Gustav von Seyffertitz Movies

Gaston Glass stars in this fast-moving melodrama as dashing Parisian pickpocket Bibi-Ri. Filching one purse too many, our hero ends up in a brutal penal colony. Sadistic overseer De Nou (Gustav von Seyfertitz) swears that some day, somehow, he'll send Bibi-Ri to the guillotine. But when this day finally arrives, a red birthmark on his neck reveals that Bibi-Ri is De Nou's own long-lost son. This revelation takes place just in time for a romantic clinch between Bibi-Ri and heroine Zellie (Nina Quartero). Ex-boxer Jack Roper co-stars as hulking prisoner Bombiste. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The popularity of Priscilla Dean had eclipsed by 1927, but she still proved an attractive and talented leading lady in Columbia's Birds of Prey. Dean plays a member of a clever criminal gang, headed by mastermind Gustav von Seyfertitz. The heroine would give anything to reform, but this won't happen so long as Von Seyfertitz has anything to say about it. The film's climax finds the bank-robbing crooks trapped in a sudden earthquake, though it's obvious from the get-go that the people the audience care about will survive. Most critics recognized Birds of Prey as a low-budget derivation of Lon Chaney Sr.'s The Unholy Three. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Magic Flame is little more than a showcase for Samuel Goldwyn's "hottest" screen team, Ronald Colman and Vilma Banky. Based on King Harlequin, a novel and play by Rudolph Lothar, the film casts Colman as a travelling circus clown who happens to bear a startling resemblance to the no-good King of a mythical European principality. The King (also played by Colman, of course), develops a yen for the Clown's sweetheart, trapeze artist Vilma Banky. While trying to rescue the girl from the royal castle, the Clown is forced to kill the King. As inevitably as night follows day, the Clown is then obliged to take the King's place on the throne. As gentle and generous as his "predecessor" was cruel and corrupt, the Clown becomes immensely popular with his subjects, who are more willing to allow him to marry a "commoner" like Banky. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Even without the benefit of sound, The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg seems to be inundated by Franz Lehar's unforgettable songs. Director Ernst Lubitsch fashioned a gloriously schmaltzy, delightfully artificial rendition of the 1924 Lehar opera, which in turn was based on the 1902 play In Old Heidelberg. Ramon Novarro plays the title role, an ever-carousing young monarch who falls in love with ebullient barmaid Norma Shearer. Fully willing to forsake his crown for her sake, Novarro chooses duty over love when his country is threatened with revolution. He tries to let Shearer down gently, but it is clear that she will never quite get over her summer romance. Such is the genius of Ernst Lubitsch that the 1927 version of Student Prince seems a lot more alive and far less dated than the 1954 Technicolor remake. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

E.H. Griffith, a veteran of the old Edison Studios, handled the directorial chores for Columbia's Price of Honor. The story, which is a bit too thin to be stretched over five reels, concerns the reputation of leading lady Dorothy Revier. A murder is committed and a man is sentenced to death -- and it all seems to be the fault of the hapless heroine. Ultimately, the film emerges as an argument against circumstantial evidence, but by this time many of the viewers had nodded off to slumberland. Still, the enterprising Columbia promotional staff was able to secure choice bookings for this very minor effort. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Lone Wolf, Louis Joseph Vance's celebrated thief-turned-sleuth, began his long association with Columbia Pictures in 1926's Return of the Lone Wolf. After a life of crime, gentleman jewel robber Michael Lanyard (Bert Lytell), aka the Lone Wolf, has -- to all intents and purposes -- reformed. But when his sweetheart Marcia Mayfair (Billie Dove) is robbed by a rival gang, Lanyard returns to his old tricks, operating on the theory that it takes a thief to catch a thief. Though the original Vance stories were heavily reliant on dialogue, Return of the Lone Wolf effectively tells its story in purely visual terms. Bert Lytell, who first played the Lone Wolf in 1917, would return to the role several times between 1926 and 1930. ~ 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

Broadway entertainer Georgie Jessel beat his "friendly rival" Al Jolson to the screen by one year in the wartime comedy drama Private Izzy Murphy. Of Jewish-Irish heritage, merchant Izzy (Jessel) falls in love with 100-percent Irish colleen Ellen Connaghan (Patsy Ruth Miller). To make her proud of him, he joins the Fighting 69th, the famed WWI Irish-American regiment. Performing valiantly on the battlefield, Murphy returns home a hero (and, amusingly, wearing fewer medals than the real-life Jessel would display in his talk-show appearances of the 1960s). Even so, Ellen's staunchly Catholic father (played by German actor Gustav von Seyfertitz) refuses to allow his daughter to marry a Jew. Izzy's buddies convince the old man that he could never find a better son-in-law than our hero, leading to an elaborate wedding finale. Private Izzy Murphy did well enough for Warner Bros. to offer George Jessel the lead in their pioneering talkie The Jazz Singer; but Jessel (who'd appeared in the last-named production on Broadway) turned down the offer, to his everlasting regret. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Going Crooked was based on the stage play by Winchell Smith, William Collier Sr. and Aaron Hoffman. An armored car driver has been killed in a robbery, and an innocent man (Leslie Fenton) has been charged with the murder. DA John Banning (Oscar Shaw) suspects a frame-up, but the only person he is able to haul into jail is Marie (Bessie Love), a minor member of the robbery gang. Realizing that Marie was forced into a life of crime, Banning promises to go easy on her if she'll help him trap the real murderer, gang leader Mordaunt (Gustav von Seyfertitz). Marie nearly loses her own life in the process, but the film comes to its anticipated conclusion as the innocent boy is saved from the Chair just as the switch is being pulled. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Based on a Pushkin novel, The Eagle stars Rudolph Valentino as a Russian cossack who is the special favorite of the formidable Catherine the Great (Louise Dresser). He spurns her attentions, preferring not to be a kept consort. When his lands are stolen from him, Valentino transforms into a Robin-Hood-like masked avenger. Vilma Banky plays the daughter of the man who killed Valentino's own father. Despite his thirst for revenge, our hero falls in love with Vilma, who goes the "Lois Lane" route of adoring the masked-avenger Valentino but disdaining the unmasked Rudy, little guessing that the two are one in the same. Watch quickly for Gary Cooper as one of Valentino's masked minions. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

According to the Paramount publicity mill, Joseph Hergesheimer wrote this unoriginal tale of California's early days especially for Pola Negri. Like all too many of Negri's Paramount vehicles, this drama was not worthy of her talents. Don Geraldo y Villalon (Joseph Dowling) hates Americans because he believes they robbed him of his mine. While he sequesters himself at his ranchero, his daughter Carlotta (Negri) yearns for excitement. When she insists on attending a ball that is being held at the mine, her father kills himself. Carlotta falls in love with John Basset (Youcca Troubetzkoy), the superintendent of the mine, but he has no use for her. So she goes to San Francisco where she becomes a dancehall girl and attracts the attention of vigilante leader Luke Rand (Warner Oland). He offers to get the mine back for her if she gives him what he wants. Carlotta agrees, but when she realizes that Rand's efforts will mean Basset's death, she helps defend the mine instead. Rand nevertheless comes to collect what he feels that Carlotta owes him, and Basset shoots him. After being exonerated of the villain's death, Basset is united with Carlotta. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

The talented and beautiful Marion Davies is practically lost under the opulence of this expensive, overdone historical romance. Her producer (and lover), newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst, was attempting to recreate the success of one of Davies' prior epic vehicles, When Knighthood Was in Flower. Once again he based the picture on a novel by Charles Major and brought in set designer Joseph Urban to work his magic. But this Major story wasn't as good as Knighthood and Urban did his work too well; the sets are both gorgeous and overwhelming. Ultimately, the production cost too much for Hearst to make a profit, even though the film performed well at the box office. The backdrop is fifteenth century France, and Charles, Duke of Burgundy (Lyn Harding) has promised his daughter, Princess Mary (Davies), that she can marry the man she loves, Prince Maximilian of Styria (Ralph Graves). But when the Swiss threaten war, the duke is compelled to take back his word and he arranges for Mary to wed the half-witted dauphin (Johnny Dooley) of France's King Louis XI (Holbrook Blinn). Mary, however, runs away and disguises herself as Yolanda, a commoner. At a silk fair she meets and falls in love with a strange knight, only to discover that it's Maximilian in disguise. Although she is found and turned over to be married to the dauphin, Maximilian rescues her. When the Duke of Burgundy is killed, Mary shows up with Maximilian by her side to rule over her people. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

This drama of international crime and intrigue was based on the famous series of novels by Louis Joseph Vance. Jack Holt plays gentleman crook Michael Lanyard, also known as the Lone Wolf. The United States government has developed a ray that can stop an airplane engine in midair, but the plans, hidden in a deck of cards, are stolen. A ring of crooks known as the Pack find out that Eckstrom (Alphonse Ethier) has the plans and goes after them. One of the gang, Lucy Shannon (Dorothy Dalton), meets Lanyard and suspects that he is the Lone Wolf. Lanyard has gone to the American Embassy and offered to get the plans back, but only if the United States will allow him to live, unmolested, in America. One of the Pack gets the plans from Eckstrom, but Lanyard knocks him unconscious and steals them. He removes them from the deck of cards and secrets them away in a cigarette. Lucy has decided to help Lanyard and they plan to escape together, but the Pack finds them together, and Lucy pretends she is still on their side by holding Lanyard at bay with a revolver. Lanyard lays the deck of cards on the table and the gang takes them. Eckstrom, however, knows better and demands the cigarette. He takes off in a plane and Lanyard and Lucy pursue him for a dramatic fight in the air. Only after they get the plans and return to earth does Lanyard find out that Lucy is actually a member of the Secret Service. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide