Lucien LittlefieldFilmography

Wink of an Eye

Actors: Jonathan Kidd, Doris Dowling, Barbara Turner, Irene Seidner, Jaclynne Greene

Synopsis: The little-known British melodrama Wink of an Eye was given a brief American distribution by United Artists. Jonathan Kidd plays Atterbury, the apparently mild-mannered owner of a small perfume laboratory. No one suspects that Atterbury plans to murder his harridan of a wife (Jaclynne Greene) and Read More

Bop Girl

Actors: Judy Tyler, Bobby Troup, Margo Woode, Lucien Littlefield, George O'Hanlon

Synopsis: Also known as Bop Girl, this diverting musical time capsule features several of the best Calypso performers of the late 1950s. Real-life jazz musician Bobby Troup stars as a college music student, writing a graduate thesis on rock 'n' roll. For research purposes, Troup persuades nightclub singer Judy Tyler Read More

Dragnet: The Big Beer

Synopsis: Night watchman Clyde Matik has been stabbed to death in an appliance store warehouse. One of the dead man's fellow employees is convinced that the guilty party is Matik's girlfriend Bessie Rowan (Ann Doran), but Friday (Jack Webb) and Smith (Ben Alexander) are sent off on a different path thanks Read More

Sudden Danger

Actors: Tom Drake, Beverly Garland, Dayton Lummis, Helene Stanton

Synopsis: Having forsaken westerns for detective melodramas in Dial Red O, William "Wild Bill" Ellliot continues in this vein in Sudden Danger. Elliot is cast as detective lieutenant Doyle, who at present is investigating the alleged suicide of a clothing manufacturer. Doyle suspects that the victim was Read More

Casanova's Big Night

Actors: Bob Hope, Joan Fontaine, Basil Rathbone, Audrey Dalton, Hugh Marlowe

Synopsis: Bob Hope tries to capture the comic magic of his 1946 costume farce Monsieur Beaucaire with the splashy Technicolor romp Casanova's Big Night (filmed in 1952, released in 1954). Set in 18th century Venice, the film casts Hope as Pippo, the humble tailor of notorious ladies' man Casanova (an Read More

Roar of the Crowd

Actors: Howard Duff, Helene Stanley, Dave Willock, Louise Arthur, Minor Watson

Synopsis: Attractively filmed in Cinecolor, Roar of the Crowd is a better-than-average actioner from Allied Artists. Howard Duff plays Johnny Tracy, scion of a racecar-driving family. Johnny wants a crack at the Indianapolis 500 above all else, but his girl friend Marcy Parker (Helene Stanley) wants him to Read More

The Adventures of Superman: The Runaway Robot

Synopsis: Eccentric "Daily Planet" stringer Horatio Hinkle (Lucien Littlefield) invents a robot named Hero, which he uses to break up a jewel robbery. The disgruntled thieves decide to kidnap the robot and force Hinkle to reprogram it to help them commit their next few crimes. This, of course, is a Read More

At Sword's Point

Actors: Cornel Wilde, Maureen O'Hara, Dan O'Herlihy, Robert Douglas, Gladys Cooper, June Clayworth

Synopsis: At Sword's Point is about the sons of Dumas' Three Musketeers--one of those "sons" being of the female persuasion, played by Maureen O'Hara. As the swash-buckling daughter of Athos, O'Hara joins the offspring of Aramis and Porthos, portrayed respectively by Dan O'Herlihy and Alan Hale Jr., as well Read More

Bad Men of Tombstone

Actors: Barry Sullivan, Marjorie Reynolds, Broderick Crawford, Fortunio Bonanova, Guinn "Big Boy" Williams

Synopsis: Director Kurt Neumann, more closely associated with science fiction and mystery programmers, delivers a powerhouse of a pocket western in Bad Men of Tombstone. Barry Sullivan and Broderick Crawford head the cast as a pair of gunslingers who hold no regrets and evidently harbor no consciences. They Read More

Susanna Pass

Actors: Roy Rogers, Estelita Rodriguez, Martin Garralaga

Synopsis: Republic's Trucolor "special" Susanna Pass stars Roy Rogers and Dale Evans, King and Queen of the West. Rogers plays "himself," while Evans is cast as female doctor Kay Parker. The villains this time around are trying to force a fish hatchery owner out of business so they can drill for underwater Read More

Lightnin' in the Forest

Actors: Lynne Roberts, Warren Douglas, Adrian Booth, Lucien Littlefield

Synopsis: Lightnin' in the Forest is a rare Republic Studios foray into the comedy field, kept alive by the rapport between its stars. Lynne Roberts plays an Eastern gal who heads to the North Woods, looking for thrills. Vacationing psychiatrist Warren Douglas likewise journeys to the tall timbers, in Read More

Jinx Money

Actors: Stanley Andrews, Ben Baker, Billy Benedict, Betty Caldwell

Synopsis: Jinx Money is not so much a Bowery Boys vehicle as a murder mystery that happens to star the Bowery Boys. It all begins when a gambler is murdered shortly after winning $50,000 in a card game. As the other cardplayers scramble around in search of the money, Slip Mahoney (Leo Gorcey) and Sach Jones Read More

Let's Live a Little

Actors: Hedy Lamarr, Robert Cummings, Anna Sten, Mary Treen, Harry Antrim

Synopsis: Sexual harassment can work both ways as can be seen in this romantic comedy when ad man endeavors to maneuver out of a relationship with his girlfriend. This is difficult as she controls a major account for his company and refuses to renew it unless he continues to go out with her. The frustrated Read More

The Scar

Actors: Paul Henreid, Joan Bennett, Eduard Franz, Leslie Brooks, John Qualen

Synopsis: John Muller (Paul Henreid), an intelligent, arrogant criminal who has been a medical student and a phony psychoanalyst, believes that people are only interested in themselves and do not notice what is happening around them. Paroled from prison to a boring job, Muller is more interested in a big Read More

Sweet Genevieve

Down to Earth

Actors: James Burke, Rita Hayworth, Larry Parks, Roland Culver, Jean Donahue, William Frawley, James Gleason, Edward Everett Horton, Marc Platt

Synopsis: A semi-sequel to Here Comes Mr. Jordan, Columbia's Down to Earth is a camp- and kitsch-lover's delight. More beautiful than ever, Rita Hayworth stars as Terpsichore, the Goddess of Dance. From her perch Up Above, Terpsichore discovers that Broadway producer Danny Miller (Larry Parks) intends to Read More

Rendezvous with Annie

Synopsis: Director Allan Dwan moved to Republic Pictures in 1946, there to make the same sort of marital farce he'd been specializing in at United Artists throughout the 1940s. Eddie Albert plays an American pilot stationed in England who pines for his stateside wife (Faye Marlowe). Denied a pass, he goes Read More

Love Laughs at Andy Hardy

Actors: Mickey Rooney, Lewis Stone, Bonita Granville, Sara Haden, Fay Holden, Lina Romay

Synopsis: For his first post-WWII starring film, 26-year-old Mickey Rooney returned to familiar territory in Love Laughs at Andy Hardy. In true Art-Imitates-Life fashion, Rooney plays returning GI Andy Hardy, who arrives in his home town of Carvel to the open arms of his family: Father Judge Hardy (Lewis Read More

That Brennan Girl

Actors: James Dunn, Mona Freeman, William Marshall, June Duprez, Frank Jenks

Synopsis: In this melodrama, a self-absorbed mother unwittingly teaches her daughter some terrible habits. From her, the girl learns that she should simply take everything she wants without considering the consequences of her actions. Her conniving tactics make her rich, but unlucky in love. Fortunately Read More

In Old Sacramento

Actors: Constance Moore, Hank Daniels, Ruth Donnelly, Eugene Pallette

Synopsis: Director Joseph Kane adapted his own story Diamond Carlisle for the screenplay of In Old Sacramento--the third film version of Kane's original tale. Bill Elliot stars as masked bandit Spanish Jack, who behaves as badly as he wishes with few of the usual redeeming features plaguing most cinema Read More

Scared Stiff

Actors: Jack Haley, Ann Savage, Barton MacLane, Veda Ann Borg, Arthur Ayleswofth

Synopsis: This comedy centers around an inept reporter who wouldn't recognize a hot story if it burned him on the hand. The trouble begins when he is assigned to do a story on a local wine festival. Meanwhile an escaped convict holds the heated interest of the rest of the newspaper employees. The bungler Read More

The Caribbean Mystery

Actors: Sheila Ryan, Edward Ryan, Jackie Paley, Reed Hadley

Synopsis: The Caribbean Mystery is a remake of Mr. Moto on Danger Island (1939)-which in turn was a remake of Murder in Trinidad. James Dunn stars as Mr. Smith, a Columbo-like Brooklyn detective who pops up on a tropical island to track down some missing geologists. In his own shambling, easygoing manner Read More

The Cowboy and the Senorita

Actors: Roy Rogers, Mary Lee, Dale Evans, John Hubbard, Guinn "Big Boy" Williams

Synopsis: Yet another tuneful Roy Rogers Western named after a song, The Cowboy and the Senorita features Roy and sidekick Teddy Bear (Guinn "Big Boy" Williams) as a couple of would-be prospectors fired from a small town café when the latter gets in trouble with an irate customer (rotund Ferdinand Munier). Read More

The Lights of Old Santa Fe

Actors: Roy Rogers, George "Gabby" Hayes, Dale Evans, Lloyd Corrigan

Synopsis: Roy Rogers saves Dale Evans from being hoodwinked by a rodeo competitor in this pleasant, and pleasantly tuneful, B-Western from Republic Pictures. Due to the mismanagement of old-timer Gabby Whittaker (George "Gabby" Hayes), The Brooks Rodeo is about to be gobbled up by competitor Frank Madden Read More

Zorro's Black Whip [Serial]

Synopsis: Popular latter-day serial queen Linda Stirling starred in the title role in this well-made 12 chapter serial produced by genre specialist Republic Pictures. Stirling plays Barbara Mededith, a pretty girl who takes over her murdered brother's crusading newspaper. She also assumes the dead sibling's Read More

One Body Too Many

Actors: Jean Parker, Bela Lugosi, Bernard Nedell, Blanche Yurka

Synopsis: Another of Jack Haley's comedy vehicles for Pine-Thomas productions, One Body Too Many casts Haley as timid insurance salesman Albert Tuttle. Much against his better judgment, Tuttle makes a business call at a sinister old mansion, intending to sell life insurance to the owner. He proves a bit Read More

Goodnight Sweetheart

Actors: Robert Livingston, Ruth Terry, Henry Hull, Grant Withers, Thurston Hall

Synopsis: In this drama a big-city reporter moves to a tiny town to begin running the newspaper he half-owns. His in-your-face reporting style does not make him very popular; especially when he begins causing trouble for the incumbent mayor's opposition. It is the candidate's pretty niece who teaches the Read More

Lady, Let's Dance

Actors: Belita, James Ellison, Walter Catlett

Synopsis: Singing, dancing, and ice skating are featured in this musical that focuses on ice-skating sensation Belita. The story begins as she travels to a California resort where she has been hired as a replacement for a dance team. The resort is run by a handsome fellow. As a result of the gig, the skater Read More

Casanova in Burlesque

Actors: Joe E. Brown, June Havoc, Dale Evans, Lucien Littlefield, Ian Keith

Synopsis: In this effervescent musical comedy, a stuffy college professor secretly works as a burlesque comedian during the summer. He, a professor of Shakespeare, manages to keep his secret, until a stripper shows up and threatens to blow his cover unless he gives her a starring role in his latest Read More

Johnny Come Lately

Actors: James Cagney, Grace George, Marjorie Main, Hattie McDaniel, Marjorie Lord, Edward McNamara

Synopsis: For his first independently-produced starring effort, James Cagney chose the sentimental drama Johnny Come Lately. Cagney plays itinerant newspaperman Tom Richards, who wanders into a small corruption-ridden town. Striking up a friendship with elderly Vinnie McLeod (Grace George in her only movie Read More

Henry Aldrich Haunts a House

Actors: Jimmy Lydon, Charles Smith, John Litel, Olive Blakeney, Joan Mortimer

Synopsis: Henry's friends think he's a coward because he refuses to fight a local bully, but his reason for refusing had more to do with wanting to impress Elise, the daughter of the chemistry teacher. While in her father's lab, Elise tells Henry he misunderstood her, and points out how brave her own father Read More

Larceny, Inc.

Actors: Edward G. Robinson, Jane Wyman, Broderick Crawford, Jack Carson, Anthony Quinn

Synopsis: This parody of gangster flicks centers on an incarcerated gangster who decides to reform after he is released from Sing Sing. He and his cell mate have earned a small fortune in investments and are planning to buy a dog track. Unfortunately, another prisoner eavesdrops and attempts to force the Read More

Whistling in Dixie

Actors: Red Skelton, Ann Rutherford, George Bancroft, Guy Kibbee, Diana Lewis

Synopsis: This second entry in MGM's "Whistling" series is more elaborate than the first (Whistling in the Dark) and equally as funny. Red Skelton returns as radio sleuth Wally Benton, aka "The Fox", while Ann Rutherford is back as his ever-patient fiancee Carol Lambert (Ann Rutherford). After receiving a Read More

Bells of Capistrano

Actors: Gene Autry, Smiley Burnette, Virginia Grey, Lucien Littlefield, Morgan Conway

Synopsis: In his final film before entering war service, Gene Autry joins the World Wide Wild West Show, a faltering enterprise about to be taken over by the more powerful Johnson Bros. Rodeo, and his success as the Singing Bronco Buster allows the show to open at San Capistrano instead of the rival outfit. Read More

The Great Man's Lady

Actors: Barbara Stanwyck, Joel McCrea, Brian Donlevy, Thurston Hall, Lloyd Corrigan

Synopsis: This rambling historical drama covers 109 years in the life of one woman. Encased in convincing old-age makeup, Barbara Stanwyck reminisces on her experiences in the American West. As a young woman, she is squired by gambler Brian Donlevy, but her heart belongs to dreamer Joel McCrea. She chooses Read More

Hillbilly Blitzkrieg

Actors: Bud Duncan, Cliff Nazarro, Edgar Kennedy, Doris Linden, Lucien Littlefield

Synopsis: Popular comic strip characters Snuffy Smith, his pal Barney Google, and their loyal horse Spark Plug come to life in this comedy. The fun begins as an Army sergeant is assigned to guard a top-secret missile site located in the backwoods of Tennessee. Snuffy, a buck private, is assigned to assist Read More

Henry Aldrich Gets Glamour

Actors: Jimmy Lydon, Charles Smith, John Litel, Olive Blakeney, Diana Lynn

Synopsis: Adenoidal teenager Henry Aldrich (James Lydon) "gets glamour" when he wins first prize in a movie-magazine contest. Before he quite knows what's happening, Henry is whisked to Hollywood for a date with glamorous "sarong girl" Hilary Dane (Frances Gifford). All of this coincides with a local Read More

Castle in the Desert

Actors: Sidney Toler, Arleen Whelan, Richard Derr, Douglas Dumbrille, Henry Daniell

Synopsis: This final entry in 20th Century-Fox's "Charlie Chan" series is set in a huge mansion, smack-dab in the middle of the Mojave desert. When snoopy weekend guest Professor Gleason (Lucien Littlefield) is murdered, every member of the household falls under suspicion-none more so than Mr. Manderly (Douglass Dumbrille Read More

Henry Aldrich for President

Actors: Charles Smith, June Preisser, Mary Anderson, Martha O'Driscoll

Synopsis: Henry Aldrich for President was the second of Paramount's "Henry Aldrich" series to star Jimmy Lydon in the teenaged title role. This time Henry is pitted against an arrogant jock for the presidency of the Centerville High School student council. Henry's chances don't seem bright, especially since Read More

Mr. and Mrs. North

Actors: Gracie Allen, William Post, Jr., Paul Kelly, Rose Hobart, Virginia Grey

Synopsis: "Mr. and Mrs. North" started as a series of comic articles about a Park Avenue married couple, written by Richard and Frances Lockridge. One of these articles was "The Norths Solve a Murder", which was adapted as a stage play by Owen Davis Sr. and was later spun off into a popular radio and TV Read More

Murder among Friends

Actors: Marjorie Weaver, John Hubbard, Cobina Wright, Jr., Mona Barrie, Douglas Dumbrille

Synopsis: Marjorie Weaver, frequently cast as the "Girl Friday" in 20th Century-Fox's Michael Shayne pictures, is permitted to solve a mystery on her own in Murder Among Friends. Weaver plays Mary Lou, an insurance agent who smells a rat when several elderly men, all beneficiaries to a "Tontine" insurance Read More

The Little Foxes

Actors: Bette Davis, Herbert Marshall, Teresa Wright, Richard Carlson, Patricia Collinge, Charles Dingle

Synopsis: Playwright Lillian Hellman first wrote of the horrible Hubbard family in her 1939 play The Little Foxes. In this lavish 1941 film version, Bette Davis takes over for Broadway's Tallulah Bankhead in the role of conniving turn-of-the-century Southern aristocrat Regina Hubbard Giddens. Regina's Read More

Man at Large

Actors: Marjorie Weaver, George Reeves, Richard Derr, Steven Geray, Milton Parsons

Synopsis: Fresh from his contract-player duties at Warner Bros., future TV "Superman" George Reeves heads the cast of 20th Century-Fox's Man at Large. Reeves is cast as FBI agent Bob Grayson, working in collaboration with Max (Richard Derr), a British agent posing as a fugitive German aviator. Meanwhile Read More

The Great American Broadcast

Actors: Alice Faye, Jack Oakie, John Payne, Cesar Romero, Four Ink Spots

Synopsis: On the occasion of the twentieth anniversary of commercial radio, 20th Century-Fox cooked up the pageantlike entertainment The Great American Broadcast. Opening with clips of such airwaves favorites as Dick Powell and Fred Allen (courtesy of earlier Fox films like Thanks a Million), the picture Read More

Life with Henry

Actors: Jackie Cooper, Leila Ernst, Eddie Bracken, Hedda Hopper

Synopsis: The box-office success of Paramount's What a Life (1939), coupled with the popularity of the spinoff Henry Aldrich radio series, inspired the studio to launch an "Aldrich" series of its own. The inagural entry was Life with Henry, with Jackie Cooper repeating his role as befuddled teenager Henry Read More

Li'l Abner

Actors: Granville Owen

Synopsis: This is the first of two filmed adaptations of Al Capp's classic comic strip, in which the title hillbilly (Granville Owen) does his best to avoid the marital advances of girlfriend Daisy Mae (Martha O'Driscoll). ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide Read More

Those Were the Days

Actors: William Holden, Bonita Granville, Ezra Stone, Judith Barrett, Vaughan Glaser

Synopsis: William Holden and Bonita Granville, heavily if not convincingly decked out in "old age" makeup, recall on their 35th wedding anniversary how they first met in 1904. Holden was a brash college freshman, while Bonita was the daughter of a local judge (Vaughn Glaser). Since Holden couldn't stay out Read More

The Westerner

Actors: Gary Cooper, Walter Brennan, Doris Davenport, Fred Stone, Forrest Tucker

Synopsis: The town of Vinegaroon, TX, is the home to Judge Roy Bean (Walter Brennan), who calls himself "The Only Law West of the Pecos." Bean keeps a saloon, where he also conducts trials, using his office to get fat on fines and the seizure of property, and hanging most of those who get in his way Read More

Money to Burn

Synopsis: In this episode of the Higgins Family series, pandemonium ensues when Ma enters a dog biscuit contest. The prize is a whopping $50,000. Unfortunately, the company is represented by Pa's ad agency and his wife cannot legally enter. The trouble is, to win, Ma purchased every dog biscuit in town. Read More

What a Life

Actors: Jackie Cooper, Betty Field, John Howard, Janice Logan, Vaughan Glaser

Synopsis: In this comedy drama, young high school student Henry Aldrich tries to tone down his natural mischievousness and shuck the reputation of being the worst student in school. It isn't easy and his father, who was an excellent student at Princeton, doesn't help. Fortunately, by the story's end, the Read More

Land of Liberty

Synopsis: Originally designed for exhibition at the 1939 World's Fair, Land of Liberty is a 137-minute compendium of filmclips from past American historical epics. The project was sponsored by the Motion Picture Producers & Distributors of America, Inc. and supervised by Cecil B. DeMille, who also edited Read More

Unmarried

Actors: Helen Twelvetrees, Buck Jones, Donald O'Connor, John Hartley, Robert Armstrong

Synopsis: In this sentimental drama, a washed-up boxer falls for a nightclub owner whose business has nearly been ruined by Prohibition. Both of them are fairly depressed by their lives and end up living together in the home of the fighter's recently murdered manager. The deceased's young son comes home Read More

Sabotage

Actors: Arleen Whelan, Gordon Oliver, Charles Grapewin, Lucien Littlefield, Paul Guilfoyle

Synopsis: In this patriotic wartime drama set during WW II, a test plane crashes killing all aboard and causes the locals to accuse the aircraft engineer of being a traitor and sabotaging the plane. To prove his son's innocence, the engineer's father looks into the crash and soon reveals the real spies. The Read More

Pirates of the Skies

Actors: Kent Taylor, Rochelle Hudson, Lucien Littlefield, Ray Walker, Stanley Andrews

Synopsis: In this drama, a waitress leaves her husband after getting sick of being alone while her husband, a commercial pilot, plies his trade. To be near her, he quits his job and joins the state police air service. Unfortunately, he becomes mixed up in an interdepartmental rivalry between road-bound and Read More

Jeepers Creepers

Actors: Leon Weaver, Frank Weaver, Roy Rogers, Maris Wrixon

Synopsis: In this drama, a young businessman is forced to dig with a pick for a day after he almost caused a fire. While toiling away, he discovers a major coal vein on the Weaver's land. The greedy fellow then begins to slyly buy up their land. His incautious digging then causes a forest fire. Fortunately Read More

Mystery Plane

Actors: John Trent, Milburn Stone, Marjorie Reynolds, Jason Robards, Sr., Peter George Lynn

Synopsis: Mystery Plane is one of the better-known entries in Monogram's "Tailspin Tommy" series, if only because of its frequent TV showings. In this one, aviation ace Tommy (John Trent) and his pal Skeeter (Milburn Stone) develop a revolutionary new bombsight which they hope to turn over to the Army Air Read More

Scandal Street

Actors: Dorothy Babbs, Lew Ayres, Louise Campbell, Roscoe Karns, Porter Hall, Virginia Weidler

Synopsis: In this often funny crime melodrama, a librarian moves to a small town and finds herself the butt of local gossip. While the town young men strut their stuff before her, the old biddies make her the topic of many bridge parties. The initially harmless gossip takes a nasty twist when a murder Read More

I Am the Law

Actors: Edward G. Robinson, Barbara O'Neil, Wendy Barrie, Otto Kruger

Synopsis: I Am the Law is arguably the best of the late-1930s films inspired by the racket-busting career of New York district attorney Thomas E. Dewey. Edward G. Robinson switches to the right side of the law as the Dewey counterpart, here named John Lindsay (!) A feisty, no-nonsense law professor, Lindsay Read More

Wide Open Faces

Actors: Joe E. Brown, Jane Wyman, Alison Skipworth, Lyda Roberti, Alan Baxter

Synopsis: In this crime comedy, a fortune is stolen and every gangster in town is looking for it. They all end up staying at a young woman's inn. The crooks all end up jailed thanks to the work of an innocent fountaineer. Not only does he collect a substantial reward, he returns the missing loot and wins Read More

The Night Hawk

Actors: Robert Livingston, June Travis, Robert Armstrong, Ben Welden, Lucien Littlefield

Synopsis: In this action-packed crime drama, an ace reporter declares war on the mobsters that killed his best friend, helps a disenchanted hit man steal back his brother's iron lung from gangsters by hiding inside it during transport, busts up two other gangs, discovers a whiskey-smuggling ring, almost Read More

Hollywood Stadium Mystery

Actors: Neil Hamilton, Evelyn Venable, Jimmy Wallington, Barbara Pepper, Lucien Littlefield

Synopsis: Among the best-known of Republic's "B" pictures of the late 1930s, Hollywood Stadium Mystery is a neat and satisfying whodunit with very little "waste" footage. Neil Hamilton is his usual stalwart self as District Attorney Bill Devons, who tries to solve a murder that was committed in full view of Read More

The Gladiator

Actors: Joe E. Brown, Man Mountain Dean, June Travis, Dickie Moore, Lucien Littlefield

Synopsis: The most successful of Joe E. Brown's post-Warner Bros. efforts, The Gladiator finds cavern-mouthed Brown winning a cash prize at a movie theatre, then using his windfall to attend college. The son of a legendary athlete, clumsy Brown is unable to live up to his dad's reputation. Genially batty Read More

Reckless Living

Actors: Robert Wilcox, Nan Grey, Jimmy Savo, William Lundigan, Frank Jenks

Synopsis: This harmless Universal musical comedy is worth having as one of the few filmed records of legendary Broadway comedian Jimmy Savo (his previous starrer, Once in a Blue Moon, is among the rarest of collector's item). The story proper is carried by Robert Wilcox and Nan Grey, cast as a pair of Read More

Partners in Crime

Actors: Lynne Overman, Muriel Hutchison, Anthony Quinn, Inez Courtney

Synopsis: Partners in Crime was Paramount's follow-up to its successful Murder Goes to College; both films were based on a series of mystery novels by Kurt Steel. Lynne Overman and Roscoe Karns are back as insouciant private eye Hank Hyer and his bibulous partner-in-crimesolving Sim Perkins. Our heroes are Read More

Bulldog Drummond's Revenge

Actors: John Barrymore, Louise Campbell, John Howard, E.E. Clive, Reginald Denny

Synopsis: In the fourth of Paramount's "Bulldog Drummond" action-thrillers, the intrepid adventurer (John Howard) makes the grizzly discovery of a severed hand. Even more startling, attached to the wayward limb is a case filled with hextonite, a new and highly explosive substance desired by the enemy in Read More

Hotel Haywire

Actors: Leo Carrillo, Mary Carlisle, Lynne Overman, George Barbier, Spring Byington

Synopsis: The inimitable Preston Sturges originally scripted Hotel Haywire with George Burns and Gracie Allen in mind, but by the time the film went before the cameras, the Burns and Allen roles had been recast with Benny Baker and Colette Lyons -- and significantly abbreviated in the process. A dentist Read More

Hell Town

Actors: John Wayne, Marsha Hunt, Johnny Mack Brown, John Patterson, Monte Blue

Synopsis: Paramount borrowed John Wayne from Republic Pictures for the studio's second screen version of Zane Grey's Born to the West, which was also the Western's original release title. A couple of drifters, Dare Rudd (Wayne) and Dinkie Hooley (Sid Saylor), arrive in a Wyoming town hoping for a handout Read More

Wild Money

Actors: Louise Campbell, Lynne Overman, Lucien Littlefield, Esther Dale

Synopsis: In this crime drama, a tightwad accountant for a newspaper becomes friends with a reporter. The bookkeeper goes on vacation, and while there he learns of a kidnapping conspiracy. He quickly phones the paper and they order him to follow up on the story and stay off the phone so the reporter (whom Read More

High, Wide and Handsome

Actors: Irene Dunne, Randolph Scott, Dorothy Lamour, Elizabeth Patterson, Raymond Walburn

Synopsis: High, Wide and Handsome almost defies classification: Perhaps it's best referred to as a historical musical western comedy melodrama. Irene Dunne plays an itinerant circus performer who marries oilman Randolph Scott. The couple heads to Titusville, Pennsylvania in 1859, where Scott is among the Read More

Wells Fargo

Actors: Joel McCrea, Frances Dee, Lloyd Nolan, Porter Hall

Synopsis: The third of Paramount's "deluxe" westerns of the 1930s (following The Texas Rangers and The Plainsman) was Wells Fargo, filmed on a Cecil B. DeMille scale by producer-director Frank Lloyd. In his first western appearance, Joel McCrea plays Ramsey McCay, troubleshooter for the newly formed Read More

Souls at Sea

Actors: Gary Cooper, George Raft, Frances Dee, Henry Wilcoxon, Harry Carey

Synopsis: Paramount's answer to Mutiny on the Bounty (1935) also involved mutiny and romance on the high seas. Gary Cooper stars as Nuggin Taylor, first mate on a slave ship in 1842. Ironically, Nuggin is an abolitionist. When a mutiny overthrows the ship's skipper and leaves him in charge, he frees his Read More

Bulldog Drummond Comes Back

Actors: John Barrymore, John Howard, Louise Campbell, Reginald Denny, E.E. Clive

Synopsis: In the second of Paramount's "Bulldog Drummond" thrillers, Hugh "Bulldog" Drummond (John Howard) is finally about to marry longtime fiancée Phyllis Clavering (Louise Campbell) when the girl is kidnapped. The hijackers, Mikhail Valdin (J. Carroll Naish) and his sister, Erena Soldanis (Helen Read More

Early to Bed

Crew: Screen Story

Actors: Mary Boland, Charlie Ruggles, George Barbier, Gail Patrick, Robert McWade

Synopsis: In one of the best Charlie Ruggles-Mary Boland vehicles of the 1930s, Ruggles plays a mild mannered husband prone to sleepwalking. His nocturnal prowlings cause no end of embarrassment for his wife (Mary Boland), especially since Ruggles is a more aggressive personality when asleep. Eventually Read More

Let's Sing Again

Actors: Henry Armetta, George Houston, Vivienne Osborne, Grant Withers

Synopsis: In this musical, a talented young boy escapes from his orphanage and joins a traveling show where he is adopted by a has-been opera star who teaches helps him develop his marvellous singing voice. When his mentor finds himself terminally ill, he takes the lad to New York to see a real opera. There Read More

Rose Marie

Actors: Jeanette MacDonald, Nelson Eddy, James Stewart, Reginald Owen, Allan Jones

Synopsis: It was standard operating procedure at MGM to cast their favorite singing team of Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald in new versions of old operettas, then retain only the music, drastically altering the plotlines to conform to popular tastes. This was the treatment afforded the Rudolf Friml-Herbert Stothart Read More

The Moon's Our Home

Actors: Margaret Sullavan, Henry Fonda, Charles Butterworth, Beulah Bondi, Margaret Hamilton

Synopsis: A New York novelist (Henry Fonda) meets up with an actress (Margaret Sullavan), and the two date and later marry, though neither knows of the other's fame. The real adventure begins on the honeymoon, when this screwball comedy really heats up with insults and arguments. ~ John Bush, All Movie Read More

Sweepstake Annie

Actors: Tom Brown, Marian Nixon, Wera Engels, Inez Courtney, Ivan Lebedeff

Synopsis: In this drama, a studio script girl works very hard to support her no-account family. One day she wins a lottery, gives her family some of the winnings and moves in with her best friend. She had a boy friend, but he became disgusted with her loyalty to her lazy family and abandoned her. Soon after Read More

Gridiron Flash

Actors: Betty Furness, Grant Mitchell, Edgar Kennedy, Grady Sutton

Synopsis: In this comedy-drama, an enterprising college football coach's desire to win overshadows his common-sense when he cuts a deal with a talented convict. If the youth will play on Bedford College's team and stay out of trouble, the coach will get him paroled. Well, natch, the con agrees to the deal. Read More

I Dream Too Much

Actors: Lily Pons, Henry Fonda, Eric Blore, Osgood Perkins, Lucien Littlefield

Synopsis: If Columbia could make an acceptable movie star out of opera-diva Grace Moore, then RKO Radio could do the same with Lily Pons. At least that was producer Pandro S. Berman's reasoning when he cast Pons in the 1935 musical romance I Dream too Much. The actress plays Annette, a rural French musical Read More

Ruggles of Red Gap

Actors: Charles Laughton, Mary Boland, Charlie Ruggles, ZaSu Pitts, Roland Young, Leila Hyams

Synopsis: Previously filmed in 1918 and 1923, Harry Leon Wilson's novel achieved movie classic status when it was remade by Leo McCarey in 1935. The story opens in Paris, circa 1908. Ruggles, beautifully underplayed by Charles Laughton, is the ultra-obedient manservant to the bibulous Earl of Burnstead (Roland Young Read More

The Return of Peter Grimm

Actors: Lionel Barrymore, Helen Mack, Edward Ellis, Donald Meek, George Breakston

Synopsis: Previously filmed in 1921 and 1926, this venerable 1911 David Belasco stage play provides a good, if slightly risible, vehicle for Lionel Barrymore. Greedy businessman Peter Grimm (Barrymore) returns from the dead in spirit form to correct all the mistakes he made during his lifetime. The old man Read More

Magnificent Obsession

Actors: Irene Dunne, Robert Taylor, Charles Butterworth, Betty Furness, Sara Haden

Synopsis: A man who has ruined a woman's life attempts to make good on his debt to her (and his conscience) in this sudsy drama based on a best-selling novel by Lloyd C. Douglas. Bobby Merrick (Robert Taylor) is an alcoholic ne'er-do-well whose recklessness causes the death of Dr. Hudson, a respected Read More

The Murder Man

Actors: Spencer Tracy, Virginia Bruce, Lionel Atwill, Harvey Stephens, Robert H. Barrat

Synopsis: Spencer Tracy plays a hard-driving newsman with a special instinct for solving sensational murders before the police can. This earns him the grudging respect of his peers, but his editor always puts him in his place. Tracy spends most of his time solving cases and almost never sleeps at home. This Read More

The Man on the Flying Trapeze

Actors: W.C. Fields, Mary Brian, Kathleen Howard, Grady Sutton, Vera Lewis

Synopsis: W.C. Fields plays Ambrose Wolfinger, the henpecked husband to end all henpecked husbands. A widower, Ambrose married a second time only to provide a mother for his pretty daughter (Mary Brian). What he got was an overbearing harpy of a wife (Kathleen Howard), a fussy and imperious mother-in-law (Vera Lewis Read More

She Gets Her Man

Actors: ZaSu Pitts, Hugh O'Connell, Helen Twelvetrees, Lucien Littlefield, Ward Bond

Synopsis: In this comedy, a waitress at a local lunch counter inadvertently foils a bank robbery and finds herself turned into a national heroine by an eager-beaver reporter. Unfortunately, her sudden notoriety causes gangsters to abduct her. The plucky waitress not only manages to talk them into returning Read More

One Frightened Night

Actors: Charles Grapewin, Mary Carlisle, Arthur Hohl, Evelyn Knapp, Wallace Ford

Synopsis: Hoping to avoid the new inheritance tax, eccentric millionaire Jasper Whyte (Charles Grapewin) gathers together his greedy relatives and associates and announces that he intends to give away his fortune to his long-lost granddaughter Doris -- but if she doesn't show up for the reading of the will Read More

Cappy Ricks Returns

Actors: Robert McWade, Ray Walker, Florine McKinney, Lucien Littlefield, Bradley Page

Synopsis: Heroic and crusty old Cappy Ricks takes on lobbyists who are trying to pass a law banning shingles on roofs to force consumers to purchase their new roofing materials. Cappy, who runs a lumber company knows that this could be devastating and hires a gutsy young fellow to fight the law. Later the 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

Love Time

Actors: Pat Paterson, Nils Asther, Herbert Mundin, Harry Green, Henry B. Walthall

Synopsis: Love Time is the story of the unhappy life of composer Franz Schubert, here played by Swedish actor Nils Asther. Too poor even for romance, Schubert feels compelled to give up his sweetheart Valerie (Pat Paterson) never realizing that she's the daughter of the fabulously wealthy Duke von Hatzfeld (Henry B. Walthall Read More

Thirty-Day Princess

Actors: Sylvia Sidney, Cary Grant, Edward Arnold, Henry Stephenson, Vince Barnett

Synopsis: A European princess heads for New York in order to see if the U. S. will back her country's bond issue. Unfortunately, she is afflicted with the mumps and ordered to bed. This is an ill turn for the banker planning to issue the bonds for if the princess reneges upon her public engagements, the Read More

Kiss and Make Up

Actors: Cary Grant, Genevieve Tobin, Helen Mack, Lucien Littlefield

Synopsis: One of the least known of Cary Grant's starring vehicles, Kiss and Make Up was based on a European play by Stephen Bekeffi. Grant stars as high-priced beautician Dr. Maurice Lamar, who does so spectacular a job on his plain-jane client Eve Caron (Genevieve Tobin) that Eve's jealous husband Marcel (Edward Everett Horton Read More

Dirty Work

Actors: Ralph Lynn, Gordon Harker, Robertson Hare

Synopsis: Although this Laurel and Hardy short is quite funny, it's often neglected. The boys, playing chimney sweeps, don't appear right away -- first the stage is set in the laboratory of a mad scientist, Professor Noodle (Lucien Littlefield). He has been working intensely for the past 20 years to create Read More

When Strangers Meet

Actors: Richard Cromwell, Arline Judge, Lucien Littlefield, Charles B. Middleton, Hale Hamilton

Synopsis: Based on a story by Zona Gale, When Strangers Meet concentrates on a small, interrelated community separated down the middle by a narrow path. The bungalow-dwelling residents on one side of the path consider their neighbors to be "beneath" them, and vice versa. Tensions come to a boil when a Read More

Marrying Widows

Actors: Bert Roach, Sarah Padden, Nat Carr, Arthur Hoyt

Synopsis: Versatile character players Minna Gombell and Lucien Littlefield are afforded leading roles in the interesting Poverty-Row effort Marrying Widows. Littlefield plays a wealthy man who is targeted by a conniving gold-digger (Judith Allen). To lure the old duffer into her trap, the sly woman relies Read More

Mandalay

Actors: Kay Francis, Lyle Talbot, Ricardo Cortez, Warner Oland, Lucien Littlefield

Synopsis: The official cast list of Warner Bros. Mandalay states that Kay Francis plays a character named Tanya. For most of the film, however, the heroine -- if she can be called that -- goes by the name of Spot White (or "Spot Cash," as she's cynically designated by one of the lesser characters). Betrayed Read More

Sailor's Luck

Actors: James Dunn, Sally Eilers, Sammy Cohen, Frank Moran, Victor Jory

Synopsis: While U.S. sailor Jimmy Harrigan (James Dunn) is on leave in San Pedro, he unexpectedly falls in love with the beautiful Sally Brent (Sally Eilers. Though Sally (Eilers) promises to be faithful after Jimmy (Dunn) ships out to San Francisco, Jimmy becomes jealous. Furious at the news that Sally has Read More

Rainbow Over Broadway

Actors: Joan Marsh, Frank Albertson, Lucien Littlefield, Grace Hayes, Gladys Blake

Synopsis: In this musical, a Kansas City family despises their stepmother who selfishly moves them to New York so she can make her theatrical comeback. There she again begins singing; the a brother and sister are terribly angry until their songs are turned into hits by a band leader who has fallen in love Read More

Sweepings

Actors: Lionel Barrymore, Alan Dinehart, Eric Linden, William Gargan, Gloria Stuart

Synopsis: Lionel Barrymore plays a Marshall Field-like Chicago businessman who emerges from the wreckage of the 1871 fire to build a department-store empire. Barrymore is aided by his Jewish manager Gregory Ratoff, who despite his business acumen is never made a full partner. The store magnate's four 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 Big Payoff

Actors: Lucien Littlefield, Ralph Ince, Barbara Kent, John Farrell MacDonald, Glenn Tryon

Synopsis: Mascot Films, the feisty precursor to Republic Pictures, was responsible for 1933's The Big Payoff. In a rare top-billed role, chameleon-like character-actor Lucien Littlefield plays an innocent man who has been railroaded to the electric chair. Coming to the rescue is Victor Jory, a disgraced Read More

Chance at Heaven

Actors: Joel McCrea, Ginger Rogers, Marian Nixon, Andy Devine, Virginia Hammond

Synopsis: A spoiled rich girl marries a gas station owner in this dated romance starring Joel McCrea, Ginger Rogers, and Marion Nixon. It is love at first sight when debutante Glory Franklyn (Nixon) spots handsome grease monkey Blacky Gorman (McCrea), who promptly dumps faithful girlfriend Marje Harris Read More

Sons of the Desert

Actors: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Charley Chase, Mae Busch, Lucien Littlefield

Synopsis: Lodge members Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy take a solemn oath to attend the 80th-annual Sons of the Desert Convention (read: annual binge) in Chicago. That is, Ollie takes the oath, but Stanley balks. When asked why, Stanley answers that he's afraid his wife won't let him go. Ollie is appalled Read More

East of Fifth Ave.

Actors: Wallace Ford, Dorothy Tree, Mary Carlisle, Walter Connolly, Willard Robertson

Synopsis: This drama, set within a boarding house, centers around a pregnant show girl abandoned by her boyfriend, a married man who conveniently returns to his wife. The despairing young woman considers ending her life, but is talked out of it by an aged couple. They themselves end up committing suicide. Read More

Alice in Wonderland

Actors: Charlotte Henry, Richard Arlen, Roscoe Ates, William Austin, Billy Barty

Synopsis: This star-laden version of Lewis Carroll's novel combines elements of both the title novel and Carroll's sequel, Through the Looking Glass. In England of the 19th century, young Alice finds that the mirror over the library fireplace opens into a strange world. She has odd adventures and changes Read More

Professional Sweetheart

Actors: Ginger Rogers, Norman Foster, ZaSu Pitts, Frank McHugh, Allen Jenkins

Synopsis: An earthy, fun-loving radio pitchwoman finds it difficult to live up to her squeaky-clean public persona as the "Purity Girl of the Air." This comedy chronicles the frantic efforts of her bosses to keep her on the straight and narrow when she goes out on the town. It's not easy because she is a Read More

Skyway

Actors: Arthur Vinton, Jed Prouty, Alice Lake, Jack Pennick

Synopsis: Monogram's Skyway stars Ray Walker in his usual role as a brash troublemaker who can't hold down a job. This time he's a hot-shot aviator who loses a bank-clerk job, much to the chagrin of his sweetheart Kathryn Crawford, the bank-president's daughter. Making matters worse, Walker is being held Read More

The Big Brain

Actors: George E. Stone, Phillips Holmes, Fay Wray, Minna Gombell, Lillian Bond

Synopsis: Perennial sidekick George E. Stone is given the leading role in The Big Brain. Stone plays a small-town barber, short of stature but a giant in the world of stock promotion. As his bank account grows, Stone's ethics diminish, and soon he's playing fast and loose with other people's money. Read More

Rasputin and the Empress

Actors: John Barrymore, Ethel Barrymore, Lionel Barrymore, Ralph Morgan, Diana Wynyard

Synopsis: It's hard to separate fact and fancy from the many accounts of what happened on the set when all three of the fabulous Barrymores -- Ethel, John and Lionel -- appeared together for the only time in Rasputin and the Empress. As for the end result, John offers the subtlest (!) performance as Russian Read More

Evenings for Sale

Actors: Herbert Marshall, Sara Maritza, Charlie Ruggles, Mary Boland, George Barbier

Synopsis: In this romance, an impoverished Viennese aristocrat becomes a gigolo. While on the job, he encounters a Yankee widow who is terribly impressed by titled men. They get involved and she helps him start afresh. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Speed Madness

Actors: Lucien Littlefield, Charles Sellon, Nancy Drexel, Pat O'Malley, Huntly Gordon

Synopsis: In this drama, the son of a shipping tycoon is left to reflect upon his life after his lover abandons him. He decides that it is time he pulled his weight and did something useful and so begins working on a new boat to help his father's financially foundering company. He decides to enter his new Read More

Shopworn

Actors: Barbara Stanwyck, Regis Toomey, ZaSu Pitts, Lucien Littlefield, Clara Blandick

Synopsis: Barbara Stanwyck overcomes a veritable ocean of clichés and manages to make her "shopworn" heroine come to life in this old-fashioned but rather poignant melodrama. A waitress in her aunt and uncle's café, orphaned Kitty Lane falls in love with society scion Dave Livingston (Regis Toomey). Much to Read More

Strangers in Love

Actors: Fredric March, Kay Francis, Stuart Erwin, Julie Compton, George Barbier

Synopsis: Disparate twin brothers, a phony will, and a beautiful woman provide the main ingredients for this romantic comedy. The trouble begins when the evil twin cheats the good one out of his rightful inheritance by faking their father's will. Not realizing that he has been duped, the impoverished Read More

Strangers of the Evening

Actors: ZaSu Pitts, Eugene Pallette, Lucien Littlefield, Tully Marshall, Miriam Seegar

Synopsis: Also known as The Hidden Corpse, Strangers of the Evening is an effective blend of horror and humor. There's dirty work at the city morgue, where the body of Frank Daniels (Lucien Littlefield) suddenly disappears. Later on, at Daniels' funeral, the wrong man is buried. It's all the handiwork of Read More

That's My Boy

Actors: Richard Cromwell, Dorothy Jordan, Arthur Stone, Douglas Dumbrille

Synopsis: A young football hero learns valuable life lessons on the way to becoming a pro in this sports drama. Tommy is a promising player who is working his way through college. He quickly becomes a star on the campus grid-iron, but when he gets entangled in a stock swindle, he nearly destroys his budding Read More

Broken Lullaby

Actors: Lionel Barrymore, Nancy Carroll, Phillips Holmes, Lucien Littlefield, ZaSu Pitts

Synopsis:
Director Ernst Lubitsch gained international acclaim for his sophisticated romantic comedies, but he also had a talent for more serious themes, as evidenced by this 1932 drama. French musician Paul (Phillips Holmes) joined the Army at the height of WWI. On the field of battle, Paul shot and Read More

The Devil and the Deep

Actors: Tallulah Bankhead, Gary Cooper, Charles Laughton, Cary Grant, Julie Compton

Synopsis: A mentally unstable naval officer goes mad with jealousy when his wife's recent lover shows up as a lieutenant on the submarine he commands. It is the smell of cheap perfume that arouses the husband's suspicions, and he plans to confront the lieutenant in the sub. The wife follows him there Read More

Downstairs

Actors: John Gilbert, Paul Lukas, Virginia Bruce, Hedda Hopper, Reginald Owen

Synopsis: Anyone who believes that the career of silent screen idol John Gilbert ended because his voice has too high for the talkies hasn't seen this marvelously black comedy. In perhaps his best performance of the sound era (with his supporting role in 1934's The Captain Hates the Sea running a close Read More

High Pressure

Actors: William Powell, Evelyn Brent, George Sidney, Guy Kibbee, Evelyn Knapp

Synopsis: Based on Abel Kandel's 1931 play Hot Money, this delightfully daffy comedy from Warner Bros. is a typical example of that studio's turbo-charged dialogue and irreverent attitude. William Powell, at the top of his game here, plays Gar Evans, the "world's foremost promoter," hired by Jewish Read More

If I Had a Million

Actors: Gary Cooper, Charles Laughton, W.C. Fields, Charlie Ruggles, George Raft, Jack Oakie

Synopsis: Based on a story by Robert Andrews, If I Had a Million is a multipart comedy-drama employing Paramount's top directorial and acting talents. Refusing to leave his fortune to his grasping relatives, dying millionaire Richard Bennett selects several people at random from the phone book and bestows Read More

The Pride of the Legion

Synopsis: In this police drama, a cop, known for being a rock under pressure, endeavors to cope with the aftermath of a psychologically traumatic experience at work. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Miss Pinkerton

Actors: Joan Blondell, George Brent, Mae Madison, John Wray, Ruth Hall

Synopsis: In this murder mystery, a nurse with an unusual eye for detail solves a puzzling case. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Reducing

Actors: Marie Dressler, Polly Moran, Anita Page, Lucien Littlefield

Synopsis: In this slapstick comedy set in a posh beauty salon, the owner asks her matronly sister, a postman's wife, to come and visit. She does, and brings her lovely daughter along with her. This creates problems when the fiancé of the owner's daughter falls in love with the daughter of her sister. Read More

Young As You Feel

Actors: Will Rogers, Lucien Littlefield, Donald Dillaway, Terrance Ray

Synopsis: In this comedy, a successful owner of a meat-packing plant tries to pass on his obsession for punctuality and rules to his two sons. But both of them are spoiled playboys who care little for time. One loves cafe society and the many girls he meets there; the other has bohemian affectations and Read More

Scandal Sheet

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

It Pays to Advertise

Actors: Norman Foster, Carole Lombard, Eugene Pallette, Lucien Littlefield

Synopsis: A remake of a 1919 silent film based on the stage farce by Roi Cooper Megrue and Walter C. Hackett, the light romantic comedy It Pays to Advertise stars comedienne Carol Lombard in one of her early Paramount talkies. Rodney Martin (Norman Foster) is the son of wealthy soap manufacturer Cyrus Read More

Scandal Sheet

Actors: George Bancroft, Clive Brook, Kay Francis, Gilbert Emery, Lucien Littlefield

Synopsis: Mark Flint (George Bancroft) is the editor of the titular scandal sheet, possessing all of the gall and none of the ethics of your average big-city journalist. Knowing full well that his wife (Kay Francis) plans to leave him in favor of handsome but unscrupulous banker Noel Adams (Clive Brook) Read More

Big Money

Actors: Eddie Quillan, Miriam Seegar, Margaret Livingston, Dorothy Christy

Synopsis: Breezy comic actor Eddie Quillan starred in several amiable Pathe programmers in 1929, 30' and '31. Big Money finds Quillan cast as a go-getting bank messenger, who falls in with unsuccessful gambler Jimmy Gleason. Entering a high-stakes card game, Quillan bets the bank's money, and is promptly Read More

The Great Divide

Actors: Dorothy Mackaill, Ian Keith, Lucien Littlefield, Ben Hendricks, Jr., Myrna Loy

Synopsis: In this early musical western, Stephen Ghent (Ian Keith) is a businessman who, after the death of his partner, has been helping to support Ruth Jordan (Dorothy Mackaill), the late man's college-age daughter. While visiting a town near the Mexican border on business, Ghent is shocked to discover Read More

Tom Sawyer

Actors: Jackie Coogan, Junior Durkin, Mitzi Green, Lucien Littlefield, Tully Marshall

Synopsis: Tom Sawyer, Paramount's 1930 Christmas release, was the first talkie version of Mark Twain's beloved novel. A rapidly maturing Jackie Coogan is well cast as Tom, while Junior Durkin is even better as Tom's freewheeling pal Huck Finn. Juvenile impressionist Mitzi Green comes on a bit too strong in Read More

No, No Nanette

Actors: Bernice Claire, Alexander Gray, Lucien Littlefield, Louise Fazenda, Lilyan Tashman

Synopsis: In this faithful adaptation of the popular 1925 Broadway hit musical, a Bible salesman helps three women with their troubles and finds himself in deep when all three show up at his Atlantic City cottage simultaneously. Songs include: "Dance of the Wooden Shoes," "As Long as I'm With You," "King of Read More

She's My Weakness

Actors: Arthur Lake, William Collier, Sr., Lucien Littlefield, Alan Bunce

Synopsis: Two former Fox contractees star in RKO Radio's She's My Weakness, a flat adaptation of Howard Lindsay and Bertrand Robinson's play Tommy. Hero Tommy Mills (Arthur Lake) would like to marry his sweetie Marie Thurber (Sue Carol), but first he's got to get on his feet financially. Attempting to sell Read More

Captain of the Guard

Actors: John Boles, Sam de Grasse, James Marcus, Harry Cording

Synopsis: This French epic chronicles the French Revolution as seen by Rouget de Lisle, the man who composed the French national anthem. In addition to many scenes of angry peasants, the film also feature's many songs by Lisle. The film makes no claim for historical accuracy. Songs include: "Song of the Read More

Clancy in Wall Street

Actors: Lucien Littlefield, Aggie Herring, Eddie Nugent, Miriam Seegar

Synopsis: Clancy (Charles Murray) is a pugnacious Irish-American plumber in partnership with parsimonious Scotsman Andy MacIntosh (Lucien Littlefield). Though tight with a dollar himself, Clancy accidentally begins playing the stock market, and before he knows what's happening he's become a millionaire. His Read More

High Society Blues

Actors: Janet Gaynor, Charles Farrell, William Collier, Sr., Hedda Hopper, Louise Fazenda

Synopsis: This version of Shakespeare's most famous love story is set in Scarsdale, New York. This time, the heroine comes from an old monied aristocratic family. Trouble ensues when the hero's newly wealthy, and terribly unsophisticated family from Iowa moves in next door. The young woman becomes Read More

Saturday's Children

Actors: Corinne Griffith, Grant Withers, Albert Conti, Alma Tell, Lucien Littlefield

Synopsis: Playwright Maxwell Anderson's domestic comedy drama Saturday's Children was adapted for the screen three times between 1929 and 1940, each time by Warner Bros. The first version, a part-talkie, starred Corinne Griffith and Grant Withers as youthful sweethearts Bobby Halevy and Jim O'Neill. A Read More

Seven Keys to Baldpate

Actors: Richard Dix, Miriam Seegar, Margaret Livingston, Lucien Littlefield

Synopsis: Previously filmed in 1917 and 1925, the evergreen George M. Cohan-Earl Derr Biggers stage mystery Seven Keys to Baldpate was remade as a talkie in late 1929 (and there were still three more remakes to come). Richard Dix stars as novelist William Magee, who's having trouble completing his latest 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

The Girl in the Glass Cage

Actors: Loretta Young, Matthew Betz, Lucien Littlefield, Charles Sellon, Julia Swayne Gordon

Synopsis: In her second talking picture, Loretta Young stars as Gladys Cosgrove, the ticket-taker at a small-town movie house. Although she's sweet on socialite Terry Pomfret (Carrol Nye), Gladys is ardently pursued by gangster Doc Striker (Matthew Betz). This results in a loud and very public confrontation 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

This is Heaven

Actors: Vilma Banky, James Hall, Fritzi Ridgeway, Lucien Littlefield, Richard Tucker

Synopsis: This is the first sound film of Vilma "the Hungarian Rhapsody" Banky, a popular romantic star from the silent era. She plays a young Hungarian woman who has just arrived in the US. She is sheltered by her uncle. Soon she becomes a waitress. While at work, she falls in love with a handsome Read More

Clear the Decks

Actors: Reginald Denny, Olive Hasbrouck, Otis Harlan, Lucien Littlefield

Synopsis: This 1929 drama about mistaken identities contains three eight minute scenes that involve talking. The rest of the film is silent and subtitled. The trouble begins when the hero follows a pretty lady aboard an ocean liner. He boards the ship using the name of his friend who was supposed to take Read More

Making the Grade

Actors: Edmund Lowe, Lois Moran, Albert Hart, Lucien Littlefield

Synopsis: For 55 of its 63 minutes, Making the Grade is a silent picture; only the opening sequence and a brief "radio broadcast" scene contain any dialogue. Based on a play by George Ade, the story focuses on Herbert Dodsworth (Edmund Lowe), the scion of a family of scrappers. Alas, Herbert is something of Read More

Uncle Tom's Cabin

Actors: Eulalie Jensen, Margarita Fischer, Virginia Grey, Mona Ray

Synopsis: D. W. Griffith had originally been announced as the director of the Universal "super-production" version of Uncle Tom's Cabin, but negotiations fell through and the job went to studio workhorse Harry A. Pollard. Running 141 minutes, this was the most elaborate filmization of the Harriet Beecher Read More

The Head Man

Actors: Charlie Murray, Loretta Young, Larry Kent, Lucien Littlefield

Synopsis: Veteran comedian Charlie Murray plays a serious role in 1928's Head Man. Murray is cast as a senator named Watts, whose political career is ruined when he refuses to suck up to a "machine" boss. After several weeks of self-pity, Watts decides to beat the Machine at its own game. With the support Read More

Heart to Heart

Actors: Mary Astor, Lloyd Hughes, Louise Fazenda, Lucien Littlefield, Aileen Manning

Blonde for a Night

Actors: Marie Prevost, Harrison Ford, Franklin Pangborn, Lucien Littlefield, T. Roy Barnes

Synopsis: Previously teamed for a number of boudoir farces like Getting Gertie's Garter and Up in Mabel's Room, star Marie Prevost and director E. Mason Hopper once more pooled their talents in Blonde for a Night. Prevost plays the dowdy brunette wife of roving husband Harrison Ford, who prefers to spend Read More

A Ship Comes In

Actors: Rudolph Schildkraut, Louise Dresser, Milton Holmes, Linda Landi

Synopsis: The Pleznik family from Hungary arrives in New York -- after landing at Ellis Island, the parents, Peter (Rudolph SChildkraut) and Louise (Marie Dresser), and their three children settle on the Lower East Side of Manhattan and, with with help from a nice policeman, find their way to the home of an Read More

Do Your Duty

Actors: Charlie Murray, Lucien Littlefield, Charles Delaney, Aggie Herring, Doris Dawson

Synopsis: In this silent police drama, a New York cop struggles to clear his name after he is convicted of tippling on the job. After the judgement, the poor fellow is demoted and humiliated in front of his peers. He feels so badly that he refuses to attend his daughter's wedding. She is marrying another Read More

Harold Teen

Actors: Mary Brian, Arthur Lake, Lucien Littlefield, Jack Duffy

Synopsis: Based on the comic strip by Carl Ed, Harold Teen stars future "Dagwood Bumstead" Arthur Lake in the title role. Upon arriving in the big city to attend high school, the bumptious Harold soon becomes the most popular boy in class. This gives our hero carte blanche to indulge in all sorts of comic 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

Mother Knows Best

Actors: Madge Bellamy, Louise Dresser, Barry Norton, Albert Gran

The Cat and the Canary

Actors: Laura La Plante, Creighton Hale, Forrest Stanley, Tully Marshall, Gertrude Astor

Synopsis: Frank Willard's barn-storming stage melodrama Cat and the Canary was filmed four times over a fifty-year period. This silent 1927 version stars Laura LaPlante as one of several potential heirs to a huge fortune. Brought to a foreboding mansion on the 20th anniversary of their eccentric Read More

A Texas Steer

Actors: Will Rogers, Louise Fazenda, Sam Hardy, Ann Rork, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.

Synopsis: Though Will Rogers was still packing 'em in on Broadway, he was considered a Hollywood has-been when he starred in the independently produced A Texas Steer. Rogers also wrote the screenplay of this "topical comedy," in which he plays Texas rancher Maverick Brander, who is maneuvered into politics Read More

Taxi Taxi

Actors: Burr McIntosh, Edward Everett Horton, Marian Nixon

Synopsis: Caught in a heavy rainstorm without a car, Edward Everett Horton purchases a dilapidated taxicab so that he can get his girlfriend Marion Nixon home safely. The couple arrives at a rustic church, where Nixon impishly talks Horton into getting married. But before the ceremony concludes, the police Read More

Cheating Cheaters

Actors: Betty Compson, Kenneth Harlan, Lucien Littlefield, Eddie Gribbon, Cesare Gravina

Synopsis: This witty Max Marcin play became an entertaining vehicle for Clara Kimball Young in 1919; in 1927, it became an entertaining program flick for Universal Studios. Here, Betty Compson takes on the part of Nan Carey, the female detective who's out to trap a gang of crooks. The gang is planning to Read More

My Best Girl

Actors: Mary Pickford, Charles "Buddy" Rogers, Sunshine Hart, Lucien Littlefield, Hobart Bosworth, Carmelita Geraghty

Synopsis: Mary Pickford stars as the "Miss Fix-it" for her eccentric family. Pickford's job at a dime-store keeps her postman dad (Lucien Littlefield), addlepated mom (Sunshine Hart) and loose-living sister (Carmelita Geraghty) from going under. She falls in love with handsome Charles "Buddy" Rogers, never Read More

Small Bachelor

Tony Runs Wild

Synopsis: Tom Mix's faithful horse Tony portrays a wild stallion in this average Mix western in which the hero saves a girl (Jacqueline Logan) from a stampeding herd of wild horses. The ungrateful wench, however, challenges her savior to tame the leader of the horses (Tony), which he promptly does. The Read More

The Torrent

Actors: Ricardo Cortez, Greta Garbo, Gertrude Olmstead, Edward Connelly, Lucien Littlefield, Martha Mattox

Synopsis: The Vincent Blasco-Ibanez novel Entre Naranjos served as the inspiration for Greta Garbo's first American film, The Torrent. Garbo plays Leonora, a full-bodied Spanish peasant girl who falls in love with her landlord's son Don Rafael Bull (Ricardo Cortez). To prevent his son from marrying beneath Read More

Brooding Eyes

Actors: Lionel Barrymore, Robert Ellis, Ruth Clifford, Montagu Love, Lucien Littlefield

Synopsis: Lionel Barrymore was at a low career ebb when he agreed to appear in the independently produced Brooding Eyes. Barrymore emulates his brother John in the role of Slim Jim Carey, the "black sheep" of an aristocratic British family. A professional blackmailer, Carey suddenly and mysteriously Read More

Twinkletoes

Actors: Colleen Moore, Kenneth Harlan, Tully Marshall, Gladys Brockwell, Lucien Littlefield

Synopsis: Set in a not-so-reasonable facsimile of London's Limehouse district, Twinkletoes stars Colleen Moore as the title character, a slum girl who aspires to become a dancer. Enduring one defeat and disillusionment after another, Twinkletoes is about to end it all by jumping into the Thames. She is Read More

Take It from Me

Actors: Reginald Denny, Blanche Mehaffey, Ben Hendricks, Jr., Lee Moran, Lucien Littlefield

Synopsis: Having squandered his allowance, gay blade Tom Eggett (Reginald Denny) is given a second chance when he inherits his uncle's department store. If he can post a profit within three months, the store will be his forever; if not, it's back to the unemployment line. An aficionado of amusement parks Read More

Bachelor Brides

Actors: Rod La Rocque, Elinor Fair

Synopsis: When not appearing in the films directed by their boss Cecil B. DeMille, Rod LaRocque and Elinor Fair were kept busy in such DeMille-produced programmers as Bachelor Brides. About to be wed to titled Englishman LaRocque, the fair Fair is thrown into a panic when her family jewels are stolen. All Read More

Charley's Aunt

Actors: Sidney Chaplin, Ethel Shannon, Lucien Littlefield, Alec B. Francis

Synopsis: Sidney Chaplin, Charlie's talented half-brother, was well known on the Hollywood-party circuit for his devastating female impersonations. It was only natural, then that Chaplin should star in the 1925 filmization of the evergreen Brandon Thomas stage farce Charley's Aunt. The story should be Read More

Truthful Tulliver

Soul Mates

Actors: Aileen Pringle, Edmund Lowe, Phillips Smalley, Antonio D'Algy, Edythe Chapman

Synopsis: Based on a 1911 novel by Elinor Glyn, this melodrama seems at first to focus on the dilemma of whether to marry for material gain or for love. This choice is put before the young heroine Velma (Aileen Pringle). For Velma, it is no choice at all. She steadfastly refuses an arranged marriage to a Read More

Gold and the Girl

Synopsis: The Fox company, who championed Buck Jones as Western star Tom Mix's possible heir, began cutting back a bit with Gold and the Girl. Jones was popular enough, but by 1925, there was a glut on the market due to scores of cheaply made independent Westerns. This time around, Jones plays Dan Prentiss Read More

The Rainbow Trail

Actors: Tom Mix, Anne Cornwall, George Bancroft, Lucien Littlefield, Mark Hamilton

Synopsis: A sequel to Riders of the Purple Sage (1925), The Rainbow Trail proved one of silent screen star Tom Mix's finest films. Mix appears as John Shefford, a nephew to Jim Lassiter, the character he had played in "Riders." The heroic Shefford not only manage to free his uncle from the sealed off Read More

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

What Price Goofy?

Actors: Charley Chase, Katherine Grant

Babbitt

Actors: Willard Louis, Mary Alden, Carmel Myers, Raymond McKee, Maxine Hicks

Synopsis: This first movie version of Sinclair Lewis' Babbitt stars the corpulent Willard Louis in the title role. A middle-aged businessman/blowhard in the small town of Zenith, Babbitt is somewhat naïve in the ways of the world. He allows himself to stray from his long-standing marriage to wife Myra (Mary Alden Read More

Name the Man

Actors: Hobart Bosworth, Creighton Hale, Patsy Ruth Miller, DeWitt Jennings

Synopsis: This powerful drama, based on the novel The Master of Man, by Sir Hall Caine, was the first time Swedish director Victor Sjorstrom made a film in America. When her stepfather (De Witt Jennings) locks her out of the house, Bessie Collister (Mae Busch) finds refuge with Victor Stowell (Conrad Read More

Gold Heels

Synopsis: In 1919, Fox made a very successful film out of Checkers, a novel by Henry Blossom Jr., which also became a popular stage play. Fox still owned the rights in 1924, and they decided to play around with the plot and remake it. Boots, a down-on-his-luck jockey (Robert Agnew), arrives in a small town Read More

A Woman Who Sinned

Actors: Morgan Wallace, Irene Rich, Lucien Littlefield, Mae Busch, Dick Brandon

Synopsis: In spite of the depressing, often tragic, circumstances in this drama, director Finis Fox somehow managed to add in comic relief featuring the likes of Hank Mann, Snitz Edwards, Cissy Fitzgerald, and Hugh Fay. Wall Street operator and all-around bad guy Morgan Wallace has his wife (Irene Rich) Read More

Gerald Cranston's Lady

Actors: James Kirkwood

Synopsis: Gerald Cranston (James Kirkwood) is an extremely wealthy factory owner and Lady Hermione (Alma Rubens) has a title but no money. They agree to a marriage of convenience -- he for the social prestige and she so that she and her young son will have financial independence. Gordon Ibbotsleigh, a Read More

True As Steel

Actors: Aileen Pringle, Huntly Gordon, Cleo Madison, Eleanor Boardman, Norman Kerry

Synopsis: Centering a story on the dilemmas of a "modern business woman" seemed like a fine idea in 1924, so Rupert Hughes (whose nephew was a teenager named Howard R. Hughes) wrote and directed this drama for MGM. Aileen Pringle stars as the businesswoman in question, Eva Boutelle, whose husband, Harry (Norman Kerry Read More

Teeth

Synopsis: A prospector (Tom Mix), falsely accused of murdering a deputy (Lucien Littlefield), comes across a wounded dog (Duke) who has been thrown off a train by a villainous railroad worker (George Bancroft). The clever pooch returns the kindness when the prospector is later arrested. The real killer Read More

Never Say Die

Actors: Douglas MacLean, Lillian Rich, Helen Ferguson, Hallam Cooley, Lucien Littlefield

Synopsis: Wealthy John Woodbury (Douglas MacLean) is mistaken for a patient by a trio of overeager doctors. After being put through a battery of tests (one of which involves blindfolding Woodbury, who promptly walks out on the ledge of the high rise building), he is told he only has three months left to Read More

Painted Lady

Synopsis: This Fox melodrama features Dorothy Mackaill and George O'Brien. Out of love for her foster mother, Violet (Mackaill) takes the blame for a burglary actually perpetrated by the woman's daughter. She goes to prison and when she is released, the police terrorize her to the extent that she is unable Read More

The Deadwood Coach

Actors: Tom Mix, George Bancroft, DeWitt Jennings, Buster Gardner, Lucien Littlefield, Ernest Butterworth Jr.

Synopsis: Filmed on magnificent locations at Cedar City, Utah and Zion Canyon, this lavishly mounted Tom Mix Western was based on The Orphan by Clarence E. Mulford, the pulp writer who created Hopalong Cassidy. The story -- a man searches for the villains who murdered his parents -- was by no means new in Read More

The Rendezvous

Actors: Conrad Nagel, Lucille Ricksen, Richard Travers, Kathleen Key, Emmett Corrigan

Synopsis: Marshall Neilan's fame as a director of quality films was at its peak during the period this romantic melodrama was made. Because he married without the czar's consent, Prince Sergei (Richard Travers) is banished to Siberia. After having a baby girl, Sergei's wife dies. His enemies have ordered Read More

The French Doll

Actors: Mae Murray, Orville Caldwell, Rod La Rocque, Rose Dione, Paul Cazeneuve

Synopsis: Produced by Robert Z. Leonard's Tiffany films and released by Metro, French Doll serves as a showcase for Leonard's dazzlingly beautiful wife Mae Murray. The star plays Georgine Mauzlier, a winsome French lass dealing in fake antiques as a means of supporting her family. Georgine's Read More

Three Wise Fools

Actors: Eleanor Boardman, William H. Crane, Alec B. Francis

Synopsis: Eleanor Boardman and William Haines came to Hollywood when they were winners in the same contest held by the Goldwyn studios. While Boardman's star rose faster than Haines' (with Brown of Harvard, he would eventually catch up), they appeared together in this comedy-drama adapted from the play by Read More

Mr. Billings Spends His Dime

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 Tiger's Claw

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

In the Palace of the King

Actors: Blanche Sweet, Edmund Lowe, Hobart Bosworth, Pauline Starke, Sam de Grasse

Synopsis: This film is based on the novel by F. Marion Crawford, and involves the court of King Philip II of Spain. Philip is jealous of his powerful and popular brother, Don John (Edmund Lowe), so he sends him to fight in the Moors, hoping that he will not return. John leaves behind the woman he loves Read More

Across the Continent

Actors: Wallace Reid, Mary MacLaren, Theodore Roberts, Betty Francisco, Walter Long

Synopsis: Wallace Reid starred in a legion of comedy-dramas involving speeding cars and most of them (generally written by Byron Morgan) were interchangeable -- this one is no exception. John Dent (Paramount's most dependable character actor, Theodore Roberts) manufactures solid, dependable -- and rather 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

To Have and to Hold

Actors: Betty Compson, Bert Lytell, Theodore Kosloff, W.J. Ferguson, Raymond Hatton

Synopsis: This epic historical romance, based on the novel by Mary Johnston, was one of Paramount's big releases for 1922, and it featured some of the studio's best talent. King James I (Raymond Hatton) gives his consent to the marriage between Lord Carnal (Theodore Kosloff) and Lady Jocelyn Leigh (Betty Read More

Our Leading Citizen

Actors: Thomas Meighan, Lois Wilson, William P. Carleton, Theodore Roberts, Guy Oliver

Synopsis: This lighthearted political satire marked the first time humorist George Ade wrote a story directly for the screen. The casting of Thomas Meighan and Lois Wilson as the two leads was impeccable. "Lazy Dan" Bentley (Meighan) may be a lawyer by profession, but all things considered, he'd rather be Read More

The Siren Call

Actors: Dorothy Dalton, Dave Powell, Mitchell Lewis, Will R. Walling

Synopsis: In the days before air conditioning, filmmakers liked to release Northwest melodramas in the summer in the belief that the snow scenes would cool off overheated patrons. About this particular picture, Moving Picture World commented, "its snow scenes and its woodsy settings contrive to make the 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

Her Husband's Trademark

Actors: Gloria Swanson, Richard Wayne, Lucien Littlefield, Charles Ogle

Synopsis: Because the drab Under the Lash failed at the box office, Paramount was more than happy to put their star, Gloria Swanson, into a more glamorous role here. She plays the stunning Lois Miller, who weds wheeler-dealer James Berkeley (Stuart Holmes). But Lois is nothing more than a trophy wife who he Read More

Manslaughter

Actors: Thomas Meighan, Leatrice Joy, Lois Wilson, John Miltern, George Fawcett

Synopsis: This Cecil B. DeMille morality play came at just the right time -- the Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle scandal and William Desmond Taylor murder were both still fresh in the public's mind. Leatrice Joy plays Lydia Thorne, a rich society girl who is addicted to thrills. Because of her reckless driving, she Read More

Hell Diggers

Actors: Wallace Reid, Lois Wilson, Alexander Brown, Frank Leigh, Lucien Littlefield

Synopsis: This powerful drama, based on a Saturday Evening Post story by Byron Morgan (who also adapted it for the screen), proved to be only a fair vehicle for Wallace Reid, not because the film wasn't good, but rather because several of the featured players have roles as strong as his. Teddy Darman (Reid) Read More

The Affairs of Anatol

Actors: Wallace Reid, Gloria Swanson, Elliott Dexter

Synopsis: Cecil B. DeMille's much-maligned cinemadaptation of Arthur Schnitzler's The Affairs of Anatol holds up better than its reputation suggests. Wallace Reid stars as New York socialite Anatol DeWitt Spencer, who after only a few day's marriage has become bored with his new bride Vivian (Gloria Read More

The Sheik

Actors: Agnes Ayres, Rudolph Valentino, Adolphe Menjou, Walter Long, Lucien Littlefield

Synopsis: This romantic costumed adventure is the film that cemented Rudolph Valentino's reputation as a legendary screen lover. Sheik Ahmed Ben Hassan (Valentino) takes Lady Diana Mayo (Agnes Ayers) to his camp when he finds the beauty in the desert. Although drawn to the Sheik, Lady Diana is able to 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

The Little Clown

Actors: Mary Miles Minter, Jack Mulhall, Winter Hall, Helen Dunbar, Cameron Coffey

Synopsis: The story to this mild little romance obviously owed a lot to the play Polly of the Circus, which was made into a 1917 film starring Mae Marsh. Here, Mary Miles Minter is the title character. Pat (Minter) is a little orphan who has been raised around the circus. Her foster father is Toto the clown Read More

Too Much Speed

Actors: Wallace Reid, Agnes Ayres, Theodore Roberts, Jack Richardson, Lucien Littlefield

Synopsis: The ill-fated Wallace Reid -- who would die of morphine addiction in 1923 -- was in top form in this Paramount action picture. Reid's team of director Frank Urson and screenwriter Byron Morgan gave him a clever vehicle, and his supporting cast, which included lovely Agnes Ayers and Paramount's Read More

Eyes of the Heart

Synopsis: Given that silent star Mary Miles Minter was famous for her wide, deep-blue eyes, it's not surprising that many of her films incorporated the word "Eyes" in their titles. In Eyes of the Heart, Minter is cast as a sightless young lady, led to believe that the world is a fairy-tale wonderland. Upon Read More

Double Speed

Synopsis: When "Speed" Carr (Wallace Reid) has to travel from New York to Los Angeles to meet his uncle and claim an inheritance, he decides to make the trip by automobile. The trek goes well until he reaches the Western desert. While he is sleeping, his car and all his belongings are stolen, even his Read More

Sick Abed

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

Her First Elopement

Synopsis: When Gerald Elliot (Jay Eaton) becomes involved with Lotta St. Regis, a notorious snake dancer (Nell Craig), his cousin Christina (Wanda Hawley) decides to rescue him from her clutches. She heads over to Lotta's house, as does Adrian Maitland (Jerome Patrick), whose younger brother is also Read More

The Round Up

Actors: Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle

Synopsis: For some mysterious reason, producer Adolph Zukor decided to set the slapstick aside for Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle's first full-length feature. Instead, he cast him in this Western comedy-drama, with an emphasis on the drama. In addition, Arbuckle's role of sheriff "Slim" Hoover was a secondary one Read More

Why Change Your Wife?

Synopsis: One of the best of Cecil B. DeMille's sophisticated sex comedies of the silent era, Why Change Your Wife? hinges upon a marriage of opposites. Husband Thomas Meighan has a fondness for wine, women and song; wife Gloria Swanson is the intellectual bookish type (we know this much because she wears Read More

Jack Straw

Synopsis: This light comedy was based on the play by W. Somerset Maugham. While Maugham's witty dialogue is sorely missed, the silent still shows the fine directorial hand of William C. De Mille, elder brother of Cecil B. De Mille. Iceman Jack Straw (Robert Warwick) falls in love with Ethel Parker Jennings Read More

Everywoman

Synopsis: Allegory is a storytelling form little used in cinema today, but it popped up frequently during the silent era, especially before the '20s kicked in. This particular film was based on a morality play by Walter Browns. Everywoman (Violet Heming) is on a quest for love, but Flattery (Raymond Hatton) Read More

On Record

Synopsis: The second 1917 collaboration between husband-and-wife team actress Mae Murray and director Robert Z. Leonard was On Record, wherein the star is cast as the much-put-upon Helen Wayne. Accused of a crime she didn't commit, Helen is dragged into police headquarters, where she is subjected to the Read More

Squaw Man's Son

Synopsis: This Jessie L. Lasky production was a sequel to the pioneering feature film The Squaw Man; both properties, in fact, were based on novels written by Edwin Milton Royle. Wallace Reid stars as Lord "Hal" Effington, the grown son of the character played by Dustin Farnum in the original Squaw Man. Read More

Golden Fetter

Synopsis: When New England schoolmarm Faith Miller (Anita King) comes West to inspect a mine she has bought, she discovers it is a fake. But she finds a savior in the rough cow town in which she has landed -- Jim Ralston (Wallace Reid). With the help of the deputy sheriff, he "salts" the mine to trick the 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

To Have and to Hold

Synopsis: A typical fanciful silent screen romance based on a bodice-ripping pulp novel, To Have and to Hold marked the screen debut of Mae Murray, the dancer with the bee-stung lips who had made quite a name for herself in several editions of the Ziegfeld Follies. Murray played Lady Jocelyn Leigh, who Read More

Gutter Magdalene

Synopsis: Actor-director-playwright Willard Mack made up in chutzpah what he lacked in originality. Mack's stage melodrama A Gutter Magdalene was a veritable encyclopedia of cliches, but audiences lapped it up like warm milk. The film version starred Fannie Ward as the title character, a country lass named 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

Blacklist

Synopsis: This picture, written by William C. De Mille (Cecil B. De Mille's brother) and Marion Fairfax, bases its premise on the troubles actually encountered in a Colorado mine in 1914. A group of miners who live on company property are mistreated by the guards. They are powerless against this, as anyone Read More

Love Mask

Synopsis: Longtime collaborators Cecil B. DeMille and Jeanie MacPherson penned the screenplay for this Wallace Reid feature. Reid plays sheriff Dan Deering, who is in love with an independent young lady, Kate Kenner (Cleo Ridgley). Although Kate does find gold, her claim is jumped. The jumpers attack Read More

The Warrens of Virginia

Synopsis: 1915 was a big year for civil war films -- this powerful five-reeler was released around the same time as D.W. Griffith's landmark Birth of a Nation. The Warrens of Virginia was yet another collaboration between film producer Jesse Lasky and stage producer David Belasco. It had originally been a Read More

Unknown

Synopsis: The second of matinee idol Lou Tellegen's starring vehicles for Paramount was the five-reel The Unknown. Based on I.A.R. Weylie's novel The Red Mirage, the film is a Foreign Legion yarn, set in North Africa. Running away from himself, aristocratic Richard Farquahr (Tellegen) joins the Legion Read More

The Wild Goose Chase

Synopsis: The grandfather of Betty Wright (Ina Claire) is willing to give her a substantial amount of money if she marries the son of a friend. But she wants no part of an arranged marriage with someone she's never met, so she changes her name and runs away with a theater troupe. There she meets Bob Randall Read More

Temptation

Synopsis: Famed opera singer Geraldine Farrar had just recently achieved silent film stardom with Carmen (a part she had also sung on stage). She and producer/director Cecil B. DeMille teamed up again for yet another success with Temptation. Farrar, rather predictably, plays aspiring opera singer Renée Read More

The Marriage of Kitty

Synopsis: Although she was on the sunny side of 40, stage star Fannie Ward was still able to convey extreme youth in such movie vehicles as The Marriage of Kitty. Because of a codicil in his inheritance forbidding him to marry an actress, Lord Riginald Belsize (Jack Dean), in love with music-hall performer Read More

The Ghost Breaker

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