Hedda HopperFilmography

Alice in Wonderland

Actors: Janet Waldo, Doris Drew, Sammy Davis, Jr., Bill Dana, Zsa Zsa Gabor

Synopsis: A more appropriate title for this animated 60-minute special might have been Alice in Hanna-Barbera Land, since the cartoon producers have eschewed the original Lewis Carroll text and John Tenniel illustrations for something that more closely resembles The Jetsons or Scooby Doo. Updated to the Read More

The Patsy

Actors: Jerry Lewis, Ina Balin, Everett Sloane, Phil Harris, Keenan Wynn

Synopsis: Toward the end of Jerry Lewis's Paramount studio period, Lewis slapped together this bitter comedy about Hollywood phoniness and fame that has to be the most rancid portrait of the Hollywood star system in the Rat Pack era this side of Clifford Odets. When a famous entertainer suddenly is killed Read More

The Beverly Hillbillies: Hedda Hopper's Hollywood

Synopsis: In this final chapter of a four-episode story arc, legendary Hollywood columnist Hedda Hopper appears as herself. Hedda is up in arms over Drysdale's plan to tear down the Mammoth Studios backlot for a real estate development. Joining Hedda's crusade, the Clampett family decides to film an "epic" Read More

Hedda Hopper's Hollywood

Synopsis: Originally aired as an NBC special on Sunday, January 10, 1960, this program went head-to-head with the hit Ed Sullivan Show and had the star power to garner decent ratings. This video features gossip columnist Hedda Hopper interviewing some of the top entertainers of the day. Highlights include Read More

Pepe

Actors: Cantinflas, Dan Dailey, Shirley Jones, Carlos Montalban, Vicki Trickett, Bing Crosby

Synopsis: Popular Mexican comedian Cantinflas (Mario Moreno) plays the title character in this star-studded, amusing comedy drama by George Sidney. Pepe is the same sort of impoverished stereotype Cantinflas made famous in several of his comedies; in this case he is a hired hand on a ranch who chases down a Read More

Playhouse 90: The Hostess with the Mostess

Actors: Shirley Booth, Evelyn Rudie, Shepperd Strudwick, Frank Milan, Hedda Hopper

Synopsis: This live Playhouse 90 episode dramatizes the life of celebrated Washington party-giver Perle Mesta, who had earlier served as the inspiration for the 1950 Irving Berlin Broadway musical Call Me Madam. The wife of prominent steel manufacturer and political adviser George Mesta (Robert Lowery Read More

I Love Lucy: The Hedda Hopper Story

Actors: Hedda Hopper, Kathryn Card, Hy Averback, Bob Jellison, John Hart

Synopsis: Charlie Pomerantz (Hy Averback), press agent for Ricky Ricardo (Desi Arnaz), arranges a publicity stunt whereby Ricky will "rescue" a supposedly drowning woman from the pool of the Beverly Palms Hotel. This act of courage is sure to win Ricky a mention in the newspaper column of influential gossip Read More

Breakfast in Hollywood

Actors: Tom Breneman, Bonita Granville, Beulah Bondi, Edward Ryan

Synopsis: Breakfast in Hollywood was loosely based on the ABC radio program of the same name. Tom Breneman, the series' host, appears as himself in a contrived story about a radio personality attempting to smooth the path of true love for heroine Dorothy (Bonita Granville) and hero Ken (Edward Ryan); he Read More

Reap the Wild Wind

Actors: Ray Milland, John Wayne, Paulette Goddard, Raymond Massey, Robert Preston

Synopsis: Cecil B. DeMille's Technicolor historical spectacle Reap the Wild Wind was to have starred Gary Cooper, but Cooper's prior commitment to Goldwyn's Pride of the Yankees compelled DeMille to recast the leading role with John Wayne. The film, set in the mid-19th century, centers around Key West Read More

Life with Henry

Actors: Jackie Cooper, Leila Ernst, Eddie Bracken, Hedda Hopper

Synopsis: The box-office success of Paramount's What a Life (1939), coupled with the popularity of the spinoff Henry Aldrich radio series, inspired the studio to launch an "Aldrich" series of its own. The inagural entry was Life with Henry, with Jackie Cooper repeating his role as befuddled teenager Henry Read More

I Wanted Wings

Actors: Ray Milland, William Holden, Wayne Morris, Brian Donlevy, Constance Moore

Synopsis: Three disparate young men struggle to become Army Air Corps pilots in this rousing drama that earned an Oscar for its excellent aerial special effects. The film is also noted for making Veronica Lake, who previously appeared in films under the name Constance Keane, a star. For added realism, the Read More

Cross Country Romance

Actors: Gene Raymond, Wendy Barrie, Hedda Hopper, Billy Gilbert, G.P. Huntley

Synopsis: Eleanor Browne's novel Highway to Romance was the source for this moneyspinning RKO Radio comedy. Obviously inspired by It Happened One Night, the story is set in motion by runaway heiress Diane (Wendy Barrie), who hopes to escape from her impending marriage. Stowing away in the trailer owned by Read More

Queen of the Mob

Actors: Ralph Bellamy, Blanche Yurka, J. Carrol Naish, William Henry

Synopsis: Though the title character is loosely based on that of the notorious killer/robber Ma Barker, she has been sanitized and prettified to meet the perceived conservative values of Hollywood movie audiences. Unlike Barker, who was bad to the bone, Ma Webster is simply a matriarch who would do anything Read More

The Women

Actors: Norma Shearer, Joan Crawford, Rosalind Russell, Mary Boland, Joan Fontaine, Paulette Goddard

Synopsis: Based on the Clare Booth Luce play of the same name, this MGM comedy is justly famous for its all-female cast and deft direction by George Cukor. The plot centers on a group of gossipy high-society women who spend their days at the beauty salon and haunting fashion shows. The sweet, happily wedded Read More

Laugh It Off

Actors: Johnny Downs, Constance Moore, Marjorie Rambeau, Cecil Cunningham, Hedda Hopper

Synopsis: Laugh it Off was one of two Johnny Downs vehicles released within the same week in December of 1939 (the other was Bad Boy). Downs plays Stephen Hannis, a Broadway bandleader who aspires to become a lawyer. He gets his big break when he champions the cause of a group of elderly ex-chorus dancers Read More

Midnight

Actors: Claudette Colbert, Don Ameche, John Barrymore, Francis Lederer, Mary Astor

Synopsis: Paramount's screwball comedy Midnight is the first collaboration between director Mitchell Leisen and screenwriting duo Charles Brackett and Billy Wilder. The film merges Brackett and Wilder's early emphasis on repartee and masquerade with ex-costume designer Leisen's flair for high style and Read More

That's Right - You're Wrong

Actors: Adolphe Menjou, May Robson, Lucille Ball, Dennis O'Keefe

Synopsis: Lucille Ball plays young starlet Sandra Sand in That's Right -- You're Wrong, the 1939 musical comedy directed by David Butler. Led by musician Kay (Kay Kyser), a popular band sets off for Hollywood in hopes of making their debut on the big screen. A series of misadventures follow, including a Read More

What a Life

Actors: Jackie Cooper, Betty Field, John Howard, Janice Logan, Vaughan Glaser

Synopsis: In this comedy drama, young high school student Henry Aldrich tries to tone down his natural mischievousness and shuck the reputation of being the worst student in school. It isn't easy and his father, who was an excellent student at Princeton, doesn't help. Fortunately, by the story's end, the Read More

Dangerous to Know

Synopsis: In this drama, a gangster finds the woman of his dreams, but before he can have her he must frame her fiance. Meanwhile the Asian lover he dumped plots her revenge. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

The Maid's Night Out

Actors: Allan Lane, Joan Fontaine, Hedda Hopper, George Irving, William Brisbane

Synopsis: Joan Fontaine was still two years away from full stardom when she appeared in the B-plus comedy Maid's Night Out. Future cowboy star Allan Lane plays Bill, a millionaire's son who, to win a bet with his father (George Irving), sets out to prove that he can succeed without his family's money. While Read More

Tarzan's Revenge

Actors: Glenn Morris, Eleanor Holm, George Barbier, C. Henry Gordon, Hedda Hopper

Synopsis: While the "Tarzan" series was going full blast at MGM, several independent producers managed to secure the screen rights to Edgar Rice Burrough's Lord of the Jungle for their own low-budget adventure films. Taking into consideration the fact that MGM's Tarzan was Olympic swimming star Johnny Read More

Thanks for the Memory

Actors: Bob Hope, Shirley Ross, Charles Butterworth, Otto Kruger, Hedda Hopper

Synopsis: The popularity of both Bob Hope and the sentimental tune "Thanks for the Memory" by Ralph Rainger and Leo Robin in The Big Broadcast of 1938 led to this plodding little domestic comedy-drama in which Hope plays a stay-at-home author and Shirley Ross his working wife. The situation is, of course Read More

Artists and Models

Actors: Jack Benny, Ida Lupino, Richard Arlen, Gail Patrick, Ben Blue

Synopsis: Jack Benny had one of his first starring film roles in this breezy comedy with plenty of music. Benny plays Mac Brewster, an advertising man trying to hold on to his biggest client, a silver company run by Alan Townshend (Richard Arlen). Elsewhere in the office, Paula Sewell (Ida Lupino) longs to Read More

You Can't Buy Luck

Actors: Onslow Stevens, Helen Mack, Vinton Haworth, Maxine Jennings, Paul Guilfoyle

Synopsis: In this crime drama, a highly superstitious racehorse owner spends his time off the track helping the less fortunate in any way he can so that he will always have good luck. His ploy works until he is accused of murdering his ex-lover. Fortunately, the real culprit is discovered before he has to Read More

Nothing Sacred

Actors: Carole Lombard, Fredric March, Charles Winninger, Walter Connolly, Sig Rumann

Synopsis: "This is New York, Skyscraper Champion of the World...Where the Slickers and Know-It-Alls peddle gold bricks to each other...And where Truth, crushed to earth, rises again more phony than a glass eye..." With this jaundiced opening title, scripter Ben Hecht introduces his classic comedy Nothing Sacred Read More

Dangerous Holiday

Actors: Ra Hould, Hedda Hopper, Guinn "Big Boy" Williams, Jack LaRue, Jed Prouty

Synopsis: Hoping to ape the success of Sol Lesser's Bobby Breen musicals, Republic Pictures fashioned Dangerous Holiday as a movie vehicle for pint-sized violin prodigy Ra Hould. The star is appropriately cast as preteen violin virtuoso Ronnie Campbell who is so coddled and protected by his family and Read More

Vogues of 1938

Actors: Warner Baxter, Joan Bennett, Helen Vinson, Mischa Auer, Alan Mowbray

Synopsis: An early Technicolor musical that concentrates on the fashions of the late 1930s, this film was reissued under the title All This and Glamour Too. The top models of the era, including several who are advertising household products, are in the cast. The plot centers around a chic boutique, whose Read More

Topper

Actors: Cary Grant, Constance Bennett, Billie Burke, Roland Young, Alan Mowbray

Synopsis: By 1937, producer Hal Roach was hoping to wean himself away from the Laurel & Hardy-Our Gang slapstick on which he had built his studio's reputation by delving into the "screwball comedy" genre. Roach selected the racy Thorne Smith fantasy novel Topper for adaptation, and the result was one of the Read More

Bunker Bean

Actors: Owen Davis, Jr., Louise Latimer, Robert McWade, Jessie Ralph, Eddie Nugent

Synopsis: Owen Davis Jr. plays Bunker Bean, a meek and mild office worker who loves the boss' daughter (Louise Latimer) from afar. Bunker impulsively visits a mystic, who gazes into a crystal ball and determines that Mr. Bean is the reincarnation of such past leaders of men as Napoleon and an Egyptian Read More

Dracula's Daughter

Actors: Gloria Holden, Otto Kruger, Marguerite Churchill, Irving Pichel, Edward Van Sloan

Synopsis: It may be sacrilege to say so, but Dracula's Daughter is an immense improvement over the original 1931 Dracula, despite the absence of Bela Lugosi in the cast. Gloria Holden is first-rate as the title character, alias "Countess Marya Zaleska," who after stealing her father's body from the Read More

Doughnuts and Society

Actors: Louise Fazenda, Maude Eburne, Ann Rutherford, Eddie Nugent, Hedda Hopper

Synopsis: Doughnuts and Society is the first of several attempts by Republic Pictures to create a new screen team comparable to MGM's Marie Dressler and Polly Moran. In this one, Louise Fazenda and Maude Eburne are paired up as Kate Flannagan and Belle Dugan, joint owners of a greasy-spoon diner. Read More

The Dark Hour

Actors: Ray Walker, Irene Ware, Berton Churchill, Hedda Hopper, Hobart Bosworth

Synopsis: The Dark Hour was based on The Last Trap, a mystery novel by Sinclair Gluck. The setting is one of those Old Dark Houses which proliferated in 1930s "B"-pictures. Elsa Carson (Irene Ware), mistress of the house, fears that her weird uncles intend to do her harm and calls in detectives Landis (Ray Walker Read More

Three Kids and a Queen

Actors: May Robson, Frankie Darro, Charlotte Henry, William Benedict, Billy Burrud

Synopsis: The indomitable May Robson is firmly in the driver's seat of this Runyonesque comedy-drama. While riding through Central Park, peppery millionairess Mary Jane Baxter (Robson) is thrown from her carriage and rescued by three scruffy orphans (Frankie Darro, Billy Benedict, Billy Burrud). The kids Read More

Society Fever

Actors: Lois Wilson, Lloyd Hughes, Hedda Hopper, Guinn "Big Boy" Williams, Grant Withers

Synopsis: In this comedy, a woman lives with her recently impoverished family who would do anything to regain their former wealth and status. They use the young woman, and every time any likely person comes to call, they try to foist her upon them. One of these visitors is the son of a conniving lawyer who Read More

I Live My Life

Actors: Joan Crawford, Brian Aherne, Frank Morgan, Aline MacMahon, Eric Blore

Synopsis: Feeling stifled by her wealthy existence, flighty heiress Kay (Joan Crawford) falls in love with poor archaeologist Terry (Brian Aherne). The couple seems happiest when they're yelling at one another, indicating perhaps that screenwriter Joseph L. Mankiewicz was none too fond of either character. Read More

No Ransom

Actors: Leila Hyams, Phillips Holmes, Jack LaRue, Robert McWade, Hedda Hopper

Synopsis: In this family comedy, the wealthy executive of a steel company must endure life with a strict, teetotaling wife, a wild daughter, and a deadbeat son. To gain some much needed attention, the lonesome fellow hires a hitman to kill him. Instead, the gunman kidnaps him to frighten the family into Read More

Lady Tubbs

Actors: Alice Brady, Douglass Montgomery, Anita Louise, Alan Mowbray, Minor Watson

Synopsis: A variation on the Lady for a Day theme, Universal's Lady Tubbs stars Alice Brady as Henrietta "Mom" Tubbs, the no-nonsense cook in a rowdy railroad construction camp. Upon inheriting a fortune, Mom Tubbs trains herself to enter high society, not so much for her sake as for that of her pretty Read More

One Frightened Night

Actors: Charles Grapewin, Mary Carlisle, Arthur Hohl, Evelyn Knapp, Wallace Ford

Synopsis: Hoping to avoid the new inheritance tax, eccentric millionaire Jasper Whyte (Charles Grapewin) gathers together his greedy relatives and associates and announces that he intends to give away his fortune to his long-lost granddaughter Doris -- but if she doesn't show up for the reading of the will Read More

Alice Adams

Actors: Katharine Hepburn, Fred MacMurray, Fred Stone, Evelyn Venable, Frank Albertson

Synopsis: Katharine Hepburn stars as Booth Tarkington's would-be society belle Alice Adams. The product of a family of modest means, Alice nonetheless dreams of being accepted by the "better people." Luck of luck, she meets well-to-do young Fred MacMurray at a social gathering; he is charmed by her pathetic Read More

Little Man, What Now?

Actors: Margaret Sullavan, Douglass Montgomery, Alan Hale, Catherine Doucet, Fred Kohler

Synopsis: Set in Germany shortly before the collapse of the Weimar Republic, this romantic drama chronicles the travails of an impoverished newlywed couple who leave their home village and move in with the groom's stepmother in bustling Berlin to find success. The husband gets a small job in a department Read More

Let's Be Ritzy

Actors: Lew Ayres, Patricia Ellis, Isabel Jewell, Frank McHugh, Berton Churchill

Synopsis: Lew Ayres and Patricia Ellis are the "official" stars of Let's Be Ritzy, but the film is dominated by Frank McHugh as brash radio performer Bill Damroy. In his efforts to appease his social-climbing girlfriend Betty (Isabel Jewell), Damroy gets young hero Jimmie (Lew Ayres) mixed up in all sorts Read More

Bombay Mail

Actors: Edmund Lowe, Shirley Grey, Onslow Stevens, Ralph Forbes, John Davidson

Synopsis: Universal's Bombay Mail adheres to the pattern established by Paramount's Shanghai Express, with a group of Calcutta-bound train passengers thrust into a life-or-death situation. In the course of the 36-hour journey, a high-ranking British official (Ferdinand Gottschalk) and an equally prominent Read More

The Barbarian

Actors: Ramon Novarro, Myrna Loy, Reginald Denny, Louise Closser Hale, C. Aubrey Smith

Synopsis: In this drama, Diana (Myrna Loy) is a beautiful tourist from the United States who is visiting Cairo, accompanied by her Uncle Cecil (C. Aubrey Smith) and Aunt Powers (Louise Closser Hale). Diana is to meet her fiance Gerald (Reginald Denny) in Cairo, but she soon makes the aquaintance of Jamil Read More

Men Must Fight

Actors: Diana Wynyard, Phillips Holmes, May Robson, Ruth Selwyn

Synopsis: A remarried war widow's attempts to raise her son to be a pacifist are thwarted when a second world war (this film was made well before the real WWII) erupts. Up until then, her new husband, the Secretary of State, supported his wife's crusade, but with a war on, he becomes a strong supporter in Read More

Beauty for Sale

Actors: Madge Evans, Otto Kruger, Alice Brady, Una Merkel, May Robson

Synopsis: The beauty-parlor craze of the early 1930s was given a good going-over in MGM's Beauty for Sale. Madge Evans, Florine McKinney and Una Merkel star as Letty, Jane and Carol, three employees of a swank Manhattan beauty salon. While Carol wisecracks her way through life, Letty takes things more Read More

Pilgrimage

Actors: Henrietta Crosman, Heather Angel, Norman Foster, Marian Nixon, Maurice Murphy

Synopsis: John Ford directed this emotional drama, which was a considerable change of pace from the westerns and war pictures for which he was best known. Hannah Jessop (Henrietta Crosman) fears being abandoned by her son Jim (Norman Foster), and she doesn't approve of his romance with Mary Saunders (Marian Nixon Read More

Speak Easily

Actors: Buster Keaton, Jimmy Durante, Ruth Selwyn, Thelma Todd, Hedda Hopper

Synopsis: Buster Keaton's best sound feature casts the Great Stone Face as Professor Post, a naïve college pedant who mistakenly believes he has inherited $750,000. Hoping to use this windfall to bring the Fine Arts to the waiting world, Post gets mixed up with a two-bit theatrical troupe, headed by Jimmy Read More

Skyscraper Souls

Actors: Warren William, Maureen O'Sullivan, Gregory Ratoff, Anita Page, Veree Teasdale, Jean Hersholt

Synopsis: Produced by William Randolph Hearst's Cosmopolitan Production for MGM, this well made Grand Hotel clone was based on a 1931 novel by Faith Baldwin. Warren William stars as David Dwight, a building and bank magnate who not only attempts to double-cross his backers but is two-timing both his wife Read More

The Man Who Played God

Actors: George Arliss, Violet Heming, Ivan Simpson, Louise Closser Hale, Bette Davis

Synopsis: George Arliss is a world-renowned pianist, engaged to a young woman (Bette Davis) much younger than himself. An explosion renders Arliss completely deaf, but he soon becomes an expert lip-reader. To practice this skill, he looks out his window through binoculars, reading the lips of those who pass Read More

The Unwritten Law

Actors: Greta Nissen, Mary Brian, Louise Fazenda, Lew Cody

Synopsis: In this murder mystery, everyone around a murdered movie producer is a suspect, including his girl friend. Most of those involved have good reason to kill him. The murder occurred on a ship bound for a new location; all the suspects are aboard. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Night World

Actors: Lew Ayres, Mae Clarke, Boris Karloff, Dorothy Revier, Russell Hopton

Synopsis: Night World is an astonishingly compact 57-minute extravaganza, all of which takes place at the upscale (but somewhat less-than-swank) nightclub owned by good-natured racketeer Happy MacDonald (Boris Karloff) (complete with a winning, grinning smile). In a story arc of no more than a couple of Read More

As You Desire Me

Actors: Greta Garbo, Melvyn Douglas, Erich Von Stroheim, Owen Moore, Hedda Hopper

Synopsis: This complex '30s film is based upon a play by Pirandello which involved a hapless amnesiac. In As You Desire Me, the legendary Greta Garbo plays a down-in-the-dumps amnesiac (she can't recall who her husband is) who ends up singing in a low-life nightclub and putting up with the advances of a Read More

Downstairs

Actors: John Gilbert, Paul Lukas, Virginia Bruce, Hedda Hopper, Reginald Owen

Synopsis: Anyone who believes that the career of silent screen idol John Gilbert ended because his voice has too high for the talkies hasn't seen this marvelously black comedy. In perhaps his best performance of the sound era (with his supporting role in 1934's The Captain Hates the Sea running a close 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

Rebound

Actors: Ina Claire, Robert Ames, Myrna Loy, Hedda Hopper, Robert Williams

Synopsis: A man finds he's torn between two women -- which isn't a good state of affairs for a man who just got married -- in this romantic comedy-drama. Not long after Bill Truesdale (Robert Ames) ties the knot with his girlfriend Sarah Jaffrey (Ina Claire), he happens to meet Evie Lawrence (Myrna Loy), a Read More

Mystery Train

Actors: Hedda Hopper, Bryant Washburn, Marceline Day, Jack Richardson

Synopsis: Future gossip columnist Hedda Hopper enjoyed one of her few top-billed movie roles in the independently-produced thriller Mystery Train. After several reels of heavy plotting, a Pullman car is cut loose from its train and sent hurtling down a steep railway slope in the Rockies. Hero Ronald Read More

The Prodigal

Actors: Lawrence Tibbett, Esther Ralston, Roland Young, Cliff Edwards, Purnell Pratt

Synopsis: The third of Metropolitan Opera star Lawrence Tibbett's MGM vehicles, The Prodigal casts the star as Jeffry, the proverbial black sheep of an aristocratic Southern family. After several years on the bum with his buddies Doc (Roland Young) and Snipe (Cliff Edwards), Jeffry returns home, where he Read More

Men Call It Love

Actors: Adolphe Menjou, Leila Hyams, Mary Duncan, Hedda Hopper, Robert Emmett Keane

Synopsis: Men Call it Love, but Vincent Lawrence called it Among the Married when he wrote the play upon which this MGM film was based. Adolphe Menjou stars as Tony Minot, a randy bachelor who is so sophisticated that he serves cocktails on a rectangular tray to accommodate all of his lady friends at once. Read More

A Tailor Made Man

Actors: William Haines, Dorothy Jordan, Joseph Cawthorn, Marjorie Rambeau, William Austin

Synopsis: Previously filmed in 1922, the 1917 stage farce The Impostor was reheated in 1931 as the William Haines vehicle A Tailor Made Man. Essaying his usual brash wisecracker, Haines plays John Paul Bart, a pants-presser who tries to crash High Society by borrowing the dress suit owned by millionaire Read More

The Easiest Way

Actors: Constance Bennett, Adolphe Menjou, Robert Montgomery, Anita Page, Marjorie Rambeau

Synopsis: In this melodrama that was considered utterly scandalous in its day, an impoverished, beautiful young ghetto girl quickly learns that she can get to Easy Street on her back. Her indecent journey begins when a scout discovers her working in a department store. He gets her signed up to a modeling Read More

Flying High

Actors: Bert Lahr, Charlotte Greenwood, Pat O'Brien, Kathryn Crawford, Charles Winninger

Synopsis: Flying High was a nonsensical Broadway musical hit of 1930 starring Bert Lahr. The film version, made one year later by MGM, made a few efforts to "cinematize" the stage original, but the focus was on Lahr, re-creating his Broadway performance virtually verbatim -- except for his famous (and Read More

Good Sport

Synopsis: High-class call girls provide the focus of this intelligent romantic comedy that takes a rather scathing look at the down-side of blazing passion. The trouble begins when a young wife learns that her husband has been fooling around with the ladies of the evening on the side. As she investigates Read More

West of Broadway

Actors: John Gilbert, El Brendel, Lois Moran, Madge Evans, Ralph Bellamy

Synopsis: Though silent star John Gilbert's talking pictures were habitual money-losers, the stubborn actor insisted that MGM honor his $250,000-per-picture contract, signed just before talkies came on. West of Broadway wasn't a bad Gilbert vehicle by any means, but the star's previous failures worked Read More

The Common Law

Actors: Constance Bennett, Joel McCrea, Lew Cody, Robert Williams, Hedda Hopper

Synopsis: A wealthy man's mistress abandons her luxurious life as a kept woman to be with the struggling Paris artist she has come to love in this third version of Robert W. Chambers' novel. It all began when she agreed to be his model. Soon they fall in love, and she decides to dump her rich old sugar Read More

Murder Will Out

Actors: Alec B. Francis, Tully Marshall, Claud Allister, Lila Lee

Synopsis: Jack Mulhall stars as Leonard Staunton, a businessman whose future is threatened by a trio of mysterious blackmailers. The villains will stop at nothing to get what they want -- not even murder. From all appearances, the blackmailers are members of a Chinese Tong, but Staunton, teamed with Read More

Our Blushing Brides

Actors: Joan Crawford, Robert Montgomery, Anita Page

Synopsis: Having starred in Our Dancing Daughters (28) and Our Modern Maidens (30), the next logical step for Joan Crawford was Our Blushing Brides (30). Crawford is featured with her Dancing Daughters costars Dorothy Sebastian and Anita Page in this tale of three roommates trying to make good in the Big Read More

War Nurse

Actors: Robert Montgomery, Robert Ames, June Walker, Anita Page, ZaSu Pitts

Synopsis: War Nurse was based on the anonymous memoirs of an American nurse who served with the French Army during WWI. Since the nurse's recollections included several sexual episodes, the book gained a degree of notoriety, and it was assumed that the material was too "hot" to be adapted to film. But MGM Read More

Such Men Are Dangerous

Actors: Warner Baxter, Catherine Dale Owen, Albert Conti, Hedda Hopper, Claud Allister

Synopsis: In this drama an unattractive, dour German businessman leaps out of a flying plane after learning that his wife only married him for his fortune. It appears that he has died, but in reality he has traveled to the Alps where he has his face surgically reconstructed. As he becomes more handsome, he Read More

High Society Blues

Actors: Janet Gaynor, Charles Farrell, William Collier, Sr., Hedda Hopper, Louise Fazenda

Synopsis: This version of Shakespeare's most famous love story is set in Scarsdale, New York. This time, the heroine comes from an old monied aristocratic family. Trouble ensues when the hero's newly wealthy, and terribly unsophisticated family from Iowa moves in next door. The young woman becomes Read More

Let Us Be Gay

Actors: Norma Shearer, Rod La Rocque, Marie Dressler, Gilbert Emery, Hedda Hopper

Synopsis: In this romance, a disillusioned wife, learning that her husband has been unfaithful, divorces him and moves to Paris where she is changed from a frowsy hausfrau to a sexy, sophisticated lady. A wealthy dame asks her to help destroy the affair between her granddaughter and the woman's ex-husband. Read More

Holiday

Actors: Ann Harding, Robert Ames, Mary Astor, Edward Everett Horton, Hedda Hopper

Synopsis: The first of the filmizations of Philip Barry's play, Holiday centers around a society wedding. Julia Seton (Mary Astor) intends to marry John Case (Robert Ames), a young Wall Street lion with "radical" ideas that go against the grain of Julia's conservative family. Julia's freewheeling younger Read More

The Last of Mrs. Cheyney

Actors: Norma Shearer, Basil Rathbone, George Barraud, Herbert Bunston, Hedda Hopper

Synopsis: This early talkie was based on Frederick Lonsdale's successful Broadway play. Fay Cheyney (Norma Shearer) is a cunning jewel thief who impersonates a wealthy widow as she travels to Monte Carlo, planning on stealing a fortune in pearls from one Mrs. Webley (Maude Turner Gordon); Fay's henchmen Read More

The Racketeer

Actors: Robert Armstrong, Carole Lombard, Roland Drew, Jeanette Loff, John Loder

Synopsis: This late-20s gangster movie features Carole Lombard as a young gal who agrees to marry a smooth-talking gangster in exchange for the mob man's pledge to arrange a big-time concert appearance for her violinist boyfriend. The only thing that can save the day for the mis-aligned lovers is a shootout Read More

Song of Kentucky

Synopsis: In this drama, an early talky, a horse race determines a woman's romantic fate. The trouble begins when she finds herself falling deeply in love with a handsome songwriter. Unfortunately, she is already betrothed to a real cad. When her fiance finds out that she loves another, he decides to frame Read More

Cat, Dog & Co.

Actors: Bobby "Wheezer" Hutchins, Joe Cobb, Farina Hoskins, Harry Spear, Mary Ann Jackson

Synopsis: One of the livelier late-silent entries in the "Our Gang" series, Cat, Dog & Co. begins with the kids thoughtlessly abusing or overworking their pets. But thanks to the gentle admonitions of a lady from the Be Kind to Animals Society (played by future gossip columnist Hedda Hopper), the kids Read More

Girls Gone Wild

Actors: Sue Carol, Nick Stuart, William Russell, Roy D'Arcy, John Darrow

Synopsis: In this drama, a young woman gets angry when her boyfriend's father, a motorcycle cop, stops her for speeding, refuses her bribe, and makes her go to court. She is so angry that she dumps her beau. Later, the wild young woman is dancing with a renowned bootlegger at a dance on the seamy side of Read More

Half-Marriage

Actors: Olive Borden, Morgan Farley, Ken Murray, Ann Greenway, Sally Blane

Synopsis: This loosely-constructed romantic melodrama stars Olive Borden as society girl Judy Paige, who defies her parents by eloping with Dick (Morgan Farley), a handsome young architect. To the rest of the world, it appears as though Judy and Dick are living together without benefit of clergy, and soon Read More

His Glorious Night

Actors: John Gilbert, Catherine Dale Owen, Nance O'Neil, Gustav von Seyffertitz, Hedda Hopper

Synopsis: Based on Olympia, a 1928 Ferenc Molnar stage soufflé, His Glorious Night has gone down in history as having more or less single-handedly caused the downfall of silent-screen matinee idol John Gilbert, whose ardent declarations of "I love you, I love you" to an overly inert Catherine Dale Owen Read More

The Whip Woman

Actors: Estelle Taylor, Antonio Moreno, Lowell Sherman, Hedda Hopper, Julanne Johnston

Synopsis: In his later interviews, director Allan Dwan seldom had anything to say about his 1928 opus Whip Woman -- and who could blame him? Estelle Taylor, whose tabloid fame as the litigious wife of boxer Jack Dempsey tended to overshadow her acting skills, stars as Sari, a whip-wielding Hungarian peasant Read More

The Port of Missing Girls

Actors: Barbara Bedford, Malcolm McGregor, Natalie Kingston, Hedda Hopper, Rosemary Theby

Synopsis: Far in the mysterious East there lies an island that exists under the radar of any law or authority. This haven for thieves and crooks is also the perfect home for women who make themselves widows. When showgirl Della Mason is framed for murder, the makes the island her destination, but even after Read More

Companionate Marriage

Undressed

Love and Learn

Actors: Esther Ralston

Synopsis: Like many of Esther Ralston's late-1920s vehicles, Love and Learn is primarily an excuse to show off its star in as few clothes as possible. In love with political candidate Anthony Cowles (Lane Chandler), heroine Nancy Blair (Ralston) gets wind of the opposition's scheme to ruin Cowles' Read More

Harold Teen

Actors: Mary Brian, Arthur Lake, Lucien Littlefield, Jack Duffy

Synopsis: Based on the comic strip by Carl Ed, Harold Teen stars future "Dagwood Bumstead" Arthur Lake in the title role. Upon arriving in the big city to attend high school, the bumptious Harold soon becomes the most popular boy in class. This gives our hero carte blanche to indulge in all sorts of comic Read More

Chorus Kid

Actors: Virginia Brown Faire, Sheldon Lewis, Thelma Hill, Hedda Hopper, Tom O'Brien, John Batten, Bryant Washburn

Synopsis: Having been in show biz since infancy, Broadway chorus girl Beatrice (Virginia Brown Faire) regrets her lack of formal education. Upon unexpectedly falling heir to a huge sum of money, Beatrice decides to make up for lost time by enrolling in a fancy girl's school. Though many of her snooty Read More

Runaway Girls

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

Reno Divorce

Actors: May McAvoy, Ralph Graves, Hedda Hopper, Robert Ober, Anders Randolf

Synopsis: Actor-director Ralph Graves, the "auteur" of Columbia Pictures, paid a brief visit to Warner Bros. to put together Reno Divorce. While driving around in her car, wealthy but inattentive heroine May McAvoy knocks down aspiring artist Graves. She takes him to her home to recuperate, whereupon the Read More

Children of Divorce

Actors: Clara Bow, Esther Ralston, Gary Cooper, Norman Trevor

Synopsis: Kitty Flanders (Yvonne Pelletier), Jean Waddington and Ted Larrabee (Don Marion) are all "children of divorce" -- the two girls are left in a convent school by their mothers and Ted's upbringing is sketchy at best. When the three of them grow up, Ted (now played by Gary Cooper) falls deeply in Read More

Wings

Actors: Clara Bow, Charles "Buddy" Rogers, Richard Arlen, Jobyna Ralston, Gary Cooper

Synopsis: Wings, the first feature film to win an Academy Award, tends to disappoint a little when seen today. Too much time is afforded the wheezy old plotline about two World War I aviators (Buddy Rogers, Richard Arlen) in love with the same woman (Jobyna Ralston), while the comedy relief of El Brendel is Read More

French Dressing

Actors: H.B. Warner, Clive Brook, Lois Wilson, Lilyan Tashman

Synopsis: The same year H.B. Warner portrayed Jesus Christ in The King of Kings, he let down his hair in the drawing-room comedy French Dressing. Warner plays a husband who is wrongly suspected of infidelity by his young wife Lois Wilson. She runs off to Paris, determined to avenge herself on her Read More

The Dropkick

Actors: Richard Barthelmess, Barbara Kent, Dorothy Revier, Eugene Strong, Alberta Vaughn

Synopsis: The silent The Dropkick stars Richard Barthelmess as a talented but hopelessly conceited college football star. Because of his frequent clashes with his coach, Barthelmess is the prime suspect when said coach is murdered. He manages to clear himself just in time to win the Big Game. Of interest to Read More

The Magic Garden

Actors: Joyce Coad, Margaret Morris, Philippe DeLacy, Raymond Keane

Synopsis: The oft-filmed Gene Stratton-Porter novel The Magic Garden was given a splendid (if economical) screen treatment by FBO Pictures in 1927. As ever, the story concerns Amaryllis Minton (Joyce Coad), a spoiled girl who is sent to live with her country-squire Uncle Paul (William V. Mong). Redeemed by Read More

Matinee Ladies

Actors: May McAvoy, Malcolm McGregor, Hedda Hopper, Margaret Seddon, Richard Tucker

Synopsis: May McAvoy stars as Sallie Smith, a nightclub cigarette girl who falls in love with Bob Ward (Malcolm McGregor), who's working his way through college as a paid escort. Alas, Sally's head is turned by wealthy cad Tom Mannion (Richard Tucker), who lures the girl to a wild weekend party at his Long Read More

Orchids and Ermine

Actors: Colleen Moore, Jack Mulhall, Sam Hardy, Gwen Lee

Synopsis: One of the most accessible of the Colleen Moore silent vehicles, Orchids and Ermine also happens to be among Moore's best and most representative films. The star is cast as Pink Watson, whose craving for such luxuries as orchids and ermine lead her to take a job as a telephone receptionist in a Read More

One Woman to Another

Actors: Florence Vidor, Theodore Von Eltz, Marie Shotwell, Hedda Hopper, Roy Stewart

Synopsis: Rita Farrell (Florence Vidor) and John Bruce (Theodore von Eltz) want nothing more out of life than to get married. Unfortunately, the road to the altar is festooned with unexpected obstacles, both natural and man-made. The limit comes when Rita, left in charge with a group of children, is Read More

Adam and Evil

Actors: Lew Cody, Aileen Pringle, Gwen Lee, Gertrude Short, Hedda Hopper

Synopsis: 'That's either your wife or your sister-in-law!" declares Gwen Lee to Aileen Pringle in the middle of Adam and Evil. This should be indication enough that this silent feature was a comedy, despite its title. Lew Cody, married to Aileen Pringle, pretends to be his own twin brother so that he can Read More

Don Juan

Actors: John Barrymore, Mary Astor, Willard Louis, Estelle Taylor, Warner Oland, Montagu Love

Synopsis: Historically important as the first film to carry a Vitaphone sound track (consisting of music and sound effects, but no dialogue) Don Juan is a first-rate production by any standards, and would have been just as good with or without musical accompaniment. John Barrymore plays the legendary lover Read More

Silver Treasure

Actors: George O'Brien, Jack Rollins, Helena D'Algy, Evelyn Selbie

Synopsis: The celebrated Joseph Conrad novel The Silver Treasure was brought to the screen as Silver Treasure in 1926. The story is set in the mythical South American republic of Costaguana, where local hero Nostromo (George O'Brien) is regarded as the noblest man on earth. Nostromo is looked up to by Read More

Obey the Law

Actors: Bert Lytell, Edna Murphy, Hedda Hopper

Synopsis: Advertised as a "crook society comedy," Columbia's Obey the Law features Bert Lytell in a role not unlike his frequent screen persona of The Lone Wolf. Lytell plays a smooth thief who steals a valuable jewel as a wedding present for Edna Murphy, his best friend's daughter. Unfortunately, his Read More

Pleasures of the Rich

Actors: Helene Chadwick, Mary Carr, Marcin Asher, Jack Mulhall, Lillian Langdon

Synopsis: Marcin Asher plays Henry "Pushcart" Wilson, who has parlayed his tiny streetcorner operation into a thriving business concern. Hobnobbing with the 400, the widowed Henry falls in love with beautiful but treacherous divorcee Mona Vincent (Hedda Hopper). Meanwhile, Henry's daughter Mary (Helene Chadwick Read More

Dance Madness

Actors: Conrad Nagel, Claire Windsor, Douglas Gilmore, Hedda Hopper, Mario Carillo

Synopsis: The madness begins when J.P. and May Smith (Conrad Nagel, Claire Windsor) celebrate their second wedding anniversary with a trip to Paris. Succumbing to the charms of the City of Light, J.P. forsakes fidelity to pursue a sexy masked cabaret dancer. Finding out about her husband's galavanting, May Read More

Lew Tyler's Wives

Synopsis: Too proud to accept handouts from the father (Warren Cook) of his socialite girlfriend Virginia (Hedda Hopper), Lew Tyler (Frank Mayo) instead marries Jessie Winkler (Ruth Clifford), an old friend. Poor Lew cannot forget Virginia and begins an affair with neighbor Colleen Miles (Helen Lee Read More

Skinner's Dress Suit

Actors: Reginald Denny, Laura La Plante, Ben Hendricks, Jr., Arthur Lake

Synopsis: The best of comic actor Reginald Denny's silent vehicles, Skinner's Dress Suit is a surprising contemporary piece about status-seeking. Denny is an office worker whose wife Laura LaPlante hectors him into asking for a raise. Not only does Denny get the extra dough, but he's asked to take a cut in Read More

Fools of Fashion

Actors: Marceline Day, Mae Busch, Theodore Von Eltz

Synopsis: Theodore Von Eltz and Robert Ober love their respective wives, Mae Busch and Marceline Day, but Busch loves only furs and jewels. Taking Day into her confidence, Busch instructs the girl in the subtle art of getting her husband Ober to indulge her every whim. But Day is more interested in her Read More

The Caveman

Actors: Matt Moore, Marie Prevost, John Patrick, Myrna Loy, Phyllis Haver

Synopsis: Back in the 1920's, "caveman" was a slang term for a man who treated women rough and made 'em love it. We have other names for this sort of fellow today, but those names couldn't be shown on screen back in 1926. Matt Moore plays a rough-and-tumble coal delivery man who through a fluke finds Read More

Declasse

Actors: Corinne Griffith, Lloyd Hughes, Clive Brook, Rockliffe Fellowes, Lilyan Tashman

Synopsis: Corinne Griffith is Lady Helen Haden, who is unhappily married to the brutish Sir Bruce Haden (Rockliffe Fellowes). Lady Helen finds true love with Ned Thayer (Lloyd Hughes), the American brother-in-law of her friend, Mrs. Leslie (Lilyan Tashman). Because of her marriage, she writes him a letter Read More

Zander the Great

Actors: Marion Davies, Holbrook Blinn, Harrison Ford, Harry Watson, Harry Myers

Synopsis: Although this isn't a top-notch Marion Davies film, she's still very charming in it. Mamie Smith (Davies in pigtails and behaving in a near-parody of Mary Pickford) is a lively orphan whose antics are not appreciated by the orphanage's cruel matron (Emily Fitzroy). Mr. Pepper, a kindly trustee Read More

Dangerous Innocence

Actors: Laura La Plante, Eugene O'Brien, Jean Hersholt, Alfred Allen, Milla Davenport

Synopsis: After being raised in England, Ann Church (Laura La Plante) sails back to her parents in Bombay. She meets Major Anthony Seymour, a British officer (Eugene O'Brien), and falls for him. Years before, Seymour had fallen in love with Ann's mother (Hedda Hopper), not realizing she was married. The Read More

Raffles

Actors: House Peters, Freeman Wood, Hedda Hopper, Winter Hall, Kate Lester

Synopsis: On a voyage from India to London, it is rumored that an infamous cracksman is onboard -- of course, it is Raffles (House Peters), who is accompanied by his friend, Bunny Manners (Freeman Wood). Raffles warns one of his fellow passengers to keep an eye on her necklace, which promptly disappears. Read More

Borrowed Finery

Actors: Louise Lorraine, Ward Crane, Lou Tellegen, Taylor Holmes, Hedda Hopper

Synopsis: Louise Lorraine stars as a fashion model who takes a job with government agent Lou Tellegen. At least, he says he's with the government; actually, he's a jewel thief who hopes to utilize Lorraine's charm to gain access to a valuable gem. Meanwhile, another crook, Ward Crane, has his eyes on the Read More

Declassee

Teaser

Actors: Laura La Plante, Pat O'Malley, Hedda Hopper, Walter McGrail, Byron Munson

Synopsis: Laura La Plante stars in this light comedy, directed by her future husband, William Seiter (the couple were wed in 1927 and divorced in 1933). Ann Barton (La Plante) is working at a cigar store when she is adopted by her aunt, Margaret Wyndham (Hedda Hopper). Margaret moves Ann to New York with Read More

Miami

Actors: Betty Compson, Lawford Davidson, Hedda Hopper, J. Barney Sherry, Lucy Fox

Synopsis: This breezy summer comedy-drama was shot on-location in Florida. It was typical fun 1920s fare, which Moving Picture World called "a jazz picture from the word go." The trade magazine referred Betty Compson's character, Joan Bruce, as "a girl whose only thought was the mad pursuit of pleasure and Read More

Another Scandal

Synopsis: After breaking away from Paramount, the company he helped form in 1912, W. W. Hodkinson had to make do with tiny budgets and wafer-thin storylines. Another Scandal recycles the old marital-misunderstunding bromide, this time predicated on the theory that the man should remain head of the Read More

Why Men Leave Home

Actors: Helene Chadwick

Synopsis: This comedy-drama was based on the successful play by Avery Hopwood, who was known for his tales of domestic turmoil. It features Lewis Stone and Helene Chadwick as a newlywed couple, John and Irene Emerson. At the beginning John is totally devoted to his wife, but by the time their first-year Read More

The Snob

Actors: John Gilbert, Norma Shearer, Conrad Nagel, Phyllis Haver, Hedda Hopper

Synopsis: Although John Gilbert became famous for playing the romantic lover, there was something inside him that occasionally rebelled at his glossy image. He leapt at the chance to play the exceedingly unsympathetic title character in this drama, which was based on the novel by Helen R. Martin. After her Read More

Sinners in Silk

Actors: Adolphe Menjou, Eleanor Boardman, Conrad Nagel, Jean Hersholt

Synopsis: With its racy title and emphasis on jazz parties and youth, this romantic drama was a typical mid-'20s release. But being an early release from the newly formed MGM, it also featured a great cast, headed by the suave Adolphe Menjou. Menjou plays Arthur Merrill, whose fast lifestyle has made him Read More

Gambling Wives

Actors: Marjorie Daw, Dorothy Brock, Edward Earle, Lee Moran, Betty Francisco

Synopsis: Action star Ben Wilson enjoyed a modicum of success as an independent producer in the 1920s. One of Wilson's least typical outings (there were no chase scenes or last-minute rescues) was 1924's Gambling Wives. Marjorie Daw plays Ann Forrest, the wife of chronic gambler/philanderer Vincent Forrest (Edward Earle Read More

Happiness

Actors: Laurette Taylor, Pat O'Malley, Hedda Hopper, Cyril Chadwick, Edith Yorke

Synopsis: Although she was well over forty when Happiness was filmed, Laurette Taylor was still specializing in girlish charm. Director King Vidor helped translate this charm to film when he helmed the motion picture version of Peg O' My Heart. It came out so well that Taylor and Vidor teamed up again for Read More

Reno

Actors: Helene Chadwick, Lew Cody, George Walsh, Carmel Myers

Synopsis: Written and directed by Rupert Hughes to take a jab at the inconsistent divorce laws (back in the days when marriages were thought to be sacred), this satire ends on a surprisingly melodramatic note. Roy Tappan (Lew Cody) gets a quickie Reno divorce, which becomes final only hours before he weds Read More

Has the World Gone Mad

Actors: Robert Edeson, Hedda Hopper, Vincent Coleman, Charles Richman, Mary Alden

Synopsis: Has the World Gone Mad? answers its own question by detailing the sinful excesses of the "Jazz Age." Future gossip columnist Hedda Hopper stars as Mrs. Adams, a sedate housewife who decides to kick up her heels and sample the wilder side of life. Walking out on her husband (Robert Adams), Mrs. Read More

Sherlock Holmes

Actors: John Barrymore, Roland Young, Carol Dempster, Gustav von Seyffertitz, Louis Wolheim

Synopsis: John Barrymore's impressive performance in this picture is a testament to the strength of his talent, because it had a lot to overcome -- according to director Albert Parker, the famed thespian was on a bender for much of the shoot. This version of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's stories (adapted from Read More

Men, Women Marry

Actors: E.K. Lincoln, Florence Dixon

Synopsis: Although it wasn't much more than a standard programmer, this society drama was well cast. When he loses both his wife and child, Montgomery Rogers (Charles C. Hammond) adopts his servants' little girl and raises her as his own. Completely unaware of her origins, Emerie (Florence Dixon) grows up Read More

What's Wrong with the Women?

Actors: Wilton Lackaye, Julia Swayne Gordon, Constance Bennett, Montagu Love, Rod La Rocque

Synopsis: The answer to the burning question posed by this low-budget domestic drama was that they tended to want more from life than their husbands were able to afford. Janet Lee's (Barbara Castleton) new "jazz wild" lifestyle all but brings her husband Jack (Rod la Rocque) to the brink of bankruptcy. When Read More

Heedless Moths

Actors: Holmes Herbert, Hedda Hopper, Ward Crane, Irma Harrison

Synopsis: This drama was an interesting, although unsuccessful, attempt at combining a film with on-stage scenes (about the only one who seemed to do this well was George Beban, who made a couple of films this way). The story involves an incident in the life of notorious early 20th century nude model Audrey Read More

Conceit

Actors: William B. Davidson, Hedda Hopper, Charles Gerrard, Maurice Costello

Synopsis: Although the plot to this Northwoods tale reads like a comedy, it was apparently meant to be a drama. William Crombie (William B. Davidson) thinks the world can be had for money. He uses his fortune to buy Agnes (Hedda Hopper) as his wife, but then he neglects her. When another man comes along Read More

The New York Idea

Synopsis: Former ingenue Alice Brady took her first step towards the dizzy society matrons she'd play in the talkie era in the 1920 silent The New York Idea. The film concerns the rock-solid marriage of upper-crust couple Alice and Lowell Sherman. Despite the most alluring of temptations, the couple insists Read More

Man Who Lost Himself

Isle of Conquest

Synopsis: Mrs. Harmon (Hedda Hopper) is a widow with two daughters, Ethel (Norma Talmadge) and Janis (Natalie Talmadge -- Norma
's real-life sister). She leaves the two girls to spend their vacation at Holy Cross Academy while she angles for a rich husband to support them all. But the man she wants, Van Read More

Virtuous Wives

Synopsis: Anita Stewart had been off the screen for a year when Louis B. Mayer brought her back to star in this film, which was based on a Cosmopolitan serial by Owen Johnson. The society yarn starts off with Stewart's character, Amy, happily married to Andrew Forrester (Conway Tearle), a steel engineer. Read More

Third Degree

Synopsis: Rich college student Howard Jeffries, Jr. (Gladden James) falls in love with waitress Annie Sands (Alice Joyce). They get married, and Howard brings his new wife home to his father (Anders Randolph) and stepmother (Hedda Hopper). Neither of them is thrilled with Annie, although Mrs. Jeffries, Sr. Read More

Beloved Traitor

Synopsis: Based on a novel by Frank L. Packard, The Beloved Traitor stars Mae Marsh as Mary Garland, a resident of a Maine fishing village. In love with Judd Minot (E.K. Lincoln), a handsome fisherman with a gift for sculpting, Mary is forced to tearfully remain on the sidelines when Judd is discovered by Read More

Seven Keys to Baldpate

Actors: George M. Cohan

Synopsis: Though not his motion picture debut as has often been claimed, Seven Keys to Baldpate was George M. Cohan's most popular silent-film effort. Based on the eternally popular play by Cohan and Earl Derr Biggers, the film stars "George M." as George Washington Magee, a mystery novelist suffering from Read More

Nearly Married

Synopsis: Nearly Married was based on a stage comedy by Edgar Selwyn, best known today as the co-founder of Goldwyn Studios. Newlyweds Harry and Betty (Frank Thomas and Madge Kennedy) split up before their union can be consummated when wifey insists that her lawyer brother accompany the couple on their Read More

Battle of Hearts

Synopsis: William Farnum plays Martin Cane, owner of a prosperous fleet of fishing boats. Not the nicest fellow on earth, Cane bullies and browbeats his employees mercilessly, but even they admit that he's the best fisherman on the Eastern seaboard. But Cane overestimates his abilities, and as a result his Read More