Joseph M. Schenck Movies
Executive producer Joseph M. Schenck was born in Rybinsk, Russia, and emigrated to the U.S. as a child. While growing up in New York, he worked as an errand boy; eventually he wound up owning a pair of drugstores with his brother, Nicholas. In 1908, they opened an amusement park in upstate New York; four years later, they purchased Palisades Amusement Park in New Jersey and had become business associates of Marcus Loew, who was chief executive of a burgeoning chain of movie theaters. The two Schencks eventually became high-ranking executives with Loew, the parent company of MGM. In 1917, Joseph Schenck left Loew (Nicholas stayed) to produce films independently. He first signed Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle up for a comedy series to be distributed by Paramount. His most important star during this time was Buster Keaton. In 1924, Schenck was elected the first chairman of the board on the groundbreaking production company United Artists. In 1933, he founded 20th Century with Darryl Zanuk and became its first president; he became chairman of the board when the company merged with Fox in 1935. Schenck encountered hard times in 1941 after he was convicted of income tax irregularities and union payoffs then sentenced to a year in prison; he was released after four months and then returned to 20th Century Fox as an executive producer. For his many distinguished years of service in American cinema, Schenck won an honorary Oscar in 1952. A year later he co-founded the Magna corporation with Michael Todd. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
This film version of the famed Shakespearean comedy features Laurence Olivier as Orlando and Elisabeth Bergner as Rosalind. As the story goes, Rosalind, smitten by Orlando and not able to get his attention, disguises herself as a boy to more easily remain in Orlando's vicinity. Eventually Orlando grows to like his new friend and Rosalind is stuck playing a boy with a boy with whom she'd rather be a girl. Confusing? Maybe only Shakespeare could come up with the idea, but director Paul Czinner does a fine job executing the concept. ~ All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Henry Ainley, Felix Aylmer, (more)
- 1934
This second and final "Bulldog Drummond" film to star Ronald Colman, finds the famed sleuth in the midst of a sinister plan orchestrated by Warner Oland. Damsel in distress Loretta Young reports that her wealthy and influential uncle is missing, but all those concerned insist that the uncle never existed, and that Young is out of her mind. Drummond suspects that she's telling the truth, and that the uncle's disappearance is tied into political intrigue of some sort or other. Before the rousing climax, Drummond, the heroine, and Drummond's pal Algy (Charles Butterworth) are repeatedly kidnapped, imprisoned, and threatened with certain death. Counterpointing the film's plot twists (a bit too convoluted to relate in full here) is a comic subplot involving the continually interrupted honeymoon of Algy and his frustrated bride (Una Merkel). Unfortunately, Bulldog Drummond Strikes Back is currently unavailable on television or on videocassette. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ronald Colman, Loretta Young, (more)
Al Jolson's "comeback" picture Hallelujah, I'm a Bum is an offbeat Depression-era concoction with script by Ben Hecht and S.N. Behrmann and music and lyrics by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart. Jolson plays a genial hobo who wanders happily around Central Park, neither seeking nor accepting honest employment. He is imbued with a sense of responsibility when he rescues pretty Madge Evans from committing suicide. Evans, suffering from amnesia, falls in love with Jolson, completely forgetting her "regular" beau, mayor Frank Morgan. When she regains her memory she heads back to Morgan, leaving Jolson sadder but wiser, and prompting him back to his carefree existence. Much of the dialogue is spoken in rhyme, in the manner of an operetta--though there's nothing Romberg-like about such lyrical phrases as "Hoover's Cossacks." Former silent-film comedy star Harry Langdon has some choice moments as Egghead, a communist streetcleaner, while composers Rodgers and Hartshow up in unbilled cameos. Because the word "Bum" has different connotations in different lands, this film was released in England as Hallelujah, I'm a Tramp. The reissue version, titled Heart of a Tramp, has been severely re-edited, doing considerable damage to the carefully interwoven rhyming dialogue. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Al Jolson, Madge Evans, (more)
- 1932
The pleasures of the flesh confront the discipline of the Lord's teachings in this screen adaptation of W. Somerset Maugham's story Miss Sadie Thompson. Sadie Thompson (Joan Crawford) is a sassy streetwalker who lands in Pago Pago in the South Pacific after an epidemic grounds the ship on which she's booked passage. Sadie's shapely legs, free spirit, and quick wit soon attract the attention of a group of American soldiers stationed on the island; while most are motivated by simple lust, the naive Sgt. O'Hara (William Gargan) falls head over heels for Sadie, thoroughly unaware of her checkered past and shameful profession. Rev. Alfred Davidson (Walter Huston), a fire-and-brimstone preacher bent on bringing salvation to the soldiers, is fully aware of Sadie's occupation and moral code, and is determined to convince her to change her ways. Sadie slowly but surely is softened by Davidson's conviction, but the preacher soon finds himself affected by her sensual presence; O'Hara also learns the truth about Sadie, but hatches his own plan to reform her -- marriage. While a box office failure in 1932, Rain has gone on to become a cult favorite, thanks to Crawford's vivid performance as Sadie and director Lewis Milestone's adventurous visual style. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joan Crawford, Walter Huston, (more)
- 1931
Previously filmed in 1926 with Norma Talmadge, the creaky David Belasco stage piece Kiki served as a curious talkie vehicle for "America's Sweetheart" Mary Pickford. The star plays the title character, a jazz-age Parisian chorus girl (complete with a molasses-thick French accent). When theatrical impresario Victor Randall (Reginald Denny) falls in love with Kiki, he sets the girl up in a fancy apartment, which does not rest well with Randall's ex-wife. Likewise unhappy with the situation is Kiki, whose restless spirit cannot be confined by her posh surroundings nor her possessive lover. In the film's most famous scene, the heroine, in white-tie-and-tails male drag, performs a Busby Berkeley-choreographed musical number with a group of male dancers, culminating in an unceremonious tumble into the orchestra pit. Though Mary Pickford delivered her best talkie performance to date, the actress's longtime fans didn't respond to her straying so far from her established screen image, and as a result Kiki was the first of Pickford's United Artists productions to flop at the box office. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mary Pickford, Reginald Denny, (more)
In this elaborate big-budget musical, a handsome businessman follows a beautiful woman aboard a luxury liner and begins to woo her. This doesn't set well with her fiance. Later the fellow learns of the stock market crash and develops a taste for booze. Romantic mayhem ensues until the inevitable happy ending. Look for a young Bing Crosby singing Irving Berlin's "Lower Than Lowdown," as part of the "Whiteman Rhythm Boys." ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Douglas Fairbanks, Bebe Daniels, (more)
Divesting herself of her own production company, silent-screen queen Gloria Swanson entered into a two-picture deal with producer Joseph M. Schenck, which paid her a straight (and very hefty) salary for both productions. The first film completed under this arrangement was the trivial romantic comedy- musical Indiscreet, scripted and scored by songwriters Buddy G. DeSylva, Ray Henderson, and Lew Brown and directed by the matchless Leo McCarey. Swanson plays Geraldine "Gerry" Trent, a worldly socialite who endeavors to protect her sister Joan (Barbara Kent) from the lecherous machinations of Jim Woodward (Monroe Owsley). But when Joan discovers that Jerry and Woodward were once lovers themselves, she mistakenly believes that Jerry's attempts to break up her romance is motivated by jealousy. In fact, Jerry is completely committed to Joan's brother Tony Blake (Ben Lyon). One of the more successful of Gloria Swanson's talkies, Indiscreet posted a much-needed profit for financially strapped United Artists. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gloria Swanson, Ben Lyon, (more)
Magnificently restored by UCLA to its original "Grandeur" wide-screen format The Bat Whispers may not be a cinematic masterpiece but is certainly worth a second look. Opening with a series of flamboyant tracking shots, director Roland West soon enough settles down to the usual "Old House" shenanigans of sliding panels, mysterious bumps in the night, crawling hands, thunder and lightning (sounding more like an earthquake, incidentally, than a storm), etc. An official remake of the 1926 The Bat (which was itself based on an Avery Hopwood play), The Bat Whispers owed just as much to The Cat and the Canary (1927), the true grand-daddy of all haunted house mysteries. After taunting the New York City police a final time, the notorious criminal "The Bat" announces his retirement to the country. Meanwhile, in said country wealthy spinster Cornelia Van Gorder (Grayce Hampton is leasing the Courtleigh Fleming estate. The news of "The Bat" and the simultaneous disappearance of cashier Brooks Bailey (William Bakewell) shortly after a robbery at the Fleming bank set in motion a series of troubling events -- troubling especially for Miss Van Gorder's eternally frightened maid Lizzie (Maude Eburne). The missing Brooks Bailey shows up soon enough courtesy of Van Gorder's pretty niece Dale (Una Merkel), who persuades the young man to impersonate a gardener -- a disguise that fools no one. There is a mysterious doctor who speaks with an accent (Gustav von Seyffertitz); an equally alarming caretaker (Spencer Charters),; a piece of missing blueprint that leads to a secret room; and, of course, "The Bat," who appears to be prowling the estate as well. Enter into all this Detective Anderson (Chester Morris), who in his unique gritty way gets to the bottom of things. The "Grandeur" wide-screen format was lost on most movie-goers when the film premiered in late November of 1930. Exhibitors who had just spent fortunes rigging their theaters for sound were of course loath to spend even more on yet another "newfangled" invention. Of course, some of cinematographer Robert H. Planck's more breathtaking shots of "The Bat" climbing towering skyscrapers were lost in the standard 35mm prints. But cartoonist Bob Kane reportedly had this film in mind when he nine years later created his eternally popular comic-strip hero Batman. A sadly neglected craftsman, Roland West directed only 11 films before he retired at the age of 44. West (who also directed the 1926 The Bat co-starring his then-wife Jewel Carmen as the imperiled niece) left films to run a Santa Monica café with girlfriend Thelma Todd. He was questioned by the authorities but was apparently never a suspect in Todd's mysterious death in December of 1935. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Spencer Charters, Chester Morris, (more)
- 1930
This drama chronicles the rise of a famous Madame from casino hostess to king's mistress. Her story begins as she is being fished from a pond by her future lover. Next she is seen as a hostess in the gambling house. She then becomes the King's mistress. Meanwhile she continues to carry on with her first love. They are together until death. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1930
In this melodrama, a dancer works in a sleazy Marseilles portside dive that is really the front for a bordello. While dancing one night she meets a sailor and agrees to be his bride. Unfortunately, one of her former suitors suddenly shows up and a terrible fight ensues. The sailor kills his rival and ends up sentenced to Devil's Island. The only females allowed there are the wives of the guards, so, not wanting to be far from her beloved, the dancer marries the meanest guard in the prison. During a prison riot, the sailor proves his mettle and gets pardoned. The couple happily decide to return to the dancer's native Britain. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dolores Del Rio, Edmund Lowe, (more)
While Barbra Streisand played musical-comedy star Fanny Brice in Funny Girl and Funny Lady, the closest Brice ever came to playing a Streisand-like role on film was in the 1930 comedy-drama Be Yourself. The Rose of Washington Square is cast as Fanny Field, the long-suffering girlfriend of no-account, gin-swilling prizefighter Jerry Moore (Robert Armstrong). After sacrificing everything to advance Jerry's career, Fanny is "repaid" when Jerry dumps her in favor of femme fatale Lillian (Gertrude Astor). Our heroine gets her revenge by telling Jerry's ring opponent to "go after" her man's nose, which was recently reconstructed by plastic surgery. As a result, Jerry loses the bout, but comes to his senses, returning to Fanny for good. Highlights include Brice's takeoff of "Dante's Inferno" and her song solo "Cookin' Breakfast for the One I Love," co-written by her then-husband Billy Rose. Unfortunately, the public didn't respond to Be Yourself, and Fanny Brice never again starred in a film, though she appeared as supporting player and guest performer from time to time. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Fanny Brice, Robert Armstrong, (more)
Based on "Bride 66", a tone poem by composer Herbert Stothart, The Lottery Bride takes place in a distinctly Hollywoodized Norway. Ever on the lookout for extra cash, heroine Jenny Swanson (Jeanette MacDonald) coerces her sweetheart Chris Svenson (John Garrick) to participate with her in a three-day marathon race. When the exhausted couple fails to win first prize, Jenny enters herself in a "wife lottery." Though the lucky winner appears to be Chris's older brother, it is actually Chris himself -- but he isn't aware of it, having embarked on a dirigible expedition to the Yukon. Only after surviving a crash landing does Chris return home for a blissful reunion with Jenny. With a plot this silly, why did the producers bother to hire Joe E. Brown and ZaSu Pitts as comedy relief? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jeanette MacDonald, John Garrick, (more)
- 1929
Terrified at the prospect of making her talking-picture debut, silent-screen queen Norma Talmadge spent several months taking diction lessons before shooting commenced on New York Nights. The results were negligible: though she managed to keep her thick Brooklyn accent in check, Talmadge was ultimately defeated by the banalities of the script. Based on the stage play Tin Pan Alley, the film casts Talmadge as Broadway musical star Jill Deverne, the wife of struggling composer Fred Deverne (Gilbert Roland). Her new husband's drinking problem causes our heroine to seek solace in the arms of gangster Joe Prividi (John Wray), but after a bloody gangland shootout (filmed on location at New York's 125th Street Station), Jill is more than happy to return to the now-repentant Fred. After a second talkie attempt, Dubarry: Women of Passion, Norma Talmadge, a millionaire several times over, wisely elected to retire from films. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Norma Talmadge, Gilbert Roland, (more)
- 1929
D.W. Griffith's last silent film, The Lady of the Pavements was based on La Paiva, a story by Karl Gustav Vollmoeller. Set in 19th-century Paris, the story concerns the romantic travails of Prussian aristocrat Count Karl von Arnim (played by future "Hopalong Cassidy" star William Boyd). Feeling betrayed by his flirtatious fiancee, Countess Diane des Granges (Jetta Goudal), Karl misanthropically declares that he'd sooner marry a "lady of the pavements" (Hollywoodese for "prostitute"). Hoping to demonstrate to Karl that appearances are deceiving, Diane engages the services of low-born Spanish cabaret entertainer Nanon del Rayon (Lupe Velez), dressing the girl in gorgeous gowns and passing her off as a noblewoman. Karl is smitten by Nanon and proposes marriage, but during their wedding reception Diane spitefully reveals Nanon's true identity as "proof" that Karl wouldn't know a Girl of the Streets if he actually met one. By this time, however, Karl has genuinely fallen in love with Nanon, whereupon Diane's nasty scheme blows up in her face. For a director who was considered a relic and a has-been, D.W. Griffith invests Lady of the Pavements with all sorts of cinematic nuances, including a remarkable multiple-exposure sequence in which William Boyd appears on screen in 13 different guises at once! Completed as a silent, the film was slightly reshot to qualify as a part-talkie, including two musical numbers and a dialogue sequence in which Griffith experimented with "sound modulation" -- another important (and frequently unheralded) innovation from the Father of American Film. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lupe Velez, Jetta Goudal, (more)
Eternal Love was the last silent film of star John Barrymore and director Ernst Lubitsch; thereafter, both men would concentrate exclusively on talkies. Based on Der Konig der Bernina, a novel by Jakob Christopher Beer, the story is set in the Swiss Alps in 1812. Both forced into loveless marriages, sweethearts Marcus (John Barrymore) and Ciglia (Camilla Horn) continue to carry on a clandestine romance. When Marcus is falsely accused of murdering Ciglia's husband, the two lovers escape into the Alps, with the angry villagers close at their heels. With no other recourse, Marcus and Ciglia elect to commit suicide, walking hand in hand into the path of an avalanche. Filmed on location in the Canadian Rockies, Eternal Love was a most uncharacteristic venture into doom-and-gloom for director Lubitsch, who was never quite so dour again. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Barrymore, Camilla Horn, (more)
- 1929
In this comedy, three GIs return home and discover that they have been officially listed among the dead. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Montgomery, Claud Allister, (more)
Not the best of Buster Keaton's silents, Steamboat Bill, Jr. nonetheless contains some of Keaton's best and most spectacular sight gags. Keaton plays Willie Canfield, the namby-pamby son of rough-and-tumble steamboat captain "Steamboat Bill" Canfield (Ernest Torrence). When he's not trying to make a man out of his boy, the captain is carrying on a feud with Tom Carter (Tom McGuire), the wealthy owner of a fancy new ferryboat. Carter has a pretty daughter, Mary King (Marion Byron), with whom Willie falls in love. The two younger folks try to patch up the feud, but this seems impossible once the captain is jailed for punching out Carter. Willie tries ineptly to bust his dad out of jail, only to wind up in the hospital while trying to escape the law. As Willie lies unconscious in bed, a huge cyclone hits town, knocking down tall buildings like kindling. Upon awakening, he does his best to remain standing as the winds buffet him about. He takes refuge in a tree, which is promptly uprooted and blown toward the waterfront. Here is where Willie proves his manhood -- and ends the feud between Steamboat Bill and Carter -- by rescuing practically everyone in the cast from a watery grave. Steamboat Bill, Jr. would be memorable if only for one eye-popping (and dangerously real) sight gag: as the cyclone rages, the facade of a three-story building collapses upon Keaton -- who is saved only because the upstairs window has been left open! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Buster Keaton, Ernest Torrence, (more)
- 1928
Long-reigning screen queen Norma Talmadge's last silent film (albeit with a synchronized musical score) was the exotic melodrama A Woman Disputed. Talmadge is cast as Mary Ann Wagner, a European orphan girl jointly (and unofficially) adopted by two young military officers: Paul Hartman (Gilbert Roland), an Austrian, and Nika Turgenov (Arnold Kent), a Russian. When her village is conquered by the Russians, Turgenov's interest in Mary Ann shifts from paternal to carnal. She submits to his desires on the condition that he agree not to execute three of the town's leading citizens, including the priest (Michael Vivitch). Naturally, Hartman believes that Mary Ann has betrayed him and renounces her in public. But a deathbed confession by Turgenov reveals that the girl's motives were purely patriotic. Based on a play by Denison Clift, A Woman Disputed also owes a debt to DeMaupaussant's Boule de Suif. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Norma Talmadge, Gilbert Roland, (more)
- 1927
Sorrell and Son, the best-selling (and frequently filmed) British novel by Warwick Deeping, was afforded its first screen treatment in 1927. Upon returning from WWI, courageous Captain Sorrell (H.B. Warner) returns home to find that his wife (Anna Q. Nilsson) has left him for another. Though his spirit has been crushed, Sorrell has a young son to take care of, so he takes a menial job as a hotel porter. His son Kit (Mickey McBan as a child, Nils Asther as an adult) grows up to become a successful surgeon. Though he worships the ground his father walks on, Kit is unable to watch Sorrell die a lingering death from cancer, so he reluctantly euthanizes his dad. The "mercy killing" element, as controversial in 1927 as it would be in 1997, was the principal selling angle of Sorrell and Son, though it didn't hurt that the acting performances and the Oscar-nominated direction of Herbert Brenon were uniformly excellent. Sorrell and Son was remade in 1934, with H.B. Warner repeating his original characterization. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- H.B. Warner, Anna Q. Nilsson, (more)
The silent comedy feature College stars Buster Keaton as a scholarly young man who doesn't know beans about sports. When he arrives in college, Buster finds that all the Big Men on Campus are jocks. To impress pretty coed Anne Cornwall, Buster tries and fails to join all the school teams. Even when he attempts to take a job at the campus soda fountain, Buster is a washout. Through the kindness of dean Snitz Edwards, Keaton is placed on the varsity rowing team where, despite several clumsy moments, he manages to win the big race. This infuriates his athletic rival Harold Goodwin, who seizes Cornwall and runs off with her. In racing to her rescue, Buster is compelled to repeat all the sports activities at which he'd previously failed--and does so, magnificently. He bursts into Goodwin's dorm room and saves Cornwall from the usual worse-than-death fate. Hero and heroine kiss--at which point this lighthearted film takes a sudden, chilling turn. As always, Buster Keaton performs his own stunts in College, except for the pole-vaulting bit, which was accomplished by Olympic champ Lee Barnes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Buster Keaton, Anne Cornwall, (more)
Buster Keaton plays Johnny Gray, a Southern railroad engineer who loves his train engine, The General, almost as much as he loves Annabelle Lee (Marion Mack). When the opening shots of the Civil War are fired at Fort Sumter, Johnny tries to enlist -- and he is deemed too useful as an engineer to be a soldier. All Johnny knows is that he's been rejected, and Annabelle, thinking him a coward, turns her back on him. When Northern spies steal the General (and, unwittingly, Annabelle), the story switches from drama and romance to adventure mixed with Keaton's trademark deadpan humor as he uses every means possible to catch up to the General, thwart the Yankees, and rescue his darling Annabelle -- for starters. As always, Keaton performs his own stunts, combining his prodigious dexterity, impeccable comic timing, and expressive body language to convey more emotion than the stars of any of the talkies that were soon to dominate cinema. ~ Emru Townsend, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Buster Keaton, Marion Mack, (more)
- 1926
This first film version of Andre Picard's stage success Kiki stars Norma Talmadge in the title role. A saucy Parisian dancer, Kiki begins keeping time with theatrical manager Victor Renal (Ronald Colman). Her rival for Renal's affections is icy "legitimate" actress Paulette (Gertrude Astor), but Kiki is willing to go to any lengths to claim her man. In the original play, Renal and Paulette were married, making Kiki the interloper, but this was altered so that producer Joseph M. Schenck could cast his star (and then-wife) Norma Talmadge in a more sympathetic light. Kiki was remade in 1931, with Mary Pickford incongruously cast as the oo-la-la heroine. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Norma Talmadge, Ronald Colman, (more)
Battling Butler has to be the strangest of Buster Keaton's silent features. Based on the musical comedy of the same name, the film casts Keaton as wimpy millionaire Alfred Butler, who goes on a vacation in the mountains in the company of his faithful valet (Snitz Edwards). While communing with nature, Alfred falls in love with a beautiful young girl (Sally O'Neil), who barely acknowledges his existence. Without his master's knowledge, the valet tries to smooth the path of romance by telling the girl that Alfred is, in reality, boxing champion Battling Butler (Francis McDonald). The real champ, a mean-spirited sort, gets wind of this deception and decides to allow Alfred to continue the charade, fully intending to mop the floor with the puny millionaire in the boxing ring. But on the night of the big fight, Alfred suddenly gets tired of being pushed around and turns into a savage opponent, leaving the bullying Butler positively groggy. At this point our hero discovers that the girl would have loved him whether he was Battling Butler or not, and all ends well. Played as traditional Keaton comedy for most of its running time, Battling Butler goes dramatic with a vengeance in the climactic fight scene, with Keaton really giving his ring opponent a going over. The final scene is all the more powerful because it is so completely unexpected; if it surprises today's audiences, one can only imagine the effect it had on Buster Keaton's fans way back in 1926. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Buster Keaton, Sally O'Neil, (more)
- 1925
Polly Pearl (Norma Talmadge) is a bar manager who doubles as a cabaret performer in this romantic melodrama taken from the play by Martin Brown. The wealthy society swell Leonard St. Aubyns (Wallace McDonald) falls in love with Polly and the two are soon wed. Leonard's wealthy father (Brandon Hurst) disowns the couple, forcing Polly back to work after her husband leaves her with a baby boy. She takes a job with Madame Blanche (Emily Fitzroy), who employs her in a brothel as a cabaret singer. Polly inherits money when the kindly Madame Blanche dies and she opens her own club. Years later, two British soldiers enter the club, and the drunk one starts a fight with his cohort. When both are wounded by gunfire, Polly tends to their injuries and discovers the man who tried to stop the fight is her own long-lost son. Watch for legendary screen villain Walter Long as Blackie co-starring with Margaret Seddon, George Hackathorne, and Alf Goudling. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Norma Talmadge, Wallace MacDonald, (more)
Buster Keaton plays a young lawyer who will inherit $7 million at 7 o'clock on his 27th birthday--provided he is married. Long before discovering this, Keaton has pursued a lifelong courtship of Ruth Dwyer, whose refusals have become ritualistic over the years (the passage of time is amusingly conveyed by showing a puppy grow to adulthood). He proposes again, but this time she turns him down because she thinks (mistakenly) that he wants her only so that he can claim his inheritance. The doleful Keaton is thus obliged to spend the few hours left before the 7 PM deadline in search of a bride--any bride. He has no luck whatsoever until his pal T. Roy Barnes prints the story of Keaton's incoming legacy in the local newspaper. As a result, literally hundreds of women, bedecked in veils and bearing bouquets, chase Keaton through the busy streets of Los Angeles. When Keaton's producer Joseph M. Schenck bought the film rights to the Roi Cooper Megrue stage play Seven Chances, Keaton opted to forego most of the play's plot complications, devoting his energies to the bride-hunting vignettes and the climactic slapstick chase. The final scenes originally laid an egg with preview audiences--until the sequence was saved by "three little rocks." During the closing moments of the chase, Buster accidentally dislodged three small stones in the ground, which rolled after him as he escaped the thundering herd of would-be brides. The audience laughed immoderately at the tiny rocks, thereby inspiring Keaton to reshoot the ending, utilizing scores of huge, rolling boulders. The extra effort worked beautifully; while not his best silent feature, Seven Chances contains one of Keaton's most hilarious finales. Watch for Jean Arthur in a bit as a receptionist. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Buster Keaton, Ruth Dwyer, (more)
