Herschel MayallFilmography

War Is a Racket

Actors: Herschel Mayall, Frank Jaquet, Willard Dashiell

Synopsis: War is a Racket was described as "a newsreel complication in story form" -- or what would nowadays be designated a "docudrama." Troubled by headlines of the crises in Europe and Asia, a crusading newspaper editor sends a roving reporter out to ask the public if war is merely a "racket," created to Read More

Hotel Variety

Actors: Hal Skelly, Olive Borden, Charlotte Walker, Sally Rand, Gloria Gray

Synopsis: In this drama, set within an urban hotel, a nightclub dancer witnesses a gangland killing and must flee for her life. She escapes to the Hotel Variety, a home for aspiring performers, and there meets a young dancer and his young son. Naturally the two fall in love. Unfortunately, the hitman has Read More

Big Town

Actors: Lester Vail, Frances Dade

Synopsis: Big Town was slapped together by Invincible Pictures, a low-budget concern that shared studio space (and production personnel) with the equally parsimonious Chesterfield Pictures. Lester Vail stars as a crusading newspaper editor who tries to get to the bottom of a series of murders. It turns out Read More

The Antique Shop

His Woman

Actors: Gary Cooper, Claudette Colbert

Synopsis: In this drama, a remake of Sal of Singapore(1929), the captain of a freighter becomes an instant father when his crew rescues a drifting Navy boat that contains a baby. The captain decides that he will keep the baby and take it back to the U.S. instead of turning it in to the authorities. He Read More

The Royal Family of Broadway

Actors: Ina Claire, Fredric March, Mary Brian, Henrietta Crosman, Charles Starrett

Synopsis: Royal Family of Broadway was an abridged but otherwise literal translation of the George S. Kaufman/Edna Ferber Broadway hit The Royal Family. The title referred not to kings and queens but to a prominent theatrical family named Cavendish--based none too loosely on the famed Barrymore clan. Ina Claire Read More

Fast and Loose

Actors: Miriam Hopkins, Carole Lombard, Frank Morgan, Charles Starrett, Henry Wadsworth

Synopsis: Previously filmed in 1925, Avery Hopwood's stage play The Best People was refashioned by Preston Sturges as the Miriam Hopkins vehicle Fast and Loose in 1930. Hopkins (in her film debut) and Henry Wadsworth are cast as Marion and Bertie Lenox, the footloose, prodigal offspring of wealthy Read More

The Great Power

Actors: Herschel Mayall, Minna Gombell, Alan Birmingham

Synopsis: Produced and directed by onetime comedy impresario Joe Rock, the early talkie The Great Power was a literal adaptation of the same-named stage play by Myron Fagan. Using the facilities of a small studio in Waterbury, Connecticut, Rock hired the cast members of the original play to repeat their Read More

After Marriage

Synopsis: The marriage of the title is the union between wealthy George Fisher and unwealthy Helen Lynch. Disinherited by his millionaire father (Herschel Mayall) for marrying "beneath his station," the disconsolate Fisher takes up with seductive actress Margaret Livingston. Little does Fisher know that Livingston Read More

Alimony

Synopsis: Warner Baxter lifts himself up from poverty to unlimited riches. The audience knows that Baxter couldn't have done it without the help and support of his wife Grace Darmond. When Baxter starts cheating on her, she divorces him, receiving an enornous settlement. Reduced to penury by various Read More

Itching Palms

Actors: Tom Gallery, Herschel Mayall, Virginia Fox, Tom Wilson, Joseph Harrington

Synopsis: Two thieves fight over a packet of stolen money. One (Herschall Mayall) hides the money near a haunted house before being killed by the other (Robert Walker). The surviving crook goes by the name of Doctor Peak. The dead crook's old mother (Gertrude Claire) knows about the hidden money and goes in Read More

Money, Money, Money

Actors: Katherine MacDonald, Carl Stockdale, Frances Raymond, Paul Willis, Herschel Mayall

Synopsis: This Katherine MacDonald vehicle involving the shams of society was about as clichéd as they come. Although Priscilla Hobbs (MacDonald) comes from a family of modest means, she yearns to be accepted in high society and is embarrassed by the awkward behavior of her father (Carl Stockdale), a small Read More

L'Ile des Navires Perdus

Actors: Anna Q. Nilsson, Milton Sills, Frank Campeau, Walter Long, Bert Woodruff

Synopsis: Crittendon Mariott's vivid story formed a wonderful basis for the atmospheric filmmaking talents of Maurice Tourneur. The "isle of lost ships," at least in Tourneur's interpretation, isn't an island at all, but a cluster of derelict ships, from ancient to modern times, floating together on a bed Read More

In Calvert's Valley

Actors: John Gilbert, Sylvia Breamer, Philo McCullough, Herschel Mayall, Lule Warrenton

Thirty Days

Actors: Wallace Reid, Wanda Hawley, Cyril Chadwick, Charles Ogle, Herschel Mayall

Synopsis: At the time this film was released, its star, Wallace Reid, was supposedly spending some time in a sanitarium, getting a much needed rest. The truth was that he had been hospitalized for his morphine addiction, which would kill him within a few months. Reid looks tired and strained here, and this Read More

The Yellow Stain

Actors: John Gilbert, Claire Anderson, John P. Lockney, Mark Fenton, Herschel Mayall

Synopsis: Silent film star John Gilbert was in the middle of his treadmill days at the Fox studios when he was cast in this drama as an honest young lawyer. John P. Lockney establishes himself as an especially wicked villain right off the bat when he kicks the hero's dog. Donald Keeth (Gilbert) has just Read More

Smiles Are Trumps

Actors: Maurice B. Flynn, Ora Carew, Myles McCarthy, Herschel Mayall

Synopsis: Although Yale football hero Maurice B. "Lefty" Flynn was never a huge star, he was certainly a capable one when it came to action pictures such as this fast-moving programmer. Jimmy Carson (Flynn) is the assistant paymaster under the unscrupulous John Slevin (Myles McCarthy). Not only does Carson Read More

Oath-Bound

Actors: Dustin Farnum, Ethel Grey Terry, Fred Thomson, Maurice B. Flynn, Norman Douglas Selby

Synopsis: The real draw of this suspenseful drama was the yacht race and the motor boat chase, which included a hydroplane. No one cared much about the plot, but here it is anyway: Wealthy Lawrence Bradbury (a miscast Dustin Farnum) owns a transatlantic line which is being plagued by silk thieves. When he Read More

Arabian Love

Actors: John Gilbert, Barbara Bedford, Adolphe Menjou, Barbara La Marr

Synopsis: On the whole, John Gilbert's starring vehicles at Fox were not as beneficial to him professionally as his films at MGM. Arabian Love was an exception, but Gilbert was required to emulate another popular star to make the film "click". Essentially a Valentino picture without Valentino, the film Read More

The Three Word Brand

Actors: William S. Hart, Jane Novak, S.J. Bingham

Synopsis: Twin brothers, separated at birth, are again found on opposite sides of the law in this typical William S. Hart western. Actually, Hart plays no less than three roles in this film: Ben Trego, a western pioneer who is killed during an Indian raid, and Trego's sons, both of whom are saved but Read More

The Queen of Sheba

Actors: Betty Blythe, Claire de Lorez, George Siegmann, Herbert Heyes

Synopsis: It is easy to imagine Theda Bara playing the lead in this Fox Biblical epic, especially since its credited director is J. Gordon Edwards, who manned the megaphone for many of Bara's films. But by 1920, Bara had pretty much left films (she would only make two more pictures during the 1920s), and Read More

To a Finish

Actors: Buck Jones, Helen Ferguson, G. Raymond Nye, Norman Douglas Selby, Herschel Mayall

Synopsis: A small Western community is terrorized by an unscrupulous empire-builder (G. Raymond Nye) in this early Buck Jones Western directed by character actor Bernard J. Durning. Town bully Bill Terry is buying up the surrounding land but is turned down by stubborn old rancher Joe Blake (Herschel Read More

The Blushing Bride

Synopsis: Screenwriter Jules Furthman made a rare plunge into directing with Blushing Bride. The title character, played by Eileen Percy, is mistaken for nobility by millionaire Herbert Heyes. Before she can set him straight, Heyes marries her. She moves into her hubby's magnificent mansion, only to Read More

The Beautiful Gambler

Synopsis: Compelled to marry a notorious gambler (Harry Van Meter) in order to cover her father's gambling debts, pretty Molly Hanlon (Grace Darmond) almost loses her life when the saloon goes up in flames. She is saved by handsome Miles Rand (Jack Mower), with whom she falls in love. Mistakenly believing Read More

Kismet

Synopsis: This first film version of the Edward Knoblock theatrical chestnut Kismet stars the actor who made the play famous (and virtually his life's work): Otis Skinner. As he had so many times before, Skinner plays Hajj, the Arabian Nights beggar-magician who enjoys the amorous attentions of the wazir's Read More

Scuttlers

Actors: G. Raymond Nye, William Farnum, Herschel Mayall, Jackie Saunders

Synopsis: When famed insurance firm Lloyds suspects that Captain Machen (Herschel Mayall) is scuttling his ships for the insurance money, they hire Jim Landers (William Farnum) to investigate. Landers joins the crew of Machen's ship, the Dorothy Low, and immediately earns the enmity of nasty first mate Read More

Daredevil Jack

Synopsis: Celebrated prize fighter Jack Dempsey was a natural for serials, and industry leader Pathé dutifully cast him in this 15-chapter Western adventure co-starring cowgirl Josie Sedgwick and directed by a young W.S. Van Dyke. The story was the usual chapterplay predicament: A dying father gives his Read More

The Money Corral

Synopsis: A lesser-known William S. Hart vehicle, The Money Corral casts two-gun Bill as a rodeo story. A Chicago banker hires Hart to protect his riches from a criminal gang. The big-money scene finds Hart roping and hog-tying the baddies, just as we knew he would. Eva Novak, one of Hart's favorite leading Read More

Madame Du Barry

Actors: Emil Jannings

Synopsis: Before he became world-famous for his sophisticated sex farces, Ernst Lubitsch was primarily a director of outsized German "spectaculars." One such was Madame Du Barry, an operatic version of the life, loves and death of the legendary 18th-century French courtesan. Pola Negri plays DuBarry, who Read More

Carmen of the Klondike

Synopsis: Clara Williams, best remembered as William S. Hart's vis-a-vis in 1916's Hell's Hinges, plays the title role in Carmen of the Klondike. Filmed on location in Alaska (what a gorgeous, unspoiled backdrop!), the story involves the craven activities of claim jumpers. Carmen finds herself torn between Read More

Rose of Blood

Synopsis: Theda Bara's next film after the blockbuster Cleopatra was this tale of the Russian revolution -- a timely subject, since the aristocracy had literally just been overthrown when the picture commenced filming. Lisza Tapenko (Bara) is governess in the household of Prince Arbasoff (Charles Clary). Read More

Cleopatra

Actors: Theda Bara, Thurston Hall, Fritz Leiber, Alan Roscoe, Herschel Mayall

Synopsis: By 1917, Theda Bara had become one of the screen's biggest stars, and her fans had long been suggesting that she portray ancient Egypt's famed queen. So Bara's studio, Fox, shipped her out to Los Angeles for this spectacular production (all of her prior films had been shot on the East Coast). Bara Read More

A Tale of Two Cities

Synopsis: One of the big hits in 1917, this epic retelling of Dicken's classic tale features exceptional production values and special effects as well as some great battle scenes as it tells the French Revolution-set tale of a pair of men who look exactly alike. Their paths cross when they discover that Read More

The Aryan

Actors: William S. Hart

Synopsis: With the assistant of his trusted associate Clifford Smith (who handled most of the second-unit stuff), William S. Hart directed his own starring vehicle The Aryan. Hart plays a westerner who suffers betrayal at the hands of seductive Louise Glaum. Seeking revenge, he resorts to robbery and Read More

Civilization

Actors: Howard Hickman, Enid Markey, Herschel Mayall, George Fisher, Frank J. Burke

Synopsis: With American opinion divided over the European war in 1915, no fewer than three major motion pictures were conceived with anti-war messages in mind: J. Stuart Blackton's The Battle Cry of Peace, D.W. Griffith's Intolerance and Thomas Ince's Civilization. Set in the mythical kingdom of Wredpryd Read More

The Forbidden Adventure

Synopsis: Charles Ray was just on the verge of his silent superstardom when he played the lead in Forbidden Adventure. Ray is cast as a foolish young tourist who dares to venture into a "forbidden" Indian community. He has done this to acquaint himself with an exotic woman (Louise Glaum) whom he's glimpsed Read More

Bargain

Synopsis: William S. Hart's third film and his first multi-reel western, The Bargain tells a familiar Hart tale of a good-bad man redeemed by the love of a woman -- in this case the sturdy-looking Clara Williams. When stage robber "Two-Gun" Jim Stokes (Hart) is wounded during a heist, he finds a willing Read More

The Wrath of the Gods

Synopsis: Produced and co-written by Thomas H. Ince, The Wrath of the Gods (aka The Destruction of Sakura-Jima) was a major undertaking that included a shipwreck (filmed off the coast of Santa Monica) and an erupting volcano. The five-reel melodrama starred future director Frank Borzage, blond Gladys Brockwell Read More

The Typhoon

Synopsis: The Typhoon was not Japanese actor Sessue Hayakawa's first film, as has frequently been reported, but it was the film that vaulted him into stardom. In a momentary fit of jealous rage, a Japanese diplomat murders his mistress. By rights, he should be arrested for his crime, but in the greater Read More

Battle of Gettysburg

Synopsis: Noted silent film mogul Thomas Ince made his directorial debut in this epic, silent Civil War drama (Charles Giblyn co-directed). Though there is a love story in the film, most of the scenes depict the terrible, bloody hand-to-hand battles. The Gettysburg conflict lasted three days and in the end Read More