Ernest TorrenceFilmography

I Cover the Waterfront

Actors: Claudette Colbert, Ben Lyon, Ernest Torrence, Hobart Cavanaugh, Maurice Black

Synopsis: Max Miller's best-seller forms the basis of this romantic melodrama about cynical, hard-drinking reporter Joe Miller (Ben Lyon), who exploits his romance with Julie Kirk (Claudette Colbert) to hand in a sensational story to his newspaper. Julie's father Eli (Ernest Torrence) is a decrepit Read More

Sherlock Holmes

Actors: Clive Brook, Miriam Jordan, Ernest Torrence, Reginald Owen, Howard Leeds

Synopsis: This version of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's famed tale is set in contemporary London and follows Holmes and Watson as they seek to bring the nefarious Professor Moriarty to justice. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Wallingford

Actors: William Haines, Jimmy Durante, Ernest Torrence, Leila Hyams, Guy Kibbee

Synopsis: Officially released as The New Adventures of Get-Rich-Quick Wallingford, this William Haines vehicle was snappily adapted by Charles MacArthur from the "Wallingford" short stories by George Randolph Chester. Haines of course plays the title character, a breezy con artist in league with personable Read More

Shipmates

Actors: Cedric Hardwicke, Robert Montgomery, Ernest Torrence, Dorothy Jordan, Hobart Bosworth, Cliff Edwards

Synopsis: Actor Robert Montgomery would serve as a lieutenant in the U.S. Naval Reserve during WWII, but he was just a lowly seaman in the 1931 MGM programmer Shipmates. When he's not being pushed around by chief petty officer Ernest Torrence, naval recruit Jonesy (Montgomery) is busily wooing Kit (Dorothy Jordan Read More

The Great Lover

Actors: Adolphe Menjou, Irene Dunne, Ernest Torrence, Neil Hamilton, Olga Baclanova

Synopsis: No relation to the 1949 Bob Hope comedy of the same name, The Great Lover stars that master of sartorial splendor, Adolphe Menjou. Menjou plays a famed opera singer, better known for his sexual proclivities than his theatrical performances. He sets his sights on the opera company's ingenue, novice Read More

Fighting Caravans

Actors: Gary Cooper, Lili Damita, Ernest Torrence, Fred Kohler, Tully Marshall

Synopsis: Directly after his successful screen teaming with Marlene Dietrich in Morocco, Gary Cooper returned to Paramount's "Zane Grey" western series with Fighting Caravans. Cooper is cast as Clint Belmet, a hell-raisin' frontiersman facing a misdemeanor jail term. To avoid arrest, Clint talks French-born Read More

The Cuban Love Song

Actors: Lawrence Tibbett, Lupe Velez, Karen Morley, Hale Hamilton

Synopsis: MGM had hopes of turning Metropolitan opera singer Lawrence Tibbett into a movie star, but Cuban Love Song brought this two-year project to an end. Tibbett plays a cocky marine stationed in Havana, who devotes his attention to voluptuous Cuban peanut vendor Lupe Velez. He serenades her with "The Read More

Sporting Blood

Actors: Clark Gable, Ernest Torrence, Madge Evans, Lew Cody, Marie Prevost

Synopsis: Clark Gable went from supporting actor to star in the space of one year with Sporting Blood, adapted from a novel by Frederick Hazlitt Brennan. Gable is top-billed as a gambling house proprietor named Rid Riddell. When the owner of a prize thoroughbred loses heavily in Riddell's establishment, he Read More

Call of the Flesh

Actors: Ramon Novarro, Dorothy Jordan, Ernest Torrence, Nance O'Neil, Renée Adorée

Synopsis: The last of three back-to-back Ramon Novarro musicals, Call of the Flesh (aka The Singer of Seville) casts the star as aspiring opera singer Juan. Juan is advised by his mentor Esteban (Ernest Torrence) that he will never truly be a great singer until his heart is broken. This comes about when our Read More

Strictly Unconventional

Actors: Catherine Dale Owen, Paul Cavanagh, Tyrell Davis, Ernest Torrence

Synopsis: Strictly Unconventional offers two subplots united by irony. British wife Elizabeth (Catherine Dale Owen), weary of her much older M.P. husband Clive (Lewis Stone), dreams of running off with her handsome Canadian lover Ted (Paul Cavanaugh). Hoping to vicariously experience her fantasy, Elizabeth Read More

Sweet Kitty Bellairs

Actors: Claudia Dell, Ernest Torrence, Walter Pidgeon, June Collyer

Synopsis: This historical drama, set in 18th-century England, chronicles the romance between a free-spirited coquette and a highwayman. They meet when the lass goes on vacation to Bath. Music and romantic mayhem ensue. Songs include: "Tally-Ho," "Highwayman Song," "Song of the City of Bath," "Drunk Song," Read More

Officer O'Brien

Actors: William "Hopalong" Boyd, Ernest Torrence, Dorothy Sebastian, Ralf Harolde, Paul Hurst

Synopsis: Officer O'Brien stars future "Hopalong Cassidy" William Boyd in the title role. Though highly respected by his fellow policemen, O'Brien is continually humiliated by the criminal activities of his reprobate father (Ernest Torrence). The old man finally makes amends for his past sins by killing the Read More

The Unholy Night

Actors: Ernest Torrence, Roland Young, Dorothy Sebastian, Natalie Moorhead, Sidney Jarvis

Synopsis: A group of Londoners gather at the home of their host in order to solve the murders of two company officers. Once assembled the host announces that half of one of the deceased's fortune will go to the guests and if anyone should die, that person's share would go to the others. Before any money is Read More

Speedway

Actors: William Haines, Anita Page, Karl Dane, Ernest Torrence, John Miljan

Synopsis: This cookie-cutter William Haines vehicle was filmed in part at the Indianapolis Speedway. As usual, Haines plays a fresh young braggart, in this instance a cocky racecar driver. Somewhere along the line, he falls in love with Anita Page, the daughter of an airplane manufacturer. After a dash in Read More

Desert Nights

Actors: John Gilbert, Ernest Torrence, Mary Nolan

Synopsis: Desert Nights was the last silent film made by MGM's resident heartthrob John Gilbert -- and the last of his truly successful efforts. The melodramatic plot revolves around the robbery of a diamond mine, masterminded by Steve (Ernest Torrence). The criminals have taken Rand (Gilbert), the mine's Read More

The Bridge of San Luis Rey

Actors: Ernest Torrence, Raquel Torres, Henry B. Walthall

Synopsis: The first of two film versions of Thornton Wilder's novel, The Bridge of San Luis Rey begins at the end. The titular bridge, which stands in 18th-century Peru, collapses, killing five people. The natives believe that the bridge's destruction was the result of Divine intervention. Using this as a Read More

Untamed

Actors: Joan Crawford, Robert Montgomery, Ernest Torrence, Holmes Herbert, John Miljan

Synopsis: Untamed was touted by MGM as Joan Crawford's talking-picture debut, even though she'd already been heard as well as seen in Hollywood Revue of 1929. Best described as Somerset Maugham on toast, the film casts Crawford as Bingo, an oil heiress who has been raised in the tropics. When her Read More

Steamboat Bill, Jr.

Actors: Buster Keaton, Ernest Torrence, Tom Lewis, Tom McGuire, Marion Byron

Synopsis: Not the best of Buster Keaton's silents, Steamboat Bill, Jr. nonetheless contains some of Keaton's best and most spectacular sight gags. Keaton plays Willie Canfield, the namby-pamby son of rough-and-tumble steamboat captain "Steamboat Bill" Canfield (Ernest Torrence). When he's not trying to make Read More

Cossacks

Actors: John Gilbert, Renée Adorée, Ernest Torrence, Dale Fuller, Mary Alden

Synopsis: Based on a Leo Tolstoy novel, The Cossacks centers around Lukashka (John Gilbert), a young Russian man who has no interest in fighting, unlike the other Cossacks around him. Because of his cheery, peaceful ways, he is ridiculed by the others of his village, even though he is the son of Ivan the Read More

Across to Singapore

Actors: Ramon Novarro, Joan Crawford, Ernest Torrence, Frank Currier, Dan Wolheim

Synopsis: Across to Singapore was the second screen version of Ben Ames Williams' All the Brothers Were Valiant, first filmed in 1923, and later remade in 1953. The plot is motivated by the deadly rivalry between two seafaring brothers, virtuous deckhand Joel Shore (Ramon Novarro) and wicked Captain Mark Read More

Twelve Miles Out

Actors: John Gilbert, Ernest Torrence, Joan Crawford, Eileen Percy, Paulette Duval

Synopsis: John Gilbert was one of MGM's top stars when he appeared this melodrama. Playing against his usual matinee idol type, Gilbert plays a tough and restless wanderer. Jerry Fay (Gilbert) and Red McCue (Ernest Torrence) are fierce but not unfriendly rivals who run into each other in various ports. They Read More

Captain Salvation

Actors: Lars Hanson, Marceline Day, Ernest Torrence, George Fawcett

Synopsis: Lars Hanson had recently appeared as Reverend Dimmesdale in The Scarlet Letter when he was called on once again to play a man of the cloth. Anson Campbell (Hanson), however, has his doubts as he studies for the ministry -- he loves the sea at least as much as he loves God. Bess Morgan (Pauline Read More

The King of Kings

Actors: H.B. Warner, Dorothy Cumming, Ernest Torrence, Joseph Schildkraut, James Neill

Synopsis: Having scored big-time box office with his first Biblical epic, The Ten Commandments (1923), Cecil B. DeMille hoped to top this success with his 1927 The King of Kings. Inasmuch as he was now dealing with the life of Christ, DeMille had to be careful to serve up equal amounts of showmanship and Read More

The Wanderer

Synopsis: Jether (William Collier Jr.), a young man of Old Testament days, tends his father's sheep and longs to visit the big city. A caravan passes his way, and one of its members, Tisha, a priestess of the pagan goddess Ishtar (Greta Nissen), is attracted to the sheepherder. The wicked Tola (Ernest Read More

The Rainmaker

Actors: William Collier, Jr., Georgia Hale, Ernest Torrence, Brandon Hurst, Joseph J. Dowling

Synopsis: Ever since he was wounded in WWI, jockey Bobby Robertson (William Collier Jr.) has been able to predict when it's going to rain. This turns out to be handy in the horse-racing business, with Bobby placing bets on horses he knows to be good "mudders." Out of love for pretty nurse Nell Wendell (Georgia Hale 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

The Blind Goddess

Actors: Jack Holt, Ernest Torrence, Esther Ralston, Louise Dresser, Ward Crane

Synopsis: Even though Big Bill Devens (Ernest Torrence) is a powerful politician, he still sticks to his working man's roots. His wife walked out on him 20 years before and his daughter, Moira (Esther Ralston), believes she is dead. Moira falls in love with Hugh Dillon, a handsome young attorney (Jack Read More

Mantrap

Actors: Ernest Torrence, Clara Bow, Percy Marmont, Eugene Pallette, Tom Kennedy

Synopsis: Clara Bow plays an inveterate flirt who impulsively marries much-older mountain man Ernest Torrence. When city lawyer Percy Marmont shows up on a camping trip, Bow can't help but lead the poor fellow on. He resists her advances, but finally succumbs, leading to disaster. Very typical of the silent Read More

Lady of the Harem

Actors: Greta Nissen, William Collier, Jr., Louise Fazenda

Synopsis: Lady of the Harem was based on Hassan, a play by James McElroy Flecker. It all begins when the Caliph of Kornassah (Sojin) sends his minions out to find him more gold and more women. His henchmen return with gorgeous blonde captive Pervannah (Greta Nissen), whose sweetheart Rafi (William Collier Jr Read More

Night Life of New York

Actors: Rod La Rocque, Ernest Torrence, Dorothy Gish, Helen Lee Worthing, George Hackathorne

Synopsis: This mediocre Paramount comedy-drama has one interesting feature -- part of it was shot on-location at New York's El Fey Club, run by the famously brash Texas Guinan. John Bentley (Ernest Torrence) left New York bitter after being jilted by his fiancée; even after becoming a successful Read More

Dressmaker from Paris

Actors: Leatrice Joy, Ernest Torrence, Allan Forrest, Mildred Harris

Synopsis: While on leave of absence in Paris, American Air Force officer Billy Brent (Allan Forrest) meets Fifi (Leatrice Joy), a midinette, or dressmaker's apprentice. Although they are attracted to each other, Brent is suddenly called to the front and they lose touch. Years later, Brent is back home in Read More

The Pony Express

Actors: Betty Compson, Ricardo Cortez, Ernest Torrence, Wallace Beery, George Bancroft

Synopsis: Having tackled a wagon train in the immensely popular The Covered Wagon (1922), James Cruze directed this would-be epic centered on the famed Pony Express. This time, however, audiences stayed away in droves. Cruze's old-fashioned staging was foremost to blame. He portrayed pretty vistas but Read More

Heritage of the Desert

Actors: Bebe Daniels, Ernest Torrence, Noah Beery, Sr., Lloyd Hughes, Anne Schaefer

Synopsis: It seems like every word Zane Grey ever put to paper eventually wound up on screen during the silent days. Although there's a romance involved between Bebe Daniels and Lloyd Hughes in this Western, two of the era's finest character actors, Ernest Torrence and Noah Beery Sr. are really the whole Read More

The Fighting Coward

Actors: Ernest Torrence, Mary Astor, Noah Beery, Sr., Cullen Landis

Synopsis: This comedy--based on Booth Tarkington's play, Magnolia--sports a wonderful cast. Southerner Tom Rumford (Cullen Landis) was sent up north to be raised by relatives who happen to be Quakers. As a result, he returns home a passive, peace-loving young man, completely out of place in an area where Read More

Peter Pan

Actors: Betty Bronson, Ernest Torrence, Cyril Chadwick, Virginia Brown Faire, Anna May Wong

Synopsis: When Paramount bought the rights to the delightful James M. Barrie story, every actress in Hollywood wanted the role of Peter Pan, made famous on the stage by Maude Adams. Mary Pickford, Lillian Gish, and even Gloria Swanson thought they were perfect for the role, but Barrie's own choice was Betty Bronson Read More

North of 36

Actors: Jack Holt, Lois Wilson, Noah Beery, Sr., David Dunbar

Synopsis: North of 36 was conceived in the wake of the immensely popular Covered Wagon, right down to the casting of that earlier film's leading lady, Lois Wilson (Covered Wagon director James Cruze was also to have been involved in the project, but dropped out when the budget was reduced from $1 million to Read More

The Sideshow of Life

Actors: Ernest Torrence, Anna Q. Nilsson, Louise Lagrange, Maurice Cannon, Neil Hamilton

Synopsis: English orphan Andrew Lackaday (Ernest Torrence) grows up and becomes a clown for a French circus. After the circus becomes bankrupt, his trained dog is run over by a car belonging to Lady Auriol Dayne (Anna Q. Nilsson). For Lackaday's next gig, he teams up with Elodie, a dancer (Louise Lagrange) Read More

West of the Water Tower

Synopsis: In the more straight-laced era of the 1920s the lack of a marriage license could destroy a young couple's world - that's the only way that modern-day film historians can make sense of the plot to this character study. Adrian Plummer (Ernest Torrence) is a narrow-minded preacher; Charles Chew, the Read More

The Trail of the Lonesome Pine

Actors: Mary Miles Minter, Antonio Moreno, Ernest Torrence, Ed Brady

Synopsis: This remake of the 1916 Cecil B. DeMille picture was Mary Miles Minter's final film for Paramount. June Tolliver (Minter) is a Kentucky mountain girl whose family is feuding with the Falins. But their differences are temporarily put on hold when revenue officer John Hale (Antonio Moreno) comes Read More

Brass Bottle

Synopsis: Maurice Tourneur directed this colorful Arabian Nights-type fantasy in his usual picturesque style. After attempting to kill his master, the genie Fakresh (Ernest Torrence in an excellent performance) is imprisoned in a brass bottle. There he stays for some 6,000 years until the bottle is acquired Read More

The Hunchback of Notre Dame

Actors: Lon Chaney, Ernest Torrence, Patsy Ruth Miller, Norman Kerry, Kate Lester

Synopsis: This second film version of the Victor Hugo novel Notre Dame de Paris (the first was a Theda Bara vehicle, The Dancer of Paris) was a super-duper-spectacular as only Hollywood of the 1920s could make them, but it is never so large that it dwarfs the contribution of its star, Lon Chaney. As Read More

The Covered Wagon

Actors: J. Warren Kerrigan, Lois Wilson, Ernest Torrence, Charles Ogle, Alan Hale, Ethel Wales

Synopsis: James Cruze revived the western genre and presented audiences with the first western epic in the spectacular 1923 film The Covered Wagon, chronicling the largest wagon train to ever cross the valley of the Platte River. The film takes place in 1848, when two wagon trains -- one led by Jesse Read More

Ruggles of Red Gap

Actors: Edward Everett Horton, Ernest Torrence, Lois Wilson, Fritzi Ridgeway, Charles Ogle

Synopsis: Edward Everett Horton, who was still new to film, was perfectly cast as the meek and mild English valet Ruggles in this adaptation of the Harry Leon Wilson novel. Ruggles comes into the life of Cousin Egbert (Ernest Torrence) when he and his wife, Mrs. Effie (Louise Dresser), travel to Paris. The Read More

Singed Wings

Actors: Bebe Daniels, Conrad Nagel, Adolphe Menjou, Robert Brower

Synopsis: What was Paramount thinking when it cast a capable comedienne like Bebe Daniels in this artificial tragedy? The funny moments here were all created inadvertently. Conrad Nagel, Adolphe Menjou and Ernest Torrence are among the other capable actors who are also wasted. Bonita (Daniels), a Spanish Read More

Prodigal Judge

Actors: Jean Paige, Maclyn Arbuckle, Ernest Torrence, Earl Foxe

Synopsis: Vitagraph may have erroneously claimed that this comedy-drama was "the greatest picture of the year," but it did have a certain charm (even if the plot was rather hard to follow), and Macklyn Arbuckle does justice to his role as Judge Slocum Price. It takes place in the pre-Civil War era South. Read More

The Kingdom Within

Actors: Russell Simpson, Gaston Glass, Pauline Starke, Hallam Cooley

Synopsis: This romantic drama carried a spiritual theme. In a small rural town next to a lumber camp, two outcasts become friends -- toy maker Amos Deming (Gaston Glass) and Emily Preston (Pauline Stark). Amos' father, Caleb (Russell Simpson), has always resented the fact that his boy had a crippled arm and Read More

Broken Chains

Actors: Malcolm McGregor, Colleen Moore, Ernest Torrence, Claire Windsor, James Marcus

Synopsis: Eastern boy Malcolm McGregor takes a job in a Western lumber camp to improve his manliness. In his job as overseer, he meets and falls for lovely Colleen Moore, a young woman abused by her husband Ernest Torrence. In the ensuing fight over Moore, a bridge is demolished and the villain is finally Read More

Tol'able David

Actors: Richard Barthelmess, Gladys Hulette, Walter P. Lewis, Ernest Torrence, Ralph Yearsley

Synopsis: Richard Barthelmess stars in this classic silent melodrama as David Kinemon, the youngest son of a family living in a small West Virginia town. While sweet and good-natured, David is not noted for his mature behavior, and his youthful overenthusiasm causes his mother to tell him, "You're not quite Read More