Roy Coulson Movies
- 1926
The Temptress was Greta Garbo's second American film, and while it may strike modern viewers as excessively melodramatic, Garbo is always worth watching. The star plays Elena, the wife of Monsieur Canterac (Lionel Barrymore) -- and the mistress of rich Parisian banker Monsieur Fontenoy (Marc MacDermott). When the banker's Argentine friend Robledo (Antonio Moreno), a dynamic young engineer, pays a visit to Paris, the fickle Elena immediately falls in love with him. Upon learning that Fontenoy has lost his fortune, Elena dumps him and returns to her husband, whereupon the banker kills himself. Evidently not content with ruining one life, Elena heads to Argentina and goes to work on Robledo, leading to a bloody whip duel between Robledo and his rival Manos Duros (Roy D'Arcy). Inevitably, Elena drives Robledo to perdition and indirectly causes the destruction of the magnificent dam upon which he has worked all his life. Banished from Argentina, she returns to Paris, where she spends the rest of her days as a seedy streetwalker. At least, that was the ending of the European version of The Temptress. The American version incredibly ends happily, five years after the above-described events, as Robledo and the reformed Elena triumphantly supervise the opening of his now-repaired dam! Initially, the film's director was Garbo's mentor-lover, the brilliant Mauritz Stiller, but he was replaced halfway through by the competent but uninspired Fred Niblo -- and the finished picture shows this division of interests all too clearly. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Greta Garbo, Antonio Moreno, (more)
- 1926
Based on a James Oliver Curwood yarn, the outsized Northwest Mountie adventure The Flaming Forest stars Antonio Moreno as RCMP sergeant David Carrigan. Taking a breather from fighting off Indians, Carrigan must bring headstrong young Roger Audemard (Gardner James) to the authorities to stand trial for murder. Though he realizes that Roger acted with justification, and despite the fact that he's in love with Roger's sister Jeanne-Marie (Renee Adoree), Sgt. Carrigan holds fast to the Mountie credo "We Always Get Our Man." But things change radically when a tribe of hostile Indians sets fire to the forest surrounding Carrigan's Mountie camp. The climactic conflagration was originally filmed in Technicolor, adding considerably to The Flaming's Forest box-office appeal. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Antonio Moreno, Renée Adorée, (more)
- 1925
Douglas Fairbanks returns as the great Spanish swashbuckler in this sequel to The Mark of Zorro. Don Cesar de Vega (Douglas Fairbanks) is the son of the famous masked avanger, Zorro; he's been sent to Spain to continue his education and learn the ways of his homeland. He soon becomes a favorite of the local dignitaries, but this does him little good when he's falsely accused of murder. Faking his own suicide, Don Cesar goes underground, and posing as Zorro, begins his own investigation of the killing; eventually his father arrives, giving us two Zorros for the price of one. Mary Astor plays Dolores de Muro, Don Cesar's love interest, with Warner Oland and Jean Hersholt highlighting the supporting cast; Donald Crisp, who plays Don Sebastian, also directed. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Astor, (more)
- 1925
The title to this picture came from a Rudyard Kipling poem, and accurately reflected the attitude of Victorian and post-Victorian white people toward cultures different from their own -- they didn't understand them, and there's an underlying sense of superiority. Obviously, that attitude was still very much alive in 1925 (and, truthfully, carried on in one subtle form or another throughout the rest of the 20th century). This South Seas tale, however, had little to do with Kipling -- it was actually based on a story written by a less classic author by the name of Peter B. Kyne. Tamea (Anita Stewart) is the daughter of Gaston Larrieau, a French sea captain (Lionel Belmore), and the queen of a small South Sea island. Father and daughter travel to San Francisco, but he discovers he has leprosy and commits suicide. Tamea is left in the care of Larrieau's young employer, Dan Pritchard (Bert Lytell). Since she is not accustomed to civilized ways, her behavior becomes a problem and Pritchard's ex-fiancée Maisie (Justine Johnstone) and friend Mark Mellenger (Huntley Gordon) both help straighten her out. Tamea returns to her island and Pritchard, who has fallen in love with her, follows. They marry in a native ceremony, but soon Pritchard finds he is bored by island life. Tamea writes to Maisie, admitting that she and her new husband are from two different worlds. Maisie and Mellenger show up on the island, and Pritchard is more than happy to dump his native wife and return to the U.S. with his former flame. Mellenger, however, stays behind and proves to be a better mate to Tamea. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anita Stewart, Bert Lytell, (more)
- 1923
This silent era classic was based on the swashbuckling adventure novel by Rafael Sabatini, the author whose works later inspired such renowned genre favorites as Captain Blood (1935) and The Sea Hawk (1940). Andre Moreau (Roman Novarro) is a law student during the time of the brewing French Revolution who politically supports his dissatisfied fellow citizens. During a confrontation with the Marquis de la Tour d'Azyr (Lewis Stone), a feared nobleman sympathetic to the royalist cause, the blue blood murders Andre's agitator friend. Unable to engage in swordplay against the legendary prowess of the Marquis, Andre vows revenge and joins a local circus troupe, hiding behind the guise of Scaramouche, a clown, while training in the art of fencing with a master. Andre also falls in love with a woman smitten by the dashing Marquis, but she returns to the troupe when she learns of the nobleman's infidelity. As political unrest boils over into rebellion, Moreau and the Marquis cross steel. Scaramouche (1923) was remade often, most notably in 1952, which features the cinema's longest sword battle and costarred Stone in a different role. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ramon Novarro, Alice Terry, (more)
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
- Starring:
- Douglas Fairbanks, Wallace Beery, (more)
- 1921
Philip Verrill Mighel's Bruvver Jim's Baby, about a shiftless gold miner whose life changes with the discovery of an abandoned baby, was made into a fine silent Western starring the dependable Harry Carey. There is a villain (Charles Brinley), who's after Carey's gold, and a nice postmistress (Carol Holloway), who is willing to become both wife and mother. Universal surrounded their veteran Western star with a fine supporting cast in this film, including former serial queen Holloway as the post mistress, rotund comedy actor George Bunny, and one Minnie Prevost, a Native American supporting player who, billed as "Minnie Ha Ha", had made an indelible impression in Mabel Normand's Mickey (1919). ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- 1920
Japanese actor Sessue Hayakawa is cast as an ancient Egyptian donkey boy in An Arabian Knight. The humble Hayakawa rescues high-born Lillian Hall from lascivious pasha Fred Jones. All this brouhaha is actually a dream experienced by Hall. In the tradition of the "flashback" sequences in the like-vintage Cecil B. DeMille productions, Hall is able to apply the events of the dream into her contemporary circumstances. An Arabian Knight was produced by the old Robertson-Cole outfit, which eventually grew up to become RKO Radio Pictures. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
