Sidney OlcottFilmography

The Amateur Gentleman

Crew: Director

Actors: Richard Barthelmess, Dorothy Dunbar, Gardner James, Nigel Barrie, Brandon Hurst

Synopsis: The 1926 Amateur Gentleman was the second film version of Jeffrey Farnol's novel of the same name. Richard Barthelmess stars as Barnabas Barty, the rough-hewn son of a prizefighter (Edwards Davis). Barty's dad is accused of a crime he didn't commit; almost simultaneously, Barnabas inherits a Read More

The White Black Sheep

Crew: Director

Actors: Richard Barthelmess, Patsy Ruth Miller, Constance Howard, Erville Alderson

Synopsis: The White Black Sheep in this stiff-upper-lip actioner is Robert Kincairn (Richard Bartheless), the dissolute son of a British colonel (William H. Tooker). Though outwardly a wastrel, Kincaim is gallant enough to take the blame for a robbery perpetrated by his fiancee Enid (Constance Howard). Read More

Ranson's Folly

Crew: Director

Actors: Richard Barthelmess, Dorothy Mackaill, Anders Randolf, Pat Hartigan, William Norton Bailey

Synopsis: The 1926 Ranson's Folly was the second screen version of the rough-and-tumble novel by journalist Richard Harding Davis. Richard Barthelmess plays Lt. Ranson, an army officer who, out of boredom, bets his friends that he can successfully pull off a stagecoach robbery armed with nothing more than a Read More

Not So Long Ago

Crew: Director

Actors: Betty Bronson, Ricardo Cortez, Edwards Davis, Julia Swayne Gordon

Synopsis: Although trade paper Motion Picture News insisted no pun was intended, readers probably groaned anyhow when it stated that this drama was meant to prove that actress Betty Bronson was no "flash in the pan" -- after all, Bronson had just recently won the lead role in Peter Pan over every female Read More

The Charmer

Crew: Director, Producer

Actors: Pola Negri, Wallace MacDonald, Robert W. Frazer, Trixie Friganza, Cesare Gravina

Synopsis: Mariposa (Pola Negri) is a dancer in a Spanish café who is discovered by theatrical manager Señor Sprotti (Cesare Gravina) around the same time that Ralph Bayne, a wealthy American (Wallace MacDonald), sees her. Bayne falls in love with her immediately, as does his chauffeur, Dan Murray (Robert W. Fraser Read More

Salome of the Tenements

Crew: Director, Producer

Actors: Jetta Goudal, Godfrey Tearle, Lazar Freed

Synopsis: The ambitious and beautiful Sonya Mendel (Jetta Goudal) works her way up from the ghetto and lands a job as a reporter for a Jewish newspaper. She sets out to interview wealthy John Manning (Godfrey Tearle) about his plans for a new settlement, and winds up falling in love with him. Manning Read More

Best People

Crew: Director, Producer

Actors: Warner Baxter, Esther Ralston, Kathlyn Williams, Edwards Davis, William Austin

Synopsis: Esther Ralston, who plays a nice chorus girl in this comedy-drama, is upstaged by Margaret Livingston, who has a much-flashier role as her not-so-nice friend. Ralston is Alice O'Neil, who is in love with Bertie Lenox (Joseph Striker), the son of a nouveau riche family. His sister Marian Read More

Humming Bird

Crew: Director

Actors: Gloria Swanson, William Ricciardi, Cesare Gravina, Mario Majeroni

Synopsis: Glamorous Gloria Swanson dressed down for this story of a little Parisian thief. Toinette (Swanson) is the leader of a band of thieves called "the Wolves of Montmartre." Dressed like a boy, she is known only as the Humming Bird and is wanted by the police. American reporter Randall Carey (Edward Read More

The Only Woman

Crew: Director

Actors: Norma Talmadge, Eugene O'Brien, Edwards Davis, Winter Hall, Matthew Betz

Synopsis: Although Norma Talmadge was at the height of her stardom, she was not immune to poor material, nor was veteran screenwriter C. Gardner Sullivan immune from writing it. The overused theme for this drama involves a young woman who marries to save the family fortune, and not even Talmadge could bring Read More

Monsieur Beaucaire

Crew: Director, Producer

Actors: Rudolph Valentino, Bebe Daniels, Lois Wilson, Doris Kenyon, Lowell Sherman

Synopsis: The still photographs of this costume picture, showing Rudolph Valentino wearing foppish 18th century finery, are actually misleading when it comes to Monsieur Beaucaire's actual content. For much of the film, Valentino actually views his wardrobe -- and his matinee idol persona -- with sly humor. Read More

Little Old New York

Crew: Director

Actors: Marion Davies, Harrison Ford, Courtenay Foote

Synopsis: This charming and expensively made historical romance was one of Marion Davies' best films. She spends much of the picture disguised as a boy, something she also did effectively in several other films. A young Irish lad, Patrick O'Day (Stephen Carr), inherits a fortune, providing he travels to New Read More

Green Goddess

Crew: Director

Actors: Harry T. Morey, Dave Powell, Jetta Goudal

Synopsis: Engine trouble forces an airplane to land with a trio of passengers in the mythical kingdom of Rukh. Major Crespin (Harry T. Morley), his wife Lucille (Alice Joyce), and Dr. Basil Traherne (David Powell) are taken to the Rajah (George Arliss), the educated and satirical ruler of Rukh. The three Read More

Timothy's Quest

Crew: Director

Actors: Joseph Depew, Marie Day, Margaret Seddon, Bertram Marburgh

Synopsis: A picture featuring orphans was always a good box-office bet in the early '20s, so it's no surprise that the novel by Kate Douglas Wiggin found its way to the screen. Eleven-year-old Joseph Depew (who grew up to direct The Beverly Hillbillies) is Timothy, who lives in an orphanage and takes care Read More

The Right Way

Crew: Director

Actors: Edwards Davis, Helen Lindroth, Joseph Marquis, Vivienne Osborne, Sidney D'Albrook

Synopsis: Influenced by his environment, a poor boy (Sidney D'Albrook) winds up in prison. So does a rich boy (Joseph Marquis), who commits forgery. They suffer through the old methods of running a prison, and when the poor boy gets out, he winds up getting sent back in again. This time there is a new Read More

God's Country and the Law

Crew: Director

Actors: Gladys Leslie, Fred C. Jones, William H. Tooker, Cesare Gravina

Synopsis: A pert Vitagraph ingenue very much cast in the Mary Pickford mold and advertised as "The Girl with the Million Dollar Smile," Gladys Leslie tackled James Oliver Curwood's 1915 Northwest melodrama God's Country and the Woman in 1921 with a slight title change and under the direction of the Read More

Scratch My Back

Crew: Director

Synopsis: Madeline (Helene Chadwick) runs away from a convent and becomes a dancer. But when her partner, Jahoda (Cesare Gravina), makes a pass at her, she quits and marries the American Consul, Loton (Lloyd Whitlock). Complications arise when she is at a movie theater and meets the breezy Val Romney Read More

Marriage for Convenience

Crew: Director

Synopsis: Natalie and Barbara Rand (Catherine Calvert and Ann May) are sisters from a poor Southern family. Natalie is engaged to the equally poor Ned Gardner (Edward Burns), but the naive Barbara gets herself in trouble. She allows a man to take her to a roadhouse and then has to escape his amorous Read More

Smugglers

Crew: Director

Synopsis: While honeymooning in Paris, wealthy John Battleby Watts (Donald Brian) is persuaded to purchase a $20,000 necklace for his capricious young wife (Olive Tell). When the jeweler refuses to accept his check, John heads to the bank for the necessary funds. En route, he passes a little shop Read More

Poor Little Peppina

Crew: Director

Synopsis: In her longest film to date -- 6 reels -- Mary Pickford starred in this well-made drama as an American girl, kidnapped as a baby and raised in Italy by a peasant family. She refuses to marry the husband chosen for her and stows away on a boat to America dressed as a boy. In New York, she falls in Read More

The Innocent Lie

Crew: Director

Synopsis: Set in Ireland, this romantic silent adventure begins when a fine orphaned lass, who has spent her youth taking care of her younger brothers follows one to the US. He is supposed to meet her at the docks, but something happens and she finds herself alone in New York. This leads to several exploits Read More

Diplomacy

Crew: Director

Synopsis: The old Victorien Sardou stage play Diplomacy was exhumed in 1916 as a vehicle for the stunningly beautiful Marie Doro, who'd previously appeared in the stage version with her Sherlock Holmes co-star William Gillette. On this occasion, the principal male role of Julian was essayed by Elliot Read More

Daughter of MacGregor

Crew: Director

Synopsis: Donald MacGregor (Arda LaCroix), a Scotsman, is about to present his daughter Jean (Valentine Grant) with a new stepmother (Helen Lindreth). But the stepmother proves to be a troublemaker -- she sees Jean innocently spending time with young English lan Winston (Sidney Mason) and turns it into a Read More

My Lady Incog

Crew: Director

Synopsis: "Incog" is short for "incognito," which is the state in which the heroine finds herself during most of this film. Unable to pay the $5000 mortgage on her father's estate, Nell Carroll (Hazel Dawn) enters into an agreement with the estate's executor. A series of burglaries has plagued a Florida Read More

The Seven Sisters

Crew: Director

Synopsis: An old Hungarian story was the basis for the Marguerite Clark vehicle Seven Sisters. The story takes place in a Budapest household, where it is believed that if one of the younger daughters marries first, her older siblings will be doomed to live out their lives as old maids. The youngest Read More

All for Old Ireland

Crew: Director

Synopsis: Director Sidney Olcott was apparently in the midst of filming this tale of Irish patriotism and English oppression when the British Isles entered into World War I. Since he was filming on location in Ireland, he had a difficult time completing the picture and getting it back to the U.S., but by Read More

Madame Butterfly

Crew: Director

Synopsis: Not surprisingly, Mary Pickford failed to look sufficiently Japanese in this five-reel melodrama based on John Luther Long's novel rather than Puccini. The star fought director Sidney Olcott tooth and nails throughout the filming at Plainfield and Bernardsville, New Jersey. Olcott reportedly Read More

The Moth and the Flame

Crew: Director

Synopsis: Subtlety was not the strong suit of the barnstorming Clyde Fitch play The Moth and the Flame. As indicated by the title, this is the story of a foolhardy country girl named Jeanette Graham (Irene Howley), who is led astray by seductive city slicker Edward Fletcher (Stewart Baird). Though burned by Read More

The Sentimental Lady

Crew: Director

Synopsis: When he wasn't churning out "Curses, foiled again!" melodramas, playwright Owen Davis Sr. specialized in such social dramas as The Sentimental Lady. Irene Fenwick stars as Amy Cary, who has invested her life savings in a utility stock. Amy's fiance Norman Van Aulsten (John Davidson) is saddled Read More

The Little Sister

Crew: Director

Synopsis: Edison's The Little Sister was written by E. W. Townsend, author of the popular Chimmie Fadden stories. The hero is a young tenement lad who takes the wrong path in life. Becoming a pickpocket, the youth graduates to burglary. He is saved from himself by his own little sister, who has been adopted Read More

From the Manger to the Cross

Crew: Director

Synopsis: During its brief but colorful history, the pioneering Kalem company turned out a number of box-office successes. Foremost among these was From the Manger to the Cross, a tableaulike reenactment of the Passion Play. Robert Henderson-Bland played Jesus, while Gene Gaunthier and Jack Clark were seen Read More

Ben Hur

Crew: Director