Florence Lawrence Movies
Originally known as the "Biograph Girl," Florence Lawrence is most famous for being the first Hollywood actor to be publicly known by her given name. Prior to that, studios would ascribe nicknames to their players in order to prevent actors from become more famous than the studios and therefore being able to demand higher salaries. Lawrence got her start appearing in some of D.W. Griffith's first films at Biograph. As the "Biograph Girl," Lawrence was the most popular actress in the studio. In 1910, entrepreneur/budding movie mogul Carl Laemmle convinced Lawrence to leave Biograph and join his newly formed Independent Motion Picture Company of America (IMP). In an infamous publicity stunt, Laemmle surreptitiously submitted a newspaper article stating that the "Biograph Girl" had been killed in a streetcar accident. The next day, in his official capacity, Laemmle published an advertisement denouncing the "enemies" of his studio who had deliberately lied about the actress' death. He then announced that Lawrence had become the new "IMP Girl." In her first IMP film, Lawrence appeared under her own name in The Broken Oath (1910). Her career continued through the mid-'20s, but by the '30s, she was all but forgotten and earning a small salary on the MGM payroll as a bit player. In 1938 Florence Lawrence killed herself by deliberately ingesting insecticide at age 52. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1936
A remake of the French comedy Monsieur Sans-Gene, One Rainy Afternoon gets under way when film-actor Phillippe Martin (Francis Lederer) heads to a darkened Parisian movie theater for a romantic rendezvous with his married sweetheart Yvonne (Countess Live de Margaret). But our hero sits in the wrong seat and kisses the wrong young lady: Monique Pelerin (Ida Lupino), the daughter of a powerful publisher Joseph Cawthorn. This innocent mistake snowballs into a national scandal, fomented by the hatchet-faced president (Eily Malyon) of the Purity League, with Phillippe earning the onus of "The Kissing Monster." It all culminates in one of those zany courtroom trails which proliferated in screwball comedies of the 1930s, wherein Phillippe defends himself by insisting that it is in a Frenchman's nature to be romantic, even with perfect strangers -- and as a result he becomes an international hero! One Rainy Afternoon was the first of a handful of United Artists talkies personally produced by studio vice-president Mary Pickford. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Francis Lederer, Ida Lupino, (more)
Silent screen legend Mary Pickford makes her final movie appearance in Secrets, adapted from the play by Rudolph Besier and Mary Edgerton. Edgerton plays a 19th century New England belle who accompanies her husband Leslie Howard to the wilds of California. Pickford's first baby is killed when her cabin is besieged by desperadoes. Howard's reaction to the tragedy is to play around with other women, but Pickford stands steadfastly by her husband for the next half-century. The film ends with an aged Pickford surrounded by her grown children in her luxurious mansion, prattling on about secret joys, secret sorrows, lovely secrets and dreadful secrets. Evidently this film was released in secret, for it failed at the box office and convinced Ms. Pickford (who produced the picture) that her starring days were over. Previously filmed as a Norma Talmadge starrer in 1924, Secrets seemed antiquated in the 1930s, but Mary Pickford's scenes with her dead baby proved that her great talent was undiminished. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mary Pickford, Leslie Howard, (more)
- 1924
Action star Ben Wilson enjoyed a modicum of success as an independent producer in the 1920s. One of Wilson's least typical outings (there were no chase scenes or last-minute rescues) was 1924's Gambling Wives. Marjorie Daw plays Ann Forrest, the wife of chronic gambler/philanderer Vincent Forrest (Edward Earle). Tired of being the object of pity and ridicule, Ann offers her affections to Van Merton (Ward Crane), the paramour of gambling casino owner Mme. Zoe (Hedda Hopper). A last-reel act of violence awakens the Forrests to their foolishness. Gambling Wives is worth noting because of the presence of two Mack Sennett veterans: director Dell Henderson, and "supporting player" Buddy the Dog. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marjorie Daw, Dorothy Brock, (more)
- 1916
Florence Lawrence, the motion-picture industry's first real movie star, was at the tail end of her popularity when she appeared in Elusive Isabel. Lawrence plays a seductive secret agent for an unnamed Latin nation. Her mission is to clear the path for a takeover of the U.S., engineered by the combined South American powers (the film was made at a time when the U.S. and Mexico were at serious odds with one another). She is deflected from her purpose by American spy Hamilton Grimm (Harry Millarde). Elusive Isabel was based on a jingoistic "preparedness" novel by Jacques Futrelle. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1910
Described by the Biograph publicity department as a "circus romance," D.W. Griffith's The Call was partially filmed on location at Fort Lee, New Jersey. Florence Barker is cast as a sideshow hootchy-kootchy dancer who catches the eye of a virtuous young farmer. He is so impressed by her beauty that he proposes marriage, despite protests from his family. Though she'd like to escape her tawdry existence, the dancer is under the sinister influence of her no-good boyfriend. Finally shedding this human snake, she marries the farmer, and for at least a year or so the union is a happy one. But when the sideshow comes back to town, the dancer's ex-boyfriend insists that she return to him. Unable to resist his dubious charms, the dancer writes a "Dear John" letter to her farmer husband and deserts him. Ultimately, however, the "call" of decency proves stronger than the influence of her shady circus beau, and the dancer heads back to her husband, begging and receiving forgiveness. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
