Blanche Sweet Movies

At the beginning of this documentary on early cinematographer Edwin S. Porter (1869-1941), director Charles Musser gives some background on the "nickelodeons" or theaters that charged a nickel as an entrance fee, and their early (presumably cheaper) predecessors. The men who set up the programs at the nickelodeons -- including Porter at times -- arranged film clips and still slides to create about a half-hour's worth of entertainment -- they were the first film editors. By 1907, eager U.S. movie-goers were investing one million nickels per day for these shows. Edwin S. Porter was active between 1886-1915 and he is still well-known for his 1903 Great Train Robbery, the world's first narrative film, all of 12 minutes long. (It should be noted that Porter's filmography after he lost his position as head of production in Thomas Edison's studio in 1908 is not included in this documentary.) Porter worked first with multi-shot sequences as early as 1901 ("The Execution of Czolgosz" on the assassination of President McKinley, using documentary footage and a staged dramatization), running through one (small) spool of film for one sequence, and another for an additional sequence, usually from another angle or of another scene. Instead of an editor at a nickelodeon putting together two film sequences, Porter was doing the sequencing as the cinematographer. Taking this idea one step further, he pioneered "overlapping continuity," as in his landmark 1902 Life of an American Fireman. In this example of the technique, he put cameras inside and outside a burning building, and in his completed film, he first showed a rescue sequence from the inside, followed by the same sequence from the outside. In the 1930s when that film was recut with methods developed by Porter's most well-known immediate successor, David Wark Griffith, the "Fireman" film was shown with alternating interior-exterior views, from the start of the rescue to the end. Director Charles Musser comments on this later style, saying that in Porter's early years, audiences were not yet visually sophisticated enough to understand the technique of multiple, simultaneous perspectives. (At the same time, other critics maintain that Porter himself intercut the scenes.) Another pioneer in a visual medium, Pablo Picasso came of age artistically during the development of these cinematic techniques, and it is curious that his own style of showing multiple, simultaneous viewpoints of a figure in one image parallels the cinematic visions emerging first with Edwin Porter and then with D.W. Griffith. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

This wonderful Warner Bros. epic was one of the earliest talkie musicals with a Hollywood background -- and the last of its kind until 1933's Sitting Pretty. Alice White stars as pert chorine Dixie Dugan, a character she'd played in 1928's Show Girl (and one which would spin off into a long-running comic strip). This time, Dixie is brought to Hollywood to appear in a music titled The Rainbow Girl. Thanks to the urgings of her egotistical director (John Miljan), the normally down-to-earth heroine begins acting like a haughty screen queen. Her temperamental behavior causes a shut-down of the production, ruining the comeback attempt of fading star Donna Harris (played by Blanche Sweet, who at 36 looks far younger than her "over-the-hill" character, who's supposed to be 32!) When Donna nearly commits suicide, Dixie realizes what a jerk she's been, and the show -- er, the movie -- goes on. A surprisingly accurate scene from Show Girl in Hollywood, showing a musical number "in production" on the sound stage has since been excerpted in several TV documentaries on the early sound era. The film originally ended with a Technicolor sequence depicting the premiere of the fictional The Rainbow Girl, with several Warner Bros. employees (Al Jolson, Ruby Keeler, Loretta Young and Walter Pidgeon) in attendance. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this crime drama, a policeman marries a nightclub hostess. Together, they move into a cramped, ramshackle apartment. There the woman begins feeling suffocated and decides to return to her old life. She also takes up with a gangster. Soon she is entangled in a murder and this forces her lover to look for a way to get rid of her. Fortunately, her husband rescues her before it's too late. They reconcile and marital bliss ensues. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

This Blanche Sweet vehicle was directed by John Griffith Wray, who outside of her own husband Marshall Neilan was Sweet's favorite director. The star is cast as dance-hall girl Dolly Wall, who invests her life savings in an oil well. A gusher comes in, enriching not only Dolly but her ne'er-do-well socialite sweetheart Royce Wingate (Warner Baxter). While Wingate hobnobs with the Upper Crust, poor Dolly is left home alone, stigmatized by her "scandalous" past. Driven to distraction by Wingate's indifference, Dolly threatens to disfigure his face with a vial of acid, but the terror-stricken Wingate shoots the bottle out of her hand, wounding her in the process. Only as Dolly lies bleeding does Wingate realize that he's truly in love with her (and please don't try this at home!) Singed was based on Love O' Women, a story by the celebrated Adela Rogers St. John. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

One of D.W. Griffith's most luminous stars, Blanche Sweet's career was in the doldrums when she appeared opposite lower-echelon cowboy star Roy Stewart in The Lady from Hell (the title referred to the kilt-wearing Scottish troops fighting in World War I, not Sweet). She played a Scottish noblewoman whose fiancee (Stewart) takes a job as foreman on a western ranch. He is soon falsely accused of killing his boss but manages to escape back to the Scottish highlands. Stewart and Sweet marry, but he is extradited to the U.S. on the trumped-up murder charge. Found guilty and about to be hanged, the Scotsman is saved in the nick of time by the real culprit, the ranch owner's stepson, who confesses. Blanche Sweet had reached the zenith of her career as Eugene O'Neill's Anna Christie (1923), giving a performance that many critics prefer to Greta Garbo's talkie version. Three years on, her career had again lost its momentum and would never quite recover. She later left Hollywood in favor of vaudeville and stock. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi

Adapted from a play by Victor Sardou, Diplomacy was another collaboration between actress Blanche Sweet and her then-husband Marshall Neisan. Most of the action takes place along the Riviera, where heroine Dora de Zares (Sweet) comports herself in a most mysterious fashion. The audience is encouraged to think that Dora is a spy of some sort or other, especially when a packet of important diplomatic papers is stolen from her husband Julian Wentworth (Neil Hamilton). But there's plenty of intrigue and surprises before the plot is explained and the truth is revealed. Viewers in 1926 were advised to keep their eyes on "silly ass" Englishman Robert Lowry (Matt Moore), who like Dora wasn't all that he seemed to be. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Although Blanche Sweet was often busy making films with her then-husband Marshall Neilan, during 1925 and 1926, she also made several films for First National. This one is a melodrama of the sea in which she plays Molla Hansen, the daughter of the captain of an oil schooner (Bert Sprotte). Molla has made plans to marry Captain Rodney O'Malley (Robert Frazer) when she returns from a voyage with her father, but the ship burns at sea. She is saved by a lighthouse keeper who dies from his wounds, and in gratitude, she cares for the man's daughter, Pearl (Dorothy Sebastian). O'Malley, believing Molla to be dead, goes on a two-year voyage. Charley Watts (Alan Roscoe), a rum-runner, seduces Pearl, who tries to blame her pregnancy on an innocent man. Then she learns that Watts is married, and she turns on the gas in the lighthouse, hoping that the explosion will kill them both. It also nearly kills Molla, but O'Malley, returned from his trip, rescues her. This picture was adapted from the play by Willard Robertson. ~ Janiss Garza, Rovi

John Douglas, a down-on-his-luck engineer (Ronald Coleman), takes his sweetheart, Sara Deeping (Kathleen Myers), to a play starring Carla King (Blanche Sweet), and he falls in love with the actress. Douglas proposes to Carla but, wary of marriage, she hesitates. Instead she proposes that she accompany him to his South American mine, posing as his sister, and after a year they can assess their relationship. The vengeful Sara comes down, too, and does her best to cause trouble between the couple. She creates a big enough rift between them that they wind up separating. Back in New York, Carla accepts the marriage proposal of a millionaire who offers to back Douglas in his endeavors. In the end she decides she must be with Douglas and they make plans to return to the mine, this time as husband and wife. ~ Janiss Garza, Rovi

This melodrama was personally supervised by producer Thomas Ince, and, depending on how one looked at it, it was either anti-alcohol, or against the Volstead Act, which caused the bootlegging of bad liquor. Mary Kane (Lucille Ricksen) is killed during a wreck when the boy driving the car in which she is riding is blinded by bathtub gin. Her brother, Robert (Warner Baxter), swears to fight the bootleggers and becomes a prohibition officer. Meanwhile, Ruth Jordan (Blanche Sweet) comes to town, searching for her brother, Matt (Robert Agnew). Matt is working for rumrunner Red Carney (Matthew Betz). Revenue officer Blaney (Frank Campeau) is in league with Carney, and when another agent is killed, the two crooks frame Matt and see that he is convicted, though Ruth is determined to prove her brother innocent. She meets Kane and convinces him to pretend to be her sweetheart and together they gather enough evidence to save Matt. Carney discovers the ruse, but before he can kill Kane, a group of revenue officers arrive. Matt is freed, and Ruth and Kane discover they really do love each other. This picture was remade as a talkie in 1930. ~ Janiss Garza, Rovi

This comedy-melodrama, based on the novel by Rupert Hughes (who also directed), blends fiction and reality to tell the story of a young woman's rise in Hollywood; the film uses real stars and productions (even Charles Chaplin filming A Woman of Paris) as its backdrop. Eleanor Boardman plays Remember Steddon, better known as Mem. Mem is a small-town girl who marries slick bad guy Owen Scudder (Lew Cody); Owen insures his brides and then murders them for the money. After the wedding, Mem starts to have her doubts about him and runs away while their train is chugging through the desert. She happens on a film crew and gets work as an extra, later becoming a famous dramatic actress in Hollywood with the help of director Frank Claymore (Richard Dix). Scudder finally tracks her down during a shoot involving a circus tent; when a storm sets the tent on fire, Scudder loses his life saving Mem from a wind machine's propeller. Freed from her marriage, Mem is able to choose between Claymore and her leading man. Boardman, whose first starring role finds her surrounded by a long and impressive supporting cast, wound up at the Goldwyn studios through a "New Faces" contest. Her co-winner, future star William Haines, also had a bit part as the company's assistant director. ~ Janiss Garza, Rovi

This film is based on the novel by F. Marion Crawford, and involves the court of King Philip II of Spain. Philip is jealous of his powerful and popular brother, Don John (Edmund Lowe), so he sends him to fight in the Moors, hoping that he will not return. John leaves behind the woman he loves, Dolores Mendoza (Blance Sweet). Dolores' father, General Mendoza (Hobart Bosworth), believes that John is playing with his daughter's heart and disapproves of the match. John returns victorious from the Moors and continues to push his suit. Meanwhile, Princess Eboli, the king's favorite (Aileen Pringle), is in charge of a plot to depose Philip and put John on the throne. The two royal brothers have a heated argument, and Philip leaves John for dead. To save the king, Mendoza claims responsibility. But Dolores knows the truth and threatens to tell all unless the king pardons her father. The king agrees, and when it turns out that John has only been wounded, Philip also consents to his wedding to Dolores. ~ Janiss Garza, Rovi

Based on a 1901 novel by Marah Ellis Ryan, this silent Western starred Blanche Sweet in the title-role of Montana Rivers, whose cardsharp father, Lee Holly (Edward Peil, Sr.), raised her as a tomboy. When the gambler is kicked out of town, Montana seeks shelter with the Indians, by whom she is taught womanly ways and assumes the name Tana. She falls in love with handsome but married prospector Dan Overton (Mahlon Hamilton) but an acquaintance of Overton's, the villainous Jim Harris (Frank Lanning), recognizes her as Lee Holly's brat. The girl is denounced by both Harris and the jealous Mrs. Overton (Claire Du Brey), but events take a new turn when Lee Holly reappears, revealing that Montana is not his child at all but the offspring of Harris. Holly is killed by the enraged Harris, and the unfaithful Mrs. Overton suffers the same fate in the hands of a jealous lover (Jack Roseleigh), leaving Overton and Montana to plan a future together. A major star of the early silent screen, Sweet was suffering something of a career-slump when she appeared in this romantic clap-trap produced by Jesse D. Hampton. Hamilton is perhaps best remembered as Mary Pickford's benefactor Jarvis Pendleton in Daddy-Long-Legs (1919). ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi

Even luminaries such as actress Blanche Sweet and director Henry King had off days and they must have been going through several when this trite picture was made. Telephone operator Leona Stafford (Sweet) inherits a thousand dollars. She blows half the money on clothes and uses the rest to check into a fancy summer hotel where she poses as a mysterious Russian widow. Her plan is to nab a rich husband, but she attracts a fortune hunter (Jay Belasco) instead. Eventually she gets rid of him and finds a good man (played by King himself), who turns out to have a real fortune. The film was based on a magazine story, "Leona Goes A-Hunting," by Edwina Levin. ~ Janiss Garza, Rovi