Jean Laverty Movies

In this early musical western, Stephen Ghent (Ian Keith) is a businessman who, after the death of his partner, has been helping to support Ruth Jordan (Dorothy Mackaill), the late man's college-age daughter. While visiting a town near the Mexican border on business, Ghent is shocked to discover Ruth has become a jaded and hard-drinking sophisticate. Convinced she needs a healthy dose of the great outdoors and the simple life, Ghent kidnaps her disguised as a Mexican bandit and carries her away to an isolated cabin in the hills. As the masked cowboy attempts to teach Ruth about the virtues of the simple life, she finds herself falling in love with her captor, though she has a rival for his affections in hot-blooded servant girl Manuella (Myrna Loy). Fancy Baggage was released both as a talking picture and in a silent version, designed to play in small-town theaters (where westerns were perennially popular) which had yet to be wired for sound. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

In this early talkie that contains very little talking, an Austrian showgirl working in a cabaret moonlights as a thief. When she is caught in the act, a young lawyer offers to defend her. Unfortunately, he isn't very good and loses the case, causing her to spend several months in jail. Fortunately, the two have fallen in love, and he promises to wait for her. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Virile Victor McLaglen goes shirtless throughout most of the late silent Captain Lash. After rescuing wealthy ship's passenger Cora Nevins (Claire Windsor) from a nasty accident in the engine room, Captain Lash -- who despite his "title" is actually the head stoker -- agrees to help Cora smuggle some valuable jewels past customs. Hoping to save Lash from arrest, his diminutive buddy Cocky (Clyde Cook) substitutes coal for the gems. This gets Lash and Cora in deep trouble with her criminal companions, and for a while it looks as though both hero and heroine are going to be deep-sixed. But Captain Lash handles this dilemma in the same manner that he handles everything -- by beating up everyone within arm's length. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

No relation to the 1953 Grace Moore biopic of the same name, So This is Love was another early Frank Capra production for fledgling Columbia Pictures. The hero, dress designer Jerry McGuire (William Collier Jr.), is tired of being considered a wimp. After business hours, Jerry secretly takes boxing lessons, enabling him to knock the stuffings out of his burly rival Spike Mullins (Johnnie Walker). Jerry's newfound pugilistic skills wins him the affections of store clerk Hilda Jensen (Shirley Mason), who's just car-razy about "cave men." Filmed in a fast three weeks, So This is Love? was completed before Frank Capra's Matinee Idol but released afterward. Leading lady Shirley Mason was the sister of Viola Dana, who starred in Capra's initial Columbia effort, That Certain Thing. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

At 9 reels, The Good-Bye Kiss was comedy producer Mack Sennett's most ambitious feature to date. Eschewing the usual Sennett slapstick, the film is a romantic seriocomedy with a WW I background. Sally Eilers plays a young girl who follows her soldier boyfriend (Johnny Burke) to the front. He is something of a coward, but through his girlfriend's influence he becomes a war hero. One of the few vestiges of the traditional Sennett formula is the presence of reliable character comedian Andy Clyde as the girl's grandfather (Clyde was 34 years old at the time!) The Good-Bye Kiss represented a major break for film editor William Hornbeck, who with this film graduated to features, eventually leading to a long and fruitful career and several industry awards. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi