Brooks Benedict Movies

In this simple little romantic drama, Charles "Buck" Jones plays fireman Andy McGee. McGee becomes a fireman over the protests of his mother (Lucy Beaumont), who doesn't want to see her son sacrifice his life the way his father did. When she dies, McGee adopts little Elizabeth Stevens (Eileen O'Malley), who takes care of him instead of vice versa. Along the way he meets Agnes Evans, a chorus girl (Marian Nixon), and falls in love. He finds out she is married to a worthless alcoholic, and he sadly has to write her off. When the home in which she lives catches fire, he comes to the rescue and saves her. Then he finds out that her husband -- who had locked her in her room -- is still inside. McGee does his duty and goes back for the husband. His heroic attempt to rescue the man, however, is in vain. The death of Agnes' nasty husband paves the way for her relationship with McGee. ~ Janiss Garza, Rovi

One of Harold Lloyd's best feature-length comedies, The Freshman, features the bespectacled regular guy as Harold Lamb, a naïve young man who heads off to college believing campus life will be just as it is in the movies; he even learns a little dance he saw one of his favorite actors do in a film. However, Harold soon discovers that real life isn't all that much like the pictures, and he quickly becomes the laughing stock of the university. Determined to prove himself, Harold tries out for the football team, but he serves as water boy and rides the pine until he finally gets a chance to redeem himself at the big game. Along the way, Harold also tries to woo a lovely co-ed, Peggy (Jobyna Ralston). 22 years later, writer/director Preston Sturges used the climactic football game as the opening for his collaboration with Harold Lloyd, The Sin of Harold Diddlebock. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Despite its Victrola-inspired title, His Master's Voice was a silent film (though it was released with an accompanying musical score, written by Gus Edwards, Howard Johnson and Irving Bibo, for the benefit of moviehouse pit orchestras). Rin-Tin-Tin wannabe Thunder the Dog stars as an army mutt during World War I. With Thunder's help, human co-star George Hackathorne overcomes his cowardice on the battlefield. Hackathorne then returns home to settle accounts with the crooked rival who stole his gal (Marjorie Daw). The novelty: His Master's Voice is related in flashback by Thunder himself, who is seen at the beginning and end of the film "telling" his story to his pups. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The 1926 Ranson's Folly was the second screen version of the rough-and-tumble novel by journalist Richard Harding Davis. Richard Barthelmess plays Lt. Ranson, an army officer who, out of boredom, bets his friends that he can successfully pull off a stagecoach robbery armed with nothing more than a pair of scissors. Disguised as the notorious masked bandit "the Red Rider," Barthelmess makes good his wager. Unfortunately, the army paymaster is murdered shortly thereafter. All evidence points to the Red Rider -- and, of course, to the innocent Barthelmess. It appears as though the genuine culprit is the father of Barthelmess' sweetheart Dorothy Mackaill. This turned out to be the case in the original Davis novel, but screenwriter Lillie Hayward has a few surprises of her own up her sleeve. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Unlike most "collegiate" films of the 1920s, College Days paints a fairly realistic portrait of campus life. To be sure, the characters are seen in raccoon coats and flapper skirts. Yes, they do take an occasional swing from their hip flasks while partying at the local roadhouse. And, true, they spend their spare time speeding around in Stutz Bearcats. On the other hand, the students are shown actually attending classes -- and, in an even more radical departure from formula, they are glimpsed doing their homework! The film ends with the traditional Big Football Game, as BMOC Jim Gordon (Charles Delaney) leads his team to victory. A.P. Younger, the writer of many a football drama of the era, supervised the production and penned the script, while Pat Harmon, who played the football coach in Harold Lloyd's The Freshman, more or less repeats his performance here. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

George Sidney and Charlie Murray are "Cohen and Kelly" in everything but name in this wartime farce. Shipped to Russia during the 1919 civil war between the Bolsheviks and the Royalists, American soldiers Krauss (Sidney) and Muldoon (Murray) waste no time commiserating with the local female population. Trying to sneak back to their own lines, our heroes disguise themselves as peasant girls, leading to a hilarious tete-a-tete with a pair of amorous Russian officers. Several other "Charley's Aunt" complications are in store for Krauss and Muldoon before they attempt to end the war with a bomb-detonation device of Krauss' invention. Lost at the Front was directed by Del Lord, future helmsman of dozens of Three Stooges comedies. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The silent The Dropkick stars Richard Barthelmess as a talented but hopelessly conceited college football star. Because of his frequent clashes with his coach, Barthelmess is the prime suspect when said coach is murdered. He manages to clear himself just in time to win the Big Game. Of interest to sports fans is the presence in the cast of the 10 top college football players of 1927. Together with The Patent Leather Kid, The Dropkick was Richard Barthelmess' biggest moneymaker during his tenure at First National Studios. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Chorus girl Barbara Bedford is left broke and stranded by a crooked producer in Backstage. Her good-hearted stage manager pal allows her and the other cast members to stay in his apartment until another job comes along. Unfortunately, our heroine's nerdish boyfriend William Collier Jr. doesn't grasp the situation. Most showbiz films of the 1920s were essentially excuses to show off plenty of female epidermis, and Backstage is no exception. Its pulchritude quotient notwithstanding, the film is quite innocent when compared to such contemporary efforts as Showgirls. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

After achieving success in the mid-'20s, Harry Langdon decided to emulate the silent era's premier comedian -- Charles Chaplin -- and turn auteur. He fired Frank Capra from his staff and directed this feature on his own. Although both writer (and future director) Arthur Ripley and director Harry Edwards stayed on with Langdon, the story line and directoral approach clearly indicate that Langdon was doing his darndest to encroach on Chaplin's pathos-laden terrain. It's a simple story, stretched quite a bit to fill out six reels -- Harry is a timid dreamer who longs for a wife and family. He believes he's achieved his heart's desire when he finds a pregnant girl (Gladys McConnell) in a snowstorm. Harry happily takes care of his new family -- until the girl's husband (Cornelius Keefe) finds her and takes her and the baby back home. Unfortunately, when Langdon directed this picture, he laid on the sentiment but forgot about the comedy, so there are few laughs to be had. Three's a Crowd was a commercial flop, as were the next two films that Langdon directed. After that, he was fired by his studio, First National, and he lost Ripley, who returned to Mack Sennett's studio. ~ Janiss Garza, Rovi

This was comedian Harold Lloyd's last silent film, and one of his most charming. Lloyd's character here is called Harold "Speedy" Swift, an upbeat young man whose fatal attraction for baseball always causes him to lose his jobs. After his latest firing, he impulsively spends a day at Coney Island with his sweetheart, Jane Dillon (Ann Christy). Ann's grandfather, Pop Dillon (Bert Woodruff), meanwhile, has a dilemma -- he runs the last horse-drawn trolley in New York City, and the railway magnates desperately want his route. Since Pop won't sell it to them, they plan to get it by underhanded means. Pop must make his rounds at least once every 24 hours, so the magnates hire thugs to stop him. Speedy hears about this plan and, being gainfully unemployed, takes over the route to protect the old man. But the magnates then steal the trolley, and the climax of the film involves Speedy's dash to find the trolley and get it back to its route before the 24 hours are up. He makes it just in time and then forces the magnates to buy the route for a cool 100,000 dollars. This picture was shot on location in a Manhattan that now looks almost quaint for all its concrete and steel. Baseball legend Babe Ruth had a cameo role, playing himself as a very harassed fare when Speedy is working as a cabbie. Their wild ride ends at the old Yankee Stadium. Other historically interesting sites include Coney Island's Luna Park, and Columbus Circle and Wall Street as they were in 1928. In the film's climax, the trolley has a spectacular crash at the Brooklyn Bridge -- this accident was not planned, but was left in the film anyhow. At the time of this picture's release, Lloyd was a top box-office draw, a bigger moneymaker than Charlie Chaplin (whose releases during the '20s was infrequent) and Buster Keaton (whose quirky comedy wouldn't be fully appreciated for several decades). While Lloyd made some fairly amusing sound films, he never again matched the quality of his silent work. ~ Janiss Garza, Rovi

This 1929 drama about mistaken identities contains three eight minute scenes that involve talking. The rest of the film is silent and subtitled. The trouble begins when the hero follows a pretty lady aboard an ocean liner. He boards the ship using the name of his friend who was supposed to take the cruise for health reasons. The friend was told that if he did not board the boat, he would not receive his inheritance. Unfortunately for the hero, a male nurse believes that he is the sick friend and forces him to stay in the cabin and subsist upon a diet of goat's milk. He is finally able to escape the nurse and search for the girl. Unfortunately, a band of jewel thieves sees him and mistakes him for a detective. The robbers are after the girl's necklace. The nurse finds the hero and forces him back to the cabin explaining to the crew that the man is crazy. Later the hapless hero unknowingly thwarts the thieves, gets away from the nurse, and finally gets the girl. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

The Trespasser was Gloria Swanson's first all-talking picture. All talk is right. Swanson plays a humble secretary who marries the son (Robert Ames) of a domineering millionaire (William Holden--no, not that William Holden). The father-in-law bullies Swanson into giving up his son; she agrees to step out of his life, proudly withholding the fact that she's about to become a mother. Later, Swanson enters her ex-husband's social class via an inheritance. Unfortunately, he's remarried to Kay Hammond, who is crippled and thus more needful of the man's love and comfort than self-reliant Swanson. Tearfully, Swanson gives up the man she loves, left only with her child and a bulging bank account. When Trespasser was remade by director Edmund Goulding as That Certain Woman with Bette Davis in 1937, a last-minute happy ending was tacked on--if one can call the death of wife number two a joyous event. As for the original film, Gloria Swanson proved (contrary to the popular belief engendered by Sunset Boulevard) that she could have been just as big a star in talkies as she'd been in silents (she even sings well); unfortunately her subsequent judgment in screenplay selection resulted in a string of flops. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

This fact-based drama chronicles the events that led to the murder of a notorious gambler. The story begins when a young cardsharp goes to see his brother, whom he believes is a stockbroker. In reality, the brother is a famed gambler who is trying to quit and try to rebuild his marriage. When the professional gambler sees that his card-playing sibling is preparing to make the same mistakes he did, he decides to risk his life and gamble one more time to teach him an unforgettable lesson. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi