Bebe Daniels Movies

It was impossible for director Sam Wood to include all of Arthur Train's sprawling novel in this picture. Instead he seems to have turned it into a rather simplistic morality play about a flapper's redemption -- the sort of subject which was common in the 1920s. Old Peter B. Kayne (George Fawcett) has finally handed over the last of his fortune to his 55-year-old son, Rufus (Hale Hamilton). Although Rufus has entered society and is the respectable president of a trust company, he has a foolish side. While his three daughters -- Diana (Bebe Daniels), Claudia (Katheryn Lean, and Sheila (Dorothy Mackaill) -- carry on their frivolous lives, Rufus becomes involved with a young chorus girl, Mercedes (Mary Eaton). He gets involved in a theatrical venture which fails miserably, ruining the family's fortune. But Diana has finally seen the error of her ways and rescues her younger sister, Sheila, from making the same mistakes. She also marries Lloyd Maitland, a young lawyer (James Rennie). Rufus has a nervous breakdown and all of the Kayne's possessions are put up for auction. While coming down the stairs, he falls, taking down a tapestry with him. It reveals the saying, "Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it" (it was common in the 1920s for books and motion pictures to make Biblical references to prove their points). ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

After a few films that did not showcase her talent well, Bebe Daniels was able to redeem herself in this comedy based on the F. Tennyson Jesse stage play Quarantined. Although Pamela Gordon (Eden Gray) is engaged to explorer Tony Blunt (Harrison Ford), she gets tired of waiting for him to come back from an expedition and accepts the proposal of Mackintosh Josephs (Alfred Lunt). But Blunt returns from Africa two weeks before the wedding, and, to avoid causing a scene, Pamela makes plans to elope with him. To keep everyone in the dark about her elopement with Blunt, however, she convinces Blunt to court her tomboyish sister, Diana (Bebe Daniels). Diana believes that Blunt has really fallen in love with her, and tricks him so that he marries her. (He thinks he is marrying Pamela.) She then boards a ship with her aunt, Amelia Pincent (Edna May Oliver), and hides from Blunt temporarily. When he discovers he has married Pamela's sister, he is furious, but, by then, the ship has been quarantined. By the time the quarantine is over and Pamela arrives, Diana has won Blunt over. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Don't let that title fool you: Male and Female is really James M. Barrie's The Admirable Crichton, as interpreted by Cecil B. DeMille. Thomas Meighan plays Crichton, the very proper butler in the British household of Lord Loam (Theodore Roberts). When masters and servants go on a yachting excursion, the vessel is destroyed in a storm, marooning everyone on a desert island. The helpless aristocrats must turn to the resourceful Crichton for survival. Before long, Crichton is ruling the roost, while his masters are cheerfully performing the most menial of tasks. Haughty Lady Mary (Gloria Swanson) foregoes her class-conscious upbringing and falls in love with Crichton. Once the castaways are rescued and brought back to England, however, the original class distinctions are restored. Lady Mary goes ahead with a marriage to stuffy Lord Brockelhurst as scheduled, but it is obvious that she will be unhappy in this "socially correct" union. Meawhile, Crichton finds happiness with scullery maid Tweeny (Lila Lee), who has loved him all along. Feeling that the Barrie play didn't have sufficient "punch" to go over with 1919 filmgoers, DeMille interpolated a dream sequence in which Gloria Swanson imagines herself a Babylonian princess; this gave the actress the opportunity to share a scene with a live and none-too-docile lion. One would think that critics of the era would haul DeMille over the coals for taking so many liberties with The Admirable Crichton, but such was not the case. One reviewer of Male and Female even congratulated DeMille for making Barrie "filmable"! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

George Barr McCutcheon's novel had already been filmed a couple of times (and would be filmed several times more after the advent of talkies). To make it a vehicle for Bebe Daniels, writer Monty Brice threw the story out the window and just kept the basic premise. Polly Brewster (Daniels) is working as a film extra when she gets word from Thomas Hancock (Warner Baxter) that she has inherited a million dollars from a rich uncle. The only problem is that she is supposed to invest the whole sum, taking only 30 dollars a week to live on -- about the same amount she is earning as an extra. But then Ned Brewster (Ford Sterling) shows up to inform her that yet another rich uncle wants to give her five million dollars -- providing she spend the first million she received in just 30 days. Polly makes a mad rush to get rid of the sum, and winds up sinking a good portion of it into a film company. Unfortunately, at the end of the 30 days, it turns out that the uncle with the five million has gone bankrupt. Polly is saved from the poorhouse when Mr. Brent, the production company's director (Andre de Beranger), comes up with a hit film. Polly is in the money again, and she and Hancock get married. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Bebe Daniels, all of 34, portrays an ageing movie star who refuses to admit she's too old for the ingenue role in an upcoming musical. Alice Faye is a hopeful chorus girl, while Ray Walker is a would-be director. All the young people get their deserved breaks when Daniels gets wise to herself and settles for a character role in the film--and also admits that the young girl (Rosina Lawrence) whom she's been passing off as her sister is really her daughter. Both Alice Faye and Bebe Daniels are given plenty of opportunities to sing and dance, which is as it should be. But Music is Magic falls short of perfection thanks to the doggedly unfunny comic relief of Frank Mitchell and Jack Durant, who may well be the worst team in motion picture history. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide