Dorothy Walters Movies

As a whimsical adaption of James M. Barrie's stage version of the Cinderella story, this film was not immediately appreciated for the magic created by its cinematography. It has become a classic masterpiece, in the genre of similar films like Peter Pan. The story begins with a very young woman (Betty Bronson) and a ray of light that violates the blackout during a WW I air raid in London. A policeman (Tom Moore) investigates the light, and is beguiled by the young woman and her vivid imagination. In a splendid dream sequence that begins as the woman falls asleep in the snow, this little house maid undergoes a stunning transformation. First she leaves her scullery self behind as she waits for her Fairy Godmother, and then she becomes a glorious Cinderella. She joins the ball of her dreams, where she finds people from her regular life mixed in with the imaginary dancers at the ball. The London bobby's enchantment grows as the story reaches its charming end. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

This colorful drama of the Bowery of the 1890s was directed by Herbert Brenon. Diamond Mike (Riley Hatch) runs a Bowery saloon where, in a back room, men disguise themselves as cripples so they can beg for money. Their leader is Easy Money Charlie (Percy Marmont), who pretends to have only one arm. His enemy is a pseudo blind man, Bridgeport White-Eye (John Harrington). When street woman Portland Fancy (Juliet Brenon) dies, she convinces Charlie to take care of her four-year-old daughter. Charlie takes surprisingly good care of the girl, Mary, making sure she is raised properly and receives a good education. When she grows up (to be played by Mary Brian), a young lawyer, Philip Peyton (Neil Hamilton), falls in love with her. Mary, however, is in love with Charlie, who she believes to be a successful businessman. Charlie realizes that he's nothing but a sham and a scammer, so he confesses the truth about his line of work to Peyton and disappears. After he is reported drowned, Peyton and Mary become engaged. White-Eye sees a chance to blackmail the young couple, but Charlie reappears and really blinds his adversary in a fight. The last we see of Charlie, he is in his beggar's rags, watching Mary's wedding from outside the church. Although she does not receive billing, this was the screen debut of Louise Brooks, who played a gun moll. ~ Janiss Garza, Rovi

Charles E. Blaney was a well-known name when it came to melodramas, and this one was brought to the screen with all the excitement intact -- the heroine's even imperiled by that classic melodramatic device, the revolving saw! The scene, logically, is the New York lumber mills, and Frederick Van Clayton (Gardner James) has robbed his employers of their money. To save him from prison, his sister Amy (Doris Kenyon) marries his boss, Jim Blazes (Victor Sutherland). When Jim comes to the realization that Amy doesn't love him, he returns to the lumber camps. But there is far more evil afoot than anyone realizes and Amy is kidnapped. Working overtime to save his wife, Blazes winds up in a furious gun battle. After rescuing Amy from her captors, she comes to the realization that she loves the heroic man she has married after all. ~ Janiss Garza, Rovi

Actress Hope Hampton and her producer, Jules Brulatour, were sort of a low-rent Marion Davies and William Randolph Hearst -- Brulatour spent loads of money trying to make the woman he loved a star. Unfortunately, Hampton did not have Davies' talent, but she's pretty good in this picture. Brulatour pulled out all the stops financially and even used a type of color film that existed at the time for the picture's historical sequences. In addition, Hampton is supported by a fine cast, including E.K. Lincoln and -- of all people -- Lon Chaney (why he agreed to appear under Miss Hampton is mystifying). Hampton plays Bessie MacGregor, a hat check girl who is run over by a society matron. The matron winds up hiring Bessie as a companion and her womanizing brother, J. Warburton Ashe (Lincoln), toys with her affections. She leaves the matron's care and moves into a boarding house where she meets sometime thief Tony Pantelli (Chaney). Bessie falls ill and Ashe, while hunting in England, finds the Holy Grail (here's where the color Medieval sequences come in). The cup supposedly can heal all ills, so when Ashe brings it back to the States, Pantelli steals it and gives it to Bessie. She is cured, and eventually Ashe returns to her -- this time sincere in his affections. Incidentally, one major difference between Brulatour and Hearst is that Brulatour was single, and Hampton ultimately gave up her acting career and married him. ~ Janiss Garza, Rovi

Legendary producer-director F. Richard Jones, whose expertise kept the Mack Sennett and Hal Roach comedy factories afloat during the 1920s, helmed the 1920 comedy Flying Pat. The ever-delightful Dorothy Gish stars as a newlywed who, after several months in Paris, considers herself a modern sophisticate. Accordingly, the new wife and her husband (James Rennie) disdain bourgeois normality: in fact, the woman is possessed by the radical notion that the wife should be the breadwinner in the household! Her poor husband isn't prepared for her choice of profession: undergoing a hilariously grueling training program, she becomes a daring aviator (and this was before the emergence of Amelia Erhardt). In the film's funniest moment, the plucky wife is strapped into a cockpit chair, rotated several times and turned upside down. According to Dorothy's sister Lillian Gish, that look of confusion and nausea on Our Heroine's countenance was not acting. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Constance Talmadge's partners-in-comedy -- the writing team of Anita Loos and John Emerson -- were sorely missed in this anemic picture. Mary Wayne (Talmadge) can't get a job because she lacks references. But she finally lands a position when her friend Nell Norcross (the amusingly-named Mona Liza) is too sick to take the social secretary position she has won. Mary goes in her place and discovers that Nell was hired by Caroline Marshall (Nellie P. Spaulding) to introduce her nephew Bill (Vincent Coleman) into society. The problem is Bill doesn't want to have anything to do with society -- he prefers prize fights and card games. It's already a given that Mary and Bill will end the film as a couple, but before that can happen, the aunt takes them, and a pal of Bill's, on a cruise. Bill catches his friend and Mary swimming together and leaves them behind. Mary decides to quit her job and go back to her boarding house, and it isn't long before Bill follows after her. ~ Janiss Garza, Rovi

Little Miss Hoover is not the story of a female vacuum cleaner salesperson. The title is a reference to Herbert Hoover, who in the years following World War I was instrumental in teaching advanced agricultural skills to American farmers. Leading lady Marguerite Clark (who, though on the cold side of thirty, could still pass as a "Little Miss") plays a girl who is caught up in America's accelerated farm program. Breaking up the propaganda from time to time is Clark's romance with Army major Eugene O'Brien. Originally titled The Golden Bird, Little Miss Hoover was adapted from a novel by Maria Thompson Daviess. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi