Dell Henderson Movies
Tall, stocky comic actor Dell Henderson left his stage career behind when he and his actress wife Florence joined D. W. Griffith's Biograph players in 1909. He was frequently co-starred with fellow Biograph contractee Mack Sennett, and when Sennett set up his own Keystone studio, Henderson went along as an actor and director. He continued directing into the 1920s, also functioning as producer on such features as Gambling Wives (1924), Quick Change (1925) and Rough Stuff (1925). In 1927, Henderson resumed his acting career; one of his best late-silent performances was as Marion Davies' father in 1928's Show People. During the talkie era, Henderson appeared in dozens of two-reel comedies produced by Sennett, Hal Roach and Columbia. Most of his feature-film roles at this time were bits, with such notable exceptions as the kindly used-car dealer in Leo McCarey's Make Way For Tomorrow (1937) and the night court judge in Laurel and Hardy's Our Relations (1936). Del Henderson's last public appearance was on a 1954 This is Your Life TV installment honoring his former colleague Mack Sennett. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1923
After becoming known as a delightfully greasy villain, Lew Cody gets to play a hero in this adaptation of a James Oliver Curwood story. Since they were children (played by Joseph DePew and Helen Rowland), Raoul Radon (Cody) and Jacqueline Roland (Marguerite Courtot) have been sweethearts. But then Henri Dubois (Sheldon Lewis) comes to their neck of the Northwoods as the lumber camp's new boss. He tries to steal Jacqueline away through deception. Radon becomes convinced that Jacqueline loves Dubois, not him, and wanders off. But then a forest fire breaks out and he saves Dubois only for Jacqueline's sake. After helping put an end to the raging fire, Radon discovers the truth -- that Jacqueline's love for him has never faltered -- and the couple are reunited. As good as Cody is in this picture, he's still upstaged by child actor Russell Griffin in a major supporting role. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- 1922
This is Johnny Hines' second starring feature -- the first was called Burn 'Em Up Barnes, so there seems to be a little theme going. As for the plot, The Film Daily, a trade paper of the era, said "Don't bother about it," and true, it is a bit of fluff. Basically it's just an excuse for Hines to display his fast-paced comic sense and perform some daring stunts. Hines' character, Sure Fire Flint, is born on the Fourth of July and has an independent nature. When he returns from the war, he can't seem to hold onto a job but he can't be kept down, either. He gets fired as a taxi driver and a waiter. Then he becomes a dance partner. Finally, because of his honesty, he lands work managing a factory run by James Reynolds (Robert Edeson). The boss' daughter June (Doris Kenyon) falls for him. When she discovers that a thief is planning to rob her father, she finds herself locked in a safe. Flint, however, comes to the rescue in a death-defying climax. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Johnny Hines, Doris Kenyon, (more)
- 1921
It's no surprise that this rugged story of the Northwest is based on a James Oliver Curwood novel. Two miners (Jack Drumier and James Milady) adopt a couple of orphaned children. When they grow into young adulthood, Hope Dugan (Faire Binney) and Jim McTavish William "Buster" Collier, Jr.) fall in love. The miners want Hope to have a good education and send her to a finishing school. But the school costs them a fortune and one of the men works himself to death. The other miner winds up selling their claim, but then he and Jim are robbed. To get their money back, they stage a hold-up, but Jim is arrested. Hope finds out how much Jim and the miners have suffered on her account and immediately leaves school and returns home. She also drops her finishing school ways and helps the surviving miner rescue Jim from the stage coach which is carrying him to prison. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Faire Binney
- 1921
The husband-and-wife team of Jack Hoxie and Marin Sais starred in this inexpensive oater produced by Ben Wilson's Unity Photoplays. Jack is falsely accused of a shooting actually committed by the sheriff's wife (Sais). He escapes and becomes a hero by catching the bandit (Wilbur McGaugh) who robbed the stage. Cleared of all wrongdoings, Jack marries the outlaw's sister (Evelyn Nelson. Hoxie made 15 Westerns and one serial (Thunderbolt Jack, 1920) for Ben Wilson's various production units before moving over to shoestring producer Anthony J. Xydias and, eventually, Universal. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jack Hoxie, Marin Sais, (more)
- 1921
George Walsh starred in this action-melodrama from Fox about a blind girl, Betty Reed, who is the sole "witness" to the murder of a mine owner and whose mistaken testimony convicts Sid Allen (Brigham Royce), her own benefactor. Years later, the adult Betty (Edna Murphy) returns to the mining town, her sight restored. Fearing that she may remember the truth, the real murderer, "Bull" Snide (Byron Douglas), has the girl kidnapped. She is saved in the nick of time by Dynamite Allen (Walsh), the son of the man wrongfully accused. Do Betty and Dynamite fall in love despite their past? Why, of course they do! Rotund comedian Billy Gilbert adds a bit of relief to the overall tension of this melodrama directed by Dell Henderson. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- 1920
Although George Walsh was known for his athletic roles, his characters weren't necessarily the robust and manly type, so this seafaring drama was something new for him. Shark Rawley (Walsh) is the mate on a tramp schooner captained by the villainous Sanchez (William G. Nally). Both men are drinking at a low dive one night, when a group of people come slumming -- Rodman Selby (Robert Broderick), his business associates, and his daughter Doris (Mary Hall). Selby and the others briefly leave Doris alone at the table, and Sanchez kidnaps her. Rawley follows after them and just catches the ship as it leaves port, where he finds himself up against not only Sanchez but also the rest of the crew in his attempts to save Doris. After a lot of fighting, the boat catches fire and everyone winds up in the water. Rawley and Doris are rescued together by a search party, and she shows her savior proper appreciation for his heroics. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- 1920
Like most silent pictures which take place in the Kentucky mountains, this one involves moonshiners and a feud. The warring families are the Boones and the Harlans; moonshiner Clay Boone (George Walsh) is in love with Mollie Powell (Irene Boyle), a Harlan half sister. But Clay has had enough of the feud when he adopts a little girl who is killed. Much to everyone's consternation, he swears never to pick up a gun again. He is called a coward, even by Mollie, but since this is a George Walsh film, it's clear that guns aren't necessary -- Walsh was famous for his fisticuffs. After he's beaten a number of villains senseless, he and Mollie end up together. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- 1919
Carlyle Blackwell and Evelyn Greeley co-starred in a number of silent films -- this one is a rare comedy vehicle (more often they were in melodramas). When his father dies, press agent J. Butterfield Conroy (Blackwell) discovers that he won't get his vast inheritance until he has made a name for himself in the scientific world. The only trouble is that Conroy has no talent for science...until he meets Mary MacDowell (Greeley). She's the pretty niece of famed entomologist Professor Angus MacDowell (Jack Drumier), who is on his way to Bug Hollow to study some butterflies. Since Mary is going along, Conroy heads for Bug Hollow himself. Mary already has a couple of admirers, Frank Morrison (Richard Neal), who only pretends he is a scientist, and Ybor Cavallo (Escammillo Fernandez). Conroy uses the skills he learned as a press agent to outmaneuver the two men, and discovers that Cavallo is planning to rob the professor. He foils these plans, finds a rare bug, and wins Mary. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- 1919
From its title, one would think this picture was a light comedy, but it isn't -- it's a World War I spy drama, a subject which was growing increasingly stale by early 1919. Carlyle Blackwell plays Charles Conant, a young, wellto-do man who is masquerading as a muleteer on a tramp steamer. He quits the boat in England to look up some distant relatives, Lord and Lady Dartridge. Lady Dartridge's daughter, Lady Joan Templar (Evelyn Greeley) helps him out by giving him work on the estate, but his behavior is suspicious. There are several workers who are secretly plotting to smuggle titanium on board a German submarine, and Conant is quite interested in their activities. Of course by the end of the film, he has proved himself a true-blue American by capturing these bad men -- it turns out that the titanium belongs to his father's company and was inadvertently sold to the Germans. Before Conant goes off to join the Lafayette Squadron in France, Lady Joan has decided to throw away her title and marry him. This convoluted film was originally a Saturday Evening Post story by Kenyon Gambier with an equally convoluted title: "A Huge, Black One-Eyed Man." Some of the English countryside in the picture looks an awful lot like Fort Lee, New Jersey, where World Pictures had its studio. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- 1919
In this domestic comedy, Carlyle Blackwell plays Paul Arden, a struggling, young architect who is in love with Lucille Vale (June Elvidge). Lucille avoids confrontation with her disapproving mother (Matilda Brundage) by hiding love notes for Paul in the base of a statue in her home. But Mrs. Vale finally has her way by convincing Lucille to marry the wealthy Allen Granat (Montague Love). A couple of years later, Granat asks Paul to redesign his home, which formerly had been Mrs. Vale's. In the base of the statue, Paul finds an old love note from Lucille that he had never picked up. Granat is an incredibly jealous sort and Paul, who is still bitter over losing Lucille, decides to hang onto the note so that he has some power over her. Lucille's friend, Suzanne (Evelyn Greeley), persuades him to give her the note, and she lights his pipe with it. But instead of burning, the flame is extinguished when the note is thrown out the window. From that moment on, it takes a circuitous route which brings it back to the Granat household and, eventually, back to Paul's hands. This time, he destroys it for good. Johnny Hines offers some especially amusing moments as the boyfriend of Marion Dorthy Dee, Lucille's sister. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- 1918
During World War I, when the chairman of the U.S. shipping board declared that he wanted America to know that his industry was building the road to France, World Pictures stepped forward and made this film. It begins with one of those poor souls who has hit bottom because of his drinking (a common character in films of the 1910s). Tom Whitney (Carlyle Blackwell) figures he might as well end it all, but a policeman halts his suicide attempt. When the cop finds out that Tom has been exempted from the draft because of an old injury, he suggests that he work for the shipyards, where help is also needed. So Tom goes to work at the yard of John Beamis (Jack Drumier), the father of his former fiancee Helen (Evelyn Greeley). Helen had broken up with him because of a drunken party where he ended up married to a strange girl named Mollie (Muriel Ostriche). Tom turns his life around at the shipyard, becoming one of its most valuable employees. He discovers that three men there, Burns (Henry West), Kraus (Alex Shannon) and Winter (Richard Neill) are German spies who are trying to undermine the labor at the yard. One of the spies kills Beamis and tries to pin the murder on Tom, but Tom, in league with the Secret Service, tricks him into confessing. Then it is discovered that Winter is actually Mollie's husband, so Tom is free to reunite with Helen. Together they watch the launch of the ship "Liberty," which Tom helped to build. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- 1918
Although the son of a rich man, Frederic Pritchard, Jr. (Carlyle Blackwell) is still nothing more than a lazy bum. When his father (Jack Drumier) threatens to cut him off, Frederic Junior decides to become a burglar. This skill turns out to be helpful -- the young man's fiancee Gloria (Evelyn Greeley) has a villainous uncle who is out to take over the factory owned by her mother (Alice Chapin). Frederic steals Mrs. Nevins proxy away from the uncle. In a last-ditch attempt to keep control, the uncle locks Frederic up and goes to the shareholders' meeting to cast the votes. Frederic, however, escapes and through various Douglas Fairbanks-like athletic tricks makes it to the meeting and saves the day. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- 1918
Carlyle Blackwell and Evelyn Greeley were often paired in comedy-dramas during the latter half of the 1910s, but this time around their studio, World, cast them in a crime melodrama. Kid Kelly (Blackwell) is leading his gang in robbing a milliner's shop. Mission volunteer Flo Haines (Greeley), who has stopped by the store to admire a hat, gets caught up in all this, and when the cops come, the gang escapes but Flo is arrested as an accomplice. Instead of seeing her serve 30 days for a crime she was not involved in, Kid turns himself in and serves the required time. Under Flo's influence, he decides to follow the straight and narrow. She works at a florist's factory and is leading her fellow employees on a strike, so the Kid's disgruntled ex-girlfriend Annie (Muriel Ostriche) plots with factory owner Joe Carelli (Joseph Smiley) to trip up the couple. At first they are unsuccessful, but they finally convince Kid that Carelli and Flo are having an affair. Kid walks out in a huff and is wounded in a gang fight. Flo rushes to his side, and since he believes he is going to die, he confesses his love to her. But he recovers, so they are united once again. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- 1918
Small town girl Mary Fenton (Ann Murdock) sings in the church choir and she naively believes a phony impresario who promises to get her started in an operatic career -- after she has attended his vocal school for six months. But when she arrives in New York, she finds that the police have closed the "school" and that no theatrical manager is particularly interested in a girl whose experience is limited to church choirs. Her savings are stolen and she winds up on a park bench, destitute. That's where Charles Owen (Lionel Adams), a young married man, finds her. He convinces her to come up to his rooms. Before his advances get too pressing, however, he in interrupted by friends of his wife's. Owen pawns Mary off as his wife's sister, and the friends invite her to their home. She goes only because she doesn't know what else to do. Owen and his wife show up and things are tense until Mary finally fesses up. The people she has been staying with have a son, Blake Walford (David Powell), who has fallen in love with her. Even though she isn't who she was pretending to be, he decides he still cares for her and proposes. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- 1918
In this comedy-drama, Carlyle Blackwell plays Bobby Briggs, a mama's boy and hypochondriac. Bobby finally becomes so disgusted with himself that he pays Spike Brogan (Jack Drumier), his former college coach, to kidnap him and take him to his health farm. Bobby's fiancee Corinne Norris also wants to see him become a real man and has approached Spike for the same reason. Plus, she has another agenda: her father (Charles Dungan) and Bobby's father (W.T. Carleton) are bitter enemies and she wants their rivalry to stop. So, when Bobby disappears, she writes Mr. Briggs anonymous letters telling him to buy stock in a certain railroad if he wants to see his son alive. Briggs does so, and he saves the business of Corinne's father. Corinne gets herself in a fix with Wesley Martin (Rex Macdougal), a man who pretends to be her friend. But Bobby, who's been made over by his time at the camp, comes to the rescue. Bobby and Corinne's fathers end their feud when their children get married. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- 1918
In this comedy-drama, Carlyle Blackwell plays the Marquis d'Aubeterre, who finds he is penniless after his father's death. He travels from France to America in search of work and, using the name Charles Fontaine, becomes manager to the estate of wealthy Lathrop (Jack Drumier). But Lathrop's daughter Marian (Evelyn Greeley) hates him because she believes he is after her money. Eventually Fontaine gains her trust, but he loses it again when a drunken caretaker locks them both in a tower. She thinks it's a trap, but he vows he would never marry her unless he had more money than she did. Through superhuman efforts, he manages to escape from the tower and avoid scandal. When Marian's other suitor is found with the maid, she realizes that d'Aubeterre is true. Luckily, he has just struck it rich through an investment and his new wealth enables them to be together. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- 1917
This fluffy romance was released by a long-forgotten firm called the Empire All Star Corporation. In spite of its name, there are no stars to be had here -- only journeyman director Dell Henderson's name would endure. Orphan Alice Avery (Julia Sanderson) lives with her stern aunt and uncle, who fear that she will opt for a stage career, just like her dead mother. Artist Richard Danforth (Norman Trevor) comes into Alice's life when he travels to the country for a rest and boards at her home. Danforth makes an offhanded promise to take care of Alice should she ever come to the city, and sure enough, one day she shows up on his doorstep. Since he doesn't know what to do with her, he sends for her maid, Sarah (Jennie Ellison), and introduces her around as a distant relative. This doesn't fly with Danforth's model and paramour, Nancy Arnold (Dore Plowden). The jealous Nancy gives innocent Alice a hard time, so she takes Sarah and disappears. She finds a job as a chorus girl and works her way up to the lead. Like all country girls who come to the city (at least in the movies), Alice is an overnight success. Danforth finally tracks her down and marries her. Alice happily gives up her career to take care of him and his studio. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- 1917
Irene Fenwick plays the daughter of an old bank robber. She wants him to go straight, but the rest of his gang tell her that her father is dying and they need her help to pull off one more heist so that they can send him to the mountains. So she gets a job as a bookkeeper at the bank they're setting up, but she falls in love with the cashier there (Owen Moore). Someone in the gang finishes her father off, and in retaliation she notifies the sheriff (who happens to be in love with the cashier's sister) of their plans. Even though this wasn't exactly a first-rate feature for Paramount, Owen Moore dressed up his part a bit by basing his characterization of the cashier on John Emerson, an actor famous on Broadway back then. Ironically, Emerson became a film director and writer, but was eclipsed by his wife Anita Loos, while Moore's career was eclipsed by his then-wife Mary Pickford. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- 1916
"Wacky" is probably the most conservative adjective one could apply to the two-reel Keystone comedy A Bath House Blunder. Mae Busch does the bathing-beauty bit as a shapely swimming instructor, while Joseph Belmont and Don Likes are cast as Mae's boyfriends. The fly in the ointment is Amazonian Blanche Payson, who is jealous of Mae and does her utmost to make the girl's life miserable. In real life, the 6'1" Payson was a Los Angeles policewoman, whose job it was to keep the Keystone comedians far, far away from the studio's bathing belles. The film's soggy "chase" climax was later excerpted in several silent-movie compilations. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1916
A handsome, wealthy French WW I fighter-pilot attends a fabulous masked ball to find the girl of his dreams in this frothy silent romantic adventure. During the festivities, he ends up kissing a mysterious beauty who immediately steals his heart. He has no idea that he already knows her as his grandmother's secretary. So smitten is the pilot that he decides that he will stop at nothing to marry her. But first he must make absolutely sure, and so begins kissing every woman in sight. Meanwhile, thieves sneak in and steal jewelry leaving the secretary to take the blame. She flees before the police arrive and an exciting chase ensues. Meanwhile, the pilot, seeing her only as a friend in trouble, leaps aboard a hydroplane and rushes off to save her. He lands the plane near her boat and she jumps into the water. As he tries to bring her aboard he hits his head and loses consciousness. Concerned, the secretary gives him a tender kiss. Suddenly the hero awakens joyful in the knowledge that he has finally found his true love. Meanwhile the jewel thieves are captured. As the film draws to a close the lovers engage in a happy kiss. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1916
In this Keystone two-reeler -- one of a series starring stage comedian William Collier, Sr. -- a henpecked husband (Collier) spends most of his time avoiding his domineering wife (Blanche Payson, who gave the term "statuesque" new meaning). When the husband sneaks off in the brand new family Ford so he can entertain his stenographer (Mae Busch), the wife and mother-in-law (Alice Davenport) believe that it has been stolen. The result is a typical Keystone chase, with the Kops in frantic pursuit, which ends with the inevitable wreck. The husband insists on being arrested rather than having to go home to his virago spouse. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- 1916
A Southern gentleman's alcoholism nearly costs him the love of his life in this silent drama set just before the Civil War. Fortunately for the troubled lovers, a wiser, more experienced friend is around to help the young man overcome his addiction and reunite with his lady love. The duo hold an engagement party. Unfortunately, the bride-to-be finds herself threatened by the amorous advances of an inebriated partygoer. To defend her honor and his own, the disgruntled groom challenges the drunken lad to a duel at dawn. The fiance wins, but his father is so angry that he disowns his son. In shame the son, who still loves the girl, moves to the New York home of the wise friend and remains there until his father dies. Surprisingly, he left his son a small inheritance and the young man uses it to head for South America to look for rubies. He finds them and soon becomes extremely wealthy and returns home. There he finds that his old friend has become impoverished. With little hesitation the young man shares his wealth and then gets to marry his true love. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
