Robert Klein Movies

Mike Mulligan, forced to dig the basement for a new town hall in a single day, tries to prove that his outmoded steam shovel can still handle the job. This children's adventure is animated. ~ John Bush, Rovi

Samuel Taylor Coleridge's famous poem The Rime of the Ancient Mariner had no love interest. The 1925 movie adaptation, titled simply The Ancient Mariner, stars Clara Bow, indicating that scenarist Eve Unsell did an extensive rewrite. Bow is in love with wastrelly Earle Williams, who is shanghaied by ship's captain Nigel De Brulier. The girl wises up when Williams proves to be a jerk on the high seas; she settles instead for hometown boy Leslie Fenton. The Coleridge poem is dramatized in the form of a dream, experienced by Williams while he's under the influence of De Brulier's knockout drops. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Bearing only a tenuous connection to Dante Alighieri's epic poem, the 1924 Dante's Inferno bears more resemblance to A Christmas Carol. Hard-hearted businessman Ralph Lewis drives a former friend to contemplate suicide. Just before disappearing into the night, the friend gives Lewis a copy of Dante's Inferno as a cautionary gesture. Lewis reads the volume but ignores its message and continues in his standard ruthless vein. As a result, everyone and everything he cares about is destroyed. Making a last-minute gesture to save his friend from suicide, Lewis is not only too late, but is accused of the man's murder. Executed in the electric chair, Lewis is dragged into Hell, where the horrified man is forced to witness the various methods of Eternal Damnation described in Dante's tale. Suddenly, Lewis finds himself back in his study; the whole horrible episode has been a nightmare. In fine Scrooge tradition, Lewis vows to mend his ways. Many historians are of the opinion that the Hell sequences in Dante's Inferno have been lifted from a long-lost European epic, title unknown. Certainly there is a radical difference in quality between the narrative and the nightmare scenes, but as of yet no one has determined whether or not the film was in fact a hybrid. Dante's Inferno has become one of the most oft-requested silent films among casual movie fans, chiefly because of a tantalizing production still showing an apparently naked Pauline Starke being flogged by a hulking demon. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Screenwriter Jules Furthman made a rare plunge into directing with Blushing Bride. The title character, played by Eileen Percy, is mistaken for nobility by millionaire Herbert Heyes. Before she can set him straight, Heyes marries her. She moves into her hubby's magnificent mansion, only to discover that her raffish uncle Harry Dunkinson is employed as a butler. All sorts of class-conscious comic situations occur before everything is settled to everyone's satisfaction. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

This "lost" film from the Henry King canon would well be worth re-viewing. Gail Kane was cast as the wife of a prosecuting attorney. She found herself in a compromising position that would endanger her husband's political chances. Unfortunately, her silence proved disastrous for several other parties. Based on a story by Daniel Frederick Whitcomb, The Bride's Silence would seem to be a precursor to W. E. Woodward's novel Evelyn Prentice, filmed in 1934 with William Powell and Myrna Loy. We won't know for certain until a print of the 1917 film shows up. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi