Herbert Brenon Movies

Filmed in England, Flying Squad was the final effort of veteran silent-film director Herbert (Peter Pan) Brenon. The script was based on a popular play by suspense specialist Edgar Wallace, adapted by the late Wallace's son. Carol Goodner stars as the sister of a young man who was murdered by drug smugglers. Carol joins the gang, hoping to bring the criminals to justice. She learns that her brother was knocked off by a crooked cop, who is in deep with the gang and can't escape their clutches. Someone falls in love with someone else in The Flying Squad, and we'll wager you can guess who it is. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this comedy, an aged spinster leaves her communist nephew $20,000. Before she died, he and she constantly argued about her decadent capitalistic ways, but now that he has her fortune, he begins singing a different tune. At first he decides to give his nation's unemployed an equal share of the fortune, but when he realizes that they will only get a penny a piece he begins to question the wisdom of such actions. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this British comedy, a Yankee con artist hides out in England. Trouble ensues when he follows a pretty girl into a office building and encounters the company president just before he commits suicide. He then learns that the distraught executive has been involved in embezzling scheme. The con man then talks the frazzled fellow into taking a six-month leave and allowing him to run the company. He then begins fixing the books to the company is saved. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Adapted from a long-running play by Reginald Simpson and Frank Gregory, Living Dangerously stars Otto Kruger as Dr. Norton. Though a pillar of virtue and a highly respected member of the community, Norton has a few unfortunate skeletons in his closet and these are exploited by his blackmailing ex-partner Dr. Pryor (Francis Lister). Unable to persuade Pryor to leave him alone, Norton is left with no alternative but to kill the man. Since audience sympathy is firmly in Norton's corner, one half hopes that he'll get away with his entirely justifiable crime ---and for a while, it looks like he will! Living Dangerously was one of the last directorial efforts by former spectacle specialist Herbert Brenon. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The son must pay for the crimes of the father when art-dealer Samson frames the son of the man who ruined his career. Samson sets the boy up to take the blame for the theft of $2,500--taken from Samson's gallery safe. Doubly unfortunate for Samson, the son has an alibi in Samson's wife, who is having an affair with the boy. ~ All Movie Guide

Dolores Del Rio plays Dolores in Girl of the Rio -- which, one supposes, makes perfect sense. The heroine is a cabaret dancer who attracts the eye of her boss, slick gambler Don Jose (Leo Carrillo). When Dolores falls for handsome gringo Johnny Powell (Norman Foster), Don Jose pulls a few strings to have the boy carted off to a faraway prison. Using a few tricks of her own, Dolores manages to secure Johnny's release, whereupon Don Jose, his back to the wall, "gracefully" bows out of her life. Adapted from the old Willard Mack play The Dove (previously filmed under that title in 1928), Girl of the Rio was remade in 1939 as The Girl and the Gambler, with Leo Carrillo reprising his role from the 1932 film. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this drama, a bored wife amuses herself with a lover from Spain. Later she writes a letter to her spouse explaining her actions. As she posts the letter, she learn that her lover is also involved with a peasant girl. Later the girl's irate father shoots the Spaniard and the wife decides to mend her ways. First she needs to stop that letter, unfortunately she finds herself being blackmailed. Mayhem ensues until at last she confesses all to her husband. Fortunately he forgives her and all is well. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Based on a 1923 novel by Fannie Hurst, this dreary and primitive early talkie was unleashed on a derisive audience in January of 1930. Winifred Westover played the title-role, a downtrodden Swedish kitchen slavey seduced by the son (Ben Lyon) of her wealthy employer (Ida Darling). When she discovers that the boy is engaged to a society belle, she leaves the household, carefully hiding her pregnancy. Giving the baby up for adoption to a rich family, "Lummox," a la Madame X, can only watch from the sides as her son (Robert Ullman then William Bakewell) grows up in luxury to become a famous concert pianist. Directed by one of the grand old men of the silent era, Herbert Brenon, Lummox was stagebound to the point of ridiculousness with actors speaking their lines carefully into mikes hidden in vases and other such places. The film was also a case of nepotism: Not even a near-star, Winifred Westover was the wife of William S. Hart, the former Western ace rumored to have a financial interest in the producing company, United Artists. Formerly a leading lady of silent Westerns, Westover was singularly incapable of carrying a full-fledged talking picture. The film, her first in nine years, also proved her last. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Fifteen-year-old Loretta Young is 45-year-old Lon Chaney's winsome leading lady in Laugh, Clown, Laugh. Based on the war-horse stage piece by David Belasco and Tom Cushing, the film casts Chaney as (what else?) an aging circus clown, who adopts an orphaned girl and falls in love with her when she grows up. Alas-and not surprisingly-the girl loves another, prompting Chaney to perform a suicidal circus stunt, freeing her to marry the man she truly cares about (Nils Asther). Chaney had been here before, having played a similar role opposite Norma Shearer in 1924's He Who Gets Slapped. Though widely touted as Loretta Young's film debut, she had actually made earlier appearances with her sisters as a child extra. A silent film, Laugh Clown Laugh was released with a musical sound track, which highlighted the hit title song. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Telephone operator Kitty O'Brien (Madge Bellamy) can't help but get involved in the problems of her customers. Right now she is concerning herself with the well-being of Tom Blake (Lawrence Gray), the honest son of crooked political boss Jim Blake (Holbrook Blinn). Through her intervention, Kitty clears the sullied name of Blake's political opponent Matthew Standish (Warner Baxter). Grateful that his father has been saved from himself, Tom marries Kitty in the finale. Telephone Girl was directed by Herbert Brenon, a former specialist in expensive epics who did some of his best work in quiet, unassuming films such as this one. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

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, All Movie Guide