Gloria Grey

Friday (Jack Webb) and Smith (Ben Alexander) are off on another missing-persons case. While searching the missing man's apartment, the two detectives pull a Murphy bed from the wall. As a result of what they find wrapped in the bedsheets, the case suddenly becomes a murder investigation! This episode is unusually top-heavy with familiar character actresses, including Dragnet perennials Claudia Bryar and Marjorie Stapp. ~ 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

Yet another heroine faces yet another forced marriage in this typical Fred Humes oater, produced, cookie-cutter style, by Universal. Humes, as Tom Evans, and his companions, Shorty Mullins (Pee Wee Holmes) and Tradin' Sam (Ben Corbett), rescue lovely Helen Turner (Gloria Grey) from being harrassed by Lannister (Tom London) and his men. Despite his defeat, Lannister attempts to persuade Helen's father (Harry Semels) that he, Lannister, is the right man for the girl. Refusing to take "no" for an answer, the villain kidnaps Helen, while his compatriots attempt to keep Tom at bay. Threatening to kill her father, Lannister finally gets his long awaited "yes," but Tom and his friends arrive to change the wedding plans once again. Humes sidekicks, the diminutive Holmes and rustic-looking Corbett, also starred in a series of mild Western comedies under the umbrella titles of "Piperock Stories." ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Hayden Stevenson played the title role in this, one of Universal's most popular silent serials. A mystery villain, known only as the Spider (Al Hart), is out to steal Lord Blanton's (Herbert Prior) secret formula for the manufacturing of gold. Blanton's plucky daughter, Lady Diana (Gloria Grey), hires Angus Blake, a retired Scotland Yard detective, to capture the Spider, which the eminent sleuth finally manages to do in chapter 12, "The Final Reckoning." Along the way, Blake is aided at key moments by the helpful but enigmatic Lady in White (Grace Cunard). Produced for around 100,000 dollars, Blake of Scotland Yard grossed more than three million dollars worldwide and necessitated a sequel, The Ace of Scotland Yard (1929). A remake starring Herbert Rawlinson was produced by low-budget Victory Pictures in 1937. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Champion athlete Frank Merrill stars in the tongue-in-cheek actioner Unknown Dangers. Merrill plays a theatrical reviewer who pans a stage melodrama, insisting that such things could never happen in real life. A group of theater managers decide to get their revenge by staging a phony kidnapping and luring the reviewer into the "crook's" lair. Merrill overhears these plans and allows himself to fall into the trap set for him, determined to have the last laugh. But as it turns out, he wanders into a den of genuine kidnappers who, of course, he assumes to be actors. Unaware of the real danger that he's in, Merrill makes short work of the crooks and rescues their female victim, leading to a zany Keystone-like climactic chase. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Mary Carr, who though relatively youthful and energetic specialized in playing downtrodden old matriarches, starred in the low-budget Nightwatch. The story takes place in Mountain Country, where two moonshining families, the Blackwells and the Powells, are engaged in a long-standing feud. George Blackwell (Charles Delaney) falls in love with Nellie Powell (Gloria Grey), much to the dismay of Ma Blackwell (Carr) and Pa Powell (Jack Richardson). Only when the revenue agents show up to close down their stills do the two families patch up their differences, whereupon George and Nellie head to the altar. To note that Night Watch was based on the Hatfield-McCoy feud (still smoldering in 1926) is superfluous. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Filmed on location in Texas, this very minor silent crime drama starred Roy Hughes in the title role, a cop who catches a gang of bank robbers and wins the daughter (Gloria Grey) of the bank's president (Joseph Swickard). Produced by Mrs. Frank J. Hart, Officer Jim was distributed by the Lee-Bradford Corp. to smaller venues only. Director Wilbur McGaugh was a busy supporting player, mainly playing sneaky-looking villains in B-Westerns. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

More substantial than most of the potboilers produced in the late '20s by Harry J. Brown, The Snob Buster starred former male model Reed Howes as a conceited socialite who returns from the war a true democrat. The new and improved Ted Pendergast cares only for the welfare of fellow veteran Butch McGuire (David Kirby), a pugilist, and Pendergast, Sr. (Wilfred Lucas) promptly has him committed to a sanitarium. Junior quickly escapes, however, and moves in with Butch and his lovely sister Molly (Gloria Grey). A local prize fighter, Kid Lowry (Ray Johnston), goads the newcomer into a grudge match, but Ted is forcibly returned to the sanitarium by his father as the contest is about to start. He escapes once again, and with Molly cheering him on, he wins the big match and, in time, his father's acceptance. One of the best-looking stars of his generation, Reed Howes was no actor in any real sense of the word, and his career descended into bit parts after the changeover to sound. He continued to appear in Westerns and action melodramas until shortly before his death in 1964. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Jackie Coogan stars as Mickey Hogan, the young orphan who is shipwrecked on his journey from San Francisco to Australia in this adventure drama. He and a black cat raft onto an isolated tropical island inhabited by cannibals. When the fiery youngster fights back, he is made the official god of war by the tribe. Mickey rescues two men and a young girl who inadvertently end up on the menu of the hungry tribe. He is rescued by a U.S. Navy destroyer and reunited in California with his friend Captain McDavitt (Will R. Walling). Tom Santschi, Noble Johnson, and Tote Ducrow co-star with Bert Sprotte and Gloria Grey. After the box-office failure of his previous film A Boy Of Flanders, Coogan re-established his considerable reputation with this performance. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

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, All Movie Guide

Johnny Harron, brother of actor Robert Harron, heads the cast in this mediocre crime drama. Country boy Johnny Miller (Harron) goes off to war, leaving behind his childhood sweetheart May Blake, who is blind (Gloria Gray). While at the front he risks his life to save Phil Condon (Eugene Beaudine), who he has befriended. What he doesn't realize is that Condon is a crook. Back home after the war, the only work Miller can find is as a gardener. Condon, meanwhile, has returned to his old associates and his greedy sweetheart, Dolores (Dorothy Revere). Dolores threatens to leave him unless he gets some money together, so he breaks into the home where Miller is working, and pins the crime on him. Miller is forced to leave town, and returns to May. During another robbery, Condon murders a cop and forces Miller to hide him at the Blake home. He orders Miller to steal money from May and her mother, and when he refuses, tries to do the job himself. Miller gives him a thrashing, and the police arrive in time to make the arrest. Since May has regained her sight, she and Miller are joyfully united. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide