Creighton Hale Movies
Silent-film leading man Creighton Hale was brought to America from his native Ireland via a theatrical touring company. While starring in Charles Frohman's Broadway production of Indian Summer, Hale was spotted by a representative of the Pathe film company and invited to appear before the cameras. His first film was the Pearl White serial The Exploits of Elaine, after which he rose to stardom in a series of adventure films and romantic dramas. Director D.W. Griffith used Hale as comedy relief in his films Way Down East (1920) and Orphans of the Storm (1922)--possibly Hale's least effective screen appearances, in that neither he nor Griffith were comedy experts. Despite his comparative failure in these films, Hale remained a popular leading man throughout the 1920s. When talking pictures arrived, Hale's star plummeted; though he had a pleasant, well-modulated voice, he was rapidly approaching fifty, and looked it. Most of Hale's talkie roles were unbilled bits, or guest cameos in films that spotlighted other silent movie veterans (e.g. Hollywood Boulevard and The Perils of Pauline). During the 1940s, Hale showed up in such Warner Bros. productions as Larceny Inc (1941), The Maltese Falcon (1941) and Casablanca (1943); this was due to the largess of studio head Jack Warner, who kept such faded silent favorites as Hale, Monte Blue and Leo White on permanent call. Creighton Hale's final appearance was in Warners' Beyond the Forest (1949). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide- 1914
Although not as remembered as The Perils of Pauline (also 1914), The Exploits of Elaine was by all accounts the superior serial, grossing over $1 million dollars and further establishing its athletic leading lady Pearl White as the serial queen to beat. White played Elaine Dodge, whose father (William Riley Hatch) is murdered for some papers that may reveal the secret hideaway of a notorious and ruthless master criminal known only as The Clutching Hand (Sheldon Lewis). Helping Elaine track down the villain is noted detective Craig Kennedy (Arnold Daly), who is himself aided by newspaperman Walter Jameson (Creighton Hale in the first three chapters then Raymond Owens in chapters 4-14). Among the Clutching Hand's minions and henchmen are a South American Indian who uses darts dipped in curare as his weapon of choice, an insane scientist who invents an apocalyptic killing machine, and a gang of crooks known as "The Brotherhood of the Falsers." Along the way, Elaine is framed in a blackmail scheme by Wu Fang (Edwin Arden), a devil-worshipping Asian, and is almost sacrificed to the devil herself. Our heroine is rescued again and again by the stalwart Mr. Kennedy, who uses a scientific gadget or two to battle the forces of evil. Produced by the Wharton Brothers in and around Ithaca, New York, The Exploits of Elaine was co-directed by George B. Seitz, an early serial expert who is today perhaps better known for helming M-G-M's pleasantly nostalgic "Andy Hardy" series 1937-1944. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- 1914
Good action and a plotline with a few unusual twists put this drama a cut above other program pictures. Vera Knight (Ruby Hoffman) is hired to assist a biologist, Madame Bartlett. Since Vera is a naive girl from the country, she falls prey to the charms of Madame Bartlett's secretary and bookkeeper, Paul Chilton (Edward Jose). The inevitable happens, and she goes home to give birth to a little boy while Chilton makes excuses for not marrying her. Vera returns to her employer, who discovers that Chilton has also been stealing from her. Madame confronts him and he kills her in the ensuing struggle. He escapes, and Vera, who is caught bending over Madame's dead body, is convicted of her murder. The girl spends the next 20 years in jail, but is finally released on good behavior. When she is released, she comes looking for her son, now called Walter (Creighton Hale), but when she hears how well he is doing, she decides not to involve herself in his life. Instead she goes to work for the secret service, where she learns that Walter has supposedly inherited his father's criminal mind. The truth, however, is that the father, Chilton, is going by an assumed name and controlling Walter, who has run up a large gambling debt. It is finally discovered that Chilton is responsible for the theft of some government papers, and while he is being pursued, his train jumps off the tracks and he is killed. Walter is cleared of any wrongdoing and is reunited with his mother. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- 1916
Before becoming a silent screen star, Marguerite Clark played Snow White on the stage, and Famous Players eventually had her do the screen version. It's the classic Grimm fairy tale, with a few additions (at one point Santa Claus makes an appearance!): The evil Queen (Dorothy G. Cumming) wants Snow White (Clark) dead when Prince Florimund (Creighton Hale) falls in love with her. Berthold the huntsman (Lionel Braham), her supposed killer, instead spirits her off to the forest where she finds the home of the seven dwarfs. The Queen, discovering the job hasn't been done, makes a couple of attempts to poison her, both of which are unsuccessful. The Prince gets Snow White, and the Queen's magic mirror is smashed, reducing her to the ugly hag she really was all along. Famous Players put a lot of effort into this production and released it Christmas week of 1916, but reviews were mixed. It took a couple of decades and an animated version by Walt Disney for the real charm of this fairy tale to reach the screen. ~ 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
- 1918
Creighton Hale emulates bucolic movie favorite Charles Ray in Annexing Bill. Hale plays a poor farm boy, in love with cute-as-pie Gladys Hulette. Everything changes when Hale comes into a huge inheritance. The boy forgets all about the girl, but she is willing to forgive him when he loses his money on Wall Street. This languid slice of Americana was directed by an Englishman, Albert Parker . ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1918
When America enters WWI, wealthy wimp Robert Gibbs (Creighton Hale) has neither the desire nor the stomach to march off to France. To earn a draft deferment, Gibbs hastily weds laundress Susie Simpkins (Gladys Hulette). When she learns that he married her only to avoid getting shot, she balks at being a "Mrs. Slacker" and gives him the air. Despite this blow to his manhood, Gibbs is not galvanized into joining the army until Susie goes off on her own and foils a German sabotage scheme. Very much a product of its times, Mrs. Slacker would be rendered instantly unsalable when the Armistice was declared in November of 1918. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1919
The satirically titled A Damsel in Distress stars the ebullient June Caprice. On vacation with her family, June falls in love with her tour guide. Ordered by her parents to remain in her hotel room, Caprice escapes for a rendezvous with her boyfriend. Instead, she makes the acquaintance of London playwright Creighton Hale, who turns out to be just the right man for her. A Damsel in Distress was based on a story by P.G. Wodehouse, later adapted into the 1937 Fred Astaire vehicle of the same name. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1919
Undergrads Lou Ellen Carter (June Caprice) and George Budd (Creighton Hale) are in love, but June's parents (W.H. Thompson and Grace Reals) and George's guardian, Aunt Penelope (Flora Finch) don't approve of the union. The couple decide to get married in secret, and just as they are wed George receives a telegram from his aunt telling him that he will be disinherited if he does anything rash. So the two part temporarily, but it doesn't take long for things to change. Pretty little actress Jackie Sampson (Zena Keefe) has gotten June's father drunk and stolen his Prohibition speech; meanwhile, Aunt Penelope (another Prohibitionist) winds up at the college clubhouse where the "tea" there gets her smashed. Jackie, after finding out George and June's dilemma, tells Carter he will have his speech back only if he agrees that June can marry George. And George gets his aunt's consent by offering to keep her drunken performance a secret. Once this is done, June and George reveal they have already been married. This frivolous story was better on stage when it was musical comedy by P.G. Wodehouse and Guy Bolton (Jerome Kerr, incidentally, wrote the score). ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- 1920
Charles Stoddard (Creighton Hale) is a struggling Greenwich Village painter. He lives with his wife and two children, Walter and Sylvia (Bobby Connolly and Ruth Sullivan) in an overpriced apartment. Their hypocritical landlord, William Harrison (William Tooker), gives to charity on one hand while jacking up rents on the other. Stoddard's wife dies, and in desperation, he sells his daughter to a wealthy widow. However, he can't bear to part with the little girl and takes her back. She comes down with scarlet fever, and the doctor who looks in on her takes little Walter to the Harrison's. It turns out that Mrs. Harrison (Julia Swayne Gordon) is Stoddard's mother from a previous marriage, which she has kept secret from her husband. Stoddard ends up saving the life of his landlord/stepfather and Mrs. Harrison comes clean about her past. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
"I'm not a bad businessman", filmmaker D.W. Griffith once protested, "Honestly I'm not!" Yet industryites were certain that Griffith had taken leave of his financial senses when he paid $175,000 for the screen rights to the old Lottie Blair Parker stage play Way Down East. Considered out of date even in 1920, the play told the story of Anna (Lillian Gish), the efficient yet secretive serving girl for a large farm family. Anna falls in love with David Bartlett (Richard Barthelmess), the family's son, but feels unworthy of him due to her checkered past. It seems that, years earlier, Anna had been duped into a sham marriage by city slicker Lenox Sanderson (Lowell Sherman). When she became pregnant, Sandson walked out on her. Shortly afterwards, her newborn child died, and Anna was shunned by her home community. These facts come to surface when Sanderson returns to Anna's life as the local squire. David's prudish father orders Anna out of the house and into a blinding snowstorm, but David, after settling accounts with the duplicitious Sanderson, goes after Anna and claims her as his bride. In adapting Way Down East for the screen, Griffith fleshes out the characters of Anna and Sanderson by adding a prologue, which included one of those poignant scenes ever filmed: Anna's tearful insistence that her dying baby be baptized. He also injected the weary old property with a jolt of sheer showmanship, added a "last minute rescue" sequences wherein Anna, lying exhausted on an ice floe, is rescued by David seconds before plunging over a precipitous waterfall. Even today's audiences, armed with the foreknowledge that Lillian Gish enjoyed 73 hale and hearty years after the completion of Way Down East, invariably gasp in fright and urge Richard Barthelmess to "hurry! hurry!"during the climactic scene. Far from becoming Griffith's Folly as predicted, Way Down East was a huge moneymaker. There is no better of Griffith's artistry than the fact that the 1930 talkie remake of Way Down East, though directed by the formidable Henry King, failed to match the pathos and power of the 1920 version. Our own quibble: why did Griffith retain so much of the original play's wheezy comedy relief, and why did he put that relief in the hands of the relentlessly unfunny Creighton Hale? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lillian Gish, Richard Barthelmess, (more)
- 1920
Even though this is a lesser D.W. Griffith film, the casting is intriguing. Richard Barthelmess, who usually played a "good boy," portrays Dan McGuire, a lazy beachcomber who likes his gin. The girl is Clarine Seymour, whose spirit was far earthier than Lillian Gish's, and whose talent was far more spontaneous than Carol Demptser, the star of most of Griffith's later films. Unfortunately, Seymour died later in the year (1920) at the age of 21, so her talent was never fully realized. The real problem with this film was its South Seas setting, which was very foreign territory for Griffith, since his brand of sentiment just didn't mix with primitive backgrounds. On this particular South Seas island lives Mary (Seymour) a dancing girl who has a French father and Javanese mother. Two men come along who vie for her heart: McGuire, the drunken bum, and Walter Kincaid (Creighton Hale), the invalid nephew of an island missionary (George MacQuarrie) who has come to the tropics for his health. Natives from a nearby island attack, and the nephew is heroically and conveniently killed. Mary confesses that she loves McGuire, who promises to reform. She, in turn, agrees to become civilized and which brings them together for the fade out. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- 1921
This independently made drama starring Marguerite Clayton was touted as a "modern version of Cain and Abel." Harold Van Zandt (Creighton Hale) and his brother, Peter (George MacQuarrie), live in a little New England fishing village. Both of them are in love with Eileen Arden (Clayton). Harold is extremely shy, so Peter offers to approach her on his behalf. Instead, he convinces Eileen that Harold is not worthy of her. When Eileen is cold to him, Harold is hurt and he leaves the village. Eileen goes on to marry Peter. Several years later, the Van Zandt father, John (Thomas Cameron), decides to retire from fishing, and calls for Harold to return. Eileen and Peter's daughter, Anne (Ivy Ward), inadvertently reveals the lies told about Harold. As a result, Eileen begins to pull away from Peter. Anne becomes ill and the doctor warns that her weak heart cannot bear excitement. When Peter picks a fight with Eileen, the little girl dies. Now realizing that Eileen knows the truth, Peter heads to the lighthouse where Harold works. The brothers fight it out, and Peter falls over the railing to his death on the rocks below. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marguerite Clayton, Creighton Hale, (more)
Having turned the creaky old stage melodrama Way Down East into a money-spinning film, director D.W. Griffith set about to perform the same magic with the barnstorming theatrical piece The Two Orphans. Adolphe Philippe Dennery's play told the story of two orphaned girls, one blind, who are separated early on and undergo innumerable deprivations before their tearful reunion. Though the play took place in France, it had nothing whatsoever to do with the French Revolution; this didn't stop Griffith from plunking the storyline smack dab in the middle of that late-18th-century maelstrom, allowing him full scope for the spectacular scenes which had brought him worldwide fame. Lillian Gish plays Henriette, the sighted sister, while Dorothy Gish is cast as the visually impaired Louise. Henriette brings Louise to Paris, in search of a surgeon who might be able to restore her sister's sight. Henriette is kidnapped by a lascivious nobleman, leaving Louise to wander helplessly about until she too is "stolen" by a family of beggars. Rescued by kindhearted aristocrat Chevalier de Vaudrey (Joseph Schildkraut), Henriette begins the arduous search for her lost sister. Just before the film's intermission, Henriette hears Louise begging on the streets. Before they can be reunited, Henriette is arrested by minions of the evil nobleman who'd earlier tried to seduce her. Released from the Bastille by the revolutionaries, Henriette resumes her search, only to be arrested again--this time because she has consorted with the aristocracy, and is therefore a candidate for the guillotine. The stage is thus set for a thrilling "race to the rescue" climax, and of course the reuniting of the two orphans. Orphans of the Storm was filmed at Griffith's east coast studio in Mamaroneck, New York, which explains why the exteriors are always so overcast. In an effort to be topical, Griffith took every opportunity possible to equate the French revolution with the recent Bolshevik rebellion in Russia, and to warn his audience of the dangers of mob rule (this from a man who glorified the Ku Klux Klan in Birth of a Nation!) The film opened to excellent reviews and great business; Griffith, who always placed art above commerce, poured virtually every penny of profit into his "smaller" project, Isn't Life Wonderful, which died at the box office. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lillian Gish, Dorothy Gish, (more)
- 1922
Molly King has a duel role in this lightweight romance. Susan and Rosalie (both King) are twins who are raised by two different aunts. Susan grows up on a farm, while Rosalie is reared in society. Just before he comes home from college, Ted Harper (Creighton Hale) meets Susan and falls in love with her. Back home, he meets Rosalie and mistakes her for her sister. Rosalie keeps up the ruse, because her aunt approves of the young man's social standing, and because it allows her to carry on secretly with Harry Ives (Jerome Lawler). The aunt Susan has been living with dies, and she goes in search for the rich aunt. A man offers to help her and takes her to a sleazy roadhouse. There, Susan meets an old girlfriend of Ives. Because of what she learns, Susan is able to keep Rosalie from making a terrible mistake and running off with Ives. Rosalie regrets taking up Harper's time, and reunites him with Susan. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mollie King, Creighton Hale, (more)
- 1922
For a while, Mae Murray and her then-husband, director Robert Z. Leonard, were an unstoppable team. They had their own production company, and this comedy-drama followed in the wake of the massively successful Peacock Alley. Murray plays Dolores de Lisa, the Spanish-American daughter of the aristocratic Eduardo de Lisa (Charles Lane). Dolores's New York upbringing has turned her into a carefree flapper, and when her old world aunt, the Marquesa de Lisa (Emily Fitzroy), comes to visit, she insists on taking the girl back to Spain to become a lady. But Dolores continues her playful ways and becomes infatuated with toreador Carrita (Robert W. Frazer), even though she has a fiancé, Ralph Kellogg (Vincent Coleman), back in the States. By the time Kellogg arrives in Spain, with Dolores's father and drunken brother, Carlos (Creighton Hale), Dolores has run off to the bullfights. While the men are searching for her, they get into a lot of trouble, and Dolores has to help save them. After all the difficulty she has caused, Dolores decides to return to Kellogg and lead a more sedate life. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mae Murray, Creighton Hale, (more)
- 1923
The Parisian settings of George Du Maurier's novel were faithfully recreated for this production -- which is more than can be said for Maurice Tourneur's 1915 version of the film. It was the first American feature for French actress Andree Lafayette, and Arthur Edmund Carewe gives a skillful performance as Svengali (although John Barrymore's performance in the 1931 talkie version is definitive). Trilby (Lafayette) is toiling away in a French laundry when she meets a young English art student. She calls him Little Billee (Creighton Hale), and they have a romance. But she comes under the influence of a musician, Svengali, who has hypnotic powers. On the night of Trilby's engagement to Billee, Svengali steals her away, and with his powers, turns her into a brilliant concert singer. One night Billee and his friends (Philo McCullough and Francis McDonald) see her perform. Svengali has a heart attack and dies, and Trilby loses her beautiful voice. Although she is now free of Svengali's influence, the strain is too much for her and she dies. There were two endings made of this picture -- one was Du Maurier's tragic ending and the other was the typically happy Hollywood finish. An interesting note: the 1915 Maurice Tourneur version starred Clara Kimball Young, who was then married to James Young, the director of the 1923 version. James Young was also in the cast of the Tourneur version. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Andree Lafayette, Arthur Edmund Carewe, (more)
- 1923
This light comedy featured an "all-star cast" that really did contain some of the better also-rans of the silent era. Doris May stars as Bonnie Day, a rambunctious young lady who is rankled when she is expelled from college for serving tea in her room. She goes on to open up a tearoom in a fancy hotel, saving all the profits to pay the legal fees for her father (Ralph Lewis), who has been unjustly jailed. Mr. Day's rival has embroiled him in a crooked stock deal and made him appear to be the guilty party. Meanwhile, Bonnie is in the midst of a romantic dilemma; her Aunt Pearl (Rosemary Theby) wants her to wed Napoleon Dobbings (Stuart Holmes), but Bonnie much prefers helpful young lawyer Art Binger (Creighton Hale). After being thrown over, Dobbings tries to ruin Bonnie's business by informing the Purity League that she is putting liquor in her tea. The League members, who have names like Kitty Wiggle (Dale Fuller) and Mrs. Bump (Spike Rankin), are naturally horrified. But Bonnie outwits Dobbings by putting on a special show called "Tea - With a Kick." Bonnie's father is released, and Bonnie gets to marry her handsome attorney. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ralph Lewis, Doris May, (more)
- 1923
This rags-to-riches Broadway drama, which was made before Colleen Moore starred in the hit Flaming Youth, was actor/director Irving Cummings' first attempt at distribution. Although it was "suggested by" the stage play by James Kyrle MacCurdy, the basic story had been done many times before. A down-on-his-luck author (Creighton Hale) is telling his chauffeur friend, Barney Ryan (Tully Marshall), his tale of woe. Ryan's answer is to relate the story of Mary Ellis (Moore), a country girl who had many of the same struggles. Mary comes to the big city to become a star. Her gold-digging friend, Bubbles Revere (Alice Lake), helps her land a job in the chorus of a Broadway show, but she loses it when she turns down the advances of one of the show's owners. Although she has found romance with struggling songwriter George Colton (Johnnie Walker), Mary is ready to pack it in and go home. Just as she is getting ready to leave, she is arrested for the murder of a friend of the show's owner. The real murderer confesses, and Mary finds happiness and stardom with Colton, who writes a song and then a play based on her adventures. She becomes the play's star and is a hit. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Colleen Moore, Johnnie Walker, (more)
- 1923
Eleanor Boardman and William Haines came to Hollywood when they were winners in the same contest held by the Goldwyn studios. While Boardman's star rose faster than Haines' (with Brown of Harvard, he would eventually catch up), they appeared together in this comedy-drama adapted from the play by Austin Strong. Claude Gillingwater, who played Findley on Broadway, reprises his role. Three men -- Findley (Craig Biddle Jr.), James Trumbull (Creighton Hale), and Gaunt (Raymond Hatton) -- are all in love with the same woman. Although none of them win her, the men remain lifelong pals. As old bachelors (Findley is played by Gillingwater, William H. Crane is Trumbull, and Gaunt is Alec B. Francis), they're surprised when Sydney Fairchild (Boardman) shows up. Sydney is the grown daughter of the girl they lost, and her mother has willed her to the three men. She brings light into their lives until a con who knows her father tries to kill Trumbull, a judge. Findley's nephew, Gordon Schuyler (Haines), helps her untangle the mess, and weds her in the bargain. Eventually, a real-life wedding would happen as a result of the film -- director King Vidor met Boardman while casting the picture, and they married in 1926. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eleanor Boardman
- 1924
This powerful drama, based on the novel The Master of Man, by Sir Hall Caine, was the first time Swedish director Victor Sjorstrom made a film in America. When her stepfather (De Witt Jennings) locks her out of the house, Bessie Collister (Mae Busch) finds refuge with Victor Stowell (Conrad Nagel), who she had met earlier that evening at a dance. They spend the night together and Stowell decides he must marry her instead of his fiancee, Fennella Stanley (Patsy Ruth Miller). When he goes to tell his father, the deemster (a judicial officer on the Isle of Man, where the action takes place), Stowell finds him dead. Victor's friend, Alick Gell (Creighton Hale), falls in love with Bessie, but runs home to her mother (Evelyn Selbie) after finding out she is pregnant. Stowell becomes deemster in his father's place, and his first case is Bessie, who is accused of killing her baby. Although Gell defends Bessie, she is sentenced to die. Stowell helps Bessie escape from jail, and she runs away with Gell. Enraged at Bessie's escape, am mob gathers and Stowell admits to being the man who helped her -- and that he is the father of her dead child. He gets a two-year prison sentence, but Fennella has forgiven him his transgression, and meets him at the prison where they are married. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Hobart Bosworth, Creighton Hale, (more)
Viennese doctor Monte Blue is madly in love with his wife Florence Vidor--so much so that many suspect that they aren't married at all! Vidor's best friend Marie Prevost is an incurable coquette; Marie's divorce-bound husband Adolphe Menjou hires detective Harry Myers to keep tabs on his wife. Inevitably, Prevost meets and flirts with the true-blue Blue. Meanwhile, Blue's lecherous partner Creighton Hale sets his sights on innocent Vidor. Thanks to the misunderstandings of detective Myers, both Blue and Vidor are suspected of infidelity, but all ends well as doctor and wife are reunited and Prevost ends up with her male counterpart Hale. The first of Ernst Lubitsch's sophisticated sex farces, The Marriage Circle was reportedly Lubitsch's favorite film; he would remake it (and improve upon it tenfold) in 1932 as the sprightly musical One Hour With You, with Maurice Chevalier and Jeanette MacDonald. Both original and remake were based on Only a Dream, a play by Lothar Schmidt. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Florence Vidor, Monte Blue, (more)
- 1924
This epic Western-melodrama was based on the popular novel by Harold Bell Wright. Two old prospectors, Thad Grove (Charlie Murray) and Bob Hill (Bert Woodruff) find an infant in the cabin belonging to Sonora Jack (Mitchell Lewis), a notorious bandit. The girl, Marta, grows to womanhood (to be played by Dorothy Mackaill). Hugh Edwards (Pat O'Malley), who has been falsely accused of embezzlement, escapes to the West, where he meets Marta and they fall in love. Natachee (Robert W. Frazer), an Indian educated in White ways, rescues Marta when she rides into a storm, and Edwards saves him from bandits. The grateful Natachee shows him the mine with the iron door, which contains a wealth of gold. Sonora Jack shows up, and, angry at not being able to find the mine himself, kidnaps Marta and holds her for ransom. Edwards and Natachee hunt him down and rescue the girl. Natachee kills the bandit, and papers prove that Marta's father is the one who embezzled the funds and that he confessed before he died. Sol Lesser, who produced this film, remade it as a talkie in 1936. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- 1924
Based on the play Mary the Third by Rachel Crothers, Wine of Youth concerns Mary (Eleanor Boardman), a flapper whose mother (Eulalie Jensen) and grandmother (Gertrude Claire) were also named Mary. The first two Marys worked all their feminine wiles to snare their husbands, but the youngest Mary doesn't know if she really wants to be tied down. Two young men vie for her hand: sweet natured Lynn (Ben Lyon) and the charming but aggressive Hal (William Haines, playing the type of character that would later make him famous). Mary can't choose between the two of them, so, after a wild party, she decides to take them both on a camping trip, along with her pal, Tish (Pauline Garon), and Tish's sweetheart, Max (William Collier Jr.). Tish and Max decide to "do the right thing" and get married. It doesn't take long for Mary, meanwhile, to disqualify the pushy Hal, and insist that the party return home. When Mary enters her house she overhears her mother and father (E.J. Ratcliffe) arguing over her escapade, and she believes that they no longer love each other. This revelation causes her to lose all faith in the institution of marriage. Her mother decides to leave. When she faints, her husband believes she has been poisoned. This makes him realize how much he really does care. When Mary sees this she decides to accept Lynn's proposal. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eleanor Boardman, James Morrison, (more)
- 1924
This farce comedy stars Marie Prevost and Monte Blue. Ernest Todd (Blue) is not doing very well in the insurance business, so his pal, Billy Breese (Creighton Hale), suggests that he use his wife, Mabel (Prevost), to vamp customers, thus luring them in. Mabel obliges by flirting with Henry Bancks (Claude Gillingwater) at a jazz party the couple is attending, but Todd is not happy with the situation. The couple argues after Mabel has gone to a cabaret with Bancks, and they separate. Todd is forced to run the house solo and he fails miserably. When he runs into Mabel at a diner, he begs for her help. She agrees to act as if they have made up so that Todd can entertain Bancks at home. Everything goes wrong, but Bancks still signs up for a big policy and Mabel decides to return to her husband. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marie Prevost, Monte Blue, (more)
- 1924
Irene Rich was one of Warner Bros.' new stars when she made this drama. Poverty-stricken singer Carol Drayton (Rich) attempts suicide, but she is saved by Rose (Louise Fazenda), a woman of the streets. They go to eat at a disreputable cafe where they are joined by the wealthy Gordon Duane (Frank Elliot). The place is raided and Carol is arrested. When she is released and wandering the streets, Carol is approached by Bobby Bleecker (Creighton Hale), who wants her to sing underneath the window of his sweetheart, Aline Sturdevant (a pre-stardom Clara Bow). Carol's beautiful voice is heard by Stratini (Marc MacDermott), a famous impresario who offers to teach her. Trouble follows her when Whitney Duane (Ricardo Cortez) falls in love with her and hears gossip about her. Then she borrows money from Bleecker to help Rose, and Aline becomes jealous of the attention her sweetheart is paying the singer. Finally, when faced with the reappearance of Gordon Duane, Carol decides to tell the truth about her past troubles. She is about to go away, but Stratini stops her and admits that he has fallen for her. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Irene Rich, Ricardo Cortez, (more)
