Leo White Movies

The "Ladybirds" are a gang of crooks who prey upon the rich and famous. At present, the Ladybirds are at large in New Orleans during Mardi Gras. Heroine Diane Whitman (Betty Compson) finds herself inextricably involved in the gang's criminal activities, and for a while it looks as though she's going to end up six feet under. Instead, Diane anticipates The Avengers' Emma Peel by besting the gang's leader with a fantastic display of ju-jitsu! Former Mack Sennett comedian Hank Mann plays a comparatively straight role in this colorful thriller. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Louis J. Gasnier, whose directorial technique hadn't progressed much since his 1914 effort The Perils of Pauline, did rather better than expected in 1927's Beauty Shoppers. Young Peggy Raymond (Doris Hill) aspires to become a model, while art-gallery proprietor Maddox (Ward Crane) aspires to get his mitts on Peggy. When our heroine turns him down, Maddox frames Peggy for the theft of a painting. She is saved from prison through the efforts of handsome artist Dick Merwin (Thomas Haines). Mae Busch has all the best scenes as Peggy's gold-digging roommate who ends up with a rich husband and a passel of headaches. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This romance featured respected old-timers (Pauline Frederick in a starring role and Leah Baird as screenwriter) and a fresh up-and-comer (pretty WAMPAS baby star Marion Nixon). Jean Valyon (Richard Tucker) is sent to Devil's Island to serve a life sentence. After several years, he is allowed to marry his sweetheart, Jeanette Picto (Frederick). They have a son, Leon, who studies to be a surgeon. The couple hopes that Leon (played as an adult by George Lewis) will be able to escape to France, but Valyon dies before the young man finishes his studies. Leon falls in love with fellow prisoner Rose Marie (Nixon), and because he successfully performs a brain operation on a deranged convict, he wins a pardon for both himself and his mother. He is unable to see Rose Marie before he leaves, so he asks the Commandant (Harry Northrup) to give her a message. Instead of handing her the message, however, the Commandant tries to have his way with the girl. In Paris, Jeanette and Leon obtain a pardon for Rose Marie. The news is wired to Devil's Island just in time to save her from killing herself rather than submit to the Commandant's pressure. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Husband Huntley Gordon has convinced himself that he's the head of the household, but the viewer knows full well that wifey Mae Busch is the true power behind the throne. When the couple has a baby, Gordon soon realizes who's boss as his wife runs the house like an armed camp, ordering her husband to stick to the baby doctor's strict feeding, clothing, and burping regimen. Rebelling against the tyranny of Busch and her squalling tot, Gordon seeks solace elsewhere, only to get mixed up with a sharp safecracker (Ian Keith). In the end, the couple learns how to raise their baby without raising the roof. Audiences laughed immoderately at this minor domestic farce, and the critics were likewise amused. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The advertising tag "four years in the making" is usually so much press-agent puffery. In the case of the 1926 silent version of Ben Hur, it was the unvarnished truth--and the filmmakers had the scars to prove it. The story behind the film is now part of Hollywood folklore: the cast and production crew changes (star George Walsh summarily dumped in favor of Roman Novarro, director Charles J. Brabin replaced by Fred Niblo, writer-supervisor June Mathis-who'd spearheaded the project in the first place-abruptly fired); the hundreds of thousands of dollars spent on the troublesome location shooting in Italy--money that was lost when most of the footage proved unusable; the extra expenditure of refilming in Hollywood; and the huge chunk of the film's profits eaten up by the 50% royalty deal set up with theatrical producers Klaw and Erlanger, who controlled the rights to General Lew Wallace's novel. The end result reflected the turbulent production conditions: Ben Hur is an extraordinarily uneven experience, with moments of cinematic brilliance and pulse-pounding thrills alternating with long stretches of stagey boredom. The film follows the original Wallace story to the letter: Judah Ben-Hur (Novarro), a wealthy Jew living under the reign of the Caesars, is betrayed by his best friend, ambitious Roman centurion Messala (Francis X. Bushman). Ben-Hur's family is sent to prison, while he himself is condemned to the galleys. During a violent sea battle, Ben-Hur saves the life of galleon commander Quintus Arrius (Frank Currier). The grateful commander adopts Ben-Hur as his son and bankrolls his desire to become a champion charioteer. Thirsting for revenge, Ben-Hur agrees to race against his old nemesis Messala. The latter is fatally injured during the race; with his dying breath, Messala reveals that Ben-Hur's family, previously reported dead, are actually alive--but living as lepers. The story is subtitled A Tale of the Christ because, at various junctures in his life, Ben-Hur has been touched by the hand of Jesus. Ben-Hur must totally embrace Christ's edict of love and forgiveness before he can be reunited with his family. As Jesus is crucified in Jerusalem, Ben-Hur's mother (Claire McDowell) and sister (Kathleen Key), having also embraced the Christian philosophy, are miraculously cured of their leprosy. Most of these plot elements, together with the romance between Ben-Hur and the lovely Esther (May McAvoy), reappeared in the 1959 remake of Ben-Hur--which, fortunately, did not include the ridiculous subplot involving the alluring Iras (Carmel Myers), who attempts to seduce Ben-Hur just before the big race. The film's highlights--the sea battle, the now-legendary chariot race--were produced on a far grander scale than in the 1959 version; unfortunately, both highlights took place in the first half of the picture, leaving the viewers with a rather dreary, drawn out denouement (the remake wisely placed the sea battle in part one, and the race in part two). The Technicolor Nativity sequences were condemned in 1926 as being in poor taste, but when seen today are beautifully handled and restful on the eye (oddly, no one complained about the nude female revellers during a later Technicolor pageant scene!) Ben Hur cost $4 million and grossed $9 million on its first release. The aforementioned royalty arrangement left MGM with only a $1 million take. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Dorothy Revier plays a woman who decides that all men are scum when her sister dies giving birth to an illegitimate child. Heading to New York, she becomes a Texas Guinan-style nightclub attraction, regarding and treating all males as "suckers." She is reformed, so to speak, by an altruistic young doctor (Cullen Landis). We last see the heroine in charge of a home for wayward girls, with the doctor lovingly at her side. An early effort from fledgling Columbia Pictures. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Pert comedienne Constance Talmadge is virtually the whole show in Goldfish. A newly married husband (Jack Mulhall) and wife (Talmadge) make a curious agreement: should either party want to terminate the relationship, that party will present the other one with a bowl of goldfish (there has to be some justification for the film's title, hasn't there?) One bowl and two husbands later, the wife is at the pinnacle of social respectability, while her songwriter ex-husband is still struggling away in poverty. Eventually, her first husband achieves success, whereupon the woman presents her latest fiance with a bowl full of fish and returns to hubby number one. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

After she inherits a fortune, Ann Clemance (Viola Dana) travels to Paris to indulge herself in frivolity. She meets up with an old friend, writer Adrian Torrens (Warner Baxter), who disparages her lifestyle. Ann sees him befriend an Apache dancer and she believes he finds women in need of salvation more appealing. To spark his interest she disguises herself as an Apache (in this instance it refers to a member of the Parisian underworld, not a Native American), and robs his house. Although Torrens sees through her disguise, he doesn't let on. He just takes her through the slums of Paris to show her the misery and suffering of those less fortunate than her. The experience transforms her and she winds up adopting an orphan. Her change in attitude also wins Torrens' Heart. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Harold Lloyd plays a millionaire who suffers from imaginary illness in this memorable comedy. With the help of a beautiful nurse (Jobyna Ralston) and valet Mr. Phipps (Wallace Howe), he travels to South America to regain his health. Harold arrives during a political uprising and believes the rival factions are putting on a show for his benefit. He soon lands in jail with the giant Colosso (John Aasen), who is suffering from a toothache. Harold helps the behemoth remove the afflicted molar and the two become fast friends. Colosso and Harold escape confinement and manage to defeat both revolutionary groups in hilarious slapstick fashion. A search for the nurse reveals she has been kidnapped by the villainous Jim Blake (James Mason). Harold overcomes his hypochondria when he saves the nurse from her captor. The giant, the millionaire, and the nurse return to Los Angeles where Harold gets his large friend a job as a traffic cop and marries the girl. The comic contrast between Lloyd and Aasen is striking in this Hal Roach production, the last in which the talented comic would appear. He would soon form his own production company and continue to provide millions with his memorable comedy films. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

Originally released on July 1, 1923, the silent, two-reel Dogs of War may well have been the most schizophrenic entry in the entire Our Gang series. The film begins with an elaborate sandlot recreation of a battlefield, with the Our Gang kids staging an elaborate mock war, complete with such "artillery" as rotten eggs and overripe vegetables, and with makeshift tanks and cannons adding to the imaginary carnage. Suddenly an armistice is declared when "Red Cross Nurse" Mary Kornman is called away to the local movie studio to appear in an epic titled Should Husbands Work? for a magnificent five dollars a day. Recognizing a good thing when they see it, the rest of the kids head to the studio (actually the Hal Roach lot) and offer their services as actors. Ordered to get out and stay out, the youngsters devise a clever method to gain access to the studio where, in addition to wreaking their usual havoc, they produce a one-reel "masterpiece" that more closely resembles an Andy Warhol experimental picture of the 1960s. Watch for comedy great Harold Lloyd in an amusing cameo -- which also serves as a plug for Lloyd's latest release, Why Worry?. One TV version of Dogs of War, retitled Hollywood USA, jettisons the "war" sequence entirely, with little damage to the film's continuity. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In spite of an original beginning, this Hoot Gibson picture quickly gets down to the usual Western business, with the hero at odds with a crooked ranch foreman. Gibson's co-star here is Louise Lorraine, whose stunt skills rivaled that of any cowboy's. After returning from World War I, Bill Perkins (Gibson) travels across country by hitching a ride in a airplane. He parachutes down near a ranch where he looks for work. All he is able to get is a job as the cook's helper. Foreman Mark Peters (Charles LeMoyne) wants to steal the ranch land, and he convinces Perkins to pose as the heir to the property. He agrees, and along the way discovers that Peters and his gang are rustlers. Through his craftiness, Perkins rounds up Peters and his men -- and then turns around and proves that he really is the heir to the ranch. He also wins the hand of pretty Ann Forrest (Lorraine). ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Based on The White Peacock Feathers by Du Vernet Rabell, this minor melodrama from the assembly line at Universal starred Miss Du Pont as Joan Coolidge, a young American girl who, after having been forced into a loveless marriage by her greedy mother (played by Elinor Hancock), flees to Paris. In the City of Lights, Joan studies dancing and in time becomes "The Rage of Paris" and the favorite subject of portrait painters. Joan's long-lost boyfriend, Gordon Talbut (Jack Perrin) recognizes her and they are reunited. She follows him to Arabia but the couple are trailed by Joan's irate brute of a husband (Ramsey Wallace). Chasing the lovers into the desert, the husband is fortuitously murdered by a crazed native, leaving Joan and Gordon able to plan their future together. A rather enigmatic actress, Miss Du Pont (née Pattie Day; aka Margaret Armstrong) is best remembered for playing the wayward American wife in Erich Von Stroheim's Foolish Wives (1922). Her leading man in The Rage of Paris, Jack Perrin, would later enjoy a long career as a second-echelon cowboy star. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide