Edward Dillon

This version of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's famed tale is set in contemporary London and follows Holmes and Watson as they seek to bring the nefarious Professor Moriarty to justice. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

While Paris Sleeps is a grim expose of the European white slave trade. To save his daughter Manon (Helen Mack) from falling into the hands of a vicious gang of pimps, convict Jacques Costard (Victor McLaglen) escapes from jail. Jacques' problems are twofold: he must keep Manon from being abducted into a life of prostitution, and he must also hide his true identity from the girl, who has been raised to believe that Jacques died a hero in WWI. The film's gruesome "money scene" finds the white slavers disposing of a stool pigeon by incinerating him in a huge bakery oven! Can this be the handiwork of the same Allan Dwan who later directed Shirley Temple's Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Three guesses as to the profession of the heroine in Sob Sister. That's right: Jane Ray (Linda Watkins) is a girl reporter, both fearless and foolhardy. Jane's great rival is news-hound Garry Webster (James Dunn), whose love for the girl never gets in the way of his tireless pursuit of "big scoops." Eventually, Jane proves to be too smart for her own good and is captured by the villains. She is rescued not by Garry but by six-year-old kidnap victim Billy Stotesley (future "Our Gang" member Wally Albright), who cuts the ropes which bind our heroine. Naturally, this leads Garry to declare that he wants to marry Jane to keep her from harm's way -- but there's always another hot headline story just around the corner. Leading lady Linda Watkins, a Broadway veteran, returned to the stage shortly after appearing in Sob Sister, only to be "rediscovered" as a TV and movie character actress in the late 1950s. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Cisco Kid was to have been the sequel to the pioneering 1929 talkie In Old Arizona, with Warner Baxter repeating his Oscar-winning role as "O. Henry's Robin Hood of the Old West". Unfortunately, Fox Studios temporarily lost the rights to the Cisco Kid character, thus Baxter was starred as Cisco-in-name-only in The Arizona Kid. The rights were then reclaimed, and The Cisco Kid went into production as the third in the Baxter series -- and, by all accounts, the best of the trio, beautifully photographed and blessed with a thrilling musical score. Running just under an hour, the film finds good-hearted Cisco robbing a bank to save pretty widow Sally Benton (Nora Lane) from losing her ranch. Developing a strong affection for the widow's two children, Cisco risks arrest when he mistakenly believes that one of the kids has been injured. The hero's "friendly enemy" Sgt. Mickey Dunn (Edmund Lowe, likewise a carry-over from In Old Arizona) is so touched by this display of devotion that he "accidentally" allows Cisco to escape to new adventures. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Sparring landladies provide the focus of this comedy. The two women are constantly competing to take in the most boarders at their respective homes. Though outwardly jealous rivals, the women are actually best friends. The competition gets more intense when one woman's daughter falls for the other's son. Now the women, who have secretly made a killing playing the stock market, try to see which one can put on the fanciest wedding. In the end, the couple weds and the women renew their friendship. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

This landmark MGM backstage musical of the early sound era about broken dreams on the Great White Way features a bevy of standards by the songwriting team of Arthur Freed and Nacio Herb Brown. Freed later became unit producer of the legendary Freed Unit at MGM, which is the reason many of the tunes from Broadway Melody --""You Were Meant For Me"", "Broadway Melody", ""The Wedding of the Painted Doll""-- later appeared in Freed's seminal MGM musical Singin' in the Rain. The nominal story concerns midwestern sister act The Mahoney Sisters --Queenie (Anita Page) and Hank (Bessie Love)-- who come to New York to try to make it big on Broadway. Hank's song-and-dance man boyfriend Eddie (Charles King) has promised the gals a part in the new Broadway revue in which he is soon to appear. When Hank and Queenie come to see him, Hank is pleasantly surprised at the way Queenie has filled out. Soon enough, Eddie is making advances to Queenie. Queenie is attracted to Eddie too, but she doesn't want to steal her sister's boyfriend. So she Queenie takes up with a lecherous playboy, leaving it to Hank to put all the confused love relationships in perspective. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

Priscilla Dean was at her best when she was playing lady crooks, and in this entertaining mystery, no one is quite sure which side she's on until the very end. Jewel collector Wilson Travers (John Bowers) lives with his brother, Mortimer (Arthur Hoyt), whose passion is studying fish. The police have received a tip that jewel thieves are sneaking about the Travers' home and, not long after, Marie Duquesne (Dean) drops through a skylight of the house, dressed in a bridal gown. She claims that she is escaping from an unwanted marriage and Wilson offers to let her stay at the house. Marie starts snooping around suspiciously and passing off notes to strange men. In spite of her behavior, Wilson manages to fall in love with her. The real thief, it turns out, is James the butler (Gustave Von Seyffertitz) -- Marie unmasks him when she reveals herself to be a member of the secret service. She and Wilson end the film together. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Skyrocket was a vehicle for non-actress Peggy Hopkins Joyce, a former Ziegfeld dancer who managed to get herself into the headlines by romancing and marrying a series of millionaires. Here Ms. Joyce plays Sharon Kimm, a girl of tenements who through a combination of luck and determination becomes a movie star. Unfortunately, once she's made it to the top, Sharon sabotages her career with her prima donna behavior. Plummeting to obscurity, Sharon realizes that there are more important things in the world than fame or fortune, so she settles for middle-class security as the wife of her childhood sweetheart Mickey Reid (Owen Moore) -- who happens to be the screenwriter of the film which made Sharon a star in the first place! Contemporary reviews indicate that Peggy Hopkins Joyce was as endearingly awful in Skyrocket as she was opposite W.C. Fields in 1933's International House. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Although it wasn't much more than a standard programmer, this society drama was well cast. When he loses both his wife and child, Montgomery Rogers (Charles C. Hammond) adopts his servants' little girl and raises her as his own. Completely unaware of her origins, Emerie (Florence Dixon) grows up to be a first class snob. Her socially ambitious aunt (Julia Swayne Gordon) takes her to Europe to become engaged to Brooks Fitzroy, an impoverished lord (Cyril Chadwick). On the voyage back she encounters a young man, Dick Clarke (E.K. Lincoln) who -- horrors! -- is working for his passage. He continues to haunt her life when he gets a servant job at the Rogers home. When Rogers dies, he wills his whole estate to his young wife, Eleanor (Hedda Hopper), and Emerie is shocked to discover that her real parents are the butler and cook (Richard Carlyle and Margaret Seddon, respectively). Eleanor promptly shoves her off to live with the servants who gave birth to her. But then a second will appears, which gives Emerie her fair share -- it was held back specifically to scare off the penniless nobleman. Naturally, the humbled Emerie winds up with the honest, hard-working Clarke. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Education of Elizabeth was adapted for the silent screen from a play by Roy Horniman. The film version was designed as a vehicle for Billie Burke, still in her ingenue stage (though she's obviously on the darker side of 30). Burke, the real-life wife of Flo Ziegfeld, plays Ziegfeld Follies dancer Elizabeth Banks who falls for a wealthy young man. His parents are shocked--and so is Elizabeth when she decides she'd rather have her beau's nerdish brother. She turns the mouse into a lion so that he'll be a worthy husband. The material was very fey and fluffy, like Billie Burke herself. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Justine Spencer (Irene Castle) is a convent-educated girl who comes home to her mother Dodo (Augusta Anderson), a musical comedy actress. The worldly Dodo finds her daughter's plain looks and naiveté rather tiresome. But the actress comes to a violent end when she is shot and killed by Billy Ferris (Arthur Rankin), an obsessive admirer. Since Justine is all alone in the world, Cosmo Spotiswood, a friend of Dodo's (William P. Carleton), marries her, but he's no more thrilled with her than her mother was. Eventually, Spotiswood takes off to Europe, leaving his wife behind. Justine finally wakes up to her dowdy ways and transforms herself into a stylish, sophisticated woman in his absence (all the better to show off Castle in some gorgeous gowns -- something she was famous for). When Spotiswood comes home, he falls in love with his wife and her new look, but she's so busy socializing that she doesn't have much time for him. However, when she finds out that a financial disaster is staring him in the face, she realizes that he needs her and rushes to his side. This picture was based on a magazine story, The Antique Wife, by Nalbro Bartley. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Surprisingly not based on a Horatio Alger story, Luck and Pluck is nonetheless a loser-makes-good yarn. George Walsh (brother of producer Raoul Walsh) plays a likeable burglar who falls in love with pretty Virginia Lee. Walsh decides to "go straight" when Lee is threatened by German spies. Soundly thrashing the villains, Walsh vows to remain honest for good and all. Fortuitously, an honest job is awaiting him, inasmuch as Lee's dad is head of the Secret Service! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this action-packed silent feature, two rival rubber magnates, Edward P. Welston (Eric Mayne) and Judson Pendleton (Henry Hallam) are summering with their families at Palm Beach. Welston's son, George (George Walsh) and Pendleton's daughter, Eve (Alice Mann) are in love, much to their fathers' chagrin. Pendleton wants his daughter to marry Arthur Trask (Alan Edwards). Trask, however, is not the banker he claims to be, but a thief. He has been going though hotel suites and stealing guests' jewels. George finds someone breaking into Eve's room, but the hotel staff mistake him as the burglar and he is thrown in jail. His father has to pay a $600,000 bond to get him out -money he was planning to use for a business deal that would put him above Pendleton. Meanwhile, Pendleton's own money has been stolen. While out on bail, George nabs Trask and his confederates and brings them in before his own trial is supposed to start. He also saves Pendleton's money. The two rivals make up and join their business forces, and give their blessing to George and Eve. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide