Clarence G. Badger Movies
American director Clarence Badger was somewhat overqualified compared to his unschooled colleagues at Mack Sennett's Keystone studios; a graduate of Boston Polytech, Badger had been an artist and a newspaper reporter before walking through the Keystone gates in 1915. Nonetheless, he threw himself full-force into the Sennett maelstrom of wild slapstick and frantic farce. Badger preferred situational comedy to slapstick, however, and to that end he developed a series of romantic comedies starring newcomers Gloria Swanson and Bobby Vernon. The best of these, Teddy at the Throttle (1917), proves that the director never completely abandoned the Keystone brand of humor, but the storyline was better constructed and the characters more clearly defined than was usual for the studio. In 1917, Badger moved to Goldwyn Studios (a fact that Sam Goldwyn trumpetted in big letters in the trade papers), where he directed comedy features with such stars as Mabel Normand and Will Rogers. At Paramount in the mid 1920s, the erudite, even-tempered Badger directed Bebe Daniels, Raymond Griffith, and the up and coming Clara Bow; he also pacified pretentious British authoress Elinor Glyn to the point that he was able to talk "Madame" Glyn into making a guest appearance in Clara Bow's It (1927). Talkies posed no obstacle for Badger: He spent 1929 and 1930 helming such Warner Bros./First National films as No No Nanette and The Hot Heiress. Retiring from the Hollywood scene in 1933, Clarence Badger moved to Australia six years later, where, after directing a brace of comedy features, he retired for good. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide- 1919
When he is swindled out of a mine, Burt Radcliffe (John Bowers) winds up broke and his fiancee leaves him. He is brooding in his empty home in Philadelphia on a rainy night when a girl (Madge Kennedy) barges in on him. It turns out she is Isabel, the daughter of Haskell Carter (Herbert Standing), the man who swindled him. Isabel was supposed to have dinner at a house on Radcliffe's street and the taxi dropped her off at the wrong door. Burt takes this opportunity to call Carter and tell him that he may have the mine, but Burt has his daughter. As might be guessed, before the night is over, Isabel and Burt fall in love and dash off through the rain to get married. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- 1919
In this romantic comedy, a school teacher moves from his home in the country to a small town. He attends a party and becomes a hit when he suggests the partygoers stage a mock wedding with the loveliest girl in town. Much to his surprise, they are married by a bona fide reverend and the marriage is real. Later the town crook tries to make moves upon the beauteous bride and she begs her "husband" not to anull their union. As a result, the spurned bad guy decides to destroy the bank of the young wife's father. Lucky for her, the former school teacher has just sold his big novel. He uses his advance money to save her and then marry her for real. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1919
Susan Burbridge (Madge Kennedy) is heading West by train with her father (Alfred Hollingsworth), a mine owner, and so-called boyfriend Horace Peddingham (Walter Hiers). It's a rough trip -- first the train is held up by robbers, then because of a hot box it is stalled. While waiting to get moving again, Susan takes her dog out for a walk and the train takes off without her. She wanders around for hours until she stumbles on a shack where Jimmy Dawson (Wallace MacDonald) is stationed. Jimmy is a mining engineer who works for Susan's father, but she doesn't know this. In fact, she mistakes him for a bandit. Then the real bandits enter the shack and Jimmy suggests they hold her for ransom. He pens a ransom note -- actually coded so that the bandit carrying it will be captured -- and sends it on its way. Meanwhile Susan charms the rest of the gang into showing her rope tricks -- that way she gets them all tied up. The sheriff rescues Susan, but Jimmy disappears. Later she finds him in the city, dressed up and behaving much more like a gentleman. This was not a great film for Madge Kennedy -- it was loaded with bad continuity and unconvincing humor. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- 1918
Although Dorothy Dean (Madge Kennedy) doesn't believe in marriage and has no desire to settle down, she must find a husband if she wants to collect a large inheritance. She picks Don Morton (Rockcliffe Fellowes), who works as a law clerk for Judge Roan (comedian George Bunny), the family advisor. Even though he is paid off for this "marriage of convenience," Don falls in love with Dorothy and wants them to be a real couple. Dorothy will have none of it, though, even after he kidnaps her and takes her to a deserted island. Don gives up and leaves just as a group of crooks land. Dorothy thinks that they have been sent by Don and haughtily tells them off. Don comes back to the island just in time to save Dorothy from these criminals, and by the time the authorities arrive to take charge of the bad guys, Dorothy has decided that she wants Don as a real husband after all. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- 1918
Madge Kennedy, arguably the most versatile actress in the Goldwyn Studios stable, went into her "romantic" mode for The Kingdom of Youth. The story begins as Ruth and Jimmy Betts (Kennedy and Tom Moore, respectively) are having an argument over Count Duval (Lee Baker). Jimmy is mad that the Count has been hovering around his wife and he leaves the house. "Just to show him," Ruth decides to have lunch on the Count's yacht and takes a rowboat to reach it. But the little craft overturns and Ruth goes under. As she is drowning, her life flashes before her. She sees her marriage to Jimmy and how it was undermined by Ella Rice (Marie deWolfe). Rice, a middle-aged woman, had designs on Jimmy and her machinations included using Duval as a decoy for Ruth. But Ruth put a halt to the woman's scheme by smudging her hotel room. Ella, thinking the place is on fire, dashed out to the lobby and ran into Jimmy, who then saw her without all her feminine trappings. This effectively squelched that romance. While Ruth is envisioning all this, Jimmy, who has followed her, is coming to her rescue, as is Count Duval. She is unconscious when she is pulled from the water, and the two men decide that whomever she sees first when she wakes up will have her. Predictably, Ruth looks up at her husband first, and things are resolved between them. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- 1918
After a disastrous fling at "heavy dramatics" in Joan of Plattsburg, Mabel Normand sagaciously returned to comedy with Venus Model. Normand plays Kitty O'Brien, a low-level employee at a bathing suit factory. Despite her capricious on-the-job behavior, Kitty is handsomely rewarded when she submits a design for "The Venus Model," the company's corporate trademark. Placed in charge of the whole factory, Kitty single-handed straightens out the company's monumental financial woes during the owner's absence (a plot development which predated the similar one in Nine to Five by nearly seven decades). She also wins the heart of Paul Braddock (Rod LaRocque), the boss' son. Not surprisingly, Venus Model afforded Mabel Normand the opportunity to display her svelte figure in a wide variety of brief beachwear. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1918
Madge Kennedy plays a burlesque actress who winds up stranded in a very small-minded small town and tries, nevertheless, to make a living there. She needs to earn the money -- she's putting her little sister (Mae McAvoy) through college. The actress runs into opposition from a moral deacon, who, it turns out, is as hypocritical as they come; it's revealed that he has quite a liking for chorus girls. In the end, a lot of people become more accepting, and both sisters marry fine, upstanding members of the community. Although the burlesque star is supposed too exceptionally ladylike in spite of her calling, Kennedy played up too much niceness and not enough badness. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- 1916
A lot of famed silent comedians -- among them Charles Chaplin, Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle and Harry Langdon -- worked for Mack Sennett before breaking out on their own and achieving superstardom. One actor who left Sennett and came back was Ford Sterling, a solid funnyman who just missed having the talent and charisma of his more high profile contemporaries. He co-directed this uneven two-reeler with Clarence Badger. A tailor (Sterling) plans an elopement with a woman (Polly Moran) whose husband (Guy Woodward) is an expert marksman. They leave a note for the husband, and their first stop is at a movie theater. In the film they are seeing, a man is killed by an irate husband, and this causes the illicit couple to have second thoughts. They return to the wife's home, but the husband arrives soon after they do, and Sterling hides in a closet. Unfortunately, the marksman decides to do some practicing, and the handiest place to put the target just happens to be the closet door, with amusing results. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- 1916
Joe Jackson plays a bumbling Gypsy who is given the task of stealing a child (Betty Marsh). As with all Keystone heroes, he bungles the job horribly, much to the chagrin of the rest of the Gypsy camp. It turns out that the squire (Lew Morrison) who has possession of the orphan is all too willing to give her up and sends her over to the Gypsies. But later, he finds out that the child is due to come into money and wants to get her back. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- 1916
This silent video features Teddy, the Great Dane who rescues Gloria Swanson from a villain. ~ All Movie Guide
