Charles G. Clarke Movies

A matinee idol of the pre-1920 years, Antonio Moreno was on the wane when, in 1921, the emergence of Rudolph Valentino sparked a demand for "Latin Lover" types. Moreno's 1924 vehicle Flaming Barriers was directed by George H. Melford, the man who started the Valentino craze with his direction of The Sheik. In Flaming Barriers, Moreno plays an adventurer-for-hire, assigned to steal a revolutionary fire-fighting machine from its creator. Upon falling in love with the inventor's daughter (Jacqueline Logan), our hero changes his duplicitous ways. The inventor, incidentally, was played by Charles Ogle, who in 1910 played The Monster in the first cinemadaptation of Frankenstein. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Gaunt, aristocratic-looking character-actor H.B. Warner was slightly miscast as author Frank Hamilton Spearman's popular railroad detective Whispering Smith. The detective had earlier been played by J.P. McGowan in a 1916 serial version starring McGowan's wife Helen Holmes which was itself remade in 1927 starring Wallace MacDonald. A George O'Brien "B"-western variation came in 1935 and the durable detective was portrayed by Alan Ladd in 1948. (A cheap 1952 version set in, of all places, London, and a 1960s television series are not even worth mentioning.) In 1926, however, the property was in the hands of Cecil B. DeMille's company, PDC, who not only cast the less-than-heroic-looking Warner, but teamed him with the extremely modern Lilyan Tashman, a clotheshorse more at home in the boudoir than in a rough-and-tumble action melodrama. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Long though lost, Four Sons reemerged in the 1960s, proving anew that the silent films of director John Ford were every bit as accomplished as his talkies. More "Germanic" in tone and texture than later Ford films, Four Sons is the story of the Bernle family of Bavaria. Mother Bernle (Margaret Mann) dotes upon her four sons Joseph (James Hall), Johann (Charles Morton), Franz (Francis X. Bushman Jr.) and Andres (George Meeker), but is powerless in guiding their destinies. When WW I breaks out, her sons march off to the front: one of the boys fights for the AEF, the others for the Kaiser. The film's most poignant sequence takes place on the battlefield, when one of the sons stumbles upon his mortally wounded brother. Though the dying man's plaintive cries are heard on the Fox Movietone soundtrack, the scene itself is effectively played in pantomime. An updated version of Four Sons, wherein the locale was switched from Bavaria to Czechoslovakia, was filmed in 1940, starring Don Ameche, Alan Curtis, Robert Lowery and George Ernest. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

All evidence suggests that Riley the Cop was a delightful vehicle for John Ford "regular" J. Farrell McDonald. New York policeman James Riley is asked to retrieve neighborhood boy Joe Smith (David Rollins), who skipped town after being falsely accused of theft and is now living a sinful life in Berlin. It isn't long before Riley himself succumbs to charms of the German metropolis, whereupon he magnanimously allows Joe to stay in Berlin long enough to win the heart of aristocratic Mary Coronelli (Nancy Drexel). Riley himself also finds romance, in the form of gawky German damsel Lena (Louise Fazenda). Little does he realize that Lena is the sister of his hated rival -- police officer Hans Krausmeyer (Harry Schultz). If the synopsis is any indication, the present unavailability of this John Ford comedy is a real loss. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Emmett J. Flynn had directed everyone from William S. Hart to Laurel and Hardy by the time he wielded the megaphone for his first talkie, The Veiled Woman. The title character is Nanon (Lia Tora) who, in flashback, cautions a virginal young woman (Lupita Tovar) from trodding the primrose path in life. While working as a roulette girl in the gambling house owned by her lover Pierre (Paul Vincenti), Nanon accidentally kills a man and takes a run-out powder. Later on, Nanon marries a respectable socialite, only to lose her husband when he learns about her unsavory past. Her tale told, Nanon is unexpectedly reunited with Pierre, now making an honest living as a cab driver.The Veiled Woman was also filmed in French- and Spanish-language versions. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In her first important screen role, Mae Clarke is cast as Jackie Lee, a saucy vaudeville dancer. Jackie comes between acrobat-partners Bert (Robert Ames) and Johnny (William Harrigan), despite their promises to one another never to let a "dame" break up their act. Much of the dialogue is comprised of show-business slang, which must have been confusing to 1929 filmgoers but provides an endless source of enjoyment to the contemporary movie buff. The musical numbers were imaginatively staged, notably a "post-card" routine in which a photograph suddenly comes to life (and this was 12 years before this bit was "introduced" in Citizen Kane!) Filmed in New York, Nix on Dames features several Broadway performers in the supporting cast, including Gilbert-and-Sullivan specialist George McFarlane and African American actress Louise Beavers, here dropping her usual "maid" characterization to offer a soulful spiritual. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this drama, an early talky, a horse race determines a woman's romantic fate. The trouble begins when she finds herself falling deeply in love with a handsome songwriter. Unfortunately, she is already betrothed to a real cad. When her fiance finds out that she loves another, he decides to frame the conductor for a crime. When she finds about the crime, the girl believes him and her heart breaks. In hopes of being able to gracefully break off the engagement she makes a deal with her fiance: if her horse (whom she thinks is a sure thing) loses the Kentucky Derby, she will become his unwilling bride. Unfortunately, the horse does indeed lose and the woman must honor her bet. Fortunately, just before her wedding day she attends a concert and who should be conducting but her true love. Realizing that the conductor is innocent and romantic bliss ensues. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The first of Nancy Carroll's talkie films for Paramount had already been released when Fox's silent Sin Sister was taken off the shelf. Carroll is cast as Pearl, a vaudeville dancer stranded somewhere in Alaska. With no local Equity office in the vicinity, Pearl is obliged to accept the hospitality of a wealthy family which has itself been stranded in the Great White North. An ill-tempered fur trader and a looney Eskimo both lust after Pearl, but she is rescued by Peter Van Dykeman (Lawrence Gray), her hosts' male secretary. Despite the presence of four screenwriters in the credits, it would seem as if Sin Sister was made up as it went along. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This sprightly romantic comedy chronicles the delightfully unlikely and tempestuous relationship between an opera diva and a sneak thief. They meet after he breaks into her home and attempts to chloroform her. She awakens and arrogantly warns him that the drug could destroy her beautiful voice. The thief then recognizes her as his very favorite singer. The two become friends. She attempts to have him take voice training so that she can reform him from a crook to an opera star, but he hates it and so prepares to resume his previous vocation. This causes her to ask him to marry him, but he refuses until she agrees to give up her career. Unfortunately, their married life is anything but blissful and eventually, he leaves her. Fortunately, they are reunited in the story's romantic conclusion. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Will Rogers' second starring talkie feature was a spiritual twin of the first, They Had to See Paris, albeit with a significant change of locale. Although newly rich Texas mill owner Hiram Draper (Rogers) intensely despises all things British (dismissing the country as the land of "marmalade eaters"), he is forced by business considerations to journey to London. Going along for the ride are his wife (Irene Rich, who had costarred with Rogers in They Had to See Paris), and his son Hiram Junior (Frank Albertson). Upon the family's arrival, Junior falls in love with Elinor (Maureen O'Sullivan), daughter of aristocratic Lord Percy Worthing (Lumsden Hare), whose opinion of "Yankees" is about as low and disdainful as is Hiram's attitude towards "Limeys." Through a series of amusing incidents, not least of which is a zany hunting expedition, Hiram and Lord Percy become friends, consoling themselves to the marriage of their children. Highlights in this episodic star vehicle include the famous early sequence in which Hiram, who was born in Oklahoma while it was still "Indian Territory", tries to get a passport without the necessary U.S. birth certificate; and the finale, in which the two proud fathers perform a "singing duel" of their respective national anthems. Based on the successful stage play by Arthur F. Goodrich (which had originally starred George M. Cohan), So This is London was remade eight years later as one of 20th Century-Fox's "Jones Family" B-pictures. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this screwball comedy, Annabelle Leigh (Jeanette MacDonald) happily spends the $5,000 sent her each month by her husband, whom she hasn't seen since eleven hours after they were married. She explains to friends that while in Montana, she was injured and cared for by a burly, bearded miner, Hefty Jack (Victor McLaglen), who later married her for the sake of appearances. Less than a day later, Annabelle fled back to New York; Hefty Jack struck it rich, and has been sending her money ever since. Now Annabelle finds herself in financial hot water and desperately turns for help to John Rawson, a newcomer to the city; Annabelle is unaware that he is the now-beardless Hefty Jack. ~ Bill Warren, All Movie Guide

High-class call girls provide the focus of this intelligent romantic comedy that takes a rather scathing look at the down-side of blazing passion. The trouble begins when a young wife learns that her husband has been fooling around with the ladies of the evening on the side. As she investigates, the wife ends up getting entangled in her own affair. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide