Lillian LeightonFilmography

Millions in the Air

Actors: John Howard, Willie Howard, Robert Cummings, Inez Courtney

Synopsis: The title doesn't refer to mosquitoes but to the amount of money that could be earned in the radio business of the 1930s. Samuel S. Hinds plays a Major Bowes-type entrepreneur who sponsors a weekly radio amateur contest. Hinds' daughter Wendy Barrie has show-biz aspirations, but dad won't hear of Read More

Two Fisted

Actors: Lee Tracy, Roscoe Karns, Grace Bradley, Kent Taylor, Gail Patrick

Synopsis: Two Fisted is based on the James Gleason-Richard Taber stage play Is Zat So?, previously filmed under its original title in 1927. Lee Tracy stars as fast-lipped fight manager Hay Hurley, while Roscoe Karns co-stars as slow-witted pugilist Chick Moran. Flat broke, Hay and Chick take servant jobs in Read More

The Sphinx

Actors: Lionel Atwill, Sheila Terry, Theodore Newton, Paul Hurst, Luis Alberni

Synopsis: A brutal murder has been committed, and an eyewitness has placed wealthy philanthropist Jerome Breen (Lionel Atwill) at the scene of the crime. The prosecution's case hinges on the witness's insistence that Breen approached him and asked for the correct time. But the defense proves beyond a shadow Read More

The Man from Monterey

Actors: John Wayne, Ruth Hall, Luis Alberni, Donald Reed, Francis Ford

Synopsis: The Man From Monterey was the last of John Wayne's "B"-westerns for Warner Bros. The Duke plays U.S. army captain John Holmes, dispatched to Monterey to convince the ranchers to register their long-standing Spanish land grants, lest their property fall into the hands of undeserving strangers. This Read More

Secret Sinners

Actors: Jack Mulhall, Sue Carol, Nick Stuart, Cecilia Parker, Armand Kaliz

Synopsis: A whole slew of former silent-film favorites shows up in Mayfair's Secret Sinners. Dilettante songwriter Jack Mulhall falls in love with chorus girl Sue Carol and promises to marry her -- as soon as he can get a divorce from his wife Natalie Morehead. As the months pass, Carol becomes convinced Read More

The Bitter Tea of General Yen

Actors: Barbara Stanwyck, Nils Asther, Gavin Gordon, Toshia Mori, Walter Connolly

Synopsis: The Bitter Tea of General Yen is the oddest, least characteristic talkie effort of director Frank Capra. Barbara Stanwyck stars as the intended of an American missionary (Gavin Gordon) who is sent to spread the good word in China. During a military revolution, Stanwyck and her fiance inadvertently Read More

The Sign of the Cross

Actors: Fredric March, Claudette Colbert, Elissa Landi, Charles Laughton, Ian Keith

Synopsis: Director Cecil B. DeMille returned to Paramount Pictures for this typically epic production, which became his first box office hit after the close of the silent era. Fredric March stars as Roman Prefect Marcus Superbus, a noble military leader of the year 64 A.D. Emperor Nero (Charles Laughton) Read More

Subway Express

Actors: Jack Holt, Aileen Pringle, Fred Kelsey, Alan Roscoe, Jason Robards, Sr.

Synopsis: Adapted from a play by Eva Kay Flint and Martha Madison, Subway Express takes place entirely on a single subway car. When a murder is committed, the passengers are ordered to stay put while police inspector Killian (Jack Holt) investigates. From all appearances, it would seem that the victim was Read More

Sweepstakes

Actors: Eddie Quillan, James Gleason, Marian Nixon, Lew Cody, Paul Hurst

Synopsis: The exciting world of horse-racing provides the setting for this lively comedy that centers on luckless Bud Doyle, a jockey who was falsely accused of cheating and barred from the track. Desperate for work, the fellow becomes a singing waiter in Tijuana. Eventually he is allowed back and ends up Read More

The Fighting Sheriff

Actors: Buck Jones, Loretta Sayers, Robert Ellis, Harlan Knight

Synopsis: Buck Jones falls in love with the sister of the outlaw he has just killed in this superior B-Western from independent producer Sol Lesser. Jones plays Bob Terry, the sheriff of Red River, a town bedeviled by a series of holdups. Bob suspects that the local saloon proprietor, Flash Halloway (Robert Read More

The Last Dance

Actors: Vera Reynolds, Jason Robards, Sr., George Chandler, Gertrude Short, Harry Todd

Synopsis: Last Dance was loosely based on the real-life story of a newspaper mogul who married a Broadway taxi dancer. For the purposes of the film, Jason Robards Sr. plays wealthy Tom Malloy, while Vera Reynolds is cast as dime-a-dance damsel Sally Kelly. Though she enjoys Tom's company, Sally has no Read More

The Grand Parade

Actors: Helen Twelvetrees, Fred Scott, Richard Carle, Marie Astaire, Russell Powell

Synopsis: No one suffered more magnificently in the early-talkie era than the inimitable Helen Twelvetrees. In Grand Parade, the actress is cast as Molly, the sweetheart of minstrel-show performer Jack Kelly (Fred Scott). Rising to the top of his profession, Kelly plummets to the bottom thanks to his Read More

Feet First

Actors: Harold Lloyd, Robert McWade, Lillian Leighton, Barbara Kent, Alec B. Francis

Synopsis: Harold Lloyd's second talkie finds The Bespectacled One playing a shoe clerk in Honolulu. Harboring dreams of becoming an executive, Lloyd passes himself off as a millionaire to heiress Barbara Kent. As the plot merrily rolls along, Harold stows away on a ship bound for the mainland, and ends up Read More

The Fair Co-Ed

Actors: Marion Davies, Johnny Mack Brown, Jane Winton, Thelma Hill, Lillian Leighton

Synopsis: In the spirit of female stars both before and after her, 30-year-old Marion Davies plays a girl a decade younger than herself (actually the men are guilty of this too -- both Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd played college students while in their early 30s). Davies, fortunately, was athletic enough Read More

Golden Yukon

Actors: Nell Shipman, Alfred Allen, Lillian Leighton, Hugh Thompson

Synopsis: Pioneering female director Nell Shipman was so little known to the big-city film critics that the trade magazine Variety's 1928 review of The Golden Yukon billed her as Neil Shipman. Most existing evidence indicates that Golden Yukon was the reissue title of Shipman's 1923 film The Grub Stake Read More

California

Actors: Romaine Fielding, Tim McCoy, Lillian Leighton, Frank Currier

Synopsis: Colonel Tim McCoy's third western for MGM starred the former Indian sign language interpreter as an army captain facing demotion until successfully defeating a gang of Mexican cutthroats. Set in old California, the film depicted several real-life American heroes, including Kit Carson (Fred Warren) Read More

By Whose Hand?

Actors: Ricardo Cortez, Eugenia Gilbert

Synopsis: By Whose Hand? is a swift little thriller expertly assembled by up-and-coming Columbia Pictures. Ricardo Cortez stars as a society swell who, unbeknownst to all but insurance investigator J. Thornton Baston, is actually the daring Agent X-9. More troubleshooter than spy, Cortez is assigned to Read More

Lovers?

Actors: Ramon Novarro, Alice Terry, Edward Martindel, Edward Connelly, George K. Arthur

Synopsis: The venerable stage drama The World and His Wife formed the basis for the MGM production Lovers?. Ramon Novarro and Alice Terry, who previously co-starred in Scaramouche, The Prisoner of Zenda and The Arab, are herein reteamed as Ernesto and Teodora, respectively. Teodora is the new young wife of Read More

Be Your Age

Actors: Charley Chase

Synopsis: This entertaining Charley Chase comedy features an old star (pretty Gladys Hulette, whose career was on its downslide) and an up-and-coming luminary (Oliver Hardy, who hadn't yet teamed up with Stan Laurel). Charley discovers that his family is in desperate need of 10,000 dollars. Meanwhile, his Read More

Sandy

Actors: Madge Bellamy, Joan Standing, Leslie Fenton, Harrison Ford, Gloria Hope

Synopsis: Pert and pretty Sandy McNeill (Madge Bellamy) is strong-armed by her parents into marrying wealthy Ben Murillo (Bardson Bard). Ben turns out to be a sadistic wife-beater whose cruel excesses lead to the death of Sandy's baby. Fleeing this abusive environment, Sandy falls in love with handsome Read More

In the Name of Love

Actors: Greta Nissen, Wallace Beery, Raymond Hatton, Lillian Leighton

Synopsis: Naturalized American Raoul Melnotte (Ricardo Cortez) travels from Chicago to his native France in search of his childhood sweetheart, Marie Dufrayne (Greta Nissen). Unfortunately, he discovers that she has become a wealthy, snobbish social climber. Since she wants a husband with a title, she has Read More

Parisian Love

Synopsis: In her pre-Paramount days, Clara Bow was shoved into some pretty dismal pictures. This aimless drama was one of the worst. Marie (Bow) and Armand (Donald Keith) are two lovers who belong to a band of Apaches (members of the Parisian underworld, not the Native Americans). When they believe that Read More

Contraband

Actors: Lois Wilson, Noah Beery, Sr., Raymond Hatton, Raymond McKee, Charles Ogle

Synopsis: Lois Wilson stars in this drama, which was based on the novel by Clarence Buddington Kelland. Schoolteacher Carmel Lee (Wilson) inherits a run-down country newspaper from her uncle. With the help of eccentric Professor Pell (Raymond McKee) and Jed Tubal, an old printer (Luke Cosgrave), she starts Read More

Code of the West

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

Thundering Herd

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

Truthful Tulliver

Tumbleweeds

Actors: William S. Hart, Barbara Bedford, Lucien Littlefield, Gordon Russell, Richard R. Neill

Synopsis: Tumbleweeds marked silent-screen cowboy legend William S. Hart's return to the screen after a long absence, and it was also his swan song, as Hart's brand of individualism and moody morality gave way to the more action-oriented films of Tom Mix and the epic westerns of The Covered Wagon and The Iron Horse Read More

The Mine with the Iron Door

Synopsis: This epic Western-melodrama was based on the popular novel by Harold Bell Wright. Two old prospectors, Thad Grove (Charlie Murray) and Bob Hill (Bert Woodruff) find an infant in the cabin belonging to Sonora Jack (Mitchell Lewis), a notorious bandit. The girl, Marta, grows to womanhood (to be Read More

Code of the Sea

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 Bedroom Window

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

Call of the Canyon

Actors: Richard Dix, Lois Wilson, Marjorie Daw, Noah Beery, Sr., Ricardo Cortez

Synopsis: As might be expected, director Victor Fleming, who always did well with outdoorsy material, deftly handles this adaptation of Zane Grey's novel. Glenn Kilbourne (Richard Dix) was gassed during the war. When he comes home to New York he discovers that his fiancée, Carley Burch (Lois Wilson), has Read More

Only 38

Actors: May McAvoy, Lois Wilson, Elliott Dexter, George Fawcett, Robert Agnew

Synopsis: Although Lois Wilson was lovely to look at, some of her best work was in character roles. Here, the 28-year-old star plays the widowed mother of 20-year-old twins. After the death of her strait-laced husband, Mrs. Stanley (Wilson) longs for romance. Her daughter Lucy (May McAvoy) and son Bob Read More

Crinoline and Romance

Actors: Viola Dana, Lillian Lawrence, Betty Francisco, John Bowers

Synopsis: In this comedy romance, Claude Gillingwater plays a Southern Colonel who has the impossible task of keeping Viola Dana away from the lure of the Jazz Age. Because he disapproved of his daughter's marriage, Colonel Charles Cavanaugh (Gillingwater) takes it out on his granddaughter, Miss Emmy Lou Read More

The Eternal Three

Actors: Hobart Bosworth, Claire Windsor, Raymond Griffith, Bessie Love, George Cooper

Synopsis: Writer/director Marshall Neilan once more makes lemonade from a lemon in The Eternal Three. Hobart Bosworth plays Frank R. Walters, an elderly doctor who takes for himself a young bride, portrayed by Claire Windsor. Feeling neglected, the new wife starts up an affair with Walter's adopted son Bob (George Cooper 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

Red Hot Romance

Actors: Basil Sydney, Henry Warwick

Synopsis: This fast-paced comedy came from the pen of husband and wife screenwriting team Anita Loos and John Emerson. After his father's death, Roland Stone (Basil Sidney) learns that his will stipulates that he must go to the South American country of Bunkonia and sell life insurance. Stone doesn't find Read More

Tillie

Actors: Mary Miles Minter, Noah Beery, Sr., Lucien Littlefield

Synopsis: Mary Miles Minter -- the most infamous of Mary Pickford imitators -- was at the peak of her popularity when this film was released. It was based on the play Tillie, a Menonite Maid by Frank Howe which, in turn, was based on the then-popular novel by Helen R. Martin. The tale, and Minter's Read More

Saturday Night

Actors: Leatrice Joy, Conrad Nagel, Edith Roberts, Jack Mower, Julia Faye

Synopsis: Even with its share of sumptuous sets and domestic mixups, this comedy-drama was not typical for director Cecil B. DeMille. Plus, the class-conscious attitude reflected the attitudes of the pre-World War I era -- mores started changing during the 1920s. A young society couple, Iris Van Suydam Read More

Lane That Had No Turning

Actors: Agnes Ayres, Theodore Kosloff, Mahlon Hamilton, Wilton Taylor, Frank Campeau

Synopsis: Paramount starred Agnes Ayers for the first time in this tragedy, adapted from the novel by Sir Gilbert Parker. Unfortunately, it wasn't a terribly auspicious debut -- the picture was morbid and depressing. A French Canadian pair, Madelinette (Ayers) and Louis Racine (Theodore Kosloff) wed. One of Read More

Girl From God's Country

Actors: Nell Shipman, Edward Burns, Al Filson, George Berrell, Walt Whitman

Synopsis: Along with playing a dual role, Nell Shipman co-directed this adventure and wrote the screenplay -- not many women were allowed that kind of autonomy in the '20s. Too bad the picture didn't make more sense. Neeka LeMort (Shipman) is an untamed girl of the Canadian woods. Her no-good father gets 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

Love Never Dies

Actors: Lloyd Hughes, Madge Bellamy, Claire McDowell, Winifred Greenwood

Synopsis: Parental indiscretions break up a marriage in this rare surviving melodrama directed by King Vidor. Upon learning that her new husband John Trott (Lloyd Hughes) is the son of a notorious woman, Tilly (Madge Bellamy) is all too easily persuaded by her father (Frank Brownlee) to leave home and Read More

The Torrent

Actors: Eva Novak, Jack Perrin, Jack Curtis

Synopsis: Velma (Eva Novak) is unhappily married to Sam (Leonard Shumway), a user of demon alcohol and a notorious womanizer. He invites Velma and his mistress to take an afternoon trip on his sailboat. Sam tries to force Velma to drink a cocktail, and the virtuous Velma recoils in horror. Sam suffers a Read More

Under the Lash

Actors: Gloria Swanson, Mahlon Hamilton, Russell Simpson, Lillian Leighton

Synopsis: What was Paramount thinking when it cast glamorous Gloria Swanson as a drab South African wife in this plodding drama? Deborah (Swanson) is married to a straight-laced Boer farmer, Simeon Krillet (Russell Simpson), who believes that the only book one needs is the Bible and who rules by the lash. Read More

Peck's Bad Boy

Actors: Jackie Coogan, Wheeler Oakman, Doris May, Raymond Hatton, James Corrigan

Synopsis: After his appearance in The Kid, little Jackie Coogan was obviously destined for stardom. For his first starring role, he was given this story written by George W. Peck, which had been made into a stage play by George M. Cohan. While the film didn't live up to the stage version (Moving Picture Read More

A Girl Named Mary

Synopsis: Stage and film star Marguerite Clark was Mary Pickford's biggest competition during the 1910s. Keep in mind that she was nine years older than Pickford and was still playing young girls in 1920. In fact, Kathlyn Williams, who plays her mother in this rather insipid drama, is actually five years Read More

Her Beloved Villain

Synopsis: This light comedy, based on the French farce La Veglione by Alexandre Bisson and Albert Carre, should have been funnier than it actually turned out to be -- especially with players like Wanda Hawley, Harrison Ford, and famed character actor Tully Marshall. Martinot, a French lawyer (Ford) falls Read More

All-of-a-Sudden Peggy

Synopsis: This amusing little comedy was based on the play by Ernest Denny. Anthony, Lord Crackenthorpe (Orral Humphrey), studies spiders, and he has asked Mrs. O'Mara (Lillian Leighton), the widow of a zoologist, to collaborate with him on a book about the creatures. Mrs. O'Mara and her impetuous daughter Read More

Dancin' Fool

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

Thou Art the Man

Synopsis: Myles Calthorpe (Robert Warwick) is an English soldier of fortune who travels to South Africa. He goes to work for a pair of feather merchants who are, in reality, diamond smugglers. When they realize that he knows what they're up to, they fire him. So he heads for Cape Town, where he meets pretty Read More

The Jack Knife Man

Synopsis: An early directorial effort by King Vidor, The Jack Knife Man is based on a sentimental story by Ellis Parker Butler. Vidor avoids many of the obvious Pathos pitfalls of the Butler original, turning out a story that is as credible as it is heartwarming. Fred Turner stars as a lonely old man who 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

City Sparrow

Synopsis: Milly West (a miscast Ethel Clayton) is a dancer who has her heart bent on stardom. She has an admirer in country boy Tim Ennis (Walter Hiers), who lives in the same boarding house as she does, but she turns down his marriage proposal. During a performance, Milly is injured and can't get her Read More

Louisiana

Synopsis: Louisiana Rogers (Vivian Martin) lives in the mountains of rural North Carolina with her father Lew (Noah Beery). Pa Rogers wants his daughter to become cultured so he sends her to the city to get an education. Her old-fashioned ways charm the townsfolk, especially playwright Laurence Ferol (Robert Ellis Read More

Poor Relations

Synopsis: Director King Vidor would always take the slightest excuse to champion the common man (or woman), and that he does with this slight little film. Country girl Dorothy Perkins (Florence Vidor, the director's wife) goes to the big city and lands young millionaire Monte Rhodes (Charles Meredith). 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

Old Wives for New

Synopsis: The first of Cecil B. DeMille's series of sophisticated romantic comedy-dramas, Old Wives for New was adapted from a novel by David Graham. Elliot Dexter stars as David Murdock, who after several years of marriage has grown as tired of his wife Sophy as she has of him. Casting about for new female Read More

Till I Come Back to You

Synopsis: During World War I, every director made at least one film about the battles going on in Europe, even Cecil B. DeMille. These pictures were rarely very distinguished, and this drama was certainly one of DeMille's lesser efforts. Florence Vidor plays Yvonne, a Belgian girl who marries a German man Read More

Lady's Name

Actors: Harrison Ford

Synopsis: In this witty comedy -- an adaptation of Cyril Harcourt's play -- Constance Talmadge plays a writer who runs a lonely hearts ad in order to get material for a novel she's working on. Her ad is answered by a large group of odd personalities. Not so odd is Harrison Ford, and he wins the novelist's Read More

Hostage

Synopsis: Many film critics felt that Wallace Reid graduated from mere leading man to full-fledged star in his 1917 vehicle The Hostage. The story is set in an unidentified European country, where civil war rages between the Lowlanders and Highlanders. Circumstances dictate that Brigadier Kemper of the Read More

The Little American

Actors: DeWitt Jennings

Synopsis: It would be easy to assume that combining Mary Pickford's charm with director Cecil B. DeMille's penchant for the spectacular would create an exceptional piece of work. But judging from this picture, and the one made before it -- Romance of the Redwoods -- that just wasn't the case. The bottom Read More

The Devil Stone

Synopsis: This typically overbaked Cecil B. DeMille opus takes place off the seacoast of Brittany. While ambling along the beach, peasant maiden Marcia Manot (Geraldine Farrar) finds the Devil Stone, a "cursed" emerald that originally belonged to a Viking Queen. Marcia doesn't realize the emerald's value Read More

The Plow Girl

Synopsis: Early in her screen career, former Follies sensation Mae Murray played a number of waif-like roles. Surprisingly, the formula worked; perhaps this is due in part to the direction of Robert Z. Leonard, who became the star's second (third, if you count a brief and apparently unconsummated union with Read More

Joan the Woman

Synopsis: A sweeping chronicle of the life and death of Joan of Arc, the Maid of Orlean, this epic stands as one of director Cecil B. DeMille's finest works and offers film buffs a fascinating look into the early years of one of Hollywood's greats. The story of the valiant French martyr is framed by the Read More