Claire McDowell Movies

Because of his impressive work in Brown of Harvard and Tell It to the Marines, William Haines had just achieved stardom when he was featured in this simple little comedy, based on the play by Rachel Crothers. But he's nearly upstaged by Harry Carey who, without his usual Western gear, makes a memorable appearance. Urged on by her parents, Julia Rutherford (Claire Windsor) agrees to marry an old family friend, Alexander Smith (Carey). She heads for San Francisco to meet up with him, but on the train she meets handsome, brash George Manning (Haines). The two of them fall madly in love, completely unaware that Smith has boarded the train early to surprise his fiancée. At the end of the trip, Julia and Manning know they must part and give each other a tearful farewell. But they are seen by Smith, who realizes that Julia has found real love. For the sake of her happiness, he is willing to let the couple be together and releases her from the engagement. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

A middle-aged Clark Gable returned from active duty in World War II to star in this MGM release that was heavily advertised as his big comeback. Gable is Harry Patterson, the bosun mate on a merchant marine vessel, a tough sailor and fighter with the proverbial girl in every port. But while in a San Francisco library, looking up a book on the human soul for his sidekick Mudgin (Thomas Mitchell), who thinks his soul has departed his body, Harry meets librarian Emily Sears (Greer Garson), whom he woos, marries, and leaves to sail off on another freighter. When he returns, Emily has retreated to an old farm to await the birth of their child. Harry continues to resent staying in one place, but he ultimately changes his tune when his baby's life hangs in the balance. Garson and Joan Blondell, playing her outspoken best friend, are both terrific, and Gable gives a less heroic performance that's a thoughtful change for him, although critics at the time were less than charitable. ~ Don Kaye, All Movie Guide

This canine comedy-drama is based on The Bar Sinister, a whimsical tale by Richard Harding Davis. The story is told from the point of view of a dog, as he recounts for the benefit of the audience his rise from the streets of the Bowery to the luxurious heights of Park Avenue. Much of the story deals with the "triangle" involving the doggie protagonist and human hero and heroine Kenneth Thomson and Vera Reynolds. Everything ends happily when the dog wins over an animal-hating millionaire. Almost Human was remade in 1956 as It's a Dog's Life. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This 1940s drama implies that children do indeed learn what they live as it tells the story of a teenage girl who runs away from her posh boarding school to be with her ne'er-do-well, blue-collar boy friend because she believes her wealthy parents do not care about her. Soon the idle kids are getting into minor trouble that turns major when they find themselves accused of murder. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The massacre of the Huguenots, previously dramatized in broad strokes by Griffith's Intolerance, served as the basis for director Frank Lloyd's Ashes of Vengeance. Norma Talmadge stars as a Huguenot lass who stands defiant against the persecution of the French royal court. She is protected by Conway Tearle, a French noble who refuses to go along with the de Medici's murderous machinations. Josephine Crowell, who played Catherine de Medici in Intolerance, here repeats the role. Director Lloyd and H. B. Somerville adapted the screenplay of Ashes of Vengeance from Somerville's novel of the same name. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The advertising tag "four years in the making" is usually so much press-agent puffery. In the case of the 1926 silent version of Ben Hur, it was the unvarnished truth--and the filmmakers had the scars to prove it. The story behind the film is now part of Hollywood folklore: the cast and production crew changes (star George Walsh summarily dumped in favor of Roman Novarro, director Charles J. Brabin replaced by Fred Niblo, writer-supervisor June Mathis-who'd spearheaded the project in the first place-abruptly fired); the hundreds of thousands of dollars spent on the troublesome location shooting in Italy--money that was lost when most of the footage proved unusable; the extra expenditure of refilming in Hollywood; and the huge chunk of the film's profits eaten up by the 50% royalty deal set up with theatrical producers Klaw and Erlanger, who controlled the rights to General Lew Wallace's novel. The end result reflected the turbulent production conditions: Ben Hur is an extraordinarily uneven experience, with moments of cinematic brilliance and pulse-pounding thrills alternating with long stretches of stagey boredom. The film follows the original Wallace story to the letter: Judah Ben-Hur (Novarro), a wealthy Jew living under the reign of the Caesars, is betrayed by his best friend, ambitious Roman centurion Messala (Francis X. Bushman). Ben-Hur's family is sent to prison, while he himself is condemned to the galleys. During a violent sea battle, Ben-Hur saves the life of galleon commander Quintus Arrius (Frank Currier). The grateful commander adopts Ben-Hur as his son and bankrolls his desire to become a champion charioteer. Thirsting for revenge, Ben-Hur agrees to race against his old nemesis Messala. The latter is fatally injured during the race; with his dying breath, Messala reveals that Ben-Hur's family, previously reported dead, are actually alive--but living as lepers. The story is subtitled A Tale of the Christ because, at various junctures in his life, Ben-Hur has been touched by the hand of Jesus. Ben-Hur must totally embrace Christ's edict of love and forgiveness before he can be reunited with his family. As Jesus is crucified in Jerusalem, Ben-Hur's mother (Claire McDowell) and sister (Kathleen Key), having also embraced the Christian philosophy, are miraculously cured of their leprosy. Most of these plot elements, together with the romance between Ben-Hur and the lovely Esther (May McAvoy), reappeared in the 1959 remake of Ben-Hur--which, fortunately, did not include the ridiculous subplot involving the alluring Iras (Carmel Myers), who attempts to seduce Ben-Hur just before the big race. The film's highlights--the sea battle, the now-legendary chariot race--were produced on a far grander scale than in the 1959 version; unfortunately, both highlights took place in the first half of the picture, leaving the viewers with a rather dreary, drawn out denouement (the remake wisely placed the sea battle in part one, and the race in part two). The Technicolor Nativity sequences were condemned in 1926 as being in poor taste, but when seen today are beautifully handled and restful on the eye (oddly, no one complained about the nude female revellers during a later Technicolor pageant scene!) Ben Hur cost $4 million and grossed $9 million on its first release. The aforementioned royalty arrangement left MGM with only a $1 million take. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In the tradition of Cowboy Commandos, the Range Busters (Ray Corrigan, Dennis Moore, and Max Terhune) take on Black Market Rustlers in this wartime western. The film's villains busy themselves by stealing cattle, then selling the meat on the black market for ridiculously exorbitant prices. The Cattlemen's Association hire our three heroes to put an end to this. It takes them only 54 minutes to do so, but it's a really tough 54 minutes. Featured in the cast was Evelyn Finley, one of the few western heroines who could really ride a horse-and ride it quite well at that. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

An early talkie from then-poverty row company Columbia Pictures, Brothers features popular silent screen actor Bert Lytell in a dual-role. Separated at birth, orphaned twins Bob and Eddie grow up on either side of the tracks, one adopted by a washerwoman (Jessie Arnold), the other by a wealthy attorney Naughton (Howard Hickman). Years later, Bob, now a successful but alcoholic attorney in his own right, kills the husband (Francis McDonald) of his mistress (Rita Carlyle) after an altercation in Oily Joe's Saloon. Unbeknownst to Bob, his long-lost twin Eddie works in the saloon and because of their resemblance, Eddie is accused of the crime. When Bob realizes the truth, he clears his brother's name and is institutionalized in a sanitarium. To shield his wife from this sad turn of events, Mr. Naughton persuades Eddie to take Bob's place in the household. He accepts and promptly falls in love with Norma (Dorothy Sebastian), Bob's fiancée. Deciding to leave for his brother's sake, Eddie learns of Bob's death in the sanitarium and declares his love for Norma. A stage matinee-idol who had made a striking screen debut as The Lone Wolf in 1917, Bert Lytell was really a bit too long in the tooth to play leading men at this stage of his career and left films in 1931 in favor of returning to the stage. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, 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