Ed Roseman Movies

Running Wild bears a marked resemblance to One Glorious Day, a 1923 Will Rogers vehicle. W.C. Fields stars as a henpecked family man, browbeaten both at home and at work. Only his daughter Mary Brian truly cares about Fields, and he reciprocates by showering most of his familial affection on her. While attending a vaudeville show, Fields volunteers to subject himself to a stage hypnotist. While under a hypnotic spell, Fields' worm turns, and he becomes an aggressive "King of the Castle" type with his family and his employer. Once the spell is broken, Fields reverts to his meek self--then discovers that his boss, impressed by his go-getting "alter ego," has offered him a better position at higher salary. Putting his selfish family in their proper place, Fields remains the don't-mess-with-me tyro that he'd been while hypnotized, and in so doing smooths the path of the romance between daughter Brian and her handsome beau Claude Buchanan. Considering the potential of the actor/director team of W.C. Fields and Gregory LaCava, Running Wild isn't quite as wonderfully anarchistic as we'd like it to be, but Fields (sporting the obnoxious little mustache that he favored in his silent films) is always a delight to watch, especially when venting his pent-up rage against his impossible family. The actor would rework many of the elements in Running Wild into his 1935 talkie Man on the Flying Trapeze, which also co-starred Mary Brian. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

This epic tale about the American Revolution broke the bank for filmmaker D.W. Griffith. Robert W. Chambers loosely adapted his novel, The Reckoning, which focuses on the battles in New York state. Griffith however, found it necessary to add a romance, so Chambers obligingly added one for him. Captain Walter Butler (Lionel Barrymore), a supporter of the king, goads the Iroquois Indians into attacking settlers who are loyal to the Revolution. Nathan Holden (Neil Hamilton) is a dispatch rider for the Boston Committee on Public Safety, and a patriot. While on a mission in Virginia he meets Nancy (Carol Dempster), the daughter of Justice Montague, a Tory (Erville Alderson). The Montagues are on hand in Lexington for the ride of Paul Revere (Harry O'Neill)--one of the highlights of the film. Nancy's brother, Charles (Charles Mack) sides with the rebels and dies during the fighting at Bunker Hill. Nancy and her father go to visit relatives in the Mohawk Valley; Holden meanwhile is with Washington (Arthur Dewey) at Valley Forge. He is sent North with Morgan's raiders to quell the Indian uprising and discovers that Montague has naively betrothed Nancy to the evil Captain Butler. When Montague finds out that Butler is responsible for the massacres it is too late. Holden overhears Butler's plan for another attack and he goes to sound the alarm, even though he must leave Nancy in the lustful clutches of Butler. But the Indians insist on attacking immediately, saving Nancy from Butler's grasp. Morgan's raiders come to the rescue, killing Butler and halting the massacre. Montague finally realizes Holden's worth and approves of a match between him and Nancy. This picture cost nearly a million dollars, got mixed reviews, and did not make its money back. Griffith made one more picture--Isn't Life Wonderful--as an independent. ~ Janiss Garza, Rovi

Norma Shearer hadn't yet been given the MGM superstar treatment when she starred in The Devil's Partner. Shearer is mostly passive in this he-man adventure tale set in the North Woods. The villain, smuggler Edward Roseman, would give anything if Norma would give in. Saving her virtue in the nick of time is stalwart Charles Delaney, who turns out to be a Northwest Mountie. Once she left the indie market for MGM, Norma Shearer steered clear of musty melodramas like this. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

This story of a rugged rural family made for an above-average programmer. The Brockton clan considers the mountain Little Smoky their own, but then the government comes in and declares it a forest and game preserve. This doesn't stop the family, who swears they will do what they want with the land. Forest ranger Bob Hayne (Joe King) catches the head Brockton (Frank Sheridan) poaching -- a nasty set of circumstances because Hayne loves Brockton's daughter Anne (Winifred Westover). The two men wind up in a fierce fist fight and Brockton is reported to be dead. Bloodhounds are set on Hayne's trail, but Anne, who is determined to save her lover, puts on an outfit of his so that the dogs will follow her. Unfortunately, she unwittingly leads the hounds right to him. On the same stormy night, Gita, a Gypsy girl (Dolores Cassinelli), is attacked by a vicious half breed, and shell-shocked war veteran Tom Brockton (Ralph Faulkner) comes to her rescue. The incident brings him back to his senses. Eventually the elder Brockton is found, very much alive, and he has become friends with Hayne, so all ends well. At the time this picture was made, Winifred Westover was married to cowboy star William S. Hart. ~ Janiss Garza, Rovi

Johnny Burke (Louis Bennison) is a spirited cowboy who winds up sharing a mine with lovely Adele (Virginia Lee), who has inherited her share from her father. She goes back East to visit her aunt (Louise Brownell) and uncle Butler (John Daly Murphy). When she tells them of the mine, they are determined to get their hands on its earnings. Johnny shows up, ruining the aunt's plans to marry Adele off to the Earl of Barncastle. The Earl turns out to be a phony, and he, with the help of his cronies, loots the Butler home and kidnaps Adele. But the valiant and resourceful Johnny has hidden himself in a trunk that the crooks have taken along. Thus he saves the girl and foils the crooks. Johnny and Adele return West, where they belong. Playing a cowboy was nothing new to Bennison -- he had a similar role in a stage play called Johnny Get Your Gun about a year before Oh, Johnny! was filmed. ~ Janiss Garza, Rovi

William Farnum, the Mel Gibson of the teens, stars in Jungle Trail. Farnum plays an adventurer whose rival in love sends him off to Africa on a wild goose chase. Marked for assassination, Farnum eludes his would-be killers and is adopted by a native tribe. Rising to the status of "White God," Farnum is eventually able to settle accounts with his rival in the States. Featured among the bit players in Jungle Trail is Italian actor Henry Armetta, whose days of comic-relief prominence were still a decade in the future. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Hagar (Olga Petrova), a Gypsy woman, wants to give her baby girl a better life, so she leaves her on the doorstep of a Quaker family. The girl, Eve (Petrova again), grows up to find Quaker life rather dull. Worldly mill owner Arthur Brandon (Arthur Hoops, who died before the film's release) seems more interesting so she marries him. But Brandon, it turns out, is a drunk and Eve soon makes the acquaintance of Robert Blair (William Hinkley), who is investigating Brandon's mills. One of the mill children is blinded in an accident, and its father attacks Brandon. The man is arrested, and Eve leaves to devote herself to charity. When the father gets out of jail, he finds Brandon and finishes him off, leaving Eve free to marry Blair. ~ Janiss Garza, Rovi

The title may have been designed to cash in on the success of Griffith's Birth of a Nation (wherein the Ku Klux Klan were the heroes!), but Maurice Tourneur's Pride of the Clan was set not in the American South but in Scotland. Mary Pickford plays the daughter of a Scottish seaman. When her dad is lost at sea, Pickford becomes the unofficial head of the family--e.g. the "pride of the clan." But her clan isn't quite good enough to suit the snooty parents of her boy friend Tom Moore (Pickford's real-life brother-in-law), who demand that the couple break up. It takes a disaster at sea to pave the way for a happy ending. Future silent star Leatrice Joy has a miniscule bit in this 7-reel Mary Pickford vehicle. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

One of several exposés of crooked political practices in the U.S., The Governor's Boss had the air of authenticity by virtue of its leading player: former New York governor William Sulzer. In plain and explicit fashion, the film recounts how the ostensibly incorruptible Zulzer was driven out of office by a sinister conspiracy of high-pressure crooks. The title character, played by Edward P. Sullivan, resorts to hiring a "painted woman" to compromise the governor and humiliate him publicly. Independently produced, The Governor's Boss was a cheap, tawdry effort, which played more like a pamphlet than a movie. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi