Lillian Langdon Movies

Directed with panache by Malcom St. Clair, this film was a real feather in the cap of fledgling Columbia Pictures. Stage luminary Lou Tellegan plays a stingy husband who refuses to entrust his wife Elaine Hammerstein with a cent. The disgruntled Elaine turns to shoplifting, which nearly leads her into a disastrous extramarital affair with John Patrick. Ex-Sennett bathing beauty Phyllis Haver steals the show as a profligate flapper. After Business Hours was the first Columbia production to open in a "prestige" New York theater; two years later, director Frank Capra would further elevate the poverty row studio's stock in the industry. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Mae Murray's pictures were the ultimate in jazz-era extravagance. This one is based on the novel by Vicente Blasco Ibanez, the same author who wrote the book on which The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse was based. Cecilie Brunner (Murray) was raised in a convent, but after her mother's death, she becomes a cynical vamp, who, like the mythical character Circe, brings men to their ruin. Because of the generosity of her unfortunate men friends, Cecilie is able to live well on Long Island. But then she falls in love with her next-door neighbor, Peter Van Martyn, a surgeon (James Kirkwood). Van Martyn disapproves of Cecilie's lifestyle and lets her know it. When he refuses to have anything to do with her, Cecilie parties even harder and winds up gambling away her home. Finally she realizes that Van Martyn was right and she returns to the convent. She is hit by a car and paralyzed while saving a child, but she miraculously regains the use of her legs when Van Martyn comes to her. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

This first of several cinematic adaptations of the Jean Webster play Daddy Long Legs stars "America's Sweetheart," Mary Pickford. The oldest and cutest of a group of orphans, Pickford is provided with funds for her education and well-being by a mysterious benefactor, whom she knows only as "Daddy Long Legs" because of the spider-like shadow he casts on the orphanage steps. Upon reaching a marriageable age, Pickford falls in love with handsome Mahlon Hamilton, never dreaming that he and Daddy Long Legs are one in the same. When he proposes marriage, she properly announces that she'll need her guardian's consent, and thus the stage is set for the film's conclusion. Like several of Mary Pickford's best silent films, Daddy Long Legs was remade in the talkie era by Shirley Temple (as 1935's Curly Top). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

While it seems extremely tame now, Clive Arden's novel was considered quite racy in its day. While doing relief work in Belgium, Leonore Bewlay, a little American girl (Mary Astor), meets Richard Valyran, an opera singer (Ian Keith). After the war's end, they meet again in Switzerland. Leonore, or Leo, has grown into a lovely young woman, but she doesn't realize that this changes her relationship to Valyran, who becomes infatuated with her. Leo is hurt in an avalanche and she's shocked when Valyran kisses her after coming to her aid. She marries Englishman Henry Wallis (Clive Brook), whom she really loves, but his relatives disapprove of her. Valyran's wife sues for divorce and names Leo as corespondent. Wallis believes she really has done something wrong. To keep Leo's life from being ruined, Valyran kills himself. Wallis, humbled by Valyran's sacrifice, reunites with Leo. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

The plot of Flirting With Fate probably wasn't new in 1916, and it certainly wouldn't disappear with this film. Douglas Fairbanks Sr. plays a struggling artist whose heart is broken when his sweetheart Jewel Carmen is promised in marriage to someone else. The woebegone Fairbanks decides he has nothing left to live for, but he isn't up to committing suicide; thus, he hires a professional killer to do the deed. When Fairbanks inherits a million dollars, Carmen's parents suddenly decide that he's worthy of their daughter's hand. The trick now is to call off the hired assassin--who is nowhere to be found! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Even though this light comedy never leaves the confines of its hospital setting, it's still highly amusing. Billy Grant (Richard Dix) winds up in the hospital after going on a wild spree when his fiancée breaks up with him. Jane Brown (Helene Chadwick) is his nurse, and he begs her to marry him. She agrees because she believes that he is dying. The truth is that Grant has married her just to get back at his relatives, who helped ruin his relationship with his fiancée. Jane asks to be transferred to the maternity ward, and she helps a newborn baby and its mother reunite with its father. While searching for the man, however, Jane breaks some hospital rules and she's in danger of being fired. Grant comes to her aid and also claims her as his wife. This picture was based on two stories by author Mary Roberts Rinehart. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

When Charles Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks and D.W. Griffith formed United Artists, they had a dilemma -- only one of them was contractually free to make a film for the fledgling studio -- and that was Fairbanks. But he came through with this winning picture, playing his usual character (at least for his pre-swashbuckling days) -- a young man with too much energy and vigor for his own good -- in a Prisoner of Zenda-like backdrop. William Brooks (Fairbanks) lives in Manhattan on a mysterious but sizable income. He apparently has no family either. When following the New York Fire Department around begins to pall, he goes to Mexico and tangles with bandits. All this is only preparation for his next adventure -- he is called to a tiny European country where a revolution is going on. It turns out that he is heir to the throne and he manages to squelch the plotters and win the girl (Marjorie Daw) in short order. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Sometime during the shooting of the landmark The Birth of a Nation, filmmaker D.W. Griffith probably wondered how he could top himself. In 1916, he showed how, with the awesome Intolerance. The film began humbly enough as a medium-budget feature entitled The Mother and the Law, wherein the lives of a poor but happily married couple are disrupted by the misguided interference of a "social reform" group. A series of unfortunate circumstances culminates in the husband's being sentenced to the gallows, a fate averted by a nick-of-time rescue engineered by his wife. In the wake of the protests attending the racist content of The Birth of a Nation, Griffith wanted to demonstrate the dangers of intolerance. The Mother and the Law filled the bill to some extent, but it just wasn't "big" enough to suit his purposes. Thus, using The Mother and the Law as merely the base of the film, Griffith added three more plotlines and expanded his cinematic thesis to epic proportions. The four separate stories of Intolerance are symbolically linked by Lillian Gish as the Woman Who Rocks the Cradle ("uniter of the here and hereafter"). The "Modern Story" is essentially The Mother and the Law; the "French Story" details the persecution of the Huguenots by Catherine de Medici (Josephine Crowell); the "Biblical Story" relates the last days of Jesus Christ (Howard Gaye); and the "Babylonian Story" concerns the defeat of King Belshazzar (Alfred Paget) by the hordes of Cyrus the Persian (George Siegmann).

Rather than being related chronologically, the four stories are told in parallel fashion, slowly at first, and then with increasing rapidity. The action in the film's final two reels leaps back and forth in time between Babylon, Calvary, 15th century France, and contemporary California. Described by one historian as "the only film fugue," Intolerance baffled many filmgoers of 1916 -- and, indeed, it is still an exhausting, overwhelming experience, even for audiences accustomed to the split-second cutting and multilayered montage sequences popularized by Sergei Eisenstein, Orson Welles, Jean-Luc Godard, Joel Schumacher, and MTV. On a pure entertainment level, the Babylonian sequences are the most effective, played out against one of the largest, most elaborate exterior sets ever built for a single film. The most memorable character in this sequence is "The Mountain Girl," played by star on the rise Constance Talmadge; when the Babylonian scenes were re-released as a separate feature in 1919, Talmadge's tragic death scene was altered to accommodate a happily-ever-after denouement. Other superb performances are delivered by Mae Marsh and Robert Harron in the Modern Story, and by Eugene Pallette and Margery Wilson in the French Story. Remarkably sophisticated in some scenes, appallingly naïve in others, Intolerance is a mixed bag dramatically, but one cannot deny that it is also a work of cinematic genius. The film did poorly upon its first release, not so much because its continuity was difficult to follow as because it preached a gospel of tolerance and pacifism to a nation preparing to enter World War I. Currently available prints of Intolerance run anywhere from 178 to 208 minutes; while it may be rough sledding at times, it remains essential viewing for any serious student of film technique. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Director Cecil B. DeMille adapted the screenplay for Kindling from a play by Charles A. Kenyon. Charlotte Walker plays Maggie Schultz, a young wife and mother-to-be. Through no fault of her own, Maggie becomes the dupe of a gang of burglars. Having already run the gamut of sorrow and misfortune, she despairs at the possibility that her child will be born in prison. Fortunately, the compassionate victim of the burglars takes pity on Maggie and refuses to prosecute, allowing her to return to her husband Heine (Thomas Meighan). In addition to being one of the last WWI-era films to feature sympathetic German characters, Kindling also represented one of the first starring assignments for popular leading man Thomas Meighan. Director DeMille would soon abandon the "naturalistic" style of this film, preferring instead to indulge himself in slick sex farces and overly opulent spectacles. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Although busy with the Tom Mix and Buck Jones westerns, the Fox company also issued non-series oaters such as Lights of the Desert, a triangle melodrama geared more toward female audiences than the usual action fan. Brunette Shirley Mason, the younger sister of Metro star Viola Dana, played a touring actress stranded in a flyspeck Nevada town. She dallies with a couple of prospectors (Allan Forrest and Edward Burns) but an acting job lures her to San Francisco and into the arms of a slick oil man (James Mason. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Herbert Rawlinson is the star of this mediocre crime drama from Universal. When his father's business fails, Jimmy Nevins (Herbert Rawlinson) hits the skids. His fiancée, Doris Standish (Edna Murphy), dumps him for a wealthy suitor. Nevins is saved from the streets by Mary Butler (Alice Lake), who turns out to be the member of a gang of crooks. The gang is planning to rob the Standish home during Doris' wedding to her rich sweetheart, and Nevins innocently gets mixed up in the scheme. Practically on her way to the altar, Doris changes her mind about the wedding and flees. Nevins takes her to Mary's home and the crooks take her prisoner. Mary has fallen in love with Nevins, but she sacrifices herself by freeing Doris from her associates. Mary dies for her actions, and the other crooks are rounded up. Doris realizes she loves Nevins and sticks by him. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Marcin Asher plays Henry "Pushcart" Wilson, who has parlayed his tiny streetcorner operation into a thriving business concern. Hobnobbing with the 400, the widowed Henry falls in love with beautiful but treacherous divorcee Mona Vincent (Hedda Hopper). Meanwhile, Henry's daughter Mary (Helene Chadwick) gets stuck on handsome socialite Frank Clayton (Jack Mulhall), whom the predatory Mona would like to get into the sack. Mona takes Mary aside and promises to dump Henry if Mary will do the same with Frank. Upset by all this, Mary tries to kill herself, whereupon both her father and her sweetheart rush to her rescue, leaving Mona out in the cold. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide