Antonio D'Algy Movies

There's something very calculated about this Rudolph Valentino vehicle. As he did in Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, the star plays an Argentine with a talent for the tango. The production and costuming are elaborate, and the story was based on the Rex Beach novel Rope's End. But none of this can help a weak plot line which is stretched mighty thin to last for nine reels. It is arranged for Don Alonzo de Castro to marry Julietta (Helen D'Algy), who comes from a noble Spanish family. Castro's jealous ex-girlfriend, Carlotta (Nita Naldi), schemes with bandit El Tigre (George Siegmann) to destroy their happiness. On the couple's wedding night, El Tigre stages a raid and kidnaps Julietta. Carlos goes after him, but is enraged when he sees a woman with a bridal veil embracing the bandit. He believes it is Julietta, when it's actually Carlotta. Castro plans revenge on El Tigre. Meanwhile, Julietta escapes to a nunnery with the help of Carmelita, a dancing girl (Louise Lagrange). Although Carmelita loves Castro herself, she eventually reveals Julietta's hiding place and the couple are reunited. ~ Janiss Garza, Rovi

Lionel Barrymore has a dual role in this play-within-a picture. Grace Ainsworth (Sigrid Holmquist) wants to return to her career as an opera singer, and her mother-in-law (Ida Darling) supports her. Grace's husband, Edwin (Barrymore), wants her to stay at home and to convince her, he relates the story of his latest play about a man (Barrymore again) who allows his wife (Holmquist) to return to the stage. Edwin comes to believe that Grace is in love with Harold Chase, a manager (Hugh Thompson), and the couple separates. Edwin has an affair with a dancer, Madeline (Dagmar Godowsky), and he winds up in a fight with her dancing partner, Vincenti (Antonio D'Alagy), which causes him to lose his memory. Madeline takes him to Dr. Giani (William Bechtel), who notices his resemblance to John Wells, a bootlegger who has just died from alcohol poisoning. Wells' body is identified as Ainsworth, while Edwin is convinced that he is Wells. Grace marries Chase just before Edwin gets his memory back. He returns to his wife, but the jealous Madeline kills him. Edwin's wife and mother take this improbable story to heart and decide that it's better for Grace to stay at home. ~ Janiss Garza, Rovi

This early William Wellman directorial effort stars George K. Arthur as the title character, an incredibly naïve farmhand named Peter Good. Spurned by Amy (Gertrude Olmstead), the girl he loves, Peter sets out to prove that he isn't a boob. He joins a posse hunting for a gang of bootleggers, and sure as shootin' he rounds up the bad guys single-handedly. The film's highlight is an elaborate production number set at a burlesque theater, where scores of contract starlets have their clothes removed with the help of wires and pulleys. Billed third in the cast is Joan Crawford, whom MGM was obviously preparing for bigger and better things. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Figaro is an amalgam of Beaumarchais' comic trilogy The Barber of Seville, The Marriage of Figaro and The Culprit Bride. Inasmuch as the film is silent, the strains of Mozart's and Rossini's operatic adaptations of the Beaumarchais originals remain unheard. Popular Parisian music hall comedian Van Duren stars as Figaro, the enterprising butler whose misadventures link the three plays together (at least thematically). After stage-managing the marriage between Rosine and Count Almaviva, Figaro himself enters into matrimony with Suzanne, Rosine's chambermaid. Later on, with Suzanne's assistance, Figaro saves Rosina and Almaviva's marriage from the machinations of page boy Cherubino (a less sympathetic character here than in the Beaumarchais trilogy). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi