Stuart Holmes Movies

Based on a 1914 novel by Robert William Chambers, this silent melodrama from the pioneering Vitagraph Company starred one of the era's great matinee-idols, the Dutch-born Lou Tellegen. Tellegen, who had been a leading man to stage diva Sarah Bernhardt, played David Drene, whose supposedly docile wife Jessica (Anna Q. Nilsson) suddenly elopes with her husband's best friend Jack (Norman Kerry). Jessica's guilt drives her to suicide, and the affair goes unnoticed for years, until the day David announces his engagement to Cecile (Alice Calhoun) and is contacted by a jealous rival, Quair (Stuart Holmes). The evil Quair obligingly tells David of Jack's treachery, and the latter proposes to kill himself. But David, using telepathic powers, prevents the tragedy and forgives him. Between Friends was directed by Vitagraph's founder J. Stuart Blackton. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Roland West, who directed this mystery, also co-wrote the stage play on which it was based. Inventor Peter Marchmont (Henry B. Walthall) goes to prison for a crime committed by James Dawson (Stuart Holmes). While he is locked up he discovers that his wife, Jewel (Alice Lake), has been involved with Dawson, and he swears revenge. Released from prison, he disguises himself and takes on the name Victor Cromport. Having invented a purple light, which makes him invisible, he begins using this device to secretly ruin Dawson's life. The detectives are baffled by the goings on, and in the end Marchmont wins back Jewel's love. As part of his revenge, he forces her to live with Dawson, who she now hates. Instead, he settles down with Ruth Marsh (Helen Ferguson), the girl who has been taking care of his son. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

This tiresome soap opera featured the beautiful but not particularly talented Katherine MacDonald. MacDonald is Dora Mason, who loses her job as a clerk. The illness of her little sister, Molly (Jean Miskimin), is also a strain on her emotionally and financially. After helping Jessup Barnes (Stuart Holmes) redecorate his home, he offers the place to Dora while he is out of town. Dora is grateful for his offer, but then he arrives home early. Barnes' wife (Edith Lyle) shows up, and, finding the two of them together, believes her husband is having an affair. A friend offers to put Dora up in his hunting lodge, and she meets lawyer Lawson Dean (Orville Caldwell). They marry after the death of Dora's sister. Dean runs for district attorney, and his opponent happens to be Barnes. The opposition threatens to reveal that Dora lived with Barnes unless Dean withdraws. When confronted with this, Dora admits she lived at Barnes' home, but Dean refuses to listen to the rest of her story, which explains that she didn't live with him. Dora goes to Barnes to force him to tell the truth. He refuses at first, but finally withdraws from the race. Dean ultimately acknowledges that Dora was an innocent party, and the couple is reconciled. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Clinging to one's youth was considered a fault in the 1920s, as evidenced by this domestic drama. Even though lawyer Hugh Manners (Tully Marshall) is more than happy to allow himself to get old, his wife, who has just turned forty (Myrtle Steadman), certainly has no intention of acting her age (at least, according to the conventions of the day). She calls her husband a "slowpoke" and files for divorce. Then she takes up with Preston Ducayne (Stuart Holmes), a gambler who wants to get his hands on the Manners fortune. The couple's daughter Hazel (Mildred Davis) comes home to find her family in turmoil. She tries to save her mother from scandal, but when Ducayne is murdered, all bets are off. Hazel's fiancé, Robert Belmar (Kenneth Harlan), assumes the guilt, and Manners represents him. The confession of Olga Kazanoff, Ducayne's mistress (Maude George), gets everybody off the hook. After this ordeal, Mrs. Manners decides life in the slow lane isn't so bad after all and reunites with her husband. Incidentally, although Mildred Davis received good notices for her work in this film, she had recently become Mrs. Harold Lloyd, and retired from the screen. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

This low budget program feature had a few lively twists. Playwright Anthony Moore (Harold Miller) refuses to even consider his secretary and fiancee, Mildred Garson (Arline Pretty), for the lead role in his latest crook drama. Angered by Anthony's stubbornness, Mildred asks her brother and sister to help her fake a robbery at Anthony's home. Her brother enlists the help of an underworld leader known as the Fox (Tom Santschi), and they plot to have Mildred play the role of thief. Her scheme takes a frightening turn when real crooks show up and kidnap her. The crooks take her down to Chinatown, where she finds shelter with pious Chinese philosopher Chong Wo (Noah Beery). After the whole incident winds up in the papers and threatens to ruin Mildred's name, Moore goes to Chinatown and has to fight Chong Wo to rescue Mildred. The real thieves are finally captured, saving Mildred's good name, as well as her relationship with Moore. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Following a year-long absence from the screen, Gladys Brockwell returned to films in this Universal melodrama. When she tries to save her friend from the repercussions of an affair, Carol Gordon (Brockwell) gets in trouble with her own newly-wed husband -- he believes that she's the one who has been unfaithful and sends her away. Jack Gregory (Stuart Holmes) -- the man who had the affair with her friend -- now believes that Carol will be an easy mark. But Carol has other things on her mind -- she accompanies him to a South Seas island only to keep him from ruining other women's lives. While on the island, she meets the manly David Hardy (Mahlon Hamilton) and falls in love. Gregory tries to have his way with Hardy's sister Elouise (Edna Murphy), but Carol puts a halt to his scheming. Conveniently, Carol's husband (who was much older than she) dies, and Gregory comes down with some sort of jungle fever and perishes too, so she and Hardy are free to be together. Some comic relief is provided by the always-funny Kate Price, who plays Carol's hefty servant. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

After a string of successes including Outside the Law and The Virgin of Stamboul, Universal gave director Tod Browning's next film "special" status. But Browning, perhaps, tried a little too hard to live up to that in his attempt to make Edna Ferber's story Fanny Herself seem larger than life. In reality it's a simple tale, similar to, though not as good as Humoresque. Molly Brandeis (Grace Marvin) makes great sacrifices to send her son Theodore (John Davidson) to Europe to develop his talent as a violinist; so does his sister Fanny (Mabel Julienne Scott). But his violin playing is no match for his immoral nature, and he turns out to be a disappointment to his family. Mrs. Brandeis dies broken-hearted and Fanny, who has given up what she thought was her one chance at love, decides to go to Chicago. She forges a success as a business woman and is planning to go to Honolulu with her unhappily-married boss when she comes face to face with her old sweetheart. They realize it's not too late for them and they wind up happily together. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Wife May Collins is convinced by a homewrecking female (Marcia Manon) that her husband Richard Dix is unfaithful. Upon learning that she's been hoodwinked, Collins decides to use a few underhanded feminine wiles herself. By proving herself the equal of the woman who broke up her home, wifey wins back hubby. This is what people used to do before talk radio, we suppose. All's Fair in Love was based on The Bridal Path, a play by Thompson Buchanan. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Vania (Emmy Wehlen) is a political refugee who travels from Russia to the United States. But even in America, she is pursued by assassins known as "the Ring of Death" because she carries certain papers given to her back home by her father. She marries a man who turns out to be a drug addict, and in a heated argument, she shoots him. A young lawyer defends her, then falls in love with her. When one of the men who is after Vania gets shot, he admits that he was responsible for the bullet that killed her husband. So Vania and her lawyer wind up together. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Nancy Lee (Norma Talmadge) is a Southern belle with a good pedigree whose family, nevertheless, is impoverished. They refuse to allow her to marry the man of her heart, Anthony Weir (Conway Tearle), because, although he has money, his family tree is lacking. Nancy sends Anthony away but then rebelliously marries a New Yorker who throws all his money away on partying. He dies not long after they are wed and leaves her nearly penniless. Anthony's nephew passes himself off to Nancy as a man of wealth, so she accepts the money he offers to loan her. But he has actually embezzled the cash, and Anthony berates Nancy because he believes his nephew stole the money on her behalf. But his nephew reveals that he misrepresented himself to Nancy, and then Anthony finds out that she's no longer a part of her dead husband's fast crowd. So the two are finally reunited. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

WWI flying ace Lt. Bert Hall played himself in the thrill-packed wartime actioner Romance of the Air. When his plane is shot down over occupied territory, Hall disguises himself as a German soldier in hopes of making an undetected escape. Instead, he is reunited with his American sweetheart Edith Day (likewise playing herself), who was stranded in Europe when the war commenced. Hall "borrows" an enemy plane and flies back to his own lines, with Day and her best friend, the Countess of Moravia (Florence Billings). Alas, the Countess turns out to be a German spy, and Hall is accused of being in her employ. Exonerated by a military tribunal, Hall dedicates himself to smashing the Countess' network of spies. Based on Bert Hall's autobiographical novel L'Air. Romance of the Air was filmed with full cooperation of the U.S. government, which loaned out a variety of aircraft to the filmmakers. During its initial release, the film was accompanied by a "live" lecture delivered by Lt. Hall himself. Few audience members dared to question the veracity of the film in Hall's presence, but the trade paper Moving Picture World was not quite so chivalrous: "Lieutenant Hall rings true, but his story does not." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

When producer-star Demi Moore added a gratuitous "burned at the stake" scene to her 1995 vanity-production version of Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, she was raked over the coals for distorting and misrepresenting the original novel. While this may be true, it should be noted that Moore was not the first filmmaker to "improve" the Hawthorne novel by dragging in elements of the Salem witch trial. That honor goes to director Carl Harbaugh, who was responsible for the 1917 version of The Scarlet Letter. In this one, Mary Martin (not the same-named musical comedy actress) starred as Hester Prynne, whose refusal to name the father of her illegitimate daughter results in her being symbolically branded with an "A" for adultery by her Puritanical neighbors. The man who brought about Hester's shame was Rev. Arthur Dimmesdale (Stuart Holmes), who begs Hester to allow him to confess his sins. But Hester, aware that the townsfolk considers Dimmesdale a role model, insists that he keep his silence. When the truth does come out, the film digresses spectacularly from the Hawthorne original, as the townspeople accuse Hester of "bewitching" the weak-willed minister. Thus it is that the heroine is condemned to be burned as a sorceress, a fate from which she is rescued only by the fevered pleas of the repentant Dimmesdale. It was suggested by the trade magazine Variety that the "burning" gimmick was inspired by the recent Cecil B. DeMille production Joan the Woman. Whatever the case, this version of The Scarlet Letter was justifiably dwarfed by the more faithful 1926 adaptation starring Lillian Gish. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In his long screen career, Stuart Holmes played everything from romantic leads to 2-reel comedy villains to gray-haired bit parts. Holmes was afforded top billing in Fox's The Sins of Men, in which he was cast as George Marvin, who in later years might have been a suitable Ayn Rand hero. A disciple of "The Creed of Selfishness," Marvin is dedicated to gratifying his own needs and desires at the expense of everyone else. The creator of this creed is German philosopher Wilhelm Schumann (Tom Burrough, who comes to a sorry end when a grieving father, angered that Marvin has seduced his daughter, storms into Schumann's home and shoots the old man dead. The last-reel revelation that the entire story was a bad dream undoubtedly disappointed many hardcore melodrama fans. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide