Ethel WalesFilmography

Tarnished

Actors: Dorothy Patrick, Arthur Franz, Barbara Fuller, Jimmy Lydon, Harry Shannon

Synopsis: Dorothy Patrick, Republic Pictures' all-purpose leading lady, heads the cast of Tarnished. Arthur Franz co-stars as Bud Dolliver, who returns to his hometown after a hitch in the Marines. Because of Bud's previous bad reputation, the townsfolk assume that he's been in prison. Despite his Read More

Unconquered

Actors: Gary Cooper, Paulette Goddard, Howard Da Silva, Boris Karloff, Katherine de Mille, Ward Bond

Synopsis: Cecil B. DeMille's first postwar production, the $5 million Technicolor historical spectacular Unconquered lacks only the kitchen sink. The story begins in England in the 1760s, as Abigail Martha Hale (Paulette Goddard), unjustly accused of a crime against the Crown, is sentenced by the Lord Chief Read More

Smash-Up: The Story of a Woman

Actors: Susan Hayward, Lee Bowman, Eddie Albert, Marsha Hunt, Carl Esmond

Synopsis: A woman struggles to reassemble her broken life in this drama that features Susan Hayward in her first starring role. The woman started out as a night-club singer, but abandoned her career after marrying a budding radio star. At first she does everything she can to insure his success, but when he Read More

Welcome Stranger

Actors: Don Beddoe, Bing Crosby, Lillian Bronson, Joan Caulfield, Barry Fitzgerald, Frank Faylen, Elizabeth Patterson, Charles Dingle

Synopsis: A curmudgeonly small-town doctor resents the presence of a new younger physician and his newfangled ways. He is especially dismayed by the new doctor's tendency to sing, a behavior the older fellow deems inappropriate. When the new doc meets a pretty young school teacher, romantic sparks fly. Read More

In Old Sacramento

Actors: Constance Moore, Hank Daniels, Ruth Donnelly, Eugene Pallette

Synopsis: Director Joseph Kane adapted his own story Diamond Carlisle for the screenplay of In Old Sacramento--the third film version of Kane's original tale. Bill Elliot stars as masked bandit Spanish Jack, who behaves as badly as he wishes with few of the usual redeeming features plaguing most cinema Read More

Lumberjack

Actors: William "Hopalong" Boyd, Andy Clyde, Jimmy Rogers, Herbert Rawlinson, Ellen Hall

Synopsis: Though it's not readily obvious from the title, Lumberjack is the 52nd entry in the long-running "Hopalong Cassidy" series. In this one, Hoppy (William Boyd) and his pals California (Andy Clyde) and Jimmy (Jimmy Rogers) come to the rescue of recently widowed Julie (Ellen Hall). It so happens that Read More

Border Vigilantes

Actors: Wally Wales, William "Hopalong" Boyd, Andy Clyde, Russell Hayden, Frances Gifford, Victor Jory

Synopsis: Border Vigilantes was the 34th entry in the "Hopalong Cassidy" western series, with 32 more still on the way. William Boyd stars once more as black-clad champion of justice Hopalong Cassidy, while Andy Clyde and Russell Hayden tag along as California Carson and Lucky Jenkins. This time our heroes Read More

Hidden Gold

Actors: William "Hopalong" Boyd, Russell Hayden, Minor Watson, Ruth Rogers, Britt Wood

Synopsis: Hidden Gold was the 29th installment in the "Hopalong Cassidy" western series. It perhaps goes without saying that "Hoppy" is played by William Boyd, while his sidekick Lucky Jenkins is essayed by Russell Hayden. The eponymous hidden gold is being covertly mined from an equally hidden mine by a Read More

Young Bill Hickok

Actors: Roy Rogers, George "Gabby" Hayes, John Miljan, Sally Payne

Synopsis: This Roy Rogers vehicle is a followup (though not a sequel) to 1940's Young Buffalo Bill. Definitely a "premature anti-fascist", singing frontiersman Bill Hickok (Roy Rogers) tries to thwart the takeover of West by foreign invaders. John Miljan is frontier fuhrer Nicholas Tower, who hires a gang Read More

Knights of the Range

Actors: Russell Hayden, Victor Jory, Jean Parker, Morris Ankrum, Britt Wood

Synopsis: Paramount's "Zane Grey" series continued rolling into the 1940s with Knights of the Range. Taking a break from the studio's Hopalong Cassidy pictures, Russell Hayden stars as Renn Frayne, a college-educated youth who finds more than he bargained for when he heads westward. After a terrifying Read More

Wyoming

Actors: Wallace Beery, Leo Carrillo, Ann Rutherford, Lee Bowman, Joseph Calleia, Bobs Watson

Synopsis: In addition to being a fine Western in its own right, this film served to introduce perhaps Hollywood's oddest romantic couple: the gruff but lovable Wallace Beery and the tart but lovable Marjorie Main. Beery plays "Reb" Harkness who, with his Mexican pal Pete (Leo Carrillo), is almost caught Read More

Days of Jesse James

Actors: Roy Rogers, George "Gabby" Hayes, Don "Red" Barry, Pauline Moore, Harry Woods

Synopsis: Donald Barry plays the legendary outlaw of the title in this Roy Rogers Western which, needless to say, plays fast and loose with history. Returning to Missouri from the gold fields of California, Gabby Whittaker (George "Gabby" Hayes) is persuaded by his granddaughter, Mary (Pauline Moore), to Read More

Sudden Money

Actors: Marjorie Rambeau, Charles Grapewin, Broderick Crawford, Billy Lee

Synopsis: Paramount's Sudden Money has all the earmarks of a Charlie Ruggles-Mary Boland vehicle, except that this time Ruggles is teamed with Marjorie Rambeau. It all begins when Sweeney Patterson (Ruggles) and his brother-in-law Doc Finney (Broderick Crawford) win $150,000 in the Irish sweepstakes. All of Read More

Frontier Pony Express

Actors: Roy Rogers, Mary Hart, Raymond Hatton, Edward Keane, Noble Johnson

Synopsis: Frontier Pony Express is a fast-paced Roy Rogers program western which could stand up on its own with any big-budgeted "A" picture. Per the title, Rogers plays an express rider, working the California-to-Kansas City route. While the Civil War rages in the East, our hero must contend with Yankee Read More

In Old Caliente

Actors: Roy Rogers, Mary Hart, George "Gabby" Hayes, Jack LaRue, Katherine de Mille

Synopsis: As in all his early westerns, Roy Rogers battles true Old West outlaws in the fine In Old Caliente. He is, as usual, Roy Rogers, but this time a trusted hand at the Olde California ranchero belonging to Don José (Frank Puglia). Unbeknownst to the Don, however, his "half-breed" foreman, Suguaro Read More

The Gladiator

Actors: Joe E. Brown, Man Mountain Dean, June Travis, Dickie Moore, Lucien Littlefield

Synopsis: The most successful of Joe E. Brown's post-Warner Bros. efforts, The Gladiator finds cavern-mouthed Brown winning a cash prize at a movie theatre, then using his windfall to attend college. The son of a legendary athlete, clumsy Brown is unable to live up to his dad's reputation. Genially batty Read More

Bar 20 Rides Again

Actors: William "Hopalong" Boyd, James Ellison, Jean Rouverol, George "Gabby" Hayes, Frank McGlynn, Jr.

Synopsis: Bar 20 Rides Again was the 3rd of William Boyd's Hopalong Cassidy flicks. As with most early entries in the Cassidy series, the film is longer than usual, with emphasis on dialogue and situation for the first 2/3 of the picture. This time, Hoppy runs up against cattle rustlers, headed by Harry Worth Read More

Small Town Girl

Actors: Janet Gaynor, Robert Taylor, Binnie Barnes, Andy Devine, James Stewart

Synopsis: One Horse Town is the TV title for MGM's 1936 version Small Town Girl (the new title was bestowed to avoid confusion with the 1953 remake). Robert Taylor plays an irresponsible playboy who is arrested in a backwater town for drunken driving. While intoxicated, Taylor proposes to local girl Janet Gaynor Read More

Another Face

Actors: Wallace Ford, Brian Donlevy, Phyllis Brooks, Erik Rhodes, Molly Lamont

Synopsis: Charming but ruthless fugitive gangster Dutra (Brian Donlevy) demands that a doctor (Oscar Apfel) perform plastic surgery upon him. Emerging from the bandages with a new face, Dutra murders the doctor, changes his name to Dawson, and heads to California, secure in the belief that no one who can Read More

The Barbary Coast

Actors: Miriam Hopkins, Edward G. Robinson, Joel McCrea, Walter Brennan, Frank Craven

Synopsis: It's the wild and woolly waterfront world of San Francisco in the late 1800s in this rambling tale of an outrageous nightclub owner (Edward G. Robinson) and his efforts at wooing lovely Mary Rutledge (Miriam Hopkins), a lovely Eastern lass left to her own devices in the rowdy port city. The Read More

The Merry Frinks

Actors: Aline MacMahon, Guy Kibbee, Hugh Herbert, Allen Jenkins

Synopsis: In this odd-ball comedy, a self-sacrificing but eccentric mother attempts to guide her equally eccentric family. She has two sons and a daughter. One son is a communist and the other is a struggling prizefighter. Her daughter is trying to snag a married booking agent to help her break into radio. Read More

The Crime Doctor

Actors: Otto Kruger, Karen Morley, Nils Asther, Judith Wood, William Frawley

Synopsis: This thriller centers around a super detective's attempt to mastermind the perfect crime after he suspects his wife of infidelity. A woman has been blackmailing the man he suspects of messing with his wife. The detective kills this woman and blames the lover. The hapless man is convicted of the Read More

The Mighty Barnum

Actors: Wallace Beery, Adolphe Menjou, Virginia Bruce, Rochelle Hudson, Janet Beecher

Synopsis: Wallace Beery plays P.T. Barnum in this comic biography of the renowned showman. As the story opens, Phineas Taylor Barnum is operating a dry goods store in New York City with his friend Bailey Walsh (Adolphe Menjou), and he is looking for a way to boost business. He strikes upon the idea of Read More

The Eleventh Commandment

Actors: Marian Marsh, Theodore Von Eltz, Alan Hale, Marie Prevost, Gloria Shea

Synopsis: "Thou Shall Not Be Caught" is the commandment referred to in this low-budget melodrama ostensibly based on Ella Wendel, a New York recluse whose death provoked an avalanche of claimants to her 36-million-dollar estate. Poverty Row company Allied Pictures raised the amount to 50 million dollars and Read More

The Important Witness

Actors: Noel Francis, Donald Dillaway, Dorothy Burgess, Noel Madison, Sarah Padden

Synopsis: In this crime comedy, a stenographer is kidnapped after she witnesses a mob hit. The hostage soon finds herself the object of the crime lord's affections. She earns his trust and then escapes. She hops a bus and heads for L.A. where she plans on clearing the name of her girlfriend, the prime Read More

The Fighting Parson

Actors: Marceline Day, Ethel Wales, Robert W. Frazer, Stanley Blystone, Roy "Skeeter Bill" Robbins

Synopsis: Unlike the unintentionally amusing vehicles of many another western star, most of Hoot Gibson's starring films are funny on purpose -- and few are funnier than The Fighting Parson. Escaping from the sheriff after being caught with a pair of loaded dice, Gibson and his saddle pal Skeeter Bill Robbins Read More

Easy Millions

Actors: Dorothy Burgess, Merna Kennedy, Johnny Arthur, Noah Beery, Sr.

Synopsis: This cheapie but goodie stars Skeets Gallagher as a young man who doesn't want to be strong-armed into a questionable business deal by his pal Johnny Arthur. Thus, he tells Arthur that he doesn't need any extra money because he's inherited a million bucks. Soon a rumor spreads that Gallegher is Read More

Ever in My Heart

Actors: Barbara Stanwyck, Otto Kruger, Ralph Bellamy, Ruth Donnelly, Frank Albertson

Synopsis: An espionage drama set in the early 20th century, Ever in My Heart stars Barbara Stanwyck as a New England naif who marries a German citizen (Otto Kruger). In 1915, Stanwyck and her husband suffer a brace of blows: The death of their son, and the sinking of the Lusitania, the latter Read More

The Racing Strain

Actors: Dickie Moore, Paul Fix

Synopsis: The son of a famed race car driver is so traumatized by witnessing his father's fatal racetrack crash that he refuses to drive. Instead, the young man becomes an ace stunt pilot. His aerial prowess gives him the confidence he needs to get behind the wheel and honor his father's memory. ~ Sandra Read More

The Fighting Fool

Actors: Tim McCoy, Marceline Day, William V. Mong, Robert Ellis, Arthur Rankin

Synopsis: In his fourth Western for Columbia Pictures, Tim McCoy played a lawman chasing a masked villain known only as "the Shadow." The would-be express office robber proves to be Grip Mason (Robert Ellis), who mistakenly blames Tim for his brother's death. There is a treacherous saloon femme fatale Read More

Love Me Tonight

Actors: Maurice Chevalier, Jeanette MacDonald, Charlie Ruggles, Charles Butterworth, Myrna Loy

Synopsis: One of the most technically accomplished and sophisticated movie musicals of the 1930's, Rouben Mamoulian's Love Me Tonight (1932) had a profound effect on the shape of the musical genre (especially the films of Vincente Minnelli), and remains a candidate for best movie musical ever made, some Read More

The Sign of the Cross

Actors: Fredric March, Claudette Colbert, Elissa Landi, Charles Laughton, Ian Keith

Synopsis: Director Cecil B. DeMille returned to Paramount Pictures for this typically epic production, which became his first box office hit after the close of the silent era. Fredric March stars as Roman Prefect Marcus Superbus, a noble military leader of the year 64 A.D. Emperor Nero (Charles Laughton) Read More

Love in High Gear

Actors: Harrison Ford, Alberta Vaughn, Tyrell Davis, Arthur Hoyt, Ethel Wales

Synopsis: Harrison Ford (the original silent era Harrison Ford) and 1924 WAMPAS Baby Star Alberta Vaughn starred in this comedy-thriller from low-budget Mayfair Pictures Corp. When fussy Ronald Courtney (Tyrell Davis) spots his fiancée, Betty (Vaughn), winking at Donald Ransome (Ford) at a friend's wedding Read More

Klondike

Actors: Lyle Talbot, Frank Hawks, Thelma Todd, Henry B. Walthall, Jason Robards, Sr.

Synopsis: Famed aviator Frank Hawks proves anew in Klondike that, as an actor, he was an excellent pilot. Though billed second, Hawks plays a comparatively minor role in the story, which deals with the redemption of one Dr. Cromwell (Lyle Talbot). Having failed to pull off a delicate operation, Cromwell Read More

Tangled Destinies

Actors: Lloyd Whitlock, Doris Hill, Glenn Tryon, Vera Reynolds, Sidney Bracey

Synopsis: Produced at the little Tec Art studio by sound engineer Ralph M. Like, this film is one of those modest whodunits where the lights go out and someone inevitably gets hit over the head with a blunt instrument. This time, the crew and passengers from a Los Angeles-bound plane seek shelter from the Read More

The Trial of Vivienne Ware

Actors: Joan Bennett, Donald Cook, Richard "Skeets" Gallagher, ZaSu Pitts, Lillian Bond

Synopsis: Running a swift 55 minutes, Trial of Vivienne Ware packs in more sheer entertainment value than its longer, more prestigious "role model," The Trial of Mary Dugan. Joan Bennett plays the title character, a beleaguered young woman accused of murdering her nasty fiancee (Jameson Thomas). She is Read More

The Thirteenth Guest

Actors: Ginger Rogers, Lyle Talbot, John Farrell MacDonald, James C. Eagles, Eddie Phillips

Synopsis: Thirteen years after a dinner party where the wealthy host dropped, the thirteen guests are invited to reassemble at the dinner table. First to arrive is Ginger Rogers--who is promptly killed. It turns out that the dead woman was an impostor, hired to impersonate a real guest (Ginger Rogers Read More

A Man's Land

Actors: Ethel Wales, Robert Ellis, Al Bridge

Synopsis: In his fourth of six inexpensive Westerns for Allied Pictures in 1932, veteran cowboy ace Hoot Gibson played a foreman inheriting his place of employment along with the late owner's daughter (Marion Shilling). She finds him uncouth and not worth her while at first, but hatred of a common enemy Read More

The Criminal Code

Actors: Walter Huston, Phillips Holmes, Constance Cummings, Mary Doran, DeWitt Jennings

Synopsis: Howard Hawks' early sound prison melodrama, based on a play by Martin Flavin, already contains his stylistic signature of over-lapping dialogue -- a technique he would greatly expand upon in the next ten years. Walter Huston is district attorney Brady, who quickly convicts Robert Graham (Phillips Holmes Read More

Honeymoon Lane

Actors: Eddie Dowling, June Collyer, Raymond Hatton, Noah Beery, Sr.

Synopsis: The vaudeville and Broadway comedy team of Eddie Dowling and Ray Dooley (husband and wife, despite Dooley's masculine moniker) star in the 1931 musical Honeymoon Lane. Based on Dowling's 1925 stage vehicle of the same name, the story is set in motion when the king (Armand Kaliz) of the mythical Read More

Maker of Men

Actors: Jack Holt, Richard Cromwell, Joan Marsh, Robert Alden, John Wayne

Synopsis: A truly jaw-dropping experience, Makers of Men is an unabashed celebration of Conditional Love. Jack Holt plays Dudley, a macho college football coach who drives his players mercilessly, but they never complain because they're being transformed into real he-men. Alas, Dudley is saddled with a Read More

The Flood

Actors: Monte Blue, Eleanor Boardman, William V. Mong, Eddie Tamblyn

Synopsis: Set in the Mississippi Valley, The Flood spends the bulk of its running time concentrating on a romantic triangle. Heroine Eleanor Boardman is married to William V. Vong, but she's in love with muscular Monte Blue. Only the titular deluge, brought about by a bursting dam, solves this domestic Read More

Subway Express

Actors: Jack Holt, Aileen Pringle, Fred Kelsey, Alan Roscoe, Jason Robards, Sr.

Synopsis: Adapted from a play by Eva Kay Flint and Martha Madison, Subway Express takes place entirely on a single subway car. When a murder is committed, the passengers are ordered to stay put while police inspector Killian (Jack Holt) investigates. From all appearances, it would seem that the victim was 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

Under Montana Skies

Actors: Kenneth Harlan, Dorothy Gulliver, George "Slim" Summerville, Ethel Wales

Synopsis: Journeyman director Richard Thorpe (who later helmed Elvis Presley features) directed this bizarre early talkie western which incorporated comedy musical numbers (vampish Nita Martan sings Crying Blues and A Man Like That) into a standard western plot dealing with rustlers and revenge. Joining up Read More

Tom Sawyer

Actors: Jackie Coogan, Junior Durkin, Mitzi Green, Lucien Littlefield, Tully Marshall

Synopsis: Tom Sawyer, Paramount's 1930 Christmas release, was the first talkie version of Mark Twain's beloved novel. A rapidly maturing Jackie Coogan is well cast as Tom, while Junior Durkin is even better as Tom's freewheeling pal Huck Finn. Juvenile impressionist Mitzi Green comes on a bit too strong in Read More

The Dude Wrangler

Actors: Lina Basquette, Clyde Cook, Francis X. Bushman, Margaret Seddon

Synopsis: One of the most overworked plots of the silent era was the one about an Eastern wastrel who toughens up on a Western ranch. The charismatic Douglas Fairbanks popularized the character in the mid 1910s, but George Duryea, the Eastern snob this time around, was no Fairbanks. Duryea hires out as a Read More

The Saturday Night Kid

Actors: Clara Bow, James Hall, Jean Arthur, Charles Sellon, Ethel Wales

Synopsis: Clara Bow and her sister Jean Arthur are wisecracking department store employees with ever-roaming eyes for eligible bachelors--particularly those with fat bank accounts. Both girls fall for the same wealthy man (James Hall) but Bow temporarily loses out to Arthur, who is just a tad craftier and a Read More

Blue Skies

Actors: Helen Twelvetrees, Frank Albertson

Synopsis: Better known for her work in talkie "weepers," Helen Twelvetrees made a few preliminary appearances in such late silent films as Fox's Blue Skies. The audience was expected to believe that the twentysomething Twelvetrees and Frank Albertson are teenagers living together platonically in an orphan Read More

The Donovan Affair

Actors: Jack Holt, Dorothy Revier, William Collier, Jr., Fred Kelsey

Synopsis: This comedy-mystery is famed director Frank Capra's first all-talking film. It tells the story of a bungling police inspector who tries to re-enact a murder scene with disastrous results. The first killing occurred within a darkened dining room. Unfortunately, when the inspector resets the scene Read More

The Doctor's Secret

Actors: Ruth Chatterton, H.B. Warner, John Loder, Robert Edeson, Wilfred Noy

Synopsis: The Doctor's Secret was adapted by director William C. DeMille from James M. Barrie's play Half an Hour. After marrying wealthy Richard Garson (H.B. Warner) for his money and prestige, Lillian Garson (Ruth Chatterton) grows weary of her stuffed-shirt husband and decides to run off with another Read More

The Girl in the Show

Actors: Bessie Love

Synopsis: In this drama, a traveling troupe of actors find themselves in danger of becoming unemployed when their manager up and leaves. Two of the actors decide to marry and settle down. The lead actor helps set up the rest of the troupe with some performances. He then destroys the new marriage. Later the Read More

Masks of the Devil

Actors: John Gilbert, Alma Rubens, Theodore Roberts, Frank Reicher

Synopsis: Masks of the Devil was director Victor Seastrom's final silent film for MGM -- and his next-to-last American film before his return to Sweden. Based on a story by Jacob Wasserman, the film stars John Gilbert as Baron Reiner, who spends his entire life in pursuit of beautiful women. A ruthless Read More

On to Reno

Actors: Marie Prevost, Cullen Landis, Ned Sparks, Ethel Wales

Friend From India

Actors: Elinor Fair, Franklin Pangborn, Ethel Wales, Louis Natheaux, Edgar Norton

Synopsis: Produced by Cecil B. DeMille, Friend from India was directed by, of all people, prissy character actor Franklin Pangborn, who also played the leading role. The star plays an impoverished young man who is forced to impersonate a Hindu prince. This leaves our hapless hero wide open for the assaults Read More

Taxi 13

Actors: Chester Conklin, Martha Sleeper, Ethel Wales, Lee Moran

Synopsis: One of the first sound releases from FBO pictures (no dialogue, but plenty of music), Taxi 13 stars Chester Conklin in his customary screen guise as an overworked cab driver. With a wife and ten kids to support, hackie Angus MacTavish (Conklin) needs $100 so that he can buy a new cab. When his old Read More

The Perfect Crime

Actors: Clive Brook, Irene Rich, Ethel Wales, Carroll Nye, Gladys McConnell

Craig's Wife

Actors: Irene Rich, Warner Baxter, Virginia Bradford, Carroll Nye, Ethel Wales

Synopsis: George Kelly's Pulitzer Prize-winning play Craig's Wife was given three screen treatments by Hollywood. The first of these was filmed in 1928, with Cecil B. DeMille's talented brother William in the director's chair. Irene Rich stars as Harriet Craig, whose obsession with material possessions and Read More

My Friend from India

Bertha, the Sewing Machine Girl

Actors: Madge Bellamy, Anita Garvin, Sally Phipps, Ethel Wales

Synopsis: Earlier in the century, this melodrama about a young girl in the garment industry was a famous stage play. To bring it to the screen in 1926, the Fox studios changed modest Bertha in her gingham apron into a modern young lady who wears silk lingerie. Madge Bellamy was well-cast in the title role. Read More

Stage Kisses

Actors: John Patrick, Phillips Smalley, Ethel Wales, Frances Raymond

Synopsis: Helene Chadwick stars as Fay Leslie, a slightly blowzy but basically good-hearted chorus girl. When Fay falls in love with wealthy Donald Hampton (Kenneth Harlan), the boy's parents disinherit him. Even so, Fay and Donald are married, a union that quickly goes sour when it appears that Fay has Read More

Satin Woman

Actors: Dorothy Reid, Jane Reid, Rockliffe Fellowes, Alice White, John Miljan, Laska Winter

Synopsis: Dorothy Reid -- who before her marriage to ill-fated screen idol Wallace Reid was better known as Dorothy Davenport -- was both producer and star of Satin Woman. After the death of her husband from drug abuse in 1923, Davenport dedicated herself to helping others avoid the pitfalls of modern life Read More

Cradle Snatchers

Actors: Louise Fazenda, Ethel Wales, Franklin Pangborn, Dorothy Phillips

Synopsis: This first film version of the popular Russell Medcraft-Norma Mitchell stage farce The Cradle Snatchers is also one of the earliest directorial efforts of Howard Hawks. Tired of their husbands' philandering, three wealthy matrons decide to fight fire with fire by hiring three college boys to pose Read More

Girl in the Pullman

Actors: Marie Prevost, Harrison Ford

Synopsis: Girl in the Pullman is a standard door-slamming farce in the fine tradition of Up in Mabel's Room and Getting Gertie's Garter. While on his honeymoon with his new bride, Harrison Ford (not the same!) discovers that his ex-wife is occupying the adjacent pullman sleeper in the company of her new Read More

Wreck of the Hesperus

Actors: Sam de Grasse, Virginia Bradford, Francis Ford, Alan Hale

Synopsis: Wreck of the Hesperus was "suggested" by the poem of the same name by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. It will be recalled that the bulk of the Longfellow original was devoted to an impassioned dialogue between the captain of the ill-fated Hesperus and his daughter, whom he has lashed to a post to keep Read More

The Unknown Soldier

Actors: Marguerite de la Motte, Henry B. Walthall, Ethel Wales

Synopsis: The Unknown Soldier starts out in life as Fred Williams (Charles Emmett Mack), a garage mechanic who signs up for the Army on the very day that America declares war against Germany. Upon arriving in France, Fred falls in love with wealthy heiress Mary Phillips (Marguerite de la Motte), who has Read More

Ladies at Play

Actors: Doris Kenyon, Louise Fazenda

Synopsis: Ladies at Play was based on Loose Ankles, a stage comedy by Sam Janney. Heroine Ann Harper is thrilled to discover that she has inherited six million dollars. She is less than thrilled when she finds out that, in order to collect her fortune, she must be married within three days. After looking Read More

Take It from Me

Actors: Reginald Denny, Blanche Mehaffey, Ben Hendricks, Jr., Lee Moran, Lucien Littlefield

Synopsis: Having squandered his allowance, gay blade Tom Eggett (Reginald Denny) is given a second chance when he inherits his uncle's department store. If he can post a profit within three months, the store will be his forever; if not, it's back to the unemployment line. An aficionado of amusement parks Read More

Made for Love

Synopsis: This picture banked on the publicity surrounding the excavation of King Tut's tomb and contained a weak copy of the classic Cecil B. DeMille historical interlude. Nicholas Ainsworth (Edmund Burns) is an Egyptologist who discovers a tomb in which a pair of lovers were buried alive. Intent on Read More

Don't

Actors: Sally O'Neil, DeWitt Jennings, Ethel Wales, John Patrick, Bert Roach

Synopsis: Don't was an unfortunate choice of titles for this MGM programmer, since many filmgoers took the advice literally. Sally O'Neill plays Sally Moffett, a headstrong boarding-school girl who's determined to cut loose and have a good time despite the admonitions of her parents. Sally gets more than Read More

The Wedding Song

Actors: Alan Hale, Robert Ames, Jack Curtis, Rosa Rudami, Leatrice Joy

Synopsis: Under the supervision of Cecil B. DeMille, character actor Alan Hale handled the directing chores in Wedding Song. DeMille contractee Leatrice Joy plays Beatrice Flynn, a beautiful con artist who marries Hayes Hallan (Robert Ames), the owner of a pearl-rich island. No sooner has the couple said "I Read More

Steppin' Out

Synopsis: Dorothy Revier took a break from her dramatic roles and starred in this Columbia-produced farce. Henry Brodman (Tom Ricketts) is angry that his son, Henry Jr. (Robert Agnew), has secretly wed and so he refuses to meet his new daughter-in-law. Meanwhile, John Durant (Ford Sterling), a business Read More

The Monster

Actors: Lon Chaney, Gertrude Olmstead, Hallam Cooley, Johnny Arthur, Charles Sellon

Synopsis: It's hard to tell at times whether director Roland West was aiming for laughs or thrills in The Monster, but this ambivalence is all part of the fun. Hallam Cooley and Johnny Arthur, two dumb clerks in Gertrude Olmstead's small-town general store, try to impress Olmstead by joining the sheriff's Read More

When Husbands Flirt

Actors: Forrest Stanley, Maude Wayne, Ethel Wales, Dorothy Revier

Synopsis: This early directorial effort by William Wellman focuses on two married couples: Violet and Henry Gilbert (Dorothy Revier, Forrest Stanley) and Violet's parents, Mr. and Mrs. Belcher (Tom Ricketts, Ethel Wales). The Gilberts are newlyweds, while the Belchers have been spliced for years. When Mr. Read More

Wandering Footsteps

Actors: Estelle Taylor, Alec B. Francis, Frankie Darro, Bryant Washburn, Ethel Wales, Eugénie Besserer

Synopsis: This low-budgeter was adapted from A Wise Son, a novel by Charles Sherman. Bryant Washburn plays wealthy wastrel Hal Whitney, who during a "slumming" party decides to adopt shabby old derelict Tim Payne (Alec B. Francis). Hal drunkenly invites Tim on a yachting excursion, only to forget all about Read More

Beggar on Horseback

Actors: Edward Everett Horton, Esther Ralston, Erwin Connelly, Ethel Wales, Gertrude Short

Synopsis: This satirical film was based on the play by George S. Kaufman and Marc Connelly. Neil McRae (Edward Everett Horton) is a composer who, instead of finishing his symphony, is forced to write jazz music to live. He also has a pupil, Gladys Cady (Gertrude Short), who comes from an eccentric nouveau Read More

The Overland Limited

Actors: Malcolm McGregor, Olive Borden, Alice Lake, Ethel Wales, Ralph Lewis

Synopsis: This melodrama, the first release from a small-time independent company called Gotham, is an old-fashioned thriller. David Barton (Malcolm McGregor) is the consulting engineer for a railroad company; his father, Big Ed (Ralph Lewis), is the engineer for the Overland Limited. David is in charge of Read More

Let Women Alone

Actors: Pat O'Malley, Wanda Hawley, Wallace Beery, Ethel Wales, John Farrell MacDonald

Synopsis: A woman is led to believe her scheming husband is dead in this melodrama taken from the story by Viola Brothers Shore. Beth Wylie (Wanda Hawley) is fooled into thinking her husband Jim (Harris Gordon) is dead. Jim is very much alive and smuggling Chinese into the country. After a quarrel with her Read More

Shattered Lives

Synopsis: This independently made melodrama was a decent programmer, even though it suffered from a hackneyed plot. When John Trent (Willis Marks) walks out on his wife, Mumsie (Ethel Wales), he takes their young son with him. The train they are on wrecks, and John and the boy are separated. John goes on to Read More

Icebound

Actors: Lois Wilson, Richard Dix, Helen Du Bois, Edna May Oliver, Vera Reynolds

Synopsis: It seems like the flashier Cecil B. DeMille made his films, the more intimate were those made by his older brother William C. DeMille. This drama, based on the stage play by Owen Davis, concerns a greedy New England family. The most broad-minded one of the bunch is Ben Jordan (Richard Dix). Ben Read More

Lover's Lane

Actors: Robert Ellis, Gertrude Olmstead, Maxine Hicks, Norval MacGregor

Synopsis: This romantic comedy from Warner Bros. was based on the stage play by Clyde Fitch. Although Mary Larkin (Gertrude Olmstead) loves Tom Singleton (Robert Ellis), she can't see herself as the wife of a country doctor. Since Singleton won't leave the little New England town where they live, Mary Read More

Which Shall It Be?

Actors: Willis Marks, Ethel Wales, David Torrence, Paul Weigel, Mary McLane

Synopsis: Although the story line to this sentimental drama was ridiculously simple, director Renaud Hoffman managed to fill out five reels by adding a lot of warm, domestic touches. Robert Moore (David Torrence) achieves great wealth while his brother John (Willis Marks), a small farmer, has to struggle to Read More

The Bedroom Window

Actors: May McAvoy, Ricardo Cortez, Robert Edeson, George Fawcett

Synopsis: William C. DeMille, Cecil B. DeMille's talented director brother, teamed with his favorite collaborator, scenarist Clara Beranger, for the 7-reel silent The Bedroom Window. Essentially a by-the-book mystery tale, the film is lifted from the ordinary by the expertise of DeMille and the charm of Read More

Revelation

Actors: Viola Dana, Monte Blue, Marjorie Daw, Lew Cody, Frank Currier

Synopsis: After becoming an unwed mother, Joline Hofer (Viola Dana) is cast out of her father's house. After placing her baby in a home, she becomes the party girl of the Parisian underworld. She is noticed by artist Paul Granville (Monte Blue), who uses her as a model. His paintings of her make him very Read More

The White Sin

Actors: Madge Bellamy, John Bowers, James Corrigan

Synopsis: Madge Bellamy and John Bowers (who appeared together a year or so earlier in Lorna Doone) have the leads in this moving drama. Hattie Lou Harkness (Bellamy) can no longer stand living in the country with her Aunt Cynthia (Ethel Wales), so she runs away and gets a job as a maid for the wealthy Van Read More

Stepping Fast

Actors: Tom Mix

Synopsis: While this fast-paced action picture from cowboy star Tom Mix was a little lighter on the Western scenes than normal (a good portion of it takes place on a tramp steamer and in China), it otherwise has all the typical elements of Mix's work: He beats up bad guys left and right, Tony the Wonder Horse Read More

Marriage Maker

Actors: Agnes Ayres, Jack Holt, Charles de Roche, Robert Agnew, Mary Astor

Synopsis: This fantasy tale was based on the stage play The Faun by Edward Knoblock, which starred William Faversham on Broadway. Without its lively dialogue, however, it didn't translate very well, even though William C. DeMille directed it with his usual warmth and humor. Lord Stonebury (Jack Holt) is Read More

The Fog

Actors: Mildred Harris, Louise Fazenda, Louise Dresser, Ann May

Synopsis: The independently produced The Fog was adapted from a popular novel by William Dudley Pelly. Idealistic young Nathan Forge (Cullen Landis) publishes a poem about the "ideal woman." Forge's description perfectly matches Madelaine Theddon (Mildred Harris), who falls in love with the young poet 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

Our Leading Citizen

Actors: Thomas Meighan, Lois Wilson, William P. Carleton, Theodore Roberts, Guy Oliver

Synopsis: This lighthearted political satire marked the first time humorist George Ade wrote a story directly for the screen. The casting of Thomas Meighan and Lois Wilson as the two leads was impeccable. "Lazy Dan" Bentley (Meighan) may be a lawyer by profession, but all things considered, he'd rather be Read More

Old Homestead

Actors: Theodore Roberts, George Fawcett, T. Roy Barnes, Fritzi Ridgeway, Harrison Ford

Synopsis: Character actor Theodore Roberts was better known for his scene-stealing supporting roles than he was as a star in his own right. But he gets the opportunity to shine in this heart-warming drama based on the old play by Denman Thompson. Its small town theme was especially popular in an ever-more Read More

Bobbed Hair

Synopsis: It was hard for director Thomas N. Heffron to flesh out this skimpy storyline into feature length material. Polly Heath (Wanda Hawley) is a romantic young girl who can't cope with Dick Barton, her prosaic Wall Street fiancé (William Boyd). She hands him back his engagement ring, which upsets her Read More

Manslaughter

Actors: Thomas Meighan, Leatrice Joy, Lois Wilson, John Miltern, George Fawcett

Synopsis: This Cecil B. DeMille morality play came at just the right time -- the Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle scandal and William Desmond Taylor murder were both still fresh in the public's mind. Leatrice Joy plays Lydia Thorne, a rich society girl who is addicted to thrills. Because of her reckless driving, she Read More

Bonded Woman

Actors: Betty Compson, John Bowers, Richard Dix, John Farrell MacDonald, Ethel Wales

Synopsis: Angela Gaskill (Betty Compson) travels to the South Seas to help sailor John Somers (John Bowers) kick his addition to alcohol. The two are marooned on a desert island after her sober father Captain Gaskill (J. Farrell MacDonald) wrecks the boat, but the drunken sailor has the wherewithal to save Read More

Nice People

Actors: Wallace Reid, Conrad Nagel, Bebe Daniels, Julia Faye

Synopsis: Although director Cecil B. DeMille was known for his Biblical spectaculars and florid comedy-dramas about domestic relations, it was his older brother William C. DeMille who had taste and class. His pictures were smaller and more intimate, and they were also often more sophisticated. This picture Read More

After the Show

Actors: Jack Holt, Lila Lee, Charles Ogle, Eve Southern, Carlton S. King

Synopsis: While Cecil B. DeMille busied himself with lavish sex comedies and garish historical melodramas, his director brother William C. deMille (note the lower case) was content with subtler human dramas. The "other" DeMille's After the Show was adapted from Rita Weiman's story "The Stage Door." Lila Lee Read More

Miss Lulu Bett

Actors: Lois Wilson, Milton Sills, Theodore Roberts, Helen Ferguson, Mabel Van Buren

Synopsis: For a silent screen star, Lois Wilson showed a truly charming lack of ego -- how many other beauty contest winners would be happy playing an ugly duckling like this film's title character? But Wilson did and she felt this was the best film of her career. She was aided by the capable direction of Read More

Midsummer Madness

Synopsis: The careful direction of William C. DeMille (brother of Cecil) brought fresh life to Cosmo Hamilton's all-too-typical story, His Friend and his Wife. Because Bob Meredith (Jack Holt) spends all his time working, his wife Margaret (Lois Wilson) feels the romance has ebbed away from their marriage. Read More