Bebe Daniels Movies
American actress Bebe Daniels and the motion picture industry virtually grew up together. After touring with her stage-actor parents, Daniels made her film debut at age seven in the silent one-reeler A Common Enemy (1908). After unsuccessfully applying for a job as a Mack Sennett bathing beauty (she was well under the age of consent), Daniels secured a job at Hal Roach's comedy studio in 1915, co-featured with Roach's biggest (and only) star Harold Lloyd in a series of zany slapstick comedies. In 1919, Daniels was signed by producer-director Cecil B. DeMille to star in a group of slick, sophisticated feature films in the company of DeMille regulars Gloria Swanson and Thomas Meighan. Though successful in these glamorous ventures, Daniels found herself more at home in fast-moving comedy roles, in which she specialized while contracted with Paramount Pictures in the mid-1920s; the actress played everything from a female Zorro type in Senorita (1927) to a "lady Valentino" in She's a Sheik (1927). When talking pictures came around, Paramount dropped Daniels' contract, worried that she wouldn't be able to make the transition to sound. But Daniels surprised everyone by scoring a hit in RKO's expensive musical feature Rio Rita (1929), managing to keep her career in high gear until her last American film, Music is Magic (1935). Upon her retirement from Hollywood, Daniels moved to England with her actor husband Ben Lyon in 1935. Enormously popular with London audiences, Daniels and Lyon starred in stage plays and films, and in the 1940s, headlined the successful radio series Life with the Lyons, which graduated to an even more successful TV program in the 1950s. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide- 1938
In this crime drama, an insurance detective goes undercover to try to bring in a jewel thief. He poses as a gangster and joins a gang. They end up stealing his passport and leaving him unable to return to the US. To get back he must pose as a crewman aboard a ship. He then discovers the purloined gems have been replaced by fakes and falls in love with a female gang member. Eventually his love reforms her and she helps him solve the mystery. He in turn, saves her life. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bebe Daniels, Ben Lyon, (more)
- 1921
Pansy O'Donnel (Bebe Daniels), a salesgirl at a modiste's shop, has earned -- as the film's title says -- two weeks' vacation with pay. But her boss, Ginsberg (George Periolat) has given her something of a working vacation -- she's to go to a fashionable resort with a load of his clothes and parade around in them as sort of a walking advertisement. It's an eventful two weeks -- as she heads to the hotel, she gets in a car accident with handsome J. Livingston Smith (handsome leading man Jack Mulhall), who she assumes to be one of the local wealthy Smiths. Then, at the hotel, she is mistaken for lookalike actress Marie LaTour. Since she can't convince the guests that she isn't, she goes along with the ruse and agrees to appear for a benefit. Unfortunately, Miss LaTour is known as the "Diving Venus," which means she has to do a high dive. Ginsberg arrives to take orders and Pansy does a high dive. Smith comes to her rescue and pulls her out of the tank just as the real Marie LaTour (also played by Daniels) arrives. But the actress merely shrugs off the mistaken identity. It turns out that Smith is not rich, but instead owns a garage, and he and Pansy end the film together. This mildly amusing comedy was based on a Saturday Evening Post story by Nina Wilcox Putnam. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bebe Daniels, Jack Mulhall, (more)
- 1924
This Paramount drama was based on the novel Face, by Lucy Stone Terrill. It was a change of pace for light comedienne Bebe Daniels. In a battle during the World War, Douglas Albright (Richard Dix) has a moment of cowardice which causes the death of his friend, Captain Banning (Joe King). When Albright comes back from the war, his fiancée, Helen Castle (Mary Astor), and her father, George (Frank Losee), can see that something is bothering him. So Castle sends him to take care of business in China -- and to pull himself together. While in China, Albright runs across Bannings' widow, Breta (Daniels), who has buried her sorrows behind a mask of revelry and fast living. Because he feels responsible for what she has become, Albright attempts to regenerate her and proposes marriage. When Breta discovers that he is sacrificing his relationship with Helen on her behalf, she kills herself so that the couple can reunite. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bebe Daniels, Richard Dix, (more)
- 1926
Volcano takes forever to get to the climactic eruption. In the meantime, the audience is subjected to the travails of convent-bred Zabette de Chauvalons, who upon returning to her father's estate in Martinique discovers that daddy has died and the property is now in the hands of her evil stepmother. Because of her dusky complexion, it is assumed that Zabette is the illegitimate offspring of her French father and a local native woman, and as consequence she is forced to live in the island's mulatto district. Here she is lusted after by mulatto villain Quembo (Wallace Beery), while handsome white aristocrat Stephane Sequineau (Ricardo Cortez) vows to take the heroine away from her tawdry surroundings. On cue, a volcanic eruption solves everyone's problems -- while simultaneously laying waste to the entire island! Exceptional special effects. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bebe Daniels, Ricardo Cortez, (more)
- 1928
Bebe Daniels once again plays an intrepid -- and somewhat foolhardy -- girl reporter in Paramount's What a Night!. A spoiled socialite, Dorothy Winston (Daniels) decides to prove that she's a valuable member of society by becoming a news hound. She manages to get the goods on mobster boss Mike Corney (Wheeler Oakman) but nearly ends up in a cement kimono as a result. Her efforts win both the respect and love of her hard-bitten city editor Joe Madison (Neil Hamilton). The subtitles for What a Night! were penned by Herman J. Mankiewicz, a former New York newspaperman who certainly knew whereof he wrote. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bebe Daniels, Neil Hamilton, (more)
- 1920
One of the best of Cecil B. DeMille's sophisticated sex comedies of the silent era, Why Change Your Wife? hinges upon a marriage of opposites. Husband Thomas Meighan has a fondness for wine, women and song; wife Gloria Swanson is the intellectual bookish type (we know this much because she wears thick glasses). When jazz baby Bebe Daniels enters Meighan's life, the indignant Swanson files for divorce. Realizing that she's permitted herself to become dull and drab, the newly liberated Gloria "dolls up" with a glamorous new wardrobe. Meanwhile, Meighan has become disillusioned with new bride Bebe, who is all pizazz but no substance. At a fashionable summer resort, Meighan and Swanson are reunited. When Tom and Gloria fall in love all over again, Bebe is temporarily put out, but she consoles herself with the old battle cry "Remember the Alimony!" Despite the film's farcical trappings, Why Change Your Wife? has more depth than the usual DeMille froth, thanks to the three-dimensional performances of its star trio. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1925
Bebe Daniels stars in this action-packed comedy -- one of Edward Sutherland's first directoral efforts. Susan Van Dusen (Daniels) is bored by her society life and craves excitement. Her father (Henry Stephenson), however, wants her to settle down and marry one of the sons of his friend Chauncey Waterbury (Warren Cook). Since the elder brother has disappeared to do research for a novel, Van Dusen tries to team Susan up with the other young man, Eustace (Russell Medcroft). Eustace turns out to be a wimp, so Susan runs away and becomes a private detective. Along the way, she meets a chauffeur who is really Tod, the elder Waterbury son, posing under an assumed name (Rod LaRocque). The chauffeur convinces Susan to help him locate "Tod Waterbury" and leads her on various escapades -- all of which are meant to dampen her taste for adventure. In the end, of course, she falls for Tod and they wind up together. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bebe Daniels, Rod La Rocque, (more)
- 1923
The normally low-key William C. deMille veers into the territory of his younger brother, Cecil B. DeMille, with this highly dramatic feature. Actress Corinne d'Alys (Bebe Daniels) is thrilled by her newfound success and aches for more publicity and fame. Although she is loved by her manager, John Elliot (Lewis Stone), she begins an affair with a portrait painter, Robert Townsend (Adolphe Menjou, who was earning quite a reputation -- on film at least -- as a seducer). Townsend is married to Elliot's sister Elsa (Kathlyn Williams), and she's furious over the affair. When she slashes at the painting of Corinne, she winds up accidentally killing her husband. Elliot, however, is the one arrested for the crime. When Elsa sees that her brother is in love with Corinne, she commits suicide, but first leaves a note confessing that it was she who stabbed Townsend. Corinne is thoroughly chastened by these events and reconciles with the ever-faithful Elliot. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bebe Daniels, Lewis Stone, (more)
- 1920
Bebe Daniels is charming in this light comedy, based on a Saturday Evening Post story by Grace Lovell Bryan. Rowena Jones (Daniels) is a coat-check girl who dreams of being wealthy like the patrons of the establishment where she works. She thinks she has her chance when rich William Vaughn (Edward Martindel) asks her out to dinner. She happily accepts, but before her date, she meets Prince (Jack Mulhall), a nice young man who she mistakes for a chauffeur. He's actually wearing an aviator's outfit and is at least as rich as Vaughn, but he lets her believe what she wants and drives her home in his limousine. They get along famously, but when he proposes marriage, Rowena's mother refuses to allow it, since she feels her daughter has a chance with Vaughn. The dinner with Vaughn, however, proves to be a disaster -- mainly because his wife (Helen Dunbar) shows up. So Rowena decides to accept Prince's proposal, and when she arrives at the mansion where she thinks he works, she is surprised to discover it actually belongs to him. A few years later, Mulhall would once again play a rich man who pretends to be one of his own employees, this time with Colleen Moore in Orchids and Ermine. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
