Elissa Landi Movies

One of several artistic collaborations between American actress Dorothy Gish and British producer-director Herbert Wilcox, London is set in guess which English metropolis. Slum girl Mavis Hogan (Gish) bears an astonishing resemblance to the deceased daughter of wealthy dowager Lady Arbourfield (Daisy Campbell), and it is for this reason that Arbourfield decides to adopt Mavis. Acclimating herself to her posh surroundings, Mavis falls in love with Arbourfield's handsome young nephew Geoffrey Malvern (John Malvern). But when another young woman sets her cap for Paul, Mavis tearfully returns to the slums. She ultimately finds happiness with portrait painter Paul Merlan (Adelqui Millar), whose picture of Mavis attracted Lady Arbourfield's attention in the first place. Featured in the cast is bandleader Paul Whiteman and His Orchestra, though their presence in a silent film must have seemed superfluous at best. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Leo Pertuz' novel The Marquise of Bolibar was the starting point for this British silent film. The story is set during the 1808 military contretemps between England and Spain. Elissa Landi plays the daughter of an artist who leads a double life as a Spanish espionage agent. Inadvertently, Landi provides the British with the wherewithal to emerge triumphant. Curiously, Bolibar does not show up on any of the official resumes of Austro-Italian film star Elissa Landi-unless, of course, the film was also released as Underground. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

When a smuggler rescues a gypsy girl, Elissa Landi, from a storm he falls in love with her. Unfortunately for him, she is in love with her injured friend. ~ All Movie Guide

Romance novelist and self-styled moral arbiter Elinor Glyn was credited for both the screenplay and direction of the bodice-ripping Knowing Men. A graduate of convent school, wealthy Korah (Elissa Landi) has been promised in marriage to wealthier George Vere (Carl Brisson), whom she's never met. Exercising his male-chauvinist prerogative, George has already had an affair with Delphine (Jean de Casalis). To learn the truth about the man she's supposed to marry, Korah sneaks away from her Aunt (Helen Hay) to visit George. She learns more than she bargained for when George anxiously tries to retrieve several incriminating love letters from Delphine. Though critics never took Elinor Glyn seriously, her over-heated novels were devoured by her public; one might call her the Barbara Cartland of her day. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

It says here that Elinor Glyn, the incredibly pretentious author of such bodice-rippers as Three Weeks, was the director of The Price of Things, but we suspect that Madame Glyn (as she preferred to be billed) had a little uncredited assistance. Walter and Alfred Tennyson play a pair of identical twin noblemen, who constantly bail each other out in awkward romantic situations. When one of the twins can't be on time for his own wedding, the other serves as stand-in. Sure enough, the "wrong" twin falls in love with bride Elissa Landi. Meanwhile, the real bridegroom has a fling with notorious spy Mona Goya. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Based upon a much-filmed play by Michael Morton (which may in turn have been based upon a story by Frank Harris, The Yellow Ticket is also an indirect descendant of the opera La Tosca. In pre-Revolutionary Russia, a Jewish peasant girl named Marya Kalish (played by Elissa Landi) has reason to believe that her poor father is dying in St. Petersburg. She wishes to visit him, but the only way she can obtain passage is through disguising herself and obtaining a yellow ticket -- a pass that will mark her as a woman of low repute. Once in St. Petersburg, she discovers that her father has died. She also encounters the sinister Baron Andrey (Lionel Barrymore), head of the Czar's secret police, who comes to have designs upon her. She, however, develops an interest in British journalist Julian Rolphe (Laurence Olivier). She tells Rolphe the truth about life for most people in Russia, and his stories begin to change in tone, becoming critical and unflattering. This does not escape the attention of the secret police, who attempt to imprison the journalist. Meanwhile, Baron Andrey tells Marya that he will give her his own card with which she may travel, thereby eliminating the stigma and the difficulties that the yellow ticket presents. This is actually just a ploy to lure her into his clutches, and when he makes a move on her, she shoots him. Rescuing Rolphe, the two lovers flee via an airplane as Austria invades the country. Yellow Ticket features Olivier's second U.S. appearance, as well as Boris Karloff in a small role as a drunken orderly. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide

The Parisian is the English-language version of the 1930 Adolphe Menjou vehicle Mon Pere de Gosse. Menjou stars as Gerome, a rakish boulevardier who refuses to settle down and take any responsibilities. As such, he is an embarrassment to his hard-working, business-executive son Gerard (Roger Treville). The tables are turned when Gerard finds himself in a compromising situation with Gerome's "trophy wife" Yvonne (Elissa Landi). By film's end, Gerard decides to follow his father's carefree example. While the bilingual Adolphe Menjou had no trouble adjusting his performance for the English version, the other actors apparently had a difficult time with their new dialogue. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Beautiful composer Laura Ramsey (Elissa Landi) is the principal suspect when her lover, philandering singer Victor Legrand (Gilbert Roland), is found murdered in his apartment. Having "bugged" Legrand's room with Dictaphone equipment, detective John Bruce (Ralph Bellamy), who happens to be Laura's former husband, decides to tighten the noose around his ex-wife's neck by fabricating evidence against her. Our heroine's current husband, Paul Ramsey (Neil Hamilton), nobly confesses to the murder himself and is carted off to prison. Seeking revenge against Bruce, and hoping to ascertain the killer's identity herself, Laura turns the tables on the detective by recording a few of his intimate conversations. Woman in Room 13 is sometimes cited as the first film to use a hidden microphone and a secret recording device as a plot development, though chronologically it was preceded by the lesser-known Sin's Payday. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Director Cecil B. DeMille returned to Paramount Pictures for this typically epic production, which became his first box office hit after the close of the silent era. Fredric March stars as Roman Prefect Marcus Superbus, a noble military leader of the year 64 A.D. Emperor Nero (Charles Laughton) has just burned down the city and blamed the conflagration on Christians, which has exacerbated anti-Christian sentiment. Marcus encounters a beautiful young Christian woman, Mercia (Elissa Landi), pleading with soldiers over the arrest of her beloved stepfather Titus (Arthur Hohl). The Prefect intervenes on her behalf, hoping for romance. Mercia rebuffs him, however, so Marcus attempts to humiliate her by sentencing her to live with a lesbian (Joyzelle Joiner), who has even less luck seducing the chaste Mercia. The Empress Poppaea (Claudette Colbert) desires Marcus for her own bed and becomes jealous of Mercia. When Nero orders that Christians are to be fed to the lions in the arena, Poppaea seizes the opportunity to get rid of her romantic rival, though Marcus pleads in vain with Nero to spare her life. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide

A two sided romantic triangle features Warner Baxter and Victor Jory in love with Elissa Landi and Landi and Jory's wife Miriam Jordan in love with Jory. The love of Baxter wins Landi in the end in this romantic comedy. ~ All Movie Guide

In an interesting precursor to his later vehicle The Prisoner of Zenda, Ronald Colman essays a dual role in Goldwyn's The Masquerader. Colman is cast as Member of Parliament Sir John Chilcote and his identical cousin, a newspaper journalist also named John. A mean-spirited alcoholic and drug addict, Sir John needs time to try to recover from his multitude vices. Thus with the help of the MP's faithful butler Brock (Haliwell Hobbes), the "good" John agrees to take his cousin's place -- doing the job so well that he even convinces and wins Sir John's estranged wife Eve (Elissa Landi). Based on a novel by Katherine Cecil Thurston (previously adapted as a play by John Hunter Booth), The Masquerader proved to be a box-office disappointment, a fact that made Ronald Colman hesitant to star in A Tale of Two Cities until he was assured that he wouldn't have to play both Sidney Carton and Charles Darnay. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Sisters Under the Skin in this Columbia "continental" romantic seriocomedy are middle-aged Elinor Yates (Doris Lloyd) and vixenish actress Blossom Bailey (Elissa Landi). Fancying himself to be in his second childhood, Elinor's husband John Hunter Yates (Frank Morgan) seeks out a younger companion in the form of Blossom. But Yates is doomed to disappointment when flamboyant composer Zukowski (Joseph Schildkraut) steals Blossom away from him. He returns to the ever-patient Elinor, who probably never doubted that he'd eventually get over his "seven year itch." Released in Great Britain as This Romantic Age, Sisters Under the Skin was scripted by longtime Frank Capra associate Jo Swerling. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Czech leading man Francis Lederer made his Hollywood film debut in the appropriately titled Man of Two Worlds. Based on the novel by Ainsworth Morgan, the film casts Lederar as Algo, a naïve Eskimo hunter introduced to civilization by avuncular English sportsman Sir Basil (Henry Stephenson). Unschooled in the ways of British society, Algo falls in love with Joan (Elissa Landi), unaware that her friendliness is merely a courtesy and nothing more. Ultimately disillusioned, the sadder-but-wiser Algo returns to the snowy wastes whence he came. Apparently audiences weren't as captivated by Francis Lederer as RKO Radio had hoped they would be: Man of Two Worlds ended up posting a $220,000 loss at the box office. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide