Jesse LaskyFilmography

The Miracle of the Bells

Crew: Producer

Actors: Philip Ahn, Lee J. Cobb, Fred MacMurray, Charles Meredith, Veronika Pataky

Synopsis: Casting Frank Sinatra as a Pennsylvania priest is but one of the many miscalculations made by the producers of Miracle of the Bells. Adapted by Ben Hecht and Quentin Reynolds from the best-selling novel by Russell Janney, the story revolves around an aspiring actress named Olga Treskovna (Alida Valli Read More

Without Reservations

Crew: Producer

Actors: Claudette Colbert, John Wayne, Don DeFore, Dona Drake, Anne Triola, Phil Brown, Louella Parsons

Synopsis: Without Reservations has to be the least typical John Wayne picture of the postwar era. Top billing is bestowed upon Claudette Colbert as Kit, a best-selling novelist heading westward to oversee the film version of her latest novel. Taking it upon herself to select the man who should portray the Read More

Rhapsody in Blue

Crew: Producer

Actors: Robert Alda, Joan Leslie, Alexis Smith, Charles Coburn, Oscar Levant, Julie Bishop

Synopsis: There's slightly more fancy than fact in this lavish film biography of legendary American composer George Gershwin, but oh! That music! Director Irving Rapper had wanted Tyrone Power to play Gershwin, but Power was still serving in the Marines, so Rapper had to settle for Robert Alda--who isn't Read More

The Adventures of Mark Twain

Crew: Producer

Actors: Fredric March, Alexis Smith, Donald Crisp, Alan Hale, C. Aubrey Smith

Synopsis: Dismissed by critics as corny and obvious in 1944, this overlong but sincere biopic looks pretty good when seen today, cliches notwithstanding. Fredric March, 47 at the time, convincingly plays American author Sam Clemens, aka Mark Twain, from his early 20s to his death at 75. In typical Read More

Sergeant York

Crew: Producer

Actors: Gary Cooper, Walter Brennan, Joan Leslie, Ward Bond, Margaret Wycherly, Stanley Ridges

Synopsis: When World War I hero Alvin York agreed to sell the movie rights to his life story to Warner Bros., it was on three conditions: (1) That the film contains no phony heroics, (2) that Mrs.York not be played by a Hollywood "glamour girl" and (3) That Gary Cooper portray York on screen. All three Read More

Music for Madame

Crew: Producer

Actors: Nino Martini, Joan Fontaine, Alan Mowbray, Billy Gilbert, Alan Hale

Synopsis: The "suspense" in the RKO Radio musical comedy Music for Madame lies in whether or not golden-voiced Operatic tenor Nino Martini will be permitted to sing. En route to Hollywood, Tonio (Martini) is hoodwinked into serenading a wedding party while a gang of jewel thieves clean out the place. The Read More

Hitting a New High

Crew: Producer

Actors: Lily Pons, Jack Oakie, Eric Blore, Edward Everett Horton, John Howard

Synopsis: In this musical, a nightclub singer (Lily Pons) secretly aspires to sing at the Met. To help her, her agent (Jack Oakie) decides to dress her up as "Ooga-Hunga, the Bird Girl" and send her off on a merry chase of an influential opera lover (Eric Blore) who has gone on an African safari. When he Read More

One Rainy Afternoon

Crew: Producer

Actors: Francis Lederer, Ida Lupino, Hugh Herbert, Roland Young, Erik Rhodes

Synopsis: A remake of the French comedy Monsieur Sans-Gene, One Rainy Afternoon gets under way when film-actor Phillippe Martin (Francis Lederer) heads to a darkened Parisian movie theater for a romantic rendezvous with his married sweetheart Yvonne (Countess Live de Margaret). But our hero sits in the Read More

The Gay Desperado

Crew: Producer

Actors: Nino Martini, Ida Lupino, Leo Carrillo, Harold Huber, James "Doc" Blakely

Synopsis: The Gay Desperado is a 1936 musical lampooning the then-popular gangster pictures. Leo Carrillo plays a genial Mexican bandit, Pablo Braganza, who gets nowhere until he and his amigos begin studying gangster techniques -- courtesy of Hollywood movies. Selecting kidnapping as his crime of choice Read More

Redheads on Parade

Crew: Producer

Actors: John Boles, Dixie Lee, Jack Haley, Raymond Walburn, Alan Dinehart

Synopsis: One of the last Fox releases before the studio's merger with 20th Century, Redheads on Parade stars John Boles and Dixie Lee as washed-up movie star John Bruce and aspiring singer Ginger Blair. The couple is given the opportunity to co-star in a film financed by Augustus Twill (Raymond Walburn) Read More

The Gay Deception

Crew: Producer

Actors: Francis Lederer, Frances Dee, Benita Hume, Alan Mowbray, Lennox Pawle, Akim Tamiroff

Synopsis: Francis Lederer stars as the prince of a mythical European kingdom. To mingle with the "common folk" while on a visit to New York, he takes a job as a hotel doorman. In this capacity he meets Frances Dee, a small-town secretary who has likewise come to Manhattan to put a little variety in her Read More

Helldorado

Crew: Producer

Actors: Richard Arlen, Madge Evans, Ralph Bellamy, James Gleason, Henry B. Walthall

Synopsis: In this drama, an impoverished dreamer saves a group of people during a terrible storm by leading them to shelter in a ghost town containing but one ancient resident. The stranded travelers are surprised by the high-style in which the codger lives. Soon they learn that the man and the drifter's Read More

Here's to Romance

Crew: Producer

Actors: Nino Martini, Genevieve Tobin, Anita Louise, Maria Gambarelli

Synopsis: International singing sensation Nino Martini made his American film debut in the Jesse L. Lasky production Here's to Romance. His career bankrolled by the beneficent opera diva Mme. Schumann-Heink (playing herself), singer Nino Donelli (Martini) hits the big time, and as a bonus falls in love with Read More

The White Parade

Crew: Producer

Actors: Loretta Young, John Boles, Dorothy Wilson, Muriel Kirkland, Astrid Allwyn

Synopsis: Dedicated to "the memory of Florence Nightingale," White Parade might have been better dedicated to the cliche experts at Fox Studios who put this highly entertaining, highly predictable film together. The film chronicles the probationary period of a new team of student nurses in a midwestern Read More

As Husbands Go

Crew: Producer

Actors: Warner Baxter, Helen Vinson, Warner Oland, Catherine Doucet, Eleanor Lynn

Synopsis: Adapted by Sonya Levien and Sam (S. N.) Berhman from a play by Rachel Crothers, As Husbands Go charts the romantic misadventures of Lucille Lingard (Helen Vinson). Slightly bored by her marriage to businessman Charles Lingard (Warner Baxter), Lucille vacations in London, where she nearly has an Read More

Springtime for Henry

Crew: Producer

Actors: Otto Kruger, Nancy Carroll, Nigel Bruce, Heather Angel, Herbert Mundin

Synopsis: In this romantic comedy, a rakish fellow involves himself with a married woman. Later his secretary endeavors to win him away with the promise of a more stable relationship. The rake is tempted, but then decides he prefers the married woman, which is fine with her husband who has an eye for the Read More

I Am Suzanne

Crew: Producer

Actors: Lilian Harvey, Gene Raymond, Leslie Banks, Georgia Caine

Synopsis: International musical-comedy favorite Lillian Harvey is as delightful as ever in the bizarre romantic tunefest I Am Suzanne. In a plotline curiously similar to the much-later Lili, Harvey is cast as Suzanne, a crippled dancer in love with young, self-involved puppeteer Tony (Gene Raymond), who Read More

Grand Canary

Crew: Producer

Actors: Warner Baxter, H.B. Warner, Madge Evans, Julie Compton, Zita Johann

Synopsis: This drama, an adaptation of a novel by A.J. Cronin, chronicles the exploits of an alcoholic doctor whose career is in shambles as he embarks upon a cruise to the Canary Islands. The deeply despondent physician spends much of the journey hiding in his stateroom staring at the walls and woefully Read More

Coming Out Party

Crew: Producer

Actors: Frances Dee, Gene Raymond, Alison Skipworth, Nigel Bruce, Harry Green

Synopsis: In this romance, a lovely young debutante falls in love with a jazz violinist. Her mother wants her to marry a wealthy young man, but the strong-willed girl initially demurs until the night of her debut. Her well-meaning social adviser fills the debutante's dance card with partners and this Read More

Zoo in Budapest

Crew: Producer

Actors: Loretta Young, Gene Raymond, O.P. Heggie, Wally Albright, Paul Fix

Synopsis: A beautiful orphan girl, faced with the prospect of being forced to work as an indentured servant (more like a slave) until she grows up, runs away to the zoo. There she encounters a kindly zookeeper who has been chastised by his boss for being too nice to the animals. He becomes a fugitive after Read More

Berkeley Square

Crew: Producer

Actors: Leslie Howard, Heather Angel, Valerie Taylor, Irene Browne, Beryl Mercer, Alan Mowbray

Synopsis: Adapted from John Balderston's successful stage fantasy (itself based on a story by Henry James), Berkeley Square is the story of a modern-day London scientist (Leslie Howard), who is romantically fascinated by the 18th century. A freak accident propels Howard back to 1784, where he assumes the Read More

The Power and the Glory

Crew: Producer

Actors: Spencer Tracy, Colleen Moore, Ralph Morgan, Helen Vinson, Clifford Jones

Synopsis: Frequently cited as the precursor to Citizen Kane, Power and the Glory is the first major Hollywood film to extensively utilize narrated flashbacks to tell its story. At the funeral of a powerful railroad executive (Spencer Tracy), the exec's best friend (Ralph Morgan) recalls the dead man's Read More

The Warrior's Husband

Crew: Producer

Actors: Elissa Landi, Marjorie Rambeau, Ernest Truex, David Manners, Helen Ware

Synopsis: In this racy (for 1933) satire set in 800 BC, an overbearing band of Amazon women rule their men with an iron fist. They live in the land of Pontus. Their buxom queen is married. Like all Pontus men, her spouse is an utter panty-waist in the face of his women. Still things are going well in the Read More

The Worst Woman in Paris

Crew: Producer

Actors: Benita Hume, Adolphe Menjou, Harvey Stephens, Helen Chandler, Margaret Seddon

Synopsis: In this romantic comedy, an American art student goes abroad to study and gets a reputation when she marries a wealthy shipping magnate. She eventually returns to her hometown. While en route, a train wreck occurs and she proves herself a heroine by helping out. She then finds herself falling in Read More

Paramount on Parade

Crew: Producer

Actors: Maurice Chevalier, Richard Arlen, Jean Arthur, Gary Cooper, William Austin, Clara Bow, Jack Oakie, George Bancroft

Synopsis: Considered the best of the all-star "studio" musicals of 1929 and 1930, Paramount on Parade utilized the talents of practically everyone on the Paramount Pictures payroll. Under the supervision of British musical-comedy favorite Elsie Janis, 11 top directors contributed to the project: Dorothy Arzner Read More

Applause

Crew: Producer

Actors: Helen Morgan, Joan Peers, Fuller Mellish, Jack Cameron, Henry Wadsworth

Synopsis: Stage director Rouben Mamoulian jolted the (at the time) moribund sound-film industry with innovative sound experiments and revolutionary camera techniques with his electrifying feature-film debut Applause. In this backstage musical tragedy, Kitty Darling (Helen Morgan), a big-time burlesque star Read More

Innocents of Paris

Crew: Producer

Actors: Maurice Chevalier, Russell Simpson, George Fawcett

Synopsis: In this drama, a junkman, Maurice Chevalier in his American film debut, rescues a drowning boy from the Seine. The boy's mother had been attempting to kill herself and her son as well. The junkman cannot save the mother. He takes the boy to his grandfather. There he encounters the boy's aunt with Read More

Manhattan Cocktail

Crew: Producer

Actors: Nancy Carroll, Richard Arlen, Danny O'Shea, Paul Lukas, Lilyan Tashman

Synopsis: Nancy Carroll stars in Manhattan Cocktail as Babs, a college coed who dreams of becoming a famous actress. Joining up with her campus chums Fred (Richard Arlen) and Bob (Danny O'Shea), likewise aspiring thespians, Babes heads to Broadway with stars in her eyes. The winsome threesome are quickly Read More

Half a Bride

Crew: Producer

Synopsis: The fertile creative mind of director Gregory LaCava is well in evidence throughout Half a Bride. Esther Ralston stars as Patience Winslow, an impulsive heiress who marries a much-older man whom she really doesn't love. While honeymooning on her yacht without her new husband, Patience is marooned Read More

The Last Command

Crew: Producer

Actors: Emil Jannings, Evelyn Brent, William Powell, Nicholas Soussanin, Michael Visaroff

Synopsis: Josef vonSternberg's The Last Command was inspired by the true story of General Lodijenski, a Russian aristocrat who arrived penniless in the US after the 1917 Revolution and who supported himself by playing movie bit parts and managing a Russian restaurant. Emil Jannings stars as the Grand Duke Read More

Beau Sabreur

Crew: Producer

Actors: Gary Cooper, Evelyn Brent, Noah Beery, Sr., William Powell, Mitchell Lewis

Synopsis: This silent romantic adventure is set in the Sahara desert, and purports to be a sequel to the successful Beau Geste. Like the first, it is based on a story by Christopher Wren and features members from the original cast. The story begins as three Legionnaires do not return promptly from furlough Read More

Legion of the Condemned

Crew: Producer

Actors: Fay Wray, Gary Cooper, Barry Norton, Lane Chandler

Synopsis: Director William Wellman's follow-up to Wings was based in part on his own WWI experiences with the Lafayette Flying Corps. Four young men from various walks of life sign up for the French escadrille known as "The Legion of the Condemned." In essence, all four are running away -- from the law Read More

Feel My Pulse

Crew: Producer

Actors: Bebe Daniels, George Irving, Charles Sellon, William Powell

Synopsis: Bebe Daniels' popular Paramount comedies of the 1920s frequently cast the sprightly heroine as a female Douglas Fairbanks, saving the day with equal parts cleverness and physical dexterity. Feel My Pulse is a typically Fairbanksian romp, with Daniels playing a sheltered rich girl who has been Read More

Doomsday

Crew: Producer

Actors: Florence Vidor, Gary Cooper, Lawrence Grant, Charles A. Stevenson

Synopsis: "Doomsday" is the name of a valuable patch of British farm property owned by self-made millionaire Percival Fream (Lawrence Grant). Impoverished aristocrat Mary Viner (Florence Vidor) lives in a cottage on Fream's property, with her aged and infirm father Captain Viner (Charles A. Stevenson). Read More

Beggars of Life

Crew: Executive Producer

Actors: Wallace Beery, Louise Brooks, Richard Arlen, Blue Washington, H.A. Morgan

Synopsis: Wallace Beery appeared in this silent film with intertitles, a dark drama of hobo life. Jim (Richard Arlen), a wanderer, comes upon young Nancy (Louise Brooks), who has just killed the guardian who was trying to rape her. Disguised as a boy, she takes off with Jim and rides the rails to a hobo Read More

Partners in Crime

Crew: Producer

Actors: Wallace Beery, Raymond Hatton, Mary Brian, William Powell, Jack Luden

Synopsis: Wallace Beery and Raymond Hatton team up again in this silent comedy, in which they (respectively) play Mike Doolan, a half-bright gumshoe, and Scoop McGee, his equally dim-witted journalist pal. While on the trail of a group of gangsters, Doolan and McGee unwittingly fall in with a group of Read More

Get Your Man

Crew: Producer

Actors: Clara Bow, Josef Swickard, Josephine Dunn

Synopsis: Only a few months earlier Clara Bow had been seen in Wings. The same with Charles "Buddy" Rogers -- in fact, his one film between Wings and this film was My Best Girl with future wife Mary Pickford. But apparently Paramount wasn't too concerned with keeping up this level of quality for its stars; Get Your Man Read More

Fashions for Women

Crew: Producer

Actors: Esther Ralston, Raymond Hatton, Edward Martindel, Agostino Borgato

Synopsis: Former film editor Dorothy Arzner made her directorial debut with the Esther Ralston vehicle Fashions for Women. Ralston stars as Celeste de Givray, renowned throughout Europe as the most beautiful and best-dressed model in all Paris. Her press agent DuPont (Raymond Hatton) concocts an Read More

Chang: A Drama of the Wilderness

Crew: Producer

Actors: Kru, Chantui, Nah, Ladah, Bimbo

Synopsis: Like their previous docudrama Grass: A Nation's Battle for Life, Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack's Chang: A Drama of the Wilderness can be seen in retrospect as a dry run for the same production team's King Kong. With the actual Siamese jungle as their backdrop, Cooper and Schoedsack Read More

It

Crew: Producer

Actors: Clara Bow, Antonio Moreno, William Austin, Jacqueline Gadsden, Julia Swayne Gordon

Synopsis: Contrary to popular belief, Clara Bow was already Paramount's biggest box-office draw when she starred in this delightful rags-to-riches comedy. But It, from the fertile mind of bizarre best-selling author Elinor Glyn, remains perhaps the quintessential Bow picture. Not that the story of a poor Read More

Special Delivery

Crew: Producer

Actors: Eddie Cantor, Jobyna Ralston, William Powell, Donald Keith, Jack Dougherty

Synopsis: The second and last of Eddie Cantor's silent vehicles, Special Delivery casts the wide-eyed comedian as a hapless mailman. While going through his swiftly appointed rounds, Eddie stumbles upon a gang of crooks who are planning a large-scale confidence scam. He exposes the villains and wins the Read More

She's a Sheik

Crew: Producer

Actors: Bebe Daniels, Richard Arlen, William Powell, Josephine Dunn

Synopsis: She's a Sheik borrows more than a little from the Rudolph Valentino vehicle, Son of the Sheik, but refreshingly, the Valentino character here is a woman, played by the dashing comedienne Bebe Daniels. She is Zaida, half-Spanish and half-Arab, and determined to marry a Christian man. The Arabian Read More

Time to Love

Crew: Producer

Actors: Raymond Griffith, William Powell, Josef Swickard

Synopsis: Dapper "polite" comedian Raymond Griffith starred in this so-so vehicle. Griffith is cast as French Alfred Sava-Goiu, who, after being dumped by his sweetheart, philosophically decides to end it all by jumping into the Seine. Instead, he lands in a passing boat owned by the Countess Elvire (Vera Voronina Read More

Ten Modern Commandments

Crew: Producer

Actors: Esther Ralston, Neil Hamilton, Maude Truax, Romaine Fielding, El Brendel

Synopsis: Originally titled 10 Modern Commandments, this sophisticated romantic comedy-drama was the third directorial effort by Dorothy Arzner -- not to mention her third picture of 1927. Unabashedly a "woman's" picture, this is the story of Kitten O'Day (Esther Ralston), a humble maidservant in her aunt's Read More

Senorita

Crew: Producer

Actors: Bebe Daniels, James Hall, William Powell, Josef Swickard

Synopsis: One of the most frustrating items in the list of missing Bebe Daniels comedies, Senorita certainly sounds fascinating. When the life and property of Spanish Californian aristocrat Don Hernandez (Josef Swickard) is threatened by land-grabbers, the old man sends for his grandson to help out. What he Read More

Love's Greatest Mistake

Crew: Producer

Actors: Evelyn Brent, William Powell, James Hall, Josephine Dunn, Frank Morgan

Synopsis: Love's Greatest Mistake was based on the serialized Liberty Magazine story of the same name. It all begins when Honey McNeill (Josephine Dunn) leaves her home town of Bangor, Maine to visit her married sister Jane (Evelyn Brent) in New York. En route, Honey meets and falls in love with banker Read More

The Kid Brother

Crew: Producer

Actors: Harold Lloyd, Jobyna Ralston, Walter James, Leo Willis, Olin Francis

Synopsis: Even taking into consideration such worthy candidates as Safety Last and The Freshman, many Harold Lloyd fans regard The Kid Brother as his finest film. A humorous variation on Tol'able David, the film stars Lloyd as Harold Hickory, the youngest member of the rural Hickory family. Though Read More

New York

Crew: Producer

Actors: Ricardo Cortez, Lois Wilson, Estelle Taylor, William Powell, Norman Trevor

Synopsis: Filmed on location in Manhattan, the 1927 silent New York explores themes later developed more fully in such films as Manhattan Melodrama and Once Upon a Time in America. A product of the Bowery, Trent Regan (William Powell) grows up to become a powerful gangster. Regan's girlfriend Angie Miller (Esther Ralston Read More

Nevada

Crew: Producer

Actors: Gary Cooper, William Powell, Thelma Todd

Synopsis: Young Paramount stars Gary Cooper and Thelma Todd, the latter a recent graduate of the studio's acting school, starred in this otherwise average Zane Grey Western directed by studio hack John Waters. It was Waters who, having spotted young Cooper in a screen test, recommended the lanky newcomer Read More

Last Outlaw

Crew: Producer

Actors: Gary Cooper, Jack Luden, Betty Jewel, Herbert Prior, Jim Corey

Synopsis: No relation to the earlier John Ford western of the same name, The Last Outlaw was a vehicle for Paramount's up-and-coming action star Gary Cooper. The actor is cast as frontiersman Buddy Hale, who endeavors to prove that young Ward Lane (Jack Luden) is innocent of murder. He does this primarily Read More

We're in the Navy Now

Crew: Presented by

Actors: Wallace Beery, Raymond Hatton, Chester Conklin, Tom Kennedy, Donald Keith

Synopsis: A follow-up to the enormously successful Behind the Front, We're in the Navy Now reteams the stars of the earlier film, Wallace Beery and Raymond Hatton. Beery plays dimwitted boxer Knockout Hannigan, while Hatton is his larcenous manager Stinkey Smith. KO'ed during a preliminary bout, Hannigan Read More

Arizona Bound

Crew: Producer

Actors: Gary Cooper, Betty Jewel, El Brendel, Charles Crockett

Synopsis: After a lengthy apprenticeship in bits and secondary roles, Gary Cooper was promoted to stardom in the Zane Grey western Arizona Bound. Cooper plays a character known only as The Cowboy, who rides into a small frontier town on the same day that a big gold shipment is departing. It so happens that Read More

Children of Divorce

Crew: Producer

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

Desert Gold

Crew: Producer

Actors: Neil Hamilton, Shirley Mason, Robert W. Frazer, William Powell, Josef Swickard

Synopsis: Based on a story by Zane Grey, Desert Gold is a remake of the 1919 film of the same name. Neil Hamilton stars as George Thorne, a U.S. cavalry lieutenant in love with fair senorita Mercedes Castaneda (Shirley Mason). When Mercedes is kidnapped by scurrilous outlaw Snake Landree (William Powell in Read More

Sea Horses

Crew: Producer

Actors: Jack Holt, Florence Vidor, William Powell, George Bancroft, Mack Swain

Synopsis: Based on a novel by Francis Brett Young, Sea Horses stars Florence Vidor as Helen Salvia, who is deserted early on by her no-good husband Lorenzo (William Powell). With her 4-year-old daughter Cina (Mary Dow) in tow, Helen heads to a sinister African port town in search of her husband. During the Read More

You'd Be Surprised

Crew: Presented by

Actors: Raymond Griffith, Dorothy Sebastian, Earle Williams, Edward Martindel

Synopsis: Raymond Griffith's famed nonchalance adds to the humor of this delightful mystery-comedy. During a posh party on a houseboat, a valuable diamond necklace is stolen. The host, who also happens to be the district attorney (Edward Martindel), announces the theft and turns out the lights to give the Read More

Beau Geste

Crew: Producer

Actors: Ronald Colman, Neil Hamilton, Ralph Forbes, Alice Joyce, Mary Brian

Synopsis: Ronald Colman plays the title role in the first of several screen adaptations of Christopher Wren's tale of adventure in the foreign legion. Beau is the youngest of three brothers who fall into an ethical dilemma when their aunt resorts to stealing valuable jewelry from the family's collection to Read More

The Enchanted Hill

Crew: Producer

Actors: Jack Holt, Florence Vidor, Noah Beery, Sr., George Bancroft, Brandon Hurst

Synopsis: Like most Westerns of the era, this Jack Holt vehicle from Paramount includes automobiles and even airplanes. But Holt went his rivals one better by incorporating a machine gun into a fight against a neighboring rancher who is out to ruin him. Based on a Peter B. Kyne novel, The Enchanted Hill Read More

Tin Gods

Crew: Producer

Actors: Thomas Meighan, Renée Adorée, Aileen Pringle, William Powell, Hale Hamilton

Synopsis: With a star-director combination like Tommy Meighan and Allan Dwan, how could Tin Gods not succeed at the box office? After the death of his child in an accident, engineer Roger Drake (Meighan) parts company with his politically ambitious wife Janet (Aileen Pringle). Unable to hold onto a job in Read More

Aloma of the South Seas

Crew: Producer

Actors: Gilda Gray, Percy Marmont, Warner Baxter, William Powell

Synopsis: Gilda Gray, best-known for inventing the shimmy, shows off her talents as a Hawaiian dancer in this South Seas drama, based on the play by John B. Hymer and LeRoy Clemens. Percy Marmont plays his usual role -- a man, who, after having his heart broken, degenerates into a drunken mess. Bob Holden Read More

Volcano

Crew: Presented by

Actors: Bebe Daniels, Ricardo Cortez, Wallace Beery, Arthur Edmund Carewe, Dale Fuller

Synopsis: Volcano takes forever to get to the climactic eruption. In the meantime, the audience is subjected to the travails of convent-bred Zabette de Chauvalons, who upon returning to her father's estate in Martinique discovers that daddy has died and the property is now in the hands of her evil Read More

Mannequin

Crew: Presented by

Actors: Alice Joyce, Warner Baxter, Dolores Costello, ZaSu Pitts, Walter Pidgeon

Synopsis: Adapted from the Fannie Hurst story of the same name, Mannequin is the story of Joan Herrick (Dolores Costello), kidnapped in infancy from her wealthy parents (Alice Joyce, Warner Baxter) and raised by a slatternly slum woman (ZaSu Pitts). Growing up a real "looker," Selene manages to finds work Read More

It's the Old Army Game

Crew: Producer

Actors: W.C. Fields, Louise Brooks, Blanche Ring, William Gaxton, Mary Foy

Synopsis: W.C. Fields' It's the Old Army Game is an expansion on four Fields stage skits, originally performed in the Broadway revue The Comic Supplement. Described in the opening title as "the epic of the American druggist," the story begins late one night, in the apothecary shop of Elmer Prettywillie (Fields Read More

The Great Gatsby

Crew: Producer

Actors: Warner Baxter, Lois Wilson, Neil Hamilton, Georgia Hale, William Powell, Hale Hamilton

Synopsis: Accurately described as "a beautiful job" by novelist John O'Hara, this 1926 silent version of F. Scott's Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby stars Warner Baxter in the title role. Self-made millionaire Jay Gatsby lacks only one thing in life: the love of the beautiful, impulsive Daisy Buchanan (Lois Wilson Read More

Salome of the Tenements

Crew: Presented by

Actors: Jetta Goudal, Godfrey Tearle, Lazar Freed

Synopsis: The ambitious and beautiful Sonya Mendel (Jetta Goudal) works her way up from the ghetto and lands a job as a reporter for a Jewish newspaper. She sets out to interview wealthy John Manning (Godfrey Tearle) about his plans for a new settlement, and winds up falling in love with him. Manning Read More

Thundering Herd

Crew: Producer

Actors: Jack Holt, Lois Wilson, Noah Beery, Sr., Raymond Hatton, Tim McCoy

Synopsis: Zane Grey's 1925 story of the great Buffalo hunts became a sprawling silent Western produced by Paramount and starring the studio's stalwart Jack Holt as a trader who uncovers a scheme to blame the Indians for a Buffalo massacre. The film's highlight, a breathtaking shot of wagons careening across Read More

Rugged Water

Crew: Presented by

Actors: Lois Wilson, Wallace Beery, Warner Baxter, Phyllis Haver, Dot Farley

Synopsis: This Cape Cod melodrama was based on a novel by Joseph C. Lincoln. Calvin Homer (Warner Baxter) expects to be promoted to captain of the Setuckit Life Saving Station, but Bartlett (Wallace Beery) is appointed because of his political connections. Bartlett's daughter Norma (Lois Wilson) convinces Read More

Lovers in Quarantine

Crew: Presented by

Actors: Bebe Daniels, Harrison Ford, Alfred Lunt, Edna May Oliver

Synopsis: After a few films that did not showcase her talent well, Bebe Daniels was able to redeem herself in this comedy based on the F. Tennyson Jesse stage play Quarantined. Although Pamela Gordon (Eden Gray) is engaged to explorer Tony Blunt (Harrison Ford), she gets tired of waiting for him to come Read More

Men and Women

Crew: Presented by

Actors: Richard Dix, Claire Adams, Neil Hamilton, Robert Edeson, Henry Stephenson

Synopsis: Will Prescott (Richard Dix) is a bank cashier whose assistant, Ned Seabury (Neil Hamilton), has made a killing in the stock market. With his newfound riches, Seabury proceeds to woo Prescott's wife, Agnes (Claire Adams), by buying her luxurious items that her husband can not afford. Seabury makes Read More

Street of Forgotten Men

Crew: Presented by

Actors: Percy Marmont, Mary Brian, Neil Hamilton, John Harrington, Juliet Brenon

Synopsis: This colorful drama of the Bowery of the 1890s was directed by Herbert Brenon. Diamond Mike (Riley Hatch) runs a Bowery saloon where, in a back room, men disguise themselves as cripples so they can beg for money. Their leader is Easy Money Charlie (Percy Marmont), who pretends to have only one Read More

The Manicure Girl

Crew: Presented by

Actors: Bebe Daniels, Edmund Burns, Dorothy Cumming, Hale Hamilton, Charlotte Walker

Synopsis: Maria Maretti (Bebe Daniels) works as a manicurist at a posh hotel. She is in love with Tony Luca (Edmund Burns), and they are saving up to buy a home and get married, but Maria isn't blind to what is going on around her. She watches the other girls take money and favors from their wealthy men Read More

Adventure

Crew: Presented by

Actors: Tom Moore, Pauline Starke, Wallace Beery, Raymond Hatton, Walter McGrail

Synopsis: Adventure was an appropriate title for a book by Jack London, and when his tale of the South Seas was made into a film, the virile Victor Fleming was the right man to direct it. David Shelton, a plantation owner (Tom Moore), is faced with ruin because some of his native workers are sick and the Read More

That Royale Girl

Crew: Producer

Actors: Carol Dempster, W.C. Fields, James Kirkwood, Harrison Ford, Paul Everton

Synopsis: The stars and director of Sally of the Sawdust, namely Carol Dempster, W. C. Fields and D. W. Griffith, were reunited in That Royle Girl. Dempster heads the cast as Daisy Royle, the daughter of a small-time crook (Fields, of course). When Daisy's jazz-musician boyfriend Fred Ketlar (Harrison Ford) Read More

The Vanishing American

Crew: Producer

Actors: Richard Dix, Lois Wilson, Noah Beery, Sr., Malcolm McGregor, Charles Stevens

Synopsis: The Paramount team of Richard Dix and Lois Wilson starred in this top-notch silent western in which a Native American is the protagonist. The early silent era devoted many films to the depiction of American Indians, but that trend had not carried over into the screen's third decade, where Indians Read More

The Light of Western Stars

Crew: Presented by

Actors: Jack Holt, Billie Dove, Noah Beery, Sr., Alma Bennett, William Scott

Synopsis: Veteran Western director William K. Howard does a solid job with this routine Zane Grey story. Jack Holt, Billie Dove, and Noah Beery Sr., who starred together in Wanderers of the Wasteland, appear together again. Madeline Hammond (Dove), the sister of ranchman Al Hammond (William Scott), arrives Read More

The Crowded Hour

Crew: Presented by

Actors: Bebe Daniels, Kenneth Harlan, T. Roy Barnes, Frank Morgan, Helen Lee Worthing

Synopsis: When Billy Laidlaw (Kenneth Harlan) sees Peggy Laurence (Bebe Daniels) and her partner, Matt Wilde (T. Roy Barnes), performing at a Bowery amateur night, he resolves to help them. They do well on Broadway, thanks to Laidlaw, who begins falling in love with Peggy, even though he already has a wife Read More

Wild Horse Mesa

Crew: Producer

Actors: Jack Holt, Noah Beery, Sr., Billie Dove, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., George Magrill

Synopsis: Square-jawed Jack Holt and ornery Noah Beery were the stars of Paramount's popular Zane Grey adaptations. Their best efforts were probably their first two films, the epic Wanderer of the Wasteland and North of 36 (both in 1924). Although lesser in scope, Wild Horse Mesa was filmed on breathtaking Read More

Too Many Kisses

Crew: Producer

Actors: Richard Dix, Frances Howard, William Powell, Frank Currier

Synopsis: The Paramount backlot doubled as Basque country for this romantic comedy which proved to be a nice showcase for Richard Dix. Richard Gaylord Jr. (Dix) is a pleasure-loving playboy who is constantly getting in trouble with the ladies, much to the chagrin of his father, Richard Gaylord Sr. (Frank Currier Read More

Wild, Wild Susan

Crew: Producer

Actors: Bebe Daniels, Rod La Rocque, Henry Stephenson

Synopsis: Bebe Daniels stars in this action-packed comedy -- one of Edward Sutherland's first directoral efforts. Susan Van Dusen (Daniels) is bored by her society life and craves excitement. Her father (Henry Stephenson), however, wants her to settle down and marry one of the sons of his friend Chauncey Read More

The Air Mail

Crew: Presented by

Actors: Warner Baxter, Billie Dove, Mary Brian, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., George Irving

Synopsis: By using a borrowed medal, Russ Kane, a crook (Warner Baxter), is able to get a job as an air mail pilot. His plan is to steal some valuable cargo, but soon enough the job begins to have a positive effect on him. When his plane has to make a force landing, he meets Alice Rendon (Billie Dove, who Read More

Womanhandled

Crew: Presented by

Actors: Richard Dix, Esther Ralston, Cora Williams, Eli Nadel

Synopsis: Richard Dix and Esther Ralston starred together in several films during the latter half of the 1920s. This Western-comedy was especially good, due in no small part to lively direction by Gregory LaCava. Bill Dana, a member of New York society (Dix), meets Molly (Ralston) when he saves her from Read More

Goose Hangs High

Crew: Presented by

Actors: Constance Bennett, Myrtle Stedman, George Irving, Esther Ralston

Synopsis: While his reputation has faded next to stronger talents such as Cecil B. DeMille, Erich Von Stroheim, and King Vidor, James Cruze was one of the most popular directors of the 1920s. He is the biggest name associated with this drama. The picture was based on a successful Broadway play by Lewis Read More

Coming Through

Crew: Presented by

Actors: Thomas Meighan, Lila Lee, John Miltern, Wallace Beery, Frank Campeau

Synopsis: Because he wants a promotion, Tom Blackford (Thomas Meighan) marries Alice Rand (Lila Lee), the daughter of his boss, John Rand (John Miltern). Rand is aware of Blackford's motivations and he sends him to take over as superintendent of one of the company's mines in the hopes that he will fail. To Read More

Code of the West

Crew: Presented by

Actors: Owen Moore, Constance Bennett, Mabel Ballin, Charles Ogle, David Butler

Synopsis: Shy cowboy Cal Thurman (Owen Moore) falls for sophisticated city girl Georgie May (Constance Bennett) in this, the first of two versions of Zane Grey's story. When Georgie May haughtily rejects the poor cowpuncher, he sets out to stake his claim, gets in trouble with a gang of crooks, and later Read More

A Kiss in the Dark

Crew: Presented by

Actors: Adolphe Menjou, Aileen Pringle, Lillian Rich, Kenneth MacKenna

Synopsis: Frederick Lonsdale's witty 1924 play Aren't We All was turned into a vehicle for the debonair Adolphe Menjou by Paramount the following year. Menjou played Walter Grenham, a confirmed boulevardier stranded in Havana with his best friend's (Kenneth MacKenna) flirtatious wife (Lillian Rich). Read More

Dressmaker from Paris

Crew: Presented by

Actors: Leatrice Joy, Ernest Torrence, Allan Forrest, Mildred Harris

Synopsis: While on leave of absence in Paris, American Air Force officer Billy Brent (Allan Forrest) meets Fifi (Leatrice Joy), a midinette, or dressmaker's apprentice. Although they are attracted to each other, Brent is suddenly called to the front and they lose touch. Years later, Brent is back home in Read More

Irish Luck

Crew: Presented by

Actors: Thomas Meighan, Lois Wilson, Cecil Humphreys, Claude King, Ernest Lawford

Synopsis: Thomas Meighan in a dual role, as well as the Irish locations -- including the Blarney Stone -- add interest to what would otherwise be a rather routine romance. The story was based on a serial, "An Imperfect Impostor," by Norman Venner, which ran in the Saturday Evening Post. Tom Donahue Read More

Flower of Night

Crew: Presented by

Actors: Pola Negri, Joseph J. Dowling, Youcca Troubetzkoy, Warner Oland, Edwin J. Brady

Synopsis: According to the Paramount publicity mill, Joseph Hergesheimer wrote this unoriginal tale of California's early days especially for Pola Negri. Like all too many of Negri's Paramount vehicles, this drama was not worthy of her talents. Don Geraldo y Villalon (Joseph Dowling) hates Americans because Read More

Forty Winks

Crew: Producer

Actors: Viola Dana, Raymond Griffith, Theodore Roberts, Cyril Chadwick, Anna May Wong

Synopsis: Raymond Griffith's star was on the rise when he made this comedy, based on the play Lord Chumley by David Belasco and Henry C. De Mille (father of directors Cecil B. De Mille and William C. De Mille). Gaspar Le Sage (Cyril Chadwick) sends Annabelle Wu (Anna May Wong) to steal plans for a coast Read More

Sinners in Heaven

Crew: Presented by

Actors: Bebe Daniels, Richard Dix, Holmes Herbert, Florence Billings

Synopsis: This South Seas tale, based on the novel by Clive Arden, very much reflects the morals of its era. Barbara Stockley (Bebe Daniels) is raised in a very proper English town. Her friend, Mrs. Fields (Florence Billings), invites her on a trip by aeroplane to Australia with her brother, Alan Croft (Richard Dix Read More

Her Love Story

Crew: Presented by

Actors: Gloria Swanson, Ian Keith, George Fawcett, Mario Majeroni

Synopsis: Gloria Swanson was near the peak of her career when she made this film, and while it isn't one of her best -- a Graustarkian tale by Mary Roberts Rinehart wasn't really up her alley -- it certainly had a lot of spectacular touches. Swanson wears a 100,000-dollar bridal outfit (that was more than Read More

Dawn of a Tomorrow

Crew: Presented by

Actors: Jacqueline Logan, Raymond Griffith, David Torrence, Roland Bottomley, Harris Gordon

Synopsis: Mary Pickford starred in the 1915 version of this film, based on the Frances Hodgson Burnett story, and it's easy to imagine her in the Pollyanna-like role of Glad. Jacqueline Logan is good enough as the sunny girl of the slums, but she's no Pickford. When Sir Oliver Holt (David Torrence) has a Read More

The Alaskan

Crew: Presented by

Actors: Estelle Taylor, John St. Polis, Frank Campeau, Anna May Wong

Synopsis: Thomas Meighan single-handedly saves Alaska in this James Oliver Curwood tale of the Northwest, which was shot on-location in British Columbia and Alberta. The Holt family wants to stop big business from destroying Alaska's pristine beauty. The elder Holt is killed, and his son, Alan (Meighan), is Read More

Worldly Goods

Crew: Presented by

Actors: Agnes Ayres, Pat O'Malley, Victor Varconi, Edythe Chapman, Bert Woodruff

Synopsis: Before he became a producer at MGM, Paul Bern showed a flair for directing, adding a sophisticated touch to this comedy-drama. Salesman Fred Hopper (Pat O'Malley) gets by on bluff and he uses his skills to win Eleanor Lawson (Agnes Ayers) over his rival, department store head Clifford Ramsey (Victor Varconi Read More

Icebound

Crew: Presented by

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

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

Humming Bird

Crew: Presented by

Actors: Gloria Swanson, William Ricciardi, Cesare Gravina, Mario Majeroni

Synopsis: Glamorous Gloria Swanson dressed down for this story of a little Parisian thief. Toinette (Swanson) is the leader of a band of thieves called "the Wolves of Montmartre." Dressed like a boy, she is known only as the Humming Bird and is wanted by the police. American reporter Randall Carey (Edward Read More

Unguarded Women

Crew: Producer

Actors: Bebe Daniels, Richard Dix, Mary Astor, Walter McGrail, Frank Losee

Synopsis: This Paramount drama was based on the novel Face, by Lucy Stone Terrill. It was a change of pace for light comedienne Bebe Daniels. In a battle during the World War, Douglas Albright (Richard Dix) has a moment of cowardice which causes the death of his friend, Captain Banning (Joe King). When Read More

Heritage of the Desert

Crew: Presented by

Actors: Bebe Daniels, Ernest Torrence, Noah Beery, Sr., Lloyd Hughes, Anne Schaefer

Synopsis: It seems like every word Zane Grey ever put to paper eventually wound up on screen during the silent days. Although there's a romance involved between Bebe Daniels and Lloyd Hughes in this Western, two of the era's finest character actors, Ernest Torrence and Noah Beery Sr. are really the whole Read More

A Society Scandal

Crew: Presented by

Actors: Gloria Swanson, Rod La Rocque, Ricardo Cortez, Allan Simpson, Ida Waterman

Synopsis: This society comedy-drama was given witty direction by Allan Dwan, and was based on The Laughing Lady by respected playwright Alfred Sutro. When Marjorie Colbert (Gloria Swanson) is neglected by her husband, Hector (Allan Simpson), she spends time befriending Harrison Peters (Ricardo Cortez). Read More

The Bedroom Window

Crew: Presented by

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

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

Dangerous Money

Crew: Producer

Actors: Bebe Daniels, Tom Moore, William Powell, Dolores Cassinelli, Mary Foy

Synopsis: There is a dispute over the ownership of some valuable Long Island farmland -- the Clarks and the Sullivans both claim it. It is ultimately awarded to Adele (Bebe Daniels), the last of the Clarks. Although Adele is in love with Tim (Tom Moore), the son of Sheamus Sullivan (Edward O'Connor), their Read More

Code of the Sea

Crew: Presented by

Actors: Rod La Rocque, Jacqueline Logan, George Fawcett, Maurice B. Flynn, Luke Cosgrave

Synopsis: The story to this sea melodrama was written by Byron Morgan. Morgan was best known for the fast-paced auto tales he wrote for Wallace Reid, so this was quite a departure for him. When Bruce McDow (Rod LaRocque) refuses to go aloft to fix a rigging during a storm, and he is branded a coward. McDow Read More

The Stranger

Crew: Presented by

Actors: Betty Compson, Richard Dix, Tully Marshall, Robert Schable

Synopsis: Tully Marshall plays "the Stranger," an outcast who works in a saloon frequented by Peggy Bowlin, a poor girl suffering through hard times (Betty Compson). She finds romance with Larry Darrant (Richard Dix), and her life begins to improve. They make plans to wed and leave England, but when a Read More

Peter Pan

Crew: Producer

Actors: Betty Bronson, Ernest Torrence, Cyril Chadwick, Virginia Brown Faire, Anna May Wong

Synopsis: When Paramount bought the rights to the delightful James M. Barrie story, every actress in Hollywood wanted the role of Peter Pan, made famous on the stage by Maude Adams. Mary Pickford, Lillian Gish, and even Gloria Swanson thought they were perfect for the role, but Barrie's own choice was Betty Bronson Read More

Changing Husbands

Crew: Presented by

Actors: Leatrice Joy, Victor Varconi, Raymond Griffith, Julia Faye, ZaSu Pitts

Synopsis: Leatrice Joy has a dual role, as Gwynne Evans, a restless young wife who longs to go on the stage, and as lookalike actress Eva Graham, who wants nothing more than peace and quiet. The two women meet up and agree to change places. Oliver Evans (Victor Varconi) is glad to see that his wife has Read More

City That Never Sleeps

Crew: Presented by

Actors: Louise Dresser, Ricardo Cortez, Kathlyn Williams, Virginia Lee Corbin, Pierre Gendron

Synopsis: When kindly saloon keeper Tim O'Day (Ben Hendricks) is killed by a thug, his wife (Louise Dresser) takes over the business. Because she feels that a saloon is not the best place to raise her little girl Molly (Vondell Darr), she hands the child over to be raised by Mrs. Kendall, a society matron Read More

Flaming Barriers

Crew: Presented by

Actors: Jacqueline Logan, Antonio Moreno, Charles Ogle, Robert McKim

Synopsis: A matinee idol of the pre-1920 years, Antonio Moreno was on the wane when, in 1921, the emergence of Rudolph Valentino sparked a demand for "Latin Lover" types. Moreno's 1924 vehicle Flaming Barriers was directed by George H. Melford, the man who started the Valentino craze with his direction of The Sheik Read More

Men

Crew: Presented by

Actors: Pola Negri, Robert W. Frazer, Robert Edeson, Josef Swickard, Monte Collins

Synopsis: After her brilliant career in Europe, Pola Negri, came to America to make films for Paramount. Her first few pictures for the studio were disappointing, so they imported Russian director Dmitri Buchowetzki to work with her again (the two had made films together overseas). Buchowetzki wrote the Read More

Man Who Fights Alone

Crew: Presented by

Actors: William Farnum, Lois Wilson, Edward Everett Horton, Lionel Belmore, Barlowe Borland

Synopsis: John Marble (William Farnum) and Bob Alten (a miscast Edward Everett Horton) both love Marion (Lois Wilson). Marble wins her and Bob is relegated to family friend. Marble spends so much time at his work as a successful construction engineer that he has a mental and physical breakdown. Confined to Read More

Pied Piper Malone

Crew: Presented by

Actors: Claude Brooke, Lois Wilson, Emma Dunn

Synopsis: Although this sentimental tale of the sea came from an original story by Booth Tarkington and its stars were Thomas Meighan and Lois Wilson, it wasn't one of Paramount's better releases for 1924. The Malones are in charge of most of the industries of the coastal town of Oldport, and Jack (Meighan) Read More

Open All Night

Crew: Presented by

Actors: Viola Dana, Jetta Goudal, Adolphe Menjou, Raymond Griffith, Maurice B. Flynn

Synopsis: Therese Duverne (Viola Dana) is bored with her even-tempered husband, Edmond (Adolphe Menjou). Isabelle Fevre (Gale Henry) suggests that Edmond go to the bicycle races and stay out all night. Then she takes Therese there and introduces her to manly Petit Mathieu, one of the racers (Maurice B. Flynn Read More

Bluff

Crew: Producer

Actors: Agnes Ayres, Antonio Moreno, Clarence Burton, Fred J. Butler

Synopsis: Agnes Ayres, who'd once been topbilled over Rudolph Valentino, was beginning the slow downward slide when she starred in Bluff. Ayres plays a young woman who must raise a great deal of money in a hurry to afford medical treatment for her brother. Thus she poses as a world-reknowned fashion Read More

Guilty One

Crew: Presented by

Actors: Agnes Ayres, Edward Burns, Stanley Taylor, Crauford Kent, Cyril Ring

Synopsis: Irene Short (Agnes Ayers) tries to help her husband Donald (Edward Burns) further his career in architecture by running around with members of a fast society crowd. When one of the high-profile members of the set is murdered, first Irene and then Donald are accused of the killing. The Captain of Read More

Next Corner

Crew: Producer

Actors: Conway Tearle, Dorothy Mackaill, Lon Chaney, Ricardo Cortez, Louise Dresser

Synopsis: American engineer Robert Maury (Conway Tearle) travels to Paris with his wife, Elsie (Dorothy Mackaill). He leaves her there while he goes to Argentina on business. Elsie, like most neglected wives (at least in films), uses this opportunity to get into mischief -- she dresses exotically and draws Read More

A Gentleman of Leisure

Crew: Presented by

Actors: Jack Holt, Sigrid Holmquist, Alec B. Francis, Adele Farrington

Synopsis: This farcical melodrama starring Jack Holt was a pleasant program feature. Holt is Robert Pitt, a wealthy young idler who has just returned home to the States from London. While at a restaurant, he notices pretty Molly Creedon (Sigrid Holmquist). He sees that she has a photograph inscribed "with Read More

His Children's Children

Crew: Producer

Actors: Bebe Daniels, Dorothy Mackaill, James Rennie, George Fawcett

Synopsis: It was impossible for director Sam Wood to include all of Arthur Train's sprawling novel in this picture. Instead he seems to have turned it into a rather simplistic morality play about a flapper's redemption -- the sort of subject which was common in the 1920s. Old Peter B. Kayne (George Fawcett) Read More

Glimpses of the Moon

Crew: Presented by

Actors: Bebe Daniels, Nita Naldi, Dave Powell, Maurice Costello, Rubye DeRemer

Synopsis: After Hollywood was rocked by several scandals, the specter of censorship reared its ugly head. To keep local community leaders from doing the censoring, the film industry opted to do the editing itself. Perhaps that's why pictures such as this Allan Dwan-directed society drama based on a novel by Read More

Woman with Four Faces

Crew: Presented by

Actors: Richard Dix, George Fawcett, Theodore Von Eltz, Joseph Kilgour, James Farley

Synopsis: This implausible crime drama had the benefit of Betty Compson's presence: she was best known for playing lady criminals. District attorney Richard Templer (Richard Dix) is trying to solve a drug smuggling case, but to do so he needs to break into the safe belonging to Ralph Dobson (Charles A. Read More

The Tiger's Claw

Crew: Presented by

Actors: Jack Holt, Eva Novak, George Periolat, Bertram Grassby, Aileen Pringle

Synopsis: Jack Holt plays Sam Sandell, an American engineer working in India who rescues a pretty half-caste girl (Aileen Pringle) from a tiger's attack, but is badly wounded himself. The girl, Chameli Brentwood, nurses him back to health and out of gratitude he marries her, ignoring the fact that he has a Read More

You Can't Fool Your Wife

Crew: Presented by

Actors: Leatrice Joy, Nita Naldi, Lewis Stone, Pauline Garon, Paul McAllister

Synopsis: After a promising start (not to mention a really good cast), this stylish society drama gets bogged down in overwrought melodrama. Powerful Wall Street financier Garth McBride (Lewis Stone) ruins his rival after a tough battle. To celebrate, he goes to Florida with his wife, Edith (Leatrice Joy) Read More

Bluebeard's Eighth Wife

Crew: Presented by

Actors: Gloria Swanson, Huntly Gordon, Charles Green, Paul Weigel

Synopsis: This romantic drama gave filmgoers everything they expected from a Gloria Swanson picture -- fancy settings, gorgeous clothes, and a story that wasn't too taxing on the brain. It was adapted from the stage play by Alfred Savior, which starred Ina Claire on Broadway. John Brandon, an American Read More

Java Head

Crew: Presented by

Actors: Leatrice Joy, Jacqueline Logan, Albert Roscoe, Arthur Stuart Hull

Synopsis: Louisiana-born Leatrice Joy plays Chinese princess Taou Yuen in Java Head. To save himself from being executed in a gruesome manner, American Jeremy Ammidon (Frederick Strong) marries Taou Yuen. Once he arrives in his New England home, Ammidon tries but fails to suppress his love for hometown Read More

Madame Sans-Gene

Crew: Presented by

Actors: Gloria Swanson, Madeleine Guitty, Emile Drain, Charles de Roche, Warwick Ward, Suzanne Bianchetti

Synopsis: Based on a 1907 play by Victorien Sardou and Émile Moreau, much ado was made of Madame Sans-Gêne when it was being filmed because it was a joint effort between the United States and France. The French government allowed the movie to be shot at various historical locations, including the Palace of Read More

Law of the Lawless

Crew: Presented by

Actors: Dorothy Dalton, Theodore Kosloff, Charles de Roche, Tully Marshall, Fred Huntley

Synopsis: Dorothy Dalton stars in this colorful gypsy tale. Co-starring is Charles de Roche, in his first American film (later in the year, De Roche would be seen as Rameses in Cecil B. DeMille's The Ten Commandments). Tartar girl Sahande (Dalton) is auctioned off to help pay the debts of her father, Osman (Fred Huntley Read More

Mr. Billings Spends His Dime

Crew: Presented by

Actors: Walter Hiers, George Fawcett, Robert McKim, Patricia Palmer, Josef Swickard

Synopsis: Although rotund Walter Hiers was frequently seen in motion pictures all throughout the silent era, he was generally playing a supporting role. In this light comedy feature, however, he gets top billing. John Percival Billings (Hiers) is a haberdashery clerk who falls in love with Suzanna, a Read More

The Silent Partner

Crew: Presented by

Actors: Leatrice Joy, Owen Moore, Robert Edeson, Robert Schable, Patterson Dial

Synopsis: Leatrice Joy outshines the trite material and the rest of the cast in this Paramount release. Although it was adapted from Maximillian Foster's Saturday Evening Post serial, it's hard to tell how the author dragged the story on for more than a couple of installments (it was certainly a stretch to Read More

The Light That Failed

Crew: Presented by

Actors: Jacqueline Logan, Percy Marmont, David Torrence, Sigrid Holmquist, Mabel Van Buren

Synopsis: The tale centers around Dick Heldar (Percy Marmont), an aspiring artist. Although he is devoted to his childhood sweetheart, Maisie Wells (Sigrid Holmquist), his ambition drives him to faraway places. He meets Torpenhow (David Torrence), a war correspondent, at Port Said, and accompanies him into Read More

My American Wife

Crew: Producer

Actors: Gloria Swanson, Antonio Moreno, Josef Swickard, Eric Mayne, Gino Corrado

Synopsis: Gloria Swanson is My American Wife in this farfetched but entertaining romantic drama. Married to Argentinian horse rancher Josef Swickard, Gloria is romanced by handsome aristocrat Antonio Moreno. This one has the whole shootin' match: duels, blood feuds, midnight trysts, and a pulse-pounding Read More

To the Last Man

Crew: Presented by

Actors: Richard Dix, Lois Wilson, Noah Beery, Sr., Robert Edeson, Frank Campeau

Synopsis: Leading lady Lois Wilson considered this fine western her favorite of six films she starred in opposite virile leading man Richard Dix. (The others were The Call of the Canyon, 1923, Icebound, 1924, The Vanishing American, 1925, Let's Get Married, 1926, and the talkie Lovin' the Ladies, 1930.) Read More

Children of Jazz

Crew: Presented by

Actors: Theodore Kosloff, Ricardo Cortez, Robert Cain, Eileen Percy

Synopsis: Jazz babies and gents danced and partied their way through dozens upon dozens of motion pictures during the Roaring Twenties. After a while, all their plots became interchangeable -- the girls and guys would run wild, but in the end they would realize their parents were right after all, inspiring Read More

To the Ladies

Crew: Presented by

Actors: Edward Everett Horton, Theodore Roberts, Helen Jerome Eddy, Louise Dresser

Synopsis: This well-cast light comedy was based on the stage play by George S. Kaufman and Marc Connelly. Three clerks for the Kincaid Piano Company -- Leonard Beebe (Edward Everett Horton), Chester Mullin Z. Wall Covington), and Tom Baker (Arthur Hoyt) are in competition for a promotion to factory manager. Read More

Prodigal Daughters

Crew: Presented by

Actors: Gloria Swanson, Ralph Graves, Vera Reynolds, Theodore Roberts, Louise Dresser

Synopsis: Part of this romantic comedy was shot in a palatial Beverly Hills mansion, which happened to belong to the film's star, Gloria Swanson. Swanson plays a flapper, Swifty Forbes, who along with her sister, Marjory (Vera Reynolds), lead wild lives, much to the chagrin of their wealthy parents (Theodore Roberts Read More

Beyond the Rocks

Crew: Producer

Actors: Gloria Swanson, Rudolph Valentino, Edythe Chapman, Alec B. Francis, Robert Bolder

Synopsis: This picture did great at the box office, and no wonder -- Paramount's biggest star of the day, Gloria Swanson, co-starred with Rudolph Valentino (whose fame was so new that his first name was still being spelled "Rodolph"), in a story written by the most famous trashy novelist of the day, Elinor Glyn Read More

Old Homestead

Crew: Presented by

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

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

The Ghost Breaker

Crew: Producer

Actors: Wallace Reid, Lila Lee, Walter Hiers, Arthur Edmund Carewe

Synopsis: This jumbled light comedy was one of the last pictures featuring silent matinee idol Wallace Reid -- after being given morphine for an injury in 1919, Reid became a drug addict and he died a few months after this film's release. When the penniless Maria Theresa (Lila Lee) hears of a treasure Read More

The Young Rajah

Crew: Presented by

Actors: Rudolph Valentino, Wanda Hawley, Pat Moore, Charles Ogle

Synopsis: Having played a sheik, it only made sense to cast Rudolph Valentino -- whose first name was still being spelled Rodolph -- as an Indian rajah. At least, that's how Paramount saw things, and that's really the only excuse for the creation of this drama. The Judds, Caleb (Spottiswoode Aitken) and Read More

Blood and Sand

Crew: Presented by

Actors: Rudolph Valentino, Lila Lee, Nita Naldi, George Field, Walter Long

Synopsis: Both animal and human nostrils flare, and passion reigns in this classic romantic tragedy with Rudolph Valentino. Valentino is Juan Gallarde, an aspiring bullfighter, married to his loving childhood sweetheart Carmen (Lila Lee). But as his fame rises as a matador, so does his hot Spanish blood Read More

Man Unconquerable

Crew: Producer

Actors: Jack Holt, Sylvia Breamer, Clarence Burton, Anne Schaefer, Jean de Briac

Synopsis: Virile Jack Holt was perfectly cast as the title character in this brawling South Seas drama. New Yorker Robert Kendall (Holt) inherits a pearl fishery from his uncle. It is located next to another fishing ground, and the men of both fisheries are constantly at odds. Kendall has to make a trip to Read More

Ebb Tide

Crew: Presented by

Actors: Lila Lee, James Kirkwood, Raymond Hatton, George Fawcett, Noah Beery, Sr.

Synopsis: This romantic adventure was based on the novel by Robert Louis Stevenson. An old skipper, Captain Davis (George Fawcett), has as his companions two derelicts -- one, Huish (Raymond Hatton), is a Cockney, and the other, Robert Herrick (James Kirkwood) was once a gentleman. In Tahiti they board a Read More

Making a Man

Crew: Presented by

Actors: Jack Holt, John P. Lockney, Eva Novak, Bert Woodruff, Frank Nelson

Synopsis: Although this comedy had an awful lot of inconsistencies, it still was an nicely entertaining programmer -- plus it had the presence of handsome Jack Holt, as Horace Winsby, the lead character. Winsby is a millionaire beet sugar king who owns nearly all of California's San Geronimo Valley -- and Read More

Her Gilded Cage

Crew: Producer

Actors: Gloria Swanson, Dave Powell, Harrison Ford, Anne Cornwall, Walter Hiers

Synopsis: This picture was one of several that Sam Wood directed for Gloria Swanson, and its lavishness shows the influence of Cecil B. DeMille -- not long before, Wood had been DeMille's assistant (and Swanson, for that matter, had been his star). Unfortunately, fancy sets and gowns was just about all it Read More

Thirty Days

Crew: Presented by

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 Impossible Mrs. Bellew

Crew: Presented by

Actors: Gloria Swanson, Robert Cain, Conrad Nagel, Richard Wayne, Frank Elliott

Synopsis: As Gloria Swanson's star rose higher and higher, Paramount endlessly repeated the formula that brought her fame -- take a glamorous woman who wears lots of fancy gowns and place her in romantic and domestic situations of high drama. Swanson was not terribly happy being on this treadmill and this Read More

While Satan Sleeps

Crew: Presented by

Actors: Jack Holt, Wade Boteler, Mabel Van Buren, Fritzi Brunette, Will R. Walling

Synopsis: This Western -- which like many silent-era pictures was based on a Saturday Evening Post story (this one by Peter B. Kyne) -- was Jack Holt's second starring vehicle. The rough character he plays here suited him well, and he would continue to find success playing virile fighting men throughout his Read More

The Witching Hour

Crew: Producer

Actors: Elliott Dexter, Winter Hall, Ruth Renick, Robert Cain, Edward Sutherland

Synopsis: This drama, made a year before William Desmond Taylor was mysteriously murdered, is one of the few films he directed which are known to survive. It was adapted from the play by Augustus Thomas. Jack Brookfield (Elliott Dexter) runs a gambling establishment and one night, when the hall is dark, he Read More

Dancin' Fool

Crew: Producer

Synopsis: Sylvester Tibble (Wallace Reid) comes to New York City to work at the jug business run by his uncle, Enoch Jones (Raymond Hatton). He winds up supplementing his $6.00 a week when dancer Junie Budd (Bebe Daniels) discovers his slick footwork and takes him on as a dancing partner. His gig at one of Read More

What's Your Hurry?

Crew: Producer

Synopsis: Wallace Reid plays one of his speed demon roles in this picture, which is based on the Saturday Evening Post story, "The Hippopotamus Parade" by Byron Morgan. Dusty Rhoades (Reid) leaves just about everybody in the dust when he steps on the gas pedal. But this talent does nothing to win over Read More

Brewster's Millions

Crew: Producer

Actors: Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, Betty Ross Clarke, Fred Huntley, Marion Skinner, James Corrigan, Jean Acker

Synopsis: This second of seven film versions of the old theatrical chestnut Brewster's Millions starred Roscoe Arbuckle, better known to his fans as Fatty. The rotund comedian plays a young lawyer who inherits a vast fortune. But in order to claim his legacy, he must spend a million dollars within a set Read More

Sick Abed

Crew: Producer

Synopsis: Reginald Jay (Wallace Reid) has taken to his bed to avoid testifying in a divorce case. He decides that feigning illness isn't such a bad thing when he gets Bebe Daniels as a nurse. The court figures out that he's faking, so they send a doctor to check him out, but with the help of his nurse (she Read More

Don't Change Your Husband

Crew: Producer

Synopsis: This was Gloria Swanson's first film for director Cecil B. DeMille and it went a long way in establishing her as a star. Considered deliciously racy in its day, Don't Change Your Husband is an amusing battle between the sexes that takes place in the sumptuous upper-class society of the post-WWI Read More

Anton the Terrible

Crew: Producer

Actors: Harrison Ford

Synopsis: William deMille, Cecil's (arguably) more talented brother, served as director for Anton the Terrible. Theodore Roberts, who later played Moses in brother Cecil's The Ten Commandment, here portrays a fierce Cossack chieftan. He spends the first three reels of the film avenging the rape of his Read More

Alien Souls

Crew: Producer

Synopsis: Despite an industrywide reluctance to cast non-Caucasians in leading roles in the mid-teens, Japanese stage star Sessue Hayakawa was one of the most popular film personalities of the era. In Alien Souls, Hayakawa plays a wealthy importer, who assumes the responsibility of raising his late friend's Read More

Armstrong's Wife

Crew: Producer

Synopsis: The "Armstrong" in Armstrong's Wife was played by Thomas Meighan, just on the verge of his superstardom. As indicated by the title, however, the plot's emphasis is on Meighan's wife, played by Broadway luminary Edna Goodrich. Set in the Canadian north woods, the plot finds city-bred Goodrich Read More

Brewster's Millions

Crew: Producer

Actors: Edward Abeles, Winifred Kingston

Synopsis: Brewster's Millions, a stage play by Winchell Smith and Byron Ongley (itself adapted from a novel by George Barr McCutcheon) would be filmed no fewer than seven times over a seventy-year period. This 1914 version was the first; it starred Edward Abeles, who previously headlined the stage version. Abeles Read More

The Ghost Breaker

Crew: Producer

Synopsis: This first film version of Paul Dickey and Charles Goddard's theatrical comedy-melodrama The Ghost Breaker was also the only version that adhered to the original with absolute fidelity. H.B. Warner stars as Warren Jarvis, an aristocratic Kentuckian who heads to Spain in hopes of escaping a family Read More