Noble Johnson Movies

At the request of his star Buster Keaton, producer Joseph M. Schenck purchased an obsolete ocean liner for $20,000. Keaton wanted to use the boat as a "prop" in his upcoming feature comedy, but went into production with nary a plot idea in his head. Eventually, Buster and his chief gagman Clyde Bruckman came up with a story involving two wealthy, pampered young people (played by Keaton and Kathryn McGuire), who through a series of fantastic but logical plot convolutions end up stranded together on a drifting, deserted ocean liner. At first, the young couple is helpless because they've never had to lift a finger in their lives. As the weeks pass, Keaton and McGuire become quite adept at fending for themselves, utilizing the huge facilities of the liner (its steam room, its enormous kitchen) for the simplest and most basic of necessities. An attack by a cannibal tribe requires Keaton to be more resourceful than ever; the build-up to the climactic contretemps between Keaton and the cannibals is almost as side-splitting as the climax itself. While the film is rife with some of Buster Keaton's most elaborate gags, he scores equally well with smaller, more intimate comedy bits, notably his losing battle with a deck chair and his attempt to shuffle a waterlogged deck of cards. Reasoning that the comedy in The Navigator would work best if built upon an utterly serious storyline, Keaton hired actor/director Donald Crisp to handle the "straight" scenes. Alas, as Keaton would later recall, the constitutionally humorless Crisp "turned gagman on us", resulting in miles of wasted footage. Thus, pay no attention to the "official" directorial credits: Buster Keaton alone is responsible for the helming of The Navigator. Joe Schenck's initial 20 grand investment proved sagacious when Navigator ended up as Buster Keaton's most profitable silent feature film. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Douglas Fairbanks is at his most graceful and charismatic in one of the classic silent films of the 1920s. As the thief of Baghdad, his movements are dance-like -- nothing like the athletics he performed in most of his other films. In this Arabian take, the thief ignores the holy teachings and sneaks into the palace of the Caliph (Brandon Hurst). All thoughts of robbery slip away, however, when he sees the beautiful princess (Julanne Johnston). Princes have come from many faraway lands to win the princess' hand (and it's amusing to watch her face growing ever more alarmed at their arrival, because each one is uglier than the last). The thief disguises himself as a prince and the princess falls in love with him. After having a pang of conscience, the thief confesses all to the Holy Man (Charles Belcher), who sends him to find a magic chest. He braves many obstacles to get it, and when he returns he discovers that the Mongol Prince (Sojin) has taken over the city. Using the chest, the reformed thief creates armies of men out of nothingness and recaptures the city. He then uses the cloak of invisibility to spirit the princess away on a magic carpet. Fairbanks stole some of the special effects for his film from Fritz Lang's Der Müde Tod, which he had purchased for American distribution. The Thief of Baghdad, with its look of unrealistic beauty (courtesy of art director William Cameron Menzies), was not fully appreciated in its day. Because of its huge cost (two million dollars -- a real fortune in those days), it made little money. After that, Fairbanks stuck closer to the swashbuckling persona he felt his audience wanted. Available now on DVD, the remastered film features a new score by Carl Davis. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

This railroad melodrama, featuring fading star Elaine Hammerstein, gave up-and-coming actor William Haines his first notable role (he was on loan to Columbia from Goldwyn). As Jack Oakes, the wastrel son of a railroad magnate, Haines actually has more to do than Hammerstein. Jack's father (George Nichols) becomes frustrated with his son's wild ways. To prove himself, Jack goes to work in the railroad yard as a laborer. An escaped convict, Silent Bill Brachley (Pat Harmon), steals Jack's car, and the chase leads to a meeting between Jack, the engineer of the Midnight Express, and the engineer's pretty daughter, Mary (Hammerstein). As he is led back to jail, Brachley swears revenge. As soon as he is able to escape again, he corners Jack at a dispatch station and the two duke it out. Jack wins the fight just in time to save the Midnight Express from a row of freight cars that have broken from their engine and are headed in its direction. Jack finally wins his father's respect, and Mary's love. After viewing the film, famed femme fatale Peggy Hopkins Joyce told Screenland magazine that the kiss between Haines and Hammerstein was the best she'd ever seen onscreen. As a result, Goldwyn publicists tried -- unsuccessfully -- to create a love match between Haines and Joyce. This is all the more ironic because Haines was one of the most well-known homosexuals of the silent era. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Cecil B. DeMille's first screen version of The Ten Commandments is only peripherally a Biblical story. The film's first 45 minutes recaps the struggle between Moses (Theodore Roberts) and Rameses (Charles de Roche) over the liberation of the Hebrews. Only after the Lord has imposed a series of plagues upon Egypt does Rameses relent and permit the Exodus to take place--only to go back on his word a few moments later. The scenes of thousands of Hebrews trekking across the desert, the parting of the Red Sea (an effect accomplished in part by splitting a bowl of gelatin down the middle) and the pre-Commandments revelries before the Golden Calf--complete with a fetchingly undressed Estelle Taylor as Miriam--are produced on a spectacular scale...but this is only the beginning. Just as Moses is invoking the Wrath of God upon the ungrateful Hebrews, the film dissolves to the present day (1923, that is). We are introduced to the MacTavish Family: pious, Bible-thumping Martha McTavish (Edythe Chapman) and her sons, straight-arrow John (Richard Dix) and hedonistic Dan (Rod LaRocque). Both sons love Mary Leigh (Leatrice Joy), but the roguish Dan wins out. While John continues honoring the Ten Commandments, Dan breaks as many as he can get his hands on, especially after falling under the spell of Eurasian adventuress Sally Lung (Nita Naldi). Before the uplifting climax, wherein John and Mary finally get together with (it is implied) the blessings of Heaven, we are treated to a series of disastrous plot turns, including the death of mother McTavish in a collapsing church, Sally Lung's revelation that she has leprosy, and a wild speedboat chase. All that's missing is the kitchen sink. Partially filmed in Technicolor at a then-astronomical cost of $1.2 million (a sum that caused a decade-long rift between Cecil B. DeMille and Paramount Pictures), The Ten Commandments grossed several times that amount. DeMille's 1956 Ten Commandments dispenses with the modern story to concentrate on the life of Moses. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Director John Ford based this silent western on The Girl He Left Behind by Eugene Manlove Rhodes, turning it into a fine vehicle for the veteran Harry Carey as a prospector who strikes it rich but loses his girl in the process. The husband-to-be is Carey's best friend, William A. Steele, a candidate to the office of sheriff. A nasty villain (C. E. Anderson) frames the young man in a murder, but Carey unravels the plot and clears his friend. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

The mystical novels of Vicente Blasco-Ibanez were much prized by ambitious silent filmmaker Rex Ingram, who filmed two of them in the 1920s, both ostensibly vehicles for his actress wife Alice Terry. The first of the two, Four Horseman of the Apocalypse, was infinitely more successful than the second (Mare Nostrum), a fact that can be attributed to two little words: Rudolph Valentino. The quintessential Latin Lover stars as Julio, the scion of a wealthy Argentinian family. During the years prior to World War I, Julio's relatives relocate to Germany and France, with Julio opting for the latter country, where he opens an art studio. Here he carries on a torrid affair with Alice Terry, the wife of an attorney. When World War I breaks out, Terry joins the Red Cross and her husband enlists in the army, while the carefree Julio avoids involvement in the conflict. Only when visited by the spectres of the Four Horseman--war, conquest, famine, and death--does Julio don a uniform. His death is a symbolic sacrifice on behalf of Ms. Terry, whose husband has been blinded in the war: and, in an additional symbolic grace-note, Julio dies at the hands of his own cousin, now a German officer. The film's Big Money sequence was the one in which Rudolph Valentino danced the forbidden tango in a dingy, smoke-filled Argentinian cantina. That's what made him a star, not all that mumbo-jumbo about fate, destiny, and Four Horsemen. Proof that Valentino and not Blasco-Ibanez was the principal drawing card of this film was the 1962 remake, in which Glenn Ford portrays Julio. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this comedy-adventure, Jack Calvert (Jack Mulhall) makes a bet that he can make it from Kansas to Constantinople without any financial aid, and without a woman's help. Meanwhile, Betty Calvert (Ruth Stonehouse) is on the run from Reginald (Jean Hersholt), a suitor of whom she is less than fond. Betty has disguised herself as a boy and when she meets up with Jack, they decide to stick together. Their trek takes them through various strange lands, including a cannibal island, but it isn't until they reach Constantinople that Betty reveals that she is a girl. Jack loses his bet but wins a wife. Reginald doesn't lose out, though -- after chasing Betty for the better part of the film, he winds up being named king on the cannibal island and acquiring a harem of native women. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Gambler John Kinkaid (R.A. Calvin) is suspected of stealing $10,000 to finance his Mexican gambling casino. Lady detective Nellie Gleason (Ruth Stonehouse) heads South of the Border, hoping to get the goods on Kinkaid and to retrieve the cash. Quite taken by Nellie, Kinkaid risks arrest to visit her in her Stateside headquarters. By now, Nellie has likewise fallen in love with Kinkaid and cannot bring herself to place him in custody. Ultimately, however, Duty wins out over Passion, and Nellie tearfully sets a trap for the moonstruck Kinkaid. Evidently hoping to have their cake and eat it too, the producers tacked on a happy ending, with the heroine aiding the hero in his daring escape from prison. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide