Seena Owen Movies

Though its script is credited to D.W. Griffith, The Lamb is actually a film adaptation of Winchell Smith's Broadway play The New Henrietta. In his screen debut, Douglas Fairbanks plays a wealthy wastrel who is framed in a stock swindle. To prove his innocence, Fairbanks is plunked into several situations requiring him to display both his athletic and intellectual prowess. Seena Owen plays the girl who knew Fairbanks was a stalwart fellow all along. The Lamb was remade in 1921 as The Saphead, with Buster Keaton assuming the Douglas Fairbanks role. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

This Reliance feature bore a striking resemblance to the previous IMP release Driven By Fate. Deserted by her husband, a pregnant chorus girl finds herself stranded in a backwater town. She gives up her baby to a Quaker family then disappears into the night. Flash-forward several years: The child, now grown up into a beautiful young woman (and now played by Dorothy Gish) begins to develop unexplained yearnings to go on the stage. With the help of a benevolent theatrical manager, she quickly rises to the heights of success on Broadway. If only Gish knew that her personal maid is actually her long-lost mother.... ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

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, Rovi

Drunk and disorderly cowpoke Robert Sands (William S. Hart) is banished from an Arizona frontier town and hops on a freight train heading for New York. Arriving in Manhattan, the rough-and-tumble cowboy obtains a position as "physical guardian" to a spoiled member of the social register (Arthur Shirley). Charged with recovering a series of compromising letters from the young wastrel to a female restaurant owner (Seena Owen), the Westerner falls in love with the girl himself. Realizing that he is a duck out of water among the city swells, Sands magnanimously resolves to put his employer's happiness ahead of his own and bring the two youngsters together. Branding Broadway was a refreshing departure for the usually so forbidding western star and critic Louis Reeves Harrison, of Moving Picture World, found it "a pleasure to see Hart in a completely new role." ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi

Axel Heyst (Jack Holt) is taught bitter lessons by his father -- that pity is contemptible and sympathy is useless. So the young man intends to exile himself to an island, but he winds up bringing along Alma (Seena Owen), who he has saved from unhappy circumstances. Even more complications arise when hotel proprietor Schomberg (Wallace Beery), who is jealous of Heyst, sends a group of crooks after him. The arrival of these evil characters, led by Ricardo (Lon Chaney), inspires Heyst to drop his father's philosophies and save the girl. This story was based on the novel by Joseph Conrad, but -- as is all-too common in the world of cinema -- instead of the book's tragic ending (both Alma and Heyst died), the pair live happily ever after. ~ Janiss Garza, Rovi

Boss rider "Careless" Carmody (William S. Hart) is made sheriff of an Arizona frontier town by Chicago swindler Prentice (Bert Sprotte). The naive Carmody actually believes Prentice to be on the up and up and vouches for him in a land deal with Ruth Fellowes (Seena Owen). Taken to the cleaners, so to speak, Ruth blames Carmody, who, in love with the girl, follows Prentice back to Chicago. Rounding up Prentice's enemies among the cow men at the stockyards, "Careless" finally gets the goods on the swindler. Not one of Hart's better vehicles, Breed of Men, in the words of critic Louis Reeves Harrison, "lacked that essential element of drama -- suspense." ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi

This simple tearjerker, based on the novel by Myrtle Reed, was very much of its era. Mary Ainslie (Marguerite Snow) has a romance with Jimmy Ball, a sea captain (James Corrigan). He leaves and she promises to be true to him until his return. She holds to this for the next thirty years as life passes her by. Other women in the little New England Village where she lives acquire beaus and get married, including Mary's lifelong friend, Jane Hathaway (Lillian Elliott). After Mary has turned into a gray-haired old lady, still faithful, she's visited by Jane's niece, Ruth Thorne (Seena Owen). She is engaged to a young writer, Carl Winfield (Louis Bennison), and Mary invites him to her home. She discovers that Carl's father, who died when he was five, was Jimmy Ball. Realizing, several decades too late, that she's been jilted, Mary dies of a broken heart. Gray-haired old ladies in their early fifties just don't exist now like they apparently did in the 20s! If Mary were alive today, she probably would have picked herself up (if she had bothered waiting at all), gone to the mall and bought a few new outfits, then gone out with her divorced friends in search of someone new. ~ Janiss Garza, Rovi

Silent matinee idol William Russell has a dual role in this drama. He plays twin brothers, minister Luther McCall and Lefty, a crook. Thomas Edinburgh (Sam de Grasse) wants to get rid of his wife and woo the minister's spouse, Carol (Seena Owen). He tries to convince Carol that her husband was once an embezzler, and even offers photographic proof, since Lefty and Luther are dead ringers for each other. Luther is about to leave for Cleveland when Lefty shows up. The crook is trying to elude the police and he borrows one of his brother's suits. The two men leave together. The train they are on wrecks and Luther is killed. Lefty winds up in the hospital and takes on his brother's name. Carol brings him home to convalesce and he calls on his former associate, Buster (Jack Bramall). Lefty makes Buster the church sexton, and even goes so far with his ruse as to give a sermon. His surroundings ultimately have a positive influence on both him and his friend, and they reform. Edinburgh is revealed as the owner of a chain of brothels. Lefty finally confesses the truth to Carol, who is ready to forgive him and accept him into her life. ~ Janiss Garza, Rovi

This Albert Capellani-directed drama was based on the novel by Kathleen Norris. When Dr. Strickland (Tom Guise) dies, he divides his estate in thirds between his two daughters, Alix (Seena Owen) and Cherry (Gladys Leslie), and his niece, Anne Little (Mildred Arden). But Anne's husband Justin (Robert Schable) figures out a way to get more of the estate. This helps fuel unhappiness between Cherry and her own husband, lumberman Martin Lloyd (Joe King). Peter Joyce (Matt Moore), meanwhile, has returned from a cruise, and proposes to Alix, who accepts. She's unaware that Peter left town out of disappointment after her sister married Martin. When things get too tense between Martin and Cherry, she moves in with Alix and Peter. An attraction rekindles between the two, and they plan to run off together. But the long-suffering Alix has observed it all, and she dissuades Cherry, telling her that it's for her own sake. Martin is injured in a lumber accident, and Cherry, realizing finally that she really cares, returns to him. Peter, too, realizes what he has in Alix and remains with her. ~ Janiss Garza, Rovi

This predictable Northwest melodrama was one of the first made by William Randolph Hearst's film company, Cosmopolitan, for the Goldwyn studios. It was adapted from a story that appeared in Hearst's International Magazine and much of it was shot on-location in the Columbia Valley and around Quebec City. Lionel Barrymore, who had appeared in a prior Hearst film, Enemies of Women, stars for the producer again as pilot Conrad Dean, who is given the task of flying Miriam Helston (Seena Owen) up to the gold country to find her brother, Dick (Walter Miller). Dick, who is reopening his father's rich mines, has been kidnapped by a gang of outlaws headed by the vicious Laird (Louis Wolheim). Dean's plane is forced to land in the middle of nowhere and when he goes for help he becomes lost in a blizzard. Miriam goes looking for him and becomes snowblind (the original title of the picture was actually "Snowblind"). In this condition, she is found by Laird, who forces her to agree to marry him. While they are out searching for a priest, Dean goes looking for them in his airplane. He shows up in time to save Miriam from what is surely a fate worse than death. Dean and Miriam return to New York, where they are happily united. ~ Janiss Garza, Rovi

June Paige (Seena Owen) is pressured by her parents to marry a millionaire in this romantic melodrama. Her old lover threatens to send him her old love letters if she does not come up with $10,000. The villain (Wilton Lackeye) tells June he will fill in new dates on the letters to make it appear she is less than honorable in her marital commitments. Elliott Dexter, Irma Harrison, and Henry Hull co-star with Paul McAllister and Arthur Donaldson in this routine feature. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi

A cuckolded husband discovers that he is in love with his ex-wife's cousin in this domestic melodrama from independent producer B. P. Schulberg. Although agreeing at first to give up custody of their child, the ex-wife changes her mind when she discovers the truth. But the child is almost killed in a freak accident and the haughty wife, who wants to go off with a new lover, finally agrees to the divorce settlement. Although burdened with a lachrymose script, Faint Perfume was rescued by good performances from the three leads: Seena Owen as the wife, William Powell as the husband, and Alyce Mills as the innocent cousin. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi