Spottiswood Aitken

A sturdy, reliable cast distinguishes the so-so outdoor drama God's Great Wilderness. The main character is a nasty backwoods general-store owner, who browbeats his wife and son into cowering submission and regularly cheats his customers. In contrast, a rival store owner has the milk of human kindness flowing through his veins. Tragedy strikes both storekeepers, leaving both men alone and destitute. But while the nastier of the two is left with nothing to show for his life, the kindly owner is showered with sympathy and charity. The best performance was rendered by John Ford "regular" Russell Simpson as the nominal villain. God's Great Wilderness was a rare screenwriting effort from former D. W. Griffith stock-company player Spottiswood Aiken. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Silent-film leading lady Alice Calhoun always tried hard, but she was defeated by the "B"-grade melodramas in which she usually found herself. In Power of the Weak, Calhoun plays Mary, the young owner of a thriving lumber camp. When a shipment of lumber fails to arrive on time, young logger Raymond (Carl Miller) is blamed, whereupon the enraged Mary lets him have it with a bull-whip (this woman definitely needs to hire an employee-relations expert!) Instead of whimpering in pain, Raymond emerges from his whipping determined to prove his manhood by capturing the Benedict Arnold responsible for sabotaging the lumber shipment. After surviving a train explosion, Raymond gets his man and demands an apology from Mary -- who, by now, has fallen in love with the boy. Perhaps wisely, the director of Power of the Weak declined to take on-screen credit. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Based on a Pushkin novel, The Eagle stars Rudolph Valentino as a Russian cossack who is the special favorite of the formidable Catherine the Great (Louise Dresser). He spurns her attentions, preferring not to be a kept consort. When his lands are stolen from him, Valentino transforms into a Robin-Hood-like masked avenger. Vilma Banky plays the daughter of the man who killed Valentino's own father. Despite his thirst for revenge, our hero falls in love with Vilma, who goes the "Lois Lane" route of adoring the masked-avenger Valentino but disdaining the unmasked Rudy, little guessing that the two are one in the same. Watch quickly for Gary Cooper as one of Valentino's masked minions. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Jesse J. Goldburg's low-budget Independent Pictures offered its customers more than Bill Cody or Bob Custer B-Westerns, including dreadful melodramas such as Accused. Although reared by Cyrus Braidwood (Eric Mayne) as his own daughter, young Helen (Dorothy Drew) is actually the offspring of a murderer, Lait Rodman (Charles Gerrard), whose written confession is kept under lock by Braidwood. Rodman manages to retrieve the confession and Helen goes to his apartment looking for it. Once there, she meets young Steve Randall, and through a series of misunderstandings, they both end up as prisoners of a gang of crooks. This unfocused melodrama was directed by former slapstick comic Dell Henderson, whose directorial career never rose above low-budget action fare. Also trapped in the film were former luminaries Du Pont, once the most foolish of Erich Von Stroheim's Foolish Wives (1922), and the distinguished Biograph actor Spottiswoode Aitken. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Sourdough McCraig (Spottiswoode Aitken) is the grizzled gold prospector who travels to Alaska with his daughter Sue (Eva Nova) in this low-budget Northwoods adventure. When the old man dies, Sue is stalked by her lecherous neighbor. Bob Force (Kent Sanderson) is the hero who saves Sue from the villain, a blizzard, an avalanche, and hostile Eskimos. The only redeeming feature of the film is the outdoor scenes. The film should not be confused with the similarly titled effort made in 1914. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

After the spectacular epic The Ten Commandments, filmmaker Cecil B. DeMille returns to the drawing room for this pleasingly straightforward drama. King Garnet (Rod La Rocque) is the idle son of factory owner David Garnet (George Fawcett). He is in love with Ann Land (Leatrice Joy), the factory's forewoman, but she turns down his proposal of marriage because she has aspirations to be a singer. When old man Garnet dies, he wills his son the company, providing that he settles down within two years; failing that, it goes to William Silver (Victor Varconi), the factory's manager and King's half-brother via a secret marriage. Two years pass and Garnet is a bum sleeping on park benches, so Silver inherits the company. His new position in life changes him -- where he was once a radical in favor of the workers, he now becomes a snob. Meanwhile, Ann has achieved her dream and become an opera star in Europe, but smoke from a theater fire destroys her vocal chords. She returns to the factory, where Silver courts her. King picks himself up, goes to work at the factory as an employee and works his way up to manager. Silver is the pawn of a group of schemers, and King helps him straighten things out. He is glad to hand over the company to King, who also wins Ann. The good notices this film received prove that DeMille was still capable -- when he wanted -- of making an entertaining film without resorting to a lot of flash. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

This bizarre seafaring melodrama starred the ill-fated John Bowers (in 1936 he committed suicide by walking into the ocean, supposedly becoming the inspiration for A Star Is Born). Captain Martin Manning (Bowers) is told he must get his ship, the Sparrow, out of Mariner's harbor -- there is a dark superstition surrounding it. Manning goes to the Mariner's Home to tell the real story behind the ship. Years before, when he was a new mate, the ship's owner, David Rollins (Joseph J. Dowling), wanted to cure his son, Harry (Edward Burns), of a drug problem. The Sparrow's then-skipper, Thorne Wetherell (Spottiswood Aitken), agreed to take the young man on board. When Manning brought Harry to the ship, he discovered that the crew had mutinied and they were under the spell of voodoo practitioner Serpent Smith (Sheldon Lewis). Manning, Harry, and Wetherell's daughter, Marjorie (Marguerite de la Motte), worked together to overcome Smith and the crew. They succeeded and Manning won Marjorie. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Elinor Glyn, author of the notorious Three Weeks, wrote this story on which this drama was based, so the film was bound to draw interest. Glyn's books may seem tame today but they were scandalous (and delightfully so) to 1920s audiences, and the producers had to tame her material down a bit. This is emphasized by the trade paper Motion Picture News, which affirms, "there is nothing suggestive in this picture. The screen version has been pasteurized as far as this goes and no one will find anything objectionable." After the death of her husband, Olive Kingston (Myrtle Stedman) wants to see her daughter Laline (Corinne Griffith) married off to the wealthy and distinguished Lord Charles Chetwyn (Claude King). Laline accepts her fate and travels to Paris where she meets Dion Leslie (Frank Mayo), a friend of her brother's. Her brother died in battle (the story taking place in post-World War I Europe), so the two visit his grave. They also go to the dugouts, but the entrance caves in, trapping them. Entombed for six days, Laline and Leslie fall in love and are married by a priest , who conveniently has been trapped with them and who then dies in another landslide. Eventually both Laline and Leslie escape. It turns out that Leslie is Chetwyn's son from a former marriage, so Chetwyn not only gives the couple his blessings, but also names the young man heir to his estate. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

This Cecil B. DeMille morality play came at just the right time -- the Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle scandal and William Desmond Taylor murder were both still fresh in the public's mind. Leatrice Joy plays Lydia Thorne, a rich society girl who is addicted to thrills. Because of her reckless driving, she is responsible for the death of a motorcycle cop and is brought to trial. The prosecutor is none other than her fiancé, Daniel O'Bannon (Thomas Meighan). Feeling that prison is her only means of mending her ways, he guarantees her conviction by making a speech in which he depicts the decadence and downfall of Rome (this gave DeMille the opportunity for one of his historical fantasy sequences). After Lydia is found guilty, the miserable O'Bannon becomes an alcoholic, but Lydia does learn from the experience and when she is released she searches out O'Bannon. Her new outlook on life brings him around, and they are together once again. This film is, perhaps, the epitome of the DeMille formula of the '20s -- as long as the characters paid for their sins by the last reel, DeMille could show all the debauchery he wanted. This pleased both the Hayes office's need for censorship and filmgoers' hunger for sensation. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

The screen's first Tarzan, Elmo Lincoln (née Otto Linkenhelter), both directed and starred in this obscure poverty row Western about a spoiled Easterner who, after being hit over the head, finds himself stranded in a rough border town. Despite wearing evening clothes, our hero finds his manhood by rescuing a damsel in distress (Millicent Fisher) from a gang of Mexican kidnappers. Not a natural screen actor (to put it mildly), the barrel-chested Lincoln left films in 1926, returning to play a few bit parts 20 years later. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

As a cheap programmer, this romantic mystery had little to recommend it. Star Herbert Rawlinson overacts as John D. Curtis, who mistakenly picks up an overcoat belonging to someone else. In its pocket he finds a marriage license and tracks down the girl, Hermoine Fane (Lillian Rich), whose name is on it. She explains that she had asked the overcoat's owner, Jean de Curtois (Jean De Briac), to wed her so that she could escape a marriage to Count de Mauriat, which was arranged by her father (Sidney De Grey). She needs to marry someone so that she can inherit a fortune, so Curtis quickly weds her. De Curtois was the victim of an assault, and Curtis tracks down the culprits. They just happen to be associated with the count, who turns out to be a phony. Hermoine's father acknowledges his mistake, and since his daughter and Curtis have fallen in love, he gives them his blessing. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Priscilla Dean has a dual role in this drama based on False Colors by Edwina Levin. Laura Figlan (Dean) is an ambitious actress with no domestic or maternal instincts whatsoever. While she is becoming a success in England, her daughter, Pauline (Mae Giraci), grows up in America, never knowing her mother. As a young woman, Pauline (also played by Dean) becomes an actress, but she struggles along without much success. All this changes because Laura lands a role in a Broadway play, but she never shows up because of her dissipated lifestyle. Pauline is struck by her resemblance to the missing star, not realizing that Laura is her mother. She tricks the manager, Max Gossman (William Welsh), into believing that she is Laura and lands the Broadway role. Laura finally arrives and discovers an impostor in her place. She also runs into the man who caused her downfall and murders him. Pauline is accused of the crime. This suits Laura just fine until she discovers the impostor is her own daughter. Shattered at what she has done to Pauline's life, Laura commits suicide. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

This dramatic adventure finds the flirtatious Cherry O'Day (Betty Compson) as the daughter of the Shanghai saloon keeper Terrence (Spottiswood Aitken). She works in the dive and entertains the patrons, sending them away after they cease to amuse her. Cherry falls for Gordon Deane (Milton Sills), the American writer and adventurer who barely notices her. When her father dies, she marries banker William Blaine (Joseph Kilgore). MacGregor (Mitchell Lewis) is the unrefined sailor who vows to return from a year at sea to marry the disinterested Cherry. The marriage crumbles, and Cherry is shipwrecked on an island with a lighthouse where she meets Gordon, MacGregor, and a financially ruined young man. The young man and MacGregor engage in a fierce battle over Cherry on the deck of the lighthouse high above the jagged rocks below. She watches in horror as the rail breaks and both men fall to their deaths. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide