Constance Bennett Movies

The answer to the burning question posed by this low-budget domestic drama was that they tended to want more from life than their husbands were able to afford. Janet Lee's (Barbara Castleton) new "jazz wild" lifestyle all but brings her husband Jack (Rod la Rocque) to the brink of bankruptcy. When Jack balks at financing a series of wild parties, Janet takes up with millionaire Arthur Belden (Montague Love. But a serious injury to her child (Helen Rowland) finally brings the wayward wife to her senses. Among the "Jazz Age" personalities flitting in and out of Janet's life were New York glamour girl Constance Bennett), future gossip columnist Hedda Hopper and Mrs. Oscar Hammerstein. What's Wrong with the Women? was produced in New York by writer Daniel Carson Goodman. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

There were two versions of Into the Net -- a 15-reel serial and a seven-reel melodrama. The story was written by Richard E. Enright, New York City's police commissioner. Apparently Enright wanted to bring the kind of literary fame to New York's finest that London's bobbies and Paris' gendarmes had. Unfortunately America's men in blue just didn't share the same aura of romance, but Enright's tales made for some action-packed film footage. Madge Clayton (Constance Bennett), a society girl, mysteriously disappears. The police suspect a master criminal is behind the girl's abduction, but her brother, Bob (Jack Mulhall), and fiancé, Bert Moore (Bradley Barker), help with the search. They unearth a scheme to kidnap another girl, Natalie Van Cleef (Edna Murphy), and the evidence takes Bob and Bert to an estate on Long Island. There, they discover a ring of international crooks, who, along with the usual robberies, also abduct girls for their boss. The two young men bring these bad guys to justice -- with the help of the New York police force, of course. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

The Goose Woman was inspired by the notorious Hall-Mills murder case, wherein a woman known as the "Pig Woman" was wheeled into court on her sickbed to provide damning testimony. Louise Dresser plays Marie du Nard, a celebrated opera diva who loses her voice and her reputation after giving birth to an illegitimate son. Reverting to her given name of Mary Holmes, she returns to her hometown, living in a squalid shack and raising geese. Years later, a headline-making murder case is played out in her town. Hoping to capture her past celebrity, Mary claims to be a witness to the murder. Her dreams of glory abruptly fade when she discovers that her grown son Gerald (Jack Pickford) is implicated in the crime. An excellent film by any standards, The Goose Woman served to solidify the reputation of director Clarence Brown. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Based on a musical comedy by Edward Dowling, this picture was Joan Crawford's breakthrough film. Her Charleston in this and other films would be defining moments for the 1920s. The worldly Sally (Constance Bennett), dreamy Irene (Crawford), and naïve Mary (Sally O'Neill) are friends who have risen up from New York's Lower East Side to become Broadway chorus girls. Sally's wealthy lover, Marcus Morton (Henry Kolker), falls for innocent Mary, and Irene, even though a decent man expresses his love for her, falls prey to one of Broadway's wolves. The man, however, has a change of heart, and sends Irene back home. She marries the right guy, but they are killed in an auto accident. Mary is shocked by Irene's death, and realizes that Morton symbolizes a world that does not really suit her. As a result, she settles down with Jimmy Dugan (William Haines), her childhood sweetheart, who has become a plumber. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Alla Nazimova, an ethereal Russian actress who preferred to bill herself as just plain Nazimova, tops the cast of My Son. The "son" in this instance is Portuguese youth Jack Pickford, who lives and works in a New England fishing town with his devoted mother (Nazimova). Pickford courts disaster when he falls for a gorgeous adventuress (Constance Bennett). His mother and his sweetheart (Mary Akin) despair over Pickford's outrageous behavior, and for a while it looks as though he'll never wise up. My Son was adapted from the stage play by Martha M. Stanley. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Constance Bennett, still a very new star in 1925, has a more serious role than her usual light, sophisticated fare in this melodrama. Although Norman Yuell (Wallace MacDonald) is a rather prudish young man, he falls hopelessly in love with Guerda Anthony (Bennett), who has been tainted by scandal. Guerda's reputation was destroyed when she admitted to spending the night with her former fiancé, Raymond Carroll (George Hackathorne). It was just before he went to fight in the World War, where he was lost and presumed dead. When he was posthumously accused of giving information to the enemy, Guerda confessed he was with her to save his name. Yuell finds a lot to admire in Guerda and marries her, but he is tortured by the thought that she may still be pining for the lost Carroll. It turns out that Carroll didn't die, but was shell-shocked and lost his memory. When he finally returns home, he is able to recall his past. He discovers that Guerda has married and goes out of his way to salvage her damaged relationship with her husband. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

In this romantic drama, a wealthy, young heiress suffers from ennui and begins rebelling against the restrictions of her class by refusing to marry her equally wealthy fiance. Instead she falls for a serious salesman. Unfortunately, the salesman wants nothing to do with her money and refuses to marry her; she begins to dread her upcoming nuptials to the other fellow. In the end she and salesman reconcile, but she cannot get out of her engagement honorably. She is standing at the alter in her gown on her wedding day, when suddenly a dog wanders up with a note in its mouth. The note tells her that the salesman is leaving town. Suddenly the girl decides to follow her heart and takes off after the dog to profess undying love to the salesman. Humble marital bliss ensues. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Ellen Neal (Constance Bennett) is a "nice" girl -- just turned 18 -- who's been picked up in a raid on a speakeasy where she just started working. She pleads guilty to vagrancy, but gets a lecture and warning from the judge to steer clear of places like that, and to try and find honest work. She tries to do precisely that and is hired a year later as a maid in the household of the Fullertons, a wealthy family with roots going back to the English aristocracy. She's very aware of the opportunity she's been given, and tries to lead an honorable life, despite the lecherous inclinations of the household's major domo (Charles McNaughton) and the less obnoxious but equally fervent impulses of their college-age son, Hugh (Lew Ayres), and his friends. Ellen soon finds, however, that for all of their pretensions to greatness, the Fullertons and their friends enjoy exactly the same leisure activities -- including drinking illegal liquor (this is in the middle of the Prohibition era), bought from the same gangsters, dancing the same dances, and singing the same songs that the customers did in the speakeasy where she worked; and that at least one of the close family friends, Bud Coakley (Matty Kemp), was a customer at that same place and remembers her. He tells Hugh what he thinks he knows about Ellen's "past" and soon Hugh is putting moves on her, which she resists anew. When he realizes the kind of woman she really is, Hugh ultimately comes to genuinely love her, and those attentions she is willing to accept and return in kind. He returns to college in September -- before Ellen discovers that she is pregnant -- and when she writes to tell him, he doesn't answer.

Ellen leaves her job and returns to live with her mother (Beryl Mercer), and she has the baby, a boy. Hugh never does reply to her letters, and she is forced to hire an attorney, Yates (Tully Marshall). The Fullerton family, led by the blustery patriarch Richard (Purnell Pratt), wants this case settled quietly, out of court, and so instructs his lawyer, Judge Filson (Hale Hamilton). Filson expects to encounter a cheap gold digger, but when he meets Ellen, he's pleasantly surprised and comes to believe her story about the baby's paternity. Meanwhile, it turns out that Hugh would like to do the right thing by Ellen, but his best impulses have been diverted by his father's advice (always focused on preserving the family's reputation) and Bud, who still thinks of Ellen as the girl from the speakeasy. Complicating matters even further is that Ellen doesn't even want money and never did -- all she wanted is the acknowledgement from Hugh about who she was to him and who the baby's father is. When she's confronted by her "past," it looks as though she may never get a chance to press her case, until her attorney uncovers a fact that gets Bud and Hugh hauled into court. It still looks like the Fullertons will get their way, with a trumped-up session prejudiced in favor of them, when suddenly some truths come out that turn the reputations of all concerned completely on their heads. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

First filmed in 1926, the venerable stage melodrama Three Faces East was remade as a talkie in 1930. Set during WWI, most of the film takes place in the London home of Sir Winston Chamberlain (sic), First Lord of the Admiralty. What Sir Winston doesn't know is that his faithful butler Erich Von Stroheim is the head of a German espionage ring. What nobody knows are the true loyalties of heroine Constance Bennett, who might be a British agent, a German spy, an innocent bystander, or none of the above. The property would be filmed again in 1940 as British Intelligence, with Boris Karloff and Margaret Lindsay in the leading roles. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Constance Bennett, Hollywood's favorite "wronged" heroine, is the star of the misleadingly titled Bought. Thing of it is, Bennett can't be bought by wealthy playboy Ray Milland. Despite dangling all sorts of expensive temptations in front of her, Milland never gets any farther than a one-night stand with the girl. Turning her back on high society, our heroine returns to her tenement apartment and her poverty-stricken sweetheart, author Ben Lyon. One of the attractions of Bought was the rare on-screen teaming of leading-lady Constance Bennett and her father, legendary Broadway star Richard Bennett. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this melodrama that was considered utterly scandalous in its day, an impoverished, beautiful young ghetto girl quickly learns that she can get to Easy Street on her back. Her indecent journey begins when a scout discovers her working in a department store. He gets her signed up to a modeling agency where she soon becomes the mistress of the owner. He gives her plenty of money and a nice place to live. She tries to share the money with her family, but they strongly disapprove of the means by which she is "earning" it. The young model later falls in love with an Argentine tycoon who proposes, but is unable to marry her because he must hastily return to Buenos Aires to attend to personal matters. He asks that she wait for him. She wants to, but finds herself seduced by the lure of her other lover's money and so moves in with him. When the tycoon finally returns and finds out, he is utterly devastated and tragedy ensues for the girl. There are two prints of the film around: one features a happy ending, while in the other, the tragedy continues. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

This droll, sophisticated comedy stars Constance Bennett as Venice Muir, a shy young lady with no "past" of any kind -- and very little romance in her life. Hoping to overcome her bashfulness during a trip to Europe, she invents a lurid history for herself, then engages the services of paid escort Guy Bryson (Ben Lyon) to accompany her to all the continent's hot spots. Through word of mouth, Venice gains the reputation of being a sexual adventuress (though she's still nothing of the kind), and soon she is headline fodder for all the Parisian newspapers. Her fabricated randy reputation catches the eye of wealthy Donnie Wainright (David Manners), but it is Guy Bryson who ultimately makes an "honest woman" out of her. Lady With a Past was adapted from the equally delightful novel by Harriet Henry. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide