Tod Browning Movies

With this lineup -- the star was Dorothy Gish, the director was George Siegmann, who got his training under D.W. Griffith, and the screenwriter was another Griffith protégé, Tod Browning -- one would assume this picture might have something special to offer. But, in spite of Gish's lighthearted charm, it fell flat, primarily because the story was so musty. In fact, it can pretty much be guessed by its title -- there's the horse race (actually there are two), the mortgage held in balance by Atta Boy's ability to win, causing the damsel much distress, etc., etc. The film's one bright moment -and perhaps this is where the Griffith influence comes in to play -- is when the camera, instead of shooting the horse race from a static position, keeps pace with the running horses as Atta Boy comes up from behind. In the mid-1910s, something as simple as a moving camera added spice to a motion picture. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Popular Universal star Priscilla Dean teamed for the second time with director Tod Browning in 1918's Brazen Beauty (the first of their many collaborations was the profitable The Deciding Kiss) Dean plays a Montana rancher who heads to New York when she inherits her late father's millions. The snooty Manhattan socialites treat the brash, uninhibited Dean rather badly. Still, she is determined to become one of the "400"-at least until she falls in love with unpretentious Thurston Hall. The Brazen Beauty was based on The Magnificent Jacala, a French novelette by Louise Winter. The 5-reel film was one of seven pictures directed by Tod Browning in 1918. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This drama was an early starring vehicle for fledgling star (Eleanor Boardman), and it was given a haunting directoral approach by Tod Browning, who hadn't yet devoted himself completely to horror films. After the death of philanthropist Blank Hendricks (Winter Hall), Jane Maynard (Boardman) devotes her life to his institution, which helps the needy with the philosophy, "Thy neighbor as thyself." John Anstell (Wallace MacDonald), whose father, Michael (Tyrone Power Sr.), is a formidable financial force, falls in love with Jane. Michael, who does not approve of the relationship, tries to ruin the Foundation by discrediting it in the press, and when that doesn't work, he attempts to use his financial power to destroy it. The many who have been helped by the Foundation retaliate by killing John. The grieving Anstell comes to realize that Jane really is doing good work and he reforms. Jane, meanwhile, finds happiness with Tom Barnett (Raymond Griffith). ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

"I am....Drac-u-la. I bid you velcome." Thus does Bela Lugosi declare his presence in the 1931 screen version of Bram Stoker's Dracula. Director Tod Browning invests most of his mood and atmosphere in the first two reels, which were based on the original Stoker novel; the rest of the film is a more stagebound translation of the popular stage play by John Balderston and Hamilton Deane. Even so, the electric tension between the elegant Dracula and the vampire hunter Professor Van Helsing (Edward Van Sloan) works as well on the screen as it did on the stage. And it's hard to forget such moments as the lustful gleam in the eyes of Mina Harker (Helen Chandler) as she succumbs to the will of Dracula, or the omnipresent insane giggle of the fly-eating Renfield (Dwight Frye). Despite the static nature of the final scenes, Dracula is a classic among horror films, with Bela Lugosi giving the performance of a lifetime as the erudite Count (both Lugosi and co-star Frye would forever after be typecast as a result of this film, which had unfortunate consequences for both men's careers). Compare this Dracula to the simultaneously filmed Spanish-language version, which makes up for the absence of Lugosi with a stronger sense of visual dynamics in the lengthy dialogue sequences. In 1999, a special rerelease of Dracula was prepared featuring a new musical score written by Philip Glass and performed by The Kronos Quartet. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

What everybody's doing would appear to be writing film scenarios: This satiric two-reel crime story is also a send up of the motion-picture industry, which it spoofs by means of a framing story about a pair of youngsters who concoct movie stories. The kids devise a tale about a vicious crook (Tully Marshall), which then is dramatized in this short. The crook manipulates a gullible young society gentleman (Howard Gaye) and dupes him into assisting in a daring robbery by making him think he is actually rescuing a young woman (Lillian Webster) who is in trouble. 16/2rl ~ Nicole Gagne, All Movie Guide

This story centers around a love triangle between two construction workers and a girl. The film climaxes with a fight on top of a skyscraper. The story is based on a play called Rivets. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Former train robber Al Jennings wrote the story to this western adventure which, not surprisingly, opens with a train robbery. The railroad's president, John Houston (Wilfred Lucas), is on board with his daughter Marjorie (Colleen Moore) and his fiance Elinor (Beatrice Van). Marjorie is oblivious to the danger and believes the hold-up to be exciting and romantic. It becomes even more romantic when she encounters Dan Tracy (Monte Blue), the leader of the bandits. Instead of taking Marjorie's valuables, he exchanges rings with her. Later on, the young pair meets up again at a posh hotel. Houston meets the young man and mistakenly believes that he is his son. He tries to help Dan lead a straight life, but Dan is not particularly interested and the naive Marjorie plots to run away with him. They do so, just when Houston finds out that Dan is the son of his former wife and another man. So Houston has no compunction about shooting Dan dead when he finds him assaulting his daughter in a hidden bandit's shack. This was the third and final film that future flapper Colleen Moore made for Triangle, the film company that originally brought her out to Hollywood. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Sometime during the shooting of the landmark The Birth of a Nation, filmmaker D.W. Griffith probably wondered how he could top himself. In 1916, he showed how, with the awesome Intolerance. The film began humbly enough as a medium-budget feature entitled The Mother and the Law, wherein the lives of a poor but happily married couple are disrupted by the misguided interference of a "social reform" group. A series of unfortunate circumstances culminates in the husband's being sentenced to the gallows, a fate averted by a nick-of-time rescue engineered by his wife. In the wake of the protests attending the racist content of The Birth of a Nation, Griffith wanted to demonstrate the dangers of intolerance. The Mother and the Law filled the bill to some extent, but it just wasn't "big" enough to suit his purposes. Thus, using The Mother and the Law as merely the base of the film, Griffith added three more plotlines and expanded his cinematic thesis to epic proportions. The four separate stories of Intolerance are symbolically linked by Lillian Gish as the Woman Who Rocks the Cradle ("uniter of the here and hereafter"). The "Modern Story" is essentially The Mother and the Law; the "French Story" details the persecution of the Huguenots by Catherine de Medici (Josephine Crowell); the "Biblical Story" relates the last days of Jesus Christ (Howard Gaye); and the "Babylonian Story" concerns the defeat of King Belshazzar (Alfred Paget) by the hordes of Cyrus the Persian (George Siegmann).

Rather than being related chronologically, the four stories are told in parallel fashion, slowly at first, and then with increasing rapidity. The action in the film's final two reels leaps back and forth in time between Babylon, Calvary, 15th century France, and contemporary California. Described by one historian as "the only film fugue," Intolerance baffled many filmgoers of 1916 -- and, indeed, it is still an exhausting, overwhelming experience, even for audiences accustomed to the split-second cutting and multilayered montage sequences popularized by Sergei Eisenstein, Orson Welles, Jean-Luc Godard, Joel Schumacher, and MTV. On a pure entertainment level, the Babylonian sequences are the most effective, played out against one of the largest, most elaborate exterior sets ever built for a single film. The most memorable character in this sequence is "The Mountain Girl," played by star on the rise Constance Talmadge; when the Babylonian scenes were re-released as a separate feature in 1919, Talmadge's tragic death scene was altered to accommodate a happily-ever-after denouement. Other superb performances are delivered by Mae Marsh and Robert Harron in the Modern Story, and by Eugene Pallette and Margery Wilson in the French Story. Remarkably sophisticated in some scenes, appallingly naïve in others, Intolerance is a mixed bag dramatically, but one cannot deny that it is also a work of cinematic genius. The film did poorly upon its first release, not so much because its continuity was difficult to follow as because it preached a gospel of tolerance and pacifism to a nation preparing to enter World War I. Currently available prints of Intolerance run anywhere from 178 to 208 minutes; while it may be rough sledding at times, it remains essential viewing for any serious student of film technique. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Filmed on location at Saranac Lake and the St. Lawrence River in New York State, The Jury of Fate starred Mabel Taliaferro in the dual role of the Labordie twins, Jeanne (a girl) and Jacques (a boy). Jeanne grows up resigned to the fact that Jacques is her father's favorite child. Thus, when Jacques accidentally drowns, Jeanne cuts her hair short and assumes her brother's identity. While this rash act prevents Jeanne's father from suffering a fatal heart attack, it throws the girl's boyfriend Donald (William Sherwood) into despair; after all, if "Jacques" is still alive, then Jeanne would have to be the drowned twin. The hero and heroine are not reunited until the very end of the picture, by which time Jeanne has become the unwitting cause of the deaths of two men -- who, fortunately for the purposes of the plot, are the villains of the piece. The Jury of Fate contained many of the bizarre, surrealistic elements that would soon become de rigueur in the films of director Tod Browning. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Railroad worker Beppo Puccini (Charles West) seeks to please his young daughter Marie by proposing to Bianca Pastorell (Signe Auen), whom the child adores. Bianca however misunderstands and assumes Puccini is joking with her. The crushed Puccini observes his foreman, Sam Coggini (Tom Wilson), in a close conversation with Bianca, and leaps to the conclusion that he is a rival for her affection. Puccini then attempts to murder Coggini by planting a bomb outside Bianca's house. But when he discovers that Coggini is actually her brother, he ends his lethal plot and is able to win the hand of Bianca, who at last becomes a mother to little Marie. Note actress Signe Auen, who soon thereafter changed her name to Seena Owen; after a noteworthy career acting in silents, she became a successful writer for talkies, including director Edward G. Ulmer's memorable 1947 concert fest Carnegie Hall. 15/2rl ~ Nicole Gagne, All Movie Guide

This love story is based on the ancient Greek myth of Orpheus, the singer who regained his wife Eurydice from the land of the dead but lost her for good when he gazed back at her before she'd left the underworld. In this version, Orpheus is still a musician and a Greek: a flute-player (and steelworker) named Philip (Wilfred Lucas); his Eurydice is the French waitress Toinette (Carmel Myers). However, unlike the Greek original -- or the two celebrated 1950s renditions, Jean Cocteau's Orpheus and Marcel Camus' Black Orpheus -- this time the lovers overcome their separation and are happily reunited. Note the co-directing credit given actor Wilfred Lucas: Film historians today believe the citation reflects a contractual obligation rather than Lucas's actual role in making the film. Note also supporting actress Alice Rae who also performed as Alice Wilson (her real name, after her first marriage): In 1917 she married director Tod Browning; they stayed together until her death in 1944. ~ Nicole Gagne, All Movie Guide

Mark of the Vampire is Tod Browning's remake of his own 1927 thriller London After Midnight, which unfortunately no longer exists. The sudden appearance of ghostly vampires in a remote mittel-European community is seemingly tied in with an old, unsolved murder case. Police inspector Neumann (Lionel Atwill) and occult expert Prof. Zelen (Lionel Barrymore) investigate, with the full cooperation of leading citizen Baron Otto (Jean Hersholt). For awhile, it looks as though the vampires -- Count Mora (Bela Lugosi) and his chalky-faced daughter Luna (Carroll Borland) -- will continue to hold the community in thrall, but the truth behind their mysterious activities is revealed midway through the film, whereupon the story concentrates on identifying the well-concealed murderer. In the original London After Midnight, Lon Chaney played both Count Mora and Prof. Zelen, which should provide a clue as to the film's incredible outcome. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide