George Ade Movies

In this lively campus comedy, a stern rowing coach sets up a rigorous practice schedule for his team and insists they lead strictly disciplined lives (meaning no girls and no fun) so that they will become winners and thereby save his endangered job. Unfortunately, a seductive coed keeps leading his lambs astray. Things look bleak until the coach devises an ingenious method to recruit new oarsmen. Things really get in synch when jazz bandleader George E. Stone becomes the swingin' new coxswain. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

In this comedy, a successful owner of a meat-packing plant tries to pass on his obsession for punctuality and rules to his two sons. But both of them are spoiled playboys who care little for time. One loves cafe society and the many girls he meets there; the other has bohemian affectations and hangs out with the artists in Greenwich Village. One day, their rigid stodgy father meets a lively Irish lass who inspires him to break free from his voluntary enslavement. He begins dressing stylishly and hanging out at the race track. The sons see him squiring the girl about town and they are appalled. When the father learns that the girl is being blackmailed, he rushes to her aid. The sons are so upset that they become responsible and more like he once was. Fortunately, it all turns out for the best when they discover that their father and the married girl only had a platonic relationship. She ends up reconciling with her husband. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

In the spirit of female stars both before and after her, 30-year-old Marion Davies plays a girl a decade younger than herself (actually the men are guilty of this too -- both Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd played college students while in their early 30s). Davies, fortunately, was athletic enough to pull off the part of a college basketball star -- plus she had the comedic talents to make this film both a critical and commercial success. This picture also won a long-term MGM contract for its co-star, ex-football player Johnny Mack Brown. Marion (Davies) doesn't want to go to Bingham college -- that is, until she meets Dixon (Brown), who is working his way through school by coaching the girl's basketball team. She eagerly joins the team and becomes their star player. Things seem to be going well between Marion and Dixon, but when they have a misunderstanding, she huffily misses a big game, which her team loses. As a result, she is ostracized by her fellow students. Finally, a burst of college spirit inspires her to enter the crucial game, which she wins for Bingham in the last seconds. She also wins back her popularity and Dixon. ~ Janiss Garza, Rovi

Thomas Meighan plays Tom Clark, who left his home town to make good -- and wound up as part owner of a hapless gas station. On the train back to his old town for "old home week," however, he is mistakenly thought to be a big oil man. Ethel Harmon (Lila Lee), daughter of Judge Harmon (Sidney Paxton), falls in love with him. The town is being swindled by two crooks, Marshall Coleman (Charles Dow Clark) and Townsend Barton (Max Figman). They've planted a phony oil well in the town and have sold stock in it. Because of his high position, Clark is put in charge of the project. When Judge Harmon finds out that Clark is pretty much a failure, he exposes him, but Clark refuses to give up his post. He has already discovered that the oil well is a fake and has set out to salt it and sell it back to the swindlers. His every action is misunderstood until the crooks loudly protest being out-swindled. Clark gains the town's respect once again, and wins the hand of Ethel. This comedy-drama was "suggested by" George Ade's story -- meaning that scenarist Tom Geraghty decided to change everything around until Ade's tale was unrecognizable. ~ Janiss Garza, Rovi

This comedy-drama featured a wry story by humorist George Ade and a warm performance by the always likable Thomas Meighan. Meighan is Tom Redding, who, upon his father's death, finds that he and his mother (Maude Turner Gordon) are broke. Without the Redding wealth, they become outcasts in the social circles where they were once welcomed, and Tom's girl, Olivia Hornby (Florence Deshon), throws him over. Tom finds a more loyal sweetheart in May Thorne (Lila Lee), who offers him her savings so that he can develop an oil well. The well becomes a gusher, and Redding finds himself wealthy once again. But instead of returning to town a success, a pal suggests that he pretend to be a failure to see who his real friends are. While using this ruse, Tom secretly buys up the companies from all the men who snubbed him and his mother. The town is shocked when they discover that Redding is the millionaire who now practically controls the town. But instead of taking vengeance, Redding magnanimously returns the men to their former positions. Mary, who has stuck by him all this time, is proud to become his wife. ~ Janiss Garza, Rovi

An outright farce produced in Chicago by the Essanay company, this film was set in the country of Morovenia, where fat women were considered beautiful. Poor Princess Kalora (Ruth Stonehouse), unfashionably slender, cannot find herself a husband despite efforts to appear fatter by stuffing pillows down her dress. Kalora's father, Count Malagaski (Harry Dunkinson), ships her off to an American fat farm, where the thin princess falls in love with American businessman Alexander Pike (Francis X. Bushman). The Count forbids his daughter to marry a commoner, so the American is presented at the Morovenian court as "the Grand Exalted Ruler of the Fraternal Order, a Knight Templar and King of the Hoo Hoos." The Morvenian ruler accepts the disguise and the two lovers marry. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi