gilliat also directed this fast-paced Read More

The Fighting O'Flynn

Crew: Producer, Screenwriter

Actors: Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Helena Carter, Richard Greene, Patricia Medina, Arthur Shields

Synopsis: In this lively adventure, a daring Irish leader tires to keep Napoleon from invading Ireland. The hero, in every way a swashbuckler, journeys to his recently inherited castle where he saves a fair lassie the Viceroy's daughter, from highwaymen. He then gets involved in many exciting and Read More

That Lady in Ermine

Actors: Betty Grable, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Cesar Romero, Walter Abel, Reginald Gardiner

Synopsis: That Lady in Ermine tells two parallel stories, both taking place in the small Mittel-European duchy of Bergamo, but one set in the 19th century and the other in the 16th. In 1861, the Countess Angelina (Betty Grable) and her newlywed husband, Baron Mario, have just entered the bridal chamber when Read More

The Exile

Crew: Producer, Screenwriter

Actors: Nigel Bruce, Fred Cavens, Gordon B. Clark, Robert Coote

Synopsis: Douglas Fairbanks Jr. is the title character, a young king exiled by evil conspirators. Forced to live far from his homeland, Fairbanks is harassed by the wicked Henry Daniell, who has been appointed to keep the young monarch from reclaiming his throne. After falling in love with commoner Paula Croset Read More

Sinbad the Sailor

Actors: Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Maureen O'Hara, Walter Slezak, Anthony Quinn, Jane Greer, George Tobias

Synopsis: In the RKO swashbuckler Sinbad the Sailor, Douglas Fairbanks Jr. nostalgically emulates his famous father. The first seven voyages of Sinbad have come and gone: now he is on an eighth mission, in search of the island where Alexander the Great allegedly hid his treasure. Participants in the Read More

Gaslight Follies

Synopsis: One of producer Joseph Levine's earliest projects, Gaslight Follies is a compilation of silent film footage narrated by Metropolitan Operan stalwart Milton Cross. Unlike the more respectful compilations of Robert Youngson (The Golden Age of Comedy, Laurel and Hardy's Laughing 20s etc.), Follies Read More

The Corsican Brothers

Actors: Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Ruth Warrick, Akim Tamiroff, J. Carrol Naish, H.B. Warner

Synopsis: The Corsican Brothers is based on theDumas novel about "psychic" twins--one feels the pain and experiences the thoughts of the other. Douglas Fairbanks Jr. plays both Mario and Lucien, siblings separated at birth because of a long-standing feud between various factions of their family. One twin is Read More

Safari

Actors: Madeleine Carroll, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Tullio Carminatti, Muriel Angelus, Lynne Overman

Synopsis: This studio-bound jungle yarn is uplifted by the spirited performances of its stars. After the death of her aviator lover, beautiful Linda Stewart (Madeleine Carroll) marries wealthy sportsman Baron de Courland (Tulio Carminati) on the rebound. When the Baron arrives in Africa for a hunting Read More

Angels over Broadway

Crew: Associate Producer

Actors: Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Rita Hayworth, Thomas Mitchell, John Qualen, George Watts, Ralph Theodore

Synopsis: In the Ben Hecht-scripted Angels over Broadway. Douglas Fairbanks Jr. plays a poker hustler working in cahoots with good-time girl Rita Hayworth. Alcoholic playwright Thomas Mitchell, having saved embezzler John Qualen from suicide, decides to enter Fairbanks' high-stakes game, using Qualen as an Read More

Green Hell

Actors: Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Vincent Price, Joan Bennett, Alan Hale, George Sanders, John Howard

Synopsis: Angry natives or a beautiful widow -- which poses the greater threat? Keith Brandon (Douglas Fairbanks Jr.) is an archeologist leading a team of researchers -- Richardson (Vincent Price), Loren (Alan Hale), Forrester (George Sanders), and Scott (John Howard) -- who are exploring the jungles of Read More

The Sun Never Sets

Actors: Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Basil Rathbone, Barbara O'Neil, Lionel Atwill, Virginia Field

Synopsis: In this patriotic British adventure, two courageous brothers try to keep war from erupting in Africa and stop a megalomaniacal arms baron from ruling the world. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Gunga Din

Actors: Cary Grant, Victor McLaglen, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Sam Jaffe, Eduardo Ciannelli, Joan Fontaine

Synopsis: Though Rudyard Kipling's poem Gunga Din makes a swell recital piece, it cannot be said to have much of a plot. It's simply a crude cockney soldier's tribute to a native Indian water boy who remains at his job even after being mortally wounded. Hardly the sort of material upon which to build 118 Read More

Rulers of the Sea

Actors: Margaret Lockwood, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Will Fyffe, Montagu Love, Vaughan Glaser

Synopsis: In the 1830s, despite the development of the steamboat at the outset of the 19th century, all trans-Atlantic travel was still done by sailing ships. David Gillespie (Douglas Fairbanks Jr.) is first mate on one of the fastest of such ships, commanded by Captain Oliver (George Bancroft), but he is Read More

The Rage of Paris

Actors: Danielle Darrieux, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Mischa Auer, Louis Hayward, Helen Broderick

Synopsis: This late-30s gem is an engaging spoof that features the U.S. film debut of the French acting beauty Daniell Darrieux. She appears as a French model who's come to New York to find a job. Things go a little awry in her first interview when she applies for a nude modeling position and gets the Read More

Having Wonderful Time

Actors: Ginger Rogers, Peggy Conklin, Lucille Ball, Lee Bowman

Synopsis: Based upon Arthur Kober’s play (which was subsequently musicalized onstage as Wish You Were Here, Having Wonderful Time stars Ginger Rogers as Teddy Shaw, a typist who goes to a summer camp for a little rest and relaxation. She’s also getting away from Emil (Jack Carson), whose interest in Teddy Read More

Joy of Living

Actors: Irene Dunne, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Alice Brady, Guy Kibbee, Jean Dixon

Synopsis: Given the talent involved, The Joy of Living should have been far better than it is. Irene Dunne plays Maggie, a popular musical-comedy star saddled with a possessive, spendthrift family. Maggie would like to leave the house once in a while and experience "real life," but her parents (Alice Brady, Guy Kibbee Read More

The Young in Heart

Actors: Janet Gaynor, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Paulette Goddard, Roland Young, Billie Burke

Synopsis: A comparatively little-known entry in the "screwball comedy" genre, David O. Selznick's The Young in Heart goes for quiet chuckles rather than bellylaughs. Adapted by Paul Osborn and Charles Bennett from a short story by I. R. Wylie, the film concentrates on a family of confidence tricksters. Read More

When Thief Meets Thief

Crew: Producer

Actors: Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Valerie Hobson, Alan Hale, Jack Melford, Anthony Ireland

Synopsis: Directed by Raoul Walsh, When Thief Meets Thief chronicles the story of two ex-partners in crime who have fallen in love with the same woman. When cat-burglar Ricky Morgan (Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.) gets emotionally involved with one of his victims, Glory Fane (Valerie Hobson), he doesn't realize Read More

The Prisoner of Zenda

Actors: Ronald Colman, Madeleine Carroll, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Mary Astor, David Niven, C. Aubrey Smith

Synopsis: Ronald Colman stars in David O. Selznick's classic production of Anthony Hope's swashbuckling adventure. The film takes place in a mythical Central European kingdom with Colman in a dual role as King Rudolf V and Rudolph Rassendyl, a visitor from England who's a distant cousin to the prince. Read More

The Amateur Gentleman

Crew: Producer

Actors: Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Elissa Landi, Gordon Harker, Frank Pettingell, Basil Sydney, Hugh Williams

Synopsis: The Amateur Gentleman takes place in England during the Regency era. The hero is Barnaby Barty (Douglas Fairbanks Jr.), an innkeeper's son. To prove his dad innocent of a crime, Barnaby poses as a famous bare-knuckle gentleman prizefighter. In this guise he gains access to the Royal court, and in Read More

Crime over London

Crew: Producer

Actors: Joseph Cawthorn, Basil Sydney, Margot Grahame, Paul Cavanagh, Renee Ray

Synopsis: In this British gangster movie, a Chicago gang goes to cool their heels in London. There they try to overtake the town. Meanwhile the mob boss searches for the perfect job. He convinces a millionaire, the owner of a department store, to help his gang rob the store blind. The plot fails and the Read More

Accused

Crew: Producer

Actors: Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Dolores Del Rio, Florence Desmond, Basil Sydney, Athole Stewart

Synopsis: Accused is a British melodrama starring American actor (and confirmed Anglophile) Douglas Fairbanks Jr. Somewhat incongruously cast as an Apache dancer, Fairbanks and his dance partner/wife Dolores Del Rio headline a Paris musical. Fairbanks becomes the unwilling target for the attentions of Read More

Man of the Moment

Synopsis: In this romance, a down-on-his-luck fellow saves a pretty woman from drowning herself, gives her shelter, and falls in love. By romancing the girl, he destroys all chances of marrying an heiress, but he does not care. While at Monte Carlo, he and his lady love roll the dice and find themselves Read More

Mimi

Actors: Gertrude Lawrence, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Diana Napier, Harold Warrender, Carol Goodner

Synopsis: Mimi is based on Murger's La Vie de Boheme, with operatic snatches from Puccini's La Boheme occasionally thrown in. The very healthy-looking Gertrude Lawrence seems an odd casting choice for the consumptive Mimi, whose tragic romance with starving artist Rodolfe (Douglas Fairbanks Jr.) in Paris' Read More

Catherine the Great

Actors: Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Elisabeth Bergner, Flora Robson, Gerald du Maurier, Irene Vanbrugh, Diana Napier

Synopsis: This historical drama recounts the events that led up to the rule of Russia's 18th-century Catherine the Great. Arriving from Germany as a young woman who is to wed Grand Duke Peter, she soon becomes caught up in the court intrigue and marries the lit-fuse duke. As the Grand Duke's mother lays Read More

Success at Any Price

Actors: Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Genevieve Tobin, Frank Morgan, Colleen Moore, Edward Everett Horton

Synopsis: An amoral capitalist is the protagonist of this drama written by one of Hollywood's famous "Ten" (the first people in the American film industry to be black-listed by the House Committee on Un-American Activities). The capitalist in question will stop at nothing to have the lion's share of the Read More

The Life of Jimmy Dolan

Actors: Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Loretta Young, Guy Kibbee, Lyle Talbot

Synopsis: In this crime drama, a prizefighter goes on the lam after he engages in fisticuffs with a reporter and believes that he has killed him. He ends up at a crippled children's home. The film is also called The Kid's Last Fight. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Morning Glory

Actors: Katharine Hepburn, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Adolphe Menjou, Mary Duncan, C. Aubrey Smith

Synopsis: Katharine Hepburn won her first Oscar for her portrayal of Eva Lovelace, a small-town community-theatre actress who comes to New York dreaming of theatrical stardom. She amuses producer Adolphe Menjou and playwright Douglas Fairbanks Jr. with her naively pretentious prattle, but neither man takes Read More

Parachute Jumper

Actors: Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Leo Carrillo, Bette Davis, Frank McHugh, Claire Dodd

Synopsis: Grounded daredevil pilot Douglas Fairbanks Jr. secures a job protecting shady Leo Carrillo from his many enemies. Carrillo takes a liking to the young man and promotes him to a flying job--smuggling narcotics into the United States. Fairbanks eventually redeems himself with the help of good girl Bette Davis Read More

The Narrow Corner

Actors: Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Patricia Ellis, Dudley Digges, Ralph Bellamy

Synopsis: A Somerset Maugham story was adapted for The Narrow Corner, a film about Man's inability to escape his destiny. Douglas Fairbanks Jr. plays a fugitive from Australian justice, wanted for accidentally killing a man. He escapes to the East Indies in a ship rented by his father. Among the people Read More

Captured

Actors: Leslie Howard, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Paul Lukas, Margaret Lindsay, Arthur Hohl

Synopsis: Adapted from a "drawn from life" novel by Sir Phillip Gibbs, Captured is the story of the men in a German POW camp during World War I. Amongst the allied prisoners are Leslie Howard and Douglas Fairbanks Jr. (British), and Paul Lukas (French). Adding to the dramatic intensity is the fact that both Howard Read More

Scarlet Dawn

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Nancy Carroll, Earl Foxe, Lilyan Tashman, Sheila Terry

Synopsis: The Russian Revolution provides the backdrop of this costume epic that centers around a young nobleman who, with his maid, escapes from his homeland to Constantinople where the two marry and begin a new life as commoners. But though it seemed a good idea at the time, the aristocrat has trouble Read More

It's Tough to Be Famous

Actors: Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Mary Brian, Oscar Apfel, Walter Catlett, J. Carrol Naish

Synopsis: Undoubtedly inspired by Charles Lindbergh's unprecedented sudden fame (but not the ensuing tragedy), Mary McCall's 1932 novel The Goldfish Bowl was turned into a satirical comedy-drama featuring an engaging Douglas Fairbanks Jr. as a navy captain thrust into the limelight after saving his crew Read More

Union Depot

Actors: Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Joan Blondell, Guy Kibbee, Alan Hale, George Rosener

Synopsis: A Grand Hotel derivation set in a major metropolitan train terminal, Union Depot features most of the reliable Warner Bros. stock company. Douglas Fairbanks Jr. stars as a slick thief; Joan Blondell costars as a stranded chorus girl; Alan Hale Sr. is featured as a phony baron absconding with Read More

Love is a Racket

Actors: Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Ann Dvorak, Frances Dee, Lee Tracy, Lyle Talbot

Synopsis: James Cagney was originally pegged to play brash Broadway columnist Jimmy Russell in this pleasant if somewhat lightweight newspaper yarn, but when director William Wellman called "action," Douglas Fairbanks Jr. had replaced him. In love with pretty actress Mary Wodehouse (Frances Dee), Jimmy can Read More

L'Athlete Incomplet

Actors: Barbara Leonard, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., George Davis

I Like Your Nerve

Actors: Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Loretta Young, Claud Allister, Andre Cheron, Henry Kolker

Synopsis: In this romantic comedy, a milquetoast bookworm finds his life transformed when he takes the advice of a fortune teller and travels to Central America. There he finds a distressed young woman about to be sold into marriage. His attempts to rescue her change him into a swashbuckling hero. In the Read More

The Stolen Jools

L'Aviateur

Actors: Jeanne Helbling, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Geymond Vital, Rolla Norman, Jacques Lory

Synopsis: Based on the stage comedy The Hottentot (filmed under that title in 1928), L'Aviateur is the French-language version of the 1930 Hollywood production The Aviator. The original film starred Edward Everett Horton as Robin Street, the author of a book on aviation who's forced to pose as a pilot, even Read More

Chances

Actors: Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Anthony Bushell, Rose Hobart, Mary Forbes, Holmes Herbert

Synopsis: This World War I romance stars Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and Anthony Bushell as two British officers who happen to be brothers. Both men fall for the same girl (Rose Hobart) while on furlough, resulting in dissention at the Front. What might have been a festival of cliches emerges as a superior drama Read More

Little Caesar

Actors: Edward G. Robinson, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Glenda Farrell, Sidney Blackmer, Thomas E. Jackson

Synopsis: The first "talkie" gangster movie to capture the public's imagination, Mervyn LeRoy's Little Caesar started a cycle of crime-related movies that Warner Bros. rode across the ensuing decade and right into World War II with titles such as All Through the Night (1941). At the start of the picture Read More

Party Girl

Actors: Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Jeanette Loff, Judith Barrie, Marie Prevost

Synopsis: Douglas Fairbanks Jr. made his talkie debut in the low-budget but imaginative "exploitationer" Party Girl. Fairbanks plays carefree young bachelor Jay Roundtree, the son of a wealthy industrialist. Though Jay is in love with his dad's secretary, his class consciousness compels him to keep his Read More

The Way of All Men

Actors: Dorothy Revier, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Anders Randolf, William Courtenay

Synopsis: In this corny disaster drama, patrons of an underground speakeasy in New Orleans attend a victory party and end up terrified when a Mississippi flood threatens to break through a levee and drown them all. Fortunately, the owner is a quick thinker and closes the airtight doors of the establishment. Read More

The Dawn Patrol

Actors: Richard Barthelmess, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., James Finlayson, Neil Hamilton, Gardner James, William Janney, Edmund Breon, Clyde Cook

Synopsis: Set during World War I, The Dawn Patrol is a study of the pressures and pitfalls of authority. A British Royal Flying Corp squadron commander (Neil Hamilton) is compelled by the higher-ups to send his boys out in dangerous, rickety aircraft. He is tormented by the responsibility, but does his duty Read More

Loose Ankles

Actors: Loretta Young, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Louise Fazenda, Ethel Wales, Otis Harlan

Synopsis: A young woman stands to inherit a million bucks in this comedy. The deal is thus: her aunts will give her a cool million if she can stay out of trouble and marry a reputable man with a clean background whom her benefactors approve of. The girl eagerly advertises for her mate, and she finds a Read More

One Night at Susie's

Actors: Billie Dove, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Helen Ware, Tully Marshall, James Crane

Synopsis: In this comedy, a boarding house owner becomes the confidant and advisor to a number of troubled gangsters and racketeers. She has troubles of her own, when her foster son takes the rap for a murder his girlfriend committed. As the young man was an aspiring playwright, his girlfriend tries to get Read More

Outward Bound

Actors: Leslie Howard, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Beryl Mercer, Dudley Digges, Helen Chandler, Alec B. Francis

Synopsis: This unusual supernatural drama, based on a 1924 Broadway stage hit, concerns a disparate group of people who find themselves sailing to an unknown destination on a ship constantly shrouded in fog. Tom Prior (Leslie Howard) discovers that he's travelling with his ex-boss Mr. Lingley (Montagu Read More

The Little Accident

Actors: Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Anita Page, Sally Blane, ZaSu Pitts, Joan Marsh

Synopsis: Based on a play by Floyd Dell and Thomas Mitchell, Little Accident stars Douglas Fairbanks Jr. as bridegroom-to-be Norman Overbeck. On the eve of his wedding to Madge (Sally Blane), Norman is visited by his first wife Isabel (Anita Page), who tells him that he's just become a father. Stuck with a Read More

The Jazz Age

Actors: Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Marceline Day, Henry B. Walthall, Gertrude Messinger, Joel McCrea

Synopsis: In this mostly silent drama, an overprotective brother tries to keep his sister from getting further involved with a group suspicious characters. Meanwhile he falls in love with a jazz-lover whose father is his father's mortal enemy. At the film's climax, the brother races his car against a Read More

Our Modern Maidens

Actors: Joan Crawford, Rod La Rocque, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Anita Page, Eddie Nugent

Synopsis: This follow-up to MGM's 1928 hit Our Dancing Daughters reunites the female stars of the earlier film: Joan Crawford (in her last silent film) and Anita Page. Crawford is engaged to Douglas Fairbanks Jr. (her real-life husband at the time), but both she and her fiance fall in love with other people Read More

The Careless Age

Actors: Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Loretta Young, Carmel Myers, Holmes Herbert, Ken Thomson

Synopsis: The Careless Age was based on Diversion, a play by John Van Druten. Douglas Fairbanks Jr. plays Wyn, a headstrong young British aristocrat whose escapades cause no end of headaches for his father Sir John (Holmes Herbert). Although married to Muriel (Loretta Young), Wyn begins courting a Read More

Show of Shows

Synopsis: Basically a filmed vaudeville presentation, The Show of Shows was Warner Bros.' entry in the "all star, all talking, all singing and all dancing" sweepstakes of 1929. Though slightly better than MGM's Hollywood Revue of 1929, the Warners entry pales in comparison to Fox Movietone Follies of 1929 Read More

Party Incorporated

Synopsis: In this crime drama, the girls of an escort service get into trouble with the police. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Fast Life

Actors: Chester Morris, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Loretta Young, William Holden, Ray Hallor

Synopsis: In this courtroom drama, a man is sentenced to death for jealously murdering the man who flirted with his wife. Unfortunately, the condemned man is innocent. He is saved from the chair by the revelation that the real murderer is the governor's son. The innocent man and his wife are soon reunited. Read More

The Forward Pass

Actors: Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Loretta Young, Guinn "Big Boy" Williams, Bert Rome

Synopsis: This college musical chronicles the travails of a college football star who wants to quit playing. To stop him, the conniving coach enlists the aid of a flirtatious co-ed who tries to use her many charms to coerce the lad into staying on the team. She succeeds and the boy falls deeply in love with Read More

Modern Mothers

Actors: Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Helene Chadwick, Barbara Kent

Synopsis: The "modern" mother in this modest melodrama released by Columbia was played by Helene Chadwick, a minor screen vamp of the later silent era. Chadwick played Adele Dayton, a Broadway star whose daughter, Mildred (Barbara Kent), is reared in rural Massachusetts by Maizie and John (Ethel Grey Terry Read More

The Power of the Press

Actors: Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Jobyna Ralston, Philo McCullough, Robert Edeson, Mildred Harris, Dell Henderson, Wheeler Oakman

Synopsis: Presently unavailable for public reappraisal, the biting and cynical melodrama Power of the Press would seem to be a precursor to such Frank Capra talkies as Platinum Blonde and Mr. Deeds Goes to Town. Cub reporter Clem Rogers (Douglas Fairbanks Jr.) wants a "big scoop" more than anything else in Read More

The Barker

Actors: Milton Sills, Dorothy Mackaill, Betty Compson, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Sylvia Ashton

Synopsis: Based on the oft-filmed play by Kenyon Nicholson, The Barker represented the talking-picture debut of silent-screen favorite Milton Sills (the film itself is a part-talkie, containing 38 minutes' worth of dialogue). Sills is cast as Nifty Miller, veteran sideshow barker for a cheap carnival. Read More

The Toilers

Actors: Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Jobyna Ralston, Harvey Clark, Wade Boteler, Robert J. Ryan

Synopsis: The titular "toilers" are three coal-mining pals: Steve (Douglas Fairbanks Jr.), Toby (Wade Boteler), and Butch (Robert Ryan -- and no, not that Robert Ryan). While Toby and Butch fritter away their paychecks on booze and dames, Steve settles down when he falls in love with Mary (Jobyna Ralston). Read More

A Woman of Affairs

Actors: Greta Garbo, John Gilbert, Lewis Stone, Johnny Mack Brown, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.

Synopsis: Michael Arlen's notorious novel The Green Hat was considered such a hot potato censor-wise that the property's title could not be used when it was adapted to film. Retitled A Woman of Affairs, this tale of a woman destroyed by syphilis was heavily laundered for the screen. Greta Garbo plays an Read More

Dead Man's Curve

Actors: Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Kit Guard

Synopsis: No, Dead Man's Curve does not star Jan and Dean-mainly because it was filmed before either one of them was born. The film does star two of Hollywood's youngest and prettiest stars of 1928, Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and Sally Blane (sister of Loretta Young). Fairbanks plays a grease monkey who Read More

Is Zat So?

Actors: George O'Brien, Edmund Lowe, Katherine Perry, Cyril Chadwick, Doris Lloyd

Synopsis: Though Is Zat So? was playwright/actor James Gleason's Broadway breakthrough, Gleason himself did not appear in the first film version. The stars of this 7-reel silent are George O'Brien as boxer Ed Chick Cowan, Edmund Lowe as Cowan's manager Hap Hurley (the Gleason part) and Douglas Fairbanks Jr. Read More

A Texas Steer

Actors: Will Rogers, Louise Fazenda, Sam Hardy, Ann Rork, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.

Synopsis: Though Will Rogers was still packing 'em in on Broadway, he was considered a Hollywood has-been when he starred in the independently produced A Texas Steer. Rogers also wrote the screenplay of this "topical comedy," in which he plays Texas rancher Maverick Brander, who is maneuvered into politics Read More

Women Love Diamonds

Actors: Pauline Starke, Owen Moore, Lionel Barrymore, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.

Synopsis: Also known as Women Love Diamonds, this MGM picture was to have been a Greta Garbo vehicle, but when Garbo went on strike for a higher salary the film was deferred to contractee Pauline Starke. The story concerns the beautiful mistress (Starke) of an elderly millionaire (Lionel Barrymore), who Read More

The American Venus

Actors: Esther Ralston, Lawrence Gray, Ford Sterling, Louise Brooks

Synopsis: The physical attributes of lovely leading lady Esther Ralston are amply displayed in American Venus. This satire of beauty contests gets under way when two competing cosmetic companies seek the endorsement of the winner of the American Venus pageant (Ralston, of course). Complication ensue when it Read More

Broken Hearts of Hollywood

Actors: Patsy Ruth Miller, Louise Dresser, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Jerry Miley, Stuart Holmes

Synopsis: Warner Brothers' Broken Hearts of Hollywood is still another of the "mother love" dramas that festooned the silent era. Louise Dresser plays a selfish woman who deserts her child in pursuit of movie stardom. The years pass, and the girl grows up to be Patsy Ruth Miller. With no mother to guide Read More

Man Bait

Actors: Marie Prevost, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Louis Natheaux, Ken Thomson, Sally Rand

Synopsis: The titular "man bait" is svelte shopgirl Madge Dreyer (Marie Prevost), who can't convince her customers and male co-workers to keep their hands to themselves. When she rebuffs the advances of her boss, Madge is fired, whereupon she finds work at a dime-a-dance joint. Here she meets and falls in Read More

Padlocked

Actors: Lois Moran, Noah Beery, Sr., Louise Dresser, Helen Jerome Eddy, Allan Simpson

Synopsis: Padlocked began as a serial for Cosmopolitan magazine, written by Rex Beach. After only a couple of chapters were published, Famous Players Lasky bought the rights to the story, reportedly for $100,000. Why the studio would pay so much for this utterly common (at least for its era) narrative is a Read More

Stella Dallas

Actors: Jean Hersholt, Belle Bennett, Ronald Colman, Alice Joyce, Lois Moran

Synopsis: One of the silent era's most popular tearjerkers, this soapy melodrama was adapted by legendary screenwriter Frances Marion from the 1923 novel by Olive Higgins Prouty. Belle Bennett stars as Stella Dallas, a small town girl who is devastated by her father's death and quickly marries the upper Read More

The Air Mail

Actors: Warner Baxter, Billie Dove, Mary Brian, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., George Irving

Synopsis: By using a borrowed medal, Russ Kane, a crook (Warner Baxter), is able to get a job as an air mail pilot. His plan is to steal some valuable cargo, but soon enough the job begins to have a positive effect on him. When his plane has to make a force landing, he meets Alice Rendon (Billie Dove, who Read More

Wild Horse Mesa

Actors: Jack Holt, Noah Beery, Sr., Billie Dove, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., George Magrill

Synopsis: Square-jawed Jack Holt and ornery Noah Beery were the stars of Paramount's popular Zane Grey adaptations. Their best efforts were probably their first two films, the epic Wanderer of the Wasteland and North of 36 (both in 1924). Although lesser in scope, Wild Horse Mesa was filmed on breathtaking Read More

Stephen Steps Out

Actors: Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Theodore Roberts, Noah Beery, Sr., Harry Myers, Frank Currier

Synopsis: Paramount gave their newest star, an adolescent Douglas Fairbanks Jr., every advantage in his film debut. As support, young Fairbanks had some of the best talent from the studio's stock company, including renowned scene-stealer Theodore Roberts and Harry Myers, who had recently impressed in A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court Read More

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