William WelshFilmography

Stormy

Actors: Jean Rogers, John Farrell MacDonald, Fred Kohler

Synopsis: In this drama, a young boy earns the trust of an especially skittish colt and they form a special bond. Trouble ensues when the lad finds himself between two arguing brothers. One wants to save the little horse and the herd he runs with, while the other brother wants to exploit the mustangs. The Read More

Gambling Ship

Actors: Cary Grant, Benita Hume, Roscoe Karns, Glenda Farrell, Jack LaRue

Synopsis: A professional gambler masquerading as a businessman boards a train and sets off across the country. During the journey he meets a lovely, wealthy young woman. This drama follows what happens after she (also a gambler in disguise) persuades him to buy a financially sinking gambling ship. At first Read More

Freighters of Destiny

Actors: Barbara Kent, Tom Keene, Frank Rice, Billy Franey, Mitchell Harris

Synopsis: The title of this RKO western refers to the wagons which bore settlers Westward during the mid-19th century. Following in his father's footsteps, Tom Keene guides a wagon train through perilous territory, facing constant danger at the hands of a scurrilous outlaw gang. The bad guys are in the Read More

Beyond the Rockies

Actors: Tom Keene, Rochelle Hudson, Marie Wells, Ernie S. Adams, Julian Rivero

Synopsis: David O. Selznick is listed as producer of the RKO western programmer Beyond the Rockies, but don't expect Duel in the Sun here. Within its own modest limits, however, this Tom Keene vehicle is quite enjoyable. Keene plays a cowpoke who battles a greedy land baron. The gimmick here is that the Read More

Sundown Trail

Actors: Tom Keene, Marion Shilling, Nick Stuart, Hooper Atchley, Stanley Blystone

Synopsis: In this western, a cowboy and an eastern city-slicker find they are co-inheritors of a ranch. The genteel woman loathes the West and is appalled by the rough and tumble ways of the cowboy. Later after he saves their ranch from cattle rustlers, she changes her tune and they fall in love. ~ Sandra Read More

The Love Trader

Actors: Leatrice Joy, Chester Conklin, Henry B. Walthall, Noah Beery, Sr., Barbara Bedford

Synopsis: "East is East, West is West, Never the Twain Shall Meet." That's the lesson to be learned in the low-budget exotic romance The Love Trader. Leatrice Joy plays the restless young wife of an elderly ship's captain (Henry B. Walthall). While her husband goes on a pearl-hunting expedition in the South Read More

The White Outlaw

Actors: Jack Hoxie, Marceline Day, William Welsh, Duke Lee, Floyd Shackelford

Synopsis: Easy-to-please rural audiences got two aging Western stars for the price of one with this low-budget silent oater directed by the ubiquitous Robert J. Horner. Art Acord stars as Johnny Douglas, a highwayman known as "the White Outlaw" because of his usual disguise of a white scarf and because he 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

Skinner Steps Out

Actors: Merna Kennedy, Lloyd Whitlock, Burr McIntosh, Glenn Tryon

Synopsis: Previous films based on the "Skinner" stories of Henry Irving Dodge had starred such silent-film luminaries as Reginald Denny and Bryant Washburn. The leading role in the all-talkie Skinner Steps Out was Glenn Tryon, who'd proven his skill with dialogue in the Universal superspectacular Broadway. Read More

The Head of the Family

Actors: Virginia Lee Corbin, William Russell, Mickey Bennett, Aggie Herring

Synopsis: Head of the Family is an interesting precursor to the screwball comedies of the 1930s. William Russell stars as a handsome, no-nonsense plumber who strikes up a friendship with wealthy Daniel Sullivan (William Welsh). About to retreat to a health resort, Sullivan leaves the plumber in charge of Read More

Wandering Girls

Actors: Dorothy Revier, Frances Raymond, Armand Kaliz

Synopsis: Footloose flapper Peggy Marston (Dorothy Revier) runs away from her oppressive household and right into the arms of Big Trouble. Looking for thrills, Peggy gets mixed up with Maurice and Maxine (Armand Kaliz, Mildred Harris), who use their ballroom-dancing act as a cover for their burglary Read More

Man from the West

Synopsis: Rough-hewn Art Acord starred in this Universal "Blue Streak" Western as a dude-ranch foreman who disdains the place's effeminate clientele. Acord's Art Louden also despairs over the many "modern girls" visiting the ranch. Having seen a demure portrait of Iris Millard (Eugenia Gilbert), Louden is Read More

Demon

Synopsis: Jack Hoxie's first release of 1926, this Universal Western starred the taciturn hero as a Texas ranger posing as an ex-con in order to infiltrate a gang of land grabbers. Along the way, Hoxie takes time out to romance the gang's lovely stenographer, Lola Todd. (A man of certain standing in the Read More

Two-Fisted Jones

Actors: Jack Hoxie, Kathryn McGuire, Harry Todd, Frank Rice

Synopsis: Jack Hoxie's final Western for 1925 featured Universal's second most popular cowboy hero (after Hoot Gibson) chasing a wanted man. The trail leads to Kathryn McGuire's ranch, which is about to be taken over by greedy banker Harry Todd. In one of those coincidences found only in cheap movie-making Read More

Fighting Ranger

Synopsis: After crashing his plane in the wilderness, a young airborne forest ranger is nursed back to health by a mountain man and his pretty daughter in this 18-chapter serial from Universal. The Marshalls, father William Welsh and daughter Eileen Sedgwick, have been hiding out in the hills for years Read More

Flying Hoofs

Actors: Jack Hoxie, Bartlett Carré, William Welsh, Gordon Russell, Charlotte Stevens

Synopsis: Sheriff Frank Moody (Jack Hoxie) has his hands full chasing after a notorious bandit known only as the Raven. His younger brother Henry (Bartlet Carré) is suddenly jailed for a bank robbery and accused of being the Raven. Henry is about to be hanged when Moody dramatically climbs the scaffold to Read More

Price She Paid

Actors: Alma Rubens, Eugénie Besserer, Freeman Wood, Otto Hoffman

Synopsis: This plodding melodrama fails to measure up to the original 1917 version directed by Charles Giblyn. Mildred Gower (Alma Rubens) is a young woman who marries an old sea captain to save her mother (Eugenie Besserer) from losing the family home. A young physician who loves her accuses her of selling Read More

The Man from Wyoming

Actors: Lillian Rich, Claude Payton, Jack Hoxie

Synopsis: The feud between cattle ranchers and sheep men took center stage once again in this fairly effective Jack Hoxie western. Hoxie is the foreman on one of those despised sheep ranches. When a neighboring cattleman (William Welsh) is found murdered, Hoxie finds himself the prime suspect. The real Read More

Excitement

Synopsis: Nila Lyons (Laura La Plante) is a suburban housewife who craves excitement in her life. She gets it -- and how! -- when she's kidnapped by an Egyptian potentate. Crammed into a mummy case, Nila is rescued at the last possible moment by her "dull" husband Hiram (William Welsh). He then reveals that Read More

Shootin' for Love

Actors: Hoot Gibson, Laura La Plante, Alfred Allen, William Welsh, William Steele

Synopsis: Universal's crack Western team of director Edward Sedgwick and star Hoot Gibson crafted a fine little silent oater about a returning war veteran who lands in the middle of a range feud. On the train bound for home, Gibson renews his friendship with the daughter of a neighboring rancher (Laura La Plante Read More

The Shock

Actors: Virginia Valli, Lon Chaney

Synopsis: This tale of a crook's reform takes place in the San Francisco of the early 1900s. Predictably, Lon Chaney plays a crook and a misshapen cripple (the type of role almost expected of him at this point in his career). Anne Vincent, better known as "Queen Anne" (Christine Mayo), sends Wilse Dilling (Chaney Read More

The Town Scandal

Actors: Gladys Walton, Edward Hearne, Edward McWade, Charles Hill Mailes, William Welsh

Synopsis: Minor Universal star Gladys Walton has the lead in this light comedy. After becoming a successful chorus girl on the Broadway stage, Jean Crosby (Walton) visits her home town of Murphysburg. The hamlet's Purity League, however, showers her with disapproval -- until the male contingent makes secret Read More

Burning Words

Actors: Roy Stewart, Laura La Plante, Harold Goodwin, Edith Yorke, Alfred Fisher

Synopsis: Keeping in mind that "Greater love hath no man than this, that he lay down his life for a friend," a Northwest Mounted Police officer saves his own brother from a murder rap in this action adventure from Universal. When Ross Darby (Harold Goodwin) is accused of murdering nasty "Slip" Martin (Harry Carter Read More

Red Warning

Actors: Fred Kohler, William Welsh

Synopsis: This Western starring Jack Hoxie) has all the typical elements one would expect: the mortgaged ranch, cattle rustlers, a grizzled old prospector, and a girl in need of saving. Hoxie is hero Phillip Haver, who, along with his friend Toby Jones (Frank Rice -- the old prospector), finds David Ainslee Read More

The Flirt

Actors: George Nichols, Lydia Knott, Eileen Percy, Helen Jerome Eddy, Buddy Messenger

Synopsis: Pretty Eileen Pearcy plays the title character in this adaptation of the Booth Tarkington novel. Cora (Pearcy) is the spoiled daughter of the Madison family. Everyone caters to her every whim. She is engaged to Richard Lindley (Edward Hearn), although her sister Laura (Helen Jerome Eddy) secretly Read More

The Scrapper

Synopsis: Just about all the major players in this romance were miscast here; in the 1920s heavy ethnic characterizations (offensive as they may seem nowadays) were the norm and none of the stars were even remotely Irish. In addition, the plot, based on R. G. Kirk's Saturday Evening Post story "Malloy Read More

Ridin' Wild

Synopsis: Silent cowboy-star Hoot Gibson specialized in playing ruffled, slightly comical cowpokes suffering from a mix of shyness and brash action. In this typical silent Gibson western, the "Hooter" plays a Quaker, whose father (William Welsh) is falsely accused of murder. The son, up until then the butt Read More

Man Tamer

Actors: Gladys Walton, Rex de Roselli, William Welsh, Roscoe Karns

Synopsis: Minor Universal Studios star Gladys Walton plays a lion tamer in this circus picture. Jim Horrigan (Rex de Roselli) and his daughter, Kitty (Walton), have a circus lion act. Jim is injured, and Kitty is left to carry on alone. The circus' manager, Hayden Delmar (William Welsh), annoys Kitty with Read More

Reputation

Synopsis: Priscilla Dean has a dual role in this drama based on False Colors by Edwina Levin. Laura Figlan (Dean) is an ambitious actress with no domestic or maternal instincts whatsoever. While she is becoming a success in England, her daughter, Pauline (Mae Giraci), grows up in America, never knowing her Read More

The Eternal Sin

Synopsis: Filmmaker Herbert Brenon indulged in his usual spectacular excesses in The Eternal Sin. Victor Hugo's novel Lucretia Borgia is used as the springboard for a fanciful tale of love and treachery during the Renaissance. Florence Reed stars as Lucretia, to whom no sin is unmentionable: from poisoning Read More

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

Synopsis: The 1916 silent version of Jules Vernes' 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea was "sold" on the basis of its advanced underwater photography, the handiwork of the legendary Williamson Brothers. The film's storyline combines elements from both 20,000 Leagues and another Verne novel, Mysterious Island. Read More

Elusive Isabel

Synopsis: Florence Lawrence, the motion-picture industry's first real movie star, was at the tail end of her popularity when she appeared in Elusive Isabel. Lawrence plays a seductive secret agent for an unnamed Latin nation. Her mission is to clear the path for a takeover of the U.S., engineered by the Read More

Neptune's Daughter

Synopsis: The first of the spectacular, Herbert Brenon-directed Annette Kellerman vehicles, Neptune's Daughter cost a fortune for pinchpenny Universal pictures, but fortunately made back its cost many times over. Exploiting Kellerman's fame as an aquatic star, the film casts her as the daughter of King Read More

Traffic in Souls

Synopsis: Inspired by several stage plays and a couple of sensationalistic Danish white slavery" films, Traffic in Souls became one of the most talked about and, at $25,000, the most expensive feature film of its day. Although representing himself as an enemy of the pervasive "traffic in souls," the capture Read More