Sam de Grasse Movies

The racetrack provides the setting of this drama that tells the tale of a jockey who throws a race to impress a sexy girl. Later, the jockey redeems himself to his former employer and the boss's daughter, who has loyally loved him all along, by riding a dangerously spirited horse that no one else can handle and winning the big race. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this crime drama, a aging illusionist falls in love with his comely young assistant. Unfortunately, she is enamored with the young thief who has become the magician's student. Another assistant gets jealous of the affair and tells the master. In retaliation, the thief kills the snitch and then himself at his trial. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

George O'Brien, Fox Studios' general-purpose leading man, heads the cast of Honor Bound. The story opens in the bedroom of hero John Ogletree (George O'Brien), who is awakened from his slumbers by the unexpected arrival of Evelyn (Evelyn Brent), a total stranger. Claiming that she's fleeing from her brutal husband, Evelyn begs John to protect her. On cue, the husband shows up and in the ensuing struggle is accidentally killed. Arrested for manslaughter, John nobly serves his sentence without ever implicating Evelyn in her husband's death. Our hero subsequently joins a prison work gang, assigned to the coal mines owned by one Mr. Mortimer (Tom Santschi) -- who happens to be Evelyn's new husband. Feeling guilty for John's plight, Evelyn arranges for him to have the relatively cushy job of Mortimer's chauffeur. This naturally arouses the suspicions of Mortimer, who promptly assigns John to "grunge" duty in the mines. A fire set by a fellow convict is blamed on John, but this time Evelyn steps forward to exonerate the long-suffering hero, freeing him to marry his true love, pretty nurse Selma Ritchie (Leila Hyams). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Even those who can't recall the plot of the silent Our Dancing Daughters (and there admittedly isn't much to remember) can never forget the indelible images of Joan Crawford tearing loose with one Charleston after another. Since everyone in the film is rich, the wild parties that dominate Our Dancing Daughters are played out in the biggest mansions this side of Windsor castle. Jazz-baby Crawford is actually a good girl despite her hedonistic lifestyle. She wants to marry young millionaire Johnny Mack Brown, but he is tricked into marriage by deceitful Anita Page. After drinking herself blotto at a party, Anita brags about her subterfuge, then conveniently tumbles down a long flight of stairs to her death ("Poor little rich girl" is the general consensus of opinion amongst the many servants, though few in the audience are shedding any tears). Thus, Crawford is able at last to link up with Brown, presumably to live happily ever after. Released with synchronized music and sound effects, Our Dancing Daughters manages to convey the "noise" of the Roaring '20s without sound, relying instead on inserted shots of art-deco statuary and the bubbling-over performance of Joan Crawford in the role that made her a star. Crawford was reunited with her Dancing Daughters co-stars Anita Page and Dorothy Sebastian in two follow-up films (not sequels), Our Modern Maidens (1929) and Our Blushing Brides (1930). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Lars Hanson had recently appeared as Reverend Dimmesdale in The Scarlet Letter when he was called on once again to play a man of the cloth. Anson Campbell (Hanson), however, has his doubts as he studies for the ministry -- he loves the sea at least as much as he loves God. Bess Morgan (Pauline Starke) is scorned by the villagers as a wicked, sinful woman, but the open-minded Campbell sides with her. This horrifies the straight-laced townsfolk, and Campbell signs on with a ship in disgust. It turns out to be a convict ship, and Bess is on board. She had promised Campbell she would change her ways, and she hold fast to this, even when the Captain (Ernest Torrence) tries to force himself on her. Rather than allow him to have his way with her, she kills herself. Her steadfastness renews Campbell's faith, and he establishes the first gospel ship, thus blending his two loves. He returns home to wed his sweetheart, Mary Phillips (Marceline Day). ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Having scored big-time box office with his first Biblical epic, The Ten Commandments (1923), Cecil B. DeMille hoped to top this success with his 1927 The King of Kings. Inasmuch as he was now dealing with the life of Christ, DeMille had to be careful to serve up equal amounts of showmanship and reverence. The first creative challenge: how to "introduce" Christ in a tasteful manner? The answer: as a blind child is cured through Jesus' intervention, DeMille cuts to the child's point-of-view, slowly fading in on the kindly countenance of H.B. Warner as the Son of Man. Still, DeMille remained DeMille, especially in his handling of the character of Mary Magdalene (Jacqueline Logan). No longer a tattered streetwalker, Mary Magdalene is now a glamorous courtesan, replete with legions of gorgeous slave girls (one of whom is "bubble dancer" Sally Rand) and dressed in revealing Hollywood-style gowns. In fact, the film opens on this character, as she ruminates over the defection of her favorite customer, Judas Iscariot (Joseph Schildkraut), who is spending far too much time with Jesus of Nazareth. Upon visiting Jesus herself, she immediately repents, casting off all her prior sins. Once again, the efficacy of the Cecil B. DeMille formula is proven: redemption has no dramatic value unless the film shows viewers why the sinner needs to be redeemed. Once he's gotten his box-office considerations out of the way, DeMille adheres faithfully to the particulars of Jesus' life, betrayal, trial, Crucifixion, and Resurrection. (Again, however, the director improves a bit upon his source material: the storm that follows the Crucifixion is of the same spectacular dimensions as the parting of the Red Sea in Ten Commandments, while the Resurrection is filmed in vibrant Technicolor). To back up the authenticity of his images, DeMille -- with an assist from scenarist Jeannie Macpherson -- utilizes Scriptural quotes in his subtitles. And to avoid any untoward publicity while filming, DeMille required all of his actors to sign legal documents preventing them from indulging in any sort of "sinful" activity; this meant that poor old H.B. Warner had to steer clear of alcoholic beverages for nearly a year, though he more than made up for lost time after his contract ran out. Prepared to mercilessly lambaste The King of Kings, DeMille's critics were disarmed by his reverent, tasteful approach to the subject. Years after the film's release, a specially prepared 60-minute version of the 18-reel King of Kings was making the rounds of religious groups, church basements, and Easter-weekend telecasts. The film was remade in 1961 by producer Samuel Bronston and director Nicholas Ray, with Jeffrey Hunter as Jesus. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Released with sound effects and a music score that included the song "When Love Comes Smiling" by Walter Hirsch, Lew Pollack and Erno Rapee, Paul Leni's near masterpiece remains one of the silent era's last great romantic melodramas. Based on Victor Hugo's 1869 novel L'Homme qui Rit, The Man Who Laughs starred German import Conrad Veidt as Gwynplaine, a carnival freak doomed to live life wearing a perpetual grin carved on his face by Dr Hardquannone (George Siegman because his father, Lord Clancharlie (Allan Cavan), had offended England's King James II (Sam De Grasse). Taken in as a child by Ursus, a mountebank (Cesare Gravina), Gwynplaine grows up alongside the beautiful but blind Dea (Mary Philbin). They fall in love but Gwynplaine refuses to marry her because his hideous face makes him feel unworthy. Queen Anne (Josephine Crowell), meanwhile, has ascended the throne and when she learns from her predecessor's evil jester Barkilphedro (Brandon Hurst) that the recalcitrant Duchess Josiana (Olga Baclanova) is in possession of Lord Clancharlie's estates, she decrees that the royal femme fatale must marry Gwynplaine, the rightful heir. Josiana, who has caught Gwynplaine's act incognito and arranged a rendezvous, is at the same time sexually attracted to and repelled by the "Laughing Man," but Gwynplaine, who realizes that the duchess' attraction has legitimized his right to love Dea, renounces his title and follows his heart to the new World. Although Kirk Douglas was long interested in producing a remake, The Man Who Laughs was instead filmed again as L'Uomo che Ride by Italian director Sergio Corbucci in 1966. Corbucci, however, changed the setting from Queen Anne to the infamous sixteenth century Italian court of the Borgias. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Love's Blindness was another bit of hothouse exotica from romance novelist and self-appointed social arbiter Madame Elinor Glyn. This is the story of Jewish maiden Vanessa Levy (Pauline Starke), the daughter of a somewhat disreputable moneylender (Sam De Grasse). Deeply in debt to Vanessa's father, British nobleman Hubert Culverdale (Antonio Moreno) agrees to marry the girl to square his account. Culverdale lets Vanessa know from the outset that she's not "his kind," and that any sort of romance between them is quite out of the question. Eventually, however, the snobbish hero is won over by the heroine's sincerity and devotion. It says something about Elinor Glyn's salability in 1926 that, reportedly, her bungalow at MGM was larger than the one occupied by Love's Blindness star Pauline Starke. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Eagle of the Sea is based on Charles Tenney Jackson's swashbuckling novel Captain Sazarac. Ricardo Cortez stars as Sazarac, a bold American pirate captain who proves to be putty in the hands of New Orleans belle Louise Lestron (Florence Vidor). While dancing with Louise at a masked ball, Sazarac is recognized by General Andrew Jackson (George Irving), who gives the pirate 24 hours to get out of Louisiana. Months pass before Sazarac and Louise are reunited, and then only because Louise's treacherous uncle (Sam DeGrasse) wants to use the Captain's services in a plot to foment a war between England and Spain. But though Sazarac is a man without a country, he is still loyal to his native United States and refuses to have anything to do with the plan that might endanger his homeland. Louise likewise turns her back on her uncle, whereupon the latter contrives to have the girl kidnapped, spreading the false rumor that Sazarac was her abductor. Thus it is that Captain Sazarac must stay one step ahead of the entire American fleet to rescue Louise from her uncle and his fellow conspirators. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Sally O'Neil is "Mike," the hoydenish daughter of railroad-construction foreman Charles Murray. Our heroine tries to help out Harlan (William Haines), who's been having trouble finding work since serving a prison term for a crime he didn't commit. She arranges for Harlan to get a job on her dad's construction crew, and in this capacity he rescues the girl from train robbers. The climax is handled in a farcical manner, with "Mike"'s father and his "friendly enemy" Tad (Ford Sterling) arranging for a fleet of WWI planes to strafe the villains with bombs! Director Marshall Neilan also wrote the original story, so he had only himself to blame for the sillier plot developments. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Just as Reginald Denny could only play an all-American boy until talkies revealed his British accent, Conrad Nagel could only have played a hillbilly with his glorious voice silenced. He's the star of this silent drama, based on the play by Lula Vollmer. Lucille LaVerne, who played Ma Cagle on stage, repeats her role here. Ma Cagle, a mountain woman of the Carolinas, has lost both her father and her husband to lawmen and, firmly believing in "an eye for an eye," waits for her son Rufe (Nagel) to reach maturity so he can exact revenge. But the World War breaks out and Rufe goes to fight in France. He is reported to be killed in action, and Ma's only comfort is a young stranger (George K. Arthur), who has deserted from a nearby training camp. Only later does she discover that the youth is the son of the man who killed her husband. Rufe, it turns out, has not been killed, but he returns home a changed man. He no longer believes in killing for revenge, and much to Ma's disgust, he refuses to shoot the stranger and lets him go free. But Rufe's ideals are put to the test when his sweetheart, Emmy Todd (Pauline Starke), is raped by Sheriff Weeks (Sam DeGrasse). He is tempted to revert to the ways of the hills, but he overcomes his baser emotions and instead marches the sheriff off to jail. This picture was Edmund Goulding's directorial debut. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Ellie Byrne ($Colleen Moore) and Don Lane (Ben Lyon) are childhood pals -- their fathers (Charles Murray and Russell Simpson) work together as glass blowers. They hope for better things in life, especially after they land an invitation to a fancy society party, where their shabby outfits look even shabbier next to the latest fashions. They both head for the city where Ellie aspires to stardom on the stage, and Lane works at writing. She's successful and he's not, but when he rewrites a play in which Ellie is starring, he finally makes it. Ellie is ready to marry Preston Dutton (Joseph Striker) when she comes to the realization that he's only after her money; meanwhile Lane has become engaged to Stephanie Parris (Charlotte Merriam), but the relationship breaks up. So Ellie and Lane go back home, disillusioned -- and realize, finally, that they really love each other. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide