Mrs. Arthur Mackley Movies
- 1924
Cowboy Ben Wilson arrives at Arthur Mackley's ranch just in time to prevent the daughter of the house (Marjorie Daw) from marrying scoundrel Reed Howes in this low-budget Western which benefitted from a strong supporting cast. There is the inevitable crooked ranch foreman, of course, played by stunt-man Yakima Canutt. At one point in the film, Canutt actually appears to get stoned on marijuana, a first (and last) for a B-Western. Co-star Reed Howes was perhaps Hollywood's most handsome actor, known prior to his screen debut as the model for the "Arrow Collar" ads. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Benjamin F. Wilson, Marjorie Daw, (more)
- 1923
Universal's crack Western team of director Edward Sedgwick and star Hoot Gibson crafted a fine little silent oater about a returning war veteran who lands in the middle of a range feud. On the train bound for home, Gibson renews his friendship with the daughter of a neighboring rancher (Laura La Plante), only to find that their fathers are fighting over water rights. The returning vet is declared a coward by the citizenry because of his natural reticence when a nasty villain (William A. Steele) threatens to blow up a dam. Gibson overcomes his condition in time to save the girl from the ensuing flood, however, restoring his heroic image for all time. The usually comedy-prone Gibson kept his preference for slapstick to a minimum this time around and Shootin' for Love emerged as one of the star's better vehicles. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Hoot Gibson, Laura La Plante, (more)
- 1917
This socially conscious, well-wrought silent drama made an earnest plea for prison reform over two decades before it became a national cause. The film's message still remains powerful today. In order to truly understand the subject, director Raoul Walsh and his buddy Jack Pickford actually stayed (by choice) in a real penitentiary. The story follows the grim experiences of an innocent man convicted of murder. He did kill the victim, but it was strictly self-defense. The prison itself is run by three corrupt administrators. This film includes performances by actors Johnny Reese, James Marcus, and George Walsh, among others. ~ Tracie Cooper, 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
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
- Starring:
- Lillian Gish, Mae Marsh, (more)
