Raymond Hatton Movies
Looking for all the world like a beardless Rumpelstiltskin, actor Raymond Hatton utilized his offbeat facial features and gift for mimicry in vaudeville, where he appeared from the age of 12 onward. In films from 1914, Hatton was starred or co-starred in several of the early Cecil B. DeMille productions, notably The Whispering Chorus (1917), in which the actor delivered a bravura performance as a man arrested for murdering himself. Though he played a vast array of characters in the late teens and early 1920s, by 1926 Hatton had settled into rubeish character roles. He was teamed with Wallace Beery in several popular Paramount comedies of the late silent era, notably Behind the Front (1926) and Now We're in the Air (1927). Curiously, while Beery's career skyrocketed in the 1930s, Hatton's stardom diminished, though he was every bit as talented as his former partner. In the 1930s and 1940s, Hatton showed up as comic sidekick to such western stars as Johnny Mack Brown and Bob Livingston. He was usually cast as a grizzled old desert rat, even when (as in the case of the "Rough Riders" series with Buck Jones and Tim McCoy) he happened to be younger than the nominal leading man. Raymond Hatton continued to act into the 1960s, showing up on such TV series as The Abbott and Costello Show and Superman and in several American-International quickies. Raymond Hatton's last screen appearance was as the old man collecting bottles along the highway in Richard Brooks' In Cold Blood (1967). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide- 1914
If the larger-than-life approach to this complicated picture (based on the novel The Rose in the Ring by George Barr McCutcheon) seems reminiscent of Cecil B. DeMille, that's not surprising. Its director, Oscar Apfel, basically taught fledgling filmmaker DeMille how to direct. When David Jenison (Jode Mullally) is falsely accused of a murder, he joins a traveling circus owned by Thomas Braddock (character actor extraordinaire Theodore Roberts). Braddock's wife, Mary (Mabel Van Buren) and daughter, Christine (Florence Dagmar) both take a liking to David and insist that he be given a job as one of the clowns. But hunchback Ernie Cronk (Raymond Hatton) resents David's presence because he loves Christine himself and tries to turn him in to authorities. Ernie's brother Dick (Frank Hickman) helps David escape. Eventually the real killer -- David's uncle -- confesses to the crime on his deathbed and David is exonerated. Before leaving the circus he proposes to Christine, but Mrs. Braddock claims they are too young and insists that they wait for five years. During that time Braddock goes head-to-head with his rival, Colonel Grand (Frank Montague), and loses -- Braddock winds up in jail, while Grand takes control of the circus. At the end of the five years, Braddock gets out of jail and goes to kill Grand but Ernie Cronk is the one who does the deed. The experience makes a new man out of Braddock, while David and Christine are finally united. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- 1915
The grandfather of Betty Wright (Ina Claire) is willing to give her a substantial amount of money if she marries the son of a friend. But she wants no part of an arranged marriage with someone she's never met, so she changes her name and runs away with a theater troupe. There she meets Bob Randall (Tom Forman), who is also going under an assumed name, and is the son of the grandfather's friend -- he has also run away, for the same reasons as Betty. Predictably, the pair fall in love. The troupe is stranded and its members thrown in jail for failing to pay their board. Betty's mother (Helen Marlborough) comes to rescue the girl, and pays to get the whole troupe out of the clink. It's only then that Betty and Bob discover each other's true identities, and they tell their families that a marriage is now acceptable to them. This was stage actress Ina Claire's screen debut. It was based on a play by William C. DeMille (older brother of director Cecil B. DeMille), and he also wrote the scenario. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- 1915
The Golden Chance was the last of 12 (!) films directed in 1915 by Cecil B. DeMille. Scripted by DeMille and Jeannie MacPherson, the story concentrates on Mary Denby (Cleo Ridgely) a young wife forced to take a job as a seamstress when her husband Steve (Horace B. Carpenter) spends all their money on booze. Mary's employer, socialite Mrs. Hilary (Edythe Chapman) is busily arranging a society marriage for business purposes. When the prospective bride fails to show up at an important party, Mrs. Hilary persuades Mary to take the girl's place. As a result, wealthy Roger Manning (Wallace Reid) falls head over heels in love with her. But then, Mary's husband Steve emerges from oblivion with blackmail on his mind. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1915
This 5-reel sequel to the popular comedy Chimmie Fadden reunited star Victor Moore with director Cecil B. DeMille. This time around, brash Bowery boy Chimmie gets mixed up in a publicity stunt staged by a railroad. With a bag of gold in hand, he is shipped out to Death Valley, where he is supposed to stir up a phony gold rush. He is then slated to reboard the train and head back to New York. It's all to promote the planned breaking of the transcontinental speed record. While the railroad's best-laid schemes go agley, Chimmie comes out of the experience smelling like a rose. Like the earlier Chimmie Fadden, Chimmie Fadden Out West is based on a character created by New York Sun columnist E. W. Townsend. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1915
Bowery toughie Chimmie Fadden was the creation of New York Sun journalist E. W. Townsend. Chimmie proved popular enough with Sun readers to spawn a novel, play, and finally, a 1915 4-reeler. Victor Moore stars as the boisterous Chimmie, who decides to mend his ways when he is befriended by a society lady. She hires the Fadden family as servants, leading to a spot of bother when Chimmie's crooked brother (Raymond Hatton) tries to abscond with the silverware. As for Chimmie himself, he inaugurates a romance with French maid Camille Astor, though he's too shy to give her a kiss until the final fadeout. Chimmie Fadden was directed by Cecil B. DeMille, who was reteamed with Victor Moore five months later for Chimmie Fadden Out West. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1915
1915 was a big year for civil war films -- this powerful five-reeler was released around the same time as D.W. Griffith's landmark Birth of a Nation. The Warrens of Virginia was yet another collaboration between film producer Jesse Lasky and stage producer David Belasco. It had originally been a book, then a Belasco stage play. The playwright was William C. DeMille, who also wrote the screenplay. It was directed by DeMille's younger brother, Cecil, and was one of the best of his early directorial efforts. The story concerns Ned Burton (House Peters), who leaves his Southern girlfriend, Agatha Warren (Blanche Sweet), to fight for the Union forces. He becomes a special agent and Agatha, who is wavering between her loyalty for the Confederacy and her love for Burton, gives him shelter. By the war's end, the couple settles their differences and all is well. Mildred Harris has a bit part here; a few years later, she would have a starring role in the DeMille feature Fool's Paradise. Harris is primarily known as the first wife of comedian Charlie Chaplin. Cecil B. DeMille's continuing faith in her (she worked for him off and on until 1944) suggests that perhaps history has underrated her acting talents. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- 1915
Famed opera singer Geraldine Farrar had just recently achieved silent film stardom with Carmen (a part she had also sung on stage). She and producer/director Cecil B. DeMille teamed up again for yet another success with Temptation. Farrar, rather predictably, plays aspiring opera singer Renée Duprée. Renée and Julian (Pedro de Cordoba), an aspiring young composer, are in love. A wealthy impresario (Theodore Roberts) lusts after Renée, but she resists him. When Julian becomes seriously ill, however, she considers giving in to the impresario to get the money needed for Julian's medical bills. Before Renée succumbs, however, the impresario is killed by a jealous girlfriend. After Renée is cleared of any wrongdoing, she and Julian look to a brighter future. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- 1915
The "Armstrong" in Armstrong's Wife was played by Thomas Meighan, just on the verge of his superstardom. As indicated by the title, however, the plot's emphasis is on Meighan's wife, played by Broadway luminary Edna Goodrich. Set in the Canadian north woods, the plot finds city-bred Goodrich having difficult adjusting to her husband's rough-hewn lifestyle. Future director James Cruze plays a bounder who covets Goodrich for himself. Engaged by producer Jesse Lasky as part of his "Famous Players in Famous Plays" series, Edna Goodrich failed to click with movie audiences, and returned to the friendlier confines of the stage. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1915
This Cecil B. DeMille picture (adapted from the novel by Eleanor M. Ingram) was the screen debut for French actress Rita Jolivet. Two brothers, Stefan and Michael Balsic (real-life acting brothers House Peters and Page Peters) are on opposite ends of the Montenegrin political spectrum. Stefan is loyal to the king, while the dissolute Michael is trying to start a revolution with the help of the secret agent of the Empire (Theodore Roberts). When he squanders the money needed by the revolutionaries, Michael decides to court Delight Warren (Jolivet), a New York heiress, and use her money. Delight naively falls for Michael and goes to Montenegro, but Stefan, who knows of the plot, kidnaps her and forces her to marry him. Even though Stefan treats her courteously, Delight continues to believe in Michael until he tries to have his brother poisoned. Since Michael still needs Delight's money, he kidnaps her, along with Danilo Lesendra, Stefan's right-hand man (Lewrence Peyton). He threatens to blind Lesendra unless Delight pays him off. She agrees, but Stefan arrives with his men. Michael kills himself in lieu of the disgrace he faces, and Stefan offers to let Delight return to America. Delight, however, prefers to stay in Montenegro with her husband. This picture also marked the screen debut of another actress in a bit part -- Marjorie Daw. She was said to be 14, but judging from photos, she was probably closer to 12. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- 1915
Cecil B. DeMille's The Arab was based on the stage play by Edgar Selwyn, who plays the title role. The headstrong son of powerful sheik Horace B. Carpenter, Selwyn is punished for his foolish pride. The old shiek sells his son's favorite horse, which passes through many hands before ending up in the possession of pretty missionary Gertrude Robinson. Imperiously, Selwyn steals the horse from Robinson, forcing the poor girl to walk through the scorching desert sands. Eventually, he changes his ways, saving her and her father from a massacre. Though now in love with Robinson, Selwyn must reluctantly bid her farewell when he is forced to assume his late father's duties as shiek. Humorist Irvin S. Cobb appears briefly as a bumptuous American tourist. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1915
Director Cecil B. DeMille adapted the screenplay for Kindling from a play by Charles A. Kenyon. Charlotte Walker plays Maggie Schultz, a young wife and mother-to-be. Through no fault of her own, Maggie becomes the dupe of a gang of burglars. Having already run the gamut of sorrow and misfortune, she despairs at the possibility that her child will be born in prison. Fortunately, the compassionate victim of the burglars takes pity on Maggie and refuses to prosecute, allowing her to return to her husband Heine (Thomas Meighan). In addition to being one of the last WWI-era films to feature sympathetic German characters, Kindling also represented one of the first starring assignments for popular leading man Thomas Meighan. Director DeMille would soon abandon the "naturalistic" style of this film, preferring instead to indulge himself in slick sex farces and overly opulent spectacles. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1915
William C. DeMille adapted his screenplay for The Woman on the stage play by DeMille's father Henry and David Belasco. The story is set in Washington D.C., courtesy of the Lasky Studio's scenic department. Lois Meredith plays the title character, a woman of questionable morals currently involved with young politician James Neill. Political boss Theodore Roberts hopes to ruin Neill by making public the young man's romantic entanglements. But Roberts is in for an unpleasant surprise: Meredith turns out to be his own long-lost daughter. According to contemporary critics, the film's success rose or fell upon the audience's acceptance of the avuncular Theodore Roberts in a wholly unsympathetic role. Several members of the William and Cecil B. DeMille stock company appear in supporting roles, including Mabel Van Buren, Raymond Hatton and Billy Elmer. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lois Meredith, Theodore Roberts, (more)
- 1915
No relation to the Charlie Chaplin two-reeler of the same name, Lasky Features' The Immigrant was a vehicle for Valeska Suratt, one of the most formidable rivals of movie "vamp" Theda Bara. Fresh off the boat from Russia, immigrant Masha (Suratt) is seduced by J. J. Walton (Theodore Roberts), the libidinous owner of a construction firm. With nowhere else to turn, Masha agrees to marry Walton, but she carries on an illicit romance with Walton's business rival David Harding (Thomas Meighan). Though this clandestine relationship ends up with Walton's death and Harding's financial ruination, Harding is willing to forgive and forget when the chastened Masha promises to change her ways. The highlight of The Immigrant was its exploding-dam finale (which were fairly commonplace in films of this period). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1915
The hoary old David Belasco stage operetta is given the full DeMille treatment in this classic silent western starring Mabel Van Buren as the saloon hostess who loses her heart to a notorious highwayman (House Peters). The Lasky Company's wonderful character man Theodore Roberts played sheriff Jack Rance, who loves the girl and instigates the climactic card game that will determine the fate of all three of them. If she wins, the girl's lover will go free; if she loses, she belongs to Rance. DeMille was called the Belasco of moving pictures, and the story was a natural for his flamboyant talent. It was also an enduring success, and there were three remakes: in 1923 (starring Sylvia Breamer), 1930 (starring a miscast Ann Harding) and, finally, the lavish 1938 musical starring Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- 1916
A typical fanciful silent screen romance based on a bodice-ripping pulp novel, To Have and to Hold marked the screen debut of Mae Murray, the dancer with the bee-stung lips who had made quite a name for herself in several editions of the Ziegfeld Follies. Murray played Lady Jocelyn Leigh, who rather than marry Lord Carnal (Tom Forman), a man she loathes, changes places with her maid and sails to the New World as a mail-order bride. She is escorted by the dashing Captain Percy (Wallace Reid) and they fall in love. Lord Carnal, of course, isn't far behind and soon all three are shipwrecked and at the mercy of Robert Fleming's band of pirates. Mae Murray found filmmaking bewildering this first time out. Not expecting To Have and to Hold to be made out of sequence, she constantly turned to the more experienced Reid for advice. Happily, director George Melford never asked the dancer to do much more than strike ornamental poses while Reid performed his patented derring-do. A disillusioned Murray was all set to return to Broadway but Famous Players director Cecil B. De Mille persuaded her to stick around. She did and would eventually become the archetypal tempestuous silent screen star, the basis, some sources suggest, for the character of Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard (1950). Paramount remade To Have and to Hold in 1922 starring the rather more sensible Betty Compson. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- 1916
Charismatic Japanese film star (Sessue Hayakawa and his charming wife Tsuri Aoki were teamed in the complicated melodrama Honorable Friend. The story takes place in an Japanese community in coastal California, where crooked antique dealer Kayosho (Raymond Hatton) holds sway as the richest man in town. Purchasing a "picture bride" from the Old Country, Kayosho sends his faithful assistant Makino (Hayakawa) to Japan to escort the girl back to America. But upon gazing at the beauty of bride-to-be Toki-Ye (Aori), Makino falls in love with her himself. Declaring that she would sooner kill herself than become Kayosho's bride, Toki-Ye apparently plants the seed of a murder plot in Makino's head. When Kayosho turns up dead, Makino and Toki-Ye each assume that the other is the guilty party, and each assumes the blame. It turns out, however, that the actual culprit is the fellow whom one would least suspect (if one were not a member of the movie audience, that is). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1916
The first of several screen versions of Bret Harte's venerable action yarn Tennessee's Pardner was delivered to the movie-going public in 1916 by producer Jesse L. Lasky. Graduating from convent school, heroine Tennessee (Fannie Ward) heads Westward to meet her guardian Jack Hunter (Jack Dean), whom she believes to be her father. En route, she is kidnapped by outlaw Romaine (Charles Clary), who forces her to become his wife. What neither Tennessee nor Romaine know at this point is that Romaine's blowsy mistress Kate (Jessie Arnold) is really Tennessee's long-lost mother. All the facts come out when Jack Hunter leads a rescue party to save Tennessee from Romaine's clutches. The best-known cinemadaptation of Tennessee's Pardner was filmed in 1955, with John Payne, Rhonda Fleming and Ronald Reagan in the cast and Allan Dwan in the director's chair. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
A sweeping chronicle of the life and death of Joan of Arc, the Maid of Orlean, this epic stands as one of director Cecil B. DeMille's finest works and offers film buffs a fascinating look into the early years of one of Hollywood's greats. The story of the valiant French martyr is framed by the modern tale of a British soldier who, while fighting WW I, digs up a rusted 15th century sword. Soon afterward he falls asleep and begins dreaming that he is a soldier in Joan's army. With a cast of 1,400 extras, full-sized sets, spectacular battle scenes and hand-tinted prints, DeMille spared no expense with his epic and though the $300,000 seems paltry by today's filmmaking standards, it was a fortune in 1916. It was money well spent for Joan the Woman stand's times test as an exceptional example of the epic film. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1916
Although this classic Charles Dickens tale was filmed at least twice previously, this Lasky version was the first to really do it justice. Perhaps casting 25-year-old actress Marie Doro as the orphan Oliver Twist was questionable, but then, this was the era where Mary Pickford played children into her mid-thirties. The rest of the casting was utterly solid, with great silent character actor Tully Marshall as Fagin and stage and silent star Hobart Bosworth as Bill Sykes. As much attention was paid to the smaller roles, with James Neil putting in a crusty, yet tender portrayal of Grimwig, the churlish pal of the kindly Mr. Brownlow. London's sordid nineteenth century slums are well-depicted too -- in fact, some critics of the 1910s felt the scenery too unpleasant to appeal to film patrons of the era. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- 1917
Character actor Theodore Roberts had to carry this film all on his own, which was a near-impossible task. He plays country lawyer Abel Manning, who is very passionate about his political party. Through the force of his oratory, he helps elect James Kitwell (Ernest Joy) to the U.S. Senate. Kitwell has promised to reward Manning an important post. No job is forthcoming until a scheme is offered to the unscrupulous Kitwell by Pedro Gonzales (Charles West). Gonzales plans a revolution in Mexico and needs a corruptible American consul. Kitwell decides Manning is the man for the job. But Manning is a man of principle, and this immediately gets him in a lot of hot water with the revolutionaries. He and his daughter Joan (Maude Fealy) are at the mercy of the rebels when Joan's fiancé Geoffrey (Tom Forman) wires for the Marines, who march in and save the day. This film was originally a play by Paul West, and fared much better on the legitimate stage. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
Even popular Japanese leading man Sessue Hayakawa was swept up into the distinctly occidental intrigues of WWI in William C. DeMille's The Secret Game. Flying in the face of the "Yellow Peril" scare fomented by such reactionaries as William Randolph Hearst, the film cast Hayakawa as heroic Japanese secret service agent Naru-Naru, whose job it is to escort a U.S. Navy convoy through treacherous Russian waters. Naru-Naru and his American counterpart Major Northfield (Jack Holt) both fall in love with Kitty Little (Florence Vidor), a Yankee girl who has been forced into collaboration with the Germans. Ultimately, Kitty is saved from her captors by Naru-Naru, who sacrifices his own life for the sake of the Red, White and Blue. The Secret Game was one of four films in which Sessue Hayakawa co-starred with Florence Vidor, and one of three in which Vidor was teamed with Jack Holt. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1917
Handsome silent screen idol Wallace Reid takes a job as manager of a stage-line in this early silent western directed by the prolific George Melford. Reid's Henry DeSpain not only defeats the notorious Morgan gang but falls for the gang leader's (Theodore Roberts) lovely daughter, Nan (Ann Little). The climax of the film was a dramatically staged blizzard; the scene, according to Hollywood lore, was directed by Cecil B. DeMille, who substituted that day for an ailing Melford. The villain was played by Theodore Roberts, Paramount's premiere character star who appeared in seven other films that year. Leading lady Ann Little (formerly Anna) was a well-known equestrienne and daredevil actress. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- 1917
This Jessie L. Lasky production was a sequel to the pioneering feature film The Squaw Man; both properties, in fact, were based on novels written by Edwin Milton Royle. Wallace Reid stars as Lord "Hal" Effington, the grown son of the character played by Dustin Farnum in the original Squaw Man. Abandoning his ancestral British mansion, Hal returns to the dusty Western town of his birth, where he falls in love with college-educated Native American maiden Wah-na-gi (Anita King). Unfortunately, Hal neglects to inform his new sweetheart that he is already married (his wife is played by Reid's real-life missus Dorothy Davenport). Fortunately, Lady Effington is willing to give Hal a divorce, but when he finds out that his wife is hopelessly addicted to prescription drugs, he loyally returns to her side. Feeling abandoned, Wah-na-gi wanders off to commit suicide, only to be prevented from doing so at that last moment by her beloved Hal, whose wife has conveniently kicked the bucket. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1917
Reportedly, director Cecil B. DeMille and leading lady Mary Pickford did not see eye to eye during the making of this lavish Western melodrama filmed on location among the giant redwoods in northern California. "Little Mary" actually plays a female her own age this time (maybe that was the trouble) as a young woman whose father is killed in an Indian raid. Pickford falls for a dashing outlaw (Elliott Dexter), whom she later frees after his inevitable capture by persuading the sheriff (Walter Long) that she is pregnant. Amazingly, the ruse works and they are allowed to plan a future together in freedom. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
It would be easy to assume that combining Mary Pickford's charm with director Cecil B. DeMille's penchant for the spectacular would create an exceptional piece of work. But judging from this picture, and the one made before it -- Romance of the Redwoods -- that just wasn't the case. The bottom line was that both Pickford and DeMille wanted control over their productions and neither of them were truly capable of the kind of compromise required by collaboration. As a result, their work together suffered. America had recently entered World War I when this picture was made, and it was one of innumerable patriotic films produced around this time. It begins in 1914 with American Angela Moore (Pickford) and her two foreign suitors -- a German, Karl Von Austreim (Jack Holt) and a Frenchman, Count Jules de Destin (Raymond Hatton). Angela prefers Karl, but when war breaks out in Europe, both men go to serve their countries. Eventually Angela, too, sails for France, but her ship is sunk by a U-boat (although not named, the ship is presumed to be the Lusitania). She is saved, but when she arrives at her destination, she finds her aunt dead, and the family chateau transformed into a hospital for those wounded in battle. The Germans arrive to fight, rape and pillage. Angela and Karl are reunited when, unaware of her identity, he tries to attack her. She forgives him this transgression, but when the Germans discover her sending messages to the French, the commander (Herbert Bosworth) orders her shot. At this, Karl denounces his country and he is ordered to be shot, too. The pair are saved by a French shell which blows up the Germans at an opportune moment, and after an all-night battle, they are found by the Allies, sleeping at the foot of a cross. Although Karl is arrested, Angela is able to have him freed and they leave for the U.S. together. This mediocre film was overshadowed by the far superior Poor Little Rich Girl, which was released earlier in the year. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
