Dagmar Godowsky Movies

Even though films up until the late '20s were silent, it doesn't mean they were devoid of musical devices. This sentimental drama uses a popular and poignant piece of music as its title and inspiration. You can bet the song was featured prominently in the musical score when the film played in theaters. Arnold Grahme (Dave Powell) is an organist who returns from a trip to discover that his sweetheart, Madeline (Alice Lake), has wed Count Zara (Henry Sedley). The marriage is not a happy one -- the count is a faithless brute who is carrying on an affair with his cousin, Pauline (Dagmar Godowsky). Grahme and the count wind up fighting a duel in Italy and the count is killed. Pauline spirits Madeline's daughter away, while Madeline enters a convent. Through his music, Grahme convinces her to marry him, but she dies shortly afterwards. Years later, Grahme's nephew, Jack Brown (Charles Mack), becomes involved with Joan, a chorus girl (Faire Binney). The couple argues and Jack leaves. Grahme falls in love with Joan, and, after finding out that she is Madeline's daughter, he proposes. When Jack returns, he can see that the young couple are really in love and he sacrifices his own happiness so that they can be together. While playing the organ, Madeline comes to him in spirit and tells him that through this sacrifice he has found the lost chord. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Alan Holt (Antonio Moreno) is a radio expert who has invented a death ray machine for the U.S. government. International spy Drakma (Tyrone Power Sr.) wants to get his hands on the invention and he sends his henchmen to attack Holt in his laboratory. Holt's sweetheart, Mary Walsworth (Agnes Ayers), is there with him and she smashes the death ray. She and Holt are captured and taken on Drakma's yacht. The spy puts Mary on a rum-runner and Holt in a workshop on a lonely island. To save Mary, Holt is ordered to build another death ray. He agrees, but instead he builds a telegraph machine and calls for help. Mary's father, the admiral of a battleship, receives Holt's message and comes to the rescue. He sends a plane to sink Drakma's yacht, and Holt takes a raft out to the rum-runner, where he holds off the crew until the arrival of Walsworth's ship. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

There's something very calculated about this Rudolph Valentino vehicle. As he did in Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, the star plays an Argentine with a talent for the tango. The production and costuming are elaborate, and the story was based on the Rex Beach novel Rope's End. But none of this can help a weak plot line which is stretched mighty thin to last for nine reels. It is arranged for Don Alonzo de Castro to marry Julietta (Helen D'Algy), who comes from a noble Spanish family. Castro's jealous ex-girlfriend, Carlotta (Nita Naldi), schemes with bandit El Tigre (George Siegmann) to destroy their happiness. On the couple's wedding night, El Tigre stages a raid and kidnaps Julietta. Carlos goes after him, but is enraged when he sees a woman with a bridal veil embracing the bandit. He believes it is Julietta, when it's actually Carlotta. Castro plans revenge on El Tigre. Meanwhile, Julietta escapes to a nunnery with the help of Carmelita, a dancing girl (Louise Lagrange). Although Carmelita loves Castro herself, she eventually reveals Julietta's hiding place and the couple are reunited. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Seemingly the only reason for this drama was its proliferation of cameos -- the gambling hall where the action takes place sports the likes of Flora Finch, Henry Hull, Diana Allen and Dagmar Godowsky. The actual star is Edith Roberts. Before he can avenge a crooked card game, Dan Carrington (Montagu Love) suffers heart failure and dies in his chair. John Tralee (Norman Trevor), the cheater, feels a pang of guilt when he discovers that he has taken all of Carrington's money and adopts the dead man's little girl, Lois. The girl grows up (to be played by Roberts) and the gambling hall becomes her second home. A millionaire, Peter Marineaux (Walter Booth), accuses Lois of throwing a roulette game. Lois -- who has fallen in love with Marineaux -- manipulates the wheel so that he wins her. Her gamble pays off and she wins Marineaux as a husband. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

This comedy-melodrama, based on the novel by Rupert Hughes (who also directed), blends fiction and reality to tell the story of a young woman's rise in Hollywood; the film uses real stars and productions (even Charles Chaplin filming A Woman of Paris) as its backdrop. Eleanor Boardman plays Remember Steddon, better known as Mem. Mem is a small-town girl who marries slick bad guy Owen Scudder (Lew Cody); Owen insures his brides and then murders them for the money. After the wedding, Mem starts to have her doubts about him and runs away while their train is chugging through the desert. She happens on a film crew and gets work as an extra, later becoming a famous dramatic actress in Hollywood with the help of director Frank Claymore (Richard Dix). Scudder finally tracks her down during a shoot involving a circus tent; when a storm sets the tent on fire, Scudder loses his life saving Mem from a wind machine's propeller. Freed from her marriage, Mem is able to choose between Claymore and her leading man. Boardman, whose first starring role finds her surrounded by a long and impressive supporting cast, wound up at the Goldwyn studios through a "New Faces" contest. Her co-winner, future star William Haines, also had a bit part as the company's assistant director. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

A remake of a 1916 Clara Kimball Young vehicle, Common Law stars Corinne Griffith as a woman more sinned against than necessary. Forced to support herself after the death of her wealthy mother, Griffith becomes an artist's model in Paris. While being kept by wealthy Conway Tearle (reprising his role from the 1916 film), she falls in love with tempestuous artist Elliot Dexter. A tragedy results, but don't worry, Griffith ends up with the man she truly loves all the same. Common Law was remade a second time in 1931, with Constance Bennett in the lead. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Popular Universal leading man Frank Mayo is put through his customary paces in The Altar Stairs. Mayo plays a rugged ship's captain who comes to the rescue of a group of South Sea natives. The locals have embraced Christianity, but a gang of unscrupulous opportunists have shown up, hoping to exploit this new-found reliogisity. Mayo sets things aright, winning native girl Dagmar Godowsky in the process. Based on a novel by G. B. Lancaster, The Altar Stairs is breezily directed by western-movie vet Lambert Hillyer. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Following the Civil War, Southerner Jefferson Todd (Frank Mayo) finds himself broke, so he becomes a river boat gambler. One of his fellow card players is Colonel Brereton (Mark Fenton), who bets four horses -- the last of his possessions -- and loses. As a result, he commits suicide and Todd is left to explain things to the Colonel's daughter, Ophelia (Beatrice Burnham). But his wicked brother-in-law, Raoul Castiga (Jason Harris) has already tried to turn Ophelia against Todd. Eventually Ophelia sees Castiga as the scoundrel he really is and he and Todd wind up in a duel. Castiga shoots before the count is over, but Todd is uninjured. Todd and Ophelia decide to stake claims in the West, as does Castiga. On the night after the land rush, Todd and Castiga battle it out once again and this time Castiga falls into a pool and drowns. Is it any surprise that this manly picture was an early directorial effort by John Ford? ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide