Belle Bennett Movies
Screen stardom came late to this distinguished stage actress, who essayed two highly divergent but equally effective mother roles during the late silent era: Jean Hersholt's cheated-on wife, contemplating suicide from the roof of her building in D.W. Griffith's The Battle of the Sexes (1928) (Bennett's contemplation is equally dizzying for the audience), and that of Stella Dallas (1925). The Minnesota-born actress (earlier publicity stated Dublin, Ireland) had begun her long show business career in her father's road show and later enjoyed popularity both on the legitimate stage and in vaudeville. She entered films in the mid-1910s and played either farcical roles or society women, notably Lady Julia in an early version of Sweet Kitty Bellairs (1916), but her early career proved rather undistinguished. Bennett's reemergence in the mid-'20s took everyone by surprise, as did her quite public battles with producer Samuel Goldwyn. But it was Goldwyn who cast her in the role for which she will be remembered, that of the star-crossed Stella Dallas, nobly sacrificing her own happiness for that of upwardly mobile daughter Lois Moran. Bennett's long-suffering wife in Battle of the Sexes was not nearly as liked at the time, but the restored DVD version of this unjustly forgotten Griffith comedy-drama may also reinstate Belle Bennett, who gives a heartfelt performance. She survived the transition to sound and her early death in 1932 may have cut short an important talkie career. Bennett's third and last husband was director Fred Windemere. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide- 1931
The Big Shot is Ray (Eddie Quillan), a go-getting but incredibly naïve real estate speculator. Duped into purchasing some worthless swamp land, Ray is kept in the dark by the villains when the land turns out to be harboring a profitable sulphur spring. On the verge of selling back the property at a ridiculously low sum, our hero is saved from making a sap of himself again by true-blue heroine Doris (Maureen O'Sullivan). The film is at its best when former Mack Sennett star Eddie Quillan converses with an octogenarian Civil War veteran, played by another alumni of silent two-reelers, Arthur Stone. The Big Shot was released in Great Britain as The Optimist, lest English audiences mistake it for a war picture. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eddie Quillan, Maureen O'Sullivan, (more)
- 1930
In this heartwarming drama, an amiable department store worker gets more than he bargained for when he accidentally slips a $10 tip he'd received into the hands of a nurse looking for donations to an orphanage on the way to the bank. By doing this, he unwittingly committed himself to supporting one of the orphans. As he rather likes the nurse, and his new boy, he takes on another job to fulfill his obligation. He finds himself quite happy with the situation until a wealthy man steps forward claims that he believes the boy is his grandson. He promptly adopts the lad. The distraught clerk then plots to kidnap the youth to get him back. Instead he proves that the boy is not related to the millionaire and regains custody. Then to make it all official, he proposes to the nurse, she accepts and a happy family is born. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1930
Breezy comic actor Eddie Quillan starred in several amiable Pathe programmers in 1929, 30' and '31. Big Money finds Quillan cast as a go-getting bank messenger, who falls in with unsuccessful gambler Jimmy Gleason. Entering a high-stakes card game, Quillan bets the bank's money, and is promptly cleaned out. Soft-hearted professional gambler Robert Armstrong rescues the pair from the hoosegow. Big Money was among a handful of talking features directed by Russell Mack, who was no mean gambler himself (especially with other people's money). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eddie Quillan, Miriam Seegar, (more)
- 1930
In this drama, a married woman's life is destroyed when her husband falls in love with a pretty chorine and divorces her. He then marries the chorus girl who uses him, then merrily cheats on him at every turn causing him to go sniveling and crawling back to his ex-wife who lovingly takes the shallow, philandering creep back. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Belle Bennett, John Halliday, (more)
- 1930
Belle Bennett, the star of the 1925 version of Stella Dallas, once again goes the "long-suffering" route in Warner Bros.' Courage. Bennett plays Mary Colbrook, the widowed mother of a large and rambunctious brood. All but one of her seven kids have inherited her late husband's nasty, selfish traits: the seventh is her loyal and loving youngest son Bill (Leon Janney). As it turns out, Bill saves the Colbrooks from financial ruin when the family's reclusive next-door neighbor, who didn't have a friend in town except Bill, wills him her entire fortune. Now free from her debts, Mary is able at long last to head westward, into the arms of her childhood sweetheart -- the man whom, some have whispered, is Bill's real father. Courage was remade in 1938 as the Kay Francis weeper My Bill. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Belle Bennett, Marian Nixon, (more)
- 1930
The second of three versions of the Ferenc Molnar play The Swan, One Romantic Night represented the talkie debut of the great Lillian Gish. The star plays Alexandra, a mittel-European princess who falls in love with Dr. Hafler (Conrad Nagel), her brother's tutor. Alas, affairs of state demand that Alexandra marry Prince Albert (Rod La Rocque), whom she does not love despite his graciousness and affability. Our heroine's problem is twofold: she must let Dr. Hafler down gently -- then she must do the same for herself. Though about ten years too old for her role, Lillian Gish is as serenely regal as ever and does a nice job of modulating her stage-trained voice (which under normal circumstances was capable of reaching the last row of the balcony) for the more intimate demands of the microphone. For the record, the original Broadway production of The Swan starred Eva Le Galleine; the 1925 film version starred Frances Howard, while the 1956 remake top-billed Grace Kelly, who of course eventually became a real-life princess. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lillian Gish, Conrad Nagel, (more)
- 1929
In this early talkie, a burlesque team grows tired of playing rural gigs. When the fellow is offered a chance to do a solo act in the big-city Frolics, he accepts leaving his partner to keep working in hicksville. Meanwhile, back in the Big Apple, the fellow begins falling for a voluptuous vamp spurring him to write his old partner a letter and tell her of his plans to stay solo for a while longer yet. When he discovers that the sexpot is not interested in him, he frantically tries to get the letter back before she gets it. Unfortunately, he is too late. With an aching heart, the woman carries on with her show. Unbeknownst to her, the other partner has arrived and is in a theater box. When she breaks into one of their old duets, he joins her and a romantic reunion ensues. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Belle Bennett, Alberta Vaughn, (more)
- 1929
Not even Joe E. Brown's most fervent fans have much to say about his appearance in the 1929 part-talkie My Lady's Past -- mainly because the film seems to have long since disappeared. In her first talking role, Belle Bennett (who previously co-starred with Brown in Molly and Me) plays another of her "damaged goods" roles, this time as small-town matron Mamie Reynolds. Engaged to Mamie for ten years, novelist Sam Young (Brown) is finally about to pop the question when he learns of his sweetheart's checkered past. After a drunken soliloquy of eight minutes' duration, Sam decides to forgive and forget, but not before settling accounts with the film's villain, narrow-minded John Parker (Russell Simpson). Joe E. Brown would be better served by his later vehicles for Warner Bros. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Belle Bennett, Joe E. Brown, (more)
- 1929
Yet another early talkie about love, jealousy and divorce among the upper classes, Their Own Desire remains a dramatically stilted if technically efficient star vehicle. Lewis Stone is married to frumpy Belle Bennett, whom he leaves for the more streamlined Helene Millard. Stone's daughter, Norma Shearer, formerly a carefree member of the younger polo set, takes her mother's side on the issue and refuses any further association with the parent she once worshipped. In an attempt to forget her family problems, Shearer dallies with young Robert Montgomery and they fall madly in love. But he turns out to be Millard's son and Mother Bennett reacts to this alarming development by having fainting spells. Forced by circumstances to meet in secrecy, Shearer and Montgomery find themselves caught up in a ferocious storm on Lake Michigan and are reported missing. They have survived on an uninhabited island, however, from whence they are rescued by Stone, whom Shearer has forgiven. Parading a series of sleek gowns by Adrian, Norma Shearer performs one of her patented "restless debutante" roles with her usual elan but is somewhat defeated by Frances Marion's overly talkative scripts. Still, Their Own Desire did well enough at the box-office for MGM to re-team her with newcomer Robert Montgomery in the similar The Divorcee (1930), for which she earned an Academy Award. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Norma Shearer, Belle Bennett, (more)
The Iron Mask was Douglas Fairbanks' sequel to his popular 1921 vehicle The Three Musketeers. Fairbanks returns to his original role of D'Artagnan, while Marguerite de La Motte and Nigel De Brulier briefly reprise their Musketeers roles as, respectively, Constance and Cardinal Richelieu. After tying up loose plot ends from the first film, the middle-aged D'Artagnan and his equally venerable fellow musketeers Athos (Leon Bary, also returning from the 1921 film), Porthos (Stanley J. "Tiny" Sandford) and Aramis (Gino Corrado) set about to rescue Louis XIV (William Bakewell), the rightful King of France. Louis XIV has been entombed in a dungeon by his twin brother (also Bakewell) and his head has been locked in an impenetrable iron mask. All of this is at the behest of the scheming De Rochefort (Ulrich Haupt), the real power behind the throne. The Iron Mask was Fairbanks' last silent film; perhaps in acknowledgment of the passing of a Golden era, Fairbanks "died" on screen for the first and only time in his career. Most currently available prints of Iron Mask are taken from the 1940 reissue, narrated by Douglas Fairbanks Jr; in 1974 the younger Fairbanks prepared a restored version of the original, including two brief dialogue passages filmed by Fairbanks back in 1929. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Douglas Fairbanks, Belle Bennett, (more)
- 1928
Technically, Mother Machree was director John Ford's first sound film -- even though the sound was limited to a Fox Movietone musical score and sound-effects track. The story begins in a tiny Irish village at the turn of the century. Having lost her husband to a lightning storm, Ellen McHugh (Belle Bennett) vows to take her son Brian (Phillipe de Lacey) away from Ireland and bring him up in America. Upon her arrival in the States, Ellen is unable to secure a job, forcing her to accept employment as a fabricated "freak" with the carnival side show managed by rowdy Terrence O'Dowd (Victor McLaglen) Her meager earnings are hardly enough to finance her son's education, so Ellen tearfully allows the wealthy principal of the school to legally adopt her boy. As the years pass, Brian grows into manhood believing that his mother is dead. Now a lawyer (and now played by Neil Hamilton), Brian is unaware that his mother is working as a housekeeper in a ritzy 5th Avenue household. He falls in love with Rachel Van Studdiford (Eulalie Jensen), the girl whom Ellen has raised from infancy. Upon being introduced to Ellen's beloved "nanny," Brian is at last reunited with his mother -- just seconds before he is called away to serve in WWI. Unfortunately, Mother Machree, along with most of John Ford's silent films, apparently no longer exists. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Belle Bennett, Philippe DeLacy, (more)
- 1928
Belle Bennett once more goes the martyred "Stella Dallas" route in the aptly titled Power of Silence. To ensure the future happiness of her son John Westwood, Bennett refuses to defend herself in a sensational murder trial. Only through the introduction of a diary as evidence is it proven that she is innocent of the death of her common-law husband Anders Randolf. After the trial, Westwood brings his mother home to live with him and his harridan wife Marion Douglas. Bennett's daughter-in-law resents the older woman's presence -- as well she should, for both Douglas and Bennett know full well that Douglas was guilty of killing Randolf in self-defence. Ultimately, Douglas realizes how much she owes Bennett, and the women share a tearful reconciliation. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Belle Bennett, Marian Douglas, (more)
- 1928
Belle Bennett, the long-suffering leading lady of Stella Dallas (1926), heads the cast of Columbia's The Sporting Age. The story is motivated by a train wreck which causes racetrack owner Holmes Herbert to temporarily lose his eyesight. Taking advantage of this, Herbert's straying wife Bennett carries on an affair with her husband's male secretary Carroll Nye. What neither of the illicit lovers realize is that Herbert has recovered his vision somewhat ahead of schedule -- and he isn't missing a thing! How long will it be before Bennett and Nye find out that Herbert sees all and knows all? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Belle Bennett, Holmes Herbert, (more)
A remake of a 1914 D.W. Griffith potboiler, The Battle of the Sexes is a highly entertaining, if cautionary, tale of a middle-aged family man, J.C. Judson (Jean Hersholt), who despite his devotion to wife and offspring falls for what is obviously a gold digger, Marie Skinner (Phyllis Haver). When Mrs. Judson (Belle Bennett) and her grown children, Ruth (Sally O'Neil) and Billy (William Bakewell), confront him with the awful truth, Judson refuses to give up his inamorata and instead moves out of the home. A desperate Ruth, gun in hand, seeks a showdown with Marie, but their confrontation is interrupted by the latter's handsome but feckless boyfriend, Babe Winsor (Don Alvarado), who in drunkenness begins to court the pretty Ruth. Judson walks in on this tender scene and immediately employs a double standard, condemning his daughter for bringing shame upon his house. A violent argument between a jealous Marie and Babe forces him to face the truth, however, and a chagrined Judson returns to home and hearth, begging for forgiveness. Beautifully restored and released on DVD in 2000, The Battle of the Sexes benefits from a wonderful new score performed by the Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jean Hersholt, Phyllis Haver, (more)
- 1928
Belle Bennett and William V. Mong play a pair of veteran crooks who decide to "go straight" when their daughter is born. When the girl reaches maturity, however, Mong tries to indoctrinate his daughter (played as an adult by Marion Douglas) into a life of crime. Bennett reluctantly goes along with the scheme, though to save her baby from arrest she busily rushes around returning the items that the father and daughter have stolen. Meanwhile, the daughter begins to stray from the "family business" when she falls in love with the son (William Bakewell) of a wealthy manufacturer. Surprisingly, the story never comes to a genuine resolution and merely stops after 7 reels. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Belle Bennett, William V. Mong, (more)
- 1928
The Devil's Skipper was based on Demetrios Contos, a seafaring yarn by Jack London. Effectively cast against type, Belle Bennett plays a wronged woman who becomes the most brutal and feared slave-ship captain on the Seven Seas. Though her crews constantly threaten to mutiny, "The Devil Skipper" (Bennett) is protected by her first officer Montague Love, who has carried a torch for her for nearly thirty years. Capturing an enemy ship, Bennett prepares to turn over pretty passenger Mary McAllister to her lustful crew -- only to discover that the helpless girl is Bennett's own daughter. Suddenly concerned only with McAllister's safety, Bennett lets down her guard long enough to be overtaken by her vengeful crew, leading to an operatic death scene. Gino Corrado, who later found his cinematic niche as Hollywood's favorite head waiter, appears in the opening scenes as Bennett's treacherous lover. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Belle Bennett, Montagu Love, (more)
- 1927
Wild Geese is based on a novel by Martha Ostenso, originally serialized in the pages of The Pictorial Review. The story is set in rural Minnesota, where farm wife Amelia Gare (Belle Bennett) is forced to endure the tyranny of her domineering husband Caleb Gare (Russell Simpson). In spite of everything, Amelia does her utmost to make certain that her children will be able to survive -- and, hopefully, escape -- their cruel paterfamilias. As it turns out, however, the family is "liberated" only by the long-overdue demise of Amelia's husband. It sounds stilted and cliched, but contemporary reviewers noted that the film was rescued by its actors, who offered three-dimensional characterizations rather than stock stereotypes. Wild Geese was geared primarily to "regional" audiences, who responded enthusiastically. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Belle Bennett, Russell Simpson, (more)
- 1927
This was Emil Jannings' first American-made picture, and his portrayal is reminiscent of his characters in his previous films, The Last Laugh and Variety, and would later be echoed in The Blue Angel. Jannings' powerful performance, along with his acting in The Last Command, would win him the first Academy Award for Best Actor. August Schiller (Jannings) is a content husband and father of six children who works as a cashier for the Germania Bank. He is sent to Chicago with some of the bank's securities and during the train ride he is thoroughly vamped by Mayme, a cheap little crook (Phyllis Haver). Mayme takes Schiller on a wild debauch and when he wakes up in a sordid transient hotel, he realizes that she has made off with the securities. He goes in search of her and is attacked by a thug (Fred Kohler) who steals his valuables. As the two men struggle, the thug falls in front of a train and is killed. A few days later, Schiller reads in the paper that the thug was identified as him, so instead of disgracing his family he decides to remain living in secret. Years later, when he is completely down and out, he hears that his son (Donald Keith) is now a famous violinist. On Christmas, he makes his way to his old home and watches the holiday feast through a window. He is driven away and crawls back into obscurity. Ironically, Belle Bennett, who played Schiller's wife, was the star of the 1925 version of Stella Dallas, a tale which ends in a similar fashion. The Way of All Flesh was based on a story by Perley Poore Sheehan. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Emil Jannings, Belle Bennett, (more)
- 1927
In the tradition of her previous appearance as the title character in Stella Dallas, Belle Bennett suffers her way through all six reels of The Fourth Commandment. Bennett plays Virginia, the selfish wife of Edmund Graham (Leigh Willard), unable to tolerate her amiable but intrusive mother-in-law (Mary Carr). Finally, Virginia delivers an ultimatum: "Either your mother goes, or I go!" Ultimately, what comes around goes around when the aging Virginia is given the boot by her own daughter-in-law. In case there's any doubt, the "fourth commandment" is "Honor Thy Father and Thy Mother." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Henry Victor, June Marlowe, (more)
- 1927
Based on a story by Kathleen Norris, Mother stars Belle Bennett in the title role. In the tradition of her previous screen assignment in Stella Dallas, Bennett dedicates herself to improving the lot of her two rambunctious children. Using a $10,000 inheritance, she sets up her ne'er-do-well husband in business, only to watch him succumb to the charms of another woman. Bennett continues to forgive and forget right up to the teary climax, in which her good deeds at long last go unpunished. This FBO production should not be confused with the classic Soviet film of the same name. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Belle Bennett, Mabel Julienne Scott, (more)
- 1926
Belle Bennett stars as Odette, who early in life is forced to give up all dreams of love so that she can look after her irresponsible father (John St. Polis). Despite her "old maid" status, Odette lives her life vicariously through her younger sister Christiane (Reata Hoyt). Unfortunately, Christiane succeeds only in bringing scandal and disgrace to her family -- which, frankly, is precisely what her rakish father deserves. Meanwhile, Odette at last finds happiness in the arms of her family's attorney (Richard Tucker) who has long worshipped her from afar. The Lily is a slightly laundered adaptation of the stage play of the same name. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Barry Norton, Richard Tucker, (more)
- 1926
Belle Bennett, the unforgettable star of the original Stella Dallas (1926), again suffers nobly through the "mother love" melodrama Reckless Lady. Just to make Bennett feel at home, she is here reunited with her Stella Dallas co-star Lois Moran. Bennett is cast as the prodigal Mrs. Fleming, whose mounting gambling debts oblige her to have an affair with wealthy Russian nobleman Feodor (Lowell Sherman). Mrs. Fleming's husband (James Kirkwood) files for divorce, demanding custody of the couple's daughter Sylvia (Lois Moran). With Sylvia in tow, our heroine flees to Monte Carlo, where she is able to recoup her gambling losses by intelligently playing the gaming tables. Mrs. F. is on the verge of getting back on her feet financially when who should re-enter her life but Feodor, who now makes a play for the virginal Sylvia. When Mrs. Fleming begs him to leave Sylvia alone, he laughs and threatens to tell the girl everything about her mother's checkered past. At her wit's end, Mrs. Fleming loses her money and contemplates suicide, but her ex-husband, who still loves her, shows up in the nick of time to straighten everything out. This high-gloss soap opera was based on a novel by Philip Hamilton Gibbs. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Belle Bennett, James Kirkwood, (more)
- 1926
The 1926 Amateur Gentleman was the second film version of Jeffrey Farnol's novel of the same name. Richard Barthelmess stars as Barnabas Barty, the rough-hewn son of a prizefighter (Edwards Davis). Barty's dad is accused of a crime he didn't commit; almost simultaneously, Barnabas inherits a fortune. With the help of a sympathetic butler, Barty poses as a fey nobleman, the better to weed out the persons who framed his father. The ruse is inevitably discovered, but fair Lady Cleone Meredith (Dorothy Dunbar) loves Barty all the same. Improving upon the original, The Amateur Gentleman closes with a thrilling steeplechase sequence. The Farnol novel would be filmed again in 1936, with Douglas Fairbanks Jr. as Barnabas Barty. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Barthelmess, Dorothy Dunbar, (more)
- 1925
F.B.O. was primarily known for its Westerns and low-budget programmers, but the film company did make an attempt at creating some prestige pictures -- this society drama, with a story by C. Gardner Sullivan, was one of them. Eleanor (Belle Bennett) has married Joe Woodbury (Clive Brook) only for his wealth. Now she's bored and carrying on with Gene Deering (Donald McDonald), a "parlor polecat" (that's what Motion Picture News called him). One day, the Woodburys visit Nadia, a popular fortune teller (Jacqueline Logan), and she becomes attracted to Woodbury. The hypocritical Eleanor refuses to tolerate her husband's friendship with Nadia, so she has a private meeting with the fortune teller and confesses that she is pregnant. Apparently, %Nadia's psychic powers were failing her that day, because she believes this false claim and agrees to give up Woodbury. Not much later, Nadia and her friend, Dr. Mallini (Jean Hersholt), discover Eleanor and Deering escaping from a roadhouse raid. They take Eleanor, who is injured, to Nadia's, and the doctor discovers that Eleanor is not pregnant at all. Woodbury divorces his wayward wife and marries Nadia. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jacqueline Logan, Belle Bennett, (more)
- 1925
This silent drama, based on the novel by the Countess de Chambrun, had quite a few unusual twists. Amy and Matthew Dale (Belle Bennett and Clive Brook) separate and they place their young son, Matthew Jr., in a London boarding school. The boy grows up without knowing his parents, and is taunted by his schoolmates, who doubt the legitimacy of his childhood. By the time he is 20, Matt (William Collier Jr.) wants to find out about his parentage, so he travels to Paris, leaving behind his sweetheart, Margo (Mary Astor). He gets swept up in the nightlife of the Montmartre and becomes involved with Bricotte (Jacqueline Logan), who is -- to put it politely -- very popular with the men there. The banker who has been doling out Matt's allowance sends for Dale Sr., who arrives in Paris and presents himself to Matt as a friend of his dad's. He halts the affair with Bricotte by showing her up as the floozy she really is. Then he has to save his disillusioned son from jumping into the Seine. Things get even more interesting when Amy shows up and tries to vamp her own son. Dale has to take her aside to tell her his identity. In the end, Matt returns to London and Margo, while Amy and her husband are reunited. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jacqueline Logan, Mary Astor, (more)
