Alan Hale Movies

Turner Morgan (William Russell) is discharged from his job as foreman at a shipyard, and Steve Carson (Lionel Barrymore) is appointed to replace him. Morgan falls in with a criminal element and gets involved with a plot to steal the legacy bequeathed to Steve's new bride. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

This melodrama involves the old twin sisters mix-up. Exiled Russian Nihilist Ivan Pavloff (Philip Hahn) has twin daughters. In desperate need for money, he gives up one girl, Nina, to a rich couple, while the other one, Olga, stays with him. The girls grow up (to be played by Gail Kane), and Nina becomes engaged to John Huntington (Allan Hale), while Olga and her father both swear revenge on Nicholas Savaroff (Montagu Love), the man who was responsible for the death of Pavloff's wife. They sneak back into Russia, and in carrying out their scheme, Pavloff dies and Olga is the one who kills Savaroff. She meets up with Huntington, who thinks she is Nina and together they travel to America. But once they get there Olga is shot by Russian spies and Nina suddenly appears, making a very relieved Huntington aware of his mistake. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

This drama based on the Clyde Fitch stage play offers a fine performance by Marie Chambers, who comes close to eclipsing its star, Pauline Frederick. While studying in Paris, Julian Rolfe (Alan Hale Sr.) becomes engaged to Claire Foster. When he discovers that she is an adventuress of low moral character, he breaks up with her and returns to America heartbroken. But soon he begins a new relationship with an old acquaintance, Margaret Hughes (Frederick), who he eventually weds. Meanwhile, Rolfe's friend Philip Long becomes ensnared by Claire. Before Rolfe can tell him of Claire's true nature, the pair are married, and when Long discovers the truth about his wife, he kills himself in despair. Claire, who blames Rolfe, accuses him of murdering Long, and Rolfe is held on circumstantial evidence until Margaret tricks Claire into telling the truth by pretending to be of a similarly wanton character. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Producers insisted upon casting opera stars in their silent films all throughout the teens and twenties. Some, like Geraldine Farrar, were appealing enough personalities to survive without relying on their voices. Others, like Lina Cavalieri, failed to click with filmgoers, and soon retreated to the more friendly environs of La Scala and the Metropolitan. In The Eternal Temptress, Ms. Cavalieri plays a seductive foreign princess who uses her wiles on a US diplomat. This she does on behalf of the Austrian government, for which she is a secret agent. At the last moment, the temptress falls in love with the tempted, saving him from disgrace. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Whirlpool was based on the novel of the same name by Victoria Morton. Alice Brady stars as Belle Cavello, the mercenary sweetheart of moonstruck Arthur Hallam (William B. Davidson). In order to keep Belle in the manner to which she is accustomed, Arthur resorts to robbery and as a result is accused of a murder he didn't commit. Sobered by this turn of events, the covetous Belle decides to henceforth live a virtuous life, and to that end she marries the highly respectable Judge Reverton (H.E. Herbert). Inevitably, however, Belle's past catches up with her, and her bad traits resurface. The heroine's multitude of personal problems are straightened out -- if such a thing is possible -- by a prominent "brain specialist" (W.E. Williams), who tries to purge the heroine of her inbred wickedness. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In all likelihood the only surviving film starring early silent screen leading man Monroe Salisbury, this very old fashioned but enjoyable Northwoods melodrama begged the question of who were the real "barbarians" -- the "uncivilized" but proud trapper or the greedy capitalists out to use him? Better known today as a distinguished MGM character actor, director Donald Crisp had been taught by the best in the business: D. W. Griffith. And there is something Griffithlike about this moralistic melodrama of a young trapper, a veritable child of nature, discovering that the woman he desires is the daughter of an unscrupulous smelting tycoon out to destroy the land. Although Salisbury is about twenty years too old for his role (he produced the film himself) and the existing print badly is decomposed in places, The Barbarians still benefits from Crisp's fine compositions and must have been a beautiful experience when first released. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Paramount was taking a chance by making this picture -- based on a novel by E. Phillips Oppenheim -- almost two years after the end of World War I. It's a spy story that takes place in the days prior to the "war to end all wars" -- not a popular subject by the end of 1921. Perhaps the studio recognized that the story had potential beyond its historical backdrop, and James Kirkwood rose to the occasion with the dual roles he portrayed. Two former college chums, Englishman Sir Everard Dominey (Kirkwood) and German Leopold Von Ragastein (Kirkwood again) go on a trek to Africa. But the real purpose of the trip is so that Von Ragastein can murder Dominey and gather information for the Fatherland by impersonating the Englishman. Only one man returns from the trip, and he draws the suspicion of Dominey's insane wife, Rosamond (Ann Forrest) and Dominey's uncle, the Duke of Oxford (Winter Hall). The Duke puts Scotland Yard on the case and after an investigation, the man known as Dominey is arrested as a German spy. But there's a twist -it turns out that the man really is Dominey, and any secrets England may want to keep from Germany are safe. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

The mystical novels of Vicente Blasco-Ibanez were much prized by ambitious silent filmmaker Rex Ingram, who filmed two of them in the 1920s, both ostensibly vehicles for his actress wife Alice Terry. The first of the two, Four Horseman of the Apocalypse, was infinitely more successful than the second (Mare Nostrum), a fact that can be attributed to two little words: Rudolph Valentino. The quintessential Latin Lover stars as Julio, the scion of a wealthy Argentinian family. During the years prior to World War I, Julio's relatives relocate to Germany and France, with Julio opting for the latter country, where he opens an art studio. Here he carries on a torrid affair with Alice Terry, the wife of an attorney. When World War I breaks out, Terry joins the Red Cross and her husband enlists in the army, while the carefree Julio avoids involvement in the conflict. Only when visited by the spectres of the Four Horseman--war, conquest, famine, and death--does Julio don a uniform. His death is a symbolic sacrifice on behalf of Ms. Terry, whose husband has been blinded in the war: and, in an additional symbolic grace-note, Julio dies at the hands of his own cousin, now a German officer. The film's Big Money sequence was the one in which Rudolph Valentino danced the forbidden tango in a dingy, smoke-filled Argentinian cantina. That's what made him a star, not all that mumbo-jumbo about fate, destiny, and Four Horsemen. Proof that Valentino and not Blasco-Ibanez was the principal drawing card of this film was the 1962 remake, in which Glenn Ford portrays Julio. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Henrik Ibsen's play had already been filmed twice before, in 1917 starring Dorothy Phillips, and in 1918 with lsie Ferguson. But this time around the star was dramatic actress Alla Nazimova, who had played Nora Helmer on stage in New York twice -- once in 1907 and again in 1918. The biggest problem with A Doll's House, circa 1922, however, was that the emancipation of a young housewife was no longer a big deal -- women had won the right to vote a couple years earlier and millions of flappers were further flaunting their independence. On top of that, the 42-year-old Nazimova tried a bit too hard to act like a woman more than ten years her junior and it showed, in her performance if not necessarily in the nicely done photography. For those who aren't familiar with the play, here's a recap of the plot: When Torvald Helmer (Alan Hale) needs to travel south to save his life, his young wife, Nora, gets a loan from ex-convict Nils Krogstad (Wedgewood Nowell) by forgi ng the name of her dead father. Years later Nora, now a mother, is still playing the capricious young girl for her husband, who has become an executive at a bank. He wants to fire Krogstad, but Nora begs him not to. When Torvald discovers the reason why, he cruelly upbraids her and casts aspersions on her character. Finally, Nora can no longer take her selfish, self-centered spouse and she walks out on him and her family. Charles Bryant (Nazimova's partner and lover) received credit as director, but it's likely that his creative involvement was practically nil. Nazimova also financed the film herself, which was unfortunate, since it lost money at the box office. This drama, like most of Nazimova's films, is lost. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Robin Hood, Douglas Fairbanks' biggest (though not necessarily best) production of the silent era, represents the first time that many familiar of the elements of the Robin Hood legend were presented on screen. To bring the project to full fruition, Fairbanks and his wife Mary Pickford purchased the old Jesse Hampton studio in Santa Monica, and on that site constructed a near-lifesized replica of 12th century Nottingham. The humongous castle set was so awesome that Fairbanks became worried that his own performance might be dwarfed. It wasn't: take our word for it. When first we meet Robin Hood, he is still the Earl of Huntington, preparing to joust with his bitter enemy Sir Guy of Gisbourne (Paul Dickey). Despite Sir Guy's propensity for cheating, the Earl is victorious. Shortly thereafter, Huntington rides off to the crusades with Richard the Lionhearted (Wallace Beery). Upon learning that Prince John (Sam De Grasse), goaded on by Sir Guy, has usurped his brother Richard's throne, Huntington returns to Nottingham in a new guise: dashing righter-of-wrongs Robin Hood. While robbing from the rich, giving to the poor, and bedevilling the villains, Robin romances the fetching Maid Marian (Enid Bennett). The film's singular highlight is Fairbanks' slide down a two-story tapestry, a bit of bravado accomplished by hiding a playground slide behind the huge cloth. As in all of Fairbanks' films, Charlie Stevens, a grandson of Geronimo and Doug's "mascot", appears in several minor roles. Also appearing is Alan Hale Sr. as Little John, a role he'd repeat in the 1938 Errol Flynn Robin Hood, not to mention the 1950 swashbuckler Rogues of Sherwood Forest. Long thought lost, Douglas Fairbanks in Robin Hood (as the film was so copyrighted) was rediscovered in the early 1960s. Most current prints fail to do justice to Arthur Edeson's glistening photography; also, some versions are stretch-framed to slow down the action to "normal" speed, a process that retards the marvelously fast pace instilled by star Fairbanks and director Allan Dwan. We recommend that you seek out a good-quality, tinted print of Robin Hood, processed at the slightly faster-than-life speed at which it was originally filmed. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Although Wallace Reid stars in this picture (based on the comic opera by Richard Harding Davis), Walter Long just about steals the show. Brooke Travers (Reid) is the easygoing son of a banana merchant. He runs up a 60-dollar fare by playing stage-door Johnny up and down all the Broadway theaters, and cab driver Biff Dooley (Long) is determined that Travers will ante up. But Dooley's task proves to be more difficult than he first suspected when Travers follows pretty Juanita Rivas (Lila Lee) to her home country of San Manana, in South America. First off, the two men have to work for their passage on the boat; then when they arrive in San Manana, they find it in the midst of a revolution. Travers has to save Dooley from a firing squad and he helps put Juanita's father Carlos (Theodore Kosloff) into power. The grateful Rivas makes Travers, who marries Juanita, Minister of Finance. While trade paper Motion Picture News gave the film good marks, it notes that Reid "has lost some of his dash and spontaneity" -- an ominous statement considering that the star died from his addiction to drugs six months after its release.
~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide