Violet Heming Movies

George Arliss is a world-renowned pianist, engaged to a young woman (Bette Davis) much younger than himself. An explosion renders Arliss completely deaf, but he soon becomes an expert lip-reader. To practice this skill, he looks out his window through binoculars, reading the lips of those who pass through the public park below. He learns that many people have problems far worse than his own, so he secretly arranges to solve the financial and emotional crises of those whose words he has read. Arliss' talent backfires on him when he spots his fiancee in the park with another man; she reveals that she does not love Arliss, but is staying with him out of loyalty. Though broken-hearted, Arliss expansively allows his fiancee to marry the man she truly loves, and even arranges for their future security. The Man Who Played God was based on a stage play also starring George Arliss, which he'd previously filmed in 1922. It was remade in 1955 as Sincerely Yours, starring the inimitable Liberace! ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The 31-minute Fox Movietone "featurette" The Knife was adapted from the one-act play of the same name by Henry Arthur Jones. Lionel Atwill plays Dr. Ridgeway, a celebrated London surgeon who reluctantly agrees to perform a delicate and dangerous operation. The patient is Ridgeway's best friend, who may or may not be carrying on an affair with the doctor's wife (Violet Heming). When it turns out that his suspicions are correct, Ridgeway stoically enters the operating theater -- but will he honor his Hippocratic oath and save his friend's life or vengefully let his hand slip, thus ridding himself of an unwanted rival? The answer is left for the audience to decide. The Knife was directed by Thomas B. Chalmers, who also helmed the classic Robert Benchley one-reeler The Treasurer's Report (1928). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Robert Cummings -- not to be confused with the same-named leading man of the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s -- was the grey-eminence star of The Running Fight. Cummings was cast as a banker who destroys his business, and dozens of depositors by misappropriating funds for his own financial gain. In addition to wreaking havoc on the economic climate, the Banker also nearly ruins his daughter's (Violet Hemming) romance with a young lawyer (Thurlow Bergen). Some of the "bank panic" scenes in Running Fight -- notably the hysterical reaction of the banker's mistress -- neatly anticipate similar events in Frank Capra's Depression-era drama American Madness. Alas, the director of Running Fight was not mentioned in the reviews, and his name has been lost to history. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi