Sylvia Ashton Filmography

The Barker

Actors: Milton Sills, Dorothy Mackaill, Betty Compson, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Sylvia Ashton

Synopsis: Based on the oft-filmed play by Kenyon Nicholson, The Barker represented the talking-picture debut of silent-screen favorite Milton Sills (the film itself is a part-talkie, containing 38 minutes' worth of dialogue). Sills is cast as Nifty Miller, veteran sideshow barker for a cheap carnival. Read More

Ladies' Night in a Turkish Bath

Actors: Dorothy Mackaill, Jack Mulhall, James Finlayson, Sylvia Ashton, Harvey Clark

Synopsis: Another of First National's successful Jack Mulhall-Dorothy Mackaill vehicles, Ladies' Night is a toned-down adaptation of the venerable stage farce Ladies Night in a Turkish Bath. Womanizing ironworker Speed Dawson (Mulhall) promises to change his roving ways when he falls in love with 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

Bachelor's Paradise

Actors: Ralph Graves, Eddie Gribbon, James Finlayson

Synopsis: A seriously injured boxer seemingly falls for his pretty nurse, who begins arranging their wedding. In this drama, the trouble begins when the fighter chickens out and jilts her at the altar. Later he re-enters the ring, and when he is once again injured it is then that he sees the light and goes Read More

Crash

Actors: Milton Sills, Thelma Todd, Wade Boteler, William Demarest, DeWitt Jennings

Synopsis: Comedy specialist Edward F. Cline was a curious choice to direct the typically two-fisted Milton Sills vehicle The Crash. Sills plays the head guy of a wrecking crew who, while out on the town, is smitten by burlesque dancer Thelma Todd. At first, Sills' intentions toward Todd are strictly Read More

The Leopard Lady

Actors: Alan Hale, Robert Armstrong, James Bradbury

Synopsis: Jacqueline Logan stars as Paula, a beautiful and fearless circus leopard trainer. Working hand-in-glove with the police, Paula joins a circus where several murders have occurred. Among the suspects is gorilla trainer Caesar (Alan Hale Sr.), who previously in the picture had saved Paula's life. 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

Red Signals

Actors: Earle Williams, Eva Novak

Synopsis: The ubiquitous J. P. McGowan warmed the director's chair for Red Signals. Though onetime matinee idol Earle Williams is starred, the film's real protagonist is Wallace McDonald, cast as a dishevelled hobo. When a series of train wrecks occur, railroad superintendent Williams is held responsible Read More

Dancing Days

Actors: Helene Chadwick, Lillian Rich, Forrest Stanley, Robert Agnew, Gloria Gordon

Synopsis: Happily married Robert Agnew tries to put a little variety in his life by taking dance lessons. He spends so much time learning the intricacies of the Charleston and Black Bottom that he begins to neglect his wife Lillian Rich. The limit comes when Agnew begins falling for seductive dance Read More

Greed

Actors: Gibson Gowland, ZaSu Pitts, Jean Hersholt, Chester Conklin, Sylvia Ashton

Synopsis: Frank Norris' powerful Zola-esque novel McTeague was first filmed in 1915. While filmmaker Erich Von Stroheim would insist that he'd been enthralled by the book since it first came out in 1902, it is more likely that he didn't make the novel's acquaintance until seeing that 1915 film. Whatever the Read More

Souls for Sale

Actors: Eleanor Boardman, Mae Busch, Barbara La Marr, Richard Dix, Frank Mayo

Synopsis: This comedy-melodrama, based on the novel by Rupert Hughes (who also directed), blends fiction and reality to tell the story of a young woman's rise in Hollywood; the film uses real stars and productions (even Charles Chaplin filming A Woman of Paris) as its backdrop. Eleanor Boardman plays Read More

The White Flower

Actors: Betty Compson, Edmund Lowe, Arline Pretty, Sylvia Ashton

Synopsis: This Hawaiian romance was the last picture directed by Julia Crawford Ivers, who also penned the screenplay. Although it was later rumored she left Hollywood after the murder of director William Desmond Taylor (even though she was guiltless, she was embroiled in the scandal), she continued writing Read More

Desire

Actors: Marguerite de la Motte, John Bowers, Estelle Taylor, David Butler, Walter Long

Synopsis: Madalyn Harlan (Estelle Taylor), the daughter of wealthy socialites, falls in love with the chauffeur Jerry Ryan (David Butler) in this uneven society drama. She and Jerry are secretly married, but Jerry's mother tells Madalyn that Jerry is through with her. She takes poison in the cabaret that 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

Daughter of Luxury

Actors: Agnes Ayres, Tom Gallery, Edith Yorke, Howard Ralston, Edward Martindel

Synopsis: This lighthearted film was based upon the play The Impostor by Leonard Merrick and Michael Morton. After the death of her parents, Mary Fenton (Agnes Ayers) discovers that her inheritance adds up to nothing. She can't even afford to stay in a cheap boarding house and finds herself homeless. After Read More

Youth to Youth

Synopsis: From the beginning of her film career, Billie Dove showed a knack for playing chorus girls (it only made sense since she was a former Follies beauty), so in her first starring part for Metro, guess what her role was? Eve Allison (Dove) is that eternal movie cliché, the country girl who comes to Read More

Saturday Night

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

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

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

While Satan Sleeps

Actors: Jack Holt, Wade Boteler, Mabel Van Buren, Fritzi Brunette, Will R. Walling

Synopsis: This Western -- which like many silent-era pictures was based on a Saturday Evening Post story (this one by Peter B. Kyne) -- was Jack Holt's second starring vehicle. The rough character he plays here suited him well, and he would continue to find success playing virile fighting men throughout his Read More

For the Defense

Synopsis: Dramatic actress Ethel Clayton never reached the same lofty heights of stardom as Clara Kimball Young or Pauline Frederick, but she was a solid second-string player. She overcomes mediocre material in this society meller. Singer Anna Woodstock (Clayton) loses her voice, but a visit to a hypnotist Read More

Borderland

Actors: Agnes Ayres, Milton Sills, Fred Huntley, Bertram Grassby, Casson Ferguson

Synopsis: Although Agnes Ayres is best-known today as Rudolph Valentino's co-star in The Sheik, she was a substantial star in her own right in the 1920s. She has a dual role in this drama, which has spiritual undertones. Edith (Ayres) is the jazz-loving wife of James Wayne, a rather stolid young man (Milton Read More

Is Matrimony a Failure?

Actors: T. Roy Barnes, Lois Wilson, ZaSu Pitts

Synopsis: This farce from Paramount was loosely adapted from the play The Open Door by Oscar Blumenthal and Gustave Kadelberg. Arthur Haviland (T. Roy Barnes) and Margaret Saxby (Lila Lee) elope on the very day that her parents (Lillian Leighton and Tully Marshall) are celebrating their silver wedding Read More

Hold Your Horses

Actors: Tom Moore, Sylvia Ashton, Naomi Childers, Bertram Grassby

Synopsis: Tom Moore stars in this comedy-drama, which was based on Rupert Hughes' Saturday Evening Post story, "Canavan." Irish immigrant Dan Canavan (Moore) is working as a street cleaner when he is trampled by a horse belonging to socialite Beatrice Newness (Naomi Childers). He is left with the imprint of Read More

Her Sturdy Oak

Actors: Wanda Hawley, Walter Hiers, Sylvia Ashton

Synopsis: Rotund leading man Walter Hiers supplies the comedy, while star Wanda Hawley comes up with the drama in this comedy-drama. Sammy Butters (Hiers) is part owner in a ranch, but his main occupation is writing verse. He's engaged to the aggressive, mannish ranch manager Belle Bright (Sylvia Ashton) Read More

A Prince There Was

Actors: Mildred Harris, Charlotte Jackson, Nigel Barrie

Synopsis: Before it reached the screen, this story already had a long history -originally a novel by Darragh Aldrich called Enchanted Hearts, it was adapted to the stage as A Prince There Was by the illustrious George M. Cohan. Unfortunately it was not really screen material and made a poor vehicle for Read More

Sham

Actors: Ethel Clayton, Clyde Fillmore, Walter Hiers, Theodore Roberts, Sylvia Ashton

Synopsis: Katherine Van Riper (Ethel Clayton) is a society girl with expensive taste, which she inherited from her father. Unfortunately, when he dies, he leaves her with expensive bills and no means with which to pay them. Nobody will give her credit and her rich aunts (Sylvia Ashton and Helen Dunbar) Read More

Snob

Actors: Wanda Hawley, Edwin Stevens, Walter Hiers, Sylvia Ashton, W.E. Lawrence

Synopsis: Kathryn Haynes (Wanda Hawley) has been raised to look down on everyone whose ancestry doesn't go back to the American Revolution, or who doesn't at least have the cash to make up for it. So she gets her comeuppance when she goes away to college and falls for star quarterback Bill Putnam (William Read More

The Blushing Bride

Synopsis: Screenwriter Jules Furthman made a rare plunge into directing with Blushing Bride. The title character, played by Eileen Percy, is mistaken for nobility by millionaire Herbert Heyes. Before she can set him straight, Heyes marries her. She moves into her hubby's magnificent mansion, only to Read More

Love Special

Actors: Wallace Reid, Agnes Ayres, Theodore Roberts, Lloyd Whitlock, Sylvia Ashton

Synopsis: Jim Glover (Wallace Reid) is an engineer in charge of constructing a railroad to the sea. He gives the company president Gage (Theodore Roberts) a tour of the area of land coveted for its use as a short cut that can save hours on the journey. After the officials visit a recently constructed dam Read More

The Love Charm

Synopsis: This cross between Cinderella and Peg O' My Heart stars Wanda Hawley. Penniless orphan Ruth Sheldon (Hawley) moves in with her ambitious aunt, Julia Nast (Sylvia Aston), and her daughter, Hattie (Mae Busch). They treat her like a drudge instead of a relative. The catch of the town is banker Thomas Read More

Conrad in Quest of His Youth

Synopsis: This film is an example of why writer/director William DeMille was so often overshadowed by his younger brother Cecil. Conrad in Quest of His Youth was a popular novel by Leonard Merrick, and its simple, human theme was perfect for the elder DeMille's personable style. After serving in India Read More

Thou Art the Man

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

City Sparrow

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

The Soul of Youth

Synopsis: After directing him as the title character in Huckleberry Finn, William Desmond Taylor again used boy actor Lewis Sargent in this picture. His character, known merely as "the boy," has been raised in an orphanage where he has caused as much trouble as possible. He finally can't stand living there Read More

Jenny Be Good

Synopsis: When Royal Renshaw (Jay Belasco) weds Jenny Riano (Mary Miles Minter), a sweet country girl, his millionaire parents have a fit. They send Royal away on a yachting trip and convince Jenny to have the marriage annulled. They then marry their son off to the society girl of their choice, Jolanda Van 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

Lottery Man

Actors: Harrison Ford

Synopsis: Newspaperman Jack Wright (Wallace Reid) borrows five hundred dollars from his reluctant friend Foxhall Peyton (Harrison Ford), which he promptly blows on the stock market. To make good on the loan, Wright comes up with a scheme which also provides a story for his paper -- he plans to hold a Read More

For Better, for Worse

Synopsis: Director Cecil B. DeMille tones down his usual elegance and instead focuses on the drama of America during the Great War. Sylvia Norcross (Gloria Swanson) is being courted by two men, Edward Meade (Elliot Dexter) and Richard Burton (Tom Forman). Both Edward and Richard have enlisted, but Edward, a Read More

Johnny Get Your Gun

Synopsis: This action-comedy has nothing to do with WWI -- Dalton Trumbo's novel would not be written for another 20 years. Stage luminary Fred Stone, known in silent film for his acrobatic roles, stars. Johnny Wiggins (Stone) is a cowboy stunt actor whose friend Bill Burnham (Hart Hoxie) lands in jail. Read More

Don't Change Your Husband

Synopsis: This was Gloria Swanson's first film for director Cecil B. DeMille and it went a long way in establishing her as a star. Considered deliciously racy in its day, Don't Change Your Husband is an amusing battle between the sexes that takes place in the sumptuous upper-class society of the post-WWI Read More

Men, Women and Money

Synopsis: Ethel Clayton stars in this society drama based on a story by Cosmo Hamilton. Marcel Middleton (Clayton) is spoiled by her parents (James Neill and Jane Wolfe), who struggle to give her every material advantage. After visiting her school chum, Noel Parkton (Winifred Greenwood) in New York, she Read More

Old Wives for New

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

A Pair of Silk Stockings

Synopsis: The fifth of Constance Talmadge's thirteen starring vehicles for producer Lewis Selznick was A Pair of Silk Stockings. Based on a stage farce by Cyril Harcourt, the film casts Talmadge as Molly, the wife of wealthy Britisher Sam Thornhill (the "original" Harrison Ford). Though devoutly loyal to Read More

We Can't Have Everything

Synopsis: We Can't Have Everything was at once a typical Cecil B. DeMille marital comedy and also a satire of the whole genre. Aware that her wealthy husband Peter (Thurston Hall) is cheating on her, socialite Charity Cheever (Kathlyn Williams) nonetheless remains faithful to him, spurning the affections of Read More

Her Fame and Shame

The Nick of Time Baby

Overalls

Synopsis: Minor-league cowboy star William Stowell is cast as Herbert Drew, a lumberjack in a Northwoods logging camp. Falling in love with Bettina Warren (Rhea Mitchell), the camp's pretty owner, Drew vows to protect the girl from the machinations of her crooked lawyer Daniels (Warren Ellsworth). This Read More

The Supreme Test

Synopsis: Wealthy widow Violet Logan (Henrietta Crossman) spends her time pursuing social work. On one of her visits to the slums, she brings her friend, Madge, and her friend's misogynist brother, James Semple (Wyndham Standing). They meet Molly Phelan (Stella Razetto) and her fiancé and immediately take a Read More