Rosemary ThebyFilmography

You Can't Take It with You

Actors: Jean Arthur, Lionel Barrymore, James Stewart, Edward Arnold, Mischa Auer, Ann Miller, Spring Byington

Synopsis: Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman's whimsical Pulitzer Prize-winning Broadway play You Can't Take It With You was transformed into a paean to populism by director Frank Capra and screenwriter Robert Riskin. This is the story of the zany Sycamore household, presided over by Grandpa Vanderhof (Lionel Barrymore Read More

Make Way for Tomorrow

Actors: Victor Moore, Beulah Bondi, Fay Bainter, Thomas Mitchell, Ray Mayer

Synopsis: While not a box-office success, this drama, directed by Leo McCarey, developed a potent reputation among film critics and movie buffs for its sensitive and perceptive treatment of the problems of the elderly. When McCarey won the Oscar for Best Director the same year for The Awful Truth, he Read More

Rich Relations

Yours for the Asking

Actors: George Raft, Ida Lupino, Reginald Owen, James Gleason

Synopsis: In this crime comedy, a street-savvy gangster involves himself with a Miami socialite. Together, they conspire to turn her familial mansion into a secret gambling casino. The hood is convinced her beauty will draw customers and with the ensuing profits, the two will be able to pay their debts. Read More

His Brother's Wife

Actors: Barbara Stanwyck, Robert Taylor, Jean Hersholt, Joseph Calleia, John Eldredge

Synopsis: In this polished soap opera from MGM, Robert Taylor plays Chris Claybourne, a dedicated scientist researching a possible cure for spotted fever. However, Chris has a dark side; he has a weakness for gambling and has fallen into debt with a gangster named Fish Eye (Joseph Calleia). While visiting Read More

Our Relations

Actors: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Betty Healy, Daphne Pollard, Sidney Toler

Synopsis: Working on the theory that the only thing funnier than Laurel and Hardy is two sets of Laurel and Hardys, Our Relations milks its central mistaken-identity situation for all it's worth. Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy are two solid citizens, happily married and highly respected in their community. Read More

San Francisco

Actors: Clark Gable, Jeanette MacDonald, Spencer Tracy, Jack Holt, Jessie Ralph

Synopsis: The MGM historical "spectacular" San Francisco was allegedly based on a three-sentence synopsis, submitted verbally to producer B.F. Zeidman by studio troubleshooter Bob Hopkins. The story begins on the Barbary Coast on New Year's Eve, 1906, as rakish but likeable political boss Blackie Norton (Clark Gable 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

The Fatal Glass of Beer

Actors: W.C. Fields, Rosemary Theby, Rychard Cramer, George Chandler

Synopsis: The short comedy The Fatal Glass of Beer stars the legendary W.C. Fields as Mr. Snavely, a prospector who is awaiting the return of his prodigal son, Chester, who has been in prison for the last few years. The last time Snavely saw his son was when the boy consumed "The Fatal Glass of Beer," and Read More

Ten Nights in a Bar-Room

Actors: William Farnum, Tom Santschi, Robert W. Frazer, Phyllis Barrington

Synopsis: Ten Nights In a Bar-room is as corny and hackneyed as its title, but that doesn't mean it isn't fun to watch. Based on the warhorse cautionary stage play by Edwin Waugh (previously filmed six times during the silent era), the story concerns Joe Morgan (William Farnum), a highly respected business Read More

A Flask of Fields

Synopsis: A Flask of Fields consists of three short subjects starring the inimitable W.C. Fields. All three will be familiar to Fields buffs, but chances are they won't pass up the opportunity for just one more look. First on the docket is 1930's The Golf Specialist, wherein W.C. recreates his classic Read More

Girls Who Dare

Actors: Rex Lease, Priscilla Bonner, Rosemary Theby

Synopsis: Here we go again with plot number 3729-B. Golden-hearted chorus girl Sally Casey (Priscilla Bonner) is in love with wealthy Chet Randall (Rex Lease), and the feeling is mutual. Randall's snobbish father (Ben Wilson) staunchly opposes the romance. Sally saves the day -- and her impending marriage Read More

Trial Marriage

Actors: Norman Kerry, Sally Eilers, Jason Robards, Sr., Thelma Todd, Charles Clary

Synopsis: Capricious Constance Bannister (Sally Eilers) has had 12 fiances, but has yet to take her marital vows. Fiance number 13, Oliver Mowbray (Norman Kerry), suffers the same fate as his predecessors when Constance impulsively weds doctor Thorvald Ware (Jason Robards Sr.) Grace (Thelma Todd), Ware's Read More

Midnight Daddies

Actors: Harry Gribbon, Andy Clyde, Alma Bennett, Rosemary Theby

Montmartre Rose

Actors: Marguerite de la Motte, Paul Ralli, Martha Mattox, Rosemary Theby

Synopsis: The cheapo-sleazo Montmartre Rose is little more than a "chorus girl" drama, transplanted to Gay Paree. The titular heroine, played by Marguerite de la Motte, is a dancer in a seedy Montmartre-district dive. Wealthy Paul Ralli falls in love with the girl, but his family won't hear of it. Love Read More

Peacock Fan

Actors: Dorothy Dwan, Tom O'Brien, Spencer Bell, Carlton S. King

Synopsis: Several of Hollywood's best Chinese actors are prominently featured in the mystery melodrama Peacock Fan. The titular prop is a priceless Chinese artifact, which has brought tragedy to all of its owners. When the latest possessor of the precious fan is murdered, half-caste detective Chang Dorfman (Lucien Prival Read More

The Dream Melody

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

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

The Port of Missing Girls

Actors: Barbara Bedford, Malcolm McGregor, Natalie Kingston, Hedda Hopper, Rosemary Theby

Synopsis: Far in the mysterious East there lies an island that exists under the radar of any law or authority. This haven for thieves and crooks is also the perfect home for women who make themselves widows. When showgirl Della Mason is framed for murder, the makes the island her destination, but even after Read More

Woman Against the World

Actors: Harrison Ford, Georgia Hale, Lee Moran, Gertrude Olmstead, William H. Tooker

Synopsis: The "original" Harrison Ford and former Chaplin leading lady Georgia Hale are co-starred in Tiffany-Stahl's Woman Against the World. When a chorus girl is found murdered, girl reporter Carol Hill (Hale) takes it upon herself to solve the case. The police have arrested wealthy Schuyler Van Loan Read More

Bowery Cinderella

Actors: Kate Bruce, Pat Hartigan, Leo White, Rosemary Theby, Ernest Hilliard, Pat O'Malley, Gladys Hulette

Synopsis: Tenement gal Nora Denahy (Gladys Hulette) is the "Bowery Cinderella" in this standard melting-pot drama. While on a slumming party, wealthy Ned Chandler (Ernest Hilliard) is smitten by Nora. He offers to take her away from her shabby environment, if only she will become his wife. Nora is tempted Read More

The Truthful Sex

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

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

Re-Creation of Brian Kent

Synopsis: Harold Bell Wright, a popular author during the silent era, was known for his sentimental and unsophisticated stories. This film, based on one of his novels, was a good representation of his written work. Brian Kent (Kenneth Harlan) regrets stealing money from a Chicago bank and decides to kill Read More

One Year to Live

Actors: Aileen Pringle, Dorothy Mackaill, Sam de Grasse, Rosemary Theby, Leo White

Synopsis: Dr. Lucien LaPierre (Sam de Grasse) desperately wants to marry Elise Duchanier, the maid to a Parisian burlesque star (Aileen Pringle). She falls ill, and to keep her by his side, he tells her that she only has a year to live. Instead of making Elise a homebody, it inspires her to make a stab at Read More

Secrets of the Night

Actors: James Kirkwood, ZaSu Pitts, Tom Wilson, Rosemary Theby

Synopsis: This muddled murder mystery-comedy was based on the Max Marcin stage play The Night Cap. Bank president Robert Andrews (James Kirkwood) has loaned someone money out of the bank funds and he wants to distract the bank examiner from examining the books and discovering the shortage. So he invites Read More

Wreckage

Actors: May Allison, John Miljan, Holmes Herbert, James Morrison, Rosemary Theby

Synopsis: In spite of the warnings of his friend, Stuart Ames (Holmes E. Herbert), Grant Demarest (James Morrison) persists in seeing the selfish Margot (Rosemary Theby). When Demarest is found dead, Ames is accused of murdering him. Although he is acquitted, there's a stigma attached to his name, so he Read More

Fifth Avenue Models

Actors: Mary Philbin, Norman Kerry, Josef Swickard, William Conklin, Rosemary Theby

Synopsis: Isobel Ludani (Mary Philbin) supports herself and her father -- an unsuccessful artist (Josef Swickard) -- by working at a modiste's shop. When she is pressed into service as a mannequin, she gets into a knock-down, drag-out fight with one of the other models and ruins her dress. The modiste Read More

As Man Desires

Actors: Milton Sills, Viola Dana, Ruth Clifford, Rosemary Theby, Irving Cummings

Synopsis: Stalwart Milton Sills stars in a role that's nearly as virile as the one he played in The Sea Hawk. Major John Craig (Sills) is a British Army surgeon who is based at an East Indian post. He knocks Colonel Carringford (Paul Nicholson) cold during a fight. When the Colonel is killed by a servant Read More

Red Lily

Actors: Enid Bennett, Ramon Novarro, Wallace Beery, Frank Currier, Rosemary Theby

Synopsis: After the death of her father, Marise La Noue (Enid Bennett) can find no safe haven, so she runs off to Paris with Jean Leonnec, the mayor's son (Ramon Novarro). Before they can be married, however, they are separated. Marise sinks from working as a waitress to toiling as scrubwoman to the Read More

So Big

Actors: Colleen Moore, John Bowers, Ben Lyon, Wallace Beery

Synopsis: Colleen Moore may have been The Perfect Flapper, but as an actress she longed to spread her creative wings. She insisted on portraying the lead character in this adaptation of Edna Ferber's novel -- a 19th century girl doomed to a life of drudgery, who ages over 30 years throughout the course of Read More

Lost and Found on a South Sea Island

Actors: House Peters, Pauline Starke, Antonio Moreno, Mary Jane Irving, Rosemary Theby

Synopsis: Starring veteran leading man House Peters, this Raoul Walsh-directed silent melodrama was filmed on location in Tahiti. Peters played Captain Blackbird, who, on the island of Pago Pago meets lovely Lorna (Pauline Starke), a white girl promised by an evil trader, Faulke (eorge Siegmann), to Chief Read More

The Girl of the Golden West

Synopsis: A now forgotten star of the later silent era, Sylvia Breamer took on the old David Belasco stage chestnut in this remake of Cecil B. DeMille's 1915 Western classic. Miss Breamer plays a saloon owner who becomes a pawn between two men, a swashbuckling bandit (played in his usual florid style by J. Warren Kerrigan Read More

In Search of a Thrill

Actors: Viola Dana

Synopsis: After she inherits a fortune, Ann Clemance (Viola Dana) travels to Paris to indulge herself in frivolity. She meets up with an old friend, writer Adrian Torrens (Warner Baxter), who disparages her lifestyle. Ann sees him befriend an Apache dancer and she believes he finds women in need of Read More

The Rip-Tide

Actors: Stuart Holmes, Rosemary Theby

Synopsis: Trade paper Moving Picture World laid on the praise a little heavily when it proclaimed that this solidly made melodrama was "one of the best pictures of the year and one of the greatest productions ever offered in the independent market." Arrow, the studio responsible for the picture, must have Read More

Your Friend and Mine

Actors: Enid Bennett, Huntly Gordon, Willard Mack, Rosemary Theby, Herbert Frank

Synopsis: No wonder Enid Bennett never rose above second-string stardom -- all too often she was thrust into shoddy pictures like this stereotypical eternal triangle number. It was based on the dramatic sketch by Willard Mack, and as if that wasn't embarrassing enough, he also played a bit part in it, too. Read More

Long Live the King

Actors: Jackie Coogan, Rosemary Theby, Ruth Renick, Vera Lewis

Synopsis: Metro pulled out all the stops on this picture, which was based on the novel by Mary Roberts Rinehart and starred eight-year-old Jackie Coogan. The studio spent upwards of a million dollars on mob scenes and spectacular sets for this mythical kingdom tale. Coogan's father, Jack Coogan Sr. Read More

Tea With A Kick

Actors: Ralph Lewis, Doris May, Rosemary Theby, Creighton Hale, Stuart Holmes

Synopsis: This light comedy featured an "all-star cast" that really did contain some of the better also-rans of the silent era. Doris May stars as Bonnie Day, a rambunctious young lady who is rankled when she is expelled from college for serving tea in her room. She goes on to open up a tearoom in a fancy Read More

Slander the Woman

Actors: Dorothy Phillips, Lewis Dayton, Robert Anderson, Mayme Kelso, George Siegmann

Synopsis: This tale of the Canadian North starred Dorothy Phillips, the wife of director Alan Holubar (actually, Rosemary Theby in a supporting role is a far more interesting actor than Phillips ever was). When Monsieur Redoux (Robert Schable) chases after Yvonne Desmarest (Phillips), his wife (Theby) Read More

Rich Men's Wives

Actors: House Peters, Claire Windsor, Rosemary Theby, Gaston Glass, Myrtle Stedman

Synopsis: For a director with less-than-stellar talents, Louis J. Gasnier certainly led a charmed life for a while, something attested to by this picture. Gasnier did a mediocre (at best) job on this cliched film, which should have been a mere programmer but wound up being a 6,500 feet "special," one that Read More

More to Be Pitied Than Scorned

Actors: J. Frank Glendon, Rosemary Theby, Philo McCullough, Gordon Griffith, Alice Lake

Synopsis: Those who see the title to this picture and think it must be based on a hoary old melodrama are absolutely correct. The play, popular circa 1900, was written by Charles E. Blaney. Even though melodramas were making a little comeback in the early 1920s, this one really had no place in the flapper Read More

Yellow Men and Gold

Actors: Richard Dix, Helene Chadwick, Henry Barrows, Rosemary Theby, Richard Tucker

Synopsis: This adventurous story-within-a-story was based on a novel by Gouverneur Morris. Parrish (Richard Dix), a young author, decides to use himself, his friends, and neighbors as characters in his latest book. During a rainstorm (according to his tale), he finds a treasure map that he shows to Carroll 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

A Connecticut Yankee at King Arthur's Court

Actors: Harry Myers, Pauline Starke, Rosemary Theby, Charles Clary, William V. Mong

Synopsis: Story has it that Douglas Fairbanks was approached for the role of the Yankee, Martin Cavendish. It certainly would have made interesting casting, but Harry Myers (who, a decade later, would appear as Charles Chaplin's rich, boozy friend in City Lights) does a fine job in the part. This Read More

Unseen Forces

Actors: Sylvia Breamer, Rosemary Theby, Conrad Nagel, Robert Cain, Sam de Grasse

Synopsis: Miriam Holt (Sylvia Breamer) is an innkeeper's daughter who is born with psychic abilities. She falls for a young hunter who lodges at the inn, but he goes away when he mistakenly believes she loves another man. Miriam moves to the city to make use of her unusual abilities for the benefit of Read More

Last Trail

Synopsis: Former socialite Maurice "Lefty" Flynn made a bid for western stardom in this mild silent western about a stranger mistaken for an outlaw, the notorious "Night Hawk." He finds a believer in lovely Winifred Sampson (Eva Novak) who shelters the presumed outlaw from the authorities until her fiancee Read More

Good Women

Actors: Rosemary Theby, Hamilton Revelle, Irene Blackwell, Earl Schenck, William P. Carleton

Synopsis: Rosemary Theby is American heiress Katherine Brinkley, a selfish young lady who believes that every woman should be out for herself. When she meets pianist Nicolai Brouevitch (Hamilton Revelle), it matters not one whit to her that he has a wife, Inna (Irene Blackwell), who loves him very much. Read More

Partners of Fate

Synopsis: Two couples, Helen (Louise Lovely) and Byron (Philo McCullough), and Frances (Rosemary Theby) and John (William Scott) get married at the same altar and head off together on a joint honeymoon. But the ship wrecks and they are cast onto separate parts of an island with the wrong spouses. Although Read More

Shame

Actors: John Gilbert, Mickey Moore, Frankie Lee, George Nichols, George Siegmann

Synopsis: This eight-reel Fox feature is a blatant example of the rampant racial prejudice that existed in the early part of the 20th century. Even the Photoplay review, which pans the film, smacks of racism. "When the hero of Shame hears that his mother was Chinese, he immediately dashes to the mirror and Read More

Fightin' Mad

Actors: William Desmond, Virginia Brown Faire, Doris Pawn, Rosemary Theby, Joseph J. Dowling

Synopsis: Manly William Desmond stars in this virile, low-budget Western. When Bud McGraw (Desmond) returns from the Great War, he is bored with living on the ranch belonging to his father (Joseph J. Dowling). He leaves and heads south, where he applies for a job as a ranger at a border camp. When a group Read More

Kismet

Synopsis: This first film version of the Edward Knoblock theatrical chestnut Kismet stars the actor who made the play famous (and virtually his life's work): Otis Skinner. As he had so many times before, Skinner plays Hajj, the Arabian Nights beggar-magician who enjoys the amorous attentions of the wazir's Read More

Dice of Destiny

Synopsis: When Jimmy Doyle (H.B. Warner) is released after serving yet another prison term, his dying pal, jewel thief Bill Preston (J.P. Lockney) asks him to take care of his daughter Nancy (Lillian Rich). Jimmy plans to go straight, and tries to sequester Nancy, who was never a part of her father's Read More

Are You Legally Married?

Synopsis: Rosemary Theby is granted a divorce, only to discover that the decree is invalid in certain other states. Naturally, the plot dictates that she journey to one of those states, where she faces a charge of bigamy. Her plight stirs up a political tempest in a teapot, involving the man she loves (Lew Cody Read More

The Amateur Adventuress

Synopsis: Expert farceur Emmy Wehlen plays the title character in The Amateur Adventuress. A plain girl of modest means, Wehlen decides to pose as a notorious vamp. This gets her into society-and in a lot of hot water. All misunderstandings are forgotten in reel five, when she melts into the arms of leading Read More

The Midnight Patrol

Synopsis: Long before he became Hollywood's favorite blustery blowhard, Thuston Hall enjoyed a substantial leading-man career. In Midnight Patrol, Hall stars as Officer Terence Shannon, head man of the Los Angeles Flying Squadron. In this capacity, Shannon does battles with ruthless opium smugglers in LA's Read More

The Great Love

Synopsis: This war-time D.W. Griffith film was literally filler -- some of the footage was left over from around the time he shot Hearts of the World. According to reports of the day (the film apparently no longer exists), its modest story and simple approach was a comedown from the director's other, far Read More

Winged Mystery

Actors: Franklin Farnum

Synopsis: The Winged Mystery was supposed to have been taken seriously, but audiences and critics alike regarded the film as a laugh riot. Most of the story takes place in a grim country mansion, which serves as an "airstrip" for a collection of carrier pigeons. Each time one of the pigeons takes flight Read More

The Earl of Pawtucket

Synopsis: Light comedian Harry Meyers wrote, directed and co-starred in 1915's The Earl of Pawtucket. The title role, however, was reserved for Lawrence D'Orsay, who essayed the character on stage. The plot concerns a phony British nobleman who impresses the yokels with his affected upper-crust accent (a Read More

The Man of Shame

Synopsis: Noted stage personality Wilton Lackaye was ostensibly the star of Universal's The Man of Shame. But since Lackaye's supporting cast included the film's director Harry C. Myers and Meyers' wife Rosemary Theby, the eminent tragedian had to keep on his toes to prevent the film from being stolen from Read More

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