Richard Walling Movies

Ostensibly based on an "original story" by Arthur Hoerl, Shanghai Rose would seem to have been derived from the then-popular courtroom drama The Trial of Mary Dugan. Dignified Irene Rich is sorely miscast as the title character, the proprietress of a gin mill which doubles as a bordello. A murder occurs, and Rich is put on trial for her life. A series of flashbacks "reconstruct" the crime from several different points of view -- and as the story progresses, it becomes less and less obvious that Rich is the guilty party. Written off as "distasteful" by the film critics of the period, Shanghai Rose was hardly a landmark of the silent cinema. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Head of the Family is an interesting precursor to the screwball comedies of the 1930s. William Russell stars as a handsome, no-nonsense plumber who strikes up a friendship with wealthy Daniel Sullivan (William Welsh). About to retreat to a health resort, Sullivan leaves the plumber in charge of his contentious family. Not only does our hero manage to straighten out Sullivan's spendthrift wife (Aggie Herring) and wastrel son Charley (Richard Walling) but he also wins the love of Sullivan's footloose-and-fancy-free daughter (Virginia Lee Corbin). Head of the Family was one of the more likeable efforts to emerge from the poverty-row Gotham Company. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

One of many silent-movie satires of the "beauty salon" craze, Slaves of Beauty gets under way when chemist Leonard Jones (Holmes Herbert) invents a miraculous new facial clay. Whoever applies this clay to his or her face will emerge looking at least twenty years younger. Jones tests his formula on his unattractive wife Anastasia (Olive Tell), who upon being "rejuvenated" becomes a ravishing beauty. She leaves Jones in favor of handsome cosmetician Paul Perry (Earl Foxe) and opens her own beauty shop. In retaliation, Jones opens a rival shop, ruins his wife's business, and gives her erstwhile lover a sock in the eye -- whereupon the repentant Anastasia returns to her husband! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The venerable David Belasco stage piece The Return of Peter Grimm was first brought to the screen in 1926, with Alec B. Francis in the title role. In life a selfish, mean-spirited old man, Peter Grimm returns from the grave to right the wrongs he committed while on Earth. The spectral Grimm pays a visit to his nasty nephew Frederick (John Roche), the husband of Grimm's ward Catherine (Janet Gaynor), who had been forced into the marriage. Literally entering Frederick's conscience, Grimm transforms his covetous, philandering nephew into a "good guy." After several similar episodes, both comic and dramatic, Return of Peter Grimm comes to a tear-stained finale as the tubercular young William (Mickey McBan) joins his grandfather Grimm in the hereafter. The double-exposure work was faultless, with Alec B. Francis seeming to glow and radiate as he ministers to the living. Return of Peter Grimm was ploddingly remade in 1935 with Lionel Barrymore as star. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

That question mark in the film's title should provide a good clue as to the tenor of the storyline. Married to British nobleman Marcus Heriot (Walter McGrail), Canadian-born Wanda Heriot (Alma Rubens) nonetheless strays from her nest to romance her true love Paul (Walter Pidgeon). Too much the gentleman to stand in his wife's way, Marcus agrees to annul their marriage. But when Wanda finds out that she's pregnant, she dutifully returns to Marcus so that her child will be born legitimate in the eyes of the law. The fact that Marcus is about to march off to WWI leaves the audience wondering how long it will be before Wanda is reunited with Paul -- though the film ends before this question can be answered. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide