Edmund Burns Movies

This epic covers all of Lincoln's life. His birth in a blizzard; his boyhood (depicted by Danny Hey as young Lincoln); his romance with the ill-fated Anne Rutledge (Ruth Clifford) and courtship of Mary Todd (Nell Craig), who he married; his debates with Stephen Douglas (William Humphreys); and his rise to the presidency. The Civil War is covered, including the surrender of Lee (James Welch), then Lincoln's assassination by John Wilkes Booth (William Moran). Playing Lincoln as an adult is George A. Billings, an uncanny lookalike. Because of its scope, the film seems a bit sketchy at times, but its sincerity is always obvious. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Charming but ruthless fugitive gangster Dutra (Brian Donlevy) demands that a doctor (Oscar Apfel) perform plastic surgery upon him. Emerging from the bandages with a new face, Dutra murders the doctor, changes his name to Dawson, and heads to California, secure in the belief that no one who can identify him is still living. Unfortunately for him, the sole link to Dawson's past, nurse Molly Lamont, is now working in Hollywood -- where Dawson is enjoying a whole new career as a movie star! Things move along comically until Dawson tips his hand by taking his leading lady Sheila (Phyllis Brooks) hostage. Salvation comes in the unlikely form of obnoxious studio-press-agent Joe Haynes (Wallace Ford). Also released as It Happened in Hollywood, Another Face is a very uneven blend of comedy and melodrama, making up in energy what it lacks in coherence. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Ultra suave Adolph Menjou plays an urbane, filthy rich bachelor who finds himself falling for a socialite just as carefree as he. At first he is delighted by her gadabout ways, but after a while her cocquettish ways towards others begin to grate upon him. Deciding he needs a break from shallowness he lets a room in a boarding house for theater people. There he meets a struggling ex-convict. Her prison record causes her to lose her job. Smitten by her beauty and earthiness, the playboy takes her in and tries to help her integrate into his glittering world by telling people that she is his ward. things are finally looking up when a crooked detective appears and tries to blackmail her. Fortunately, her millionaire hero isn't about to let her life be destroyed again. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this crime drama, a dapper thief meets a female detective at a party and fall in love. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Given that silent star Mary Miles Minter was famous for her wide, deep-blue eyes, it's not surprising that many of her films incorporated the word "Eyes" in their titles. In Eyes of the Heart, Minter is cast as a sightless young lady, led to believe that the world is a fairy-tale wonderland. Upon regaining her sight, she quickly realizes that much of the world is ugly and unpleasant -- and that the three "Prince Charmings" in her life are a trio of petty criminals. Disillusioned, she falls in with a safecracker who intends to exploit her heightened sense of touch. She is rescued by her erstwhile protectors, who have fortuitously reformed in time for a happy ending. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This lesser Astaire/Rogers vehicle is one of several screen versions of the venerable Hubert Osborne stage play Shore Leave. For reasons unknown, Fred and Ginger are virtually supporting players here, spending most of their time trying to patch up the romance between Fred's fellow sailor Randolph Scott and Ginger's sister Harriet Hilliard (better known as Harriet Nelson, of Ozzie and Harriet fame). One of the sillier aspects of the plot hinges on raising enough money to renovate a broken-down old ship; to do this, Fred and Ginger stage a lengthy musical number that must have cost five times as much money as they raised! But that number, a languorous dance rendition of Irving Berlin's "Let's Face the Music and Dance", compensates for all the nonsense that has gone before. One fringe benefit of Follow the Fleet is spotting two fresh-faced starlets named Betty Grable and Lucille Ball. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Edna Ferber's short story "Classified" was the source for the Dorothy Mackaill vehicle Hard to Get. Mackaill is cast as Bobby Martin, a dress-shop model with intellectual aspirations. Wealthy Dexter Courtland (Edmund Burns) rescues Bobby from a masher, whereupon romance blooms. Likewise smitten with the heroine is down-to-earth garage mechanic Jerry (Charles Delaney). Putting on phony airs for Dexter's benefit, Bobby at last realizes that she'd be happier with Jerry, who loves her for herself. A plenitude of laughs are provided by Bobby's blue-collar family, played by James Finlayson, Louise Fazenda and Jack Oakie. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Judy Nichols (Leatrice Joy), a poor girl from Chicago, has decided she cannot marry without money. Her sweetheart, Ronald McKane, a struggling civil engineer (Edmund Burns), is encouraging her to join him in New York, but she only goes when she is bequeathed an inheritance. Unfortunately, the amount adds up to less than ten dollars a week. When she meets banker Sanford Gillespie (Robert Edeson), she convinces him to help McKane out financially. Once McKane has become a success, Judy marries him, but then he becomes interested in another woman. Judy seeks revenge and asks Gillespie to ruin her estranged husband, offering him anything he wants in return. Gillespie destroys McKane in short order, and the ruined man storms over to his home. Judy has already arrived to make good her end of the bargain. When McKane finds her there, he furiously attacks her. Gillespie stops him and, rather surprisingly, the couple make up and reconcile. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Sometime during the shooting of the landmark The Birth of a Nation, filmmaker D.W. Griffith probably wondered how he could top himself. In 1916, he showed how, with the awesome Intolerance. The film began humbly enough as a medium-budget feature entitled The Mother and the Law, wherein the lives of a poor but happily married couple are disrupted by the misguided interference of a "social reform" group. A series of unfortunate circumstances culminates in the husband's being sentenced to the gallows, a fate averted by a nick-of-time rescue engineered by his wife. In the wake of the protests attending the racist content of The Birth of a Nation, Griffith wanted to demonstrate the dangers of intolerance. The Mother and the Law filled the bill to some extent, but it just wasn't "big" enough to suit his purposes. Thus, using The Mother and the Law as merely the base of the film, Griffith added three more plotlines and expanded his cinematic thesis to epic proportions. The four separate stories of Intolerance are symbolically linked by Lillian Gish as the Woman Who Rocks the Cradle ("uniter of the here and hereafter"). The "Modern Story" is essentially The Mother and the Law; the "French Story" details the persecution of the Huguenots by Catherine de Medici (Josephine Crowell); the "Biblical Story" relates the last days of Jesus Christ (Howard Gaye); and the "Babylonian Story" concerns the defeat of King Belshazzar (Alfred Paget) by the hordes of Cyrus the Persian (George Siegmann).

Rather than being related chronologically, the four stories are told in parallel fashion, slowly at first, and then with increasing rapidity. The action in the film's final two reels leaps back and forth in time between Babylon, Calvary, 15th century France, and contemporary California. Described by one historian as "the only film fugue," Intolerance baffled many filmgoers of 1916 -- and, indeed, it is still an exhausting, overwhelming experience, even for audiences accustomed to the split-second cutting and multilayered montage sequences popularized by Sergei Eisenstein, Orson Welles, Jean-Luc Godard, Joel Schumacher, and MTV. On a pure entertainment level, the Babylonian sequences are the most effective, played out against one of the largest, most elaborate exterior sets ever built for a single film. The most memorable character in this sequence is "The Mountain Girl," played by star on the rise Constance Talmadge; when the Babylonian scenes were re-released as a separate feature in 1919, Talmadge's tragic death scene was altered to accommodate a happily-ever-after denouement. Other superb performances are delivered by Mae Marsh and Robert Harron in the Modern Story, and by Eugene Pallette and Margery Wilson in the French Story. Remarkably sophisticated in some scenes, appallingly naïve in others, Intolerance is a mixed bag dramatically, but one cannot deny that it is also a work of cinematic genius. The film did poorly upon its first release, not so much because its continuity was difficult to follow as because it preached a gospel of tolerance and pacifism to a nation preparing to enter World War I. Currently available prints of Intolerance run anywhere from 178 to 208 minutes; while it may be rough sledding at times, it remains essential viewing for any serious student of film technique. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This fluffy Mae Murray vehicle was dressed up with a Graustarkian veneer, but in reality it was merely an excuse for the star to wear exotic costumes and perform a few of her famous dance numbers. Jazzmania is a mythical kingdom devoted to dancing and revelry. But the country takes a darker turn when Queen Ninon (Murray) refuses to marry Prince Otto, the pretender to the throne (Jean Hersholt). He begins a revolution and Queen Ninon flees the bombs for the United States, accompanied by a handsome American newspaper reporter, Jerry Langdon (Rod La Rocque). She proceeds to enthrall New York with her dances, but she decides to return to her country and take care of Otto. After soundly deposing him she turns the nation into a republic, introducing it to modern conveniences -- Model Ts, for example (but she wisely leaves out the latest American innovation -- prohibition). Now that the crown is but a fond memory, Ninon gladly weds Langdon. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

In order to rescue his brother, society boy David Strong (Wallace Reid) has to travel through the underworld. He disguises himself as "the Colt Kid," who has just gotten out of prison. During his travels, Strong winds up in a cabaret where he meets singer Joan Gray (Anna Q. Nilsson). Joan is being pestered by coast-to-coast Taylor (Wallace Beery), who wants her as his mistress. Strong saves Joan from this situation and they fall in love. Only after going through some adventures together does she discover his real identity, and he finds out she is actually a writer who has been researching the criminal side of life. This film was based on the play One of Us by Jack Lait. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Don't let that title fool you: Male and Female is really James M. Barrie's The Admirable Crichton, as interpreted by Cecil B. DeMille. Thomas Meighan plays Crichton, the very proper butler in the British household of Lord Loam (Theodore Roberts). When masters and servants go on a yachting excursion, the vessel is destroyed in a storm, marooning everyone on a desert island. The helpless aristocrats must turn to the resourceful Crichton for survival. Before long, Crichton is ruling the roost, while his masters are cheerfully performing the most menial of tasks. Haughty Lady Mary (Gloria Swanson) foregoes her class-conscious upbringing and falls in love with Crichton. Once the castaways are rescued and brought back to England, however, the original class distinctions are restored. Lady Mary goes ahead with a marriage to stuffy Lord Brockelhurst as scheduled, but it is obvious that she will be unhappy in this "socially correct" union. Meawhile, Crichton finds happiness with scullery maid Tweeny (Lila Lee), who has loved him all along. Feeling that the Barrie play didn't have sufficient "punch" to go over with 1919 filmgoers, DeMille interpolated a dream sequence in which Gloria Swanson imagines herself a Babylonian princess; this gave the actress the opportunity to share a scene with a live and none-too-docile lion. One would think that critics of the era would haul DeMille over the coals for taking so many liberties with The Admirable Crichton, but such was not the case. One reviewer of Male and Female even congratulated DeMille for making Barrie "filmable"! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide