Seena Owen Movies

Cecil B. DeMille functioned as executive producer for the derivative romantic melodrama The Blue Danube. Leatrice Joy stars as Marguerite, a Budapest tavern girl, who falls in love with young baron Erich (Nils Asther). When WWI breaks out, Erich is called back to his regiment on the eve of his wedding to Marguerite. This provides a golden opportunity for Ludwig (Joseph Schildkraut), a deformed, embittered violinist who is secretly in love with the heroine. Intercepting her mail, Ludwig convinces Marguerite that Erich has been unfaithful, whereupon the girl agrees to marry the violinist on the rebound. Only the unexpected return of Erich prevents villainy from triumphing over virtue. The Blue Danube was written by future director John Farrow. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

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, All Movie Guide

Auteur theorists who've charted the career of "cult" director Edgar G. Ulmer have seldom mentioned Carnegie Hall, simply because it was more expensive than most of Ulmer's films and thus can't be regarded a "low-budget masterpiece." The wafer-thin plotline concerns a young immigrant woman (Marsha Hunt) who takes a job as a Carnegie Hall cleaning woman. Her love of music leads her to a better job in the Hall, and after several years she rises to the position of concert organizer. The woman uses her clout to promote her own son's career as a pianist. Carnegie Hall showcases a number of celebrated musicians. Selections include: Arthur Rubinstein performing Chopin's Polonaise in A Flat, Jascha Heifetz performing Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in G Major by Tchaikovsky, Ezio Pinza singing both the drinking song from Don Giovanni and one of the arias from Simon di Boccanegra, Lily Pons singing The Bell Song from Lakme by Delibes, and Jan Peerce singing O Sole Mio.The film also includes musical performances by Bruno Walter,Rise Stevens, Gregor Piatagorsky, Harry James, Vaughn Monroe, Leopold Stokowski, and others. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

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, All Movie Guide

In his professional doldrums in 1929, director Marshal Neilan was forced to work for second-string FBO Pictures. Fortunately, FBO was in the process of transforming itself into RKO Radio, enabling Neilan's His Last Haul to play in several prestigious moviehouses along the Keith-Orpheum circuit. Seena Owen stars as a reformed crook who decides to save her soul by joining the Salvation Army. Unfortunately, Owen is still wanted by the Law, so she has quite a time hiding out from the authorities. Still, she manages to convince petty-thief Tom Moore to change his crooked ways -- but not before Moore attempts one last burglary while dressed in a Santa Claus suit! ~ Hal Erickson, 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

The piquant Leatrice Joy starred in this frothy marital comedy about a wife who leaves her boring husband (John Boles) to be the companion of a kept woman (Seena Owen). The latter, however, leaves in a huff when she suspects that her gentleman friend (H.B. Warner) may be paying a bit too much attention to the newcomer. Sure enough, the lecherous Warner does indeed propose a similar arrangement for Miss Joy, who promptly turns him down in favor of returning to home and hearth. With her close-cropped and rather mannish hairstyle, Leatrice Joy was one of the era's great trendsetters and excelled at playing naughty but nice. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Police officer Tom Malone is the only honest man left who can salvage his crooked city after his partner is killed on his motorcycle by a wealthy playboy on a careless joyride. With criminals and crooked city officials at every turn, it will take courage, duty, and decency for Tom to make right what has for so long been terribly wrong. ~ Cammila Albertson, All Movie Guide

Rainbow Island is a lavish Technicolor confection designed to show off the physical attributes of star Dorothy Lamour. This time Lamour is a white girl raised as native on a tropical isle. Barry Sullivan, Eddie Bracken and Gil Lamb play merchant-marine sailors hiding from Japanese troops on Lamour's island. The storyline may have had dramatic inclinations, but these are forgotten amidst several seductive musical numbers and numerous shots of Dorothy swaying in her patented sarong. Perhaps aware that no one could have taken this film seriously, Ms. Lamour plays her role for laughs, and gets them. Rainbow Island was based on a story by silent screen star Seena Owen, the "Dorothy Lamour" of her time. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A follow-up to the highly successful Bolero, this lively romantic drama stars George Raft as Joe Martin, a Cuban-American dancer who lives and works in Havana with his lovely partner Goldie Allen until a bad case of varicose veins forces impacts his career. One night, the beauteous gringa heiress Diane Harrison (Carole Lombard) comes to the club. Joe is immediately smitten. His interest takes a less fleshly turn when he learns that she owns a yacht. When Diane compliments Joe on his moves, her escort gets jealous and a fight ensues. Joe finds himself jobless and flees to the jungle where he learns the rumba from the exotic Carmelita (Margo). He loves the dance and predicts that it will be the next fad. To promote it, he and Margo open a new club in Havana. The place is a smash. Diane returns, is wowed by both Joe and the dance and offers to bring back to his native New York. But Joe came to Havana after ratting on a gangster and if he returns, will surely die. Still, he and Margo decide to take the risk and their choice results in romance. The spectacular dance numbers were choreographed by the famed dance team Veloz and Yolanda. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide