John RocheFilmography

Idea Girl

Actors: Jess Barker, Julie Bishop, George Dolenz, Alan Mowbray

Synopsis: The Idea Girl in this Universal mini-musical is songplugger Pat O'Rourke (played by Julie Bishop, formerly Jacqueline Wells). Hoping to hit the big time, Pat pitches the notion of an amateur song-writing contest. Her zany publicity-seeking efforts cause nothing but grief for a group of Read More

Sherlock Holmes and the Spider Woman

Actors: Basil Rathbone, Nigel Bruce, Gale Sondergaard, Dennis Hoey, Vernon P. Downing

Synopsis: Someone in London has driven several prominent men to madness and suicide. Normally, Scotland Yard would call in Sherlock Holmes (Basil Rathbone) to help solve the case, but Holmes has recently perished in an accident. Or has he? Officially declared dead, Holmes is able to move about undetected as Read More

We Were Dancing

Actors: Norma Shearer, Melvyn Douglas, Gail Patrick, Lee Bowman, Marjorie Main

Synopsis: Strange but true: Norma Shearer turned down the title role in Mrs. Miniver to star instead in the insignificant trifle We Were Dancing. Loosely based on two Noel Coward playlets originally presented as part of the omnibus production Tonight at 8:30, the story concerns the romance between socialite Read More

Klondike Fury

Actors: Edmund Lowe, Lucille Fairbanks, Ralph Morgan, Mary Forbes

Synopsis: In this Alaskan adventure, a surgeon becomes a pilot to help him distress after a failed operation. Unfortunately, he is caught in a storm, crashes and finds himself cared for by a lovely woman at a trading post. He gets a chance to reclaim his self-esteem when her son suddenly needs the operation Read More

Beauty for Sale

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

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

Prosperity

Actors: Marie Dressler, Polly Moran, Anita Page, Norman Foster, Jacquie Lyn

Synopsis: Maggie Warren (Marie Dressler) is the matriarch of a banking family who has run the Warren Bank for years, until she turns it over to her son John (Norman Foster) to run, following his marriage to Helen (Anita Page). Maggie and Helen's mother Lizzie (Polly Moran) don't really get along that well Read More

Lady with a Past

Actors: Constance Bennett, Ben Lyon, David Manners, Don Alvarado, Albert Conti

Synopsis: This droll, sophisticated comedy stars Constance Bennett as Venice Muir, a shy young lady with no "past" of any kind -- and very little romance in her life. Hoping to overcome her bashfulness during a trip to Europe, she invents a lurid history for herself, then engages the services of paid escort Read More

Winner Take All

Actors: James Cagney, Marian Nixon, Guy Kibbee, Clarence Muse, Virginia Bruce

Synopsis: James Cagney stars as a popular prizefighter who loses his winnings through too much partying and too many women. Cagney's fans finance the boxer's regenerative stay at a New Mexico health resort. For the sake of pretty, poverty-stricken Marian Nixon, Cagney enters into a return bout. He splits Read More

The Cohens and Kellys in Hollywood

Actors: George Sidney, Charlie Murray, June Clyde, Norman Foster, Emma Dunn

Synopsis: This was the next-to-last entry of the Cohens and Kellys series, which were becoming increasingly more tiresome with each picture. Once again, Charlie Murray and George Sidney reprise their roles as Kelly and Cohen, respectively, but instead of Kate Price and Vera Gordon as their wives, they have Esther Howard Read More

Monte Carlo

Actors: Jack Buchanan, Jeanette MacDonald, ZaSu Pitts, Claud Allister, Tyler Brooke

Synopsis: After the master of sophisticated romantic comedy, Ernst Lubitsch, directed Jeanette MacDonald in the smash hit The Love Parade, they were reunited a year later for this similarly frothy romp. Countess Vera Von Conti (MacDonald) is engaged to marry the dull Prince Otto Von Seibenheim (Claud Allister Read More

Sin Takes a Holiday

Actors: Constance Bennett, Basil Rathbone, Kenneth MacKenna, ZaSu Pitts

Synopsis: Ahead of its time for liberated thinking, this is still really just a classic romance with a love triangle thrown in on the side. While on a trip to Paris, a woman meets a man that makes her reconsider her marriage of convenience (she had married her boss to save him from his girlfriend!). ~ Tana Read More

The Awful Truth

Synopsis: 1929's The Awful Truth was the second of three film versions of Arthur Richman's 1922 play. Ina Claire (in her talking-picture debut) and Henry Daniell play a wealthy couple whose individual infidelities lead inexorably to the divorce court. Though they subsequently try out other partners, they Read More

The Unholy Night

Actors: Ernest Torrence, Roland Young, Dorothy Sebastian, Natalie Moorhead, Sidney Jarvis

Synopsis: A group of Londoners gather at the home of their host in order to solve the murders of two company officers. Once assembled the host announces that half of one of the deceased's fortune will go to the guests and if anyone should die, that person's share would go to the others. Before any money is Read More

The Donovan Affair

Actors: Jack Holt, Dorothy Revier, William Collier, Jr., Fred Kelsey

Synopsis: This comedy-mystery is famed director Frank Capra's first all-talking film. It tells the story of a bungling police inspector who tries to re-enact a murder scene with disastrous results. The first killing occurred within a darkened dining room. Unfortunately, when the inspector resets the scene Read More

The Dream Melody

Actors: John Roche, Mabel Julienne Scott, Robert Walker, Rosemary Theby

Synopsis: Its title and 1929 vintage notwithstanding, Dream Melody was a silent picture. John Roche plays Richard Gordon, an aspiring composer who can't get arrested in his field of endeavor. Upon meeting nightclub singer Mary Talbot (Mary Julienne Scott), Gordon is inspired to write his greatest melody. Read More

This Thing Called Love

Actors: Edmund Lowe, Constance Bennett, Roscoe Karns, ZaSu Pitts, Carmelita Geraghty

Synopsis: In this comedy, a lonesome fellow returns from Peru with a fortune and begins looking for a wife. While still single, he has a real estate agent show him a home or two. The agent invites him to dinner. During the meal the agent and his wife bicker constantly, causing the poor fellow to rethink the Read More

Diamond Handcuffs

Actors: Lena Malena, Conrad Nagel, Eleanor Boardman, Gwen Lee, Charles Stevens

Synopsis: German actress Lena Malena starred in this lavishly budgeted and potentially intriguing melodrama about the influence of a valuable gem on its owners. In South Africa, a miner (Charles Stevens) loses his life after stealing a valuable diamond. Before he expires, he gives the stone to Musa Read More

Their Hour

Actors: Dorothy Sebastian, John Harron, June Marlowe, Holmes Herbert, John Roche

Synopsis: Jerry (John Harron), a $40-a-week working stiff, is in love with Peggy (June Marlowe). But while attending a weekend society party thrown by Peggy's wealthy and seductive cousin Cora (Dorothy Sebastian), Jerry falls for his hostess like a ton of bricks. Amused by Jerry's oafish sincerity, Cora Read More

The Man Upstairs

Synopsis: Monte Blue stars in this mystery, which was based on a novel by Earl Derr Biggers. Geoffrey West (Blue) is a soldier of fortune who happens to be obsessed with the personals section of the newspaper. While he is in London, he sees pretty Marion Larnard (Dorothy Devore), and uses the personals to Read More

Midnight Lovers

Actors: Chester Conklin, John Roche, Gale Henry, Lewis Stone, Anna Q. Nilsson

Synopsis: Based on the stage play Collusion, Midnight Lovers stars Anna Q. Nilsson as the young wife of WWI flying ace Lewis Stone. After an exquisite honeymoon, Stone is called off to the battlefield. Nilsson returns home, where she is confronted with evidence of her new husband's infidelity. Unwilling to Read More

The Truthful Sex

Actors: Huntly Gordon, Mae Busch, Ian Keith, John Roche, Rosemary Theby

Synopsis: Husband Huntley Gordon has convinced himself that he's the head of the household, but the viewer knows full well that wifey Mae Busch is the true power behind the throne. When the couple has a baby, Gordon soon realizes who's boss as his wife runs the house like an armed camp, ordering her husband Read More

The Return of Peter Grimm

Actors: Alec B. Francis, John Roche, Janet Gaynor, Richard Walling

Synopsis: The venerable David Belasco stage piece The Return of Peter Grimm was first brought to the screen in 1926, with Alec B. Francis in the title role. In life a selfish, mean-spirited old man, Peter Grimm returns from the grave to right the wrongs he committed while on Earth. The spectral Grimm pays a Read More

Lily

Actors: Barry Norton, Richard Tucker, John St. Polis, Ian Keith

Synopsis: Belle Bennett stars as Odette, who early in life is forced to give up all dreams of love so that she can look after her irresponsible father (John St. Polis). Despite her "old maid" status, Odette lives her life vicariously through her younger sister Christiane (Reata Hoyt). Unfortunately Read More

Her Big Night

Actors: Laura La Plante, ZaSu Pitts, Tully Marshall, Lee Moran

Synopsis: A minor silent comedy-drama, Her Big Night featured Grace Darmond, a blond former serial queen, as the secretary of a millionaire who, on her vacation, checks into a hotel posing as Countess Fontaine. She manages to ensnare her employer's handsome son (Herbert Rawlinson), but the situation becomes Read More

Don Juan

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

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

Scandal Proof

Actors: Shirley Mason, Joseph Striker, Edward Martindel, Ruth King, Billy Seay

Synopsis: Winsome Shirley Mason stars in this routine Fox melodrama. The naïve Grace Whitney (Mason) attends a wild party being held by Monte Brandster (Freeman Wood). Thelma Delores, a gold digger (Hazel Howell), murders Brandster in a fit of jealousy, but circumstantial evidence points to Grace. She is Read More

Marry Me

Actors: Florence Vidor, Edward Everett Horton, John Roche, Helen Jerome Eddy, Fanny Midgley

Synopsis: Edward Everett Horton is well cast in this simple little romance, which was based on the play The Nest Egg by Anne Caldwell O'Day. When John Smith (John Roche) proposes to Hetty Gandy (Florence Vidor), she writes her acceptance on an egg which she leaves for him. Unfortunately, the egg goes into Read More

Bobbed Hair

Actors: Marie Prevost, Kenneth Harlan, Louise Fazenda, John Roche, Emily Fitzroy

Synopsis: This mystery was based on a novel written by 20 popular authors, each of whom contributed a chapter. The point of each chapter was to put the characters in such a tight predicament that the next writer would have to be exceptionally clever to get them out of it. As can be imagined, the film that Read More

Broadway Butterfly

Actors: Cullen Landis, John Roche, Wilfred Lucas, Louise Fazenda

Synopsis: Two of the silent era's funniest comediennes, Dorothy Devore and Louise Fazenda, were wasted in this routine backstage melodrama courtesy of Warner Bros.. Devore played Irene Astaire, a small-town girl hoping for success on the wicked stage. She is befriended by Cookie Dale (Fazenda), a Read More

Recompense

Actors: Marie Prevost, Monte Blue, John Roche, George Siegmann, Charles Stevens

Synopsis: This romance is based on the best-selling novel by Robert Keable, which was a sequel to yet another novel, Simon Called Peter. Monte Blue stars as clergyman Peter Graham, who is in love with Julie, a nurse (Marie Prevost). Julie, however, refuses to marry him. When World War I breaks out, they Read More

Love Hour

Actors: Huntly Gordon, Louise Fazenda, Willard Louis, Ruth Clifford, John Roche

Synopsis: One of the final films bearing the Vitagraph stamp before that company was completely absorbed by Warner Bros., this silent melodrama starred debonair Canadian actor Huntley Gordon as a newlywed almost losing his wife to a bounder. Desiring both Rex Westmore's money, and his new wife Betty (Ruth Read More

Kiss Me Again

Actors: Marie Prevost, Monte Blue, John Roche, Clara Bow, Willard Louis

Synopsis: Ernst Lubitsch, the master of sophisticated comedy, directed this romantic silent romp starring the ill-fated Marie Prevost as LouLou, a married woman who develops an infatuation with a handsome musician. When LouLou asks her husband Gaston (Monte Blue) for a divorce, he shrewdly agrees without an Read More

My Wife and I

Actors: Irene Rich, Huntly Gordon, John Harron, John Roche, Constance Bennett

Synopsis: As their 25th anniversary approaches, Stuart Borden (Huntley Gordon) and his wife (Irene Rich) are not exactly happily married. In addition to the boredom they feel, there is also the issue of their grown son, Stuart Jr. (John Harron). Young Stuart is in love with Betty Allen (Constance Bennett) Read More

Bag and Baggage

Actors: Gloria Grey, Adele Farrington, Carmelita Geraghty, John Roche

Synopsis: This low-budget Finis Fox drama marked the film debut of Gloria Grey. Grey is Hope Anthony, the motherless daughter of an old music professor (Paul Weigel). When she manages to scrape together 50 dollars, Hope heads for the big city, in search of adventure and Hal Tracy (John Roche), a handsome Read More

A Lost Lady

Actors: Irene Rich, Matt Moore, June Marlowe, John Roche, Victor Potel

Synopsis: Irene Rich plays a selfish and tragic figure in this drama based on a best-selling novel by Willa Cather. Marian (Rich) is married to Captain Forrester (George Fawcett), an elderly railroad magnate, but she longs for the romance that is lacking in her May-December relationship. She finds it in Read More

Cornered

Actors: Marie Prevost, Rockliffe Fellowes, John Roche, Cissy Fitzgerald, Raymond Hatton

Synopsis: Two crooks, Jerry the Gent (Rockliffe Fellowes) and Nick the Dope (Raymond Hatton), discover that their compatriot, Mary Brennan (Marie Prevost), is a dead ringer for heiress Margaret Waring (Prevost again). They create a plan which places Mary in the Waring home while Margaret is out of town. The Read More

Tenth Woman

Actors: Beverly Bayne, June Marlowe, John Roche, Raymond McKee, Alec B. Francis

Synopsis: Beverly Bayne, June Marlowe, and John Roche co-star with Raymond McKee, Alec B. Francis, and Charles A. Post in this light romantic comedy. A heartbroken young woman is saved from making a suicidal jump off a bridge by a handsome young hero. She soon falls in love with the man and forgets about Read More

K - the Unknown

Actors: Virginia Valli, Percy Marmont, Margarita Fisher, John Roche

Synopsis: Sidney Page (Virginia Valli) is studying to be a nurse. All the young men are in love with her in the small town where she lives, but she becomes fascinated with K. LeMoyne (Percy Marmont), the mysterious stranger who moves into the boarding house belonging to her Aunt Harriet (Myrtle Vane). Read More

Flowing Gold

Actors: Anna Q. Nilsson, Milton Sills, Alice Calhoun, Crauford Kent, John Roche

Synopsis: Because of the recent Tea Pot Dome scandal, oil fields were a big topic of discussion in early 1924. Even though this melodrama concerned a scandal of a different sort, its setting in the Texas oil lands gave it a timely feel. Unfairly given a dishonorable discharge from the army, Calvin Gray Read More

Lucretia Lombard

Actors: Irene Rich, Monte Blue, Marc MacDermott, Norma Shearer, Alec B. Francis

Synopsis: Lest exhibitors didn't think the source material's title (based on a novel by then-popular writer Kathleen Norris) was particularly exciting, Warner Brothers offered the alternative title, "Flaming Passion," to this Jack Conway melodrama. In the belief that his noble title will lead her to a Read More

Good Provider

Actors: Vera Gordon, Dore Davidson, Miriam Battista, Vivienne Osborne, William Collier, Jr.

Synopsis: After the success of 1920's Humoresque, it only made sense to put together all the same elements -- a story by Fanny Hurst, directed by Frank Borzage, and starring Dore Davidson and Vera Gordon as an old Jewish couple. But this time around, instead of concentrating on the mother, the father Read More