Phillips Smalley Movies
Shortly after the Civil War, the wealthy parents of American actor Phillips Smalley made the first of several sojourns to Europe. The young Smalley went along on most of these trips in the 1880s, meeting such prominent personages as Disraeli, Gladstone, Robert Browning, James McNeill Whistler, and Oscar Wilde. Entranced by the reminiscences of major theatrical talents like Ellen Terry and Sir Henry Irving, Smalley vowed to tread the boards himself after graduating from Oxford University. Having appeared as Hamlet in an amateur production, Smalley continued pursuing acting during his postgrad years at Harvard back in the states. Establishing himself as a leading man (he had the strong jaw and deep-set eyes necessary for such a profession), Smalley decided that the stage was too confining for his ambitions and entered films at the Gaumont Studios in New Jersey, which in the early 1900s was experimenting with talking pictures. When talkies proved impractical for the moment, Smalley nonetheless stayed in films at Universal studios as an actor/director, ever on the outlook for cinematic innovations. Fascinated with camera tricks, Smalley introduced the triptych -- three separate scenes processed on the same frame -- in the 1912 one-reeler Suspense. Smalley's wife Lois Weber was an equally inventive director, and in fact she remained behind the cameras long after her husband had abandoned directing to return as a full-fledged actor. While he made quite an impression as a movie star in the years just before World War I, by 1919 Smalley's career began its decline. He was divorced from Weber by the mid '20s and relegated to character roles, notably as Sir Francis Chesney in Sydney Chaplin's Charley's Aunt (1925) -- a role he repeated in Charlie Ruggles' 1930 talkie version of the Brandon Thomas stage farce. By the mid '30s his career was essentially over, and he survived by picking up bit and extra work. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide- 1926
FBO Pictures, the feisty little precursor to RKO Radio, managed to pull itself up to the big leagues with the help of such popular efforts as Queen O' Diamonds. The exotically beautiful Evelyn Brent stars as chorus girl Jerry Lynn, who happens to be a dead ringer for acclaimed dramatic actress Jeanette Durant (also played by Evelyn Brent). Jerry's sweetheart David Hammon (Theodore von Eltz) would like to achieve fame as a playwright, but no one will bankroll his works. Inevitably, Jerry, posing as Jeanette (who's been conveniently kidnapped by jewel thieves), convinces a big-time producer to stage David's newest play. No, it's not over yet; once she's solved David's professional problems, Jerry must rescue her sweetheart from a phony murder charge. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Evelyn Brent, Theodore Von Eltz, (more)
- 1926
This cheapjack melodrama gets under way when Harry Canby (Robert Agnew) commandeers a dilapidated taxi to rescue a "mystery woman" (Edith Roberts) from a gang of hoodlums. The woman is grateful, but she refuses to divulge her true identity to Harry. Our hero devotes himself to ascertaining the woman's name -- a task he could have solved simply by looking at a newspaper, since the heroine is a popular Broadway actress! Once he's figured out who she is, Harry rescues her again, this time from a treacherous understudy (also played by Edith Roberts). Phillips Smalley, a matinee idol on the downgrade, plays a major role in this minor picture. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Edith Roberts, Robert Agnew, (more)
- 1926
Long before becoming the talkie era's foremost screen sourpuss, Ned Sparks was seen as a double-dyed villain in such films as Money Talks. Sparks is cast as Lucius Fenton, a vicious rum-runner who meets his Waterloo in the form of go-getting advertising man Sam Starling (Owen Moore). Hoping to stir up business in a run-down resort, Sam converts the property into a health spa. He hires a charter boat to deliver customers to the spa, little suspecting that the boat's captain -- Lucius Fenton -- is using the job as a cover for his own crooked activities. When Fenton hijacks the boat with Sam's estranged wife Phoebe (Claire Windsor) as hostage, our hero races to the rescue. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Claire Windsor, Owen Moore, (more)
- 1925
Sidney Chaplin, Charlie's talented half-brother, was well known on the Hollywood-party circuit for his devastating female impersonations. It was only natural, then that Chaplin should star in the 1925 filmization of the evergreen Brandon Thomas stage farce Charley's Aunt. The story should be familiar enough by now: two Oxford undergraduates invite their girl friends to their quarters. The ladies have no chaperones, so twitty Oxonian Lord Fancourt Babberly (Chaplin) is strong-armed into donning a wig and dress and posing as "Charley's aunt...from Brazil...where the nuts come from." Not the most inspired of the many movie adaptations of the Thomas play (some prefer Jack Benny's version), Charley's Aunt is at its best whenever Sidney Chaplin engages in the healthily vulgar pantomime he did so well. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sidney Chaplin, Ethel Shannon, (more)
- 1925
The first film version of Arthur Richman's stage comedy The Awful Truth was produced in 1925. A series of misunderstandings between flirtatious Agnes Ayres and sober-sided Warner Baxter lead inexorably to the divorce court. A year after the separation, she hatches a scheme to win her husband back. Perhaps the proceedings would have been funnier had Agnes Ayres possessed any sort of comic timing. The Awful Truth was remade in 1929, 1937, and 1953, the last time as a musical retitled Let's Do It Again. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Agnes Ayres, Phillips Smalley, (more)
- 1925
Based on a 1911 novel by Elinor Glyn, this melodrama seems at first to focus on the dilemma of whether to marry for material gain or for love. This choice is put before the young heroine Velma (Aileen Pringle). For Velma, it is no choice at all. She steadfastly refuses an arranged marriage to a nobleman, a marriage meant to save the mortgage on her uncle's estate. As she fights for her right to choose a husband, she falls in love with Lord Tancred (Edmund Lowe). Little does she know at this point that Lord Tancred is exactly the man her uncle wanted her to wed in the first place. She goes through with the marriage of her dreams, only to find out that the nobleman of the original arranged marriage and Lord Tancred are one and the same. Upset by this imagined betrayal, she reacts by adamantly refusing to have anything to do with her husband, certain that he married her only to save her uncle's estate. But lo and behold, Velma makes an unusual discovery that changes her mind. Even in 1926, the plot and its premises stretched credibility for most people. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Aileen Pringle, Edmund Lowe, (more)
- 1925
Based on a novel by William J. Locke, Stella Maris is a remake of the 1918 Mary Pickford vehicle of the same name. Patsy Ruth Miller takes over the Pickford role as Stella, a crippled girl who is raised like a hothouse orchid by her overprotective guardians. Also like Pickford, Miller essays a second role: Unity Blake, an ugly kitchen slavey who, in contrast to Stella, is mistreated and abused by everyone around her. The destinies of Stella and Unity intersect when the poor slavey murders a man to secure the future happiness of the wealthy cripple. In the original, Unity also financed the operation that restored Stella's ability to walk: in the remake, the operation is paid for by Stella's sweetheart John Risca (Elliot Dexter). Though the split-screen and double-exposure work is superb, this Stella Maris is otherwise inferior to the Pickford version. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mary Philbin, Elliott Dexter, (more)
- 1924
Like many other pictures in the 1920s, Daughters of Today depicted the dangers that could befall those who led a jazz lifestyle -- in graphic detail, of course, which only served to make jazz all the more appealing. Edna Murphy stars as Mabel Vandergrift, a country girl who convinces her old-fashioned parents (George Nichols and Gertrude Claire) that she should attend a fashionable college in the city. There she falls in with a jazz crowd led by Lois Whittall (Patsy Ruth Miller), a motherless rich girl whose father (Phillips Smalley) has his own jazzy sweetheart. In spite of the wild parties she attends, which feature such activities as strip poker and revelers running around in their underwear, Mabel is really a good girl. When Reggy Adams (Philo McCullough) tries to force himself on her, she rebuffs him. But then Adams is found dead and Mabel is accused of his murder. Her friends try to protect her old ma from discovering the trouble she is in, and eventually her name is cleared. The film ends with Mabel, like all good country girls, returning home to marry her country sweetheart, Peter Farnham (Edward Hearn). ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Patsy Ruth Miller, Ralph Graves, (more)
- 1924
As the year anniversary of her marriage nears, Betty Jordan (Corinne Griffith) realizes that her husband, Perry (Milton Sills), has grown indifferent to her. After numerous unsuccessful tries to put a spark back in their relationship, she decides to renew her friendship with Martin Prayle, a former suitor (Lou Tellegen). Then Betty's mother, Dorothy Van Clark (Kathlyn Williams), who has grown tired of the womanizing of her husband, Tom (perennial onscreen womanizer Phillips Smalley), takes up with an old admirer herself, Franklin Dexter (Henry Walthall). Dorothy and Dexter run off together, but she falls ill at the hotel. Betty doesn't want to wind up in the same position as her mother, and she decides to ask Jordan for a divorce. Jordan is seriously hurt when he saves a child from being hit by a car. He believes he won't recover so he sends word to Betty that she can have her freedom. Betty, however, has thought better of the idea and instead sends Prayle over to tell him good-bye. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Corinne Griffith, Milton Sills, (more)
- 1924
This satirical comedy-drama was C. Gardner Sullivan's first producing effort. To insure its success, he hired a veteran writer to pen the story and screenplay -- himself. When Donald Dillingham (Cullen Landis) weds Ardell Kendall, a chorus girl (Lillian Rich), his snobbish and wealthy parents disown him. When famed sculptor Gustaf Borgstrom (Jean Hersholt) chooses Ardell as a model, Donald's parents decide to make amends. They invite the couple and Borgstrom to their estate. One of the other guests is Maybelle Westcott (Bessie Eyton), who has her eye on Donald. She manages to catch his attention, and Ardell wheedles money out of his father (who has his own infatuation with a chorus girl) so that she can buy Maybelle off. When Maybelle doesn't keep her end of the bargain, Ardell exposes her in front of the other guests. This causes an argument between her and Donald, and she angrily goes home. Donald is already there with apologies and the couple reconciles. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Cullen Landis, Vera Reynolds, (more)
- 1923
This implausible melodrama is based on the play by William Hurlburt. Although Cordelia Ebbing (Kathlyn Williams) leaves her husband (Phillips Smalley) because he has been unfaithful, she's the one who is said to be "trimmed in scarlet." Her daughter Faith (Lucille Rickson, who has grown up without knowing her mother, defends her anyway, and disliking her father's wife, leaves his home and works to support herself. Meanwhile, Cordelia has a violent argument with a suitor and thinks she has killed him -- information one of her servants then uses to blackmail her. When Faith finds out, she steals five thousand dollars to pay him off, prompting Cordelia, who has finally found happiness with Revere Wayne (Roy Stewart), to put herself in a compromising position in order to pay back the money. Everything gets straightened out, however, in time for a happy ending. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kathlyn Williams, Roy Stewart, (more)
- 1923
This poorly made domestic drama was called "a program picture for program theaters" by trade paper Motion Picture News. Tim and Corrie Goodwin (Crauford Kent and Ethel Grey Terry) are a poverty-stricken married couple. But all that changes when Goodwin strikes it rich with an oil well. He quickly climbs to the top of the social scale, but Corrie remains a drudge -- drab, and bearing no social skills. Eventually her husband becomes ashamed of her lack of style and plain manners, and he hires a social secretary in the hopes that she will teach Corrie some class. Though the two women initially clash, Corrie finally listens to the secretary's comments, and a friend takes her by the hand and makes her over. Corrie learns to adapt herself to her husband's position on the social scale, which is enough to solve all the Goodwins' marital problems. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- 1923
Herbert Rawlinson is the star of this mediocre crime drama from Universal. When his father's business fails, Jimmy Nevins (Herbert Rawlinson) hits the skids. His fiancée, Doris Standish (Edna Murphy), dumps him for a wealthy suitor. Nevins is saved from the streets by Mary Butler (Alice Lake), who turns out to be the member of a gang of crooks. The gang is planning to rob the Standish home during Doris' wedding to her rich sweetheart, and Nevins innocently gets mixed up in the scheme. Practically on her way to the altar, Doris changes her mind about the wedding and flees. Nevins takes her to Mary's home and the crooks take her prisoner. Mary has fallen in love with Nevins, but she sacrifices herself by freeing Doris from her associates. Mary dies for her actions, and the other crooks are rounded up. Doris realizes she loves Nevins and sticks by him. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Herbert Rawlinson, Edna Murphy, (more)
- 1923
In spite of its Poverty Row location, C.B.C. -- which later became better known as Columbia -- put out some quality pictures. This drama sported an excellent cast and an well-written screenplay by Lenore Coffee. Cynical broker Frederick Arnold (Phillips Smalley) sets out to prove that "all women are mercenary." The focus of his experiment is Marjorie (Eva Novak), the wife of Jack Baldwin (Bryant Washburn), a modest clerk. Arnold meets Baldwin and shows him how to play the market. As the former clerk amasses a fortune, his wife goes about spending it as quickly as possible. Marjorie also associates with a Bohemian crowd, and refuses to listen to Baldwin's pleas to change. Arnold, meanwhile, has fallen in love with Marjorie and tries to ruin Baldwin. This backfires, however, and Baldwin winds up even richer. Seduced by his newfound wealth, Baldwin finds himself in trouble when both he and Marjorie are caught in a raid at a roadhouse -- both of them with somebody other than their legal spouses. Arnold finally reveals his plan, and the Baldwins come to their senses. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bryant Washburn, Eva Novak, (more)
- 1923
The director formerly known as Sean O'Feeney is billed as John Ford for the first time here, and he helps make this one of John Gilbert's best pre-MGM features. Cameo Kirby (John Gilbert), once a man of high social standing, has become a professional gambler and works the Mississippi riverboats of the 1800's. An old man (William E. Lawrence) is being cheated in a crooked card game, and Kirby gets involved in the play, with the intention of giving the man his money back. Unaware of Kirby's plans, the old man commits suicide. It turns out that Kirby's sweetheart (Gertrude Olmstead) is the man's daughter. But in spite of the tragedy, she comes to understand Kirby's altruistic motives. Based on a story by Booth Tarkington, the melodrama is offset by solid performances and an exciting paddle-wheeler river race (a bit of action that one would expect from John Ford). An 18-year-old Jean Arthur made her movie debut in this film as a bit player. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- 1922
This dramatic Universal programmer was based on the novel by Johann Bojer. Building contractor John Hammond (David Torrance) has been trying to help his friend Richard Burton (Earl Metcalfe) get a foothold in respectable society. Burton, who is engaged to Hammond's sister Betty (Mabel Julienne Scott), really wants to put an end to his wild ways, but some old pals throw him a Bacchanalian surprise party. Hammond inadvertently winds up in the middle of the festivities because he shows up with a bank note which he has endorsed for Burton. The party creates a scandal and Betty dumps her fiancé. Hammond lies to his snooty wife, Joan (Maud George) and says he was never there. As a result, Burton is arrested for supposedly forging the note. Hammond is reluctant to admit that he lied, but he finally confesses. Burton is acquitted, and he and Betty reconcile. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Maude George, Mabel Julienne Scott, (more)
- 1921
Too Wise Wives was an independent film produced and directed by prominent woman director Lois Weber. It is a pointed soap opera about the state of marriage and women's roles in society in the early 1920s. Two couples are newly married. Marie (Clarie Windsor) and David Graham (Louis Calhern) are rich. She agonizes about doing everything she can to make her husband happy. This just irritates him to no end. The other couple, Sara Daly (Mona Lisa) and John Daly (Phillips Smalley) are very rich. She married him for his money. He dotes on her all of the time. Since he travels a lot, she gets bored. Also, she used to be David's girlfriend, and she want's David back and works hard to make Marie miserable. Real trouble begins when Marie intercepts a note that Sara sent to David asking him to meet for a secret affair. The cinematography is beautiful -- the movie was obviously filmed on some huge estates in Southern California. At the time this film was released, Cecil B. DeMille was famous for his films that were celebrations of materialism. This film is just the opposite. Director Weber shows how "keeping up with the Joneses" can harm a marriage. ~ Bruce Calvert, All Movie Guide
Lois Weber was generally championing something or someone in her films; this time around it's underpaid white-collar workers. Professor Griggs (Phillip Hubbard) can barely afford to support his wife (Margaret McWade) and daughter, Amelia (Claire Windsor). Amelia works at a library and she has three suitors -- carefree college boy Phil West (Louis Calhern), the boy next door whose father is a well-to-do shoemaker, and a poor minister. When Amelia is taken ill, the doctor advises her mother that she must have nourishing food. Since this is beyond what she can afford, Mrs. Griggs steals a chicken from her next-door neighbor. Because of the theft, Amelia returns to work early so that she can pay for the bird. Although West is loved by a girl of his own social station (Marie Walcamp), he prefers Amelia. She refuses to encourage him until he changes his frivolous ways. Not only does he decide to settle down, he also convinces his father, who is on the college board of trustees, to give Amelia's father a raise. Eventually the couple unite. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Phillip Hubbard, Margaret McWade, (more)
- 1920
Although this wasn't one of Lois Weber's most distinguished films, its star, Mildred Harris (billed at the time as Mrs. Charles Chaplin), was well cast. New Yorker Fred Worthington (Henry Woodward) doubts the sincerity of his sweetheart and his friends, so he plants an item claiming he has become bankrupt. Almost on cue, everyone dumps him, so he leaves the city in disgust. He goes to the country to visit his mother and meets innocent Maddie Irwin (Harris). They fall in love and marry, but only afterwards does Worthington realize that his country wife really wants to be a city girl. His arguments fall on deaf ears, so he throws a party at his country estate and invites his wildest friends. To his surprise, Maddie thoroughly enjoys the revelry instead of being repelled by it. Maddie finally satisfies her lust for city life by running off to Chinatown with a group of strangers. She becomes embroiled with a mysterious Frenchman and winds up in a lot of trouble. After one of her former admirers from the country finally rescues her, Maddie returns home glad to be a country girl -- never realizing that the Frenchman was actually her husband in disguise. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- 1918
The busy husband-wife directorial team of Phillips Smalley and Lois Weber launched their surprisingly brief 1918 production schedule with The Doctor and the Woman. Adapted from K, a novel by Mary Roberts Rinehart, the film starred Mildred Harris as the daughter of a reclusive minister. Hoping to follow in her father's humanitarian footsteps, the girl becomes a trained nurse, and it is in this capacity that she falls in love with Max, the local hospital's chief of surgeons. An inveterate carouser and ladies' man, Max is "tamed" by the stabilizing influence of the practical-minded heroine. She ends up saving Max from being blamed for the tragic surgical mistakes perpetrated by the incompetent Dr. Edwards, and she also prevents her doctor sweetheart from taking the rap for a murder he didn't commit. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1918
Mildred Harris plays a poor working girl whose head is turned by the finer things in life. While at the beach with her boyfriend, a simple rather dull guy, a bathhouse catches fire, burning up their clothes. A rich man, who has been lusting after the girl, takes this opportunity to offer his coat and to take her to his home. There, she is introduced to the perks of the wealthy and becomes dissatisfied with what she has at home. She turns down her boyfriend's marriage proposal and goes to the rich man. He asks her to become his mistress, but his former girlfriend finds out and calls the police in an attempt to get the girl in trouble. Although she escapes, the girl goes home to find her family enraged by her actions. It takes amends on the part of the rich man to make things right. The studio that made this picture, Universal, had director Lois Weber add a touch of social consciousness to the plot's sensationalism and then exploited Mildred Harris' status as Mrs. Charlie Chaplin in hopes of making a tidy profit. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- 1917
The Double Standard was partially inspired by Dope, a vaudeville sketch by Herman Lieb. As the title indicates, the film pointed in no uncertain terms how there is one set of rules for the rich and powerful and another for the poor and oppressed. And once pointed out, this premise was hammered into the audience's consciousness with the relentlessness of a power drill. Curiously, none of the various subplots in the film were truly resolved, leading viewers to wonder about the purpose of the whole affair. For the record, the principal antagonists in the film were a hard-bitten newspaper editor (Frank Brownlee) and his clergyman brother (Joseph Girard), with the hapless hero and heroine (Roy Stewart) and (Clarissa Selwyn) caught in the crossfire. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1916
Sometimes mislabeled a 1913 production, Eye of God was one of a baker's dozen of films co-directed in 1916 by the husband-and-wife team of Phillips Smalley and Lois Weber. In the fine innovational traditional of the Smalley-Weber productions, the film unfolds in literary fashion, as a man on death row writes his multi-chaptered confession. Tyrone Power Sr. plays Olaf, a dirt farmer who yearns for the bright lights of the Big City. When a sophisticated young woman named Renie (Lois Weber) spends the night in Olaf's farm during a rainstorm, he forgets all about his plain-jane wife Ana (Ethel Weber) and begins ardently pursuing the beautiful stranger. Desperate for money, Olaf engineers a double murder, which nets him a huge sum of money. Heading to the City for a rendezvous with Renie, Olaf learns that her sweetheart Paul (Charles Gunn) has been arrested for the crime which he himself had committed. Certain that he will escape detection, Olaf is nonetheless trapped into a confession by Renie, who out of love for Paul has appointed herself "the eye of God." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1916
When a young man from a socially prominent family commits suicide over his love affair with chorus girl Estelle Ryan (Mary MacLaren), the newspapers pick up the story. Estelle finds herself a star overnight because of the publicity, and soon another society man, Jansen Winthrop (Jack Holt), falls in love with her. His mother (Gerard Alexander) is determined that he will marry someone of his own class and asks her brother Robert (Phillips Smalley, who also directed with his wife Lois Weber) to take care of the matter. Robert kidnaps Estelle and hides her on an island. Jansen starts to believe she is faithless, while Robert discovers that she really is a nice girl and not the sleazy vamp his family assumed her to be. Robert sends for Jansen so that he and Estelle can be reunited. But Estelle now prefers Robert, who believes in her, to Jansen, who doubted her. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- 1916
Tyrone Power Sr., the father of you-know-who, made quite a meal of his dual role in the Bluebird production John Needham's Double. Based on a play by Joseph Hatton, the story concerns dissipated nobleman Lord John Needham (Power), who is appointed guardian of rich young Thomas Creighton (Buster Emmons. It doesn't take long for Lord John to squander the vast fortune which was supposed to go to Thomas when the boy came of age. Desperate to cover his losses, Lord John resorts to murder then tries to pin the crime on his look-alike Joseph Norbury (also played by Power). Husband-and-wife directors Phillips Smalley and Lois Weber did what they could to cover up the logic gaps in this familiar yarn, which had for many years served as a theatrical vehicle for E.S. Willard. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
