Ernest HilliardFilmography

Down to Earth

Actors: James Burke, Rita Hayworth, Larry Parks, Roland Culver, Jean Donahue, William Frawley, James Gleason, Edward Everett Horton, Marc Platt

Synopsis: A semi-sequel to Here Comes Mr. Jordan, Columbia's Down to Earth is a camp- and kitsch-lover's delight. More beautiful than ever, Rita Hayworth stars as Terpsichore, the Goddess of Dance. From her perch Up Above, Terpsichore discovers that Broadway producer Danny Miller (Larry Parks) intends to Read More

Deadline for Murder

Actors: Joan Blair, Larry Blake, Renee Carson, André Charlot, Jerome Cowan

Synopsis: In this crime drama, two crooks dupe their friend, a professional gambler, into nipping some important government documents. The crooks then hope to sell the documents to a foreign country. The gambler gets the papers, but then realizes that he has been tricked. He enlists the aid of a detective Read More

Undercurrent

Actors: Katharine Hepburn, Robert Taylor, Robert Mitchum, Edmund Gwenn, Marjorie Main

Synopsis: A change of pace for both director Vincente Minnelli and star Katharine Hepburn, this taut drama features the latter as Ann Hamilton, the daughter of a scientist (Edmund Gwenn), who after a whirlwind romance marries handsome but slightly mysterious inventor turned businessman Alan Garroway (Robert Read More

Gilda

Actors: Rita Hayworth, Glenn Ford, George Macready, Joseph Calleia, Steven Geray

Synopsis: When wealthy Ballin Mundson (George Macready) rescues down at his heels gambler Johnny Farrell (Glenn Ford) and invites him to the Buenos Aires casino he owns, both men get more than they wagered on. Farrell convinces Mundson to hire him as casino manager, but is shocked when Mundson introduces Read More

Masquerade in Mexico

Actors: Dorothy Lamour, Arturo de Cordova, Patric Knowles, Ann Dvorak

Synopsis: The Technicolor musical Masquerade in Mexico is Mitchell Leisen's remake of his own Midnight. Stranded in Mexico City without a dime, glamorous Angel O'Reilly (Dorothy Lamour) is rescued by wealthy Thomas Grant (Patric Knowles). But Grant's motivations are anything but altrustic. In order to get Read More

The Soul of a Monster

Actors: Rose Hobart, George Macready, Jim Bannon, Jeanne Bates

Synopsis: Advertised as a pure-and-simple horror film, Soul of a Monster is actually an adroit variation on the "Faust" legend. George Macready plays Dr. George Winson, who is saved from the brink of death by the intervention of his loving wife Ann (Jeanne Bates). In desperation, Ann had offered to make a Read More

Make Your Own Bed

Actors: Jack Carson, Jane Wyman, Alan Hale, Irene Manning, George Tobias

Synopsis: After several years' faithful service in supporting roles, Jack Carson was awarded his first Warner Bros. starring vehicle with 1944's Make Your Own Bed. Carson's costar is the pert Jane Wyman, with whom he'd previously been felicitously teamed in Princess O'Rourke. The nonsensical story is set in Read More

Mr. Winkle Goes to War

Actors: Edward G. Robinson, Ruth Warrick, Ted Donaldson, Bob Haymes, Richard Lane

Synopsis: The year is 1942: Mr. Winkle (Edward G. Robinson), a mild-mannered bank clerk, decides to quit his job and open a fix-it shop in his garage. Winkle's wife Amy (Ruth Warrick) disapproves of this, and orders her husband to move into his little shop. Tired of being browbeaten, Winkle is delighted Read More

Reveille with Beverly

Actors: Ann Miller, William Wright, Dick Purcell, Franklin Pangborn, Tim Ryan

Synopsis: Beverly Ross (nn Miller) is a would-be radio personality, but the closest she gets to being on the air is running the switchboard at a local station. Worse yet, the blustery station owner Mr. Kennedy (Tim Ryan) wants no part of programming "jive" (i.e., swing music) that she loves, preferring the Read More

Joan of Ozark

Actors: Judy Canova, Joe E. Brown, Eddie Foy, Jr., Jerome Cowan, Alexander Granach

Synopsis: The sure-fire combination of Judy Canova and Joe E. Brown paid off in big laughs and excellent box-office returns in the bizarre wartime musical Joan of Ozark. While hunting quail near her home, hillbilly Judy (Canova) catches a carrier pigeon bearing a message for a ring of Nazi spies. She turns Read More

Lucky Legs

Synopsis: When a young woman inherits $1 million she finds herself the target of a criminals who wants her money too! ~ All Movie Guide Read More

The Boss Rider of Gun Creek

Actors: Buck Jones, Harvey Clark, Muriel Evans, Tom Chatterton, Josef Swickard

Synopsis: Western star Buck Jones essays a dual role in Boss Rider of Gun Creek. In time-honored sagebrush tradition, one of the Bucks is a good guy, the other a villain. The bad Buck commits a murder, but it's the good Buck who ends up facing a hangman's noose. Thus, good Buck impersonates bad Buck in Read More

The Sea Spoilers

Actors: John Wayne, Nan Grey, William Bakewell, Fuzzy Knight, Russell Hicks

Synopsis: John Wayne steered clear of westerns for the most part during his year-long contract with Universal Pictures. In The Sea Spoilers, Wayne is cast as Bob Randall, temporary skipper of a Coast Guard cutter. Randall knows that a gang of seal poachers are operating within his jurisdiction but can do Read More

Show Boat

Actors: Irene Dunne, Allan Jones, Charles Winninger, Paul Robeson, Helen Morgan

Synopsis: This second film version of the Edna Ferber/Jerome Kern/Oscar Hammerstein II musical Show Boat is considered by many film buffs to be the best of the three. Covering nearly four decades (was there ever an Edna Ferber novel that didn't?), the film stars Irene Dunne as Magnolia Hawks, a role she'd Read More

Racing Luck

Synopsis: In this drama, Dan is a horse trainer whose winning horse is disqualified when it is discovered that the animal has been drugged. The trainer is innocent, but is still suspended for one year. During that time, he investigates the incident, reveals the perpetrator, regains his good name, and winds Read More

Flirting with Danger

Actors: Robert Armstrong, William Cagney, Edgar Kennedy, Marion Burns, Maria Alba

Synopsis: In his second Monogram vehicle, William Cagney (James' brother) is teamed with rough-and-ready Robert Armstrong. The stars are typecast as Lucky Davis and Bob Owens, a pair of reckless high-explosive experts (hence the title). After several hair-raising adventures in the U.S., the story shifts to Read More

Smart Girl

Actors: Ida Lupino, Kent Taylor, Gail Patrick, Joseph Cawthorn, Pinky Tomlin

Synopsis: Socialite Pat Reynolds (Ida Lupino) is forced to become the "smart girl" of the title when her wealthy father commits suicide, leaving nothing but a pile of debts. Pat sets up a successful hat-designing business, providing the sole support for herself and her sister Kay (Gail Patrick). So devoted Read More

Mother and Son

Actors: Clara Kimball Young, Bruce Warren, Mildred Golden, John Elliott

Synopsis: Silent screen favorite Clara Kimball Young was unable to sustain her stardom in the talkie era, partly because her girlish voice was at odds with her mature, sophisticated image. Nonetheless, before she was demoted to character roles Young managed to attain top billing in the Monogram "special" Mother and Son Read More

The Wide Open Spaces

Second Honeymoon

Actors: Edward Earle, Ernest Hilliard, Fern Emmett, Harry Allen

Synopsis: In this romantic comedy, a woman is utterly bored by her nice life and devoted husband, so she decides to find a lover. She chooses her husband's best friend, and together they plan to elope to a mountain cottage. But unbeknownst to her, the best friend is more loyal than he looks for soon after Read More

The Drums of Jeopardy

Actors: Warner Oland, June Collyer, Lloyd Hughes, George Fawcett

Synopsis: Most existing prints of the 1931 melodrama Drums of Jeopardy are in pretty bad shape, but it's worth enduring the tinny soundtracks and messy splices just to watch Warner Oland in his full villainous glory. Oland plays a mad scientist who seeks revenge on the aristocratic family responsible for Read More

Dynamite

Actors: Conrad Nagel, Kay Johnson, Charles Bickford, Julia Faye, Muriel McCormac

Synopsis: Filmed in 1929 and released early in 1930, Dynamite was Cecil B. DeMille's first all-talking feature. As one observer has noted, this 128-minute opus has enough plots for seven pictures. The basic storyline here involves spoiled heiress Cynthia Crothers (Kay Johnson) who will lose her fortune if Read More

Red Hot Rhythm

Actors: Josephine Dunn, Walter O'Keefe, Anita Garvin, Ilka Chase, Alan Hale

Synopsis: Anita Garvin, the willowy brunette comedienne who graced many a Laurel & Hardy comedy, once remarked with a mixture of pride and sarcasm that she'd been in "the worst film ever directed by Leo McCarey."Red Hot Rhythm isn't quite as bad as Garvin remembered, but it certainly isn't representative of McCarey Read More

Big Diamond Robbery

Actors: Tom Mix, Kathryn McGuire, Frank Beal, Martha Mattox, Ernest Hilliard

Synopsis: With less sumptuous production values perhaps, but with just as much savoir faire as in his earlier Fox Westerns, Tom Mix starred in this late-silent Wild West melodrama from poverty row company FBO as a ranch foreman assigned to escort his employer's daughter (Kathryn McGuire) from the big city Read More

Wall Street

Actors: Ralph Ince, Sam de Grasse, Philip Strange, Ernest Hilliard, James Finlayson

Synopsis: A very topical early talkie from low-budget companyColumbia Pictures, Wall Street starred Ralph Ince, brother of producer Thomas H. Ince, as Roller McCray, a steelworker turned ruthless tycoon whose tough business methods leads a rival (Philip Strange) to commit suicide. The widow (Aileen Read More

When Dreams Come True

Actors: Helene Costello, Claire McDowell, Ernest Hilliard, Rex Lease, Emmett C. King, George Periolat, Danny Hoy

Synopsis: A typical silent outdoors melodrama from poverty row producer Trem Carr and action director Duke Worne, this film starred Helene Costello, the sister of Dolores Costello. She played Caroline Swayne, a girl from the horsey set whose wealthy father (George Periolat) prohibits her from dating Ben (Rex Lease Read More

The Broadway Hoofer

Actors: Jack Egan, Louise Fazenda, Howard Hickman, Ernest Hilliard

Synopsis: Blonde Broadway dancer Marie Saxon came to the screen in 1929 courtesy of Columbia Pictures, who starred her opposite popular stage emcee Jack Egan in Broadway Hoofer, a rather leaden musical concoction that played mostly in the hinterlands. Saxon appeared as Broadway dancing star Adele Dorey who Read More

The Noose

Actors: Richard Barthelmess, Montagu Love, Jay Eaton, Lina Basquette

Synopsis: The Noose was based on a story by H. H. Van Loan -- or rather, the play adapted from that story by Willard Mack. Cheap crook Nickie Elkins (Richard Barthelmess) is the son of equally dishonest Buck Gordon (Montague Love). When his ex-wife (Alice Joyce) marries Governor Bancroft (Robert T. Haines) Read More

The Matinee Idol

Actors: Bessie Love, Johnnie Walker, Ernest Hilliard, Lionel Belmore, David Mir

Synopsis: For many years considered a "lost" Frank Capra silent, The Matinee Idol was restored in the mid-1990s to very nearly its entire 60-minute length. Johnnie Walker is cast as brash Broadway star Don Wilson, who out of boredom takes a leave of absence from his latest show and heads to the boonies. Read More

Out with the Tide

Synopsis: Director Charles Hutchinson makes lemonade from the poverty-row lemon Out with the Tide. Cullen Landis plays a newspaper reporter who is framed for murder. He finds an unexpected ally in the form of Dorothy Dawn, the victim's daughter. Together, Landis and Dorothy head to Shanghai, where they Read More

Red Wine

Actors: June Collyer, Conrad Nagel, Arthur Stone, E. Alyn Warren

Synopsis: In one of his last silent films, Conrad Nagel stars as Charles H. Cook, a sober-sided young man who is persuaded by his buddies to visit a nightclub. Partaking of spirits for the first time in his life, Cook proceeds to get totally plastered and ends up passing out on the floor. Upon awakening, he Read More

Sinners in Love

Actors: Olive Borden, Huntly Gordon, Seena Owen, Daphne Pollard

Synopsis: Virtuous Ann Hardy (Olive Borden) manages to land a job running the roulette wheel in a busy gambling emporium. Soon, however, Ann quits when she finds out the house -- and the wheel -- are crooked. Gambling boss Ted Wells (Huntley Gordon), impressed by Ann's integrity, falls in love with her Read More

Lady Raffles

Devil Dogs

Actors: Stuart Holmes, Pauline Curley, Ernest Hilliard, J.P. McGowan

Big Hop

Actors: Jobyna Ralston, Ernest Hilliard, Edward Hearn

Synopsis: In an attempt to broaden his image, former Fox cowboy Buck Jones both produced and starred in this silent aviation melodrama. Jones plays Buck Bronson, a ranch hand taking to the air as a barnstorming pilot. Lovely June Halloway, in love with Buck, persuades her wealthy father (Charles Clary) to Read More

Divine Sinner

Actors: Vera Reynolds, Nigel de Brulier, Ernest Hilliard, John Peters, Carole Lombard

Synopsis: A former leading lady for director Cecil B. DeMille, vivacious Vera Reynolds was experiencing somewhat of a career slump when she starred in this romantic melodrama from poverty row producer Trem Carr. She played Lillia, a small town girl who gets involved with the wrong crowd in Paris. Arrested Read More

Midnight Adventure

Actors: Cullen Landis, Edna Murphy, Ernest Hilliard, Jack Richardson

Synopsis: A Midnight Adventure was a veritable compendium of murder-mystery cliches -- at least, that was the consensus of opinion of contemporary reviewers. A man is found murdered in his lavish country home. At least five of his many weekend guests had motive and opportunity, since the dead man was a Read More

Dugan of the Dugouts

Actors: Pauline Garon, Danny O'Shea, Ernest Hilliard, J.P. McGowan, Sid Smith

Synopsis: A long-lost service comedy from Poverty Row entrepreneur Morris R. Schlank, Dugan of the Dugouts starred Danny O'Shea in the title-role as a "dance hall lad" joining the army because his girl friend, Betty (Pauline Garon), likes a man in uniform. There is a nasty top sergeant (Ernest Hilliard) Read More

Burning up Broadway

Actors: Robert W. Frazer, Ernest Hilliard, Sam Hardy, Max Asher

Synopsis: Burning Up Broadway contains no burning and precious little Broadway. Small-town hero Ernest Hilliard decides to take in the floor show at a speakeasy owned by rumrunner Robert Frazier. When Hilliard takes one look at chorus girl Helene Costello, he immediately falls in love. Frazier doesn't Read More

Silent Hero

Actors: Robert W. Frazer, Edna Murphy, Ernest Hilliard, Joseph W. Girard

Synopsis: Produced and directed by poverty row regular Duke Worne, this silent Northwest melodrama starred Napoleon (who, of course, bore the "last name" of Bonaparte), one of Rin-Tin-Tin's less successful imitators. Before leaving to search for gold, Bud Taylor (Robert Frazer) presents his girlfriend Mary Read More

Smile, Brother, Smile

Actors: Jack Mulhall, Dorothy Mackaill, E.J. Ratcliffe

Synopsis: The popular screen team of Jack Mulhall and Dorothy Mackaill were back again in Smile, Brother, Smile. The stars are cast respectively as hot-shot salesman Jack Lowery and sagacious secretary Mildred Marvin, employees both of a big-time cosmetics company. Inexplicably, the company's sales are Read More

Scorcher

Actors: Reed Howes, Hank Mann, Ernest Hilliard

Synopsis: Reed Howes stars as Mike O'Malley, a daring racecar driver, known as "The Scorcher" for his tendency to "burn up" the track. The wealthy heroine (Thelma Parr) is in love with Mike but feels that he's too irresponsible for marriage. But when the future of his business partner Goldberg (Hank Mann) Read More

The Midnight Watch

Actors: Roy Stewart, David Torrence, Mary McAllister

Synopsis: Though cheaply produced and boasting a second-string cast, The Midnight Watch packed a lot of entertainment value in its brisk six reels. Roy Stewart stars as Bob Breemer, a college graduate who aspires to be a detective. Fed up with the boy's youthful arrogance, the police chief (David Torrence) Read More

The Wheel of Destiny

Actors: Forrest Stanley, Georgia Hale, Ernest Hilliard, Miss Du Pont, Jack Herrick

Synopsis: After suffering a blow on the head, brilliant scientist Forrest Stanley totally loses his memory. Wandering into a travelling carnival, Stanley manages to land a job as a fast-talking spieler. In this capacity, he meets and falls in love with fellow "carnie" Georgia Hale. The future happiness of Read More

Let It Rain

Actors: Douglas MacLean, Shirley Mason, Wade Boteler, Frank Campeau

Synopsis: Douglas MacLean, who made his mark during the 1920s as a light comedian, stars as a Marine sergeant in this comedy-drama, which he co-produced with Paramount. The studio must have seen this picture as a sure bet at the box office -- MacLean's first breakthrough picture in 1919 was 23 1/2 Hours Read More

Bowery Cinderella

Actors: Kate Bruce, Pat Hartigan, Leo White, Rosemary Theby, Ernest Hilliard, Pat O'Malley, Gladys Hulette

Synopsis: Tenement gal Nora Denahy (Gladys Hulette) is the "Bowery Cinderella" in this standard melting-pot drama. While on a slumming party, wealthy Ned Chandler (Ernest Hilliard) is smitten by Nora. He offers to take her away from her shabby environment, if only she will become his wife. Nora is tempted Read More

Fighting Failure

Actors: Cullen Landis, Peggy Montgomery, Lucy Beaumont, Ernest Hilliard, Sidney Franklin, Richard Travers

Synopsis: Dark-haired, pleasant-looking Cullen Landis starred in this silent Western melodrama about a prizefighter accused of cowardice who toughens up on a Western ranch. Landis' disgraced Denny O'Brien falls in love with the rancher's pretty daughter, Peggy Montgomery, proving himself worthy of her Read More

Forest Havoc

Actors: Forrest Stanley, Peggy Montgomery, Ernest Hilliard, Harry Todd, Martha Mattox

Synopsis: This inexpensive "outdoor" actioner is set in a logging camp, where the crooked supervisor busies himself by stealing lumber from the owner. The villain manages to escape detection, principally because he's engaged to the owner's daughter. A handsome young logger gets wind of the supervisor's Read More

White Mice

Synopsis: William Powell, who spent much of his early silent career playing villains, got to play a hero in this romantic adventure, based on the novel by Richard Harding Davis. The picturesque exterior locations were shot in Cuba, but poor editing undermines the film as a whole. Roddy Forrester (Powell) Read More

The Recoil

Actors: Mahlon Hamilton, Betty Blythe, Clive Brook, Fred Paul, Ernest Hilliard

Synopsis: A lot of money was spent on this romantic melodrama -- enough so that part of it was actually filmed in France. Then again, the owner of the production company, Cosmopolitan, was William Randolph Hearst, who had a lot of money to throw around. After spending 20 years in the South American mines Read More

Man and Wife

Actors: Robert Elliott, Maurice Costello, Norma Shearer, Gladys Leslie, Robert Elliot

Synopsis: Norma Shearer plays Dora Perkins, a country girl who runs away to New York City. She gets work as a nurse and marries Dr. Howard Fleming (Robert Elliott), a famed brain surgeon. Supposedly she dies in a fire, and some time later Fleming takes a vacation in the country, where by some odd cinematic Read More

Modern Marriage

Synopsis: Produced as a comeback vehicle for the romantic team of Francis X. Bushman and Beverly Bayne, this was a rather modest whodunit in which an unfaithful wife (Bayne) is accused of murdering her lover (Roland Bottomley). A neighbor to the murdered man (Ernest Hilliard) blackmails the woman's husband Read More

Child Shall Lead Them

Actors: L. Rogers Lytton, Peggy Shaw, Florence Billings, Ernest Hilliard, William T. Hayes

Married People

Actors: Mabel Ballin, Percy Marmont, Ernest Hilliard, Dick Lee

Synopsis: This film from producer/director Hugo Ballin was based on a story by stenographer Nell Marie Dace, which won a Chicago newspaper contest. Why it won is a mystery, since it made a rather unoriginal domestic drama. When Robert Cluer (Percy Marmont) marries Dorothy, a country girl (Mabel Ballin Read More

The Ruling Passion

Actors: George Arliss, Doris Kenyon, Edmund Burns, Ida Darling, J.W. Johnston

Synopsis: Although United Artists was primarily formed to release films from its founders -- Mary Pickford, Charles Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks, and D.W. Griffith -- the firm almost immediately began releasing pictures from other sources. This comedy-drama, based on a Saturday Evening Post story by Earl Derr Read More

Silver Wings

Actors: Mary Carr, Lynn Hammond, Knox Kincaid, Joseph Monahan, Maybeth Carr

Synopsis: For the first few decades of the twentieth century, films that carried the sentimental theme of a mother's love were almost guaranteed good box office (this trend reversed itself in the 1960s, when mothers became a subject of satire). In the silent era, character actor Mary Carr was well known for Read More

Annabel Lee

Synopsis: This independently made drama was loosely adapted from the Edgar Allen Poe poem (the filmmakers had to work hard to stretch it out to five-reel feature length). Annabel Lee (Lorraine Harding) lives on a hill in a little fishing village. She loves David Martin (Jack O'Brien), but her father (Louis Read More