Ruth Roland Movies
The daughter of an actress, Ruth Roland went on the stage herself at the age of three and soon gained some measure of fame in vaudeville as Baby Ruth. By her teens, she was residing with an aunt in Los Angeles and was spotted by a director for the Kalem company, who signed her to a 25 dollars-weekly salary. An expert equestrienne with a flair for comedy, Roland made innumerable split- and one-reel Westerns and comedies for Kalem, who raised her salary to 100 dollars a week when slapstick producer Mack Sennett showed an interest. Before leaving the pioneering company in 1915, Roland made The Girl Detective (1915) series and was henceforth seen as an action heroine. Several series for the Long Beach company Balboa followed, but she hit pay dirt with The Red Circle (1915), the first of her 11 serials. She signed with genre leader Pathé, who fully utilized her equestrian skills and starred her in one Western chapterplay after another, usually featuring her horse Joker. Hands Up (1918) made her a top rival for Pearl White and she became her own producer with The Adventures of Ruth in 1919.A clever businesswoman, Roland actually made more money from real estate deals than from acting in serials. She became increasingly imperious on the set, unsuccessfully attempting to have leading man Bruce Gordon fired while making Ruth of the Range (1923), an altogether troubled production during which she also refused all communication with director W.S. Van Dyke unless absolutely necessarily. Haunted Valley (1923) followed, but Roland was tiring of the daily grind. She left films in favor of concert tours and vaudeville engagements. There were a couple of comeback attempts in the late '20s and she could not resist the chance of making a talkie. Reno (1930), alas, was panned by the critics who almost unanimously commented on Roland's now old-fashioned histrionics. Independently wealthy, she retired to marry actor/teacher Ben Bard. There was a vaudeville tour with Fanchon and Marco in 1931 and she returned to the screen in 1935, with the Canadian-lensed Nine to Nine, but it was a last hurrah and she was more or less forgotten by the moviegoing audience when she died of cancer, at the young age of 44, in 1937. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- 1930
Silent serial queen Ruth Roland made an unsuccessful bid at talking-picture stardom in the low-budget Reno. After six years of marriage to Alexander W. Brett (Montague Love), his wife Felicia (Roland) can stand no more of her husband's brutal bullying. She heads to Reno, establishes the standard six-week residence, and files for divorce. Nasty old Brett intends to get even by retaining custody of Felicia's beloved son Bobby (Douglas Scott), and the case drags on and on interminably. Given her previous life in action films, one wonders why Ruth Roland doesn't simply punch out her no-good husband and have done with it. Adapted from a novel by Cornelius Vanderbilt Jr., Reno was somehow picked up for distribution by Warner Bros., giving the film a wider audience than it deserved. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ruth Roland, Montagu Love, (more)
- 1927
The Masked Woman was one of the last screenwriting efforts by June Mathis, who died in 1927. Filmed on location in France, the story concerns a Turkish nobleman, played by Holbrook Blinn, who wants to add Anna Q. Nilsson to his harem. But Nilsson is already married and refuses all of Blinn's seductive entreaties. When Blinn dies, he leaves his vast fortune to Nilsson, but she will not accept it, certain that he is merely trying to besmirch her reputation from the grave. But after her husband has been convinced that his wife remained faithful to him, Nilsson accepts her inheritance, intending to establish a fund for war orphans. The film was directed by June Mathis' then-husband, Italian moviemaker Silvano Balboni. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anna Q. Nilsson, Holbrook Blinn, (more)
- 1925
In one of her valiant but unsuccessful attempts to escape the serial grind, action heroine Ruth Roland played Ruth Craig whose wasteful ways almost ruin her family. Although in love with aviator/inventor Grant Elliot (Earl Schenk), Ruth falls in with the wrong crowd and is soon accused of embezzlement. The first of three modest films directed by Tod Browning for lowly FBO in 1924, Dollar Down was shelved because of its poor quality. The plodding melodrama was finally dumped on an unsuspecting audience after Browning had scored with MGM's The Unholy Three (1925). Perennial chorus girl Toby Wing, later a fixture in Busby Berkeley musical extravaganzas, appeared in a bit part in Dollar Down. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ruth Roland
- 1915
Even as the last chapters of the Pathe serial Neal of the Navy were making the rounds in the neighborhood houses, the studio's newest chapter play The Red Circle was premiering in New York. Ruth Roland -- whose popularity as a serial queen was second only to that of Pearl White and Helen Holmes -- starred in this thickly plotted melodrama. To rid his family of the curse of the dreaded "Red Circle" (the significance of which is not fully revealed in the opening episode), a recently released criminal kills both himself and his son. Little did the criminal know that he had a daughter, played by Roland, who is likewise oblivious of the fact that she is next in line for elimination. A natural born thief, Roland's various acts of mischief arouse the attention of detective Frank Mayo, who vows to reform the girl. In so doing, he starts the ball rolling for several weeks' worth of mysterious murders, narrow escapes and sinister, heavily disguised super-criminals -- everything that made life worth living for hardcore serial fans. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1915
Not a continuing serial, The Girl Detective was instead a series of vaguely connected two-reel melodramas (the exact number is unknown) centered around a society girl (Ruth Roland) who obtains a special position within the police due to her unique talents for detective work. A future serial queen in her own right, the brunette Miss Roland had had enough of the grind after the seventh installment and was replaced by Cleo Ridgeley, who had played a supporting role up to that point. The Girl Detective was produced in California by the Kalem company and also featured Thomas Lingham and his wife Anna, Frank Jonasson, future B-Western villain Paul Hurst, director James W. Horne himself and Knute Olaf Rahmn, a Swedish born portrait photographer who also doubled as cameraman. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
