Sylvia Breamer Movies

In this drama, a group of young cadets in a military academy struggle to overcome their personal problems and make it through school. One of the lads is particularly troubled because he feels abandoned by his dad. In the end, the despondent youth nearly commits suicide by trying to paddle his canoe over a dam. Fortunately, his father realizes his mistakes and shows up in time to save the boy. Look carefully for Frances Farmer in a bit part as a colonel's kindly daughter. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

This first film version of the Otto Harbach-William Collison stage farce Up in Mabel's Room was released in 1926, the same year that the original play premiered on Broadway. Newlywed Garry Ainsworth (played by the "original" Harrison Ford) discovers that his ex-wife Mabel (Marie Prevost) is in an adjoining honeymoon suite with her new husband Jimmy (Harry Myers). Before long, practically the entire male population -- and at least one female, Sylvia Wells (Phyllis Haver) is "up in Mabel's room." Not content with the slapstick hijinks inherent in the original play, the screenwriters contrive to include a wild nightclub sequence, replete with undulating chorus girls. Up in Mabel's Room was remade by Allan Dwan in 1945. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A typical outdoors melodrama from Poverty Row company Gotham, Women and Gold was set in a South American gold mine. Taking charge of the mine, Dan Barclay (Frank Mayo) has no time for his wife Myra (Sylvia Breamer) and child Dan Jr. (Frankie Darro). The bored Myra takes off with dapper Señor Ortego (William Davidson) but his intentions prove less than honorable and she decides to return to Dan and her child. Unfortunately, there is an accident en route and Myra loses her memory. Dan, meanwhile, is arrested for the attempted murder of Ortego. He escapes from jail along with Ricardo (Tote Du Crow), who also has a grudge against the slippery villain. After Ricardo kills Ortego, Myra's memory is restored and she is reunited with husband and child. Little Frankie Darro was elevated to stardom later that year, appearing opposite Tom Tyler in a series of popular Westerns. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Judge Somers (Tully Marshall) refuses to let his daughter, Edith (Sylvia Bremer), marry Jerry Warner (T. Roy Barnes) because he does not believe that the young man has any business sense. To help him out, Jerry's Uncle Bellamy (Lincoln Plumer) gives him ten thousand dollars to get started. Judge Somers tells him that if he still has that amount in six months, he can marry Edith. Warner gets off to a rocky start, since he uses half the money to buy oil stock which Somers claims is worthless. An opportunity for quick money appears in the form of an offer from newlyweds Chris and Beatrice Skinner (Harry Meyers and Wanda Hawley). Skinner's grandfather (Jack Duffy) does not approve of Beatrice and threatens to cut off his allowance. The couple decides to divorce and remarry after Skinner gets his grandfather's money. Skinner offers Warner ten thousand dollars to play the corespondent, but then he becomes unreasonably jealous and threatens to divorce Beatrice for real. It gets worse when Edith finds Warner and Beatrice together and doesn't realize it's a set-up for Skinner's grandfather. Finally everything gets untangled, grandpa decides he likes Beatrice after all, and the supposedly worthless oil stock turns out to be quite valuable. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Although the plot to this heavy-handed drama sounds like typical Hollywood hokum, it actually came from a very successful stage play by Bernard K. Burns. The conniving George Wayne (Lew Cody) entices Betty Brown (Sylvia Breamer) to accompany him to his cabin with promises of marriage. Only after keeping her there for a few weeks does he reveal he never intended to wed her. Betty starts life all over again (her reputation being ruined by Wayne's actions and the mores of the era), not knowing that Wayne, under the name of Montgomery, is doing the same thing to another girl, Grace Pierce (Bessie Love). Eventually, Betty marries a very moral, upstanding man, Fred Masters (Frank Mayo), but, on the advice of his sister (Myrtle Steadman), does not reveal her past. Both Betty and Masters are called to serve on the jury that is hearing the case against Grace Pierce, who is accused of Montgomery's murder. Betty soon figures out that Montgomery was Wayne, and when everyone wants to convict the girl, she is forced into a dilemma -- should she keep quiet, or should she reveal her sordid past to save the girl, but possibly ruin her own marriage? Betty opts to speak out and Grace is acquitted. The understanding Masters forgives Betty her past. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Owen Moore has an unlikely dual role in this melodrama. Robert Wells (Moore) is an American born in China who, unbeknownst to him, has an Oriental half-brother (also Moore). Wells' uncle sends him to help Ray Williams (Robert McKim) build bridges in China. Williams is in league with Chinese reactionaries and he discredits Wells by turning him into a drug addict. Wells eventually becomes an outcast and is in a stupor when he is found by his half-brother, Kong Sue, the son of the Lord of Thundergate, a powerful Mandarin reactionary (Tully Marshall). Kong Sue has run off with some money, and he changes clothes with lookalike Wells so he can more effectively disappear. So Wells wakes up to find himself the son of the Lord of Thundergate. He is finally able to expose Williams and his nefarious plot and, along the way, meets Ellen Ainsmith (Virginia Brown Faire), a white girl who has been raised as a Chinese. He saves her from a forced marriage to the Lord of Thundergate, wins her heart and recovers from his addiction. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

This Western features all the usual Universal Studios suspects: Frank Mayo as the manly hero, Philo McCullough as the slimy villain, and Sylvia Breamer as the pretty but less-than-distinctive love interest. The story is told in flashback as the Grand Jury calls in rancher Sam Bass (Mayo) to testify in a sheep stealing case. Bass, unaware of why he is wanted, immediately confesses to a murder and relates his long, sad story. Years before, he unsuccessfully pursued a gang of bank robbers and his evil half brother, Will (McCullough) -- who also was in love with Sam's sweetheart, Mary (Breamer) -- accused him of the robbery. Sam was tossed in jail for a year, and while incarcerated, he studied law. He began life anew once he was released, and when he ran for county prosecutor, Will reappeared and exposed him as a jailbird. Sam was run out of town, and when he tried to start all over again, Will attempted to blackmail him. By now, Sam was pretty fed up with the whole situation and a fight broke out, during which he thought he killed Will. But just as Sam is finishing up this incriminating testimony, the sheriff (George A. Williams) shows up with Will, who is alive after all -- and who turns out to be the sheep thief. Will is put behind bars, and Sam is reunited with Mary. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

This sentimental rural drama was based on the poem by John Greenleaf Whittier. Frankie Lee plays Dick Alden, the barefoot boy of the title. He is abused by his stepfather and his only friends in the village where he lives are his mother, a little girl named Mary Truesdale (Gertie Messinger), and Tom Adams (Tully Marshall), the town drunkard. One day, he has to help Adams out of the cellar of the schoolhouse. Later, when the schoolhouse catches fire because of a careless smoker, Dick is blamed. No one believes his innocence and his father beats him, so he runs away. Many years later he returns (to be played by John Bower), a successful manufacturer who owns the mill that keeps the village alive. He plans to get revenge for his treatment as a boy by shutting the mill down, thus causing a financial disaster. But he's talked out of the scheme by Mary (played as an adult by Marjorie Daw). The mill is blown up anyhow by Dick's enemies, but he becomes determined to build a bigger, better plant in its place. This film, incidentally was released by C.B.C., derisively called "Corned Beef and Cabbage" by its competitors. Later on, the firm would change its name to Columbia and emerge from its Poverty Row beginnings. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Although he was completely eclipsed by his incredibly gifted relative, Sidney Chaplin was a fine farceur who could be almost as funny as brother Charles Chaplin. Here he just about steals the show from a group of other solid players. Blanche (Sylvia Breamer) will inherit her aunt's large estate, providing that she gets married within 24 hours. She chooses to wed John Ingram (Tully Marshall), an old man living at a rest home who is not expected to live much longer. She has been seen by the young, good-looking Thomas Burton (Owen Moore), who has fallen in love with her at first sight. With the help of his valet, Judd (Chaplin), he disguises himself as Ingram, whiskers and all, and marries Blanche himself. Then things get really complicated, since the old man's secretary plans to kill the old man off himself as part of a plot to acquire the fortune. Meanwhile, Blanche has taken the old man home to enjoy his last moments -- but the old man is actually Judd in disguise, while Burton pretends to be his nephew. Finally the real Ingram shows up, amidst much confusion. When the hired gunman sends for his thugs, Judd calls for help from everyone he can think of. The police, firemen, the navy, the army and several dozen others appear on the scene and the crooks are rounded up. When Blanche realizes it was Burton she actually married, she decides to make him her permanent husband. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Bert Lytell stars in a double role of father and son in this confusing drama about love and self-sacrifice. Tommy Carteret Jr. is wrongly accused by Hartwell (Hardee Kirkland) of making improper advances towards Hartwell's wife. In reality it was Tommy's own father who was the perpetrator. Not wishing to bring dishonor to the family, Tommy himself agrees to make amens to the wronged husband. Hartwell decrees that the Carteret family move to the Kentucky backwoods until the jealous husband (Hartwell) dies. Marianna Canfield (Sylvia Breamer) is killed when she tries to warn the Carteret's of livid locals bent on revenge on the father and son. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

This melodrama takes place in the Missouri of the 1860s -- a good place for Universal Studios to place their manly star, Frank Mayo. When the quick-tempered Jefferson De Croteau (Mayo) wins a horse race, the loser insults him. De Croteau knocks him down and, believing that he has killed him, heads for the mountains. He winds up at a cabin retreat with a group of men, and it doesn't take him long to figure out they're all bandits. The head of the gang is planning to get revenge on a judge who sent his brother to jail. He also has designs on the judge's daughter, Francine (Sylvia Breamer). De Croteau saves Francine and her father, then heads back home to clear himself of a theft charge. He gets the proper villains rounded up and then discovers that the man that he thought he killed is very much alive -- all the usual situations contained in your average Western programmer. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

This romantic comedy was an atypical vehicle for William Russell, who was more comfortable in action films. When it comes to finance, Lucky Garrity (Russell) lives up to his name. After making a fortune on Wall Street, he yearns for a quieter life and buys a country estate on Long Island. But the previous owner, Countess Vecchi (Sylvia Breamer), has not yet vacated, and her loyal servants try to scare Garrity away. Garrity winds up asking the Countess to remain as his guest, and the pair begin to fall in love. But the Countess is wary of him because she is already married to a worthless Count ($Otto Matieson), and because she is convinced that Garrity's plays on Wall Street are the mark of a gambling addict. Garrity swears to stay away from the market, but then his friend, Ted Powell (Hallam Cooley), shows up and insists that Garrity needs to take care of business in the city. Garrity refuses, but when the Countess discovers that he risks losing his fortune if he stays, she urges him to go. Garrity saves his fortune, and the Count conveniently dies, enabling him to marry the Countess. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Miriam Holt (Sylvia Breamer) is an innkeeper's daughter who is born with psychic abilities. She falls for a young hunter who lodges at the inn, but he goes away when he mistakenly believes she loves another man. Miriam moves to the city to make use of her unusual abilities for the benefit of humankind. She and the hunter, now married, meet at a party and their love is rekindled. The hunter's wife married him for social position and she carries on an adulterous affair with another man. Miriam uses her abilities to pave the way for a future with the man she loves. The wife is allowed to pursue a life with her lover in this romantic drama. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide