Claire McDowell Movies
Descended from an old, well-established performing family, American actress Claire McDowell was one of those weathered character players who seemed to have been born at the age of 50. Only 32 years old when she first stepped before Billy Bitzer's camera at Biograph studios in 1910, Ms. McDowell almost immediately found herself playing everyone's mother. She spent the next four years working for D.W. Griffith before retiring to raise a family; her husband was fellow Griffith player Charles Hill Mailes. Back in films in 1917, McDowell continued her celluloid maternal career. Perhaps her most celebrated matriarchal role was as John Gilbert's mother in The Big Parade (1924), in which she has an unbearably poignant scene as she embraces her amputee son, recalling in flashback when her infant boy took his first steps. Ms. McDowell also has some potent sequences as Ramon Novarro's mother in Ben-Hur; stricken with leprosy, she dares not embrace her sleeping son, but instead kisses the stones upon which he lies. Semi-retired when talkies came in, Claire McDowell occasionally emerged to play bits, often in the company of her husband (as in Murder By Television [1935]). One of her last last notable roles, albeit unbilled, was as the ailing mother (again!) who faints on the bus in It Happened One Night (1934). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1912
D.W. Griffith -- The Female of the Species and Selected Biograph Shorts, Vol. 3 is an intriguing collection of socially conscious short films from celebrated director D.W. Griffith's Biograph Studio days. The Red Man's View tells the story of a peaceful Native American family driven to starvation and despair by merciless white people. The Border States prefigures Griffith's The Birth of a Nation, as a Union girl saves a Confederate soldier's life and accepts his help later. What Shall We Do With Our Old? is a disturbing portrait of the fate of the elderly in a time before social security. For His Son presents the plight of a young man addicted to cocaine. The Female of the Species looks at women's instincts as they fight over a man and bond over a little baby, and The House of Darkness promotes the benefits of music in treating mental illness. The films are silent with a re-recorded soundtrack. ~ Betsy Boyd, All Movie Guide
- 1912
Old Stephen Rutherford (Gerald Griffin) is a wealthy curmudgeon who disowned his son when he married a poor girl. The son is now dead and he still refuses to acknowledge the wife, Prue (Mabel Taliaferro), or his grandson Bobby (Warner Anderson). Prue works at Rutherford's candy factory and is the one bright spot in the dreary place. She has become involved with former crook Danny O'Maddigan (Raymond McKee) and has encouraged him to follow the straight and narrow. One day Prue and little Bobby are out walking when Bobby is run over by one of the Rutherford factory vehicles. He is taken to Stephen Rutherford's home and the old man is enamored of the boy, even though he does not realize he is his grandson. When this fact is revealed, a reconciliation is effected between Rutherford and Prue. Meanwhile, Danny has "borrowed" ten dollars out of the Rutherford factory safe to finance a party for his granny's 75th birthday. He is scared away before he can close the safe, and his ex-associates come in and take the rest. Danny is jailed for the theft, but when Rutherford learns that the young man is in love with Prue, he gets him off, leading to a happy end for all concerned.
~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- 1912
A prospector's (Charles Gorman) wife (Blanche Sweet) is kidnapped by a Mexican bandit (Charles Hill Mailes), but the two men call a temporary truce in order to defeat the common enemy -- the Indians. This typical Biograph Western melodrama was filmed on location in Southern California during the studio's 1911-1912 winter sojourn. It is preserved in the paper print collection of the Library of Congress. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- 1912
Filmed during the Biograph Company's yearly winter excursion to sunny California, this one-reel Western melodrama features Mary Pickford in the title role, as an Indian maiden rescued from her cruel captors by prospector Alfred Paget. The Indians retaliate by capturing the young man's sweetheart, Dorothy Bernard, who is saved in the nick of time from being burned at the stake. Iola, alas, dies in the ensuing battle, but not before she can point the gallant prospector toward a hidden gold mine. This typical Indian melodrama, preserved in the paper print collection of the Library of Congress, was filmed in and around L.A. in January of 1912. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- 1912
A wagon train is attacked by marauding Indians in this typically grisly Biograph one-reel western melodrama preserved in the print collection of the Library of Congress. After the massacre of the title, a soldier searches for his wife and child. He finds them -- under a pile of dead soldiers. Griffith and his faithful players "took" this picture in California during the company's winter and spring sojourn of 1912. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
