Chester Conklin Movies

Charles Rogers and Mary Brian, Paramount Pictures' cutest couple, are starred in the collegiate drama Varsity. Amazingly, the film does not include a football game, or even a football team. The story concerns the romance between college boy Jimmy Duffy (Arlen) and carnival girl Fay (Mary Brian). Looking askance at this union is dormitory janitor Pop Conlin (Chester Conklin), who, unbeknownst to everyone but himself, is Jimmy's long-lost father. A chronic alcoholic, Pop worries that Jimmy has inherited the family "curse," and that the boy will pass it along to his own children. The tension mounts when a couple of crooks conspire to get Jimmy liquored up so that they can steal a cache of cash intended to finance a campus temperance organization. Originally set at Yale University, the alma mater of screenwriter Wells Root, Varsity ended up taking place in Princeton when the Yale-ees protested. Essentially a silent picture, Varsity includes a reel and a quarter of dialogue near the end of the film. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The present unavailability of 1928's Gentlemen Prefer Blondes is especially frustrating for those who'd like to compare this first version of the classic Anita Loos comic novel to the 1953 Marilyn Monroe-Jane Russell remake. The blonde in question is Miss Lorelei Lee, a dumb-like-a-fox golddigger on the prowl for a rich husband. With her best friend Dorothy Shaw (Alice White), Lorelei takes a trip to Gay Paree, where among other adventures she gets mixed up with roguish old millionaire Sir Francis Beekman (Mack Swain). Eventually she finds that true love doesn't come with a price tag, or does it? Ford Sterling and Holmes Herbert co-star as Lorelei and Dorothy's middle-aged swains. Lorelei herself is played by Ruth Taylor, a onetime Mack Sennett bathing beauty who retired from films upon her marriage to a Manhattan stockbroker (life imitates art!) Incidentally, Taylor was the mother of humorist Buck Henry. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A nightclub dancer is torn between two men -- a tough detective and an unscrupulous gangster -- in this rather lurid silent melodrama starring one of the icons of the era, "shimmy" dancer Gilda Gray. Miss Gray's kid brother Andy (Jack Egan) has fallen in with gangster Sam Roberts (Charles Byer) and the latter is shot and killed after an altercation in her dressing-room. Although an obvious case of self-defense, Andy is accused of murder by the dead gangster's moll (Mona Palma) and is forced to stow away on a liner bound for South America. Detective Tom Westcott (Tom Moore), meanwhile, tricks the moll into telling the truth and the kid is cleared of all charges. Despite her popularity on the stage and in the first screen version of Aloma of the South Seas (1926), Gilda Gray's fame was fleeting and her screen career was over by the advent of sound. Cabaret, which of course bore no relation to the later musical, was directed by one of the pioneers of the industry, Robert G. Vignola, whose career had begun with the old Kalem company back in 1908. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Based on the once-popular "musical extravaganza" of the same name, McFadden's Flats is a serviceable vehicle for Keystone Studio veterans Charlie Murray and Chester Conklin. The stars are respectively cast as boisterous Irishman Dan McFadden and stingy Scotchman Jock MacTavish, eternally bickering neighbors in a small rural town. It must needs be that Dan's daughter Mary Ellen (Edna Murphy) falls in love with Jock's son Sandy (Larry Kent). Several slapsticky confrontations later, the warring dads become resigned to the marriage of their offspring, and Jock even saves Dan from financial ruin. McFadden's Flats was remade in 1935, with Walter C. Kelly and Andy Clyde in the leads. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Played by William H. Tooker, railroad superintendent Old Man Sweeney is but a peripheral character in this film, despite its title. George Bancroft is cast as burly railroad engineer Cannonball Casey, who falls in love with Dorie (Doris Hill), the daughter of rival engineer Luke Beamish (Chester Conklin). For his part, Luke would prefer that Doris spend her time with a suitor of his choice, Old Man Sweeney's son Jack (Jack Luden) -- and, truth to tell, Dorie favors Jack over Casey, too. Hoping to win the girl's hand, Casey challenges Jack to a wrestling match at the company picnic. Unfortunately, Jack is incapacitated just before the match, obliging the puny Beamish to enter the ring opposite the mighty Casey. The film's slapstick finale is chock full of cartoonlike gags, which is altogether fitting inasmuch as producer-director Gregory LaCava used to work at the animation firm responsible for the old Mutt and Jeff cartoons. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Behind the Front is a raucous silent vehicle for Paramount's Mutt-and-Jeff comedy team of Wallace Beery and Raymond Hatton. The film begins during the early months of World War I; myopic detective Beery chases pickpocket Hatton into an "enlistment" party held by pretty socialite Mary Brian. The boys are so moonstruck by her that both agree to sign up for the Army on the spot. The rest of the film is comprised of familiar but hilarious war-comedy sight gags; the overall mood is encapsulated by the wisecracking subtitles of Ralph Spence (sample: "Listening Post...Where Men are Men but wish they weren't"). Behind the Front is punctuated by a terrific closing gag, wherein Beery and Hatton team up after the Armistice to beat to a pulp the young man (Richard Arlen) in charge of the company that produces their indigestible "K Rations"--a young man who happens to be the fiance of leading lady Mary Brian. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Aileen Pringle tackles a dual role in the comedy actioner Wilderness Woman. Actually, both heroines -- hoydenish Junie and sophisticated Juneau MacLean -- are the same person. Here's the lowdown: Junie, the hard-fightin', hard-drinkin' daughter of cantankerous Alaska gold miner Kodiak MacLean (Chester Conklin), decides to take action when her dad is swindled by a pair of New York sharpsters. Heading into the heart of Manhattan to catch the crooks, Junie is sidetracked into a beauty parlor, where she gets a total makeover. Now the poised, glamorous "Juneau MacLean," our heroine catches the eye of handsome engineer Alan Burkett (Lowell Sherman). Joining forces, Juneau and Alan track down the villains and give them a sound thrashing, with Juneau (reverting to "Junie") dishing out most of the punishment. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Constance Talmadge's sole 1926 effort was the forgettable comedy The Duchess of Buffalo. Set in a country that seems to be Russia, the story gets under way when Lieutenant Vladimir Orloff (Tulio Carminati) falls in love with American chorus girl Marian Duncan (Constance Talmadge). Likewise fascinated by Marian is Grand Duke Gregory Alexandrovich (Edward Martindel). When Marian receives a diamond stickpin from an anonymous admirer, the Grand Duke is given what-for by his wife, while Orloff is sentenced to be shot at sunrise. Teaming up with Marian to rescue the Grand Duke from a court scandal, Orloff is spared from execution and permitted a happily-ever-after with the heroine. Based on the Hungarian play Sybil, The Duchess of Buffalo didn't do quite as well at the box office as Talmadge's previous vehicles. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Originally, Louise Brooks was only supposed to have a supporting role in this comedy-drama starring Adolphe Menjou. Partway through filming, however, Menjou's co-star Greta Nissen dropped out and Brooks' role was rewritten and expanded. It was only her third film. Menjou is Max Haber, a barber in a small town who works at the shop belonging to his father (a surprisingly unslapstick-y Chester Conklin). His sweetheart is Kitty Laverne, an ambitious manicurist (Brooks). She goes to New York in hopes that Max will follow. He does, and he manages to land a job at a big New York barber shop. Mrs. Jackson-Greer (Josephine Drake) convinces Max to pose as a French Count, and he is pursued by April King, a title-seeking young woman (Elsie Lawson). Eventually Max's fakery is unmasked and he happily returns to his small town, followed by Kitty. Unfortunately, no copies of this film seem to exist -- the last known print was lost in a fire at the Cinematheque Francais. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

The mercurial Marshal Neilan warmed the director's chair for the 1925 comedy The Great Love. Robert Agnew plays a small-town doctor who takes care of an ailing circus elephant. Once cured, the pachyderm refuses to leave Agnew's side! Everything turns out OK when the elephant aids in the rescue of Agnew's kidnapped girlfriend Viola Dana. A variation on this yarn, Zenobia, was filmed in 1939, with Oliver Hardy as the doctor and "Miss Zenobia" as "herself". ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Lon Chaney stars as Erik, the Phantom, in what is probably his most famous and certainly his most horrifying role. Produced by Universal, the film shot in 1923 and shelved for nearly two years, and was subjected to intensive studio tinkering. While many expected a disaster, the film turned out to be a rousing success. It was both the stepping off point for Chaney's run as a superstar at MGM and the prototype for the horror film cycle at Universal in the 1930s. The story concerns Erik, a much-feared fiend who haunts the Paris Opera House. Lurking around the damp, dank passages deep in the cellars of the theater, he secretly coaches understudy Christine Daae (Mary Philbin) to be an opera star. Through a startling sequence of terrors, including sending a giant chandelier crashing down on the opera patrons, the Phantom forces the lead soprano to withdraw from the opera, permitting Christine to step in. Luring Christine into his subterranean lair below the opera house, the Phantom confesses his love. But Christine is in love with Raoul de Chagny (Norman Kerry). The Phantom demands that Christine break off her relationship with Raoul before he'll allow her to return to the opera house stage. She agrees, but immediately upon her release from the Phantom's lair, she runs into the arms of Raoul and they plan to flee to England after her performance that night. The Phantom overhears their conversation and, during her performance, the Phantom kidnaps Christine, taking her to the depths of his dungeon. It is left to Raoul and Simon Buquet (Gibson Gowland), a secret service agent, to track down the Phantom and rescue Christine. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide