Harry Todd Movies

David Butler plays a soldier home from the war whose tendency to keep to himself foments gossip. According to his detractors, Butler is a drunk, gambler and wastrel. During a town carnival, Butler vanquishes his enemies once and for all, winning the love of Lillian Hall in the process. The independently produced Fickle Women boasts an excellent, cleverly shaded lead performance by David Butler, later to become a top Hollywood director. The film was based on Sitting on the World, a short story by Sophie Kerr. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

When he discovers that his wife only married him for his money, Philip Dorset (Albert Roscoe) leaves her and goes to Africa. There he meets up with some circus men and becomes part of their group. They take charge of a young white girl, Joan, whose missionary father has died, and they return to the States. Joan (Shirley Mason) grows up to be a bareback rider, and Dorset takes care of the elephants. Now that Joan has reached adulthood, she finds herself falling in love with Dorset, but because of his unhappy past, he keeps her at bay. Eventually, this causes him to leave the circus, but finally he and Joan resolve things and are reunited. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Irving Bacheller was a popular American author during the 1910s, but he refused to allow his stories to be filmed because he didn't think that motion pictures could do them justice. He finally relented with this tale of social climbing in a small town, and the resulting picture was amusing and well received. Lizzie (Enid Bennett) is the daughter of Sam Henshaw, the grocer of a small country town (Otis Harlan). Lizzie's childhood sweetheart is Dan Pettigrew (Edward Hearn), the son of Henshaw's rival (Harry Todd). Since Henshaw thinks his Lizzie can do better than Dan, he ships her off to finishing school. Dan's father, meanwhile, is not to be outdone and sends his son to Harvard. Lizzie returns a little too finished -- she has become a social snob and wants little to do with Dan, who has quickly recovered from his own bout of snobbery and come back to earth. Inspired by Lizzie's new ways, the townsfolk all become social climbers and spend money they don't have -- but which Soc Potter (W. Landers Stevens) cheerfully lends them -- to keep up with her. Lizzie accompanies a wealthy widow to Europe and returns with Count Louis Roland (Leo White), whom she intends to marry. Dan senses something fishy about the oily European, and unmasks him as a phony just in time to prevent the wedding. Sadder but wiser, Lizzie finally realizes what -- and who -- is important in her life. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Girls Don't Gamble proclaims the opening title of this 1921 drama. The film was based on a magazine story by George Weston, which was more accurately titled Girls Don't Gamble Anymore. Whatever the case, the plot concentrates not on a girl but a guy: poor-but-honest chauffeur David Butler (later a prominent director). Accused of robbing the department store owned by his employer, the chauffeur clears himself in a two-fisted finale. But here's the shocker: he doesn't marry the boss' daughter! Though cheaply produced, Girls Don't Gamble had plenty of "sock" entertainment value. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This is not one of the better collaborations between director King Vidor and his then-wife, Florence Vidor. She stars as Judith Stafford, who comes from a moneyed family. A recent trip to Europe has turned her into a snobby and pretentious young woman. She returns engaged to a count of no-accounts and refuses to even consider the young man her father wants her to marry, the cowboy son of an old friend (David Butler). To solve this dilemma, Stafford arranges it so that Judith and the young man are marooned on a South Sea island together. It takes the better part of the three months they are there for Judith to realize that, according to filmland tradition, she is supposed to fall madly in love with the rugged Westerner. Finally she does, and when the count comes to fetch her, she dumps him flat in favor of the cowboy. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Future director David Butler plays a hobo who aspires to become a business success. Taking a correspondence course which advises him (in part) to "put on a big bluff", Butler heads to a small town, where he poses as a prominent miner. Before the ruse can be revealed, Butler has rescued the town from financial disaster. He also wins the girl, played by Helen Ferguson. Directing According to Hoyle with his customary express-train speed was Woody "One Take"VanDyke. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

While competently made and well cast, this drama still wasn't all that entertaining. Writer Sheila Dorne (Marguerite de la Motte) agrees to marry Westerner Jim Russell (John Bowers) only when he promises to allow her to pursue her career. But to his chagrin, her writing takes up all her time, and then after her novel is published she insists that they must move to New York. Russell takes a menial job as a truck driver, and Sheila's book draws the attention of playwright Rudolph Martin (Milton Sills). They collaborate on a project and Russell feels more and more out of place. Even though Sheila still loves her husband, it's clear that he doesn't fit in with her new friends. In addition his boorish behavior makes her doubt her decision to return West with him. But she goes, and brings Martin with her so they can continue working together. Russell has an engineering job on a dam, but during a raging storm, it bursts. Russell risks his life to save Martin because he thinks that Sheila loves him. Only afterwards does he learn that his wife is perfectly happy with their marriage, and the couple reconciles. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Universal's top western ace Hoot Gibson enjoyed fine support from another of the studio's sagebrush stars -- cowgirl Josie Sedgwick -- in this average silent oater. He is a college boy from the East who joins a Wild West show, she the man-hating Calamity Jane, victim of a series of practical jokes. Played for laughs despite the participation of veteran bad guy G. Raymond Nye, Sawdust Trail was typical Gibson fare and vastly popular with less-discriminating audiences. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

A lanky cowboy from Nebraska, J.B. Warner, became a star in a series of inexpensive oaters produced in 1923-1924 by Greek-born Hollywood entrepreneur Anthony J. Xydias' Sunset Productions. Warner was personable, a reasonably talented thespian, and handled comedy with more ease than some of his competitors. Sadly, he died of tuberculosis in 1925 and is all but forgotten today. In Horseshoe Luck, Warner and comedy sidekick Harry Todd play miners who get in trouble with a gang of claim jumpers. This Western, like all Xydias product, was released on the states rights market for a flat fee and played only in the hinterlands. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Jack Hoxie's final Western for 1925 featured Universal's second most popular cowboy hero (after Hoot Gibson) chasing a wanted man. The trail leads to Kathryn McGuire's ranch, which is about to be taken over by greedy banker Harry Todd. In one of those coincidences found only in cheap movie-making, the banker turns out to be the same man Hoxie had been chasing all along. Better known as a comic, the veteran Todd was surprisingly cast against type in this film. Leading lady Kathryn McGuire, a 1922 WAMPAS Baby Star, later married Mary Pickford's publicist, George Landy. Today, the blond starlet is best remembered as Buster Keaton's girl in both The Navigator (1924) and Sherlock, Jr.. She left films at the advent of sound. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Silent screen cowboy Hoot Gibson handled situation comedy better than any of his rivals, with the possible exception of Tom Mix. Many of Gibson's film's were rural farces rather than outright westerns and usually highlighted the star's bumbling attempts to woo a pretty girl. That is exactly what happens in The Hurricane Kid. "The Hooter" loves blond Marian Nixon but the lady has eyes only for slick foreman William A. Steele. That is, until the foreman is unmasked as a crook, and Gibson wins the Big Race. In typical Gibson style, the villain is defeated without a single shot being fired, or any other kind of violence, and a good time was had by all. Leading lady Marian Nixon later signed a contract with Fox and was marketed as that studio's possible replacement for an often recalcitrant Janet Gaynor. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Marking the 50th anniversary of General George Armstrong Custer's famous defeat at Little Big Horn, Universal re-created the battle in their biggest production ($400,000) of the year, The Flaming Frontier. Veteran screen actor Dustin Farnum came out of semi-retirement to play Custer -- to overwhelmingly positive notices -- and according to studio publicity, the film employed several thousand extras, including many Native Americans. Universal re-created Fort Hays, Custer's outpost, on the back lot in the San Fernando Valley and a duplicate of Crane City was erected at great expense near Pendleton, Oregon. Unfortunately, the studio also cast their resident cowboy star, the lackadaisical Hoot Gibson, in the starring role, and the entire production was thus geared to Gibson's familiar shtick rather than faithfully re-telling the story of one of the great blunders in military history. In the hands of Edward Sedgwick, Gibson's usual director, the slaughter at Little Big Horn proved little more than a plot contrivance. Gibson played a Pony Express rider admitted to West Point due to the influence of a powerful senator (George Fawcett), whose daughter (Anne Cornwall) he loves. In return, Gibson assumes the blame when the senator's wastrel son (Harold Goodwin) gets in trouble with the daughter (Kathleen Key) of a crooked Indian agent (Ward Crane). Gibson is expelled and returns West to join Custer's forces. To get even with Gibson, whom he still accuses of defiling his daughter, the Indian agent conspires with Sitting Bull (African-American actor Noble Johnson) to lure Custer and his troops into an ambush. Misinformed about the strength of the enemy, Custer and his 400 men are slaughtered by Indian warriors numbering in the thousands. Gibson, meanwhile, has been sent for reinforcements, thus surviving the massacre. He later leads an uprising among the settlers against the nefarious Indian agent, who has taken the senator's daughter prisoner. Most reviewers were appreciative of Universal's great expenditure, but Variety's scribe saw the film as little more than an ordinary Gibson Western. Sadly, modern audiences are prevented from forming an opinion, as no prints now survive. However, many of the more spectacular sequences later found their way into The Indians Are Coming (1930), a Universal serial released in both silent and sound versions. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Prisoners of the Storm was based on the rugged James Oliver Curwood yarn The Quest of Joan. When two Canadian prospectors strike gold, they make plans to stake a mutual claim at a faraway trading post. One of the prospectors is murdered en route to the post, and that's when Mountie Walter McGrail enters the picture. Following orders, he sets out to arrest the surviving prospector on suspicion of murder. But McGrail's resolve weakens when the prospector's pretty daughter Peggy Montgomery (former child star "Baby Peggy") nurses him back to health when he's injured in a blinding snowstorm. Certain by now that Montgomery's father is innocent, McGrail dedicates himself to tracking down the real killer. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide