Claire Windsor Movies

How Dooo You Do? offers two refugees from radio's Eddie Cantor Show, Bert Gordon and Harry Von Zell, as an erstwhile comedy team. The film's title is a catchphrase of Gordon's, who gained famed in the 1940s as "The Mad Russian". Seeking refuge from their fans, Gordon and Von Zell head to Desert Springs and register at a resort hotel. No sooner have they arrived than a much-despised radio agent is murdered, casting suspicion on our heroes-not to mention fellow guests Cheryl Walker, Ella Mae Morse, Clare Windsor, and Keye Luke. For reasons that aren't explained until the end of the film, practically all the cast members (including bit players Thomas Jackson, James Burke, and Fred Kelsey) appear under their own names. In fact, the Pirandellian ending is the most entertaining aspect of this patchy comedy-mystery. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Invincible Studios' Cross Streets is something of a watershed film, providing leading roles for fading silent stars Claire Windsor and Kenneth Thomson and relative newcomers Johnny Mack Brown and Anita Louise. The story is the old saw about the brilliant surgeon who disappears from view after a fatal misdiagnosis. Twelve years later, the surgeon, now a shabby hobo, returns home, where he redeems himself by performing a life-saving operation. But there's no happy ending for our hero, who through a convoluted plot twist is shot by the jealous husband of the Doc's prospective mother-in-law! Cross Streets might easily have been titled Crossed Wires, what with its tangled web of complex plotlines. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Former silent stars Claire Windsor, John Harron, and Holmes Herbert struggled mightily with a morose script in this low-budget melodrama from producer George W. Weeks. A reader for the Rogers Publishing Company, Annie Frayne (Windsor) successfully campaigns against the company publishing "In Quest of a Virgin," a trashy new novel. The publisher, Bruce Rogers (Holmes Herbert), is so impressed with Annie that he considers making her his assistant, though he abandons the idea once he gets a look at the girl's sordid home life. A dejected Annie attempts suicide, but is rescued by newspaper reporter Ronnie Ross (Harron), whom she eventually marries despite learning that he is the author of "In Quest of a Virgin." But Rogers, who has come to regret his decision, once again proposes that Annie become his assistant. Meanwhile, a jealous Ronnie is arrested for a jewelry heist actually committed by Annie's no-good brothers (Lee Moran and David Callis), and although Annie remains faithful, he refuses to see her. Years later, Annie is about to marry Rogers when she receives Ronnie's newest novel, "Cry of the Soul." So moved is she by the book in general and a touching inscription in particular, that she returns to the reformed Ronnie. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

A young woman believes that her mother's gambling house is a hotel. When a gambler angry about being cheated there convinces her to join her mother's business, it really does turn into a hotel. ~ Steve Huey, All Movie Guide

Virile Victor McLaglen goes shirtless throughout most of the late silent Captain Lash. After rescuing wealthy ship's passenger Cora Nevins (Claire Windsor) from a nasty accident in the engine room, Captain Lash -- who despite his "title" is actually the head stoker -- agrees to help Cora smuggle some valuable jewels past customs. Hoping to save Lash from arrest, his diminutive buddy Cocky (Clyde Cook) substitutes coal for the gems. This gets Lash and Cora in deep trouble with her criminal companions, and for a while it looks as though both hero and heroine are going to be deep-sixed. But Captain Lash handles this dilemma in the same manner that he handles everything -- by beating up everyone within arm's length. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Sales manager Lew (Roy D'Arcy) has the hots for Claire (Claire Windsor), the wife of credit manager Walter (Lawrence Gray). Lew invites the couple to his apartment for dinner, ostensibly to talk business with Walter but actually to put the moves on Claire. Walter has "one too many" and passes out; when he awakens, he is led to believe that Claire has been messing around with Lew. It isn't revealed until the very end whether or not Claire has remained faithful. Evidently, Domestic Meddlers was a silent picture right up to the climactic "revelation" scene, which was equipped with a soundtrack. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this silent crime drama, a police detective masquerades as a convict to befriend a young prison inmate who knows the location of the loot from a major robbery. It is there he learns that the boy doesn't know where it is. He does, however, know the name of the one who does. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

This Marion Davies vehicle was loosely inspired by the career of Gloria Swanson. Davies plays would-be starlet Peggy Pepper, who arrives at the gates of MGM Studios with her dad Colonel Pepper (Dell Henderson) in hopes of becoming a great dramatic actress. Instead, she a scores a hit as an ingenue in the slapstick comedies starring the effervescent Billy Boone (William Haines). As the audience rocks with laughter during the preview of Peggy's first film (no one is more enthusiastic than her director Harry Gribbon), she sits in sullen silence, insisting to Billy that some day she'll invoke tears instead of laughter. This doesn't seem likely, inasmuch as Peggy can't even cry on cue (her director is forced to peel onions outside of camera range to achieve the desired emotion), but the tenacious young actress finally manages to win favor in dramatic roles. Inevitably, this causes a strain on her budding romance with Billy, and the couple slowly drifts apart. Now the unchallenged Queen of the Cinema, Peggy -- billing herself as Patricia Pepoire -- prepares to marry her oily leading man Andre (Paul Ralli), but mischievous Billy disrupts her fancy wedding. She angrily tosses Billy out of the house, realizing only when it's too late that she's still in love with him. But in the final scene, the hero and heroine are accidentally reunited on the set of a WWI picture directed by King Vidor (who also directed Show People). Two versions of Show People are currently available for TV; the "stretch-framed" Kevin Brownlow-David Gill restoration, with a new orchestral score by Carl Davis, and the original MGM release version, outfitted with a lively music and sound-effects track. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Small time mores were satirized in this low-budget comedy-drama from poverty row company Gotham Productions. Claire Windsor played Bonnie Clinton, an enterprising girl who opens a beauty parlor in the village of Clinton Harbor. In an effort to drum up business, the girl bleaches her hair, much to the dismay of the Ladies' Aid Society. But when society hostess Caroline Bennett (Bodil Rosing) includes Bonnie on her guest-list, business starts to pick up, much to the chagrin of crooked businessman Benjamin Flint (Leigh Willard) and his snobbish daughter Olga (Bess Flowers). The Danish-born Bodil Rosing usually played rather dowdy-looking mothers and immigrant women. Her role as society leader in this film was reportedly much closer to the real-life Miss Rosing, the mother-in-law of Hollywood star Monte Blue and a former socialite in her own right. The on-screen credits for Blonde's By Choice included the unusual occupation of "comedy constructor"! ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

The Claw is set in Africa, where the wealthy but spineless Maurice Stair (Norman Kerry) has arrived to assume management of his family's property holdings. Arriving soon afterward is Maurice's sweetheart Deidre (Claire Windsor), who is immediately attracted to handsome but villainous overseer Major Kinsella (Arthur Edmund Carewe). It takes some doing, but Maurice eventually proves himself a Real Man by rescuing Deidre from an unending variety of perils. The problem with The Claw is that the villain comes off more sympathetically than the hero, making it all the more astounding that Deidre ends up with Maurice. Also, it is painfully clear that the "Africa" depicted in the film was actually located in the wilds of the Universal backlot. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Little Jackie Coogan, Charlie Chaplin's famous The Kid(1921), starred in this action melodrama from MGM as a young bugler whose stepmother (Claire Windsor) attempts to supplant the mother who only lives in his memory. According to the Motion Picture New Booking Guide, The Bugle Call, which apparently no longer exists, was set in a frontier cavalry post in the 1870s and also dealt with "Indians and adventure." Handsome Herbert Rawlinson played the romantic lead, with Tom O'Brien as a no-nonsense cavalry sergeant and Nelson McDowell and Sarah Padden as weather-beaten frontier types. The Bugle Call was directed by Edward Sedgwick, formerly of Hoot Gibson Westerns. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

The madness begins when J.P. and May Smith (Conrad Nagel, Claire Windsor) celebrate their second wedding anniversary with a trip to Paris. Succumbing to the charms of the City of Light, J.P. forsakes fidelity to pursue a sexy masked cabaret dancer. Finding out about her husband's galavanting, May discovers that the mysterious dancer is actually the wife of her former ballet teacher. Together, the ladies hatch a plan whereby May will pose as the dancer and teach her errant hubby a lesson. Incidentally, the dancer is played by Hedda Hopper, long before launching her career as a Hollywood gossip columnist. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The fact that the advertising posters for Tin Hats were designed by John Held Jr. is the most memorable aspect of this minor WWI comedy. Conrad Nagel, George Cooper and Tom O'Brien star as Jack, Lefty and Sarge, three American doughboys who manage to get lost behind enemy lines on Armistice Day. Stumbling into a tiny German village, the three soldiers are welcomed as mighty conquerors by the war-weary citizens. As Lefty and Sarge enjoy the fruits of victory (namely booze and women), Jack ardently courts pretty fraulein Elsa Van Bergen (Claire Windsor), the wealthiest woman in town. Fearful for their mistress' well-being, Elsa's servants try to scare off Jack and his pals, leading to a wacky denouement in a seemingly haunted castle. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide