Richard Barthelmess Movies

In this drama, an ex-vaudevillian dancer opens up a dance band agency and help street kids at the same time by hiring them to help out. Unfortunately, the local gang of hood's leader resists his attempts. More trouble ensues when the dancer helps a convict gain parole by hiring him. It later turns out that the ex-con is only interested in trying to use the agency as a front for extortion. Songs include the Oscar nominated "When There's a Breeze on Lake Louise," "Your Face Looks Familiar," "Heavenly, Isn't He?" "Let's Forget It," "You're Bad For Me," and "A Million Miles From Manhattan." ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

This slightly laundered remake of the 1932 courtroom classic The Mouthpiece stars George Brent as brilliant but unprincipled DA Steve Forbes, a character based on legendary lawyer William Fallon. After railroading an innocent boy into the electric chair, Forbes goes on a bender, then cynically builds up a new practice as a criminal attorney. His underhanded legal tactics cause a rift between Forbes and his idealistic younger brother Johnny (William Lundigan), despite the fact that it was Steve's income that enabled Johnny to finish law school. Angered that his brother has enabled big-time gangster J.B. Roscoe (Richard Barthelmess) to continually elude the law, Johnny turns in damning evidence to the FBI. On Roscoe's orders, Steve frames Johnny on a murder charge, but reforms his ways in the nick of time. Based on a play by Frank J. Collins, The Man Who Talked too Much was remade in 1955 as Illegal, with Edward G. Robinson in the lead. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Hollywood star Richard Barthelmess, who's about as French as a hot dog with mustard, plays the title character in the British costume melodrama Spy of Napoleon. Based on a novel by Baroness Orczy (The Scarlet Pimpernel), the plot focuses on the animosity between Napoleon III (Frank Vosper) and Prussian chancellor Bismarck (Lyn Harding). Certain that he is surrounded by traitors (which indeed he is), Napoleon dispatches his illegitimate daughter Eloise (Dolly Haas) to flush out the turncoats. It happens that the girl is married to exiled French patriot Gerald de Lanoy (Barthelmess), who though he despises Napoleon loves his country and agrees to help her in her mission. Francis L. Sullivan wins the acting honors as the Emperor's sinister chief of police Toulon. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this drama, a gambler must hide-out from the mob and ends up in a spinster's apartment. The old woman, is unused to company as she has spent her life in seclusion after a failed romance in her youth. When the crime lord is killed, the gambler, his younger brother, is arrested for the murder. To protect him, the spinster perjures herself in court by telling the judge that he was with her on the night the crime was committed. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

One of the first major Hollywood films to seriously address America's ongoing mistreatment of its Indian population, Massacre is more admirable for its intentions than its execution. The film was inspired by the activities of John Collier, commissioner for the Bureau of Indian Affairs during Franklin Delano Roosevelt's first term. A staunch advocate for Native American rights, Collier had been far more effective than his predecessors in this pursuit, effectively purging much of the corruption and bigotry then prevalent in the administration of the Indian Reservation system. The film's John Collier counterpart, a man named Dickinson (Henry O'Neill), turns out to be less important to the storyline than Joe Thunder Horse, the "assimilated" college-educated Sioux portrayed by Richard Barthelmess. Upon the death of his father, who was the tribal chieftain, Joe returns to the reservation of his youth, only to discover that his people are dying of various diseases and are being systematically cheated of their possessions and basic rights by crooked Indian agents. He heads to Washington in hopes of righting these wrongs, only to experience prejudice and hatred all along the way. Eventually successful in his efforts, Joe casts away the last vestige of his "white" existence by giving up socialite Norma (Claire Dodd) in favor of Sioux maiden Lydia (Ann Dvorak). The optimism of the final reels is sorely at odds with the rest of the picture, which paints a bleak portrait of an oppressed people under the thumb of corrupt, rapine petty tyrants (colorfully represented by Dudley Digges as the worst of the batch). The deck-stacking is a bit hard to take at times (surely there must have been some Indian agents who weren't substance abusers and lechers), but it's undeniably effective in the usual over-the-top Warner Bros. tradition. The film's oddest scene (and the one which has drawn the most attention from William K. Everson and other prominent film historians) finds a stereotyped African American valet (Clarence Muse) looking disdainfully upon the Indians as his racial inferiors! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Aerial footage distinguishes this romantic-triangle melodrama set among pilots in a flying circus. Jill (Sally Eilers) loves Jim (Richard Barthelmess), but he insists that fliers shouldn't marry, so the disappointed Jill marries his younger brother Neil (Tom Brown) instead. The resulting tensions disrupt their lives and careers. Bit-part alert: Watch for John Wayne as Neil's co-pilot. ~ Nicole Gagne, All Movie Guide

In this romantic comedy a demanding French actress is upset because she has not recently received the proper adulation from WW I Allies. To calm her down, a meeting is arranged between the actress and a charming Army official in Italy. Initially both of them resist the artificially designed encounter, but soon the inevitable occurs and they fall in love. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Curiously reminiscent of Ernest Hemingway's Sun Also Rises, The Last Flight dramatizes the "Lost Generation" of the 1920s. Four Yankee army buddies (Richard Barthelmess, Johnny Mack Brown, David Manners and Elliot Nugent) are invalided out of service during World War One, victims of profound physical and emotional injuries. Disillusioned by their wartime experiences, the foursome head to Paris, there to spend their waking hours getting drunk. They meet an enigmatic young American woman named Nikki (Helen Chandler), a kindred spirit who becomes their constant companion. Because of their reluctance to invest their true emotions in anything, an unspoken agreement between the five lost souls precludes sex with Nikki, but this does not stop a mutual friend (Arthur Byron) from clumsily trying to seduce the girl. In search of excitement, Nikki and the boys head for Portugal, where on impulse one of the men jumps in the ring during a bullfight. He is mortally wounded, and when asked why he exposed himself to certain death, he replies "It seemed like a good idea at the time." Gradually the friends' ranks diminish due to misadventure and sudden death, until only Richard Barthelmess is left. He meets Nikki on a train bound for Lisbon, where the two melancholy expatriates finally declare their love for each other. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The names have all been changed, but this hard-hitting gangster tale is based on an actual newspaper headline story involving the brutal slaying of corrupt crime reporter Alfred "Jake" Lingle, who had been suspected of betraying his boss Al Capone. Naive Southern boy Breckinridge Lee comes to the big city for fame and fortune. He starts out honest, but is unable to the resist hefty payoffs offered by crime lord Louis Blanco to suppress certain stories. Time passes and Lee does a great job for Blanco. Lee's girl friend tries to get him to go straight, but he has become too accustomed to the money and besides is too deeply mired in corruption to ever escape. In the end, he loses his life when a story about Blanco's latest shenanigans escapes his watchful eye and gets printed. Believing Lee was behind the double-cross, Blanco orders him executed and tragedy ensues. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Set during World War I, The Dawn Patrol is a study of the pressures and pitfalls of authority. A British Royal Flying Corp squadron commander (Neil Hamilton) is compelled by the higher-ups to send his boys out in dangerous, rickety aircraft. He is tormented by the responsibility, but does his duty as prescribed, and is branded a "butcher" by his top pilot (Richard Barthelmess). Hamilton is transferred, and with grim glee hands his command over to Barthelmess. Suddenly Barthelmess finds himself as much an unwilling "butcher" as a predecessor, and in exercising his authority he is alienated from his pilot buddies. Things come to a head when Barthelmess sends the brother of his best friend (Douglas Fairbanks Jr.) on a suicide mission. The lad is killed, and the friendship is shattered. To make amends, Barthelmess gets Fairbanks drunk and flies the next mission himself--and is shot down while in battle with the fearsome German ace Von Richter. Now more understanding of his fallen companion, Fairbanks takes over command of the squadron. Because of the 1938 remake of the same title, the 1930 Dawn Patrol has been retitled Flight Commander for television. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this drama, an elevator operator in a big hotel gets in big trouble after he and a chambermaid are found in a guest's suite. Though they had good reason to be in there, they are charged with breaking and entering. The story has an unexpected twist at the end. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Basically a filmed vaudeville presentation, The Show of Shows was Warner Bros.' entry in the "all star, all talking, all singing and all dancing" sweepstakes of 1929. Though slightly better than MGM's Hollywood Revue of 1929, the Warners entry pales in comparison to Fox Movietone Follies of 1929 and Paramount on Parade, due mainly to the film's master of ceremonies, the insufferable Frank Fay. Some of the individual acts seen in Show of Shows were pretty good, notably Winnie Lightner's delightful Singing in the Bathtub (a spoof of Hollywood Revue of 1929's Singin' in the Rain) and John Barrymore's brilliant rendition of Richard III's soliloquy from Shakespeare's Henry VI. Also easy to take was "Floradora Sextette," featuring such luminaries as Myrna Loy, Patsy Ruth Miller and cross-eyed comedian Ben Turpin, and "Eight Sister Acts," including such Hollywood siblings as Dolores and Helene Costello, Sally Blane and Loretta Young and Shirley Mason and Viola Dana (also teamed in this number are Ann Sothern and Marion Byron, who were not sisters). But for the most part, the acts are on a par with "Skull and Crossbones," a boring production number showcasing entertainer Ted Lewis, and "Recitations," a one-joke affair in which three different anecdotes (related by Frank Fay, Louis Fazenda, Lloyd Hamilton and Bea Lillie) are melded into one. Show of Shows was originally released in two-color Technicolor but now exists only in black in white, save for the "Chinese Fantasy" number featuring crooner Nick Lucas and Warner Bros. contractee Myrna Loy. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide