Lloyd Whitlock Movies
The quintessential silent screen villain, tall (6'1"), mustachioed Lloyd Whitlock is perhaps best remembered as one of the kidnappers in Mary Pickford's Sparrows (1926) and for playing innumerable blackguards in B-Westerns and serials of the 1930s and 1940s. Trained as a civil engineer, Whitlock toured with several stock companies prior to making his screen debut with New York's Biograph company in the very early 1910s. By the mid-1910s, he had become a featured actor for Kleine, Kalem, and Universal and was already more often than not cast as lecherous blackmailers, crooked lawyers, medical hacks, and the like. He made the transition to sound with ease but quickly began showing up in Poverty Row productions and is memorable as the airline manager in the John Wayne serial Hurricane Express (1932) and as the boss villain in four of Wayne's Lone Star Westerns for Monogram. Although his roles greatly diminished in importance from the mid-'30s on, Whitlock remained a busy supporting actor through the 1940s. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide- 1921
Sidney Franklin, formerly the principal director of the "Fox Kidlettes" series, works with grownups in the silent Courage. Sam DeGrasse plays a brooding Scotsman who spends 18 years in prison on a trumped-up murder charge. Only his wife Naomi Childers believes in DeGrasse's innocence. She nobly awaits her husband's return, ever seeking out the opportunity of exonerating him. Northern California proves an excellent substitute for the crags of Scotland in Courage, which was based on a short story by Andrew Soutar. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Naomi Childers, Sam de Grasse, (more)
- 1921
Star Thomas Meighan reportedly picked out the story himself, and the role of Billy Kane is a good one for him. Kane is a crook who burglarizes wealthy people's homes, but when his uncle leaves him a million dollars, he decides to reform. He goes to Europe, and on the liner he meets Dorothea Welter (Grace Darmond), the daughter of a millionaire whose home he once robbed. In Paris, the Welters, not knowing of their friend's past, allow him to take Dorothea out dancing. She meets Marechal, a French crook (Lloyd Whitlock), while Kane flirts with dancer Andree Duphot (Jacqueline Logan). Chicoq, a member of the French underworld (the always villainous Walter Long), wants Andree for himself and he and Kane get into a fight. Chicoq kidnaps Andree and takes her off to the country. Meanwhile, Dorothea marries Marechal, but he takes off when he discovers that Mr. Welter (Fred Vroom) will not support them. Dorothea is able to tell Kane where Chicoq is keeping Andree, and he goes to her rescue. He shoots up the farmhouse where the gang is staying, killing Chicoq and Marechal. The newly widowed Dorothea is free from her unfortunate marriage, and Kane weds Andree. Although the vaguely racist title to this comedy-drama sounds a bit jarring to modern-day ears, it was a common saying back in the 1920s. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Thomas Meighan, Jacqueline Logan, (more)
- 1917
This drama was adapted from a story that Maud Pettus wrote for All Story magazine. Nancy Glenn (Ruth Stonehouse), better known as "the Spider," dresses up in boy's clothes and steals women's purses for Pop Hoagland (M. W. Testa), a fence. She only escapes arrest by detective Spike O'Neill (Harry Dunkinson) because wealthy Ralph Harding (Lloyd Whitlock) and his friend Stella Farnsworth (Betty Schade) beg him to let her go. Not long after that, Nancy, while dressed in girl's clothes, is hit by a car and carried into the Harding home. She recognizes Ralph but doesn't reveal her identity. His mother (Lydia Yeamans Titus) becomes fond of the girl and accepts her as family. But things get complicated when Pliny Drew (J. Webster Dill), one of Nancy's old associates, swindles Ralph in a mining scheme and Nancy tries to intervene. O'Neill, meanwhile, is investigating the theft of some jewelry stolen from the Harding home and suspects Nancy. The butler turns out to be the thief, and Ralph gives Drew a sound thrashing. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- 1917
After ten years in China, Monty Gray (Franklyn Farnum) meets up with old friend Wilbur Mason. He sees a photo of Wilbur's cousin, Constance (Agnes Vernon) and immediately falls in love with the girl. Wilbur warns him that Constance's mother is determined that she will marry someone of title, but this doesn't stop Monty. He becomes "Lord Winston Radleigh" so he can woo her. At a house party thrown by Constance's family, Monty finds he has competition in a man called the Duke of Cannister. But Constance -- who isn't as title-mad as her mother -- is not interested in the Duke, or in Monty's fake title. She is interested in Monty himself, however, and sets up a situation to test his mettle -- she has a group of cowboys from her father's ranch kidnap her. Monty rises to the occasion and comes to her rescue. He has beaten up most of the cowboys when Constance tells him it was a set up. She decides that Monty is the man for her, which is just as well because it turns out that the Duke was a phony and a con man. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
