Richard Arlen Movies
American actor Richard Arlen was working as a messenger boy at Paramount studios in the early 1920s when he was injured in a slight accident; the story goes that Arlen went to the studio heads to thank them for their prompt medical care, whereupon the executives, impressed by Arlen's good looks, hired him as an actor. Whether the story is true or not, it is a fact that Arlen soon became one of Paramount's most popular leading men, earning a measure of screen immortality by costarring with Buddy Rogers and Clara Bow in the first-ever Oscar winning picture, Wings (1927). Arlen was memorably cast as a World War I flying ace, a part in which he felt uniquely at home because he'd been a member of the Royal Canadian Flying Corps during the "real" war (though he never saw any combat!) The actor retained his popularity throughout the 1930s, and when roles became harder to come by in the 1940s, he wisely invested his savings in numerous successful businesses. Keeping in character, Arlen was also part-owner of a civilian flying service, and worked as an air safety expert for the government during World War II. Still acting in TV and commercials into the 1960s, Richard Arlen was reunited with his Wings costar Buddy Rogers in an amusing episode of the TV sitcom Petticoat Junction. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide- 1929
Circus life provides the framework of this drama that chronicles the love, life, and aspiration of a young circus waif. The aspiring star is learning to walk the high-wire with the young wire-walker she adores. He loves another, his partner, but she is untrue to him. As a result he is almost on the edge of a breakdown. When she abandons him, he takes comfort in drinking too much. The plucky young girl tries to help him return to his former glory. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Clara Bow, Richard Arlen, (more)
- 1929
Gary Cooper, as a lanky Wyoming ranch and foreman, places his gun on a poker table after being insulted by one of the gamblers and intones, "If you want to call me that . . . smile." That much quoted line's origin is in this early sound version of the Owen Wister novel, The Virginian, directed by Victor Fleming. When the Virginian meets his old friend Steve (Richard Arlen), he gives him a job on his crew at the Box H Ranch near Medicine Bow, Wyoming. Newly arrived in town is the new schoolmarm, Molly Wood (Mary Brian), and both men take notice. Afterwards, in a saloon, The Virginian encounters the evil Trampas (Walter Huston), and the two get into an argument over a dancer. The Virginian calls Trampas' bluff but, although Trampas backs down, he seethes inside. Afterwards, following a christening party, The Virginian walks Molly back home, and a friendship grows between the two that burgeons into love. But when Steve joins up with Trampas and his gang of rustlers and is captured by a posse, The Virginian is forced to supervise Steve's lynching. After that, Molly spurns The Virginian. However, when The Virginian is wounded, Molly forgets all that, and nurses him back to health. They decide to finally marry, but Trampas interferes with their plans --Trampas wants The Virginian to leave town, and he is out gunning for him. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gary Cooper, Walter Huston, (more)
- 1928
This was the third screen version of A.E.W. Mason's oft-filmed novel about one soldier's triumph over cowardice and was the last rendering during the silent era. Here, Richard Arlen stars as Harry Faversham, the British officer who resigns rather than fight against rebels in Egypt. When four of his former colleagues present him with feathers signifying their belief that he's a coward, Faversham has a change of heart, and posing as an Arab, he goes on a potentially deadly mission to rescue captured British forces. Fay Wray also appears as Ethne Eustance. Wray and directors Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack would reunite four years later for another classic tale of adventure, King Kong. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Arlen, Fay Wray, (more)
- 1928
The frequently filmed Zane Grey story Under the Tonto Rim was again brought to the silver screen by Paramount in 1928. Opening with an exciting gold rush sequence, the story settles down in a prosperous mining camp, where the prospectors are forever at the mercy of murderous claim jumpers. To protect themselves, the miners form a vigilante committee under the leadership of hero Richard Arlen. In traditional Zane Grey fashion, Arlen is motivated by revenge: his father had been killed by claim jumpers early in the proceedings. Heroes and villains pursue one another throughout the final reels, culminating in a bloody, all-stops-out battle between the forces of Good and Evil. All-purpose Paramount heroine Mary Brian shows up as Arlen's love interest. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Arlen, Mary Brian, (more)
- 1928
Wallace Beery appeared in this silent film with intertitles, a dark drama of hobo life. Jim (Richard Arlen), a wanderer, comes upon young Nancy (Louise Brooks), who has just killed the guardian who was trying to rape her. Disguised as a boy, she takes off with Jim and rides the rails to a hobo camp led by Arkansas Snake (Robert Perry). When Oklahoma Red (Beery) takes over the camp, he begins to pursue Nancy, but before he can take her from Jim, the detectives show up to arrest her. He escapes with Nancy and Jim, and when he sees how much they love each other, Red helps them escape by creating a diversion, during which the detectives kill him. ~ Nicole Gagne, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Wallace Beery, Louise Brooks, (more)
- 1928
Bebe Daniels' popular Paramount comedies of the 1920s frequently cast the sprightly heroine as a female Douglas Fairbanks, saving the day with equal parts cleverness and physical dexterity. Feel My Pulse is a typically Fairbanksian romp, with Daniels playing a sheltered rich girl who has been convinced (and has convinced herself) that she is suffering from multiple maladies. When Daniels inherits a health sanitarium, she moves in bag and baggage, hoping to cure her many imagined ailments. Actually, all she needs is a good jolt of adventure, excitement, and romance, and this she gets when bootleggers set up shop at the sanitarium. Daniels is so full of vim, vigor and vitality at the end of the film that she's even willing to kiss leading-man Richard Arlen without worrying about catching any germs. Like many of the Daniels' comedies, Feel My Pulse is benefited immeasurably by the roguish villainy of star-in-the-making William Powell. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bebe Daniels, George Irving, (more)
- 1928
Nancy Carroll stars in Manhattan Cocktail as Babs, a college coed who dreams of becoming a famous actress. Joining up with her campus chums Fred (Richard Arlen) and Bob (Danny O'Shea), likewise aspiring thespians, Babes heads to Broadway with stars in her eyes. The winsome threesome are quickly disillusioned by the heartless machinations of nasty producer Renov (Paul Lukas) and his harridan wife (Lilyan Tashman). Before the plot proper gets under way, the audience is regaled with a cute "mythological" prologue, featuring the same three leading actors. Manhattan Cocktail was a silent picture, except for two brief musical numbers showcasing Nancy Carroll. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Nancy Carroll, Richard Arlen, (more)
- 1928
The principal lady in Ladies of the Mob is jazz-baby Clara Bow. After her father is executed, Bow goes to heck in a handbasket, consorting with the riffiest raff of the underworld riff-raff. Upon falling in love with her partner in crime Richard Arlen, Bow vows to set him on the straight and narrow path (where did this plot twist come from?) To dissuade him from a life of crime, Bow shoots Arlen--whereupon he immediately reforms, as does she! Who cared in 1928 if Ladies of the Mob made any sense? It had Clara Bow, and that was enough. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Clara Bow, Richard Arlen, (more)
- 1927
Sally in Our Alley revives the old bromide about the orphan waif who is unofficially adopted by three men of different faiths and ethnic backgrounds. Shirley Mason plays Sally Williams, who has grown up under the watchful eyes of Scotsman Sandy Mack (Alec B. Francis), Italian Tony Garibaldi (Paul Panzer) and Jewish Abe Lapidowitz (William H. Strauss). Upon reaching maturity, Sally falls in love with a neighborhood boy, plumber Jimmie Adams (Richard Arlen). Enter wealthy Chester Drake (Harry Crocker), who offers to take Sally away from her tenement surroundings and her "low-life" friends. Jimmie and the three surrogate fathers unintentionally embarrass Sally at a party thrown at Drake's estate, whereupon the three old men slink dejectedly back to their old neighborhood, while Jimmie signs on with the merchant marine. But Sally decides to forsake wealth and luxury in favor of those who loved and cared for her throughout her life. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Shirley Mason, Richard Arlen, (more)
- 1927
Figures Don't Lie is a showcase for the physical charms of lovely Esther Ralston, who in one scene proves the accuracy of the title by donning a fetching one-piece bathing suit. The main story concerns wise-guy insurance salesman Richard Arlen, who through a combination of hard work and sheer gall lands a job as sales manager. But he can't land heroine Ralston, who has remained cool to his charms ever since he tried to make a play for her on the street. Eventually, she forgives him, but not before Arlen saves his boss Ford Sterling from financial ruin. An existing still from Figures Don't Lie shows Esther Ralston posing with Olympic swimming star Johnny Weissmuller, who otherwise did not appear in the picture. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Esther Ralston, Richard Arlen, (more)
- 1927
Though billed second, the stunningly beautiful Louise Brooks is the focal point of the campus comedy Rolled Stockings. It's the old one about two collegiate brothers, Jim and Ralph Treadway (James Hall, Richard Arlen), in love with the same girl, Carol Fleming (Brooks). While carefree older brother Jim squanders his study time on wild parties and other such activities, level-headed Ralph tries to uphold the family tradition of academic and athletic excellence. On the eve of an important rowing match, Jim breaks training by taking Carol to a dance, whereupon the incensed Ralph, figuring that what's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander, escorts the campus vamp (Nancy Phillips) to an off-limits nightclub. Undergoing a sudden case of responsibility, Jim saves Ralph from being bumped from the rowing team by claiming it was he, Jim, who was galavanting around with the vamp. Ralph goes on to win the match then publicly confesses his indiscretion and clears his brother's name. As a result, the vacillating Carol decides that Jim is the right man for her. Not unexpectedly, one of the publicity photos taken for this film was a close-up of a pair of rolled stockings, ostensibly filled by the trim legs of Louise Brooks; in fact, Brooks refused to pose for this cheesecake shot, whereupon her legs were "doubled" by her co-star, Nancy Phillips. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Hall, Louise Brooks, (more)
- 1927
She's a Sheik borrows more than a little from the Rudolph Valentino vehicle, Son of the Sheik, but refreshingly, the Valentino character here is a woman, played by the dashing comedienne Bebe Daniels. She is Zaida, half-Spanish and half-Arab, and determined to marry a Christian man. The Arabian bandit Kada (William Powell doesn't care what she wants -- he's determined to have her as his own. Zaida, as swashbuckling as any male, goes sword-to-sword with him...and comes out ahead. She meets up with the French Captain Colton (Richard Arlen), decides he is for her, and kidnaps him to her desert camp. After spending a few days in captivity, Colton finally succumbs to Zaida's formidable charms. The film climaxes with a battle between French and Arab troops, with the French outwitting the Arabs, helped out by a pair of motion-picture showmen (played by Bill Franey and James Bradbury, Jr.). The company runs a clip of an attacking army on a large screen; this is enough to frighten the naive Arabs. Meanwhile Zaida and Colton close out She's a Sheik with the requisite clinch. A lot of people, though, would have preferred to see Daniels and Powell together at the end -- the pair had a real chemistry in the few films in which they appeared together. The good-looking Arlen just didn't have Powell's flair. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bebe Daniels, Richard Arlen, (more)
- 1927
Wings, the first feature film to win an Academy Award, tends to disappoint a little when seen today. Too much time is afforded the wheezy old plotline about two World War I aviators (Buddy Rogers, Richard Arlen) in love with the same woman (Jobyna Ralston), while the comedy relief of El Brendel is decidedly not to everyone's taste. But during the aerial "dogfight" sequences, the film is something else again: a grand-scale spectacular, the likes of which has never been duplicated, not even by more expensive efforts like Hell's Angels (1930) and The Blue Max (1965). Twenty-eight-year-old director William Wellman, himself a wartime aviator, was fortunate enough to have the full cooperation of the US War department at his disposal (even though his legendary temper nearly lost him that cooperation on more than one occasion!) Brilliantly handled though the aerial scenes may be, they are matched by the Earthbound combat sequences, including the now-famous shot of a long trench caving in on hundreds of unfortunate doughboys. The storyline is as follows: Jack Powell (Rogers) and David Armstrong ($owell) hate each other during basic training, grow to like each other, and fall out again while competing for the affections of Sylvia Lewis (Ralston). Mary Preston (Clara Bow) sacrifices her own nursing career to save a drunken Powell from disgrace, Powell goes on a rampage when he believes his pal Armstrong has been killed, inadvertently shoots down Armstrong while decimating the German air corps, and is finally reunited with the nurse. Wrapped up in nurse's garb throughout most of the film, the ebullient Clara Bow is permitted a sequence in which, disguised as a Parisian floozie while trying to rescue a revelling Rogers, she displays a great deal of epidermis. One of the film's chief claims to fame is its "introduction" of Gary Cooper (who'd actually been in films since the early 1920s), in a brief but crucial role as veteran flyer with a cheerily fatalistic attitude. When originally released, Wings included a sequence lensed in the wide-screen "Magnascope" process; even when seen "flat", however, the film contains some of the best flying sequences ever captured on celluloid. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Clara Bow, Charles "Buddy" Rogers, (more)
- 1926
Behind the Front is a raucous silent vehicle for Paramount's Mutt-and-Jeff comedy team of Wallace Beery and Raymond Hatton. The film begins during the early months of World War I; myopic detective Beery chases pickpocket Hatton into an "enlistment" party held by pretty socialite Mary Brian. The boys are so moonstruck by her that both agree to sign up for the Army on the spot. The rest of the film is comprised of familiar but hilarious war-comedy sight gags; the overall mood is encapsulated by the wisecracking subtitles of Ralph Spence (sample: "Listening Post...Where Men are Men but wish they weren't"). Behind the Front is punctuated by a terrific closing gag, wherein Beery and Hatton team up after the Armistice to beat to a pulp the young man (Richard Arlen) in charge of the company that produces their indigestible "K Rations"--a young man who happens to be the fiance of leading lady Mary Brian. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Wallace Beery, Raymond Hatton, (more)
- 1926
Like most Westerns of the era, this Jack Holt vehicle from Paramount includes automobiles and even airplanes. But Holt went his rivals one better by incorporating a machine gun into a fight against a neighboring rancher who is out to ruin him. Based on a Peter B. Kyne novel, The Enchanted Hill also featured a triangle romance between Holt, rancher's daughter Mary Brian and jealous foreman Richard Arlen. The latter, a promising newcomer, basically took Holt's place in the Paramount hierarchy when the square-jawed star moved over to upstart Columbia. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jack Holt, Florence Vidor, (more)
- 1926
Long derided by film historians as a talented but visually unimaginative director, James Cruze made up for any and all past artistic sins with his rousing Old Ironsides. Per its title, this 11-reel silent film is set at the time of Stephen Decatur's defeat of the Barbary pirates in Tripoli. Decatur himself (played by comic actor Johnnie Walker) is a secondary character herein -- most of the screen time goes to the romantic leads, able-bodied seaman Charles Farrell and damsel-in-permanent-distress Esther Ralston. The acting honors go to those inveterate scene-stealers Wallace Beery and George Bancroft, cast respectively as Bos'n and Gunner. The film accommodates everything from outsized sea battles to a daring rescue from the clutches of the lustful pirates. A life-sized replica of "Old Ironsides" (aka the "Constitution") was built for the film; it remained a useful piece of bric-a-brac for many a subsequent Paramount seafaring epic. When originally released, the film utilized a wide-screen technique during many of the battle sequences. The videocassette version of Old Ironsides is, of course, unable to convey this, but it does have the bonus of a rousing musical score by Gaylord Carter. This print, incidentally, is crystal clear, enabling sharp-eyed viewers to spot Boris Karloff in a bit as a menacing Saracen. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Esther Ralston, Charles Farrell, (more)
- 1926
Padlocked began as a serial for Cosmopolitan magazine, written by Rex Beach. After only a couple of chapters were published, Famous Players Lasky bought the rights to the story, reportedly for $100,000. Why the studio would pay so much for this utterly common (at least for its era) narrative is a mystery. It involves a minister/reformer (Noah Beery) who is so self-righteous that he sends his own daughter (Lois Moran) to a reformatory. Rebelling against her father's unreasonable strictness, she runs off to the big city and becomes a cabaret performer. The reformer has to reform himself if he wants to save his daughter from perdition and big-city womanizers. This is not one of director Allan Dwan's more distinguished films. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lois Moran, Noah Beery, Sr., (more)
- 1925
Naturalized American Raoul Melnotte (Ricardo Cortez) travels from Chicago to his native France in search of his childhood sweetheart, Marie Dufrayne (Greta Nissen). Unfortunately, he discovers that she has become a wealthy, snobbish social climber. Since she wants a husband with a title, she has no interest in Melnotte, a modest businessman. She has also turned down the suits of the Marquis de Beaumont (Raymond Hatton) and Monsieur Glavis (Wallace Beery). When the two rejected suitors find out that Melnotte was snubbed too, they convince him to court Marie disguised as the Prince of Como and win revenge for them all. Melnotte is more than happy to oblige and weds Marie in a castle just before the real prince -- a middle-aged man -- shows up. When she realizes she has been fooled, Marie is furious. Melnotte is revealed to be her childhood sweetheart, and she is willing to accept him as her husband. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Greta Nissen, Wallace Beery, (more)
