Margaret McWade Movies
- 1921
Although Erich von Stroheim's Foolish Wives had been released only a few short months earlier, the title to this drama actually came from the Donn Byrne novel on which it was based. Doris May plays Georgia Wayne, a young woman from the South who is stagestruck and convinces her husband Lafayette (Charles Meredith) to move to New York. She gets wrapped up in the heady theatrical life, and when her husband discovers she has been unfaithful, he throws her out. Mildred Manning plays Sheila Hopkins, who marries poet Anthony Sheridan (Wallace MacDonald) because he will allow her to pursue her literary career. The marriage drives Sheridan to drink and he dies in the arms of his mother (Margaret McWade). The only non-foolish matron is actress Annis Grand (Kathleen Kirkham), who marries Dr. Ian Fraser (Hobart Bosworth) and convinces him to leave the city and move to the country. This wasn't one of Maurice Tourneur's better pictures, but it is worthwhile to note that it was co-directed by his protégé, Clarence Badger), who would have a long and illustrious career at MGM. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Hobart Bosworth, Doris May, (more)
- 1921
One of the silent era's more popular leading ladies, Anita Stewart, stars in this colorful but not particularly true-to-life picture. Alice Lambert (Stewart) has had a hard life, full of sadness and disillusionment. One day she finally decides to end it all, but she is discovered by David Leighton (Walter McGrail) before she can go through with it. By calling her a coward and a quitter, Leighton convinces her to rethink what she is about to do and strikes a deal with her: He will give her 50 thousand dollars to stay alive for another year, at the end of which she can kill herself. With her sudden wealth, Alice is able to surround herself in luxury -- and she also learns along the way that money isn't everything. At the end of the year, Alice has come to realize that she actually has quite a lot to live for, and one of her reasons is Leighton. He proposes and she is more than happy to accept. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- 1921
This is one of a number of silent pictures in which a young American is raised as a Chinese girl, and even though she has no Asian features to speak of, she never guesses she's white until the film's end. While they are visiting China on business a curio collector, Carmichael (Dwight Crittenden) and his wife (Irene Rich), are killed during a Boxer uprising. A servant, Ah Wing (E. A. Warren), saves their baby, which he takes to America and raises as his own. Sui Sen (Leatrice Joy) grows up in Chinatown really believing that Ah Wing is her father. A wealthy American, Newcombe (J. Frank Glendon), sees Sui Sen and falls in love with her on the spot. But Ling Jo (Wallace Beery) -- the same man responsible for the Carmichaels' deaths -- is living in the very same Chinatown and is determined to make the girl his wife. Ah Wing tells Ling Jo that if he can get him the scepter of the Mings -- a supposedly impossible task -- then he can have Sui Sen. But Ling Jo comes through and Ah Wing has to honor the promise. Newcombe finds out about it, however, and goes to save Sui Sen. But he is captured and taken to the steel room to be crushed to death. With the help of a Chinese boy, Newcombe is able to escape, and Ling Jo winds up being crushed in the steel room instead. Finally Sui Sen learns that she is American as apple pie and weds Newcombe. This picture was the first time author Gouverneur Morris wrote a story directly for the screen, and it was part of producer Samuel Goldwyn's "Eminent Authors" series. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Leatrice Joy, Wallace Beery, (more)
Lois Weber was generally championing something or someone in her films; this time around it's underpaid white-collar workers. Professor Griggs (Phillip Hubbard) can barely afford to support his wife (Margaret McWade) and daughter, Amelia (Claire Windsor). Amelia works at a library and she has three suitors -- carefree college boy Phil West (Louis Calhern), the boy next door whose father is a well-to-do shoemaker, and a poor minister. When Amelia is taken ill, the doctor advises her mother that she must have nourishing food. Since this is beyond what she can afford, Mrs. Griggs steals a chicken from her next-door neighbor. Because of the theft, Amelia returns to work early so that she can pay for the bird. Although West is loved by a girl of his own social station (Marie Walcamp), he prefers Amelia. She refuses to encourage him until he changes his frivolous ways. Not only does he decide to settle down, he also convinces his father, who is on the college board of trustees, to give Amelia's father a raise. Eventually the couple unite. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Phillip Hubbard, Margaret McWade, (more)
- 1920
Olive Thomas, the star of this innocent and sentimental picture, would tragically die of poisoning in Paris within a couple of weeks of its release. The story line is not unlike Peg O' My Heart: a sweet Irish colleen lightens up the lives of those around her. When her Aunt Agnes (Margaret McWade) writes her a desperate note, Kitty McCarthy (Thomas) decides to leave her home in Ireland for the U.S. When she lands on American soil, she meets playwright Gordon Davis (J. Barney Sherry), who gives her enough money to get to her aunt. It turns out that Agnes has become a dope fiend, but Kitty's sunny influence helps her reform almost immediately. Davis, meanwhile, has written a musical comedy, and he gives Kitty a role. The leading lady, Vera Maxwell (Betty Schade), is having problems with her jealous suitor, the wealthy Savoy (Richard Tucker). Kitty helps bring them back together, which temporarily endangers her own romance with Davis' nephew, Roger (Walter McGrail). Gordon lends his aid in keeping the young couple together. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- 1920
This light comedy, based on the French farce La Veglione by Alexandre Bisson and Albert Carre, should have been funnier than it actually turned out to be -- especially with players like Wanda Hawley, Harrison Ford, and famed character actor Tully Marshall. Martinot, a French lawyer (Ford) falls for Susanne Bergomat (Hawley), but has to go on a business trip before he can find out much about her. So he asks his friend, Paul Blythe (Ramsey Wallace), to look into her background for him, and to propose on his behalf. Blythe winds up falling in love with her himself, so he tells Martinot that her father's a drunkard, her mother's a cabaret singer, and that she has inherited the worst traits of both. Martinot writes her off and Blythe marries her. A year later, the young lawyer wants to visit his friend, which sends Blythe into a panic. To hide Susanne's presence, he sends her off with his business partner, Dr. Poulard (Marshall), to visit her parents. But first, they make a stop in Nice to see the Carnival, during which Dr. Poulard gets drunk and passes out -- so Susanne goes off on her own. She runs into Martinot and discovers that he wanted to marry her. She's mad at being duped, so she decides to trick her husband into believing she is all the things he claimed she was, and worse. Mrs. Poulard (Lillian Leighton) helps in this regard when she accuses Susanne of having an affair with her husband. When Blythe has finally been utterly destroyed by Susanne's scandalous behavior, she lets him know it was all a hoax. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- 1920
Wanda Hawley debuted as a star in her previous film, Miss Hobbs. So it is suggested that the poor material in this pointless picture, based on the Paul Kester play Beverly's Balance, is one of the reasons that Hawley's name did not endure beyond her era. Sylvia (Hawley) is the last of the once-wealthy Figueroas. The family fortune has dwindled and the ranch where she lives is falling apart. To fend for herself, Sylvia travels to San Francisco and lands a job as a chorus girl. She's also looking for her sweetheart, Watt Dinwiddie (Harrison Ford), who went to 'Frisco to start his law practice. She thinks he is well-to-do, but in fact, he's struggling as much as she is. Sylvia earns some scandalous publicity because of the way she is promoted in the chorus show, so she quits. Then she discovers that Jack Horner (Lester Cuneo) is seeking a divorce from his wife, Nancy (Ethel Grey Terry), who is infatuated with a nobleman. Sylvia offers to be co-respondent if he uses Dinwiddie as his lawyer. At first, Dinwiddie is perplexed by Sylvia's behavior, but when she helps Horner and his wife reconcile, he understands, and they reunite, too. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- 1917
For years, it was a "given" that no director of merit ever emerged from the old Edison studios. This assertion was disproved when several of the films directed by Edison alumnus John H. Collins were rediscovered in the late 1970s. One of the best of Collins' efforts (and, sadly, one of his last) was the six-reel Metro drama Blue Jeans. Based on an old stage play, the film was set in Hill Country, where a long-standing family feud causes trouble for feisty heroine June (played by Collins' talented wife Viola Dana. The climax is that old "meller-drammer" standy, the Hero Strapped to a Log in the Sawmill. Despite the silliness of the situation, Collins plays it dead straight, and the scene is almost unbearably suspenseful (incidentally, the heroine comes to the rescue, thereby reversing the usual cliché). Blue Jeans was exceptionally well cast, with several familiar faces (including John Ford stock-company perennial Russell Simpson) performing above and beyond the call of duty. Alas, John H. Collins would soon fall victim to the influenza epidemic of 1918, robbing the screen of one of its most potent pioneering talents. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
