Helen FosterFilmography

Call Northside 777

Actors: James Stewart, Richard Conte, Lee J. Cobb, Helen Walker, Betty Garde, E.G. Marshall

Synopsis: In this documentary-inspired thriller, P.J. McNeal (James Stewart) is a reporter who is asked by his editor to look into a potential story: their newspaper has been carrying an ad offering a substantial reward for information regarding the murder of a policeman that occurred eleven years ago. It Read More

Parachute Nurse

Actors: Marguerite Chapman, William Wright, Kay Harris, Louise Allbritton

Synopsis: Though released before Atlantic Convoy, Columbia's Parachute Nurse didn't make it to New York until after Convoy had already made the rounds. Typical of Columbia's B-grade wartime melodramas, the film trots out the old "girls in training" plot device that the studio would later apply to films Read More

The Westerner

Actors: Gary Cooper, Walter Brennan, Doris Davenport, Fred Stone, Forrest Tucker

Synopsis: The town of Vinegaroon, TX, is the home to Judge Roy Bean (Walter Brennan), who calls himself "The Only Law West of the Pecos." Bean keeps a saloon, where he also conducts trials, using his office to get fat on fines and the seizure of property, and hanging most of those who get in his way Read More

School for Girls

Actors: Sidney Fox, Paul Kelly, Lois Wilson, Toby Wing, Lucille La Verne

Synopsis: Produced by M.H. Hoffman's Liberty Pictures, School for Girls is based on Reginald Wright Kauffman's story Our Undisciplined Daughters. It all begins when innocent heroine Annette Eldridge (Sidney Fox) gets mixed up with a slimy jewel thief. Taking the rap for her boyfriend, Annette ends up doing Read More

Road to Ruin

Actors: Helen Foster, Glen Boles, Paul Page, Virginia True Boardman

Synopsis: The Road to Ruin is a remake of notorious 1928 exploitationer of the same name, courtesy of the fly-by-night firm of True Life Photoplays (aka Willis Kent Productions). Neglected by her parents, a feisty teenager falls into a bad crowd. She ends up working for a call-girl operation, "servicing" Read More

Lucky Larrigan

Actors: Stanley Blystone, Julian Rivero, Wilfred Lucas, George Cheseboro

Synopsis: In this western, a renowned eastern polo-player will not go West with his girlfriend who desires to be with her father, a rancher. Eventually, he decides to follow her even though he realizes that while Easterners consider him tough, out West he will be considered a pampered sissy-boy. ~ Sandra Read More

Young Blood

Actors: Helen Foster, Harry Semels, Charles King, Naomi Judge, Hank Bell

Synopsis: A pet monkey saves the day in this otherwise unusually adult Bob Steele Western. The bantam-weight Steele plays Nick, aka "the Kid," a sort of prairie Robin Hood planning to return some jewels he stole from French performer Lola Montaine (Naomi Judge). Nick's partner-in-crime, Sheriff Jake Sharpe (Charles King Read More

Temptation's Workshop

Actors: Tyrell Davis, Helen Foster, Dorothy Granger, Carroll Nye, John Ince

Synopsis: British supporting actor Tyrell Davis earned a rare starring role in this low-budget family drama from Poverty Row company Action Pictures. Davis plays Count Emile Borosko, an impoverished European nobleman who comes to the aid of his unfortunate in-laws, a family of former society swells living Read More

Sinister Hands

Actors: Jack Mulhall, Phyllis Barrington, Crauford Kent, Mischa Auer, Louis Natheaux

Synopsis: This ultra-cheap murder mystery stars Jack Mulhall as Devlin, a dapper police detective with a quick wit and a way with the ladies. During a seance, much-hated millionaire Richard Lang (Philips Smalley) is murdered with a rare oriental dagger. Everyone present at the seance falls under suspicion Read More

Ghost City

Actors: Bill Cody, Andy Shuford, Helen Foster, Walter Miller, Kate Campbell

Synopsis: Ghost City was one of eight Monogram westerns which teamed veteran cowboy star Bill Cody with juvenile performer Andy Shuford. The motivating factor in this one is a valuable gold mine which rightfully belongs to heroine Helen Foster. The deed to the mine is currently (and illegally) in the Read More

The Saddle Buster

Actors: Tom Keene, Marie Quillan, Helen Foster, Robert W. Frazer, Richard Carlyle, Fred Burns

Synopsis: The arrival of a new rider creates a furor at a rodeo in this average Tom Keene Western from RKO. Joining Fred Burns' training camp, Keene not only causes trouble between the veteran riders but also gets on the wrong side of the owner's daughter (Helen Foster) when he naively dallies with Read More

The Boiling Point

Actors: Hoot Gibson, Helen Foster, Wheeler Oakman, Roy "Skeeter Bill" Robbins, Billy Bletcher

Synopsis: Future Academy Award-winner Hattie McDaniel briefly brightened the proceedings in this, one of her two B-Western appearances in 1932. (The other was George O'Brien's The Golden West.) The rotund African-American comedienne portrays a cook on a ranch belonging to banker Tom Kirk (Lafe McKee). Also Read More

Is There Justice?

Actors: Henry B. Walthall

Synopsis: The answer to the question asked by small-scale Sono Art/World Wide Pictures in this minor crime drama was a resounding -- only if the screenwriters pulled a couple of fast ones. All-purpose leading man Red Lease starred as Jerry Heath, an intrepid reporter whose sister, June (Helen Foster), goes Read More

Painted Faces

Synopsis: A circus clown creates trouble when he serves on a jury and refuses to convict an innocent young woman for murder. His vote causes a hung jury for five long days. In the end, it is discovered why he is so sure the girl is innocent---it was he who killed the man for abusing his adopted daughter. Read More

The Sky Skidder

Actors: Helen Foster, Wilbur Mack, Gilbert "Pee Wee" Holmes, Al Wilson

Synopsis: Real-life aviator Al Wilson starred in a series of popular silent actioners, of which 1929's Sky Skidder was among the last. Hero Al Simpkins (Wilson) invents a revolutionary fuel that will enable pilots to clock 1000 miles on a single pint. The villain, surprisingly enough, is not an oil magnate Read More

Should a Girl Marry?

Actors: Helen Foster, Donald Keith, William V. Mong

Synopsis: A part-talkie from poverty row studio Trem Carr Productions, Should a Girl Marry? answered its own question with a resounding "Yes!" But first, like Helen Foster's Alice Dunn, she should make sure her blackmailing father-in-law-to-be (William V. Mong) is convicted of robbing his own bank. Donald Keith Read More

So Long Letty

Actors: Charlotte Greenwood, Grant Withers, Bert Roach, Helen Foster

Synopsis: In this musical comedy, an oddball wife fears that her husband's rich uncle will not like her and therefore disinherit her spouse, so she engages another woman to play her when the uncle comes to call. Songs include: "One Sweet Little Yes," "Clowning," "Beauty Shop," "Am I Blue?," "Let Me Have My Read More

Linda

Actors: Warner Baxter, Helen Foster, Noah Beery, Sr., Mitchell Lewis, Kate Price

Synopsis: Linda was the final silent directorial effort of Mrs. Wallace Reid (formerly Dorothy Davenport). The title character, played by Helen Foster, is a young mountain girl forced into marriage with the much-older Decker (Noah Beery Sr.) Though outwardly a slovenly brute, Decker is actually a decent Read More

The Harvest of Hate

Actors: Jack Perrin, Helen Foster, Rex the Wonder Horse

Synopsis: Universal's infamously obstreperous equine star, Rex the Wonder Horse, earned top-billing over leading man Jack Perrin in this, one of the studio's final silent Westerns. Rex plays the "World's Greatest Trained Horse" and is the star attraction of the Carney Carnival and Road Show. The show's new Read More

Hoofbeats of Vengeance

Actors: Jack Perrin, Helen Foster, Al Ferguson, Starlight the Horse

Synopsis: The surly but magnificent Rex the Wonder Horse was top-billed in Universal's Hoofbeats of Vengeance. As had been the case in several previous actioners, Rex is "teamed" with human star Jack Perrin, here cast as Canadian Mountie Jack Gordon. Together, horse and man prove that an "honest" politician Read More

Circumstantial Evidence

Actors: Helen Foster, Cornelius Keefe, Charles Gerrard, Alice Lake, Ray Hallor

Synopsis: Duplicitous businessman Henry Lord (Charles Gerrard) talks Tony Benton (Ray Hallor), the weakling brother of heroine Jean Benton (Helen Foster), into forging a check. The evidence is framed so that innocent clerk Arthur Rowland (Cornelius Keefe) is accused of the crime. When the case comes to Read More

Gold Diggers of Broadway

Actors: Nancy Welford, Conway Tearle, Winnie Lightner, Ann Pennington, Lilyan Tashman

Synopsis: Previously filmed in 1923, Avery Hopwood's 1920 comedy The Gold Diggers was resurrected in 1929 as the Technicolor musical Gold Diggers of Broadway. Nancy Welford, Winnie Lightner and Ann Pennington stars as Jerry, Mable and Ann, three chorus girls who try to entice a wealthy backer to put his Read More

The Road to Ruin

Synopsis: This moralistic 1928 film decries the evils of alcohol and tobacco by showing how their awful effects send an innocent girl into a wicked life of prostitution. ~ All Movie Guide Read More

13 Washington Square

Actors: Jean Hersholt, Alice Joyce, Helen Foster, ZaSu Pitts

Synopsis: In this comedy, a wealthy matron is terribly upset when she learns that her socialite son is planning to marry a blue collar girl. Upon hearing the dreadful news, the irate mother immediately cancels her vacation in Europe, disguises herself, and takes up residence in her cousin's boardinghouse. Read More

Mating Call

Actors: Thomas Meighan, Evelyn Brent, Renée Adorée, Gardner James, Helen Foster

Hellship Bronson

Actors: Jane Reid, Noah Beery, Sr., Helen Foster, James Bradbury, Jr.

Synopsis: A mother stows away on a ship in order to be close to her long-lost son in this seafaring melodrama from small-time company Gotham Productions. Mrs. Wallace Reid (aka Dorothy Davenport) played the suffering mother whose child was taken away 20 years earlier because her husband, Captain Bronson (Noah Beery Read More

Sweet Sixteen

Actors: Helen Foster, Gertrude Olmstead, Gladden James

Synopsis: Blond Helen Foster, who was 22 at the time, played the title role in this moralistic silent drama about teenaged Cynthia Perry, who despite warnings from older sister Patricia (Gertrude Olmstead) falls madly in love with handsome scoundrel Howard de Hart (Gladden James). To save her sister, the Read More

Won in the Clouds

Actors: Al Wilson, Helen Foster, George B. French, Myrtis Crinley, Joe Bennett

Synopsis: Fans of stunt pilot Al Wilson had no reason for complaint when their favorite flyboy brought forth his 1928 vehicle Won in the Clouds. There's a plot of sorts, as Wilson tries to save the heroine -- and his father's diamond mine -- from the clutches of the villains. Other than that, the film is Read More

California or Bust

Actors: Helen Foster, John Steppling, Johnny Fox, Irving Bacon, George O'Hara

Synopsis: An inventor attempts to sell his new invention and still has time to fall in love in this romantic comedy. The fellow becomes so obsessed with perfecting a new type of gasoline engine that he ignores the customers who patronize his mechanics garage. One day the car of an automobile tycoon and his Read More

Naughty Nanette

Actors: Viola Dana, Patricia Palmer, Helen Foster

Synopsis: Obviously inspired by the success of Norma Talmadge's Kiki, Naughty Nanette stars Viola Dana as Nanette Pearson, a movie extra with big ambitions. During her climb to success, Nanette allows herself to be the "good friend" of several wealthy sugar daddies, but she remains her old down-to-earth Read More

When a Dog Loves

Actors: Ranger the Dog, Harold Goodwin, Helen Foster, Frank McGlynn, Jr.

Synopsis: Rin Tin Tin wannabe Ranger is the canine hero of When a Dog Loves. The story gets underway when both Ranger and a valuable necklace turn up missing. The dog is rescued by a small boy who adopts him as a pet, never realizing that Ranger's owners have offered a huge reward for his return. Meanwhile Read More

The Outlaw Dog

Synopsis: The Outlaw Dog stars Ranger, one of the better Rin-Tin-Tin rivals, in the title role. When his master is attacked and left speechless, Ranger is held responsible. On the lam from the Law, the canine hero links up with telegrapher Bill Brady (Rex Lease) and Bill's girlfriend Helen Meadows (Helen Foster Read More

Hands Off

Actors: Fred Humes, Marian Nixon, Nelson McDowell, Bruce Gordon

Synopsis: The founder of Universal, "Uncle" Carl Laemmle, had, as the writer Ogden Nash once pointed out, "quite a big faemmle." Laemmle was a great believer in nepotism and countless members of the Laemmle clan worked at one time or another for the studio. Nephews Edward and Ernest Laemmle directed routine Read More

Bandit's Baby

Actors: Fred C. Thompson, Helen Foster, Harry Woods, Mary Louise Miller, Clarence Geldert

Synopsis: Although (falsely) accused of robbery and murder, Tom Bailey (Fred Thomson) is nevertheless granted amnesty for one day in order to ride in the rodeo and judge a baby pageant. The winner of the contest (Mary Louise Miller) is the brother of Esther Lacy (Helen Foster), whose stepfather, Hartigan (Harry Woods Read More

On the Go

Synopsis: Parsimonious Hollywood entrepreneur Lester F. Scott, Jr. produced this little western melodrama starring Buffalo Bill, Jr., an actor later known under his real moniker, Jay Wilsey. Bill, Jr. plays Bill Drake, a cowpoke who must prove himself innocent of robbing the general store. The real culprit Read More

Reckless Courage

Actors: Buddy Roosevelt, J.C. Fowler, Helen Foster, Jay Morley

Synopsis: Having already established Wally Wales as a viable western star, poverty row producer Lester F. Scott, Jr. launched yet another newcomer, Buddy Roosevelt (née Kenneth Stanhope Sanderson), in this average oater about a cowboy who is hit on the head with a bag of jewels dropped from an airplane! The Read More