Estelle Taylor Movies

This picture, in three parts, was promoted as being true-to-life, but judging from the reviews, it's obviously just melodramatic fodder -- except for the last story. The first part, entitled, "Out of the Night," involves a suburban wife (Estelle Taylor) whose husband (William Locke) is away for the night. Her ex-husband, who she assumed to be dead (Marc MacDermott), shows up at her door. But before things get too complicated a burglar (Harry Sothern) enters the house and kills him. The wife tells the burglar she'll keep his secret if he keeps hers. The next part, "The Gay White Way," involves a vamp (Taylor again) playing the badger game until she is caught by a detective who had been pretending innocence. The last and most interesting story is "A Tragedy of the East Side," which takes places in the slums. A paralyzed man (MacDermott again) watches helplessly as his son (Sothern) woos and weds a girl of little character (Taylor once again). The girl takes in a fugitive from the law (Earl Metcalfe) and hides him at their home. A romance develops between the two, and the son only figures this out by his father's facial expressions. He finds the couple together and the gangster kills him. When the police come around to investigate, the father's facial expressions, once again, reveal the killer's whereabouts. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

On the verge of leaving Fox Studios for MGM, silent romantic star John Gilbert appeared in California Romance. Gilbert plays a soldier-of-fortune, living in pre-statehood California. With the aid of the US cavalry, Gilbert fends off those who would block California's entry into the Union. Along the way, he wins the heart of separatist-sympathizer Estelle Taylor. Director Jerome Storm, who'd previously worked on the popular Charlie Ray vehicles at Ince, wrapped this one up in a fast four reels. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

While no one could ever call the cast to this melodrama "all star," it certainly features some of the best second-stringers and character actors who were around in 1923. James Watkins (Willard Louis), who owns a department store, is even more wicked than your average womanizer. He has Danny Mulvey (William Scott) sent to prison for a crime he didn't commit just so that he can woo his sister Mame (Estelle Taylor). When he is released, Mulvey finds out that Watkins is also after his own sweetheart, Josie (Mae Busch), who is a clerk at the store. Mulvey, Mrs. Watkins (Claire Dubrey) and Mame all decide to catch Watkins at his game, so Josie agrees to meet him at the store one night. He doesn't realize that the others are hiding and watching him. When he tries to embrace Josie she threatens to kill him, and he turns out the lights. When they come back on he is dead. Josie is arrested for his murder, but Mulvey confesses to save her. The truth is that both of them are innocent. When Mulvey's home catches on fire, Mame is badly burned while saving a little girl (Josephine Adair). Mame doesn't survive her injuries, but before she dies, she confesses that it was she who killed Watkins. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

With the Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle scandal and the William Desmond Taylor murder still fresh in people's minds, it's a wonder why the Fox studios decided to go ahead with the remake of this steamy melodrama which shot Theda Bara to stardom in 1915. But they revamped it (so to speak) and toned down the character of Gilda Fontaine (here played by Estelle Taylor) enough to avoid the ire of the censors. The miscast Taylor virtually turned Gilda into a flapper, and this alone took a lot of the power out of the story. Financier John Schuyler (Lewis Stone) must travel to Europe on business, leaving his beloved wife (Irene Rich) and daughter Muriel (Muriel Dana) at home. On board the ship he encounters the dangerous Gilda -- his associate, Avery Parmelee (Mahlon Hamilton) has already killed himself over her. Schuyler now falls under Gilda's spell, and when he returns to the U.S., he is unable to give her up. His wife forgives him and is willing to take him back, but then Gilda reappears and he knows that the only way to break free of her sensual charms is to kill her or himself. He decides on the former, but while attacking her he falls over a banister to his death. Judging from the sets, Fox spent a lot of money on this film -- and it bombed. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

This adventurous drama of Russia's revolutionary days was based on the stage play by Earl Carroll. Wallace Beery -- at the time one of filmdom's most dependable villains -- has the title of role of Felix Bavu, an illiterate brute who has used the revolution to promote his own power-hungry aims. He encourages the people to pillage the castle of Prince Markoff (Josef Swickard), only because he wants the prince's jewels. Opposing him is Mischka Vleck (Forrest Stanley), an honest revolutionary of less violent disposition. Before the revolution, Vleck worked in the prince's household, and he loves his daughter, Princess Annia (Estelle Taylor). He hides Annia from Bavu, who has decided he wants her for himself. Bavu's efforts to get rid of Vleck are unsuccessful, and Vleck and Annia escape the castle. Bavu follows in pursuit, but the couple manages to escape the strife-ridden country. Now that the revolution has deemed them equals, Annia and Vleck can declare their love for each other. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Cecil B. DeMille's first screen version of The Ten Commandments is only peripherally a Biblical story. The film's first 45 minutes recaps the struggle between Moses (Theodore Roberts) and Rameses (Charles de Roche) over the liberation of the Hebrews. Only after the Lord has imposed a series of plagues upon Egypt does Rameses relent and permit the Exodus to take place--only to go back on his word a few moments later. The scenes of thousands of Hebrews trekking across the desert, the parting of the Red Sea (an effect accomplished in part by splitting a bowl of gelatin down the middle) and the pre-Commandments revelries before the Golden Calf--complete with a fetchingly undressed Estelle Taylor as Miriam--are produced on a spectacular scale...but this is only the beginning. Just as Moses is invoking the Wrath of God upon the ungrateful Hebrews, the film dissolves to the present day (1923, that is). We are introduced to the MacTavish Family: pious, Bible-thumping Martha McTavish (Edythe Chapman) and her sons, straight-arrow John (Richard Dix) and hedonistic Dan (Rod LaRocque). Both sons love Mary Leigh (Leatrice Joy), but the roguish Dan wins out. While John continues honoring the Ten Commandments, Dan breaks as many as he can get his hands on, especially after falling under the spell of Eurasian adventuress Sally Lung (Nita Naldi). Before the uplifting climax, wherein John and Mary finally get together with (it is implied) the blessings of Heaven, we are treated to a series of disastrous plot turns, including the death of mother McTavish in a collapsing church, Sally Lung's revelation that she has leprosy, and a wild speedboat chase. All that's missing is the kitchen sink. Partially filmed in Technicolor at a then-astronomical cost of $1.2 million (a sum that caused a decade-long rift between Cecil B. DeMille and Paramount Pictures), The Ten Commandments grossed several times that amount. DeMille's 1956 Ten Commandments dispenses with the modern story to concentrate on the life of Moses. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Estelle Taylor stars as a stenographer who marries her boss in this maudlin melodrama. When her husband is called away to Mexico on business, his lecherous assistant juggles the books to frame his unsuspecting boss on embezzlement charges. Jean Perry, Tully Marshall, and Ben Daly co-star with Snitz Edwards, Wilfred Lucas, and Fred De Silva in this sentimental sob story. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

Although the story to this romantic adventure was founded on the Manuel Penella opera El Gato Montes, its utter lack of originality shows that it really could have come from any number of sources. Nevertheless, the performance of Latin lover Antonio Moreno manages to compensate for the material. The Wildcat (Moreno) is a Spanish Robin Hood -- he's a bandit who steals from the rich and gives to the poor. During one of his raids, pretty Marcheta (Estelle Taylor), the daughter of a grandee, is kidnapped. Because he finds himself falling in love with her, the Wildcat softens and he allows her to go free. When her father faces financial ruin, Marcheta agrees to marry Don Ramon (Manuel Camere), the mayor's son. But the Wildcat finds out, and he kidnaps both Marcheta and Don Ramon. The prospective bridegroom proves to be a coward and Marcheta refuses to go ahead with the wedding. Instead, she confesses her love for the Wildcat, and when soldiers arrive to take him away, an old servant reveals that he is really the mayor's son, not Don Ramon. The Wildcat gives up his outlaw endeavors and weds Marcheta. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

This low-budgeter was adapted from A Wise Son, a novel by Charles Sherman. Bryant Washburn plays wealthy wastrel Hal Whitney, who during a "slumming" party decides to adopt shabby old derelict Tim Payne (Alec B. Francis). Hal drunkenly invites Tim on a yachting excursion, only to forget all about the old man when he sobers up. Eventually, however, Hal takes a quick look at his parasitical society chums and realizes that Tim is the only true friend he has. Billed first, Estelle Taylor is given the unenviable task of playing one of the least sympathetic heroines in film history. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Historically important as the first film to carry a Vitaphone sound track (consisting of music and sound effects, but no dialogue) Don Juan is a first-rate production by any standards, and would have been just as good with or without musical accompaniment. John Barrymore plays the legendary lover Don Juan, raised by his cynical father (also played by Barrymore) to "love 'em and leave 'em", and to never trust any woman. All of this changes when he meets the beautiful Adriana Della Varnese (Mary Astor). When it seems that Adriana has betrayed him in favor of a wealthy marriage to the lecherous Count Donati (Montague Love), Don Juan renounces her and returns to his rakish ways. What he doesn't know is that Adriana is a political pawn, who has been forced into an alliance with Donati by the calculating Borgias (Estelle Taylor and Noah Beery Sr.). By the time Don Juan finds out that his true love is still true, he has been tossed in prison for killing Donati in a spectacular duel. He breaks out, rescues Adriana from the Borgias' torture chamber, and escapes with his beloved to the safety of Spain. The plot is, of course, more complicated than that, but so fascinating is John Barrymore's performance that it's difficult to concentrate on anything else. The film's highlights include the out-sized duel between Barrymore and Montagu Love, capped by Barrymore's spectacular leap from the top of a huge staircase, and the torture chamber sequences, wherein Barrymore sneaks past the Borgia guards by assuming the facial characteristics of fiendish torturer Gustav von Seyfertitz--and this without makeup. "In the know" film historians may read a lot more into the Barrymore/Mary Astor love scenes than is readily apparent, forearmed as they are with the knowledge that John and Mary had once been passionate lovers offscreen. Scenarist Bess Meredyth used the Lord Byron poem Don Juan as a mere stepping stone for this imaginative, exquisitely filmed romantic adventure. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In his later interviews, director Allan Dwan seldom had anything to say about his 1928 opus Whip Woman -- and who could blame him? Estelle Taylor, whose tabloid fame as the litigious wife of boxer Jack Dempsey tended to overshadow her acting skills, stars as Sari, a whip-wielding Hungarian peasant girl. After saving Count Michael Ferrenzi from killing himself, Sari becomes the bride of the grateful aristocrat. Ferrenzi's snooty mother (Hedda Hopper) does everything she can to break up the union, but Sari is not a girl to be trifled with. Fifteen-year-old Loretta Young showed up in a small role in Whip Woman, which led to much bigger things when she was spotted by director Herbert Brenon and cast in the Lon Chaney Sr. vehicle Laugh, Clown, Laugh. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

George O'Brien, Fox Studios' general-purpose leading man, heads the cast of Honor Bound. The story opens in the bedroom of hero John Ogletree (George O'Brien), who is awakened from his slumbers by the unexpected arrival of Evelyn (Evelyn Brent), a total stranger. Claiming that she's fleeing from her brutal husband, Evelyn begs John to protect her. On cue, the husband shows up and in the ensuing struggle is accidentally killed. Arrested for manslaughter, John nobly serves his sentence without ever implicating Evelyn in her husband's death. Our hero subsequently joins a prison work gang, assigned to the coal mines owned by one Mr. Mortimer (Tom Santschi) -- who happens to be Evelyn's new husband. Feeling guilty for John's plight, Evelyn arranges for him to have the relatively cushy job of Mortimer's chauffeur. This naturally arouses the suspicions of Mortimer, who promptly assigns John to "grunge" duty in the mines. A fire set by a fellow convict is blamed on John, but this time Evelyn steps forward to exonerate the long-suffering hero, freeing him to marry his true love, pretty nurse Selma Ritchie (Leila Hyams). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This Marion Davies vehicle was loosely inspired by the career of Gloria Swanson. Davies plays would-be starlet Peggy Pepper, who arrives at the gates of MGM Studios with her dad Colonel Pepper (Dell Henderson) in hopes of becoming a great dramatic actress. Instead, she a scores a hit as an ingenue in the slapstick comedies starring the effervescent Billy Boone (William Haines). As the audience rocks with laughter during the preview of Peggy's first film (no one is more enthusiastic than her director Harry Gribbon), she sits in sullen silence, insisting to Billy that some day she'll invoke tears instead of laughter. This doesn't seem likely, inasmuch as Peggy can't even cry on cue (her director is forced to peel onions outside of camera range to achieve the desired emotion), but the tenacious young actress finally manages to win favor in dramatic roles. Inevitably, this causes a strain on her budding romance with Billy, and the couple slowly drifts apart. Now the unchallenged Queen of the Cinema, Peggy -- billing herself as Patricia Pepoire -- prepares to marry her oily leading man Andre (Paul Ralli), but mischievous Billy disrupts her fancy wedding. She angrily tosses Billy out of the house, realizing only when it's too late that she's still in love with him. But in the final scene, the hero and heroine are accidentally reunited on the set of a WWI picture directed by King Vidor (who also directed Show People). Two versions of Show People are currently available for TV; the "stretch-framed" Kevin Brownlow-David Gill restoration, with a new orchestral score by Carl Davis, and the original MGM release version, outfitted with a lively music and sound-effects track. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide