Sam de Grasse Movies

This minor dramatic programmer was an independent production. In spite of the fact that she's loved by Howard (William P. Carleton), a fine upstanding fellow, Florence (Fritzi Brunette) decides to marry the scheming George Otis (Sam De Grasse). Otis uses her to help him put over some questionable business deals. But when he asks her to get a 25,000-dollar loan from her former sweetheart, she can't go through with it. Instead, she gets the money from her mother. Because she does not tell him where the money came from, Otis suspects that she was intimate with Howard. When he needs even more money, he demands that she approach him again, but she refuses. Otis accuses Florence of being unfaithful, and finally she wakes up and realizes the kind of man she has married. She walks out on him, and they begin divorce proceedings. It is assumed that when she is free, Florence will marry Howard. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

One might be inclined to dismiss the title of this film as a contradiction in terms -- but with Lillian Gish in the lead, how could the heroine be anything else but innocent? Based on a story by D.W. Griffith, writing pseudonymously as "Granville Warwick," the story concerns a Kentucky belle named Dorothy Raleigh (Gish), who impulsively marries big-city gambler Forbes Stewart (Sam De Grasse). As a result, Dorothy's grim, taciturn father Colonel Raleigh (Spottiswood Aitken) declares that, so far as he is concerned, his daughter is dead. Inexplicably abandoned by Stewart, the pregnant Dorothy returns home, only to be denied entrance by her unforgiving father. The girl moves to the "colored" section of town, where she gives birth to her baby. Compounding Dorothy's woes is the sudden appearance of Stewart's current mistress (Mary Alden), who claims that she has married Stewart. Disconsolately, Dorothy prepares to take her own life, when Stewart returns, explaining that he has been detained by a trumped-up prison term, and begging his wife's forgiveness. Lillian Gish seldom mentioned An Innocent Magdalene in later years, preferring instead to discuss the concurrently produced Griffith production Intolerance, in which she played a much smaller but far more memorable role. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Because of his portrayals of villainous Prussians in pictures such as Hearts of the World and The Heart of Humanity, Erich von Stroheim was already famous as "the man you love to hate." But Stroheim had also been quite busy behind the camera over the years, as an assistant director to D.W. Griffith and art director to Douglas Fairbanks. When he approached Carl Laemmle at Universal Studios with a screenplay entitled The Pinnacle, the mogul wasted no time in agreeing to let Stroheim both star and direct. The result was the auteur's first film, renamed Blind Husbands. In it, Stroheim shows deeper facets to his officer (this time an Austrian) who, underneath the elaborate trappings, is no gentleman. American couple Dr. and Mrs. Armstrong (Sam deGrasse and Francelia Billington) arrive at a retreat in the Alps at the same time as Lieutenant Erich von Steuben (Stroheim). The Lieutenant is a reckless and dissolute soul who sets his cap for Mrs. Armstrong. Since her husband is kindly but neglectful, she is easy prey. Their flirtation is watched over carefully by the guide Sepp (Gibson Gowland), who is indebted to the good doctor, and he manages to keep the wife away from the Lieutenant on the night the four of them spend together in a lodge. The next day when von Steuben and Dr. Armstrong climb the summit, a letter from Mrs. Armstrong falls out of von Steuben's pocket and a fierce battle between the two men takes place on the peak. The doctor cuts the rope binding the two men together, and for his sins, the Lieutenant falls to a terrible death. This picture introduces themes that carried throughout Stroheim's career -- the eternal triangle shows up in most of his films in one form or another, and the climatic struggle between the two men would be repeated in the director's flawed masterpiece, Greed (which starred Gowland as McTeague). The easy decadence and the careful attention to detail would also be constants. Even though this isn't anywhere close to his best work, Blind Husbands was one of the most impressive directorial debuts of all time -- "This picture is exceptional. It marks an epoch," spouted an enthusiastic Variety critic. Stroheim was poised at the dawning edge of the '20s, at ready to give the decade some of its most deliriously debauched dramatic moments. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Lars Hanson had recently appeared as Reverend Dimmesdale in The Scarlet Letter when he was called on once again to play a man of the cloth. Anson Campbell (Hanson), however, has his doubts as he studies for the ministry -- he loves the sea at least as much as he loves God. Bess Morgan (Pauline Starke) is scorned by the villagers as a wicked, sinful woman, but the open-minded Campbell sides with her. This horrifies the straight-laced townsfolk, and Campbell signs on with a ship in disgust. It turns out to be a convict ship, and Bess is on board. She had promised Campbell she would change her ways, and she hold fast to this, even when the Captain (Ernest Torrence) tries to force himself on her. Rather than allow him to have his way with her, she kills herself. Her steadfastness renews Campbell's faith, and he establishes the first gospel ship, thus blending his two loves. He returns home to wed his sweetheart, Mary Phillips (Marceline Day). ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Circus Days is the first film version of the James Otis novel Toby Tyler, or Ten Weeks With a Circus. Jackie Coogan plays 10-year-old Toby, who runs away from his abusive uncle to join the Big Top. The glamour of circus life tarnishes quickly for Toby, but he sticks it out, graduating from lowly candy vendor to star bareback rider. The boy uses the money earned with the circus to rescue his mother from his hated uncle. Circus Days spares us none of the harsher elements of the Otis novel, in contrast to the dry-cleaning job performed on the 1960 Walt Disney version of Toby Tyler. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Canine star Rin-Tin-Tin had dozens of movie competitors and imitators. One of the best of these was FBO Studios' Ranger the Dog,, the "hero" of 1928's Dog Law. Ranger races to the rescue when human protagonist Robert Sweeney is framed on a murder charge. The actual killer is Jules Cowles (previously a prominent blackface comedian), whom the faithful Fido chases to the edge of a cliff. Cowles falls to his death, but not before Sweeney has been proven innocent by heroine Mary Mabery. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This Cecil B. DeMille-produced swashbuckler was based on Brigadier General, a story by Sherlock Holmes creator Arthur Conan Doyle. Set during the Napoleonic era, the film stars Rod La Rocque as young adventurer Etienne Girard, who becomes involved in the political intrigues fomented by the duplicitous Talleyrand (Sam de Grasse). Girard ends up rescuing gorgeous diplomatic courier Countess de Launay (Phyllis Haver) from Talleyrand's clutches, then takes it upon himself to deliver the important papers which the Countess was transporting to the anti-Napoleon forces. Julia Faye, Cecil B. DeMille's longtime "secret" sweetheart, is seen briefly as Napoleon's wife Josephine, while Napoleon is curiously portrayed in the style of a Jewish vaudeville comedian by Max Barwyn. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

After striking it rich in Alaska, Smith (Monroe Salisbury) is robbed of his gold by Amy (Betty Schade) and her partner (Sam deGrasse). He unsuccessfully pursues them through a snow storm and when he is finally saved by Harkness (Alfred Allen), he has been rendered mute from an injury. But Amy and Sam haven't gone very far and they decide to make Harkness their next victim -- easy enough since Smith can't talk and spill the beans (no one ever explains, however, why he doesn't write Harkness a note). Amy entices Harkness into marrying her, and after they are wed, he takes off for his claim. While he is away, his daughter Mary (Ruth Clifford) arrives and she believes that Smith and Amy are involved. Amy has a child and Mary believes Smith to be the father -- so does Harkness when he gets back, and he shoots Smith. But an Indian rounds up Amy and Sam and makes them 'fess up -- they're actually married to each other. Harkness lets them go for the sake of their child. Smith recovers from the gunshot wound and his voice is restored. But he doesn't have to say much, since his innocence has already been explained. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Douglas Fairbanks Sr.'s splendid physique was seen in all its pristine glory in the 1916 western The Half-Breed. In what might have been a movie first, the title character is sympathetically portrayed, despite the "onus" of having Indian blood. Living as an outcast, young Lo Dorman (Fairbanks) is welcomed back into society by pretty preacher's daughter Nellie (Jewel Carmen), who cares not a whit about his mixed parentage. But Dorman's presence in town proves uncomfortable for Sheriff Dunne (Sam DeGrasse) -- who, unbeknownst to anyone himself, is Lo's father. The sheriff does his worst to discredit Lo in the eyes of the townsfolk, whereupon our hero joins a travelling medicine show, finding true happiness with another "outcast," dance-hall girl Teresa (Alma Rubens). In an interview with Kevin Brownlow, director Allan Dwan revealed that The Half-Breed almost didn't get made, thanks to the interference of Fairbank's then wife, who didn't want her husband to appear as an "unwashed" half-breed. To circumvent this, Dwan inserted a scene showing a nearly nude Fairbanks taking a "bath" in a river, then thoroughly scrubbing himself and his clothes with sand. "He was a washed Indian, not a dirty Indian," Dwan explained. "I only put the scene in to satisfy Mrs. Fairbanks." Unfortunately, only the first two reels of The Half-Breed are known to exist. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

George O'Brien, Fox Studios' general-purpose leading man, heads the cast of Honor Bound. The story opens in the bedroom of hero John Ogletree (George O'Brien), who is awakened from his slumbers by the unexpected arrival of Evelyn (Evelyn Brent), a total stranger. Claiming that she's fleeing from her brutal husband, Evelyn begs John to protect her. On cue, the husband shows up and in the ensuing struggle is accidentally killed. Arrested for manslaughter, John nobly serves his sentence without ever implicating Evelyn in her husband's death. Our hero subsequently joins a prison work gang, assigned to the coal mines owned by one Mr. Mortimer (Tom Santschi) -- who happens to be Evelyn's new husband. Feeling guilty for John's plight, Evelyn arranges for him to have the relatively cushy job of Mortimer's chauffeur. This naturally arouses the suspicions of Mortimer, who promptly assigns John to "grunge" duty in the mines. A fire set by a fellow convict is blamed on John, but this time Evelyn steps forward to exonerate the long-suffering hero, freeing him to marry his true love, pretty nurse Selma Ritchie (Leila Hyams). ~ Hal Erickson, 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

Popular young B-Western star Bob Steele left the prairie behind this time around and instead found himself playing Jack Pemberton, a cub reporter falling in love with Betty (Mary Mayberry), the governor's daughter. During an investigation into racketeering, Jack learns that gangster Velvet (Barney Furey) is attempting to kidnap Betty in order to force her father (William Welsh) to pardon a relative on death row. With the law closing in on him, Velvet attempts to escape with Betty in a balloon but Jack rescues the girl in the proverbial nick of time. The villain, meanwhile, plunges to his death. Lightning Speed was written and directed by the star's father, the redoubtable Robert North Bradbury. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide