Joseph M. Schenck Movies

On a train traveling from the West, Grenfall Lorry, an American (Eugene O'Brien), meets the mysterious and beautiful Yetive (Norma Talmadge). By the time they reach their destination of New York, they are deeply in love, but Yetive is called back to the European principality of Graustark where she lives. Lorry follows after her and discovers that she is a princess who is being pushed into a loveless marriage with Gabriel, a neighboring prince (Marc McDermott). Gabriel sends his henchman Dangloss (Roy D'Avey) after Lorry, who wounds him in a battle. Dangloss is spirited out of the country and the American is accused of murder. He is convicted and sentenced to death, but Yetive helps him to escape. At the border, Lorry finds Dangloss and brings him back just in time for the wedding ceremony between Gabriel and Yetive. Gabriel is disgraced, and Yetive's desire to wed Lorry wins the approval of her countrymen. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Constance Talmadge was at the peak of her career when she made this comedy; she was also near the end of her career. The star would only make a handful of films after this one before retiring in lieu of switching over to talkies. Helen Weyringer (Talmadge), a nice but slightly dowdy housewife, has a sister, La Perry (also Talmadge), who is a notorious dancer. When Helen has an argument with her husband Joseph (Ronald Colman), she walks out on him. She runs into her sister and they plot to vamp Joseph and teach him a lesson. Posing as La Perry, Helen flirts outrageously with Joseph until he can no longer resist her charms. Joseph's friend Robert (George K. Arthur) falls for her too. After much trickery, Helen as La Perry convinces Joseph to run away with her. Only then does he discover that he has been carrying on with his wife. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

At the request of his star Buster Keaton, producer Joseph M. Schenck purchased an obsolete ocean liner for $20,000. Keaton wanted to use the boat as a "prop" in his upcoming feature comedy, but went into production with nary a plot idea in his head. Eventually, Buster and his chief gagman Clyde Bruckman came up with a story involving two wealthy, pampered young people (played by Keaton and Kathryn McGuire), who through a series of fantastic but logical plot convolutions end up stranded together on a drifting, deserted ocean liner. At first, the young couple is helpless because they've never had to lift a finger in their lives. As the weeks pass, Keaton and McGuire become quite adept at fending for themselves, utilizing the huge facilities of the liner (its steam room, its enormous kitchen) for the simplest and most basic of necessities. An attack by a cannibal tribe requires Keaton to be more resourceful than ever; the build-up to the climactic contretemps between Keaton and the cannibals is almost as side-splitting as the climax itself. While the film is rife with some of Buster Keaton's most elaborate gags, he scores equally well with smaller, more intimate comedy bits, notably his losing battle with a deck chair and his attempt to shuffle a waterlogged deck of cards. Reasoning that the comedy in The Navigator would work best if built upon an utterly serious storyline, Keaton hired actor/director Donald Crisp to handle the "straight" scenes. Alas, as Keaton would later recall, the constitutionally humorless Crisp "turned gagman on us", resulting in miles of wasted footage. Thus, pay no attention to the "official" directorial credits: Buster Keaton alone is responsible for the helming of The Navigator. Joe Schenck's initial 20 grand investment proved sagacious when Navigator ended up as Buster Keaton's most profitable silent feature film. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This silly farce was typical Constance Talmadge material. She has great support here, with the suave Ronald Colman as her co-star (the two of them, along with director Sidney Franklin, would team up a year later for another film, Her Sister From Paris). Samuel C. Adams, an American millionaire (Albert Gran) brings his daughter, Dorothy (Talmadge), to England to see a specialist about her heart trouble. So that she won't be hounded by press and fortune hunters, Dorothy makes herself up to look extremely ugly. Lord Paul Menford (Colman) spies her without the hideous makeup job and falls in love with her immediately. He poses as his uncle, a heart specialist, so that he has a chance to meet Dorothy. While he's getting to know her, his agent is selling her father the Menford estate. Menford finally admits the ruse and later that night, he gets drunk and goes home -- only he has forgotten that he no longer lives at the Menford estate. He crawls into his old room to find Dorothy there. When a friend arrives the next morning, Menford introduces Dorothy as his wife to avoid a scandal. They decide to get married for real, but a misunderstanding splits them up. The rift, however, doesn't last long -- Mr. Adams tricks the couple into reconciling. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

The massacre of the Huguenots, previously dramatized in broad strokes by Griffith's Intolerance, served as the basis for director Frank Lloyd's Ashes of Vengeance. Norma Talmadge stars as a Huguenot lass who stands defiant against the persecution of the French royal court. She is protected by Conway Tearle, a French noble who refuses to go along with the de Medici's murderous machinations. Josephine Crowell, who played Catherine de Medici in Intolerance, here repeats the role. Director Lloyd and H. B. Somerville adapted the screenplay of Ashes of Vengeance from Somerville's novel of the same name. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This is the second time Bayard Veiller's play made it to the silent screen (it would be made one more time in 1939 as a talkie). This version is a run-of-the-mill Norma Talmadge vehicle -- lots of high drama, with no expense spared, but in the end nothing much without its excellent cast. Talmadge plays Mary Turner, the shopgirl working for slave wages who winds up in prison for a theft she did not commit. Mary is bitter over her ruined life and swears vengeance on her former employer, Edward Gilder (Joseph Kilgour). When she gets out of prison and cannot find work, she teams up with Aggie Lynch (Eileen Percy) and they extort money out of elderly men -- but somehow manage to keep their tactics within the law. Eventually Mary meets Gilder's son, Dick (Jack Mulhall), and she makes him fall in love with her. He proposes, and after she accepts she makes her identity known to his father. Edward Gilder, desperate to get rid of her, tries to have her framed for burglary. Thief Joe Garson (Lew Cody), who loves Mary himself, falls for the plan. When he realizes he has been duped, he kills the stool pigeon, English Eddie (Ward Crane). Mary tries to have Dick accused of the murder and they are both arrested. Finally, Garson confesses to the crime, and the girl who originally stole the items that sent Mary to prison reveals that she was the culprit. Mary realizes that she really loves Dick, and the couple is united. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Thirty years after its release, Buster Keaton admitted that his first feature film was essentially three two-reel comedies strung together. Perhaps this was a way for the comic filmmaker to play it safe; he had achieved success for his short films and if Three Ages wasn't going very well, its trio of storylines could have been chopped up into separate films. The picture was a send-up of D.W. Griffith's 1916 masterpiece Intolerance. But instead of following greed and hatred through the ages, Keaton focused on love. His settings were the Stone Age, the Roman era and 1920s America, with Margaret Leahy as the girl and Wallace Beery as the villain in each segment. The stories are intercut, but they're basically the same: the villain uses either brutish or dishonest means to get the girl and Buster must somehow overcome him. Although they're the most crude-looking, the Stone Age scenes often offer the funniest moments: Buster flirts with a cavewoman who turns out to be twice his size; when a foe throws a rock at him, Buster hits the rock with a club, baseball-style, and squarely knocks out his opponent. The modern era offers the most thrilling scene -- Buster tries to jump between two tall buildings, but misses and falls. The fall was unintended, but instead of retaking the shot, he used it to create a series of events that led his character to the back of a moving fire truck.

While this picture ultimately didn't rate among Keaton's most classic work, it was a solid success when it first came out. Keaton did exactly what he'd set out to do, which was establish himself as a feature filmmaker. But it hadn't been all smooth going -- Margaret Leahy was pretty but had no talent for acting whatsoever. The girl was an English beauty-contest winner, and the prize was supposed to be a role in a Norma Talmadge film. She was so bad that Talmadge's director threatened to quit. So the star's producer/husband, Joseph Schenck (who was also Keaton's producer) put her in Three Ages instead. Keaton couldn't really complain -- because of his marriage to Natalie Talmadge, he was Norma's brother-in-law. So he made the best of it, although he later complained that Leahy caused him to throw away many scenes. Leahy eventually left the movie business and found a happier career working as an interior designer. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Although this desert drama was not one of Norma Talmadge's best films, it is notable because the director was screen writer Frances Marion. Part way through the shooting, Marion was hit by a falling arc lamp, and Chester Franklin (brother of director Sidney Franklin) subbed for her until she recovered. Ramon Valverde, a French secret service man (Joseph Schildkraut), is sent to a French-Arab colony to halt a revolt that is brewing. He meets the beautiful Noorma-Hal (Talmadge), who dances at the gambling hall run by her uncle, Chandra-Lal (Hector V. Sarno). He wins her love, then uses her to get information on the plans of Ramlika, the tribal chieftain (Arthur Edmund Carewe). Valverde is captured when the revolt begins and even though Noorma-Hal realizes she has been deceived, she still loves him and wants to save him. She promises to marry Ramlika if he will spare Valverde, then she swallows poison. Reinforcements arrive to stop the revolt, and Noorma-Hal recovers from her suicide attempt. Valverde belatedly realizes that he loves her, and they are united. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Although Cops is one of the all-time great two-reelers, its creator, Buster Keaton, never thought much of it. He felt it was just a run-of-the-mill chase film, which suggests that perhaps Keaton was his own worst critic -- the chase is what gives the film its brilliance. The film's beginning is a portent of things to come: Keaton longingly looks at his girl Virginia Fox through what appear to be prison bars. In reality, it's the gate to the mansion where she lives. The girl sends Keaton away, telling him not to return until he is a success in business. Keaton attempts to do so, acquiring, through convoluted means, a horse, wagon, and a load of stolen furniture. Somehow he drives his wagon into the middle of a policeman's parade, where an anarchist's bomb falls in his lap. Carelessly, he lights his cigarette with it and throws it away. It explodes in the middle of the parade, and suddenly Keaton is pursued by every cop in the city. The surrealistic vision of Keaton, small and alone, evading these hundreds upon hundreds of policemen is unforgettable. The filmmaker was both athlete and comic, and here he makes maximum use of both talents, racing down streets, playing a balancing act on a ladder, and casually grabbing hold of a car as it flies past, all in an attempt to evade the cops. When it was first released, this comic short confused many people -- its subtle statements (including its blend of humor and politics) went over the head of the average filmgoer of the '20s. But those same qualities make Cops a classic today. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Buster Keaton stars in this two-reel comedy as the captive of hostile Indians. His captors tie him to a stake and prepare him for death by fire. Keaton moves with the stake as the Indians try frantically to place the firewood around him. When he survives the flames due to his fire-resistant clothes, Keaton is made a member of the tribe and named Little Chief Paleface. He then foils the scheme of unsavory oil speculators to steal the land from his Indian companions. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

When Buster (Buster Keaton) is spurned by his sweetheart, he decides to forget by sailing around the world. He posts a letter to his girl, sealing it with his tears, and heads out to sea in a ramshackle little boat he's named "Cupid." Weeks later, he encounters a whaling ship called "The Love Nest" -- an ironic name, considering the captain (the very formidable Joe Roberts) is extremely mean-spirited and in the habit of throwing men overboard for the smallest infraction. When the steward spills the Captain's coffee and receives the ultimate penalty, Buster is given his job. Buster's seafaring talents, of course, leave much to be desired -- for example, when he hears the order, "All hands on deck!" he takes it literally and, yes, puts his hand on the deck. Amazingly, Buster goes for quite a while before he incurs the Captain's fatal ire. He outfoxes his tormentor, sinks the ship and takes off on a lifeboat. But fate isn't done with him yet -- he winds up fishing in a Naval target practice zone. But just as the target he's sitting on explodes, he wakes up, back on the "Cupid" -- it was all a dream. But Buster's relief is only temporary, as he discovers that he has no food or water. Then he sees someone swimming past him ... his boat, luckily, is still tied to the port. This was Keaton's final two-reel short; by the time it was released in March 1923, he was already working on his first feature, The Three Ages. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

The homely Longfellow poem about The Village Blacksmith"will never seem the same after viewing this two-reel spoof. (Buster Keaton) is the assistant to the town blacksmith (Joe Roberts), a big, mean-tempered sort. In the early '20s, it was common for a blacksmith to double as a car mechanic, and Keaton is equally inept at both tasks. This short is essentially a string of wonderful gags -- Keaton helps Virginia Fox's horse pick out just the right shoe, and he methodically and hilariously destroys a gleaming new Rolls Royce. By the end of the film, everyone is out to throttle Keaton for his countless blunders, but somehow he still manages to get the girl! ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide