Constance Bennett Movies

When her tough boyfriend Red Branahan (William Gargan) is sent to jail, Aggie Appleby (Wynne Gibson) meets mild-mannered Adoniram Schlump (Charles Farrell), and decides to turn him into a real man. She teaches him how to talk tough, changes his name to Red Branahan, and gets him a construction job -- unaware that the real Red has been released from prison. ~ Bill Warren, All Movie Guide

Released in Great Britain as Sealed Lips, this WWI melodrama stars Constance Bennett as Carla, aka Russian spy "K-14." Though there's no room for romance in her line of work, Carla falls in love all the same with Austrian captain Rudi (Gilbert Roland). When he discovers that she's working for the enemy, Rudi is forced to arrest Carla, a turn of events which she takes in stride as the fortunes of war. Though slated for a firing squad, Carla manages to escape and after the war is reunited with Rudi at the train station where they first met. One of the screenwriters was Worthington Miner, later a leading light of the TV anthology series Studio One. Coming at the tail end of the early-1930s "spy cycle," After Tonight lost $100,000 at the box office, forcing RKO Radio to rethink the studio's contract with Constance Bennett. ~ Hal Erickson, 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

What Price Hollywood is often mistakenly referred to as the "first" version of the oft-filmed A Star is Born. While there are strong resemblances between the two properties, Hollywood is in many respects a wholly separate entity. Constance Bennett plays a star-struck waitress who manages to make a good impression on prominent film director Lowell Sherman. With Sherman's patronage, Bennett rises to film stardom as "America's Pal." Sherman is gratified, but he keeps his distance; a chronic alcoholic, he is certain that his inevitable fall from grace will adversely affect Bennett's stardom. Impulsively, Bennett marries wealthy playboy Neil Hamilton, who genuinely loves his wife but is jealous of the demands made on her by her career. Hamilton walks out, but not before Bennett has been impregnated. Turning her attentions to her mentor Sherman, Bennett does everything she can to halt his career downslide, but it is too late. In a startlingly conceived sequence (utilizing slow motion and rapid-fire montage cutting), Sherman kills himself in Bennett's bedroom. When his body is found, the ensuing scandal destroys Bennett's career (represented visually by a life-sized cutout of "America's Pal" shrinking into nothingness). Hoping to heal her emotional wounds, she flees to Paris with her child, where she is reunited with a contrite Hamilton. What Price Hollywood? producer David O. Selznick later claimed that most of the dialogue and situations in the film were drawn from life; he'd make the same claim upon producing the similar (but not identical) A Star is Born five years later. Somewhat perversely, Lowell Sherman based his performance-especially the inebriation scenes-on his then brother-in-law John Barrymore. ~ 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

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

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

Dennis Shawn (Owen Moore) is the overseer of a huge lumber camp inherited by city-girl Marcia Livingston (Constance Bennett). Though they're not overly fond of each other, Dennis and Marcia are compelled to get married as part of a deal to purchase additional lumber property. The wedding ceremony is performed by phone, whereupon Dennis and Marcia prepare to go their separate ways. Unfortunately for them (but fortunately for the plot), the land deal requires them to live together as man and wife for at least three months. Marcia refuses, whereupon Dennis kidnaps his new bride and carries her off to the lumber camp -- where of course, she learns to love him just in time for the fadeout. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

While his reputation has faded next to stronger talents such as Cecil B. DeMille, Erich Von Stroheim, and King Vidor, James Cruze was one of the most popular directors of the 1920s. He is the biggest name associated with this drama. The picture was based on a successful Broadway play by Lewis Beach. Bernard Ingals (George Irving and his wife Eunice (Myrtle Stedman) have worked hard to send their children Hugh (William Otis Jr.), Lois (Constance Bennett), and Bradley (Edward Piel Jr.) to college. When the kids come home for Christmas, it's obvious that they've become selfish and self-centered. They ignore their parents completely, making themselves absent from home in favor of attending wild parties. Ingals finally gets tired of being under the thumb of political boss Elliott Kimberly (James Marcus) and quits his city job. When Grandma Bradley (Gertrude Claire) finds out, she lectures her three grandchildren, who straighten up and start pitching in to help. Ingals lands a better job and the kids learn their lesson. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Shy cowboy Cal Thurman (Owen Moore) falls for sophisticated city girl Georgie May (Constance Bennett) in this, the first of two versions of Zane Grey's story. When Georgie May haughtily rejects the poor cowpuncher, he sets out to stake his claim, gets in trouble with a gang of crooks, and later saves the repentant Georgie May from a forest fire. Code of the West was not one of Grey's better efforts but is worthwhile as a rare glimpse of the glittering Constance Bennett, who, as The New York Times put it, "is not the kind of girl one would expect to find on an Arizona ranch." ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

As their 25th anniversary approaches, Stuart Borden (Huntley Gordon) and his wife (Irene Rich) are not exactly happily married. In addition to the boredom they feel, there is also the issue of their grown son, Stuart Jr. (John Harron). Young Stuart is in love with Betty Allen (Constance Bennett), a gold digger who is only interested in him as long as he spends lavish amounts of money on her. His father becomes so outraged at the amounts of money he is going through that he cuts him off. As a result, Betty dumps Stuart and a little while later, she meets Borden and entices him. Soon they are having an affair, which is discovered by Mrs. Borden. The Borden's anniversary is on the same day as Betty's birthday and she's mad that Borden won't just drop everything to be with her. Mrs. Borden finally admits that she knows about the affair, and her husband decides to go to Europe. He goes to Betty to tell her good-bye, but his son is already on his way there with a gun to shoot whoever his rival is. Mrs. Borden follows and stops her son from shooting his father. Borden begs his wife's forgiveness and the couple reconcile. It's surprising to note that this domestic drama was adapted from a novel by Harriet Beecher Stowe. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide