Frank Powell Movies
- 1919
Kerry (House Peters) is a young Irishman who has a fatal love for gambling. When he marries a wealthy English girl, he promises to lay off the betting, but he can't resist laying 10,000 dollars down on the Derby. He loses the nut and decides to go away until he can make the money back. Just before he leaves, he receives a note from his wife which he is sure is filled with recriminations, so he never opens it. Eventually Kerry makes his way to western Canada, where he settles under an assumed name. For five years he works to make up the money, but he becomes involved with some swindlers. When he is shot, a girl who has befriended him finally opens his wife's letter, which is anything but nasty. She cables the wife, who comes to Canada and saves an option on some land that the swindlers almost snatched away. The option clears exactly 10,000 dollars, and husband and wife are reunited. This film was based on a story by Sir Gilbert Parker. It is interesting to note that it wasn't made in Hollywood, New York, or even in Canada, where much of the action takes place -- it was shot in San Antonio, Texas. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- 1919
This western melodrama has far too many plot complications: Old Man Loring (John Smiley) is feuding with John Corliss (Sidney Mason) over the loss of some of Loring's sheep. The real culprit, however, is a character named "Fadeaway" (Robert Taber) who is working for Corliss but who gets fired and goes to work for Loring. Corliss, meanwhile, is romancing Loring's daughter Nell (Jane Miller). Fadeaway encourages Corliss's drunken brother Billy (William Human) to rob the Corliss safe. Then the varmint gets killed by a Mexican girl because he ruined her sister. First Corliss takes the blame because he thinks Nell is responsible, then Billy tries to shoulder the blame. But finally the Mexican girl admits to the murder, while Corliss and Nell get married and put an end to the feud. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- 1917
Baron Moreno (T. Jerome Lawlor) and Ann (Marjorie Rambeau), a countess, are celebrating their engagement when it is discovered that the mine which all the villagers have invested in is worthless. Ann's father, the Count (Henry Warwick) was the one who encouraged everyone to invest, so he commits suicide. The Baron, predictably, dumps Ann. John Slater, the American who backed the mine (Paul Everton) promises to make good on the debt, and so does Ann. They marry and go to America to work and pay off the money. They have a child (Nadia Gary), but their happiness is ruined by John's jealous mother (Anne Sutherland). The Baron comes to the States in search of Ann and forces his attentions on her. John's mother reports this back to her son, and he throws her out of the house. The child becomes ill and the doctor says that only her mother's presence will make her well again, so John hunts down Ann for a reconciliation. He finds her about to marry the Baron, and the two men fight, resulting in the death of both of them. Ann fetches the child and returns home. There she is reunited with a minister back home who loved her all along. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- 1917
Marjorie Rambeau stars in this crafty detective drama. Gerald Buckland (Robert Elliott) is a handsome society man who finds himself attracted to a pretty girl (Rambeau) on the street. He watches with curiosity as the shabbily dressed young woman accepts a diamond necklace from a man and then hides it. Later, he's even more surprised when he is introduced to her at a friend's home. Her name is Rachel Davison, and she entertains the guests by picking their pockets, then giving them back their belongings. Buckland becomes convinced that she really is some sort of pickpocket or thief, and that she has an accomplice -- a man who seems to follow her around constantly. But he finds out the truth the night Harry Van Santen (Bert Starkey) throws a party. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- 1916
This picture was closer to propaganda for birth control and against poorly run institutions than it was entertainment. A woman (Linda A. Griffith) is put on trial for the murder of her consumptive baby. The story of her life is told in flashback form -- after her mother's death she was raised in an orphanage, where all the children were sorely neglected, and her brother Jimmie ran away from the institution. After a lot of struggles, Jimmie (Creighton Hale) works his way up in the world to become a junior partner in a law firm. He winds up on his sister's case, and his defense of her gets her off. Afterwards the two grown orphans have a reunion. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- 1916
Wealthy lumberman James Wadworth (Bruce McRae) comes to New York, where he falls in love at first sight with debutante Anna Dalton (Gerda Holmes). Trailing Anna to South America, James ingratiates himself with her socially prominent family, but the girl resists his charms. Accosting Anna on the deck of an ocean liner, James accidentally causes her to tumble overboard, whereupon he dives after her. Hero and heroine wash up on the shore of a desert island, where they live as common-law man and wife. Years later, Anna and her baby are rescued, but James, who has disappeared and is presumed dead, is left behind. To legitimize her child, Anna marries British nobleman Sir Richard Towne (Alfred Hickman). After the passage of several more years, James resurfaces, whereupon Sir Richard cordially commits suicide so that the lovers can be reunited. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1916
This melodrama involves the old twin sisters mix-up. Exiled Russian Nihilist Ivan Pavloff (Philip Hahn) has twin daughters. In desperate need for money, he gives up one girl, Nina, to a rich couple, while the other one, Olga, stays with him. The girls grow up (to be played by Gail Kane), and Nina becomes engaged to John Huntington (Allan Hale), while Olga and her father both swear revenge on Nicholas Savaroff (Montagu Love), the man who was responsible for the death of Pavloff's wife. They sneak back into Russia, and in carrying out their scheme, Pavloff dies and Olga is the one who kills Savaroff. She meets up with Huntington, who thinks she is Nina and together they travel to America. But once they get there Olga is shot by Russian spies and Nina suddenly appears, making a very relieved Huntington aware of his mistake. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
As overwrought and overacted as it appears today, this melodrama took America by storm in 1915. Its history actually goes a bit deeper than the poem The Vampire by Rudyard Kipling. Kipling's poem, in fact, had been inspired by a scandalous 1897 painting by Philip Burne-Jones, which showed a woman in a white nightgown grinning triumphantly over a man's lifeless form. A play, entitled A Fool There Was, was made from the poem in 1909 by Porter Emerson Browne and it promptly became a smash (although it was vilified by critics). Producer William Fox bought its screen rights, but he didn't film it until 1914. By the time he cast Theda Bara in the role, she had already transformed herself from Ohio-born Theodosia Goodman into unsuccessful stage actress Theodosia de Coppett. Clearly another name change was in order, and Bara -- short from Baranger, her maternal grandfather's last name -- was chosen (Theda was one of her nicknames). Over the next several years, Bara would make literally dozens and dozens of films for Fox; only a few are known to still exist and this is one of them. Wealthy diplomat John Schuyler, "the Fool" (Edward Jose), loves his wife (Mabel Frenyer) and daughter (Runa Hodges), but his life goes awry when he leaves without them on an important foreign mission. On the ship he meets the Vampire (Bara). By the time Schuyler reaches Italy, he has forgotten about everything but this wicked vamp. His wife, his work, and even his child are replaced in his heart by this evil woman. He lives for her every whim, oblivious to the rest of the world. She keeps him under control through the use of drink and drugs and his fortune slips away. Finally his health does too, and he dies at the vampire's feet. She scatters rose petals on his inert form and gloats. Even though this melodramatic style of vamp was out of fashion by the 1920s (a subtler, more stylish version had developed), this film was remade in 1922 with Estelle Taylor in the lead. Predictably, the picture bombed. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- 1914
Based on a popular stage play, the Biograph three-reeler Strongheart was originally released in May of 1913. The film was reviewed by the trade magazine Variety on the occasion of its April 1914 reissue, staged to cash in on the popularity of leading man Henry B. Walthall. After itemizing the differences between Walthall's interpretation of the leading character and the performance offered on stage by Robert Edeson, the trade magazine Variety concluded that both men delivered strong and distinctive characterizations. The son of an Indian chief, Strongheart heads out into the "white" world, where he excels in college. He becomes a football hero (a la Jim Thorpe) and wins the heart of the prettiest girl on campus. But upon finding out that his father is dead, Strongheart forsakes his new lifestyle, returning to assume leadership of his tribe. Along the way, the film includes an obligatory "collegiate" subplot, wherein Strongheart nobly rescues his best friend from being expelled for cheating on the football field. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1914
An ambitious bank teller (Edward Jose) steals a large deposit and starts life over under an assumed name. While he is becoming a lawyer and making his way up the ladder of success with the help of a political boss, the wife he left behind (Eleanor Woodruff) remains destitute and is forced to give up her child to an orphanage. The girl is adopted and grows up (played as an adult by Virginia Pearson) to become the secretary to an honest young lawyer. But the girl has the same quirk that her father had, and it causes her to steal a bracelet at a department store. She is arrested and finds herself before her father, who is now a judge. Her lawyer boss is on her case, using heredity as a defense. The mother comes to the courtroom and points out the panicking judge as the girl's father, and he keels over, the victim of a heart attack. This film would not normally attract much interest today, except that it is supposedly the film debut of future vamp Theda Bara. While no one has been able to pinpoint her in any of the scenes, this could be true. The movie's director, Frank Powell ,was leaving his current studio for Fox, and he knew that they were looking for a new leading lady. He thought that Bara -- who was a not particularly successful stage actress performing under the name Theodosia deCoppett at the time -- might work out, and he put her before the camera to see how she looked. The results must have been satisfactory, because the rest is history. Since Bara can't been seen in the finished film, it is possible that Powell shot extra footage of her that wound up on the cutting room floor, but which he kept as a screen test. Interestingly, the film's star, Virginia Pearson, also wound up at Fox, as one of their second-string vamps. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- 1914
The direction of 1914's His Last Dollar has often been attributed to D.W. Griffith. However, since Griffith was preoccupied with such trivialities as The Birth of a Nation at the time, it is likely that he merely supervised the film, handing the directorial reins to Frank Powell. Venerable stage star David Higgins does his best to impersonate a very young man who leaves his frontier home for New York. Though wealthy, Higgins is soon reduced to penury by a gang of con men. Left with only a dollar, Higgins takes a chance at the race track, and guess what happens next? Aw, you peeked. Running a brisk 4 reels (approximately 50 minutes), His Last Dollar was based on a stage play co-written by star David Higgins and Baldwin G. Cooke (could this have been the same Baldwin Cooke who was once the vaudeville partner of Stan Laurel? No.) ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
