Otis HarlanFilmography

Outlaws of Sonora

Actors: Max "Alibi" Terhune, Jack Mulhall, Otis Harlan

Synopsis: With the departure of John Wayne to more prestigious films, Robert Livingston returned to the role of Stony Brooke in Republic's "Three Mesquiteers" series. In Outlaws of Sonora, Stony and his saddle pals Tucson (Ray Corrigan) and Lullaby (Max Terhune) are hired by a cattleman's association. While Read More

Mr. Boggs Steps Out

Actors: Stuart Erwin, Helen Chandler, Toby Wing, Tully Marshall, Spencer Charters

Synopsis: In this comedy, a dull statistician changes his life after winning a pile of money after successfully determining the number of beans in a barrel. He decides to do something novel with the prize and ends up buying a barrel factory. He encounters trouble when the nearby pickle factory is threatened Read More

Guns of Sonora

Synopsis: Robberies are undertaken by an outlaw who looks amazingly like one of the Three Mesquiteers. (AKA Outlaws of Sonora) ~ All Movie Guide Read More

The Texans

Actors: Joan Bennett, Randolph Scott, May Robson, Walter Brennan, Robert Cummings

Synopsis: In the rough-and-tumble world of post-Civil War Texas, ex-Confederate soldier Kirk Jordan (Randolph Scott) crosses paths with ranch owner Ivy Preston (Joan Bennett). Although a loyal Southerner, Jordan can't get past the waste and tragedy of the four years that have just ended, but Ivy is eager to Read More

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

Synopsis: It was called "Disney's Folly." Who on earth would want to sit still for 90 minutes to watch an animated cartoon? And why pick a well-worn Grimm's Fairy Tale that every schoolkid knows? But Walt Disney seemed to thrive on projects which a lesser man might have written off as "stupid" or Read More

Western Gold

Actors: Smith Ballew, Heather Angel, LeRoy Mason, Ben Alexander, Otis Harlan

Synopsis: Former nightclub crooner Smith Ballew made his singing-cowboy debut in Western Gold. Set during the Civil War, the story finds Union soldier Bill Gibson (Ballew) heading West to prevent valuable Northern gold shipment from being systematically stolen by Confederate spies. Making our hero's job Read More

Roamin' Holiday

Actors: George "Spanky" McFarland, Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer, Billie "Buckwheat" Thomas, Eugene "Porky" Lee, Darla Hood

Synopsis: Upset at being forced to do the household chores all weekend long, Our Gang-ers Spanky McFarland, Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer, Billy "Buckwheat" Thomas and Eugene "Porky" Lee decide to run away from home. Taking a breather in the tiny village of Jenksville, the boys manage to cadge a meal from kindly Read More

Hitch Hike Lady

Actors: Arthur Treacher, James Ellison, Warren Hymer

Synopsis: In this emotional drama, a lonely British housekeeper, uses her hard-earned savings account to finance a trip to America so she can see the successful son she has been proud of all her life. At least she has been lead to believe that her son is a big shot. Once in the US, she and her young female Read More

Can This Be Dixie?

Actors: Jane Withers, Helen Wood, Thomas Beck, Sara Haden

Synopsis: This musical satire parodies Southern living as it follows the exploits of a traveling medicine show that ends up on a bankrupt plantation. It is just as well as Doc Gurgle and his daughter have just lost their show. The plantation is run by a Kentucky colonel. Young Miss Gurgle and her pa decide Read More

The Hoosier Schoolmaster

Actors: Norman Foster, Charlotte Henry, Dorothy Libaire, Sarah Padden, Otis Harlan

Synopsis: Edward Eggleston's best-selling novel The Hoosier Schoolmaster was brought to the screen in 1935 by Monogram Pictures, which specialized in such bucolic entertainments. Norman Foster plays the title character, an ex-Union soldier named Ralph. After the Civil War, Ralph takes a schoolteacher job in Read More

A Midsummer Night's Dream

Actors: James Cagney, Ian Hunter, Grant Mitchell, Olivia de Havilland, Mickey Rooney, Victor Jory, Ross Alexander, Joe E. Brown, Hobart Cavanaugh, Dick Powell

Synopsis: Max Reinhardt's legendary Hollywood Bowl production of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream was transferred to the screen by Warner Bros. in 1935. Like most of Shakespeare's comedies, the story contains several seemingly unrelated plotlines, all tied together by a single unifying event, in this Read More

Diamond Jim

Actors: Edward Arnold, Jean Arthur, Binnie Barnes, Cesar Romero, Eric Blore

Synopsis: Screenwriter Preston Sturges never lets the facts get in the way of a good story in this colorful filmed biography of turn-of-the-century millionaire Diamond Jim Brady. The hearty Edward Arnold stars as Brady, who parlays a small-time railroad supply firm into a thriving financial empire. Once Read More

Western Frontier

Actors: Ken Maynard, Lucille Browne, Nora Lane, Frank Yaconelli

Synopsis: In this western, a wagon train is destroyed and all but two children, a brother and sister, are slaughtered. The sister is abducted by the Indians while the boy is raised by an Anglo family. He grows up with no memory of his sister. Now a young cowboy, he is called upon to attack an outlaw gang. Read More

Chinatown Squad

Actors: Lyle Talbot, Valerie Hobson, Hugh O'Connell, Andy Devine, E. Alyn Warren

Synopsis: Dore Schary, several years removed from his tenure as head of MGM, was screenwriter for the modest Universal actioner Chinatown Squad. Lyle Talbot plays Ted Lacey, a disgruntled ex-cop reduced to driving a sightseeing bus in Chinatown. When a man who has been collecting funds for the Chinese Read More

Dr. Socrates

Actors: Paul Muni, Ann Dvorak, Barton MacLane, Robert H. Barrat, Raymond Brown, Ralph M. Remley, John Eldredge

Synopsis: Paul Muni is a prominent physician who is kidnapped by gangsters and forced to tend the needs of head crook Barton MacLaine. MacLaine takes a liking to the intellectual doctor and allows him to go home after his job is done. Muni finds himself the reluctant "staff physician" for the gangster, thus Read More

Marriage on Approval

Actors: Barbara Kent, Donald Dillaway, Phyllis Barry

Synopsis: The title tells all in the independently produced romantic drama Marriage on Approval. Set just before the repeal of Prohibition, the story concerns a young man (Donald Dillaway) who, while stewed to the gills, marries the equally besotted heroine (Barbara Kent). Upon sobering up, the hasty Read More

The Old-Fashioned Way

Actors: W.C. Fields, Joe Morrison, Judith Allen, Jan Duggan, Nora Cecil, Baby Le Roy

Synopsis: W.C. Fields plays the Great McGonigle, the manipulative manager of a large 19th century theatrical troupe. Notorious for skipping board bills and forgetting the pay his actors, McGonigle descends on a small town, where he relies on the hospitality of a wealthy widow (Jan Duggan). He secures Read More

King Kelly of the USA

Actors: Guy Robertson, Irene Ware, Edgar Kennedy, Franklin Pangborn, Joyce Compton

Synopsis: Poverty Row studio Monogram took a stab at musical production with King Kelly of the U.S.A., a cinematic blunder starring opera baritone Guy Robertson, who plays James "King" Kelly, a theatrical entrepreneur sailing to Europe with his latest show, "Kelly's Affairs of 1934." En route, he falls in Read More

I Can't Escape

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

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

The Evil Eye of Kalinor

Music in the Air

Actors: Gloria Swanson, John Boles, Douglass Montgomery, June Lang, Al Shean

Synopsis: The 1932 Jerome Kern-Oscar Hammerstein Broadway hit Music in the Air was brought to the screen two years later by Fox Studios. Temperamental Bavarian prima donna Frieda (Gloria Swanson) and equally volatile lyricist Bruno (John Boles) spend half their time quarrelling and the other half making Read More

Let's Talk It Over

Actors: Chester Morris, Mae Clarke, Frank Craven, John Warburton, Irene Ware

Synopsis: In this comedy, a wealthy socialite pursues a carefree playboy who isn't at all interested in her. After all her regular attention-getting ploys fail, the woman fakes a drowning accident in the hopes that he will save her. She is instead rescued by a brutish sailor whom she begins introducing to Read More

The Telegraph Trail

Actors: John Wayne, Marceline Day, Frank McHugh, Otis Harlan, Albert J. Smith, Yakima Canutt

Synopsis: Directed by Tenny Wright, The Telegraph Trail features John Wayne as John Trent, a calvary scout who has been sent to put a stop to sleazy opportunist Gus Lynch's (Albert J. Smith) crooked business dealings. Lynch (Smith) has convinced High Wolf (Yakima Canutt), a local Native American tribe Read More

Sin of Nora Moran

Actors: Zita Johann, Alan Dinehart, Paul Cavanagh, John Miljan, Claire Du Brey

Synopsis: Having confessed to murder, Nora Moran (Zita Johann) sits sadly on death row, waiting her date with the electric chair. In flashback, the audience is apprised of the events leading up to this present sorry state. It turns out that Nora is innocent; she has taken the blame to shield her lover Read More

Women Won't Tell

Actors: Sarah Padden, Otis Harlan, Gloria Shea, Larry Kent, Edmund Breese

Ride Him, Cowboy

Actors: John Wayne, Ruth Hall, Henry B. Walthall, Harry Gribbon, Otis Harlan

Synopsis: Ride Him, Cowboy was the first entry in John Wayne's "B"-western series for Warner Bros. Wayne plays John Drury, a handsome stranger who is blamed for a recent wave of barn-burnings. On the verge of being lynched, John is exonerated by the previously unconscious victim of the villains. At this Read More

Racing Youth

Actors: Frank Albertson, June Clyde, Louise Fazenda, George "Slim" Summerville, Arthur Stuart Hull

Synopsis: Amelia Cruikshank (June Clyde) doesn't know what real trouble is until she inherits her dad's auto-manufacturing business. Hoping to destroy the company for his own financial gain, Amelia's duplicitous business manager Brown (Arthur Stuart Hull) does everything he can to ruin her chances of Read More

Air Eagles

Actors: Norman Kerry, Lloyd Hughes

Synopsis: World War I flying aces, American Bill (Lloyd Hughes) and German Otto (Norman Kerry), now perform for a carnival, and both are attracted to Eve, who's really in love with Otto. When they get to Bill's hometown, Eddie (Matty Kemp), Bill's younger brother who is training to be a pilot, meets Eve 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

No Living Witness

Actors: Gilbert Roland, Noah Beery, Sr., Barbara Kent, Carmel Myers, Otis Harlan

Synopsis: Crusading district attorney Jerry Bennett (Gilbert Roland) would give anything to get the goods on unscrupulous criminal lawyer Clyde Corbin (Noah Beery). Alas, Corbin proves too slippery a target -- and besides, he's got too many irons in the fire to be bothered by Bennett. Halfway through the Read More

Rider of Death Valley

Actors: Tom Mix, Lois Wilson, Fred Kohler, Forrest Stanley, Edith Fellows

Synopsis: A semi-sequel to Tom Mix's 1932 Destry Rides Again, Rider of Death Valley finds Mix protecting the gold-mine claim of little Edith Fellows. Fellows' father has met his end at the hands of villain Fred Kohler. Kohler confronts Mix in the wastes of Death Valley, hoping to leave Mix to perish beneath Read More

Partners

Actors: Tom Keene, Nancy Drexel, Bobby Nelson, Otis Harlan, Victor Potel, Lee Shumway

Synopsis: Tom Keene's first western entry of 1932, Partners casts the star as the partner of travelling medicine-show entrepreneur Billy Franey (who's quite funny in his few scenes). When Franey is murdered, Keene is accused of the crime. Escaping from the sheriff on his faithful horse Flash, Keene sets Read More

The Big Shot

Actors: Eddie Quillan, Maureen O'Sullivan, Roscoe Ates, Belle Bennett

Synopsis: The Big Shot is Ray (Eddie Quillan), a go-getting but incredibly naïve real estate speculator. Duped into purchasing some worthless swamp land, Ray is kept in the dark by the villains when the land turns out to be harboring a profitable sulphur spring. On the verge of selling back the property at Read More

Aloha

Actors: Ben Lyon, Raquel Torres, Robert Edeson, Alan Hale, Thelma Todd

Synopsis: In the South Seas, half-caste Ilanu (Raquel Torres) refuses to marry Kahea (Donald Reed), as she loves Jimmy Bradford (Ben Lyon), heir to an American fortune; her grandfather warns her that her own mother's marriage to a white man was so unhappy that she'd leaped into a volcano. Despite misgivings Read More

Millie

Actors: Helen Twelvetrees, Lilyan Tashman, Robert Ames, Joan Blondell, John Halliday

Synopsis: Yet another variation on the already then-ancient Madame X theme, this early talkie stars Helen Twelvetrees in the title role, a small-town girl marrying a New York City businessman (James Hall). The union produces a daughter, but ends when Millie catches her husband with a mistress (Marie Read More

Man to Man

Actors: Grant Mitchell, Lucille Powers, Phillips Holmes, George F. Marion, Otis Harlan

Synopsis: Man to Man refers to the relationship between father John Bolton (Grant Mitchell) and son Michael (Phillips Holmes) -- or least, to the relationship as it should be. After serving a prison sentence for homicide (established by the screenwriters as justifiable), John starts life anew as a Read More

Parade of the West

Actors: Gladys McConnell, Otis Harlan, Jack Hanlon, Bobby Dunn, Fred Burns

Synopsis: Having recently signed with Universal, Western star Ken Maynard became his own producer with this early talkie Western directed by Harry Joe Brown. Maynard plays Bud Rand, who, with his young ward, Billy (Jackie Hanlon), in tow, accepts an offer to ride the notorious "Mankiller" with the Copeland Read More

Loose Ankles

Actors: Loretta Young, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Louise Fazenda, Ethel Wales, Otis Harlan

Synopsis: A young woman stands to inherit a million bucks in this comedy. The deal is thus: her aunts will give her a cool million if she can stay out of trouble and marry a reputable man with a clean background whom her benefactors approve of. The girl eagerly advertises for her mate, and she finds a Read More

Mountain Justice

Actors: Ken Maynard, Otis Harlan, Paul Hurst, Richard Carlyle

Synopsis: Western hero Ken Maynard lifted his voice in a campfire song, making the near tone-deaf actor the first "singing cowboy." Other than Ken's warbling and sound in general, Mountain Justice told the rather timeworn Western story of a young man searching for his father's killer. Jud McTavish (Otis 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

Take the Heir

Actors: Dorothy Devore, Frank Elliott, Edythe Chapman, Otis Harlan

Synopsis: In this comedy, a boozy Brit inherits an estate from his late American uncle. Unfortunately, he is too drunk to claim it and so sends his valet in his stead. The prim butler goes to the executor's home and meets and falls in love with a lovely maid. Unfortunately, the executor's portly daughter Read More

Embarrassing Moments

Actors: Reginald Denny, Merna Kennedy, Otis Harlan, William Austin

Synopsis: Reginald Denny, one of Universal's top stars of the 1920s, tried to transfer his light-comedy formula to talkies with Embarrassing Moments. Hoping to fend off the advances of suitor Jasper Hickson (William Austin), heroine Marion Fuller (Merna Kennedy) claims she already has a husband. When the Read More

Dames Ahoy

Actors: Glenn Tryon, Otis Harlan, Gertrude Astor, Eddie Gribbon

Synopsis: The overall comic tone of Dames Ahoy is implicit in its title. Chubby Otis Harlan is cast as veteran seaman Bill Jones, who while drunk is tricked into marriage by a blonde gold-digger. Waking up the next morning, all Bill can remember is that his elusive bride has a strawberry-shaped birthmark on Read More

His Lucky Day

Actors: Reginald Denny, Otis Harlan, Cissy Fitzgerald, Eddie Phillips

Synopsis: Reginald Denny starred in this comedy, a part-talkie about a zealous real-estate dealer in love with his client's daughter. Charles Blaydon (Denny) is eager to sell a fashionable suburban house to Weaver (Harvey Clarke), a wealthy art collector, mainly because he has fallen in love with Weaver's 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

Silks and Saddles

Actors: Marian Nixon, Richard Walling, Mary Nolan, Otis Harlan, Claire McDowell

Synopsis: The racetrack provides the setting of this drama that tells the tale of a jockey who throws a race to impress a sexy girl. Later, the jockey redeems himself to his former employer and the boss's daughter, who has loyally loved him all along, by riding a dangerously spirited horse that no one else Read More

Girl Overboard

Actors: Mary Philbin

Synopsis: In this romance, an early talkie containing approximately 4 minutes of dialog and a song, a man is paroled from prison provided he adheres strictly to "Rule No. 3," which states that he cannot get romantically involved, nor marry until he is off parole. He encounters trouble when he saves a Read More

Good Morning Judge

Actors: Reginald Denny, Mary Nolan, Otis Harlan, Dorothy Gulliver, Bull Montana

Barnum Was Right

Actors: Glenn Tryon, Merna Kennedy, Otis Harlan

Synopsis: Del Lord, director of many a Three Stooges farce in the 1930s and 1940s, told the actors when to move and when not to move in the silent Barnum Was Right. Glenn Tryon plays a young go-getter without a dime to his name. To prove himself worthy of his sweetheart Merna Kennedy, Tryon tries to Read More

Show Boat

Actors: Laura La Plante, Joseph Schildkraut, Emily Fitzroy, Otis Harlan, Elsie Bartlett

Synopsis: Show Boat was a part-silent, part-talkie adaptation of the book by Edna Ferber. The film traces the life of Magnolia Hawkes (Laura La Plante), daughter of Captain Andy of the Cotton Blossom, a 19th century show boat. Magnolia's head is turned by handsome gambler Gaylord Ravenal (Joseph Schildkraut Read More

Broadway

Actors: Glenn Tryon, Evelyn Brent, Merna Kennedy, Thomas E. Jackson, Robert Ellis

Synopsis: This early musical features several song-and-dance numbers in the midst of a story about underworld criminals. Nick (Paul Porcasi), who runs the Paradise Night Club, is murdered by Steve (Robert Ellis), a bootlegger. Billie Moore (Merna Kennedy), a hoofer at the club, witnesses the killing but Read More

The Mississippi Gambler

Actors: Joseph Schildkraut, Joan Bennett, Alec B. Francis, Otis Harlan, Carmelita Geraghty

Synopsis: Adopting a surprisingly effective Southern accent, Vienna-born Joseph Schildkraut plays the title role in Mississippi Gambler. Schildkraut is cast as ruthless but basically decent cardsharp Jack, whose latest sucker is old man Blackburne. To save the honor of Blackburne's lovely daughter Lucy (Joan Bennett Read More

Dad's Choice

Actors: Edward Everett Horton

Synopsis: Edward Everett Horton made a series of eight comic shorts in the late 1920s in which he played a Charley Chase type of everyman. It's a little known fact that these were produced by Harold Lloyd's production company. This one is especially charming. Horton plays the sweetheart of Sharon Lynne Read More

Speed Classic

Actors: Rex Lease, Mildred Harris, Mitchell Lewis, James Mason, Helen Jerome Eddy

Synopsis: Speed Classic went into production under the less formalized title They're Off! Yes, it's an auto-race drama, starring Rex Lease as a speed-crazy young socialite. Despite the protests of his girlfriend Mildred Harris, Lease enters an important race, pitting his skills against a formidable array of Read More

Shepherd of the Hills

Actors: Alec B. Francis, Molly O'Day, John Boles, Matthew Betz, Romaine Fielding

Synopsis: Previously filmed in 1920, Harold Bell Wright's "backwoods" novel Shepherd of the Hills was remade in 1928. The story is motivated by a drought which threatens the well-being of every resident of an Ozark ranching community. Into this situation steps the Shepherd of the Hills (Alec B. Francis), a Read More

Silk Stockings

Synopsis: Universal star Laura LaPlante struggles to fill out a very scanty story in this lightweight farce comedy. Molly and Sam Thornhill (LaPlante and John Harron) are a young couple who have been married less than a year. Although they dearly love each other, they argue constantly over every little Read More

Galloping Fury

Actors: Hoot Gibson, Sally Rand, Otis Harlan

Synopsis: Based on Peter B. Kyne's Tidy Toreador, this fairly outrageous Western romp featured Universal's lackadaisical cowboy Hoot Gibson as Billy Halen, foreman of "Pop" Tully's (Otis Harlan) Peaceful Valley Ranch. Suffering a bad case of poison ivy, Billy finds not only relief but an improved Read More

Don't Tell the Wife

Actors: Irene Rich, Huntly Gordon, Lilyan Tashman, William Demarest, Otis Harlan

Synopsis: The Carters (Irene Rich and Huntley Gordon), a nouveau riche couple from Peoria, Illinois, decide to take a trip to Europe in the company of John Carter's best friend Henry (William Demarest). While in Paris, Henry begins squiring the coquettish Suzanne (Lilyan Tashman), who throws him over in Read More

Down the Stretch

Actors: Marian Nixon, Jack Daugherty, Otis Harlan, Ward Crane

Synopsis: This minor racetrack drama was directed by King Baggot, at one time a prominent silent-film leading man. Robert Agnew stars as Marty Kruger, a jockey who is forced to starve himself to qualify weight-wise for the Big Race. This Kruger does at the behest of his nasty trainer Devlin (Lincoln Read More

The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg

Actors: Ramon Novarro, Norma Shearer, Jean Hersholt, Gustav von Seyffertitz, Philippe DeLacy

Synopsis: Even without the benefit of sound, The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg seems to be inundated by Franz Lehar's unforgettable songs. Director Ernst Lubitsch fashioned a gloriously schmaltzy, delightfully artificial rendition of the 1924 Lehar opera, which in turn was based on the 1902 play In Old Read More

Cheerful Fraud

Actors: Reginald Denny, Gertrude Olmstead, Otis Harlan, Emily Fitzroy, Charles Gerrard

Synopsis: Silent film comedian Reginald Denny's regular leading lady Laura La Plante had gone on to bigger things at Universal in 1927, thus Denny was co-starred with Gertrude Olmstead in A Cheerful Fraud. Denny plays a wealthy young man whose one true love (Olmstead) chooses to keep her distance. To get Read More

Three Bad Men

Actors: George O'Brien, Olive Borden, Lou Tellegen, John Farrell MacDonald, Tom Santschi

Synopsis: Long thought lost, the silent Three Bad Men is an vital ingredient in the cinematic canon of director John Ford. Often described as a film version of Peter B. Kyne's Three Godfathers (which Ford would direct in 1948), Three Bad Men is actually based on Over the Border, a novel by Herman Whitaker. Read More

The Midnight Message

Actors: Mary Carr, Wanda Hawley, Creighton Hale, Otis Harlan

Synopsis: Mary Carr, Hollywood's favorite "martyr mother," does her usual in The Midnight Message. Carr plays the widowed, impoverished mom of Western Union messenger boy John Fox Jr. Dispatched to deliver a night telegram to millionaire Otis Harlan, Fox is overpowered by a gang of burglars. Soon, however Read More

What Happened to Jones

Actors: Reginald Denny, Marian Nixon, Melbourne MacDowell, Frances Raymond, Otis Harlan

Synopsis: What Happened to Jones takes approximately 70 minutes' screen time to tell in this frothy comedy. On the night before his wedding, Tom Jones (Reginald Denny) attends a poker game with his corpulent pal Ebeneezer Goodly (Otis Harlan). When the cops raid the game, Tom and Eb sneak into a ladies' Read More

The Prince of Pilsen

Actors: George Sidney, Anita Stewart, Allan Forrest, Myrtle Stedman, Otis Harlan

Synopsis: With business at a standstill because of Prohibition, Dutch-born brewer Hans Wagner (George Sidney) returns to his homeland, hoping to jump-start his business. Invited to join a fraternal lodge, Hans dons the conclave's uniform, whereupon he is immediately mistaken for the Prince of Pilsen (Allan Forrest Read More

The Unknown Cavalier

Actors: Ken Maynard, Kathleen Collins, T. Roy Barnes, Otis Harlan, James Mason

Synopsis: One of Ken Maynard's very best silent westerns, The Unknown Cavalier was filmed on locations in Death Valley, California. Maynard plays Tom Drury, a cowboy whose quick thinking stops a notorious outlaw, "The Hawk," from further misdeeds. The villain, as it turns out, is none other than Henry Suggs Read More

Where Was I?

Actors: Reginald Denny, Marian Nixon, Pauline Garon, Lee Moran, Tyrone Power

Synopsis: During the 1920s, Reginald Denny was popular in pictures for portraying all-American young men (this changed after the sound era revealed his British accent). He plays Thomas Berford, who inherited his father's business and has made a huge success of it. The only competitor who remains uncowed is Read More

Perfect Clown

Actors: Larry Semon, Kate Price, Oliver Hardy, Dorothy Dwan, Otis Harlan

Synopsis: Pasty-faced comedian Larry Semon was both producer and star of the modestly titled The Perfect Clown. Semon plays Bert Larry, a young bank clerk forced to stay outside all night when he's unable to pay his board bill. As if this isn't bad enough, Bert has been entrusted with $10,000 in bank funds Read More

Thunder Mountain

Synopsis: Although the theme of this melodrama -- based on the John Golden play Howdy Folks -- was serious, the film also had some entertaining comic relief courtesy of ZaSu Pitts and Otis Harlan. Sam Martin (Leslie Fenton) grows up in the Kentucky hills with a preacher (Alec B. Francis) as his closest Read More

Limited Mail

Actors: Monte Blue, Vera Reynolds, Willard Louis, Tom Gallery

Synopsis: This action-packed melodrama was adapted from the stage play by Elmer Vance, the man who did the adapting was future film mogul Darryl F. Zanuck, who at the time was a mere screenwriter for Warner Bros. When he is jilted by his girl, Ben Wilson (Monte Blue) becomes a hobo. His life takes a turn Read More

Lightnin'

Actors: Jay Hunt, Madge Bellamy, Wallace MacDonald, John Farrell MacDonald, Ethel Clayton

Synopsis: Director John Ford was out of his element with this comedy, based on the hit Broadway play by Winchell Smith and Frank Bacon (Bacon also played the role of Lightnin' Bill on-stage). On the border between California and Nevada there is a hotel run by Mother Jones (Edythe Chapman). Her husband Read More

The Redeeming Sin

Actors: Alla Nazimova, Lou Tellegen, Carl Miller, Otis Harlan, Rosita Marstini

Synopsis: The careers of both actress Alla Nazimova and director J. Stuart Blackton were on the wane when they made this low-budget drama. Joan (Nazimova) is part of a French underworld gang, which includes her rough sweetheart, Lupin (Lou Tellegen). After provoking Lupin, she heads for a low-down cabaret Read More

Nine and Three-Fifths Seconds

Synopsis: Like many sports stars before and after him, champion sprinter Charles W. Paddock wound up in motion pictures, at least temporarily. Although the story to this action-drama didn't display Paddock's athletic talents to their best advantage, the sprinter does have a fine supporting cast. Charley Read More

How Baxter Butted in

Actors: Dorothy Devore, Matt Moore, Ward Crane, Wilfred Lucas, Adda Gleason

Synopsis: Henry Baxter (Matt Moore) is a dedicated newspaper clerk who longs to marry stenographer Beulah Dyer (Dorothy Devore) in this romantic comedy. Henry saves a little money each week to insure that someday the two lovers can be wed. When his brother dies, Henry takes another job to support his Read More

Clean Heart

Actors: Percy Marmont, Otis Harlan, Marguerite de la Motte

Synopsis: Film pioneer J. Stuart Blackton was nearing the end of his directing career when he made this surprisingly warm human interest drama. Because he has to support his aunt, uncle, and his brother's four orphaned children, Philip Wriford (Percy Marmont) buries himself in work. He becomes a newspaper Read More

Mademoiselle Midnight

Actors: Mae Murray, Monte Blue, Robert McKim, Robert Edeson

Synopsis: This melodrama was the first collaborative effort between MGM and the husband-wife/director-actress team Robert Z. Leonard and Mae Murray. Murray has two roles, in the prologue as Renee de Gontran, who scandalized the court of Napoleon III and who was banished to Mexico by the Empress Eugenie (Clarissa Selwynne Read More

The Lullaby

Actors: Jane Novak, Robert Anderson

Synopsis: Jane Novak plays a dual role as mother and daughter in this drama. Tony (Robert Anderson) and Felipa (Novak) are an immigrant couple whose life together ends tragically. Tony's friend, Pietro (Fred Maletesta), tries to force himself on Felipa, and Tony kills him. Both husband and wife are arrested Read More

Welcome Stranger

Actors: Dore Davidson, Florence Vidor, Virginia Brown Faire, Noah Beery, Sr., Lloyd Hughes

Synopsis: Elderly Isadore Solomon (Dore Davidson) arrives in the small New England town of Valley Falls, but is run out of the hotel because he is Jewish. Also driven out is Mary Clark (Florence Vidor), who arrives the same night. They are taken in by Clem Beemis, a handyman and electrician (William V. Read More

Captain Blood

Actors: J. Warren Kerrigan, Jean Paige, Charlotte Merriam, James Morrison, Allan Forrest

Synopsis: Although the Warner Bros. version of Rafael Sabatini's novel made Errol Flynn a star in 1935, it wasn't the first time the romantic adventure was made into a film. J. Warren Kerrigan starred as Peter Blood, the physician turned pirate in this silent Vitagraph version. Peter Blood gets lumped in Read More

One Law for the Woman

Synopsis: Comedy veteran Dell Henderson directed this obscure silent western starring Cullen Landis as a naive youngster who is sold a phony mine. Landis catches the villain (Stanton Heck) and wins the girl (Mildred Harris Chaplin) in the usual fashion. The only noteworthy aspect of this ultra-cheap western Read More

George Washington, Jr.

Actors: Wesley Barry, Gertrude Olmstead, Otis Harlan, Charles "Heinie" Conklin

Synopsis: George Washington Belgrave ($Wesley Barry) is the son of Senator Belgrave (William Courtright). When a secret report by the senate investigating committee is stolen by Count Gorfa (Leon Barry), the leader of a group of anarchists, young George gets involved. He dons whiskers and pretends to be one Read More

Abraham Lincoln

Actors: Irene Hunt, Charles French, Calvert Carter

Synopsis: This epic covers all of Lincoln's life. His birth in a blizzard; his boyhood (depicted by Danny Hey as young Lincoln); his romance with the ill-fated Anne Rutledge (Ruth Clifford) and courtship of Mary Todd (Nell Craig), who he married; his debates with Stephen Douglas (William Humphreys); and his Read More

Oh, Doctor

Actors: Reginald Denny, Mary Astor, Otis Harlan, William V. Mong, Tom Ricketts

Synopsis: Reginald Denny seems to be doing a Harold Lloyd impersonation in this comedy, right down to the glasses, and maybe he was -- the plot concerns a hypochondriac, like Lloyd's 1923 hit Why Worry?. Although Rufus Billop (Denny) is convinced he will die at any minute, he has outlived his whole family Read More

Code of the Wilderness

Actors: John Bowers, Alan Hale, Alice Calhoun, Otis Harlan, Charlotte Merriam

Synopsis: More a romantic melodrama set on a western ranch than an out-and-out sagebrush tale, this Vitagraph silent features a couple of also-ran stars of the era, Alice Calhoun and John Bowers. She is the visitor from the East, he the handsome ranch foreman with whom she falls in love. There's a jealous Read More

Abe Lincoln (The New Salem Period)

Dixie Handicap

Actors: Claire Windsor, Frank Keenan, Lloyd Hughes, John St. Polis, Otis Harlan

Synopsis: This romantic drama only used half the clichés of the typical horse racing story. There's the impoverished Colonel (or in this case, a judge) and his pretty daughter, who may have to marry the bad guy who has the mortgage on the family home. At least the story draws the line at this juncture Read More

The Near Lady

Actors: Kate Price, Florence Drew, Otis Harlan

Synopsis: This comedy-drama starring Gladys Walton used the stale premise of the suddenly-wealthy working class family who are trying to move into society. Nora Schultz (Walton) is a manicurist in a Greek barber shop run by Standuppolus Kornpoppulus (Harry Mann). Her father, Herman (Otis Harlan), is a Read More

The Spider and the Rose

Actors: Alice Lake, Richard Headrick, Gaston Glass, Joseph J. Dowling, Robert McKim

Synopsis: For this tale of old California, producer Benjamin F. Zeidman put together an all-star cast. The governor of California (Joseph J. Dowling) relies on his trusted secretary, Mendoza (Robert McKim), for many of his decisions. But Mendoza uses the governor's faith in him to have him ousted from Read More

Truxton King

Actors: John Gilbert, Ruth Clifford, Frank Leigh, Mickey Moore, Otis Harlan

Synopsis: During his tenure with the Fox studios, John Gilbert was cast in every imaginable role a male lead could have. He was Marco Polo, Cameo Kirby, and here he's the title character of this adventure, which comes by its mythical kingdom theme honestly -- it was based on a novel by George Barr Read More

Victor

Actors: Herbert Rawlinson, Dorothy Manners, Esther Ralston, Eddie Gribbon

Synopsis: This mediocre comedy-drama starred Herbert Rawlinson as an impoverished nobleman turned pugilist. Lord Waring (Frank Currier) is broke so he sends his son Cecil (Rawlinson) to America to marry a girl from a wealthy family. Cecil is less than thrilled with the situation, especially after meeting Read More

Eternal Flame

Actors: Norma Talmadge, Adolphe Menjou, Wedgewood Nowell, Conway Tearle, Rosemary Theby

Synopsis: Joseph Schenck pulled out all the stops in this costume drama starring his wife, Norma Talmadge -- it was adapted from Honore de Balzac's novel, La Duchess de Langeais by Frances Marion, and no expense was spared to bring the Napoleonic era to life. When the Duc de Langeais (Adolphe Menjou) makes Read More

The Right That Failed

Synopsis: When prize fighter Johnny Duffey (Bert Lytell) breaks his hand, the doctor orders him to rest for three months before he returns to the ring. Vacationing in Craigmoor, he falls for society-debutante Constance Talbot (Virginia Valli) but later discovers she is engaged to the pompous Roy Van Twiller Read More

Gay and Devilish

Actors: Doris May, George Periolat, Otis Harlan, Cullen Landis

Synopsis: The vastly underrated William A. Seiter was the director of the frothy Gay and Devilish. Doris May plays Fanchon Browne, a poor girl about to enter into a marriage of convenience with wealthy old Peter Armitage (Otis Harlan). When she falls in love with Armitage's handsome nephew Peter (Cullen Landis Read More

Ladder Jinx

Actors: Edward Everett Horton, Tully Marshall, Otis Harlan, Ernest Shields

Synopsis: Although the Vitagraph studio had seen better days by 1922, it was still capable of putting out some entertaining films, such as this light comedy. Edward Everett Horton stars as Arthur Barnes, a bank clerk who is engaged to Helen (Margaret Landis), the daughter of the bank's president, James Read More

World's a Stage

Actors: Kenneth Harlan, Otis Harlan, Dorothy Phillips, Jack McDonald

Synopsis: The story to this drama is nowhere near as extravagant and sensationalistic as Elinor Glyn's usual fare, perhaps because the author was trying to prove that film people were every bit as nice and normal as "regular" folk. While playing Juliet in a barnstorming Shakespearean troupe, Jo Bishop Read More

Diamonds Adrift

Actors: Earle Williams, Beatrice Burnham, Otis Harlan, George Field, Jack Carlisle

Synopsis: Manly Earle Williams was still very much a box-office draw when he made this entertaining adventure film. Bob Bellamy (Williams) is the spendthrift son of a tycoon (Melbourne MacDowell). When the elder Bellamy gets fed up with Bob's idle ways, he forces him to go to work on his cargo ship. While Read More

Keeping up with Lizzie

Synopsis: Irving Bacheller was a popular American author during the 1910s, but he refused to allow his stories to be filmed because he didn't think that motion pictures could do them justice. He finally relented with this tale of social climbing in a small town, and the resulting picture was amusing and Read More