Harry CohnFilmography

Broadway Melody of 1936

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Jack Benny, Eleanor Powell, Robert Taylor, Una Merkel, Sid Silvers

Synopsis: The Broadway Melody of 1936 was designed as the first of many annual follow-ups to "MGM"'s early-talkie triumph Broadway Melody (1929). Jack Benny is atypically cast as a Walter Winchell type who carries on a feud with Broadway producer Robert Taylor. Into this fray comes Taylor's childhood Read More

One Night of Love

Crew: Producer

Actors: Grace Moore, Tullio Carminatti, Lyle Talbot, Mona Barrie, Jessie Ralph

Synopsis: After several false starts, opera star Grace Moore became a motion picture success in the sublimely assembled One Night of Love. Moore opens the film by losing a radio talent contest in New York. She disconsolately heads to Europe, where the best job she can come up with is singing in a Read More

It Happened One Night

Crew: Producer

Actors: Claire McDowell, Clark Gable, Claudette Colbert, Walter Connolly, Roscoe Karns, Jameson Thomas

Synopsis: Frank Capra's seminal screwball comedy, which won all five major Academy Awards for 1934, is still as breezy and beguiling today. Claudette Colbert plays Ellie Andrews, a spoiled heiress who has married fortune-hunting aviator King Westley (Jameson Thomas), despite her father (Walter Connolly)'s Read More

Broadway Bill

Crew: Producer

Actors: Warner Baxter, Myrna Loy, Walter Connolly, Helen Vinson, Douglas Dumbrille

Synopsis: Just after completing It Happened One Night, director Frank Capra churned out a bread-and-butter picture titled Broadway Bill. Warner Baxter plays the carefree scion of a wealthy, highly-respected family. Baxter's cold but socially correct wife Helen Vinson forces her husband into the family Read More

Lady for a Day

Crew: Producer

Actors: Warren William, May Robson, Guy Kibbee, Glenda Farrell, Ned Sparks

Synopsis: May Robson plays Apple Annie, a slatternly Broadway apple peddler. Annie has a curious setup whereby she is able to finagle other street merchants and beggars to pony up part of their weekly earnings to her--yet she never seems to spend any of the money on herself. This is because Annie has a Read More

Behind the Mask

Crew: Producer

Actors: Jack Holt, Constance Cummings, Boris Karloff, Claude King, Bertha Mann

Synopsis: Behind the Mask is a typically virile Jack Holt vehicle, with the hero at one point shooting himself in the arm to establish an alibi! Holt plays a federal agent named Hart who has himself planted in jail as a convict to get the goods on a drug syndicate. Befriending small-time gangster Henderson (Boris Karloff Read More

American Madness

Crew: Producer

Actors: Walter Huston, Pat O'Brien, Kay Johnson, Constance Cummings, Gavin Gordon, Robert Ellis

Synopsis: Bank president Thomas Dickson (Walter Huston) has instituted a lending policy that shows great faith in ordinary people but which also irritates his board of directors, as does his claim that an increased money supply will help end the Depression. Elsewhere in the bank, criminal Dude Finlay (Robert Ellis Read More

Shopworn

Crew: Producer

Actors: Barbara Stanwyck, Regis Toomey, ZaSu Pitts, Lucien Littlefield, Clara Blandick

Synopsis: Barbara Stanwyck overcomes a veritable ocean of clichés and manages to make her "shopworn" heroine come to life in this old-fashioned but rather poignant melodrama. A waitress in her aunt and uncle's café, orphaned Kitty Lane falls in love with society scion Dave Livingston (Regis Toomey). Much to Read More

Forbidden

Crew: Producer

Actors: Barbara Stanwyck, Adolphe Menjou, Ralph Bellamy, Dorothy Peterson

Synopsis: In this romance a school marm takes a cruise and falls for an unobtainable man, a district attorney married to a crippled woman. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

The Criminal Code

Crew: Producer

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

Platinum Blonde

Crew: Producer

Actors: Loretta Young, Robert Williams, Jean Harlow, Louise Closser Hale, Donald Dilloway, Reginald Owen

Synopsis: A rather bleak comedy-drama from Frank Capra, Platinum Blonde basically starts where Capra's later and much more buoyant It Happened One Night (1934) ends: the marriage between a brash newspaperman and a society dame. But where the latter comedy was enhanced by the director's patented optimism Read More

The Miracle Woman

Crew: Producer

Actors: Barbara Stanwyck, David Manners, Sam Hardy, Beryl Mercer, Russell Hopton

Synopsis: A minister's daughter finds fame as an evangelist but struggles with her own lack of faith in Frank Capra's impassioned drama. Inspired by the true story of Aimee Semple McPherson, the film follows the rise to prominence of Florence Fallon (Barbara Stanwyck). Disillusioned by the mistreatment of Read More

Dirigible

Crew: Producer

Actors: Jack Holt, Ralph Graves, Fay Wray, Hobart Bosworth, Roscoe Karns

Synopsis: Columbia spent the 1920s and 1930s dusting off its reliable "two guys/one girl" military plotline and dressing it up in a variety of uniforms. Dirigible was the 1931 edition of this old chestnut, with navy pilots Jack Holt and Ralph Graves battling over the affections of Fay Wray. The film picks Read More

The Dawn Trail

Crew: Producer

Actors: Erville Alderson, Miriam Seegar, Charles Morton, Edward J. Le Saint

Synopsis: A fine early sound Western, this Buck Jones series entry from his Columbia period told the well-known story of a feud between cattle barons and sheep men. When Mart Denton (Charles Morton), son of a wealthy cattle man, kills a homesteader during a quarrel, Sheriff Larry Williams (Jones) faces a Read More

Ten Cents a Dance

Crew: Producer

Actors: Barbara Stanwyck, Ricardo Cortez, Monroe Owsley, Sally Blane

Synopsis: Ten cents a dance, that's what they pay her -- "her" being downtrodden taxi dancer Barbara (Barbara Stanwyck). The only thing Barbara sells is her time, or at least that's the story she gives her jellyfish husband Eddie (Monroe Owsley). But when wealthy Carlton (Ricardo Cortez) starts making Read More

The Guilty Generation

Crew: Producer

Actors: Leo Carrillo, Constance Cummings, Robert Young, Boris Karloff, Emma Dunn

Synopsis: William Shakespeare's classic tragedy Romeo & Juliet is loosely adapted and modernized in director Rowland V. Lee's Guilty Generation. Set in 1930's New York, rival gangster families the Palmero's and the Ricca's play Lee's version of the infamous Montagues and Capulets. The two mobs had once Read More

Guilty?

Crew: Producer

Actors: Virginia Valli, John Holland, Lydia Knott, Erville Alderson

Synopsis: Guilty? could be regarded as a precursor to Citizen Kane -- except that the first film isn't one-20th as good as the second. The story begins when an elderly ex-convict suddenly turns up dead. During their investigation, the police interview ten of the dead man's closest associates, each of whom Read More

Hell's Island

Crew: Producer

Actors: Jack Holt, Ralph Graves, Dorothy Sebastian, Rychard Cramer, Harry Allen

Synopsis: In this adventure, trouble ensues when two American French Legionnaires fall for the same girl and begin fighting over her when one of them announces that he plans to marry her. The argument is quite heated and in the ensuing scuffle one of them is shot and wounded. He believes the other did it. Read More

Ladies of Leisure

Crew: Producer

Actors: Barbara Stanwyck, Marie Prevost, Ralph Graves, Lowell Sherman, George Fawcett

Synopsis: Reformed gold-digger Barbara Stanwyck falls in love with a womanizing and wealthy aspiring artist and tries to convince him that she has really changed in this romantic Frank Capra drama. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Ladies Must Play

Crew: Producer

Actors: Dorothy Sebastian, Neil Hamilton, Natalie Moorhead, Shirley Palmer

Synopsis: Norma (Dorothy Sebastian) is in love with her boss Bill (Neil Hamilton). Everyone is aware of this -- except for Norma and Bill. Left penniless by several bonehead business transactions, Bill concocts a scheme to make a great deal of money in a hurry. The plan hinges on Norma's marriage to a Read More

For the Love O'Lil

Crew: Producer

Actors: Jack Mulhall, Elliott Nugent, Sally Starr, Margaret Livingston, Charles Sellon

Synopsis: Lawyer Wyn Huntley (Jack Mulhall) is a lion in the courtroom, but a lamb when it comes to women. In love with the beautiful but financially irresponsible Lil (Sally Starr), Wyn is advised that the way to Lil's heart is to indulge her every extravagance. Unfortunately, the man offering this advice Read More

Madonna of the Streets

Crew: Producer

Actors: Evelyn Brent, Robert Ames, Ivan Linow, Josephine Dunn

Synopsis: W.B. Maxwell's novel served as a film vehicle for Alla Nazimova in 1924; in 1930 it made an even better (although underappreciated) showcase for Evelyn Brent, who always excelled at playing bad girls. Here she is May Fisher, the mistress of a wealthy man who dies before he can change his will to Read More

The Squealer

Crew: Producer

Actors: Dorothy Revier, Jack Holt, Davey Lee, Matt Moore, ZaSu Pitts

Synopsis: In this crime melodrama, a bootlegger orders the death of his rival. Meanwhile the bootlegger's wife dallies with his best friend. Following the hit, the gangster is arrested. Believing that his best pal ratted on him, he busts out of jail and goes looking for revenge. It is then he discovers that Read More

Soldiers and Women

Crew: Producer

Actors: Aileen Pringle, Grant Withers, Helen Johnson, Walter McGrail, Emmett Corrigan

Synopsis: In this mystery set at an Army post, two women are having a passionate affair with a soldier. The trouble begins when one of the women's husbands is mysteriously killed. The conniving daughter of the commanding officer is behind the death, but she tries to frame her lover. Later when the Read More

Vengeance

Crew: Producer

Actors: Jack Holt, Dorothy Revier, Philip Strange, Hayden Stevenson

Synopsis: Actor Ralph Graves was responsible for the original story upon which Vengeance was based -- although, perhaps wisely, he elected not to appear in the film. Dorothy Revier stars as Margaret, the sexy wife of Charles Summers (Philip Strange), the tyrannical owner of an African rubber plantation. Read More

Rain or Shine

Crew: Producer

Actors: Joe Cook, Louise Fazenda, Joan Peers, William Collier, Jr., Tom Howard

Synopsis: Legendary Broadway comedian Joe Cook, who was capable of reducing audiences to paroxysms of helpless laughter by telling them what he wasn't going to do that evening, was invariably better than the shows in which he appeared. Fully aware of this, director Frank Capra brought Cook's 1928 Read More

Brothers

Crew: Producer

Actors: Bert Lytell, Dorothy Sebastian, William Morris, Richard Tucker, Maurice Black

Synopsis: An early talkie from then-poverty row company Columbia Pictures, Brothers features popular silent screen actor Bert Lytell in a dual-role. Separated at birth, orphaned twins Bob and Eddie grow up on either side of the tracks, one adopted by a washerwoman (Jessie Arnold), the other by a wealthy Read More

Shadow Ranch

Crew: Producer

Synopsis: The second in a series of Buck Jones westerns produced by Sol Lesser for Columbia release, Shadow Ranch is the story of a cowboy who comes to the rescue of an embattled female rancher (Marguerite de la Motte). She is being driven off her land by opportunistic saloon owner Albert J. Smith, but the Read More

Sisters

Crew: Producer

Synopsis: In this romantic melodrama, a sophisticated New York model finds herself falling for a hick. The handsome farm boy is working in the city as a census taker. The two are happy, but when he meets the model's rakish friend from Chicago, he immediately knows that trouble will soon be afoot. Sure Read More

The Song of Love

Crew: Producer

Actors: Belle Baker, Ralph Graves, David Durand, Arthur Houseman

Synopsis: Although forgotten today, Broadway chanteuse Belle Baker was important enough for Columbia Pictures to herald her much anticipated screen debut as "An event as important as the coming of sound," The frumpish Miss Baker slimmed down a bit for the occasion and was filmed as glamorously as possible Read More

Mexicali Rose

Crew: Producer

Actors: Barbara Stanwyck, Sam Hardy, William Janney, Louis Natheaux, Arthur Rankin

Synopsis: In this drama, set in a bordertown gambling saloon, the owner falls in love with a promiscuous young girl. When she has an affair with another, he tosses her out of town. She gets revenge by marrying his younger brother. To make it worse, she and her new hubby honeymoon in the jilted brother's Read More

Trial Marriage

Crew: Producer

Actors: Norman Kerry, Sally Eilers, Jason Robards, Sr., Thelma Todd, Charles Clary

Synopsis: Capricious Constance Bannister (Sally Eilers) has had 12 fiances, but has yet to take her marital vows. Fiance number 13, Oliver Mowbray (Norman Kerry), suffers the same fate as his predecessors when Constance impulsively weds doctor Thorvald Ware (Jason Robards Sr.) Grace (Thelma Todd), Ware's Read More

The Donovan Affair

Crew: Producer

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 Eternal Woman

Crew: Producer

Actors: Olive Borden, Ralph Graves, John Miljan

Synopsis: Most of the films of silent screen starlet Olive Borden have apparently been lost to the ages, and Columbia's The Eternal Woman is no exception. The story begins with a shipwreck, as Argentine stowaway Anita (Borden) rescues handsome American passenger Hartley Forbes (Ralph Graves). She comes to Read More

Acquitted

Crew: Producer

Actors: Lloyd Hughes, Margaret Livingston, Sam Hardy, Charles H. West

Synopsis: Gangster boss Egan (Sam Hardy) manages to beat a murder rap by framing his mistress Marion (Margaret Livingston) for the crime. After eight years in stir, Marian is released on good behavior. She seeks out Egan and tries to persuade him to confess his crime, but he is unmoved. But when his life is Read More

The Broadway Hoofer

Crew: Producer

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

Broadway Scandals

Crew: Producer

Actors: Sally O'Neil, Jack Egan, Carmel Myers, J. Barney Sherry, John Hyams

Synopsis: Filmed back-to-back with the similar The Broadway Hoofer, Broadway Scandals marked the first musical production from then-Poverty Row company Columbia Pictures and the feature film debut of popular Broadway emcee Jack Egan. Egan plays Ted Howard, a vaudevillian left stranded in a tank town. A Read More

Flight

Crew: Producer

Actors: Jack Holt, Lila Lee, Ralph Graves, Alan Roscoe, Harold Goodwin

Synopsis: This early Frank Capra talkie stars popular screen action team Jack Holt and Ralph Graves as US marines stationed in Nicaragua. The "two guys fighting over one gal" throughline is there because the audience expected it -- and besides, leading lady Lila Lee is awfully cute. But the meat of the Read More

Say It with Sables

Crew: Producer

Synopsis: Banker John Caswell (Francis X. Bushman), a wealthy widower, decides to leave his scheming mistress Irene (Margaret Livingston) and marry the upper-class Helen (Helene Chadwick) instead. Seeking revenge, Irene starts an affair with Caswell's son Doug (Arthur Rankin). Caswell learns of their Read More

Runaway Girls

Crew: Producer

Actors: Hedda Hopper, Alice Lake, Arthur Rankin, Shirley Mason

Synopsis: Runaway Girls was the first directorial credit for Mark Sandrich, who would still have to serve a long apprenticeship in short subjects before regaining his stride at RKO in the mid-1930s. An unabashed exploitationer, this 1928 release was redeemed somewhat by virtue of its professional Columbia Read More

Submarine

Crew: Producer

Actors: Jack Holt, Ralph Graves, Clarence Burton, Arthur Rankin, Dorothy Revier

Synopsis: Recorded sound effects punctuate this silent drama, the first big-budget release from the then-Poverty Row studio Columbia. Navy man Jack Reagon (Jack Holt) falls for dance-hall girl Bessie (Dorothy Revier) and they marry, but she can't adjust to the bonds of matrimony. A love affair starts Read More

Sinner's Parade

Crew: Producer

Actors: Dorothy Revier, Victor Varconi, John Patrick, Edna Marion

Synopsis: The Columbia programmer Sinner's Parade stars studio utility player Victor Varconi as shady dance-hall proprietor Al Morton. Schoolteacher Mary Tracy (Dorothy Revier) goes to work for Al to support her family. When Bill Adams (John Patrick), the son of anti-vice campaigner Mrs. Adams (Clara Selwynne Read More

That Certain Thing

Crew: Producer

Actors: Aggie Herring, Viola Dana, Burr McIntosh, Ralph Graves

Synopsis: Director Frank Capra's first feature for Columbia Pictures, the silent That Certain Thing stars Viola Dana and Ralph Graves. Dana plays a poor girl who falls in love with wealthy Graves, the son of a millionaire restaurateur. When Graves declares that he has no intention of going into the family Read More

So This Is Love?

Crew: Producer

Actors: Shirley Mason, William Collier, Jr., Johnnie Walker

Synopsis: No relation to the 1953 Grace Moore biopic of the same name, So This is Love was another early Frank Capra production for fledgling Columbia Pictures. The hero, dress designer Jerry McGuire (William Collier Jr.), is tired of being considered a wimp. After business hours, Jerry secretly takes Read More

The Matinee Idol

Crew: Producer

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

After the Storm

Crew: Producer

Actors: Hobart Bosworth, Charles Delaney, Maude George, Eugenia Gilbert, George Kuwa

Synopsis: This high-seas melodrama tells the tale of a self-righteous sea captain who steals his son and leaves his wife because he believes that she is having an affair. Two decades later, a woman is discovered aboard the ship. It is the captain's ex-wife who simply wants to be near her boy who shares his Read More

Name the Woman

Crew: Producer

Actors: Anita Stewart, Huntly Gordon, Gaston Glass, Jed Prouty, Julanne Johnston

The Way of the Strong

Crew: Producer

Synopsis: This silent gangster tale centers on a scarred racketeer, ironically called Handsome Williams (Mitchell Lewis), who has been robbing the liquor shipments of bootlegger Tiger Louie (William Norton Bailey). Handsome also runs a café where Dan (Theodor Von Eltz) works as a pianist. Outside his café Read More

Ransom

Crew: Producer

Actors: Lois Wilson, William V. Mong, Edmund Burns

The Warning

Crew: Producer

Actors: Jack Holt, Dorothy Revier, Pat Harmon, Norman Trevor

Synopsis: This typically hard-nosed Jack Holt vehicle casts the star as opium smuggler Tom Fellows. While in Shanghai on "business," Tom rescues Mary Blake (Dorothy Revier) from the clutches of his deadly rival London Charlie (Pat Harmon). But Mary can't stay out of trouble, obliging Tom to rescue her a Read More

Wandering Girls

Crew: Producer, Supervisor/Manager

Actors: Dorothy Revier, Frances Raymond, Armand Kaliz

Synopsis: Footloose flapper Peggy Marston (Dorothy Revier) runs away from her oppressive household and right into the arms of Big Trouble. Looking for thrills, Peggy gets mixed up with Maurice and Maxine (Armand Kaliz, Mildred Harris), who use their ballroom-dancing act as a cover for their burglary Read More

Stolen Pleasures

Crew: Producer, Supervisor/Manager

Actors: Helene Chadwick, Dorothy Revier, Gayne Whitman, Harland Tucker

Synopsis: After another of their tempestuous arguments, Doris and John Manning (Helene Chadwick and Gayne Whitman) decide to separate. At the same time, a younger couple, Clara and Herb Bradley (Dorothy Revier and Ray Ripley) also split up over a quarrel. Inevitably, Herb finds himself in an innocent but Read More

The Swell-Head

Crew: Producer

Actors: Ralph Graves, Johnny Walker, Eugenia Gilbert, Mildred Harris, Mary Carr

Synopsis: Also known as Swell-Head, this enjoyable Columbia programmer starred former Mack Sennett leading man Ralph Graves, who also directed. To finance a critical operation for his invalid mother, Lefty Malone (Graves) steps into the boxing ring. He soon ascends to the championship, his ego expanding to Read More

Alias the Lone Wolf

Crew: Producer

Actors: Bert Lytell, Lois Wilson, Ned Sparks, Paulette Duval, William V. Mong

Synopsis: Although this was only the second "Lone Wolf" film produced by Columbia, Bert Lytell had already played Louis Joseph Vance's gentleman crook in several prior films, the first dating back to 1917. Michael Lanyard, aka the Lone Wolf, is sailing to America when he meets pretty Eve de Montalais (Lois Wilson Read More

Stage Kisses

Crew: Producer

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

The Bachelor's Baby

Crew: Supervisor/Manager

Actors: Helene Chadwick, Midget Gustav, Edith Yorke, Pat Harmon

Synopsis: In this lively comedy (a predecessor of the screwball comedies of the '30s and '40s) a young woman lies to the policeman who stopped her for speeding by saying that she had to rush to the side of her ailing baby. Accompanying the woman is the young man who was following her. Before the two speed Read More

Opening Night

Crew: Producer

Actors: Claire Windsor, John Bowers

Synopsis: Edward H. Griffith, whose list of directorial credits extended back to the Edison Studios days, was at the controls of Columbia's Opening Night. Having behaved like a coward during the sinking of an ocean liner, a prominent banker drops out of sight, allowing the world to assume that he's dead. Read More

The Isle of Forgotten Women

Crew: Producer

Actors: Conway Tearle, Dorothy Sebastian, Alice Calhoun, Gibson Gowland, William Welch

Synopsis: The pretty former showgirl Dorothy Sebastian improbably plays a South Pacific native girl in this silent clinker. She encounters a bank cashier (Conway Tearle) who is escaping an unjust accusal of embezzlement. He has fled the country in favor of the tropics. He finds the native girl, in her Read More

The Kid Sister

Crew: Producer

Actors: Marguerite de la Motte, Ann Christy

Synopsis: Small town girls get a taste of the world when they go fortune seeking in the big city. The big sister goes first and gets a job as a chorus girl. Though in a glittery life fraught with temptation, the girl remains pure in body and spirit. Later her little sister comes to join her. One night Read More

Rich Men's Sons

Crew: Director, Producer

Actors: Ralph Graves, Shirley Mason

Synopsis: For unknown reasons, Harry Cohn, prickly president of Columbia pictures, is listed as the director of several of his studio's late-silent releases. Though attributed to Cohn by the editors of the trade magazine Variety, Columbia's Rich Men's Sons was actually directed by Ralph Graves, who also Read More

The Clown

Crew: Producer

Actors: Johnny Walker, Dorothy Revier, William V. Mong, John Miljan, Barbara Tennant

Synopsis: In this silent crime drama, a clown comes home and finds his wife in bed with his colleague. He naturally flies into a jealous rage and tries to kill his rival. A storm erupts and destroys their house. The woman dies and the lover accuses the husband of killing her. The husband goes to prison for Read More

By Whose Hand?

Crew: Supervisor/Manager

Actors: Ricardo Cortez, Eugenia Gilbert

Synopsis: By Whose Hand? is a swift little thriller expertly assembled by up-and-coming Columbia Pictures. Ricardo Cortez stars as a society swell who, unbeknownst to all but insurance investigator J. Thornton Baston, is actually the daring Agent X-9. More troubleshooter than spy, Cortez is assigned to Read More

Sally in Our Alley

Crew: Producer

Actors: Shirley Mason, Richard Arlen, Alec B. Francis, Paul Panzer, Kathlyn Williams

Synopsis: Sally in Our Alley revives the old bromide about the orphan waif who is unofficially adopted by three men of different faiths and ethnic backgrounds. Shirley Mason plays Sally Williams, who has grown up under the watchful eyes of Scotsman Sandy Mack (Alec B. Francis), Italian Tony Garibaldi (Paul Panzer Read More

When the Wife's Away

Crew: Supervisor/Manager

Actors: George K. Arthur, Dorothy Revier, Ina Rorke, Ned Sparks

Synopsis: To impress his wealthy uncle Hiram (Tom Ricketts), Billy Winthrop (George K. Arthur) and his wife Ethel (Dorothy Revier) overextend their bank account and rent a posh apartment. Knowing full well that he will inherit Uncle's fortune provided he has become a success in life, Billy puts on quite a Read More

Sweet Rosie O'Grady

Crew: Supervisor/Manager

Actors: Shirley Mason, Cullen Landis, E. Alyn Warren, William Conklin, Lester Bernard

Synopsis: The Columbia "special" Sweet Rosie O'Grady was purportedly inspired by the ballad of the same name. Orphaned at birth, Rosie O'Grady (Shirley Mason) is raised jointly by kindly Jewish pawnbroker Ben Shapiro (E. Alyn Warren) and Irish beat cop James Brady (William Conklin). When wealthy Victor Read More

The Lone Wolf Returns

Crew: Supervisor/Manager

Actors: Bert Lytell, Billie Dove, Freeman Wood, Gustav von Seyffertitz

Synopsis: The Lone Wolf, Louis Joseph Vance's celebrated thief-turned-sleuth, began his long association with Columbia Pictures in 1926's Return of the Lone Wolf. After a life of crime, gentleman jewel robber Michael Lanyard (Bert Lytell), aka the Lone Wolf, has -- to all intents and purposes -- reformed. Read More

Remember

Crew: Producer

Actors: Dorothy Phillips, Earl Metcalfe, Lola Todd, Lincoln Stedman

Synopsis: Dorothy Phillips, an actress once billed as the "Duse of the Screen," stars in the Columbia programmer Remember. Phillips is cast as Ruth Pomeroy, who performs yeoman duty to convince her blinded brother-in-law Jimmy (Earl Metcalfe) that his wife -- Ruth's flighty younger sister Constance (Lola Todd Read More

When Husbands Flirt

Crew: Producer

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

The Lure of the Wild

Crew: Producer

Actors: Jane Novak, Alan Roscoe, Pat Harmon, Mario Carillo

Synopsis: Lightning the Dog, Columbia Pictures' answer to Rin Tin Tin, heads the cast of Lure of the Wild. Displaying a range of emotions that put his human costars to shame, Lightning comes to the rescue of little Baby Cuddles (Billie Jean), the daughter of murder victim James Belmont (Alan Roscoe). Read More

Innocence

Crew: Producer

Synopsis: Talented Anna Q. Nilsson overcomes hackneyed material in this society drama. Actress Fay Leslie (Nilsson) marries Don Hampton (Freeman Wood) against his family's wishes. They snobbishly refuse to accept her presence. She uses her influence to keep a friend (Marion Harlan) from running away with Read More

More to Be Pitied Than Scorned

Crew: Producer

Actors: J. Frank Glendon, Rosemary Theby, Philo McCullough, Gordon Griffith, Alice Lake

Synopsis: Those who see the title to this picture and think it must be based on a hoary old melodrama are absolutely correct. The play, popular circa 1900, was written by Charles E. Blaney. Even though melodramas were making a little comeback in the early 1920s, this one really had no place in the flapper Read More

Only a Shop Girl

Crew: Producer

Actors: Estelle Taylor, William Scott, Mae Busch, James Morrison, Josephine Adair

Synopsis: While no one could ever call the cast to this melodrama "all star," it certainly features some of the best second-stringers and character actors who were around in 1923. James Watkins (Willard Louis), who owns a department store, is even more wicked than your average womanizer. He has Danny Mulvey Read More