Alma Rubens Movies

Kate Carewe (Alma Rubens) lords over the dancehall in a lawless gold rush town. When preacher Ralph Bowen (Albert Roscoe) shows up, no one is thrilled to see him, especially Kate. Bowen doesn't just preach -- he also uses his fists. The bad man of the town, Three Card Duncan (Lon Chaney), shoots and kills the saloon keeper. Kate, incensed by his actions, challenges him to a card game and wins the saloon from him. About this time, a plague breaks out in the town and all the villagers flee for the hills. Kate has been gradually warming up to Bowen and they have been caring for two orphan children. The four of them are the only ones left in the town. Bowen's heroic behavior finally wins Kate's heart and she joins him in his cause. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

This most famous of Victorian melodramas was more than half a century old, and had already been filmed several times when it came to the screen once again in 1925. Director Emmett J. Flynn had an all-star cast and kept close to the original story. East Lynne, Lord Mount-Severn's debt-ridden estate, is purchased by Archibald Carlyle (Edmund Lowe) upon Severn's death. Carlyle also marries Mount-Severn's daughter, Lady Isabel (Alma Rubens). The couple has two children and are seemingly happy until one of the villagers, Hallijohn (Paul Panzer), is murdered. Richard Hare (Leslie Fenton), the brother of Carlyle's former sweetheart Barbara (Marjorie Daw), is accused of the murder. Barbara asks Carlyle for help, and Sir Francis Levison (Lou Tellegen) convinces Lady Isabel that her husband is having an affair. As a result, she leaves East Lynne, Carlyle, and her two children, and runs off with Levison. Eventually, he casts her off and she is involved in a train wreck. Although she was only injured, she is reported to have died, and Carlyle marries Barbara. Levison is convicted of Hallijohn's murder. When Lady Isabel hears that her eldest child is sick, she poses as a nurse to take care of him. She falls ill herself and dies in Carlyle's arms. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Fashions for Men was a satirical play by Franz Molnar. In the hands of film company First National, it became a sincere, unsophisticated drama. Kindly Peter Hungerford (Percy Marmont) is a London clothes merchant who has saved up 500 dollars to stave off impending bankruptcy. His plans are ruined when his wife, Adele (Eileen Percy), takes the money and runs off with his clerk, Oscar (Raymond Griffith). Hungerford finds work managing the cheese business for the Earl of Denham (Lewis S. Stone). His former cashier, Paula (Alma Rubens), goes with him and becomes the earl's secretary. The earl pursues Paula, but Hungerford watches over her so carefully that he hampers the affair. The earl wants to fire him, but can't bear to hurt such a kindly man. The creditors of Hungerford's old store ask him to return, and Paula, who realizes she loves him, not the earl, follows. Oscar shows up, destitute and looking for work. The good-natured Hungerford is willing to take him back, but Paula -- who is not so forgiving -- shows the ex-clerk the door. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Douglas Fairbanks Sr.'s splendid physique was seen in all its pristine glory in the 1916 western The Half-Breed. In what might have been a movie first, the title character is sympathetically portrayed, despite the "onus" of having Indian blood. Living as an outcast, young Lo Dorman (Fairbanks) is welcomed back into society by pretty preacher's daughter Nellie (Jewel Carmen), who cares not a whit about his mixed parentage. But Dorman's presence in town proves uncomfortable for Sheriff Dunne (Sam DeGrasse) -- who, unbeknownst to anyone himself, is Lo's father. The sheriff does his worst to discredit Lo in the eyes of the townsfolk, whereupon our hero joins a travelling medicine show, finding true happiness with another "outcast," dance-hall girl Teresa (Alma Rubens). In an interview with Kevin Brownlow, director Allan Dwan revealed that The Half-Breed almost didn't get made, thanks to the interference of Fairbank's then wife, who didn't want her husband to appear as an "unwashed" half-breed. To circumvent this, Dwan inserted a scene showing a nearly nude Fairbanks taking a "bath" in a river, then thoroughly scrubbing himself and his clothes with sand. "He was a washed Indian, not a dirty Indian," Dwan explained. "I only put the scene in to satisfy Mrs. Fairbanks." Unfortunately, only the first two reels of The Half-Breed are known to exist. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

It's hard to believe that this picture and the 1946 Humoresque were based on the same Fannie Hurst novel -- they're completely different in focus. There's no Joan Crawford, or Joan Crawford-type in this picture, but there is an older woman who walks away with the acting honors: Vera Gordon, who plays Mama Kantor, the mother from New York's Jewish ghetto, who prays for a son that will become a musical genius. Her prayers are answered, and her boy brings fortune to his family while acquiring a sweetheart, Gina Berg (Alma Reubens). But when war breaks out, he enlists and returns from action with a wounded arm. He tells Gina that they cannot marry because he cannot work. But when she faints, he catches her and realizes that he can use his arm after all. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Sometime during the shooting of the landmark The Birth of a Nation, filmmaker D.W. Griffith probably wondered how he could top himself. In 1916, he showed how, with the awesome Intolerance. The film began humbly enough as a medium-budget feature entitled The Mother and the Law, wherein the lives of a poor but happily married couple are disrupted by the misguided interference of a "social reform" group. A series of unfortunate circumstances culminates in the husband's being sentenced to the gallows, a fate averted by a nick-of-time rescue engineered by his wife. In the wake of the protests attending the racist content of The Birth of a Nation, Griffith wanted to demonstrate the dangers of intolerance. The Mother and the Law filled the bill to some extent, but it just wasn't "big" enough to suit his purposes. Thus, using The Mother and the Law as merely the base of the film, Griffith added three more plotlines and expanded his cinematic thesis to epic proportions. The four separate stories of Intolerance are symbolically linked by Lillian Gish as the Woman Who Rocks the Cradle ("uniter of the here and hereafter"). The "Modern Story" is essentially The Mother and the Law; the "French Story" details the persecution of the Huguenots by Catherine de Medici (Josephine Crowell); the "Biblical Story" relates the last days of Jesus Christ (Howard Gaye); and the "Babylonian Story" concerns the defeat of King Belshazzar (Alfred Paget) by the hordes of Cyrus the Persian (George Siegmann).

Rather than being related chronologically, the four stories are told in parallel fashion, slowly at first, and then with increasing rapidity. The action in the film's final two reels leaps back and forth in time between Babylon, Calvary, 15th century France, and contemporary California. Described by one historian as "the only film fugue," Intolerance baffled many filmgoers of 1916 -- and, indeed, it is still an exhausting, overwhelming experience, even for audiences accustomed to the split-second cutting and multilayered montage sequences popularized by Sergei Eisenstein, Orson Welles, Jean-Luc Godard, Joel Schumacher, and MTV. On a pure entertainment level, the Babylonian sequences are the most effective, played out against one of the largest, most elaborate exterior sets ever built for a single film. The most memorable character in this sequence is "The Mountain Girl," played by star on the rise Constance Talmadge; when the Babylonian scenes were re-released as a separate feature in 1919, Talmadge's tragic death scene was altered to accommodate a happily-ever-after denouement. Other superb performances are delivered by Mae Marsh and Robert Harron in the Modern Story, and by Eugene Pallette and Margery Wilson in the French Story. Remarkably sophisticated in some scenes, appallingly naïve in others, Intolerance is a mixed bag dramatically, but one cannot deny that it is also a work of cinematic genius. The film did poorly upon its first release, not so much because its continuity was difficult to follow as because it preached a gospel of tolerance and pacifism to a nation preparing to enter World War I. Currently available prints of Intolerance run anywhere from 178 to 208 minutes; while it may be rough sledding at times, it remains essential viewing for any serious student of film technique. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

That question mark in the film's title should provide a good clue as to the tenor of the storyline. Married to British nobleman Marcus Heriot (Walter McGrail), Canadian-born Wanda Heriot (Alma Rubens) nonetheless strays from her nest to romance her true love Paul (Walter Pidgeon). Too much the gentleman to stand in his wife's way, Marcus agrees to annul their marriage. But when Wanda finds out that she's pregnant, she dutifully returns to Marcus so that her child will be born legitimate in the eyes of the law. The fact that Marcus is about to march off to WWI leaves the audience wondering how long it will be before Wanda is reunited with Paul -- though the film ends before this question can be answered. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This plodding melodrama fails to measure up to the original 1917 version directed by Charles Giblyn. Mildred Gower (Alma Rubens) is a young woman who marries an old sea captain to save her mother (Eugenie Besserer) from losing the family home. A young physician who loves her accuses her of selling herself to the old salt and peppers her with questions. Her husband conveniently drowns at sea, leaving Mildred free to pursue romance with the dashing doctor. William Walsh, Freeman Wood, and Otto Hoffman co-star with Frank Mayo, Lloyd Whitlock, and Wilfred Lucas in this inferior remake. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

Marion Gregory (Alma Rubens) is not happy with her life as the wife of a struggling inventor (Jack Conway). When Dr. Calvert (J. Barney Sherry), the minister who married them, introduces Marion to the rich Wingates, her dissatisfaction grows. What she doesn't realize is that Mrs. Wingate (Katherine Adams) is having an affair, as is Mr. Wingate (Harvey Charles). Marion is invited to spend some time at the Wingates' summer home. She arrives, alone, which is just what Mrs. Wingate wants -- she encourages Mr. Wingate's interest in the young woman, so she can divorce him. This visit, however, has been a revelation to Marion. She now sees the dark side of society life and realizes how fortunate she really was. Mrs. Wingate's attempts to compromise her husband are unsuccessful, thanks to the intervention of Dr. Calvert, and Marion gladly returns to her husband. This picture was based on a story by Cosmo Hamilton, who was famous for exposing the phony side of the society set. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Germaine (Alma Rubens) is unhappy when her parents force her into a marriage with the wealthy Lucien D'Artois (Jack Mulhall). D'Artois cares nothing for appearances, and Germaine had wished for a man with more style and flair. When she upbraids him for his lacks, D'Artois -- who loves her very much -- resolves to go to Paris and make himself over. While he's there, Germaine's mind is poisoned by Andre Delandal (Bertram Grassby), and she writes a note telling D'Artois that she does not want him at all. In his misery, D'Artois spends his entire fortune on dancing girls and high living. Germaine goes to Paris to get a divorce from him, and she sees he has become a polished -- although poor -- gentleman. She goes to his home and finds a girl there who informs her that he only loves his wife. Germaine takes this information to heart and she and D'Artois are reconciled. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

One of a cycle of late-1920s films dealing with the Russian Revolution, Siberia stars Alma Rubens as idealistic Russian schoolteacher Sonia Vronsky. Enraptured by the communist cause, Sonia runs afoul of the Czarist authorities and is shipped off to Siberia. Here she is protected from harm by her sweetheart, military officer Leonid Petroff (Edmund Lowe). When the revolution finally comes, even loyal Leninists like Sonia are in danger of being trampled by the surging mobs. Leonid rescues the girl from this fate, and together they embark on an exciting escape across the snowy Siberian steppes and tundras. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Socialism is given sympathetic, if unrealistic, treatment in this Triangle drama. John Warfield (Joe King) has been raised a socialist and after his father dies, he continues speaking out against wealth and luxury. Goldie Shepard (Claire Anderson), a telephone operator, takes an interest in him and becomes his stenographer. She is angry because her father (Jean Hersholt) was hit and killed by a car in which wealthy Lorraine Van Allen (Alma Rubens) was riding. Guido Garcia (Francis MacDonald), who is something of a fanatic, helps Warfield by funding a home for the poor. Lorraine comes by to speak with Goldie, who wants nothing to do with her. After seeing the good work Warfield is doing, however, she decides to stick around and get involved. Warfield, meanwhile, discovers that he has inherited a fortune and sails to England to claim it. He sends for Goldie and they are married. But her sudden plunge into wealth changes her. She no longer cares about the poor and refuses to accompany her husband back to the States. Garcia arrives, and when he discovers how much trouble Goldie is causing, he kills her and then jumps into the Thames. Warfield returns to America to find Lorraine taking care of his mission. A romance develops and they embark on a life together, helping the poor. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

This epic production was the last film that producer and newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst produced for Paramount (after that, his production company, Cosmopolitan, went over to Goldwyn, which later merged with MGM). It was based on a novel by Vicenti Blasco Ibanez, who also wrote The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. In addition to lavish sets by Joseph Urban, the cast and crew also filmed on-location in Paris and Monte Carlo. Russian Prince Lubimoff (Lionel Barrymore) thinks only of his wealth and his own gratification. After fighting a duel, he has to flee from the ire of the Czar, and Duchess Alicia (Alma Rubens) helps him to get out of the country. While he is staying at his villa in Monte Carlo, World War I breaks out, but neither he nor his associates even consider going to fight. Lubimoff, who won't even acknowledge that he is in love with Alicia, is incensed when he finds her embracing a young man. Without realizing that it is her 16-year-old son, Lubimoff and his friends form a group called "Enemies of Women." Because of the war, the feudal estates are lost, and Alicia's son dies just before he is about to enter into a duel. Lubimoff, who has finally realized that the world does not revolve around him, goes to fight and uses the money he has left to help the downtrodden. On the front lines, he meets Alicia, who has become a Red Cross nurse, and they are united. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide