Victor Potel Movies
Gawky, comic actor Victor Potel started out in one- and two-reel comedies, starring in Universal's Snakeville series. Potel went on to essay supporting parts in feature films of the 1920s, then played bits and walk-ons in such talkies as Three Godfathers (1936) and The Big Store (1941). He was a member of filmmaker Preston Sturges' unofficial stock company from 1940's Christmas in July until his death in 1947. One of Victor Potel's final film roles was diminutive Indian peddler Crowbar in The Egg and I (1947), a character played by Chief Yowlachie, Teddy Hart, Zachary Charles, and Stan Ross in the subsequent Ma and Pa Kettle series. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide- 1914
G. M. Anderson, best known to his fans as "Broncho Billy," briefly drops his traditional cowboy character in The Good-For-Nothing. This time, Anderson plays the worthless son of a stockbroker (Carl Stockdale). After disgracing himself in business, the son heads westward, where he "finds himself" and becomes a man's man. After striking it rich as a gold miner, our hero returns home to rescue his family from financial ruin. The Good-For-Nothing ran a compact 4 reels, or approximately 50 minutes. Anderson remained the principal attraction of Essanay Studios until 1915, when he hired up-and-coming comedian Charlie Chaplin for a series of short subjects. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1919
This comic tale of buried treasure should have been a winner, but it turned out to be one on Mary Pickford's misses. The credits were solid -- the prestigious William Desmond Taylor directed, and Frances Marion wrote the scenario from a Rida Johnson Young play. The other leading players (Douglas MacLean and Spottiswood Aitken) were impressive, too. Perhaps Taylor was too serious to direct this story, which borderlined on slapstick. Neither of the other films he and Mary made together (How Could You, Jean? and Johanna Enlists) were any good, either. After this film, Pickford began a new contract at a new studio and worked once again with her then-favorite director Marshall Neilan on the far more appealing Daddy Long Legs. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- 1919
Expert farceur Emmy Wehlen plays the title character in The Amateur Adventuress. A plain girl of modest means, Wehlen decides to pose as a notorious vamp. This gets her into society-and in a lot of hot water. All misunderstandings are forgotten in reel five, when she melts into the arms of leading man Allen Sears. An unexpectedly slim Eugene Pallette, here billed as Gene Pallette, plays a major role in this harmless froth. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1919
Bret Harte's story gets an unusual adaptation in the hands of director John Ford (in the days when he was known as Jack Ford) and western star Harry Carey. Carey takes a break from his usual "Harry Carey" role to play a man in love with a much younger woman (Gloria Hope). He is convinced however, that the much younger Billy Gentry (Cullen Landis) has a better chance at winning her. The older man picks up a copy of Harte's The Outcasts of Poker Flat and the story unfurls: Lonely gentleman gambler John Oakhurst (Carey) adopts a young boy, not knowing that when Tommy grows up (to be played by Landis) that they will be vying for the same girl (Hope again). After many adventures, John decides to sacrifice himself in order for the young people to be happy together. After Oakhurst's death, the film cuts back to the man finishing the last of the book. He puts it down with the comment (in titles), "The feller in the book was a durn fool," and goes to the girl he loves who, it turns out, was his all along. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- 1919
In this adaptation of a Fannie Hurst story, Stella (Mary McLaren), an innocent shopgirl, is invited to a party by some fast friends. At the party, she has one beer -- her first -- and stumbles out into the street. She runs afoul of a detective who arrests her for being drunk and soliciting, and she is sent to jail for ten days. While she is locked up, her mother (Gertrude Claire) dies of the disgrace, and when she is released, her employers won't have her back, claiming that she might "contaminate" the other girls. Alone, broke, and scorned by everyone around her, she makes her way to a park and rests on a bench, waiting for some available man to come along. One does (Robert Anderson), and although he has lost faith in womanhood, Stella's basic goodness brings it back. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- 1921
Director Marshall Neilan brought his cast and crew to Montana for this extravagant re-telling of the famous last stand at Little Big Horn. The surrounding story of a military officer (James Kirkwood) turning into a notorious gunslinger after serving time for a crime he didn't commit is average B-Western melodrama, however. On his way west, Kirkwood saves a young girl (Marjorie Daw) from marauding Indians, and in one of those coincidences found only in the brain of a Hollywood screenwriter, she turns out to be the daughter he never knew he had. With a young and pretty daughter to care for, Kirkwood's gunman redeems himself and dies nobly alongside General Custer (Dwight Crittenden) in that suicidal last stand. Director Neilan, unfortunately, cluttered up his narrative by spending an inordinate time showcasing the tiresome Wesley Barry, a freckled urchin whom no one but Neilan himself much liked. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Kirkwood, Wesley Barry, (more)
- 1921
Jimmy Knight (Douglas MacLean) inherits a drug store that's not doing very well; his rival, Silas P. Rogers (Andrew Robson), is tough competition. Knight is in love with Rogers' daughter, Miriam (Marian de Beck), and he knows she prefers a fighter, so when her father offers to buy him out, he refuses. Inspired by P.T. Barnum's famous quote, "There's a sucker born every minute" (hence the film's title), Knight whips up some bitter-tasting ingredients and calls the elixir "Knight's 99," a tonic guaranteed to cure all ills. Rogers has Knight arrested for violating the Pure Food and Drug Act, and he is put on trial. When the judge becomes ill during the proceedings, he takes some of Knight's snake oil. He is miraculously cured and dismisses the case. All of Roger's testing has not been able to identify the fifth ingredient of Knight's 99, and Knight reveals it is faith. He is elected mayor of the town and marries Miriam. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Douglas MacLean, Marian de Beck, (more)
- 1921
This simple tearjerker, based on the novel by Myrtle Reed, was very much of its era. Mary Ainslie (Marguerite Snow) has a romance with Jimmy Ball, a sea captain (James Corrigan). He leaves and she promises to be true to him until his return. She holds to this for the next thirty years as life passes her by. Other women in the little New England Village where she lives acquire beaus and get married, including Mary's lifelong friend, Jane Hathaway (Lillian Elliott). After Mary has turned into a gray-haired old lady, still faithful, she's visited by Jane's niece, Ruth Thorne (Seena Owen). She is engaged to a young writer, Carl Winfield (Louis Bennison), and Mary invites him to her home. She discovers that Carl's father, who died when he was five, was Jimmy Ball. Realizing, several decades too late, that she's been jilted, Mary dies of a broken heart. Gray-haired old ladies in their early fifties just don't exist now like they apparently did in the 20s! If Mary were alive today, she probably would have picked herself up (if she had bothered waiting at all), gone to the mall and bought a few new outfits, then gone out with her divorced friends in search of someone new. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- 1922
It's doubtful that any comedian could have pulled off this mixture of farce and slapstick; Gareth Hughes, whose talents were better used in light comedies and comedy dramas, didn't even have a chance. In spite of the film's title, meek Jimmy Berry (Hughes) never does get to explain anything. He's the junior partner of Dawson and Berry, and big Howard Dawson (Herbert Heyes) believes he is far too friendly with his wife, Dorothy (Grace Darmond). In reality, Dorothy is just getting investment advice, and Jimmy has a sweetheart anyhow (Bartine Burkett). But Dawson won't listen to reason and finally drags Jimmy off to South America on business, far away from his wife. But when they arrive, it turns out that Mrs. Dawson is also on board. After suffering through a lot of convoluted trouble in South America (at one point, the president of the country receives a swift kick in the rear), Jimmy returns home and saves his sweetie from marrying a rounder. Fans of Buster Keaton may note that Bartine Burkett was his co-star in The High Sign (1921), the first two-reeler he shot for his own production company. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gareth Hughes, Herbert Heyes, (more)
- 1922
Hoot Gibson returns to his place of employment to find his former boss murdered and the man's son accused of a crime he didn't commit. A fiendish dope dealer (Joseph Harris), the mastermind behind these unfortunate events, has his chief henchman (Noble Johnson) kidnap the dead rancher's daughter. Gibson goes after the kidnapper full throttle, and the unusually taut western ends in an explosive climax when a door rigged with explosives detonates in the face of the fleeing master villain. The best performance in the film is offered by supporting actor Noble Johnson, a light-skinned African American who often portrayed Indians or, as here, "half-breeds." The leading lady, Gertrude Olmstead, later married MGM contract director Robert Z. Leonard. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Hoot Gibson
- 1922
Based on the popular novel of rural life by Charles Felton Pidgin, this motion picture featured most of the star names that Paramount had in 1922. After meeting a pretty girl in the park, Quincy Adams Sawyer, a young, up-and-coming lawyer, is called to the village of Mason's Corners by his father's friend, Deacon Pettengill (Edward Connelly). An older woman, Mrs. Putnam (Claire McDowell), is being swindled by her lawyer, Obadiah Strout (Lon Chaney, who was a master villain with or without makeup). The woman's daughter, Lindy (Barbara LaMarr), tries to vamp Sawyer, but he discovers that the girl he met, Alice (Blanche Sweet), is Pettengill's niece, and she has gone blind since the time they met. A romance develops between Alice and Sawyer nevertheless. Strout, afraid of being exposed, convinces the village blacksmith, Abner Stiles (Elmo Lincoln), that Sawyer means him no good, so Stiles offers his aid. Lindy leads Alice onto a ferry, and Stiles cuts the rope and sends the little boat adrift. Lindy, however, repents her actions and tells all to Sawyer, who goes to Alice's rescue. He saves her just before the ferry goes over the falls. In the excitement, Alice's eyesight returns. Stiles, discovering that he has been duped, kills Strout. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Bowers, Blanche Sweet, (more)
- 1922
This entertaining little silent comedy stars Earl Schenck and Betsy Ross Clark). The pair play Harlan Carr and his wife, who have inherited a New England homestead, the Jack O' Lantern, from his Uncle Ebenezer. One stipulation in the will is that they must live in the house for six months before they can claim ownership. It isn't long after they've moved in that they're invaded by a passel of obnoxious relatives who have made it a habit of spending every summer at the place. The relatives spend their time taking advantage of the Carrs and complaining that they inherited nothing. Eventually the couple can take it no longer and they summarily eject all the freeloaders. With that, the lawyer arrives and hands them a letter from Uncle Ebenezer, which congratulates them -- he felt the same way they did about his relatives, but he never had the courage to kick them out. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- 1922
Although $Charles Ray doesn't play one of his country boy roles in his first picture for United Artists, John Paul Bart could be considered the city cousin -- he's a poor pants presser who believes that clothes really can make the man and sets out to prove it. He "borrows" a dress suit from the tailor shop where he works and crashes a fancy reception. Even though he risks making a fool of himself, Bart draws the attention of Abraham Nathan, the president of a steamship company (Stanton Heck). Nathan invites Bart on a cruise, and he is able to show off his real talents as a mediator when labor unrest occurs. Nathan is impressed and gives him an important job in his firm. Bart continues his romance with Tanya Huber (Ethel Grandin), his sweetheart from the tailor's shop, but he has a rival in one of the labor leaders. The worker exposes him as a former clothes presser and the humiliated Bart goes back to the tailor's shop. Nathan, however, doesn't care about Bart's past and tracks him down. Bart is back where he really belongs, and he and Tanya become engaged. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charles Ray, Thomas Ricketts, (more)
- 1922
Based on a story by Courtney Ryley Cooper, this average Hoot Gibson ranch romance tells the usual story of false accusations, cattle rustlings, and murder. This time it is the brother of Lorraine Leighton (Barbara Bedford) who is falsely accused of rustling and murder and shipped off to jail. Desperate, Lorraine enlists the help of rancher Vic Collins (Gibson) and the two track down the real culprit, evil Pidge Walters (Frank Lanning). ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- 1923
Two thieves fight over a packet of stolen money. One (Herschall Mayall) hides the money near a haunted house before being killed by the other (Robert Walker). The surviving crook goes by the name of Doctor Peak. The dead crook's old mother (Gertrude Claire) knows about the hidden money and goes in search of it, but she's thwarted by Peak at every turn. Meanwhile, the old lady's grandson Jerry (Tom Gallery) shows up in town with a medicine show. Jerry and Peak wind up in a furious battle and discover the cash is in a well. The haunted house catches fire and is destroyed. The money turns out to be counterfeit and the village deaf mute (Victor Potel) turns out to be a member of the secret service in disguise. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tom Gallery, Herschel Mayall, (more)
- 1923
Penrod (Ben Alexander) and his pal Sam (Joe Butterworth) are the all-American boys growing up in a small town in this comedy drama taken from Booth Tarkington's popular novel. The boys form an exclusive club and conspire to keep the neighborhood wimp and his toady companion away from their clubhouse. Penrod's beloved pet terrier Duke dies and is buried in a somber ceremony on the vacant lot. When the wimp's father buys the land, the boys are kicked off what they consider to be hallowed ground. Perod's mother (Gladys Brockwell) convinces his father (Rockcliffe Fellows) to buy back the land to make the boy happy. Mary Philbin, Gareth Hughes, and William V. Mong appear along with Buddy and Gertrude Messinger. Martha Mattox plays the schoolmarm Miss Spence, and Vic Potel is the town drunk. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ben Alexander, Joe Butterworth, (more)
- 1923
In this silent drama based on the play by Eugene O'Neill, Blanche Sweet plays Anna Christie, a young woman whose father Chris (George F. Marion) is a sailor and knows enough of the life of seafaring men to be certain that he doesn't want his daughter to become involved with one. Hoping to guide her to a better life, Chris sends Anna to live with relatives in Minnesota. However, she's treated cruelly there and runs away to Chicago, where she earns a living as a streetwalker. In time, she returns to the harbor town of her birth and winds up falling in love with a sailor, Matt (William Russell). Anna finds it difficult to hide her shameful past from her father and the man she loves, and eventually she is forced to confess to them both. Anna Christie was remade in 1930 in a version that gained instant fame as Greta Garbo's first talking picture. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Blanche Sweet, William Russell, (more)
- 1923
Written and directed by Rupert Hughes to take a jab at the inconsistent divorce laws (back in the days when marriages were thought to be sacred), this satire ends on a surprisingly melodramatic note. Roy Tappan (Lew Cody) gets a quickie Reno divorce, which becomes final only hours before he weds his new sweetheart, Dora (Carmel Myers) -- who has also just gotten a divorce. Tappan's ex-wife Emily (Helene Chadwick) weds a former boyfriend, Walter Heath (George Walsh), only to discover that her new marriage isn't legal in the state where she's living. Meanwhile, Tappan and Dora discover they are broke -- both assumed the other was wealthy -- so he wires his aunt (Dale Fuller) for money. She replies that she will send him the funds if he gives her his two children from Emily. Desperate for money, Tappan kidnaps the kids (Robert de Gilbill and Virginia Loomis) and takes them to his aunt. After a frantic search, Emily finally finds her children and takes them, and Heath, to Yellowstone Park, where the couple is considered legally married. Tappan goes after them and the two men battle it out. After being thrown into the churning pool of a geyser, Tappan's body is shot into the air, and he is crushed to death on the rocks. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Helene Chadwick, Lew Cody, (more)
- 1924
This drama was based on the novel Cape Cod Folks by Sarah P. McLean Greene. Jonathan Swift (Frank Keenan) is a wealthy fish packer who resides in a New England fishing village with his son, Noah (Eddie Phillips), and daughter, Emily (Barbara Bedford). Noah is in love with Becky (Renee Adoree), the daughter of Captain Bijonah Keeler (Joseph J. Dowling), a lighthouse keeper. Swift does not approve of the match because he feels that the Keelers are below his station. Meanwhile, Emily is being courted by Joe Cradlebow (Robert Frazer), a captain whose attention she spurns. In order to break up the romance between Noah and Emily, Swift has his son shanghaied and taken aboard a ship. Soon a storm blows in and the ship is wrecked. Cradlebow rescues Noah, winning Emily's admiration. When Swift discovers that Becky is pregnant, and that Noah has promised to marry her, he relents and gives the union his approval, while Cradlebow weds Emily. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Barbara Bedford, Frank Keenan, (more)
- 1924
Irene Rich plays a selfish and tragic figure in this drama based on a best-selling novel by Willa Cather. Marian (Rich) is married to Captain Forrester (George Fawcett), an elderly railroad magnate, but she longs for the romance that is lacking in her May-December relationship. She finds it in Frank Ellinger (John Roche), and they elope. But then Marian hears that her husband has gone broke after giving away his fortune to a workingman's bank, and she goes back to him. She believes that Ellinger will return to her, but she finds out that he is about to wed someone else. She tries to go to him, but when she misses the train, she turns to another young lover, Neil Herbert (Matt Moore). Herbert takes her back to Forrester, and after he dies, she drowns herself in alcohol. Herbert sticks by her until he discovers her with another man. Then he finally walks out on her in disgust. Years later, Marian finally weds another old man, and moves away to South America. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Irene Rich, Matt Moore, (more)
- 1924
Viola Dana plays Ruth Ambrose, a citified interior decorator who expands her business to the country. The locals don't quite know what to make of the sophisticated Ruth, but she soon wins them over. After renovating a general store, Ruth finds true love in the form of farm boy Raymond McKee. Comedy relief is in the pudgy hands of Walter Hiers, while Tully Marshall goes through his "wizened rustic" repertoire. Along Came Ruth was released by Metro-Goldwyn, just before the company evolved into MGM. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Viola Dana, Tully Marshall, (more)
- 1924
Baby Peggy, a popular child star of the 1920s who grew up to become film historian Peggy Carey, who stars in The Law Forbids. This time around, little-miss-fix-it Carey prevents her mother (Elinor Fair) from making a big mistake by divorcing Daddy (Robert Remsen). Separated from her husband, mother packs Peggy off to the family's country estate. The precocious tyke accidentally-on-purpose gets lost, reuniting her wandering parents. Based on a story by Bernard McConville, The Law Forbids concludes with a tear-stained courtroom scene. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1925
This melodrama required less stunts than usual from dog star Rin-Tin-Tin and more "acting." Always the trouper, Rin-Tin-Tin proved to be the histrionic equal of his co-stars. Slasher (Rin-Tin-Tin, a famed fighting dog, falls off the train that is carrying him. He is found, broken in spirit, by Donald Cass (John Harron). The dog is regenerated by Donald's love. Donald is equally devoted to his sweetheart, May Barton (June Marlowe), a minister's daughter. A wealthy young woman donates a large sum of money to the church and is later found murdered. The sinister Jamber Niles (Pat Hartigan) knows that the money is in Donald's safekeeping, and he attacks the young man. Slasher springs into action and kills his master's assailant. Jamber's half-wit brother Cuckoo (Victor Potel) sets a pack of bloodhounds on Donald and May, but once again Slasher comes to the rescue and fends them off. Evidence proves that Jamber was the woman's murderer. Donald, May, and the loyal Slasher look forward to a happy life together. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Harron, June Marlowe, (more)
- 1925
Lois Wilson stars in this drama, which was based on the novel by Clarence Buddington Kelland. Schoolteacher Carmel Lee (Wilson) inherits a run-down country newspaper from her uncle. With the help of eccentric Professor Pell (Raymond McKee) and Jed Tubal, an old printer (Luke Cosgrave), she starts bringing it back to life. When she decides to rid the town of a gang of bootleggers, she runs into trouble. The reformers are on her side but the bad guys are determined to stop them. Sheriff Churchill (Charles Ogle) has disappeared and she suspects foul play. Pell proves that the sheriff has been murdered, and that Abner Fownes (Edwards Davis) is the leader of the bootleggers. Deputy Sheriff Jenney (a well-cast Noah Beery) is Fownes' equally villainous assistant. Carmel gathers up the reformers of the town and leads them to the bootleggers' lair. Their game is uncovered and they're run out of town. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lois Wilson, Noah Beery, Sr., (more)
