Mae Busch Movies
Australian-born Mae Busch was the daughter of an opera singer mother and a symphony conductor father. Her family came to the U.S. when Mae was 3 years old, and she was placed in a convent school while her parents toured the world. While still a teenager, Mae achieved stage stardom by replacing Lillian Lorraine in the musical comedy Over the River. In 1915 she became a Mack Sennett bathing beauty at the invitation of her close friend, Sennett-star Mabel Normand. Later, Mae was hired by Eric von Stroheim to play a lusty Spanish dancer in Stroheim's The Devil's Passkey. The director used her again in Foolish Wives (1922), casting Mae as the amoral--and fraudulent--Princess Vera. She was later signed by MGM, where she was billed as "the versatile vamp." Upset at the nondescript leading-lady roles she was getting, Mae walked out of her contract; this action caused producers to hesitate casting Mae in major productions. While free-lancing at second-rate studios, Mae accepted a comedy-vamp role in the Hal Roach 2-reeler Love 'Em and Weep (1927), which represented her first appearance with Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy. Though she made an impressive sound feature-film debut in Roland West's Alibi (1929), the steely-voiced Ms. Busch's stardom had passed, and for the most part her talkie assignments were bits and secondary roles. Her best opportunities in the 1930s came in the films of Laurel and Hardy, where she was often cast as a shrewish wife or sharp-tongued "lady of the evening." In the team's Oliver the Eighth (1934), she essayed her most flamboyant role as an insane widow with a penchant for marrying and murdering any man named Oliver--which happened to be the first name of the hapless Mr. Hardy. Ms. Busch went into semi-retirement in the 1940s, occasionally resurfacing in small roles in such films as Ziegfeld Girl (1946); she died of a heart attack at the age of 49. Formerly married to silent-film star Francis McDonald, Mae Busch was also the aunt of 1960s leading lady Brenda Scott. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide- 1915
Keystone Comedies is a collection of silent film shorts produced by the legendary Mack Sennett. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
- 1916
The Broadway comedy team of Joe Weber and Lew Fields were never happy with their contract at Mack Sennett's Keystone studios, but they did whatever they were told, even at great risk of life and limb. In the 2-reel comedy The Worst of Friends, Weber plays the sponging brother-in-law of hard-working janitor Fields. After making a thorough pest of himself, Weber manages to entangle Fields in a compromising situation with the beautiful blonde living next door. Somehow this all ends up with a brouhaha at a swimming pool, with the famous Keystone bathing beauties all in attendance. The best scene in this otherwise unexceptional film was Lew Fields' famous "barber's revenge" routine, which he repeated years later with Fred Astaire in The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1919
Legendary escape artist Harry Houdini stars in the offbeat adventure yarn The Grim Game. Houdini plays Harvey Hanford, a young journalist who is framed for the murder of his uncle. Since it was well-known that no jail cell or pair of handcuffs could hold Houdini, the film has to work overtime in building up suspense. The most memorable scene finds the great magician suspended by a rope between two flying airplanes. An unrehearsed plane crash during this sequence was captured on film and exploited to the hilt in Grim Game's publicity campaign. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1920
Too preoccupied with business matters to entertain his restless young wife Blanche (Lillian Kemble, Robert Probet (Frank Mills) prevails upon his best friend William Martindale (J. Frank Glendon) to take Blanche out from time to time. Martindale interprets this as an invitation to put the moves on Blanche, which he does after plying the heroine with too much champagne. The outraged Probet immediately assumes that Blanche led Martindale on and ejects her from their house. The terms of the subsequent divorce dictate that Blanche retain custody of her daughter, while Robert keeps their son. Assuming a new name, Blanche opens a restaurant, which within a few years becomes the "in" place for the high-society set. Among Blanche's customers is her grown son Robert Jr. (Harriet Spingler, who of course does not recognize his mother. Before long, young Robert and his best pal Tom Martindale (Rudolph Cameron) -- yes, the son of the man who "ruined" Blanche -- are vying for the attentions of Blanche's daughter Edith (Bliss Millford), Robert Jr. never dreaming that he is courting his own sister. When all the facts come out, Blanche is reunited with Robert Sr., Robert Jr. is satisfied to lose a girlfriend but gain a sister, and Edith is happily married to Tom. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1920
Made in between his two classics, Blind Husbands and Foolish Wives, this drama from director Erich von Stroheim centers on a restless American wife married to a rich but unsuccessful playwright who reels after his newest work is rejected. The trouble begins when she finds herself strongly attracted to a handsome army officer and begins an affair. Unfortunately, the scandal hits the paper, though no names are mentioned. Upon reading about it, the playwright is suddenly inspired and uses it to beef up his play. He has no idea that his wife is involved until opening night. The play is a smash hit thanks to his wife's philandering, but she is utterly humiliated. She gets a headache and asks her husband, who still doesn't know, to escort her home. Instead he asks her lover to do it. As the party goes on, the truth theatens to come out. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide
- 1921
Marie Prevost's star was on the ascendant when she made this simple little comedy. Liane Demarest (Prevost) is a flirtatious young girl who has been raised in Paris. Her grandmother in America sends Basil Hammond, a bookworm scientist (Tom Gallery), to the continent so he can report on Liane's doings. He falls for Liane, as has most of Paris, apparently, including a no-good count. Things come to a head when Basil proves himself to be manlier than expected by beating up the wicked count. But he still doesn't think he really has a chance with Liane, so he sets sail back to America. Then he discovers that Liane has followed him onto the ship. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- 1921
This cross between Cinderella and Peg O' My Heart stars Wanda Hawley. Penniless orphan Ruth Sheldon (Hawley) moves in with her ambitious aunt, Julia Nast (Sylvia Aston), and her daughter, Hattie (Mae Busch). They treat her like a drudge instead of a relative. The catch of the town is banker Thomas Morgan (Warner Baxter), and Ruth wins him by reminding him of his beloved mother. But Julia catches onto this and insists that Ruth give him up so that he will marry Hattie. Ruth obliges by pretending to be a wanton jazz baby at a party. But the next day, Morgan discovers that it was all an act, and that she really is the old-fashioned girl he loved in the first place. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- 1922
A clever approach helped to keep this light domestic comedy entertaining, in spite of a thin plot. Two couples, one poor and one rich, are having the exact same dilemma. Millie (Helene Chadwick), the wife of Newton Craddock (Pat O'Malley), is putting her husband into serious debt because of her extravagance -- she'll buy anything as long as she can put a dollar down and pay fifty cents a week (keep in mind these are 1922 dollars, worth a lot more in those days!). Meanwhile Norman's boss, Thomas Kirtland (Norman Kerry), has to deal with his wife, Dorothy (Claire Windsor), who thinks nothing of buying a fur coat that she can't really afford. Neither couple seems to be able to settle down long enough to start a family. Then both wives think their husbands are seeing other women. Craddock winds up getting some good advice from Kirtland, and vice versa. As a result, the men straighten out their spendthrift wives. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- 1922
A drifter, Racey Dawson (Buck Jones) falls for pretty Molly Dale (Eileen Percy), the daughter of alcoholic rancher Henry Dale (Robert Daly) but is soon falsely accused of murdering the old man. The real killer, however, proves to be McFluke (G. Raymond Nye), a powerful rancher who covets the valuable Dale property. The most unusual aspect of this average silent western is the casting of popular comedienne Mae Busch as a dance-hall girl holding the key to solving the murder. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
Actor/ writer/ director Erich Von Stroheim stars as a fraudulent count, living high on the hog in Monte Carlo. He supports himself by extorting huge sums of money from silly married ladies who are dumb enough to fall for his romantic charms. Von Stroheim's partners in crime, phony princesses Mae Busch and Maud George, live in a state of perpetual depravity with the count in a huge mansion. Their latest victim, played by an actress who insisted upon being billed as Miss DuPont, is the wife of an American financier. Von Stroheim's attempted seduction of this particular foolish wife is thwarted at every turn, and the count ultimately gets his comeuppance. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Erich Von Stroheim, Rudolph Christians, (more)
- 1922
In the 1920s, chauvinism and pride overrode economics, and most men would rather have perished than relied on any money their wives may have had. That was the theme to this routine drama, which Warner Baxter falsely claimed was his film debut (he has credits in prior pictures). After five years of marriage, Mildred (Ethel Clayton) comes to the realization that her husband, Lew (Baxter), is going nowhere in the real estate business. Mildred, however, has managed to squirrel away two thousand dollars from the household budget -- enough in 1922 to buy a home. But it turns out that Lew needs just that sum to avoid a financial disaster. Mildred knows that it would be an embarrassment if he had to take the money from her, so she arranges to "borrow" the money from a neighbor. This makes matters even worse, because Lew assumes that his wife and his neighbor are having improper relations. The couple argues, and Mildred leaves and goes back to work as a secretary. Eventually, of course, Lew realizes that Mildred's a gem and begs her forgiveness. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ethel Clayton, Warner Baxter, (more)
- 1922
While no one could ever call the cast to this melodrama "all star," it certainly features some of the best second-stringers and character actors who were around in 1923. James Watkins (Willard Louis), who owns a department store, is even more wicked than your average womanizer. He has Danny Mulvey (William Scott) sent to prison for a crime he didn't commit just so that he can woo his sister Mame (Estelle Taylor). When he is released, Mulvey finds out that Watkins is also after his own sweetheart, Josie (Mae Busch), who is a clerk at the store. Mulvey, Mrs. Watkins (Claire Dubrey) and Mame all decide to catch Watkins at his game, so Josie agrees to meet him at the store one night. He doesn't realize that the others are hiding and watching him. When he tries to embrace Josie she threatens to kill him, and he turns out the lights. When they come back on he is dead. Josie is arrested for his murder, but Mulvey confesses to save her. The truth is that both of them are innocent. When Mulvey's home catches on fire, Mame is badly burned while saving a little girl (Josephine Adair). Mame doesn't survive her injuries, but before she dies, she confesses that it was she who killed Watkins. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Estelle Taylor, William Scott, (more)
- 1923
This comedy-melodrama, based on the novel by Rupert Hughes (who also directed), blends fiction and reality to tell the story of a young woman's rise in Hollywood; the film uses real stars and productions (even Charles Chaplin filming A Woman of Paris) as its backdrop. Eleanor Boardman plays Remember Steddon, better known as Mem. Mem is a small-town girl who marries slick bad guy Owen Scudder (Lew Cody); Owen insures his brides and then murders them for the money. After the wedding, Mem starts to have her doubts about him and runs away while their train is chugging through the desert. She happens on a film crew and gets work as an extra, later becoming a famous dramatic actress in Hollywood with the help of director Frank Claymore (Richard Dix). Scudder finally tracks her down during a shoot involving a circus tent; when a storm sets the tent on fire, Scudder loses his life saving Mem from a wind machine's propeller. Freed from her marriage, Mem is able to choose between Claymore and her leading man. Boardman, whose first starring role finds her surrounded by a long and impressive supporting cast, wound up at the Goldwyn studios through a "New Faces" contest. Her co-winner, future star William Haines, also had a bit part as the company's assistant director. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eleanor Boardman, Mae Busch, (more)
- 1923
Childhood sweethearts with lofty goals do not a good Christian lifetime make, in this doomed romance directed by Maurice Tourneur. Glory Quayle (Mae Busch) and John Storm (Richard Dix) have been in love since their youth. Now, all grown up, they decide to travel to London -- John to enter a monastery and Glory to become a nurse. But the lure of the city is too great, and Glory instead becomes a London stage star. John, who can't get Glory out of his mind, renounces his vows. But the nasty Lord Robert Ure (Cyril Chadwick), who has designs on Glory himself, convinces a London mob that John is predicting the end of the world. Incited, the mob goes after John, trying to make sure that his life ends before the world does. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Dix, Mae Busch, (more)
- 1924
The wooden performances by a usually fine cast of players suggest that the script to this melodrama -- based on the poem The Spell of the Yukon by Robert W. Service -- is to blame. Barbara LaMarr plays "the lady known as Lou," who is stuck performing in a divey South American cabaret where her husband, Jim (Percy Marmont), plays piano. When "Dangerous Dan" McGrew (Lew Cody) promises to put her name in lights on Broadway, Lou takes off with him, hoping to make enough money to send for Jim and their little boy (Philippe deLacy). Jim follows and catches up with McGrew in a New York nightclub. The two men fight it out and the place catches fire. Jim only narrowly escapes from the flames. McGrew takes Lou up to an Alaskan saloon, where she lures gamblers to his games. Jim shows up in Alaska and finally gives McGrew the fatal shot he deserves. When he discovers that Lou has been faithful to him this whole time, the couple is reunited. Service's poem was filmed once before, in 1915. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Barbara La Marr, Lew Cody, (more)
- 1924
This famous old stage melodrama by Owen Davis is directed with a lot of spirit by Emmett J. Flynn and features a first rate cast. The overworked Robert Horton (Hobart Bosworth) convinces his friend Thomas Lipton (also played by Bosworth) to take his place for a year. Mrs. Horton (Dorothy Cummings) goes on vacation and her five-year-old daughter, Allyn (Betsy Ann Hisle), is left in Lipton's care. Horton comes back and, in an argument, tries to shoot Lipton. Lipton runs off, taking the child along with him, who he raises as Nellie. When she reaches young womanhood, Lipton falls ill and Nellie (now played by Claire Windsor) finds a job as a cloak model with the help of her friend, Polly Joy (Mae Busch). The shop where Nellie works is run by Walter Peck (Lew Cody), her mother's cousin. He will receive her fortune if her lost daughter is never found. When he discovers that Nellie is the missing girl, he kidnaps her and hires two thugs to tie her to the tracks of an elevated train. That same day, Horton dies, and Lipton urges Mrs. Horton to come for her long lost daughter. Coincidentally, she and Polly are travelling on the very train that is headed for Nellie's unconscious body. But Nellie is saved in the nick of time and is happily reunited with her mother. The surprise ending reveals that the whole film was actually a play being performed in a theater. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Claire Windsor, Betsy Ann Hisle, (more)
- 1924
After seeing their mother (Eugenie Besserer) struggle to eke out a meager existence for her family, her daughters Jeanette (Mae Busch) and Alice (Wanda Hawley) take different paths. Jeanette finds work as a stenographer, while Alice marries a poor workman and gives birth to a brood of children. Jeanette has a suitor, Martin Devlin (Robert W. Frazer), but she turns him down until she is unfairly named co-respondent in her boss' divorce case. To save herself from scandal, Jeanette marries Devlin and tries to settle down. She is miserable over losing her independence, and Devlin's extravagant ways are no help. Jeanette finally decides to leave her husband and return to the working world. She is no happier there, and when she sees how happy Alice is as a stay-at-home mom -- poor as she is -- Jeanette reconciles with Devlin. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mae Busch, Robert W. Frazer, (more)
- 1924
This powerful drama, based on the novel The Master of Man, by Sir Hall Caine, was the first time Swedish director Victor Sjorstrom made a film in America. When her stepfather (De Witt Jennings) locks her out of the house, Bessie Collister (Mae Busch) finds refuge with Victor Stowell (Conrad Nagel), who she had met earlier that evening at a dance. They spend the night together and Stowell decides he must marry her instead of his fiancee, Fennella Stanley (Patsy Ruth Miller). When he goes to tell his father, the deemster (a judicial officer on the Isle of Man, where the action takes place), Stowell finds him dead. Victor's friend, Alick Gell (Creighton Hale), falls in love with Bessie, but runs home to her mother (Evelyn Selbie) after finding out she is pregnant. Stowell becomes deemster in his father's place, and his first case is Bessie, who is accused of killing her baby. Although Gell defends Bessie, she is sentenced to die. Stowell helps Bessie escape from jail, and she runs away with Gell. Enraged at Bessie's escape, am mob gathers and Stowell admits to being the man who helped her -- and that he is the father of her dead child. He gets a two-year prison sentence, but Fennella has forgiven him his transgression, and meets him at the prison where they are married. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Hobart Bosworth, Creighton Hale, (more)
- 1924
A very young Norma Shearer and a fine supporting cast that includes Adolphe Menjou and Mae Busch all suffered from a hackneyed screenplay in this silent society melodrama from Metro-Goldwyn, the forerunner of MGM. Shearer plays Grace Durland, a debutante forced to leave college when her father (George Fawcett) goes bankrupt. Reduced to working for a living, Grace falls in love with married Ward Trenton (James Kirkwood), whose disagreeable wife (Winifred Bryson) refuses to grant him a divorce. But when Ward sustains severe injuries in a car accident and may not be able to work again, Mrs. Trenton promptly begins divorce proceedings. Happily, Ward makes a full recovery and proposes to Grace. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- 1924
Pauline Frederick stars in this romance, based on the Louis Joseph Vance novel Mrs. Paramor. Nelly (Frederick) is so intent on her writing career, that she neglects her appearance and her husband, Wayne (Huntly Gordon). Jill Wetherell (Mae Busch), who is looking for a rich husband, finds Wayne to be easy prey and Nelly catches them together. She divorces Wayne and travels to Europe. Jill, however, throws Wayne over for Perley Rex (Conrad Nagel). Nelly becomes a writer of note under the pseudonym Mrs. Paramor. She also takes advantage of her easy access to the latest Paris fashions and becomes a truly stylish and beautiful woman. Along the way, she meets Rex and discovers he is married to Jill. They all take the same ship back to the States, and while Jill is seasick in her room, Nelly steals Rex's affection. When Jill goes to "the other woman" to beg for her husband, she is surprised to see that it's Nelly. Nelly lets Jill have Rex, but she realizes she has never stopped loving Wayne. She calls for him, and they are reunited. One novel scene near the end of the film shows Nelly hosting a banquet and mahjong party which is attended by an impressive group of movie stars, including Mae Murray, Norma Shearer, John Gilbert, Aileen Pringle, and many others; all of them, of course, signed to Metro-Goldwyn, the studio that released the picture. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Pauline Frederick, Conrad Nagel, (more)
- 1924
In spite of the depressing, often tragic, circumstances in this drama, director Finis Fox somehow managed to add in comic relief featuring the likes of Hank Mann, Snitz Edwards, Cissy Fitzgerald, and Hugh Fay. Wall Street operator and all-around bad guy Morgan Wallace has his wife (Irene Rich) locked up in an insane asylum so that he can live the life of a carefree bachelor. He decides he wants to get his hands on the wife (Mae Busch) of a minister (Lucien Littlefield) and convinces her to join him for a yacht party. When the ship leaves port and the wife is forced to spend the night on board, she feels that she has been disgraced and leaves home so that her husband and child believe she has died. Fifteen years later, she gets her revenge on the man who wronged her by having him sent to prison for defrauding the government. When he is released, he is murdered by his own wife (proving that perhaps she was a little crazy after all). The son of the minister (Rex Lease), who joins the clergy himself, is instrumental in bringing his mother back to the family. In a coincidental note, Rex Lease studied for the ministry before becoming an actor. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Morgan Wallace, Irene Rich, (more)
