Olive Borden Movies

In this drama, set within an urban hotel, a nightclub dancer witnesses a gangland killing and must flee for her life. She escapes to the Hotel Variety, a home for aspiring performers, and there meets a young dancer and his young son. Naturally the two fall in love. Unfortunately, the hitman has located her and has begun to search the hotel halls. Just as it looks like it's curtains for the woman, the clumsy killer falls from a hotel fire escape and dies. Later a friendly investor hires them all to be in his newest film. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this romance, two sisters fall in love with the same man. He in turn, falls for and marries the most sophisticated of the two. This sister is a gad-fly and social climber whereas her sibling is more earthy. Though she is the more glamorous girl, the husband soon tires of her and begins to fall in love with the other sister. Eventually they end up happily married. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Produced and supervised by legendary silent-film director James Cruze, Hello Sister stars Olive Borden as pert heiress Vee Newell. According to the conditions of her grandfather's will, fun-loving Vee will come into her legacy only if she promises to attend church regularly for six months -- and if she avoids going out on the town for a good time during the same period. At first resistant to cooling her heels, Vee changes her mind when she falls in love with handsome deacon Marshall Jones (Lloyd Hughes). But her ardor isn't reciprocated, since Jones despises wealthy people. Things turn out for the best when Jones discovers that the will was a fake and Vee hasn't a dime to her name. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This loosely-constructed romantic melodrama stars Olive Borden as society girl Judy Paige, who defies her parents by eloping with Dick (Morgan Farley), a handsome young architect. To the rest of the world, it appears as though Judy and Dick are living together without benefit of clergy, and soon the two young lovers find themselves ostracized by their friends and loved ones. Only after the suicide of Judy's jilted suitor (Anderson Lawler) does the truth come out: Judy and Dick have been secretly married all along. A hodgepodge of illogical scripting and poorly developed characterizations, Half-Marriage holds some interest to modern-day viewers by virtue of two of its supporting players: vaudeville monologist and "home-movie" buff Ken Murray, and future gossip columnist Hedda Hopper. Also worth noting are the film's two songs, both co-written by Oscar Levant. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

An early sound film for flapper star Olive Borden, this low-budget effort from FBO featured the erstwhile "Joy Girl" as Zarah, "a beautiful Arabian" saving irrigation engineer Bob Winslow (Hugh Trevor) from being abducted by bandit leader Abdullah (Noah Beery). The latter naturally takes umbrage to this and threatens a massacre if Zarah does not return as his bride. The plucky girl does return but is rescued in the nick of time by Bob, who kills Abdullah in a climactic fistfight. A 1925 Wampas baby Star, brunette Olive Borden became one of the many victims of the sound revolution and ended her life on Los Angeles' Skid Row. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Virtuous Ann Hardy (Olive Borden) manages to land a job running the roulette wheel in a busy gambling emporium. Soon, however, Ann quits when she finds out the house -- and the wheel -- are crooked. Gambling boss Ted Wells (Huntley Gordon), impressed by Ann's integrity, falls in love with her, much to chagrin of Wells' ex-mistress Yvonne (Seena Owen). Seeking revenge, Yvonne arranges for Ann to pay a visit to the apartment of rapacious lothario Silk Oliver (Ernest Hilliard). When Silk attempts to rape the girl, she shoots him in self-defense, winning a courtroom acquittal by the skin of her teeth. Somewhat shaken up by all this, Ted promises to forsake gambling permanently if Ann will agree to marry him. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This Columbia potboiler top-bills Charles Delaney and Olive Borden, two of the prettiest people in the movies. Delaney plays a naïve young bucko who gets mixed up with some gangster types then can't escape their influence. He knows he shouldn't be participating in crime, but he needs a quick source of income so as to support his grey-haired mother. At the urging of heroine Borden, Delaney turns his back on his outlaw chums and goes to the police, which action nearly costs him the use of his life. The film's main attraction was the sight of leading lady Olive Borden in her customary flimsy undergarments (Too bad the film no longer exists!) ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This playful Allan Dwan effort stars Olive Borden as impulsive flapper Jewel Courage, who dumps the man she loves, a humble chauffeur (Jimmy Grainger Jr.) in favor of millionaire John Jeffrey Fleet (Neil Hamilton). Jewel soon discovers that Fleet is actually the chauffeur and her ex-beau is the millionaire; the two merely traded places for a lark. Briefly taken aback, Jewel decides to prove that she, too, can changes her spots, and before long she has become a wealthy Bodaceia of Big Business. Stills from The Joy Girl suggest that the film's principal selling angle was the stunning beauty of Olive Borden, who appeared in a variety of revealing outfits. A lengthy Technicolor sequence allowed the viewer several tantalizing glimpses of Palm Beach, Florida, vintage 1927. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The play The Monkey Talks by Rane Fauchois, which was an international sensation, became one of the silent era's more unusual dramas. Jacques Lerner, who played Fano on-stage, reprises his role. Pierre (Don Alvarado) is spurned by Maisie, a circus performer (Jane Winton). After she runs away with Bergerin, a lion tamer (Malcolm Waite), Pierre joins a traveling circus which fails, leaving its performers stranded. Several of them team up and have Fano, a diminutive acrobat (Lerner), pose as a talking monkey. Pierre pretends to be his trainer. The act becomes the sensation of Paris, but both Pierre and Fano fall in love with Olivette, the tightrope walker (Olive Borden). Maisie shows up once again, and she and Bergerin kidnap Fano, leaving a real monkey in his place. But Fano escapes and returns just in time to save Olivette from the monkey's vicious attack. Fano is mortally wounded and he dies in Olivette's arms. She and Pierre unite. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

What a shame that only two of Olive Borden's many vehicles of the 1920s appear to have survived. One of the most tantalizing of these "lost" films is Pajamas, in which Borden is cast as hoydenish young heiress Angela Wade. When the pilot of her father's private plane falls ill, Angela "mans" the controls of the plane herself. Alas, her good intentions are not matched by her flying skills, and soon our heroine crash-lands in the Canadian Rockies. While making her way back to civilization, Angela makes the acquaintance of handsome mountaineer John Weston (Lawrence Gray), who makes it his goal to "tame" the contentious but fascinating heroine. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Fig Leaves is historically important as the earliest extant film of director Howard Hawks. A partial parody of the Cecil B. DeMille historical spectacles, the film opens in the Garden of Eden, where Adam (George O'Brien) tries to read his morning paper (a stone tablet, a la The Flintstones) while Eve (Olive Borden) complains that she has nothing to wear. As Adam goes to work on the 9:15 dinosaur, Eve is led down the road to perdition by a friendly snake. Flash forward to 1926: Eve Smith (Borden again) complains that she has no decent clothes, whereupon her best friend Alice (the "snake" counterpart, played by Phyllis Haver) suggests that the heroine take a job as fashion model, thereby securing herself a free wardrobe. Catching his wife in a state of dishabille at a fancy dress shop, Adam Smith (O'Brien again) angrily declares that he never wants to see her again. Adam forgives Eve after witnessing a cat-fight between his wife and the troublesome Alice. Critics in 1926 were amused by the "prehistoric" contraptions in the opening scenes and enthralled by the film's Technicolor fashion-show sequence. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

My Own Pal takes Tom Mix out of his customary western surroundings and plunks him in the middle of New York City. Joining a travelling rodeo, Tom O'Hara (Mix) and his beloved pinto Fritz are whisked off to the Big Apple, where he takes up residence in a theatrical boardinghouse. Here he renews his acquaintance with Alice Derring (Olive Borden), whose honor he had previously defended on the eastbound train. It so happens that Alice is the daughter of a New York police chief, thus she's able to enter Tom and Fritz in an upcoming police riding tournament, leading to a job on the force as a mounted officer. In this capacity, our hero captures a fleeing jewel thief by lassoing the miscreant's motorcycle. Barely pausing for breath, Tom spends the final reel rescuing Alice from her kidnappers. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide