Andree Tourneur Movies
- 1928
The Actress is a silent-film adaptation of Arthur Wing Pinero's evergreen stage play Trelawny of the Wells. Norma Shearer plays Rose Trelawny, who becomes an accomplished actress only after she learns to "love the players"-that is, to believe in what she's doing. While touring with a second-string company, Rose falls in love with aristocratic Arthur Gower (Ralph Forbes), whose parents frown on show folk. Impressed by Rose's pluck, Arthur's grandfather (O.P. Heggie) changes his mind about the theatre. The old man bankrolls a play that will make Rose a star, paving the way for a happy third-act curtain. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Norma Shearer, Ralph Forbes, (more)
- 1926
Ace stuntman Billy Sullivan stars as Billy Meeks, who gets into hot water at the very start of the picture when he's forced to drive the getaway car for a gang of bank robbers. The crooks escape, but Billy ends up in the hoosegow. Breaking out of jail, he makes his way to a small town, where he lands a job as a racecar driver for auto manufacturer Payton (Harry Maynard). Inevitably, Billy crosses the path of the gang leader who got him into trouble. Far from repentant, the crook kidnaps Billy again so that he can't participate in the Big Race. Returning the "compliment," Billy escapes --again -- to win the race. The finale of Speed Crazed was marred somewhat by overreliance upon grainy newsreel footage. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Billy Sullivan
- 1925
Vitagraph had already made successful pictures out of two of A.S.M. Hutchinson's novels when they filmed this one. Because of his father's secret marriage, Ralph (Malcolm McGregor) is cheated out of his inheritance. Nevertheless, his Aunt Maggie (Mary Alden) prepares him to someday take the place of those who usurped his title and estate. Ralph decides to build his strength by becoming a prize fighter and joining a circus. He falls in love with Dora (Alice Calhoun), the pretty daughter of the circus owner. Finally Ralph is ready and he vanquishes the enemy from his boyhood -- but he also becomes friends with his son. Because of his affection for the boy, he renounces his claim to the estate. In the end, he has found something far more valuable in Dora's love. ~ Janiss Garza, Rovi
- Starring:
- Malcolm McGregor, Alice Calhoun, (more)
- 1922
Although busy with the Tom Mix and Buck Jones westerns, the Fox company also issued non-series oaters such as Lights of the Desert, a triangle melodrama geared more toward female audiences than the usual action fan. Brunette Shirley Mason, the younger sister of Metro star Viola Dana, played a touring actress stranded in a flyspeck Nevada town. She dallies with a couple of prospectors (Allan Forrest and Edward Burns) but an acting job lures her to San Francisco and into the arms of a slick oil man (James Mason. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi
- 1922
Independent producer-director Ben Wilson was the one who suggested Hartford Hoxie change his name to plain Jack Hoxie. The two met on the serial Lightning Bryce (1919), and Wilson signed the brawny cowboy to a series of 13 cheaply made but fairly popular western melodramas. Wilson even secured European distribution deals for his little oaters, and Hoxie was well on his way to stardom, a stardom that would culminate at Universal in the mid-1920s. The Marshal of Moneymint was Jack's final film for Wilson and was a plain western story about a volunteer lawman (Hoxie) who rids a mining town of the unscrupulous Velvet Joe Sellers (Claude Payton and his gang of claim jumpers. Following this film, Hoxie and Wilson parted ways, the former finding a new home with yet another Gower Gulch producer, Anthony J. Xydias. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi
- 1921
Director Rex Ingram's The Conquering Power served as the much-anticipated reteaming of Ingram's stars from Blood and Sand, Alice Terry (aka Mrs. Rex Ingram) and Rudolph Valentino. The latter plays an impoverished French aristocrat who falls in love with Alice, the stepdaughter of his wicked uncle Eric Mayne. Uncle is dead set against this romance, and to that end place insurmountable roadblocks in the lovers' path. But Valentino, who has proven that he can make his own way in the world, eventually wins Alice away from Mayne-but not before the old man has suffered a suitably gruesome demise. The Conquering Power is a prettied-up adaptation of Honore de Balzac's Eugenie Grandet. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Alice Terry, Rudolph Valentino, (more)
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