Edward Hearn Movies

Celebrated prize fighter Jack Dempsey was a natural for serials, and industry leader Pathé dutifully cast him in this 15-chapter Western adventure co-starring cowgirl Josie Sedgwick and directed by a young W.S. Van Dyke. The story was the usual chapterplay predicament: A dying father gives his young daughter, Glory (Sedgwick), a bracelet with a gem that contains a partial direction to an underground lake of oil. The other half of the secret is in the possession of James Meeney (Frederick Starr), a gangster who may or may not be working with the girl's greedy stepfather (Herschel Mayall) and brother (Albert Cody). Enter Jack Derry (Dempsey), whose father (Carl Stockdale) is wrongfully imprisoned for a crime actually committed by Royce Rivers (Lon Chaney), a desert rat in league with Meeney. Everything, of course, is cleared up in the final chapter, "The Triple Chase," as Jack not only proves his father's innocence but also wins the affection of the newly oil-rich Glory. Promised a bonus if he could complete each chapter within a week, director W.S. Van Dyke earned a lifelong reputation for speed and efficiency (as well as the nickname "One-Shot Van Dyke") by working his cast and crew furiously but without skimping on quality. On the verge of major stardom, Lon Chaney did double duty in Daredevil Jack as a supporting player and as Dempsey's makeup man, and according to Dempsey, performing the latter duties with "a feather-like touch." Daredevil Jack was a major hit for both Pathé and Jack Dempsey, whose fame skyrocketed as a result. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Young action director W.S. "Woody" Van Dyke was thrown into the lion's den in this 15-chapter Western serial starring the headstrong Ruth Roland. Van Dyke directed the action scenes -- working more with stunt man Robert Rose than Roland herself -- while William Bowman took care of the performance aspects of the serial. Thus, Van Dyke and Roland's almost instinctive dislike for one another didn't really erupt until the following serial, White Eagle (1922), where their full-blown enmity nearly brought filming to a screeching halt. In The Avenging Arrow, the brunette Roland played Anita Delgado, whose female ancestors all have been killed by a mysterious arrow on or about their 21st birthday. No shrinking violet, Ruth decides to break the spell and spends 15 furiously paced two-reel chapters evading the mystery killer, aided in a rather minor way by foppish leading man Edward Hearn. The serial was based on a story, The Honeymoon Quest, by Arthur Preston Haskins. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Gladys Walton is the self-reliant heroine of All Dolled Up. A humble salesgirl, she comes to the rescue of wealthy Florence Turner when the latter is victimized by pickpockets and blackmailers. Literally pummelling the crooks into insensibility, Walton earns a million dollar reward. Though she rises to the top of the social ladder, she remains as likeable and down-to-earth as ever. All Dolled Up was the sort of fare that was eagerly lapped up by all the shopgirls and clerks in the audience, who believed that "There but for the grace of the screenwiter..." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Although Anita Stewart receives top billing in this action picture, it's Edward Hearn who has the more prominent role. Bill Shannon (Hearn) is building a dam in the mountains of the West. Leon Morse, a Wall Street millionaire and railroad magnate (Arthur Stewart Hull), wants the same land as a right-of-way for his railroad. He travels West to negotiate with Shannon, bringing along his fiancée, Anne Wilmot (Stewart), and her Aunt Katherine (Adele Farrington). The trip proves to be Morse's undoing in several ways -- Anne immediately falls in love with Shannon, who is not terribly cooperative about handing over the land. After his offer to Shannon is turned down, Morse plants a bomb to blow up the dam. Anne is the one who saves the day by disconnecting the bomb's wire. After losing the battle for both the land and his sweetheart, Morse crawls back to his Eastern home. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Not just any actress would allow herself to portray a homely spinster for the better part of a feature film, but dramatic actress Pauline Frederick did here -- of course, in the last reel she transforms herself from an ugly duckling into a swan. After the man she loved was stolen by a vamp, Clementina Wing (Frederick) focuses on a career painting portraits and tries to forget about love. But then a young artist friend, Tommy Burgrave (Edward Hearn), brings in his widower uncle, Quixtus (Edward Martindel), to pose for her. Clementina takes Tommy with her to the seaside where she falls ill, and his romance with a young girl begins to make her feel old. Then Quixtus arrives and when it looks as if he's going to fall victim to the same woman who destroyed Clementina's life, she springs into action to make herself more attractive than the vamp. This sparks Quixtus's interest and he falls for her. A child is left in the care of Clementina and Quixtus after the death of its father, and the two of them marry. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Released as part of distributor Wid Gunning's "Entertainment Series," this minor adventure melodrama, reputedly filmed on location in Tahiti, featured a mostly no-name cast enacting a rather trite treasure hunt story. Captain Markham (Walt Whitman) charters the boat of evil Captain Blackton (Fred Stanton) buried on a South Seas island. After observing a National Geographic-style native ceremony, Blackton kills Markham for the treasure, an act which offends the natives. But Markham pays no attention to warnings from his crew and suffers the consequences. Edward Hearn and Ruth Renick played the ingenues, Blackton's first mate and Markham's daughter, respectively. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

This domestic drama played up the hard-working secretary versus lazy wife scenario. Ruth Holt (Derelys Perdue) is the capable secretary, who is far more of a helpmate to architect Elwood Adams (Wyndham Standing) than his indolent wife, Francine (Grace Darmond). The lazy Francine spends her days going through Adams' money and enjoying the questionable attentions of lounge lizard Larry Gilfeather (Kenneth Gibson). Ruth, meanwhile, keeps a close eye on Adams' work and keeps his firm from falling apart. One day, in the midst of a business crisis, Adams has to introduce Ruth to banker Amos Martin (William Conklin) as his wife. Gilfeather informs Francine of this and she causes Ruth no small amount of grief. Francine comes close to ruining her husband's business, but Ruth helps the warring couple reconcile. She also finds love with Martin, enabling her to become a wife all the time. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Nila Lyons (Laura La Plante) is a suburban housewife who craves excitement in her life. She gets it -- and how! -- when she's kidnapped by an Egyptian potentate. Crammed into a mummy case, Nila is rescued at the last possible moment by her "dull" husband Hiram (William Welsh). He then reveals that her abduction was a hoax, staged to cure her of her desire for thrills. Nila then responds by ramming Hiram's head upside his body, but this was a 1920s comedy, so all is forgiven. The plot of Excitement wasn't new in 1924 -- it had previously been employed, with variations, by Doug Fairbanks and Harold Lloyd -- and it certainly wouldn't be the last such "teach 'em a lesson" escapade, as witness such talkie two-reelers as Our Gang's Shiver My Timbers (1931) and Harry Von Zell's Meet Mr. Mischief (1947). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Turmoil was one of Booth Tarkington's most popular novels, and when Universal brought it to the screen, they assigned it to director Hobart Henley, who had directed another Tarkington book-turned-film, The Flirt. James Sheridan Sr. (Emmett Corrigan) is a powerful industrial force in his town, and he expects his three sons to follow in his footsteps. Two of them, Jim (Theodore Von Eltz) and Roscoe (Edward Hearn), willingly follow his decree, but Bibbs (George Hackathorne), the youngest, wants to become a writer. Sheridan forces him to go to work at the shop and he falls apart. The other sons are faring even worse -- Roscoe is so wrapped up in business that his wife Sybil (Eileen Pearcy) gets involved with a womanizer. Jim is drowned when a dam he is working on bursts. Mary Ventrees (Eleanor Boardman) had become engaged to Jim even though she didn't love him, and Bibbs falls for her. He knows that her family has little money, so he proposes. When she turns him down, Sheridan, who has come to see the error of his ways, works on Bibbs' behalf to bring the young people together. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

One of the few female western stars of the 1920s, Josie Sedgwick, played a girl searching for her outlaw father's killer in this routine Universal oater. Along the way, she nurses a handsome mine manager (Edward Hearn back to health, and they fall in love. As an inside joke, the villain in this film, played smoothly by Robert Walker, was given the name of a well-known supporting player, bearded Slim Cole. Like her sister Eileen, Josie Sedgwick's career waned in the mid 1920s, and she left the screen in 1926, returning only once to play Bob Steele's gun-toting mother in Son of Oklahoma (1932). ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

One of Hollywood's few cowgirls, Josie Sedgwick, starred as the lady mayor of a small Western community in this silent oater released by Universal. There was an obligatory hero, of course (the mayor of the neighboring community), but Sedgwick never appeared less than capable of standing up to even toughest of lawbreakers in the hell-fire frontier town of Eden. From a family of vaudeville actors, the somewhat mannish-looking Sedgwick had begun her screen career in the mid 1910s with the old Triangle Company, reaching stardom in Universal Western 2-reelers of the early 1920s. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide