Richard Dix Movies

Shirley Bryson (Frances Nelson) lives in poverty with her sister Emma (Mary Mersh) and their mother (Caroline Harris). Mrs. Bryson becomes seriously ill and will die if she is not sent away to be cared for. Shirley's job as a manicurist certainly can't pay for this, but one day Wilfred Templeton (Harold Entwhistle) walks into the shop and makes her an offer: If she comes to live with him as his mistress, he will pay for her mother's nursing. Shirley reluctantly agrees but is humiliated by the condescending attitude of Templeton's servants. Then when Emma comes to visit and notices that Shirley isn't wearing a wedding ring, Shirley is overcome with shame. Templeton dumps her and she goes to work at a cabaret. There she meets Harold (Niles Welch), a sad young man who is burying his loneliness in drink. When he defends her from an insulting cad, a romance begins. Shirley reforms Harold and they marry, but when his father comes by to congratulate them -- it turns out to be Wilfred Templeton. He tells Harold all about Shirley's past, which gives Harold pause, but in the end he forgives her completely. This film suffered from two major problems -- a tired story and some unlikely plot twists (how could Shirley not know who Harold's father was?). ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

A man who believes he is a murderer travels the world to escape his past in this often confusing crime drama. Richard Dix stars in a double role of twin brothers Paul and Arthur Ellison. Arthur flees New York for South America for help from his brother Paul, an engineer by trade. Paul feels partially responsible for Arthur's behavior after he accidentally shot him in a childhood mishap. Arthur assumed his brother's identity and travels to the Orient. Sylvia (Elsa Chetwood) meets him five years later and assumes he is Paul. Romance between the two lead to marriage plans, but an oily gambler named Craig (Herbert Prior) is on board the ship bound for America. Prior tries to kill Arthur and collect the reward money to cover his debts. Arthur holds a diamond given to him by a grateful native prince after saving people from a plague. A final showdown between Arthur and the gambler reveals Prior was the one who committed the murder that has tormented Arthur the last five years. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

When she starred in this drama, Helene Chadwick was being referred to as "the most photographed girl in America." Phoebe Mabee (Chadwick) has two suitors: Harley Jones (Richard Dix) and the wealthy Anson Newton (Maurice B. Flynn). Jones wins her and the newly married couple move to the big city and start a family. They are happy for the most part -- only the occasional appearance of Newton and his socially prominent aunt, Mrs. Noxon (Kate Lester), annoys Jones. But after a number of years and several children, Phoebe begins longing for a social life. She accepts a dinner invitation from Mrs. Noxon, even though her daughter is sick. Jones believes she is going just to see Newton, which Phoebe vehemently denies. She comes to her senses and rushes home from the dinner party to the little girl, who is calling for her. The lure of hearth overcomes Phoebe's desire for social prominence, and all is well with the Joneses. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Writer Rupert Hughes chose this predictable story as his first directorial effort, but he brings it fresh life with the help of Colleen Moore (who, at the time, was a rising star, not yet the icon for a generation of flappers). Moore plays Idalene Nobbin, the classic ugly duckling, both homely and gauche. Attending a dance thrown by the popular Prue Nickerson (Laura LaPlante) only adds to her woes. Two boys she meets there -- Phin Larrabee (Rush Hughes) and Roy Duncan (Tom Gallery) -- make her an object of ridicule. Finally, at the Junior Prom, her humiliation is so great that she runs out of the building, right in the path of an oncoming car. Idalene is not killed, but both her legs are broken. A good-hearted pair -- young society girl Pamela Shiel (Gertrude Astor) and her pal, Walt Breen (Richard Dix) -- pick her up, and while she is recuperating, teach her how to be stylish and beautiful. It works, and Breen falls in love with the lovely girl who has emerged from her shell. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Even though this light comedy never leaves the confines of its hospital setting, it's still highly amusing. Billy Grant (Richard Dix) winds up in the hospital after going on a wild spree when his fiancée breaks up with him. Jane Brown (Helene Chadwick) is his nurse, and he begs her to marry him. She agrees because she believes that he is dying. The truth is that Grant has married her just to get back at his relatives, who helped ruin his relationship with his fiancée. Jane asks to be transferred to the maternity ward, and she helps a newborn baby and its mother reunite with its father. While searching for the man, however, Jane breaks some hospital rules and she's in danger of being fired. Grant comes to her aid and also claims her as his wife. This picture was based on two stories by author Mary Roberts Rinehart. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

This character study was adapted from Henning Berger's play, Synafloden, which was known as The Deluge in its English translation. Stratton's Cafe is located in the town of Cottonia, near the banks of the Mississippi River. Since it is below river level, Stratton (Will Walling) has water-tight doors installed. One day the flood alarm sounds and Stratton locks up his cafe. Inside are Billy Bear, a young broker (Richard Dix), Poppy, the chorus girl he once loved (Helene Chadwick), and a number of other people, including a tramp, an alcoholic street preacher, a shyster lawyer, two cotton traders who are enemies, and an out-of-work actor. When they all realize they will probably die of suffocation, they undergo a shift in consciousness. Everyone reforms and forgives their fellowmen in the spirit of brotherly love. Finally they decide to face the flood head on and fling open the doors. To their surprise, the water has receded and all is well. Not surprisingly, everyone immediately reverts to their old, wicked selves -- at least that's the way it was in the play. In the film version, Billy Bear and Poppy hang onto their ideals and head off to get a marriage license. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

With a screenplay by Howard Hawks and direction by Jack Conway, this Mexican border tale couldn't possibly have been anything less than a vigorously rugged production. The all-star cast, including some of the best-known villains of the day (Noah Beery and Walter Long among them), adds to the film's manly tone. Richard Dix stars as a first lieutenant working under Colonel Patterson (J. Farrell McDonald), who is on the trail of some drug smugglers on the Mexican border. Colonel Patterson has been keeping watch over a cantina, where the goings-on seem to be particularly suspicious. The first lieutenant is in love with a girl (Helene Chadwick), whose father (Hardee Kirkland) works for the U.S. government. At the cantina, the lieutenant finds himself strangely attracted to a sultry Mexican girl, but when he finds her outfit hidden away in a deserted cabin, he realizes it was the Farrell girl. His discovery leads him to believe she is part of the smuggling ring. It turns out that she was actually helping her father, but both she and the lieutenant are captured by the smugglers. The U.S. cavalry comes to the rescue in a exciting climax. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Childhood sweethearts with lofty goals do not a good Christian lifetime make, in this doomed romance directed by Maurice Tourneur. Glory Quayle (Mae Busch) and John Storm (Richard Dix) have been in love since their youth. Now, all grown up, they decide to travel to London -- John to enter a monastery and Glory to become a nurse. But the lure of the city is too great, and Glory instead becomes a London stage star. John, who can't get Glory out of his mind, renounces his vows. But the nasty Lord Robert Ure (Cyril Chadwick), who has designs on Glory himself, convinces a London mob that John is predicting the end of the world. Incited, the mob goes after John, trying to make sure that his life ends before the world does. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

Leading lady Lois Wilson considered this fine western her favorite of six films she starred in opposite virile leading man Richard Dix. (The others were The Call of the Canyon, 1923, Icebound, 1924, The Vanishing American, 1925, Let's Get Married, 1926, and the talkie Lovin' the Ladies, 1930.) Wilson had reached stardom as the girl in the first true western epic The Covered Wagon (1923), and To the Last Man was seen as a follow-up. She felt very comfortable opposite Dix, and their on-screen romance carried over into real life, at least until her family's disapproval, according to the actress, put a stop to the romance. The plot was the usual one about feuding ranchers and sheepherders, but Wilson and Dix's Romeo & Juliet-like quality made the film a box-office winner. An especially well-staged barroom-brawl only added to the film's popularity. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Cecil B. DeMille's first screen version of The Ten Commandments is only peripherally a Biblical story. The film's first 45 minutes recaps the struggle between Moses (Theodore Roberts) and Rameses (Charles de Roche) over the liberation of the Hebrews. Only after the Lord has imposed a series of plagues upon Egypt does Rameses relent and permit the Exodus to take place--only to go back on his word a few moments later. The scenes of thousands of Hebrews trekking across the desert, the parting of the Red Sea (an effect accomplished in part by splitting a bowl of gelatin down the middle) and the pre-Commandments revelries before the Golden Calf--complete with a fetchingly undressed Estelle Taylor as Miriam--are produced on a spectacular scale...but this is only the beginning. Just as Moses is invoking the Wrath of God upon the ungrateful Hebrews, the film dissolves to the present day (1923, that is). We are introduced to the MacTavish Family: pious, Bible-thumping Martha McTavish (Edythe Chapman) and her sons, straight-arrow John (Richard Dix) and hedonistic Dan (Rod LaRocque). Both sons love Mary Leigh (Leatrice Joy), but the roguish Dan wins out. While John continues honoring the Ten Commandments, Dan breaks as many as he can get his hands on, especially after falling under the spell of Eurasian adventuress Sally Lung (Nita Naldi). Before the uplifting climax, wherein John and Mary finally get together with (it is implied) the blessings of Heaven, we are treated to a series of disastrous plot turns, including the death of mother McTavish in a collapsing church, Sally Lung's revelation that she has leprosy, and a wild speedboat chase. All that's missing is the kitchen sink. Partially filmed in Technicolor at a then-astronomical cost of $1.2 million (a sum that caused a decade-long rift between Cecil B. DeMille and Paramount Pictures), The Ten Commandments grossed several times that amount. DeMille's 1956 Ten Commandments dispenses with the modern story to concentrate on the life of Moses. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This Paramount drama was based on the novel Face, by Lucy Stone Terrill. It was a change of pace for light comedienne Bebe Daniels. In a battle during the World War, Douglas Albright (Richard Dix) has a moment of cowardice which causes the death of his friend, Captain Banning (Joe King). When Albright comes back from the war, his fiancée, Helen Castle (Mary Astor), and her father, George (Frank Losee), can see that something is bothering him. So Castle sends him to take care of business in China -- and to pull himself together. While in China, Albright runs across Bannings' widow, Breta (Daniels), who has buried her sorrows behind a mask of revelry and fast living. Because he feels responsible for what she has become, Albright attempts to regenerate her and proposes marriage. When Breta discovers that he is sacrificing his relationship with Helen on her behalf, she kills herself so that the couple can reunite. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Tully Marshall plays "the Stranger," an outcast who works in a saloon frequented by Peggy Bowlin, a poor girl suffering through hard times (Betty Compson). She finds romance with Larry Darrant (Richard Dix), and her life begins to improve. They make plans to wed and leave England, but when a convict assaults Peggy, Larry gets involved and accidentally kills him. The Stranger is arrested for the murder, but he refuses to declare his innocence because he doesn't want to destroy Peggy's happiness. Larry wants to confess, but his brother Keith (Lewis Stone) has political aspirations and refuses to let him. After the Stranger is sentenced to death, however, Larry insists that he must do what is right and they show up at the scaffold. The Stranger, however, has heart failure just as the noose is being put around his neck and he dies. Larry's secret dies with him, so he and Peggy are free to pursue their dreams. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Will Prescott (Richard Dix) is a bank cashier whose assistant, Ned Seabury (Neil Hamilton), has made a killing in the stock market. With his newfound riches, Seabury proceeds to woo Prescott's wife, Agnes (Claire Adams), by buying her luxurious items that her husband can not afford. Seabury makes no secret of his aim, and Prescott desperately steals some of the bank's bonds, hoping to make enough money to keep Agnes by his side. He invests the bonds with Seabury's broker, Arnold Kirke (Henry Stephenson), but they're wiped out. Kirke kills himself, and when bank president Culman (Robert Edeson) finds the bonds missing, he blames Seabury. Although it is tempting to let Seabury hang, Prescott fesses up. He is thrown in jail, but the repentant Agnes begs Culman to give him another chance. He does, and sends Prescott and Agnes to South America to manage his coffee plantation. This drama was based on a turn-of-the-century stage play by David Belasco and Henry C. DeMille. Henry C. DeMille's elder son, William C. DeMille, directed (his younger son was filmmaker Cecil B. DeMille). ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide