Mike Donlin Movies

Even though Clara Bow was close to achieving true stardom, she was still being cast in crass, low-budget fare. In fact, she has little to do in this overwrought melodrama -- Wallace MacDonald has the meaty role, and is billed above her. Bruce Armstrong (MacDonald) is quite wealthy. He is also a drinker, a gambler, and pretty much worthless as a human being. Even after he lames his little brother Jimmy (Pat Moore) in a drunken fit, he does not straighten up. For some reason, Marilyn Merrill (Bow), a successful dancer, sticks by him. In spite of this, he gambles with her boss, Tom Canfield (Stuart Holmes), and when he loses, he writes bad checks. In order to avoid jail, Armstrong gets involved in diamond smuggling and winds up in a brutal fight over the spoils. One of the men, Big Jim Snead (Tom Santschi), attacks Armstrong, who kills him. Jimmy is the only witness, so when Armstrong is put on trial, the boy is forced to testify. To keep him from having to take the stand, Armstrong confesses. But one of the other smugglers, Dude Talbot (Templar Saxe), comes forth and admits that Armstrong killed in self-defense. Armstrong goes free and proposes to the ever-patient Marilyn. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Reginald Denny seems to be doing a Harold Lloyd impersonation in this comedy, right down to the glasses, and maybe he was -- the plot concerns a hypochondriac, like Lloyd's 1923 hit Why Worry?. Although Rufus Billop (Denny) is convinced he will die at any minute, he has outlived his whole family with the exception of his Aunt Beulah (Lucille Ward). While visiting her he decides he desperately needs a doctor. After fighting against the tough manipulations of a towering woman chiropractor (Blanche Payson), he finds a " real" doctor (Clarence Geldert) who agrees that he needs serious care. The only thing holding Billop back from entering a sanitarium is a lack of funds -- he will inherit 750,000 dollars in three years, but if he dies any earlier all the money goes to charity. After the doctor assures a trio of lenders (Otis Harlan, William V. Mong, and Tom Ricketts) that there's really nothing wrong with Billop, they front him a hundred thousand if they will wind up with his whole fortune. So Billop happily takes on a full time nurse and lays in bed all day with a book and a thermometer. But when the first nurse, "Death Watch Mary" (Martha Mattox), doesn't work out, he is given pretty Dolores Hicks (a young and inexperienced Mary Astor). Billop falls in love with her, and when the maid (Helen Lynch) informs him that women like men who "aren't afraid of nothin'," he stops languishing in bed and starts racing cars and riding motorcycles. His brushes with death almost kill his lenders, who will lose their investment if he dies before he receives his inheritance. Dolores finally gets a lawyer to make out a fair contract, and she convinces the three men to sign it as they helplessly watch Billop painting a flagpole some 20 or so stories above a busy street. Although Denny's performance may owe something to Lloyd, this picture was actually based on the novel by Harry Leon Wilson. In addition a successful play about a hypochondriac, The Nervous Wreck, ran on Broadway in 1924, and it later became the musical Whoopee!, a stage and screen hit for Eddie Cantor -- clearly hypochondriacs were marketable entertainment at the time! ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Roland West, who directed this mystery, also co-wrote the stage play on which it was based. Inventor Peter Marchmont (Henry B. Walthall) goes to prison for a crime committed by James Dawson (Stuart Holmes). While he is locked up he discovers that his wife, Jewel (Alice Lake), has been involved with Dawson, and he swears revenge. Released from prison, he disguises himself and takes on the name Victor Cromport. Having invented a purple light, which makes him invisible, he begins using this device to secretly ruin Dawson's life. The detectives are baffled by the goings on, and in the end Marchmont wins back Jewel's love. As part of his revenge, he forces her to live with Dawson, who she now hates. Instead, he settles down with Ruth Marsh (Helen Ferguson), the girl who has been taking care of his son. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

George Walsh plays the "prodigal" hero in this fast-moving star vehicle from the Fox factory. An incurable cut-up, Jack Spurlock throws a college campus in an uproar when he shows up the first day of classes with his pet bear. Needless to say, Jack is immediately booted out of college, infuriating his big-businessman father (Dan Mason). Our hero finally makes good when he assumes command of the Onion Workers Union, calling a strike against the Newark plant owned by his own father -- and forcing dear daddy to cave in to the union's demands. Baseball star "Turkey" Mike Donlin contributed an amusing cameo as a pugnacious factory foreman. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide