Janet Gaynor Movies

The venerable David Belasco stage piece The Return of Peter Grimm was first brought to the screen in 1926, with Alec B. Francis in the title role. In life a selfish, mean-spirited old man, Peter Grimm returns from the grave to right the wrongs he committed while on Earth. The spectral Grimm pays a visit to his nasty nephew Frederick (John Roche), the husband of Grimm's ward Catherine (Janet Gaynor), who had been forced into the marriage. Literally entering Frederick's conscience, Grimm transforms his covetous, philandering nephew into a "good guy." After several similar episodes, both comic and dramatic, Return of Peter Grimm comes to a tear-stained finale as the tubercular young William (Mickey McBan) joins his grandfather Grimm in the hereafter. The double-exposure work was faultless, with Alec B. Francis seeming to glow and radiate as he ministers to the living. Return of Peter Grimm was ploddingly remade in 1935 with Lionel Barrymore as star. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Based on a story by Peter B. Kyne, the long-lost John Ford silent Shamrock Handicap begins in Ireland. Because he refuses to collect rent payments from his impoverished tenants, kindly Irish nobleman Sir Miles Gaffney is in danger of losing his estate. He is forced to sell off part of his racing stable to a wealthy American, who takes along Gaffney's jockey Neil Ross (Leslie Fenton) as part of the bargain. When Neil is crippled in a racing accident, Sir Miles and his daughter Sheila (Janet Gaynor) sail to America with their prize horse "Dark Rosaleen" in tow. The Gaffneys hope to win the $125,000 Shamrock Handicap, thereby earning enough money to square their own debts and to take care of the incapacitated Neil. For all of its Irish blarney, the biggest laughs in Shamrock Handicap were sparked by the Yiddish humor of supporting player Georgie Harris. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Considered by many to be the finest silent film ever made by a Hollywood studio, F.W. Murnau's Sunrise represents the art of the wordless cinema at its zenith. Based on the Hermann Sudermann novel A Trip to Tilsit, this "Song of Two Humans" takes place in a colorful farming community, where people from the city regularly take their weekend holidays. Local farmer George O'Brien, happily married to Janet Gaynor, falls under the seductive spell of Margaret Livingston, a temptress from The City. He callously ignores his wife and child and strips his farm of its wealth on behalf of Livingston, but even this fails to satisfy her. One foggy evening, O'Brien meets Livingston at their usual swampland trysting place. She bewitches him with stories about the city -- its jazz, its bright lights, its erotic excitement. Thrilled at the prospect of running off with Livingston, O'Brien stops short: "What about my wife?" Drawing ever closer to her victim, Livingston murmurs "Couldn't she just...drown?" (the subtitle bearing these words then "melts" into nothingness). In his delirium, the husband agrees. The plan is to row Gaynor to the middle of the lake, then capsize the boat. Gaynor will drown, while O'Brien will save himself with some bulrushes that he'd previously hidden in the boat; thus, the murder will look like an accident. The next day, the brooding O'Brien begins slowly rowing his unsuspecting wife across the lake. Halfway to shore, he makes his intentions clear, but is unable to go through with it. As his wife cringes in terror, O'Brien rows to the other side of lake. Once ashore, she runs away from him in terror, as he stumbles after her, trying to apologize.

Gaynor boards a streetcar bound for the city, with O'Brien climbing aboard a few seconds afterward. Upon reaching the city (a renowned set design), O'Brien continues trying to make amends to his wife. They sit disconsolately at a table in a restaurant, unable to eat the plate of cake that is set before them. Slowly, Gaynor begins overcoming her fear. The couple wander into a church, where a wedding is taking place. Breaking down in sobs, O'Brien begins repeating the wedding vows, thereby convincing Gaynor that she has nothing to fear. Together again, the couple embraces in the middle of a busy street, oblivious to the honking horns and irate motorists. Anxious to prove to each other that all is well, the husband and wife spend a delightful afternoon having their pictures taken and "dolling up" in a posh barber shop. They cap their unofficial second honeymoon at a joyous festival in an outsized amusement park. More in love with each other than ever before, O'Brien and Gaynor head back across the lake in the dark of night. Suddenly, a storm arises. Pulling out the bulrushes with which he'd planned to save himself, O'Brien straps them onto Janet, telling her to swim to shore. The storm passes. Washing up on shore, the unconscious O'Brien is brought home. But Gaynor is nowhere to be found, and it is assumed that she has died in the storm. Half-insane, O'Brien strikes out at Livingston, the instigator of the murder plan. Just as he is about to throttle the treacherous temptress, he is summoned home; his wife is alive! As Livingston stumbles out of the village, O'Brien and Gaynor cling tightly to one another, watching the sun rise above their now-happy home. Together with Seventh Heaven, Sunrise earned Janet Gaynor the first-ever Best Actress Academy Award, while Charles Rosher and Karl Struss walked home with the industry's first Best Photography Oscar. The film itself was also in the Oscar race, but lost out to the more financially successful Wings. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Fox's follow-up to Seventh Heaven, The Street Angel reunited stars Charles Farrell and Janet Gaynor with director Frank Borzage. The action begins in Naples, as poverty-stricken Maria (Gaynor) steals medicine for her ailing mother. Now a fugitive from justice, Maria escapes by joining a travelling carnival, where she meets and falls in love with portrait painter Angelo (Charles Farrell). Impressed by her ethereal beauty, Angelo asks the girl to pose for his portrait of the Madonna. But when she's suddenly arrested, the disillusioned Angelo sinks into depravation. Released from prison, Maria sees her portrait in a church and is inspired to seek out Angelo. Explaining the circumstances of her arrest, Maria saves Angelo from his sordid surroundings, inspiring him to return to painting -- and, not surprisingly, to propose marriage. Heavily influenced by the "Germanic" style then in vogue, Street Angel lacked the simplicity and sincerity of Sunrise but managed to post a profit all the same. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this drama, a lonely woman leads an isolated life on a ramshackle with her widowed mother who firmly believes her daughter should marry a recently returned WW I veteran. Although the mother's intentions are good, the daughter already loves another veteran. Prior to the war, both men had been linesmen, but her true love was crippled in battle and cannot resume his trade. The mother therefore does not consider him to be a good match. She then betroths her daughter to the other. Just before they are to marry, her true love miraculously recovers, defeats his rival, and ends up marrying her. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The popular silent romantic team of Charles Farrell and Janet Gaynor made a successful all-talking, all-singing, all-dancing debut in Sunny Side Up. The story is old bromide about a poor girl who falls in love with a rich man, then tries to pass herself off as a woman of wealth. This being a 1929 Fox picture, the supporting cast includes the ineluctable dialect comedian El Brendel, along with squeaky-voiced soubrette Marjorie White. In his feature-film debut, 7-year-old Jackie Cooper shows up as a tenement kid, while Joe E. Brown does a guest bit as a grinning undertaker. The superb DeSylva-Brown-Henderson score includes "If I Had a Talking Picture of You," "Turn on the Heat" (a jaw-droppingly erotic number, in which the gyrations of the chorus girls causes a banana tree to blossom full out!), and the title song. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Broadway star Marilyn Miller's second starring film was an adaptation of her 1925 stage hit Sunny. Flashing her celebrated dazzling smile at every possible occasion, Miller is cast as a circus bareback rider, in love with wealthy Tom Warren (Lawrence Gray). Naturally, Tom's aristocratic family are dead set against the romance and do everything they can to degrade and our poor heroine. But Sunny prevails in the end, triumphantly marching to the altar arm and arm with her beloved Tom. The Oscar Hammerstein II-Jerome Kern score includes such lasting favorites as Who (Stole My Heart Away)? Sunny was remade by RKO in 1940 as a vehicle for Anna Neagle. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this drama a pianist-composer falls in love with the charwoman who cleans his boardinghouse room. Eventually, she too, falls in love with him. Trouble comes when he finds that he can no longer pay his rent for although he is talented, he refuses to write popular songs and is therefore, always broke. Finally, his patience pays off and he is commissioned to write an opera. Meanwhile the maid inherits a vast fortune. Unfortunately, this frightens the prideful composer away for he does not want people believing that he only married her for her money. Although his opera is successful, the man is terribly unhappy. He then journey's to the cottage where he met his love. Surprisingly, she is there too. Happiness ensues. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Janet Gaynor plays a teenaged orphanage waif who protects the younger children from the harshness of the supervisors. One of the orphanage's trustees is millionaire Warner Baxter, who spots Gaynor while visiting the home, is impressed by her tenacity, and decides to secretly adopt the girl and pay for her education. Baxter is determined not to become emotionally involved with Gaynor, but the exigencies of the plot bring the two of them together. Now that she has grown into a lovely young woman, Gaynor is a more than eligible candidate for marriage. Hoping to wed Baxter, Gaynor must first go to her guardian for consent...and imagine her surprise when she finds out the true identity of her benefactor. Based on a popular novel by Jean Webster, Daddy Long Legs was remade in 1935 as the Shirley Temple vehicle Curly Top, then filmed again under its original title as a Fred Astaire/ Leslie Caron musical in 1955. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Grace Livingston (Janet Gaynor) is leading a happy life in her small town, with her mother (Maude Eburne) and father (Robert McWade), being courted by two men, the steady but predictable Tommy Tucker (Charles Farrell) and the more ambitious, flashy, and worldly Dick Loring (George Meeker), who seems closer to Grace in his desire for travel and adventure. It's Tommy whom she marries, however, while insisting that they live someplace other than the town where they grew up. So Tommy abandons his successful insurance business and the couple moves to Joplin, MO, where he takes over a real-estate business, and for 11 months the couple struggles quietly while Tommy goes about trying to establish himself, and Grace becomes increasingly bored and impatient, not liking Joplin or the tiny three-room apartment where they live. Tommy has been steadily working on a plan that will bring them all the money they need, acquiring land that he is certain that the railroad needs, but closing the deal with the purchasing agent (Henry Kolker) requires him to throw a small dinner party, on the very day that Tommy is down literally to his last ten dollars, and when Grace's patience is at an end and her kitchen help falls ill. With the maid's inexperienced daughter (Leila Bennett) doing her barely adequate best, they muddle through dinner to a successful conclusion to the deal; however, when the unexpected reappearance of Dick Loring throws a wrench in the works, not only of the deal but their marriage, his presence suddenly brings to a head all of Grace's frustrations. The couple splits up, Grace leaving Tommy to return to her parents' home, and even though each soon has some wonderful news to tell the other, it takes a lot of help -- and a knock-down, drag-out fight between two of the contending parties -- to help get them back to a place where each will give the other the hearing they should.

It sometimes seems as though, during the 1930s, the studios could mix comedy and drama more freely and easily without having to go into too many explanations for their audience -- whereas in the 21st century, audiences need a guide and a warning for pictures such as The First Year, which might be very funny in many spots (especially in the scenes with Grace's parents) and steeped in drama and serious moments elsewhere. Although not remotely as substantial as some of Charles Farrell and Janet Gaynor's other work together, The First Year is a good representation of the high level of quality of their work together when they weren't acting in masterpieces such as Street Angel or near-masterpieces like After Tomorrow. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

The 1933 State Fair was the first of three film versions of the Phillip Stong bestseller. Some consider it the best of the three because of its stricter adherence to the source material and the presence of star Will Rogers. Rogers plays Abel Frake, patriarch of a family whose individual members are affected by the upcoming Iowa State Fair in various fascinating ways. Abel hopes to enter his prize hog Blue Boy and win the blue ribbon. His wife Melissa (Louise Dresser) wants to enter her mincemeat in a food competition, his son Wayne (Norman Foster) wants to get even with a carnival sharpster who'd outsmarted him during the last state fair, and daughter Margery (Janet Gaynor) just wants to get out of the house for a little fun. The parents win their prizes (though it looks for a while that Blue Boy will succumb to a serious illness) the children have brief romances (one happy, one cautionary), and everyone goes home a little wiser for the experience. Footnote: Fox studios offered to butcher Blue Boy and sell his meat to Will Rogers, but Rogers declined, noting that he wouldn't feel right eating his costar. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Frisky princess Marie Christine, known as Mitzi (Janet Gaynor) passes herself off as a manicurist, and falls in love with Karl (Henry Garat), a delicatessen worker, though he's really a lieutenant in Mitzi's army. Back at the palace, the Prime Minister (C. Aubrey Smith) tells Mitzi her betrothal to a prince she's never met will be announced. Unaware of the truth, the Prime Minister secretly tries to convince Karl to make Mitzi forget the delicatessen man, while Mitzi, to test his love, tells Karl she's jealous of the princess. More romantic/comic complications ensue. ~ Bill Warren, All Movie Guide