Agnes Ayres Movies

Claudette Colbert is a young freethinking woman living in Salem, Massachusetts during the notorious 17th century "witch trials". Colbert falls in love with adventurer Fred MacMurray, causing no end of scandal with the Puritan townsfolk. A hateful little girl (Bonita Granville) pretends to be "possessed", thereby convincing the Salemites that Claudette is a witch. Tried and convicted of sorcery, the poor girl is sent to be burned at the stake, but is rescued in the nick of time by MacMurray, who convinces the townsfolk that they've been the victim of a hoax. Maid of Salem earned a footnote in entertainment history in 1937 when it was booed off the screen of New York's Paramount theatre by fans who wanted to see the evening's real attraction--a performance by Benny Goodman and his orchestra. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

One Horse Town is the TV title for MGM's 1936 version Small Town Girl (the new title was bestowed to avoid confusion with the 1953 remake). Robert Taylor plays an irresponsible playboy who is arrested in a backwater town for drunken driving. While intoxicated, Taylor proposes to local girl Janet Gaynor. She accepts, knowing full well that he wouldn't have popped the question had he been sober. Gaynor spends the rest of the film trying to reform Taylor and to get him to fall in love with her while he's got all his faculties--no small trick, in that her competition is sophisticated Binnie Barnes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

At the tail end of her starring career, Agnes Ayres played a young woman attempting to prove that her father (Rhody Hathaway) was framed in this confusing crime drama from low-budget Raleigh Pictures. After stealing a false confession from the district attorney's office, Billie Marden (Ayres) finds herself blackmailed by a detective who forces her to act as co-respondent in a nasty divorce case. The district attorney (Forrest Stanley), who has fallen in love with Billie, not only helps her escape from the blackmailer but also nails the gang that framed her father. The whole affair is a sordid one, and a far cry from Ayres' most famous film, The Sheik (1921). ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Paul Bern became more well known as an MGM producer under Irving Thalberg than he did as a director, but had he stuck to directing, he probably would have been a major success there too. Bern approached this simple domestic comedy-drama with a sophisticated touch. The Stanleys, Judith and Robert (Agnes Ayers and Pat O'Malley), have been married for a year and their annoying little habits are starting to get on each other's nerves. Judith ignores the wise advice her grandmother (Ruby Lafayette) gives her and almost loses her husband to one of his former sweethearts, Bess Carlyle (Jane Winton). When Judith finds out that Robert has visited Bess, she sues for divorce and goes to Europe while waiting for the decree to become final. But while she's away she realizes that she still loves her husband, and Grandma urges her to return home, since he is getting ready to wed Bess. Judith rushes back to the States where she reconciles with Robert -- with Grandma's help. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

This drama was based on the novel The Love Serum by Gouverneur Morris. Bootlegging lovers Joe Strickland (Conway Tearle) and Bessie Hayes (Agnes Ayres) have a parting of the ways and both decide to reform. Bessie becomes a manicurist and lands a wealthy husband who turns out to be miserly and mean. Strickland saves society girl Marion Winslow (Alyce Mills) from drowning, and after he becomes a civil engineer, he marries her. Bessie is being blackmailed by one of her former associates, and when she meets up with Strickland once again, he makes an effort to help her. This does not please Marion, who doesn't understand the situation and becomes jealous. To help mend Strickland's relationship with his wife, Bessie decides to come clean about her background. Although the couple is reconciled, Bessie is not so fortunate. She discovers that "the world never forgives a woman who sins" (it was a decidedly different world back in the 1920s) and kills herself. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

This drama, which featured a fine cast, looked more expensively made than it actually was. When revolution overtakes Russia, Alex Boroff (William Orlamond) is left penniless. His daughter, Sasha (Agnes Ayers), is in love with Count Michael (Percy Marmont), but Rogojin (George Siegmann), a coachman who is now a political power, tries to force her to marry him. Michael is ordered to be shot, but he manages to escape. The night before Sasha's unwanted wedding, Rogojin is found murdered. The Boroffs travel to America and Sasha becomes a nurse. At the urging of her family, she marries Dr. Godfrey Luke (Robert McKim), who has a very successful practice. Michael becomes a famous opera singer and Sasha sees him perform. She finds out that Michael was told she was dead and he has married someone else, so she does not pursue a meeting with him. But Michael's wife, Helen (Kathlyn Williams), meets Dr. Luke and they run off together. To protect his honor, Michael challenges the doctor to a duel, and a stray bullet hits Sasha, who has come to stop them. Michael falls into a state of shock at the realization that Sasha is still alive, and Dr. Luke promises to save his life providing that Sasha not seek a divorce. But Grisha, a dwarf who has invented a "radio cure" (John George), brings Michael back to his senses himself. The song "Souvenir," which Michael is seen (if not heard) singing, played a big part in the film's soundtrack, showing that silent films really relied a lot more on sound -- or at least music -- than people nowadays might think. ~ 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

Irene Short (Agnes Ayers) tries to help her husband Donald (Edward Burns) further his career in architecture by running around with members of a fast society crowd. When one of the high-profile members of the set is murdered, first Irene and then Donald are accused of the killing. The Captain of Detectives (George Seigmann) is called to investigate, and the veteran sleuth believes others may be involved. Suspicions eventually lead to the blackmailing editor of a newspaper gossip column in this routine crime drama. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

Even though Wallace Reid died only a few weeks before this film's release, the genre of racing car movies which he made famous apparently lived on. Since Reid was no longer around to star in them, Paramount put Richard Dix in the lead and gave him Agnes Ayres as his co-star. All but stealing the show (as usual) is character actor Theodore Roberts, who had starred with Reid many times. Automobile maker John Kent (Roberts) is an old-fashioned sort who refuses to advertise his car line. His daughter Ginger (Ayres), however, is determined to get him some publicity and goes speeding around town in one of his cars, hoping to get arrested. Roddy Smith (Dix), posing as a cop, stops her. His father owns a rival firm and he suggests that Ginger convince her father to enter his car in the Vanderbilt road race. A competitor of Kent's has a spy in the plant, and he's the one chosen to drive the vehicle. He's supposed to throw the race, but Ginger finds out about the plot and drives the car herself. With Roddy's help she wins -- and Roddy wins her heart. To add authenticity, James A. Murphy, a real race car driver, was cast in a small role. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Cecil B. DeMille's first screen version of The Ten Commandments is only peripherally a Biblical story. The film's first 45 minutes recaps the struggle between Moses (Theodore Roberts) and Rameses (Charles de Roche) over the liberation of the Hebrews. Only after the Lord has imposed a series of plagues upon Egypt does Rameses relent and permit the Exodus to take place--only to go back on his word a few moments later. The scenes of thousands of Hebrews trekking across the desert, the parting of the Red Sea (an effect accomplished in part by splitting a bowl of gelatin down the middle) and the pre-Commandments revelries before the Golden Calf--complete with a fetchingly undressed Estelle Taylor as Miriam--are produced on a spectacular scale...but this is only the beginning. Just as Moses is invoking the Wrath of God upon the ungrateful Hebrews, the film dissolves to the present day (1923, that is). We are introduced to the MacTavish Family: pious, Bible-thumping Martha McTavish (Edythe Chapman) and her sons, straight-arrow John (Richard Dix) and hedonistic Dan (Rod LaRocque). Both sons love Mary Leigh (Leatrice Joy), but the roguish Dan wins out. While John continues honoring the Ten Commandments, Dan breaks as many as he can get his hands on, especially after falling under the spell of Eurasian adventuress Sally Lung (Nita Naldi). Before the uplifting climax, wherein John and Mary finally get together with (it is implied) the blessings of Heaven, we are treated to a series of disastrous plot turns, including the death of mother McTavish in a collapsing church, Sally Lung's revelation that she has leprosy, and a wild speedboat chase. All that's missing is the kitchen sink. Partially filmed in Technicolor at a then-astronomical cost of $1.2 million (a sum that caused a decade-long rift between Cecil B. DeMille and Paramount Pictures), The Ten Commandments grossed several times that amount. DeMille's 1956 Ten Commandments dispenses with the modern story to concentrate on the life of Moses. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Mary Pickford had recently put out a couple of mediocre pictures and her latest, Little Lord Fauntleroy, wasn't an immediate hit with her audience (although it would gross over a million dollars -- an enormous sum in those days -- some fans initially voiced disappointment in the film). It was time for Pickford to pull out a sure thing, and a remake of 1914's Tess of the Storm Country made a lot of sense. Tessibel Skinner is the kind of character her audiences loved -- the ragged but spunky young girl who is willing to make a great sacrifice. And Pickford had been very disappointed with Edwin S. Porter's primitive direction in the earlier version. So she bought the rights to the 1909 Grace Miller White novel and went about making it the right way. The result was an enchanting, if overlong, film. Tess is the daughter of a squatter (Forrest Robinson), and the rich man (David Torrence) who owns the land is dying to get rid of them and the other squatter families. Tess is just as determined to make sure they all stay. The man's son, Frederick Graves (all-American leading man Lloyd Hughes), is on her side. When Frederick's sister Teola (Gloria Hope) becomes pregnant out of wedlock, Tess protects her by claiming the child as her own. She is ostracized and the infant is refused baptism, so Tess sneaks into the church and does her own ritual. Eventually the truth comes out, the elder Graves learns some humility, and all ends well. Tess was a big hit and wound up grossing almost as much as Little Lord Fauntleroy. It also changed the life of Lloyd Hughes and Gloria Hope -- they fell in love on the set and later married. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Although Agnes Ayres is best-known today as Rudolph Valentino's co-star in The Sheik, she was a substantial star in her own right in the 1920s. She has a dual role in this drama, which has spiritual undertones. Edith (Ayres) is the jazz-loving wife of James Wayne, a rather stolid young man (Milton Sills). She believes that Wayne is neglecting her, and her attentions turn to his cousin, Clyde Meredith (Casson Ferguson). As their affair deepens, Dora Becket (also Ayres) anxiously watches from beyond the grave. Dora, an ancestor of Edith's, made the same mistake in her day and she is determined to put a halt to the illicit relationship. Edith plans to meet Meredith at Becket's point and sail away with him. She is oblivious to Dora's warnings until an old servant tells her Dora's story -- Dora was drowned when she tried to return to her child after running away with another man. Edith gets the message just in time and is reunited with Wayne and their own little boy. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide