Constance Talmadge Movies

Writer Julia Crawford Ivers penned a story that was a perfect fit for playful silent star Constance Talmadge. Talmadge is Geraldine Barker who has become engaged to Reginald Crocker (Stanhope Wheatcroft) mainly because all the girls want him. But it turns out he's not such a great catch -- one day while they're out on a drive, Geraldine finds a gray veil in his pocket...and gray is not her color. It doesn't take her long to find out that its owner is Mademoiselle Hortense, the owner of a beauty salon. While Geraldine is stewing over her faithless fiancé, she meets Richard Annesly (Harrison Ford), a friend of her brother's. The priggish Richard immediately makes it known that he would never tolerate lies or thievery from a woman, and that he would never, ever elope. Since this is a Constance Talmadge film, we all know that before the final fade-out, the guy will have lied for her, taken responsibility for a theft she committed and begged her to elope with him. And since Harrison Ford is playing Richard Annesly, we also know that once Constance's Geraldine has gotten Richard a bit loosened up, she'll dump two-timing Reginald in no time flat. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Intolerance, D.W. Griffith's towering achievement interlocking four stories of intolerance throughout the ages, has been bowdlerized by the Master himself in this 1919 re-tread utilizing the Babylon sections of that mammoth film. In an effort to recoup some of his disastrous personal losses incurred upon the initial release of Intolerance, Griffith re-edited both the Babylon sequences and the modern section (retitled The Mother and the Law) and distributed them as separate films. The lasting appeal of Intolerance has always been the spectacularly extravagant Babylon story and here it is without "the cradle endlessly rocking." In the story, Babylon is ruled by Belshazzar (Alfred Paget) a kindly king. A true democrat in respect to religion, he earns the enmity of his chief priest, the High Priest of Bel (Tully Marshall). When Cyrus (George Siegmann), the king of the Medes and Persians, attacks Babylon's fabled walled city, the High Priest betrays Belshazzar to Cyrus. The city rallies to Babylon's defense -- including a plucky mountain girl (Constance Talmadge) who secretly loves the king -- but Cyrus's immense forces overpower the beleaguered city. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

Anita Loos penned this screenplay about a young girl who is an incurable flirt. Gwen (Constance Talmadge), the lady in question, comes from a society family that has fallen on hard times. She goes to work to support her mother and younger brother, but she has a hard time hanging onto the job she's landed because every boss at the company falls madly in love with her. She gets bumped around from department to department until she winds up as assistant to the head of the firm, James Crowninshield (Conway Tearle). The preoccupied Crowninshield is the only man who is oblivious to Gwen's many charms, and naturally Gwen falls hopelessly in love with him. She manages to nab him, but not without a lot of heartache, humor, and plot complications. While this amusing film showed that writer Loos and actress Talmadge were an unbeatable team, Constance's mother disagreed. She complained about the scenario to producer Joe Schenck, saying that it disparaged her daughter's sex appeal. Mrs. Talmadge changed her tune, however, when the film was a huge success. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

John Constable (Harrison Ford) is a writer whose ego is being tempted by designing widow Margaret Alloway (Vera Doria). As a result, he neglects his pretty young wife, Kitty (Constance Talmadge). But Kitty is determined to win John back. Harry Travers (Harland Tucker) makes this task easy, as he's a man about town who's always on the lookout for neglected wives to woo. John cancels plans with Kitty so he can be with Mrs. Alloway. Travers invites Kitty for supper at his apartment that night -- which just happens to be in the same building as the widow. Teddy Sylvester (Lewis Willoughby), a sincere admirer of Mrs. Alloway's, is also snooping around. All these characters mingle and get mixed up in a farcical climax that ends with John meekly returning to Kitty. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

In this witty comedy -- an adaptation of Cyril Harcourt's play -- Constance Talmadge plays a writer who runs a lonely hearts ad in order to get material for a novel she's working on. Her ad is answered by a large group of odd personalities. Not so odd is Harrison Ford, and he wins the novelist's heart. Zasu Pitts, whose career was just getting off the ground, has a small role of the maid Emily. With a broad sense of the ridiculous and very little subtlety, A Lady's Name is played purely for fun. It was the kind of movie in which Constance Talmadge excelled. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Mrs. Leffingwell's Boots began life as an Augustus Thomas play, originally written as a vehicle for Margaret Illington. The film version starred Constance Talmadge as the feather-brained wife of the level-headed Mr. Leffingwell (played by the "original" Harrison Ford). As the fashionable young couple wend their way through such standard social obligations as weekend parties, tennis matches and polo games, Mrs. Leffingwell becomes innocently involved with a couple of would-be philanderers. The significance of the title is clarified during the film's closing reels. Suffice to say that the jealous Mr. Leffingwell finally comes to accept the harmless flirtations of his wide-eyed wife. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

When her contract with Triangle ended, silent comedienne Constance Talmadge signed up to make films with her brother-in-law, producer Joseph Schenck (he was married to her sister, dramatic star Norma Talmadge). This picture was the first film Talmadge starred in for him, but it was so poor that they held back the release for many months -- it wound up being her sixth release for Schenck. Helen Drayton (Talmadge) is bored of life in the small town where she grew up. Her constant companion has been Chet Vernon (Tom Moore), and everyone expects them to get married. The contrary Helen resents this assumption, so when New York architect John Galvin (Herbert Heyes) breezes through town, she immediately becomes infatuated with him and they elope. They settle down in New York and it isn't long before Helen realizes that her new husband is selfish and unappealing. Her lesson learned, she quickly figures out how to dump Galvin and reunite with Chet. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Lolette (Theda Bara) is a fiery young Spanish girl. When a painter, Maurice (Albert Roscoe), comes to her town in search of locations, she falls in love with him. But when he's ready to return to Paris, he refuses to take her along. She's determined to follow him, though. To get the money, she steals jewels and loot from a bandit named Tiger (George McDaniel) who has been lusting after her. She finds Maurice, and he decides to use her as a model. He finds her a particularly inspiring subject. One evening they go to the theater to see some Spanish dancers. Lolette is not impressed, and she proceeds to show them how it's really done. That night Tiger, who has tracked her down, tries to get his jewels back, but Maurice, thinking he is merely a burglar, overpowers him. The next day, a pack of impresarios offer her contracts. She accepts advance money from all of them then puts all the cash into an orphans' box. Maurice finds out what she's done and insists that they must run away or she will be arrested. Once again they encounter Tiger, but they trick him and hit the road once again. This picture was solid Theda Bara entertainment; it failed at the box office, however, because it was released on November 10, 1918 -- the day before the Armistice. The last thing people cared about that week was a vamp movie.
~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

It's hard to imagine the vivaciously stylish Constance Talmadge as a boarding-house drudge, but that's the part she plays here. An old couple resides at the house with a mysterious box, which they watch over constantly. Harry Brent, an equally mysterious young man (Kenneth Harlan), moves in and convinces Betsy that there are items in the box that belong to him, and she obligingly steals it. Oscar, a grocery clerk and aspiring detective (Clyde Hopkins), believes that Harry is a crook. There are real crooks afoot, but they have nothing to do with Harry. They kidnap Betsy and the box (which she emptied into her trunk before their arrival), kill the old husband (Joseph Singleton) and knock Oscar --who is in the couple's room -- unconscious. Harry gives chase while Oscar comes to and calls on some real detectives. The police capture the crooks, and Betsy reveals the contents of the box -- the Brent family jewels and a will in Harry's favor. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

This lesser Constance Talmadge vehicle puts her in a Western forest setting. A corrupt corporation sends claim jumpers to steal land from the homesteaders and Jess (Talmadge) urges the people of the township to fight them. A government inspector (A.D. Sears), disguised as a claim jumper, settles on Jess's land and she shoots him. Then she winds up nursing him back to health -- the rest is easily guessed. They fall in love and he brings justice to the bad guys. When this film was made, it hadn't been that long since Talmadge had made her mark in Intolerance, and she doesn't live up to the potential she showed then. It took a couple more years, and quite a few more films, for her to hit her stride. This film is also known as Girl of the Timberclaims. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

The charisma of Douglas Fairbanks keeps this two-reel idea interesting for five reels. Jimmy Conroy (Fairbanks) wants to marry Marna Lewis (Constance Talmadge, whose charisma is a near-match for Doug's). However, Mr. Lewis (Wilbur Hight) has chosen another man for his daughter to marry. So Jimmy and Marna entrain in an attempt to elope, but the rejected suitor is close behind. At a train stop, Jimmy finds a minister (Fred Warren) -- in a bathtub! -- and drags him to the train... which is already gone. Jimmy and the minister head after Marna by mule, handcart and several other strange and uncomfortable ways. They never do hook up in person, but Jimmy and Marna wed anyhow by phone, with the minister, in jail, on one end of the line and Marna on the other, and Jimmy in the middle, on top of a telephone pole. Although Anita Loos, Fairbanks' frequent scenarist, did not write the screenplay (credit, for what it's worth, goes to Roy Cohen and J.U. Glesy), it is likely that she wrote the titles. ~ 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