Lila LeeFilmography

Oh Boy!

Synopsis: In this comedy, a scientist endeavors to turn into a caveman after drinking a secret formula. Instead he becomes a child. In this state, he overhears three Yankees conspiring to take the Crown Jewels. As soon as he is back to normal, he stops them. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Nation Aflame

Actors: Noel Madison, Lila Lee, Norma Trelvar, Douglas Walton, Harry Holman

Synopsis: Produced by the Halperin Brothers, the folks responsible for the early-talkie horror classic White Zombie, Nation Aflame is one of several 1930s exposés of such hate groups as the KKK, the Silver Shirts and the Black Legion. The bigoted aggregation depicted in this film, a fictional group called Read More

Two Wise Maids

Actors: Alison Skipworth, Polly Moran, Hope Manning, Donald Cook, Jackie Searl

Synopsis: Two Wise Maids was an attempt by Republic Pictures to recapture the magic of MGM's Marie Dressler-Polly Moran vehicles. Dressler, alas, had died, but Republic was able to secure the services of Moran, teaming the raucous comedienne with the magnificent Alison Skipworth. The two leading ladies are Read More

The Ex-Mrs. Bradford

Actors: William Powell, Jean Arthur, James Gleason, Eric Blore, Robert Armstrong

Synopsis: The "ex" of the title is daffy mystery-writer Jean Arthur, former wife of urbane doctor William Powell. When Powell becomes the prime suspect in a murder case, Arthur endeavors to solve the case herself -- and to reclaim her ex-hubby in the process. After a well-directed semiclimax at a race Read More

Country Gentlemen

Actors: Ole Olsen, Chic Johnson, Joyce Compton, Lila Lee, Pierre Watkin

Synopsis: The zany vaudeville comedy team of Ole Olsen and Chic Johnson was still one year away from their smash Broadway hit Hellzapoppin' when they starred in Republic's Country Gentlemen. The daffy duo plays a couple of gold-stock swindlers who try to fleece the citizenry of a small town. They end up Read More

Champagne for Breakfast

Actors: Mary Carlisle, Hardie Albright, Joan Marsh, Lila Lee, Sidney Toler

Synopsis: A pre-Charlie Chan Sidney Toler stars in Champagne for Breakfast as The Judge, a philosophical racetrack tout. Though eternally broke, the Judge manages to smooth the path of life for Vivian Morton (Joan Marsh), a nice girl to whom he's taken a fancy. By and by, the Judge brings together Vivian Read More

The Marriage Bargain

The People's Enemy

Actors: Preston S. Foster, Lila Lee, Melvyn Douglas, Shirley Grey, Roscoe Ates

Synopsis: Preston S. Foster is the "hero" of The People's Enemy only in the sense that his is the largest male role. Foster plays a detestable gangster who works his way up to millionaire status. To gain a veneer of respectability, he marries lovely Lila Lee. But when the going gets rough, he deserts both Read More

Whirlpool

Actors: Jack Holt, Jean Arthur, Allen Jenkins, Donald Cook, Lila Lee

Synopsis: No relation to the 1949 20th Century-Fox melodrama of the same name, Columbia's 1934 Whirlpool stars Jack Holt as a shifty carnival promoter. He is incarcerated for a major crime just after learning that his wife is pregnant. Released after twenty years behind bars, Holt is anxious to make contact Read More

In Love with Life

Actors: Lila Lee, Dickie Moore, Onslow Stevens, Rosita Marstini

Synopsis: Like many Chesterfield-Invincible films of the era, In Love with Life is built around the talents of a prominent character -- in this case, curmudgeonly Claude Gillingwater Sr. Having disowned his daughter Sharon (Lila Lee), mean old millionaire Morley adopts his grandson (Dickie Moore), the only Read More

Lone Cowboy

Actors: Jackie Cooper, Lila Lee, John Wray, Addison Richards, Gavin Gordon

Synopsis: Adapted by director Paul Sloan from the novel by Will James, Lone Cowboy is an "outdoors" epic tailored to the talents of young Jackie Cooper. Actually the title character is not played by Cooper but by character actor Addison Richards, cast as a grizzled old rodeo rider named Dobe Jones. Placed Read More

Stand up and Cheer

Actors: Warner Baxter, Madge Evans, James Dunn, John Boles

Synopsis: Based on an idea by Will Rogers, the story concerns the efforts by the President of the United States to get the public's mind off the Depression. To this end, he appoints Broadway impresario Lawrence Cromwell (Warner Baxter) to the new cabinet position of "Secretary of Amusement." Wasting no Read More

I Can't Escape

Actors: Onslow Stevens, Lila Lee, Russell Gleason, Otis Harlan, Hooper Atchley

Synopsis: Ex-convict Steve Nichols (Onslow Stevens) may be a free man, but it looks like he'll never be able to escape the onus of his past life. Unable to get a legitimate job, Steve decides to become as crooked as everyone imagines him to be. Before he makes this terrible mistake, however, the truth about Read More

The Iron Master

Actors: Reginald Denny, Lila Lee, John Farrell MacDonald, Esther Howard, Virginia Sale

Synopsis: In this drama, a bright young mill worker is left in charge of his late employer's estate. This causes many hard feelings from the surviving family. He forces the boss's son and daughter to work in the factory. They do not want to. For revenge they begin divulging trade secrets to a competitor. Read More

Officer 13

Actors: Charles Delaney, Robert Ellis, Frances Rich, Joseph W. Girard, Jackie Searl

Synopsis: Police officer Tom Malone is the only honest man left who can salvage his crooked city after his partner is killed on his motorcycle by a wealthy playboy on a careless joyride. With criminals and crooked city officials at every turn, it will take courage, duty, and decency for Tom to make right Read More

The Face in the Sky

Actors: Spencer Tracy, Marian Nixon, Stuart Erwin, Sam Hardy, Lila Lee

Synopsis: In this romance, two travelling sign painters find themselves inspired by a young woman's lovely smile. Soon her face is found painted on signs and barns throughout New England. Eventually one of the painters and the girl get married. Soon after the wedding, the painters are offered job in New Read More

War Correspondent

Actors: Jack Holt, Ralph Graves, Lila Lee, Victor Wong, Tetsu Komai

Synopsis: In this war drama, a brave reporter tries to remain detached while covering the war in Shanghai. While there, he falls for an ex-streetwalker, but must compete with a mercenary pilot for her love. By the end, the correspondent loses his objectivity after he helps the pilot save the woman from the Read More

Exposure

The Intruder

Actors: Monte Blue, Lila Lee, Gwen Lee, Arthur Houseman, Mischa Auer

Synopsis: This thriller involves a shipboard murder, castaways on a desert island, another murder, a wild man, and the hapless hero who must deal with it all. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Radio Patrol

Actors: Robert Armstrong, Russell Hopton, Lila Lee, June Clyde, Andy Devine

Synopsis: The concept of radio patrol cars was still brand-spanking new when this fast-moving programmer came off the Universal assembly line. Robert Armstrong and Russell Hopton star as Bill Kennedy and Pat Bourke, a pair of radio cops assigned to protect the payroll of a meat-packing company. Their job is Read More

False Faces

Actors: Lowell Sherman, Peggy Shannon, Lila Lee, Berton Churchill, David Landau

Synopsis: In this melodrama, a sleazy plastic surgeon from Chicago bungles an operation and causes the amputation of his patient's legs. Naturally, she takes the quack to court. Unfortunately she loses the case. The enraged patient then fatally shoots the doctor. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Unholy Love

Actors: H.B. Warner, Lila Lee, Beryl Mercer, Joyce Compton, Lyle Talbot

Synopsis: It took nerve for low-budget producer M.H. Hoffman to update Gustave Flaubert's 19th century novel Madame Bovary and relocate the story to Rye, New York. It was equally nervy to retitle the film as Unholy Love and to cast Joyce Compton, usually cast as a dumb blonde, in the central role. Compton Read More

The Night of June 13

Actors: Clive Brook, Lila Lee, Charlie Ruggles, Gene Raymond, Frances Dee

Synopsis: A multi-character drama set in a suburban neighborhood, The Night of June 13th takes place in four households. One of these is inhabited by unhappy husband Clive Brook, who is accused of murdering his wife. Actually, she has committed suicide, but those neighbors who could provide Brook with an Read More

Misbehaving Ladies

Synopsis: When European princess Lee comes back to her Midwestern hometown, she is thought to be a seamstress and goes along with the ruse in this comedy. ~ All Movie Guide Read More

Woman Hungry

Actors: Lila Lee, Raymond Hatton, Fred Kohler, Ken Thomson

Synopsis: In this western, three rambunctious young cowboys head for the hills after spending a night painting a town red and terrorizing its residents. During their flight, they find a woman from the East alone at her brother's home. They are preparing to rape her, but they do not count on her ingenuity. Read More

The Gorilla

Actors: Lila Lee, Joe Frisco, Harry Gribbon, Walter Pidgeon, Purnell Pratt

Synopsis: This second of four film versions of Ralph Spence's stage comedy-melodrama The Gorilla stars legendary Broadway comedian Joe Frisco, he of the eternal cigar and funny stammer. Frisco and former Keystone Kop Harry Gribbon play Garrity and Mulligan, a pair of dumb detectives who are summoned to an Read More

Murder Will Out

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

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

Second Wife

Actors: Conrad Nagel, Lila Lee, Hugh Huntley, Mary Carr, Freddie Burke Frederick

Synopsis: The first of two film versions of Fulton Oursler's domestic-conflict yarn, Second Wife stars Lila Lee as the bride of Conrad Nagel. Lee's ex-beau Hugh Hunley insists that Nagel's heart is still with his first wife, who now has custody of Nagel's son. When her husband leaves for Switzerland to Read More

Double Cross Roads

Actors: Robert Ames, Lila Lee, Montagu Love, Ned Sparks

Synopsis: In this crime drama a reformed safecracker is pressured by his ex-cellmate to pull off one last job. The cellmate gives the safecracker a chance for peace and happiness on an isolated farm. There he meets a pretty woman and her grandmother. He falls in love with the young woman. Unfortunately, he Read More

The Unholy Three

Actors: Lila Lee, Elliott Nugent, Harry Earles, John Miljan

Synopsis: A remake of the 1925 Lon Chaney melodrama of the same name, 1930's The Unholy Three makes several concessions to the newly strengthened Hollywood censors, but is still quite entertaining in a macabre sort of way. Chaney reprises his role as Professor Echo, a sideshow ventriloquist who moonlights Read More

Those Who Dance

Actors: Monte Blue, Lila Lee, Betty Compson, William Janney

Synopsis: Those Who Dance is not so much a film as a "class reunion" for several former silent-screen favorites. Monte Blue stars as Dan Hogan, a cop who poses as a Detroit gangster, the better to ferret out the murderer of his brother. He does this as much for himself as for his sweetheart Nora Brady (Lila Lee Read More

Honky Tonk

Actors: Sophie Tucker, Lila Lee, Audrey Ferris, Mahlon Hamilton

Synopsis: In this sad drama, a nightclub chanteuse gives up everything to have her daughter educated abroad. When her grown-up, highly cultured daughter returns from Europe, she is appalled to learn the truth about her mother -- that she has a low class job entertaining boozy old men. She disowns her mother Read More

Queen of the Nightclubs

Actors: Texas Guinan, Eddie Foy, Jr., Lila Lee, Jack Norworth, John Davidson

Synopsis: To sophisticated filmgoers of 1929, the designation "queen of the nightclubs" could mean only one person: Colorful Manhattan speakeasy proprietress Texas Guinan, of "Hello, Sucker!" fame. More or less playing herself, the brash, blowsy Guinan is cast as Tex Malone, a New York nightery owner who Read More

Love, Live and Laugh

Actors: George Jessel, Lila Lee, David Rollins, Henry Kolker, Kenneth MacKenna

Synopsis: Any movie that starts Jewish entertainer George Jessel as an Italian accordionist named Luigi can't be all bad. In love with the beautiful Margharita (Lila Lee), Luigi lands a job in the music store owned by the girl's uncle. Ultimately, however, our hero does the Pagliacci act when Margharita Read More

Show of Shows

Synopsis: Basically a filmed vaudeville presentation, The Show of Shows was Warner Bros.' entry in the "all star, all talking, all singing and all dancing" sweepstakes of 1929. Though slightly better than MGM's Hollywood Revue of 1929, the Warners entry pales in comparison to Fox Movietone Follies of 1929 Read More

Drag

Actors: Richard Barthelmess, Lucien Littlefield, Alice Day

Synopsis: No, Richard Barthelmess doesn't don women's apparel in the 1929 talkie The Drag. Barthelmess plays a Vermont newspaper editor, happily married to Alice Day. That is, he was happy until the day his wife's troublesome in-laws (Lucien Littlefield, Katherine Ward) came to visit. Wifey's parents stay Read More

The Sacred Flame

Actors: Conrad Nagel, Lila Lee, Pauline Frederick, William Courtenay, Walter Byron

Synopsis: In this early sound film, adapted from a play by Somerset Maugham, a WW I veteran is left crippled after a plane crash that occurred on his wedding day. He must spend the rest of his life in a wheelchair. Meanwhile his loving wife begins an affair with his brother. When his mother finds out about Read More

The Argyle Case

Actors: Thomas Meighan, H.B. Warner, Lila Lee, John Darrow, ZaSu Pitts

Synopsis: Despite what you might think by glancing at the title, The Argyle Case has nothing to do with socks. The film's plot is set in motion when the head of the house of Argyle is murdered. In one of his few talking-picture appearances, silent star Thomas Meighan is the detective on the case. Meighan Read More

Dark Streets

Actors: Jack Mulhall, Lila Lee

Synopsis: A love triangle between two twin brothers and a lovely young woman provides the framework for this drama (it was the first talkie to feature an actor in a dual role). One of the brothers is a policeman; the other belongs to a band of robbers working the garment district. The cop has orders to Read More

Flight

Actors: Jack Holt, Lila Lee, Ralph Graves, Alan Roscoe, Harold Goodwin

Synopsis: This early Frank Capra talkie stars popular screen action team Jack Holt and Ralph Graves as US marines stationed in Nicaragua. The "two guys fighting over one gal" throughline is there because the audience expected it -- and besides, leading lady Lila Lee is awfully cute. But the meat of the Read More

Little Bit of Heaven

Actors: Bryant Washburn, Lila Lee, Jacqueline Gadsden

Synopsis: From small-scale (and typically misnamed) Excellent Pictures, this minor silent melodrama featured handsome Bryant Washburn as Roger Van Dorn, a scion of society marrying a lowly cabaret dancer, Fola Dale (Lila Lee), despite the misgivings of his domineering Aunt Honoria (Martha Mattox). In Read More

The Adorable Cheat

Actors: Lila Lee, Cornelius Keefe, Burr McIntosh, Reginald Sheffield, Gladden James

Synopsis: In this melodrama, a wealthy girl decides to disguise herself and work as a laborer in her father's factory so she can be near her dad and prove to him that she is capable of helping out in the family business. While there, she falls in love with a shipping clerk, and after revealing her true Read More

The Black Pearl

Actors: Lila Lee, Ray Hallor, Carl Stockdale, Thomas Curran, George B. French

Synopsis: Released as part of producer Trem Carr's "Famous Authors" series, this silent whodunit was based on a 1912 story by Mrs. Woodrow Wilson. Thomas Curran, as elderly Silas Lathrop, comes into possession of a jewel stolen from the brow of a sacred Indian idol. The gem, unfortunately, brings nothing Read More

Black Butterflies

Actors: Jobyna Ralston, Mae Busch, Robert W. Frazer, Lila Lee, Cosmo Kyrle Bellew

Synopsis: Director James W. Horne, best known today for his Laurel and Hardy comedies, called the shots on the inexpensive "emotional" drama Black Butterflies. Heroine Dorinda Maxwell (Jobyna Ralston) enters into a marriage of convenience, even though she cannot abide her new husband. In so doing, she is Read More

You Can't Beat the Law

Actors: Lila Lee, Cornelius Keefe, Warner P. Richmond, Betty Francisco

Synopsis: Rookie policeman Cornelius Keefe can't help but run afoul of his superiors. It isn't that Keefe is a screw-up, simply that he considers himself smarter and more "in the right" than anyone else. His know-it-all attitude endangers the young cop's relationship with Lila Lee, who happens to be the Read More

The Thunder God

Actors: Lila Lee, Cornelius Keefe, Walter Long

Synopsis: Ostensibly based on pulp writer James Oliver Curwood, this minor silent Northwest melodrama featured Cornelius Keefe as a city slicker who saves a female logging camp manager (Lila Lee) from being ruined by her evil superintendent (Walter Long). The latter is trying to prevent the heroine from Read More

Just Married

Actors: James Hall, Ruth Taylor, Harrison Ford, William Austin, Ivy Harris

Synopsis: In this low-budget romantic comedy, a beautiful model from Paris sets her sights on the heart of an American ex-lover and so sets sail to stop him from marrying his newest girl friend. During the long voyage, the model must evade the persistent romantic advances of a passenger head-over-heels in Read More

United States Smith

Actors: Eddie Gribbon, Lila Lee, Mickey Bennett, Kenneth Harlan

Synopsis: A rather muddled prize-fighting melodrama from low-budget company Gotham Productions, United States Smith featured former Keystone comic Eddie Gribbon and 14-year-old Canadian actor Mickey Bennett). Gribbon played a Marine boxing champ and Bennett the young Russian immigrant he takes under his Read More

Top Sergeant Mulligan

Actors: Wesley Barry, Lila Lee

Synopsis: This easygoing service comedy stars Donald Keith in the title role. A tough topkick, Mulligan intends to make a "real man" out of enlistee Mickey Neilan (Wesley Barry), a former vaudevillian. After the standard basic-training gags, Mulligan and Neilan are shipped to France, where they are sent out Read More

The Little Wild Girl

Actors: Cullen Landis, Arthur Hotaling, Frank Merrill, Bud Shaw, Boris Karloff

Synopsis: The Little Wild Girl is hoydenish French-Canadian lass Marie Celeste (Lila Lee). Assuming that her sweetheart Jules (Cullen Landis) and her father Duncan (Arthur Hotaling) have died in a fire, Marie wanders aimlessly around in the woods, where she is discovered by Broadway impresarios McBride (Frank Merrill Read More

The Man in Hobbles

Actors: Lila Lee, John Harron, Lucien Littlefield, Sunshine Hart

Synopsis: The "man in hobbles" (a reference to his unique trousers) is young professional photographer John Harron. Upon marrying Lila Lee, Harron is taken aback when Lee's large and obnoxious family moves into the couple's tiny honeymoon cottage. Virtually squeezed out of his own home, Harron sullenly Read More

One Increasing Purpose

Actors: Edmund Lowe, Lila Lee, Holmes Herbert, May Allison, Lawford Davidson

Synopsis: This portentously (and pretentiously) titled Fox Studios release stars Edmund Lowe as WWI veteran Slim Paris. Though most of his comrades died in battle, Paris returns home with nary a scratch. This convinces him that his life has a "greater purpose" in the scheme of things, so he sets about to Read More

The New Klondike

Actors: Thomas Meighan, Lila Lee, Paul Kelly, Hallie Manning, Robert Craig

Synopsis: The New Klondike was a satire of two ripe-for-plucking targets: The national baseball craze and the Florida "land boom" of 1925. Thomas Meighan stars as Tom Kelly, a minor-league player who shows up in Florida for spring training, only to be promptly fired by his jealous manager Joe Cooley (J. W. Johnston Read More

Broken Hearts

Actors: Maurice Schwartz, Lila Lee, Wolf Goldfaden, Isidore Cashier

Synopsis: Celebrated Yiddish-theatre luminary Maurice Schwartz was both star and director of Broken Hearts. Schwartz plays Benjamin Rezanov, a Jewish author forced to leave his wife behind when he flees the pogroms and persecution of Czarist Russia. Immediately upon arriving in New York, he receives word Read More

Fascinating Youth

Actors: Ivy Harris, Mona Palma

Synopsis: Fascinating Youth was designed as a showcase for the winners of Paramount's Junior Star contest of 1926. Newcomer Charles "Buddy" Rogers heads the cast as Teddy Ward, the son of a wealthy hotelier (Ralph Lewis). Disturbed by Teddy's hedonistic lifestyle, Ward Sr. orders the boy to take over Read More

Coming Through

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

Old Home Week

Actors: Thomas Meighan, Lila Lee, Charles Dow Clark, Max Figman

Synopsis: Thomas Meighan plays Tom Clark, who left his home town to make good -- and wound up as part owner of a hapless gas station. On the train back to his old town for "old home week," however, he is mistakenly thought to be a big oil man. Ethel Harmon (Lila Lee), daughter of Judge Harmon (Sidney Read More

Midnight Girl

Synopsis: This melodrama, which starred Lila Lee, had quite a few names in the cast that were well known at the time but are largely forgotten now: Gareth Hughes, Dolores Cassinelli, and stage star Charlotte Walker. It also featured someone who was relatively new to pictures, but who eventually found fame Read More

Wandering Husbands

Actors: Lila Lee, James Kirkwood, Margaret Livingston

Synopsis: There was nothing actors Lila Lee and James Kirkwood or writer C. Gardner Sullivan could do to bring new life to the tired old triangle theme of this comedy-drama. Lee plays Diana Moreland, whose husband, George (Kirkwood), has acquired a wandering eye. He is in the middle of an affair with Read More

Love's Whirlpool

Actors: Lila Lee, James Kirkwood, Madge Bellamy

Synopsis: The off-screen husband-and-wife team of James Kirkwood and Lila Lee played just that in this silent crook melodrama from low-budget Regal Pictures. They are both hardened criminals, however, and when Kirkwood's younger brother (Robert Agnew) is killed during a prison break, they kidnap the Read More

Another Man's Wife

Actors: James Kirkwood, Lila Lee, Wallace Beery, Matt Moore

Synopsis: Real-life husband and wife James Kirkwood and Lila Lee play Mr. and Mrs. in Another Man's Wife. Neglected by her husband, Lee pretends to desert him in order to win him back. This she does, but not before she and Kirkwood have gotten themselves entangled with various and sundry antagonists Read More

Hollywood

Actors: Luke Cosgrave, George K. Arthur, Ruby Lafayette, Eleanor Lawson

Synopsis: The premise is clichéd -- it's the usual tale of a pretty girl from the sticks trying to break into movies -- but this satire gives it a number of unexpected turns. In addition, just about every star in Hollywood -- not just those at Paramount, the releasing studio -- has a cameo at one point or Read More

Woman-Proof

Actors: Thomas Meighan, Lila Lee, John St. Polis, Louise Dresser, Robert Agnew

Synopsis: When wealthy Rockwood dies, he wills his fortune to his four grown children, providing they're all married by a certain date. Failing that, the money will go to charity. Three of the Rockwood siblings are quick to find matches but Tom Rockwood (Thomas Meighan) is determined to wait for true love. Read More

The Ne'er-Do-Well

Actors: Thomas Meighan, Lila Lee, Gertrude Astor, John Miltern, Gus Weinberg

Synopsis: Although this Rex Beach story was filmed before in 1916 as a "super-feature," seven years later it would become a routine Paramount release starring the ever-steady, enduringly popular Thomas Meighan. Meighan is Kirk Anthony, a young spendthrift whose wild parties and all-around laziness cause his Read More

Homeward Bound

Actors: Lila Lee, William T. Carleton, Hugh Cameron

Synopsis: Thomas Meighan was appropriately cast in this ocean-bound romance based on the novel A Light to Leeward by Peter B. Kyne. First mate Jim Bedford (Meighan) saves a ship when he takes over command from its drunken captain, Svenson (Gus Weinberg). Svenson is then given charge of a yacht belonging to Read More

Trip To Paramountown

Actors: Wallace Reid, Marion Davies, Thomas Meighan, Betty Compson, May McAvoy

The Dictator

Actors: Wallace Reid, Theodore Kosloff, Lila Lee, Kalla Pasha, Sidney Bracey

Synopsis: Although Wallace Reid stars in this picture (based on the comic opera by Richard Harding Davis}), Walter Long just about steals the show. Brooke Travers (Reid) is the easygoing son of a banana merchant. He runs up a 60-dollar fare by playing stage-door Johnny up and down all the Broadway theaters Read More

The Ghost Breaker

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

One Glorious Day

Actors: Will Rogers, Lila Lee, Alan Hale, John Fox, George Nichols

Synopsis: This quirky comedy with its mystical overtones was a departure for the down-to-earth Will Rogers. The story opens up with a title card that announces there are spirits floating around waiting to be born into the material world. One spirit, the mischievous Ek (young John Fox), misses being born by Read More

Back Home and Broke

Actors: Thomas Meighan, Lila Lee, Frederick Burton, Cyril Ring, Charles S. Abbe

Synopsis: This comedy-drama featured a wry story by humorist George Ade and a warm performance by the always likable Thomas Meighan. Meighan is Tom Redding, who, upon his father's death, finds that he and his mother (Maude Turner Gordon) are broke. Without the Redding wealth, they become outcasts in the Read More

Blood and Sand

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

Ebb Tide

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

Rent Free

Actors: Wallace Reid, Lila Lee, Gertrude Short, Lillian Leighton

Synopsis: Silent matinee idol Wallace Reid played a speed demon in quite a few popular light comedies for Paramount. Here he takes a break from the fast cars, and frankly, this mediocre picture suffers for it. In spite of the protests of his father (Henry Barrows), Buell Arnister, Jr. (Reid) pursues a Read More

After the Show

Actors: Jack Holt, Lila Lee, Charles Ogle, Eve Southern, Carlton S. King

Synopsis: While Cecil B. DeMille busied himself with lavish sex comedies and garish historical melodramas, his director brother William C. deMille (note the lower case) was content with subtler human dramas. The "other" DeMille's After the Show was adapted from Rita Weiman's story "The Stage Door." Lila Lee Read More

Crazy to Marry

Actors: Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, Lila Lee, Laura Anson, Edwin Stevens, Lillian Leighton

Synopsis: Crazy to Marry was one of Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle's most delightful feature-length vehicles. Arbuckle plays a doctor who hopes to cure criminals via brain surgery. In one hilarious sequence, Fatty surgically recovers several valuables-watches, gems etc.-from the abdomen of plug-ugly Bull Montana. Read More

$1 A Year Man

Actors: Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, Lila Lee, Winifred Greenwood, Edward Sutherland

The Charm School

Actors: Wallace Reid

Synopsis: The star power of Wallace Reid kept the silent farce Charm School afloat. Auto salesman Reid inherits a school for proper young ladies. Realizing that the students are withering on the vine thanks to the antiquated curriculum, Reid transforms the establishment into a charm school, complete with Read More

The Easy Road

Actors: Thomas Meighan, Gladys George, Lila Lee

Synopsis: Seafarer/novelist Leonard Fayne (Thomas Meighan) takes The Easy Road when he weds wealthy Isabel Grace (Gladys George). Once an ambitious workhorse, Fayne degenerates into a slothful lounge lizard and drunkard. Despairing over his fall from grace, Fayne gets a new lease on life by rescuing Read More

Gasoline Gus

Synopsis: Because of the scandal that befell comedian Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle in 1921, his Paramount starring feature Gasoline Gus never received an American release. A pity, since the film was (from all accounts) his best feature-length vehicle thus far. Arbuckle of course plays the title character, a Read More

If Women Only Knew

Synopsis: Maurice Travers (Robert Gordon) attends college, funded by the sweat and blood of his widowed mother (Blanche Davenport). But he spends too much time on sports and not enough on his studies and flunks out. He elopes with Donna Wayne (Virginia Lee), the flirtatious daughter of a wealthy man and Read More

The Soul of Youth

Synopsis: After directing him as the title character in Huckleberry Finn, William Desmond Taylor again used boy actor Lewis Sargent in this picture. His character, known merely as "the boy," has been raised in an orphanage where he has caused as much trouble as possible. He finally can't stand living there Read More

Midsummer Madness

Synopsis: The careful direction of William C. DeMille (brother of Cecil) brought fresh life to Cosmo Hamilton's all-too-typical story, His Friend and his Wife. Because Bob Meredith (Jack Holt) spends all his time working, his wife Margaret (Lois Wilson) feels the romance has ebbed away from their marriage. Read More

Male and Female

Actors: Thomas Meighan, Gloria Swanson, Lila Lee, Bebe Daniels, Theodore Roberts

Synopsis: Don't let that title fool you: Male and Female is really James M. Barrie's The Admirable Crichton, as interpreted by Cecil B. DeMille. Thomas Meighan plays Crichton, the very proper butler in the British household of Lord Loam (Theodore Roberts). When masters and servants go on a yachting Read More

Jane Goes A-Wooing

Synopsis: When her father, a lunch-wagon owner, dies suddenly, Jane Neill (Vivian Martin) pluckily takes charge of the family business, acting as surrogate mother to her twin sisters. When her added responsibilities threaten to overwhelm her, Jane takes a job as a stenographer for millionaire David Lyman (Spottiswoode Aitken Read More

The Secret Garden

Actors: Lila Lee, Spottiswood Aitken, Clarence Geldert, Richard Rosson

Synopsis: In this Pollyanna-ish story, Lila Lee plays Mary Lenox, who is orphaned when her parents die during a cholera epidemic in India. Archibald Craven (Spottiswoode Aitken) is appointed her guardian, and she is sent to England to live with him. Craven is a crotchety old man who has never been the same Read More

Hawthorne of the USA

Synopsis: Douglas Fairbanks starred in the original Broadway production of James B. Fagan's Hawthorne of the USA, but Doug was too busy setting up United Artists in 1919 to appear in the film version. The popular Wallace Reid takes over as Anthony Hamilton Hawthorne, a young man who wins a tidy sum at Read More