Sidney Ainsworth Movies
- 1921
In spite of many attempts to bring Will Rogers superstardom in silent films (he was already one on Broadway), it wasn't until sound came in that he found his niche. Here, he and director Clarence G. Badger flounder as they try for pathos a la Charles Chaplin's The Kid. Rogers plays Noah Vale, a penniless inventor who is struggling along trying to support himself and a pair of cute orphans. He toils night and day on an invention that he hopes will make him enough money so that he will be worthy of Miss Fay (Sylvia Breamer, who is wasted here), the daughter of a wealthy man (George Williams). Vale has a relative who's well off, but won't have anything to do with him or his invention; the machine, however, is stolen by the relative's partner. It turns out that the invention is utterly worthless, but Vale winds up ahead anyhow -- he has a few stories, and his relation's secretary markets them. Thus Vale and the kids still manage to become financially solvent. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Will Rogers, Sylvia Breamer, (more)
- 1921
In this silent crime melodrama, an ex-con marries a teacher and tries to start a new life in the city. Unfortunately, he is harassed by a detective who is looking for one of the ex-con's former gang mates. When the con refuses to cooperate, the detective frames him and gets him sent back to the pen. Meanwhile, his wife, terrified that her newborn baby will be a criminal like it's father, gives the child up for adoption. As soon as the ex-con is again released, he rushes out for murderous revenge against the detective. Not wanting her husband to get in more trouble, his wife rushes to the gumshoe's house to warn him. It is there that she discovers that he has adopted her child. Seeing that she misses her off-spring, the soft-hearted copper returns the child and helps the family get back together. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- House Peters, Irene Rich, (more)
- 1921
It is said that every actor wants to play Shakespeare. Will Rogers would seem a likely exception to that rule, but here he is in this silent, taking a stab (albeit comic) at Romeo. Slim (Rogers), of course, begins as a cowpuncher but his boss switches from cattle to sheep, throwing him out of work. In addition his sweetheart, Lulu (Sylvia Breamer), says he should learn to be a real lover, like Douglas Fairbanks. So Slim decides to go work in motion pictures to discover how film folk make love. After he doubles for villains and heroes alike, Lulu changes her mind -- now she thinks Romeo and Juliet is the yardstick by which all lovers should be measured. So Slim obligingly gets his hands on a copy of the play and tries to read it. Naturally he falls asleep, but he dreams the story with himself and his girl in the title roles. When he awakes, however, he throws all technique out the window, grabs Lulu away from his rival (Raymond Hatton) and drags her off to the preache r. His show of force is what she wanted after all and the film ends happily. This was the final picture of Rogers' contract with the Goldwyn Studios. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Will Rogers, Sylvia Breamer, (more)
- 1921
Tom Moore stars in this comedy-drama, which was based on Rupert Hughes' Saturday Evening Post story, "Canavan." Irish immigrant Dan Canavan (Moore) is working as a street cleaner when he is trampled by a horse belonging to socialite Beatrice Newness (Naomi Childers). He is left with the imprint of a horseshoe on his chest, which he finds brings him good luck. He gets work on a construction site and becomes involved with the political powers that run the city. Soon he has entered politics himself, and with the help of both his fists and his charm, he rises to the top. He also wins Beatrice as his wife. Unfortunately he still has the uncouth manners of the poor immigrant he once was, and Beatrice is turned off by his behavior. But once again, Canavan rises to the occasion and, through the force of his personality, wins his wife once again. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tom Moore, Sylvia Ashton, (more)
- 1921
Peep O'Day (Will Rogers) is the illiterate pauper of a small Southern town. When he gets the news from Judge Priest (Edward Kimball) that he has inherited a fortune from a relative back in Ireland, Peep's life changes overnight. He decides to use his money to experience the childhood he never got to have, and spends all his time having fun with the boys of the neighborhood. Meanwhile, the widow Hunter (Cordelia Callahan) has him pegged as husband material and is trying to catch him. The scheming Cassius Sublette (Sydney Ainsworth) wants to get his hands on Peep's fortune, so he tries to have him declared incompetent. His accomplice is a girl from Cincinnati who poses as Peep's "niece," who will be more than happy to handle his money. Judge Priest sees through scam, the accomplice has a change of heart, and the case is dismissed. Peep returns to his young pals, leaving a broken-hearted widow Hunter in his wake. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Will Rogers, Irene Rich, (more)
- 1920
Domestic issues take center stage in this sensationalistic Western directed by Reginald Barker for Goldwyn. A young woman (Barbara Castleton) escapes her homicidal father by marrying a rancher (Russell Simpson). History repeats itself, however, and the rancher turns out to be a brute who actually marks his own wife with a branding iron. The desperate woman is rescued by a visiting New York author (James Kirkwood) who kills the husband. Returning to New York, the author turns into another Pygmalion, creating a silk purse out of a sow's ear, as it were. The trade-paper Harrison's Reports termed this cinematic mess "a powerful story masterly handled." ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- 1920
Margaret Hill (Barbara Castleton) is a poor factory girl who plans to commit suicide when she loses her job. But she is saved by Teddy Shale (Carrie Clark Ward), who finds her some work as a performer in a Barbary Coast dive. Albert Levering (Sydney Ainsworth) sees her act and believes that she has potential. For two years, he pays for music lessons, but then he is arrested for embezzlement. Margaret is nevertheless grateful to him and offers to marry him when he gets out. But then she meets John Ordham (John Bowers), an English aristocrat, and after she has become a success as an opera singer in Great Britain, they fall in love. Before they can marry, however, Levering escapes from jail and tracks Margaret down. She is willing to sacrifice herself and carry out her promise to him, but he is killed while being chased down by detectives. This picture was based on the novel, The Tower of Ivory, by Gertrude Atherton, and was yet another of Goldwyn's "Eminent Author" series. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- 1920
The role of Jacqueline Floriot -- the Madame X of the film's title -- is a tour de force for any actress. After having an affair she is thrown out of her home only to sink to the depths of drug addiction after her lover leaves her. Then twenty years later she murders a blackmailer to keep scandal from touching the life of her son, now grown. Since she refuses to divulge her name she is put on trial as Madame X and unknowingly defended by her son. The play by Alexandre Brisson was filmed once before in 1916; this time around it stars Pauline Frederick, one of silent filmdom's most respected dramatic actresses. She was supported by William Courtleigh as her husband and Casson Ferguson as her grown son, Raymond. This was a first class Goldwyn production, but even in 1920, most people wanted a little more action than could be offered by picture whose climax takes place in a courtroom. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- 1919
Tom Moore has the starring role in this adaptation of Charles E. Klein's successful stage drama. Eric Temple (Moore) is a composer whose rival, both in romance and work, is Sir Geoffrey Pomfret (Sydney Ainsworth), a nobleman with few scruples. The woman they both love is Margaret (Helene Chadwick), the daughter of Lord Neville (Alec B. Francis). To get rid of his competition, Pomfret tells Lord Neville that his wife, Lady Neville (Rosemary Theby), is in love with Eric. Then, when Eric is attacked by thugs and lays unconscious in a hospital, he steals his opera too. Eric doesn't realize what has happened until the opera's opening night. But with Margaret's help, Eric is able to assert his rights to both the opera and the girl. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- 1919
It is Mardi Gras in New Orleans' French Quarter, and New Yorker Roland Van Dam (Owen Moore) has come down in search of excitement. When he puts on a mask and sticks a gardenia in his buttonhole, he finds more adventure than he bargained for. Because of the flower, Madelon Dorette (Hedda Nova) believes that Roland is her cousin, who she has never met. What she doesn't know is that her cousin had fallen in with a gang of counterfeiters and was murdered. The counterfeiters believe that Roland is a Secret Service agent, and they convince Madelon that he is her cousin's killer. Before she learns the truth, she has already brought Roland to the counterfeiter's den. But by propping the phone receiver off its hook, he alerts the switchboard operator to his -- and Madelon's -- dilemma. The operator gets the police, and when Roland and Madelon are saved, they unite as a couple. This film was the work of novelist-turned-producer Rex Beach. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- 1918
The play by Rida Johnson Young and Gilbert Coleman helped set the standard by which all other college stories were drawn, and this was the first filmed version of it. Tom Moore plays Tom Brown, the rich college student who is despised by Gerald Thorne (Walter McGrail), who is working his way through school. Brown's fiancee, Evelyn Ames (Hazel Daly) has a weakling brother, Wilton (Kempton Greene), who is secretly married to Thorne's sister Mary (Nancy Winston). Things get even more complicated when Brown, after trying to keep Wilton out of trouble, is accused of an affair with Mary by Evelyn. Through a mutual friend, the do-gooding Brown secretly gives Thorne the money to enable him to join the Harvard boat crew as the stroke. But a gambler (Sidney Ainsworth) who has bet on Yale, sends Thorne a forged letter asserting that Mary was betrayed by Brown. Thorne storms off in search of his sister but Brown takes over the stroke position and wins the race. Wilton finally admits he is married to Mary and Evelyn and Brown are reunited. This story -- with a number of radical plot changes -- was made once again in 1926 with William Haines in the title role. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- 1917
This picture, made by Essanay, was the first release by newly organized company First National. Robert Strickland (Sidney Ainsworth) has confessed to the murder of Gerald Trask (James Young, who was also the film's director). His attorney, through cross-examining Strickland's little daughter Doris (Mary McAlister), hints that there was an affair between Trask and Mrs. Strickland (Barbara Castleton). Mrs. Strickland herself claims on the stand that Trask took advantage of her as a young girl. This information is enough for eleven of the jury members to declare Strickland "not guilty" (in those days, apparently, it was acceptable for a man to murder someone who had sexually used his wife). The twelfth man, however, thinks something is fishy because money was stolen from Trask's safe at the time of the murder. But finally Glover (Patrick Calhoun) collapses and admits he is the killer, and Strickland returns to his family. This film was an adaptation of the stage play by Elmer Reizenstein. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- 1916
Before he became a dignified general-purpose actor, Captain E. H. Calvert was a busy silent film director. Made in 1916, Calvert's According to the Code was set during the Civil War, which had proven to be good "box office fare" the year previous by Griffith's Birth of a Nation. Lewis Stone plays a courageous warrior who is willing to sacrifice both life and honor to protect his loved ones. The climax uses that old chestnut of a defense attorney unknowingly defending his own parent from a murder charge. According to the Code features director Calvert in a pivotal supporting role. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
