Ellen McNulty leaves her New Jersey hamburger stand and heads west to pay a surprise visit to her son and his new bride. When Ellen arrives, her daughter-in-law mistakes her for the maid she has hired for a big party they are throwing. Rather than cause any embarrassment, Ellen goes along with the charade, which leads to many complications.
A couple attempts to win custody of their orphaned grandson, who's being raised by his veterinarian uncle in a racetrack environment.
Grace Darmond, who had made quite a splash in the 1921 (and still extant) serial The Hope Diamond Mystery, returned to the Saturday matinees as Marjorie Stanton, the treasure-hunting damsel-in-distress of A Dangerous Adventure, produced in 15 chapters and directed by two of the Warner Brothers, Sam and Jack L. Warner. Marjorie and her sister Edith (Derelys Perdue) accompany their uncle (Jack Richardson) on a treasure hunt to Darkest Africa, where the latter fiendishly attempts to sell Marjorie to Ubanga (Rex de Roselli), the local High Priest. Happily, also along for the ride is handsome MacDonald Hayden (Philo McCullough), a wild game hunter who rescues both girls from several fates worse than death.
15 chapter adventure serial: 1. The Escape 2. Fighting Back 3. Within the Noose 4. Tearing Through 5. Blotted Out 6. The Hidden Blow 7. Dynamite Doom 8. The Crusher 9. Into the Jaws 10. Blades of Horror 11. Shot Into Space 12. Facing Eternity 13. A Human Pendulum 14. The Lakes of Fire 15. The Final Trump
Returning to his father's cattle ranch after the excitement of serving in combat overseas, Bud McGraw becomes restless, and his father decides to send him to an old friend who commands the Border Police in Texas. On the way he meets Peggy Hughes, accompanying her Uncle Graham, a customs inspector, and he retrieves her hat from the rails of a train. At the headquarters, numerous scrapes and fights win him the admiration of, and friendship with, the men. Lazaro, a Secret Service agent, invites Mrs. Graham and Peggy, who are staying at the border station, for an automobile ride, and they are captured by bandits and held for ransom. Bud and his pals deliver the ransom and discover that Lazaro is the bandit chief. Lazaro refuses to release Peggy, but a jealous rival, Nita de Garma, causes his downfall and shoots him as the Border Police arrive to rescue the party.
The only son of Gov. Adele Fenway, Bob, is engaged to Marian Lee, and at a dinner Adele announces her intention of giving them a wedding house. Having refused to support a water power bill endorsed by Jim Dornton, the political boss of the state, the governor is threatened.
Since she is an only child, Becky Knight (Vivian Martin) is a bit spoiled by her parents (P.H. Sosso and Alice Knowland), who run a general store. They somehow manage to save up enough money to send Becky away to boarding school. The other girls come from very wealthy families and Becky allows them to believe that she comes from a rich family, too. One of her classmates invites her to her home, where she meets Tom Fielding (Jack Holt), a young doctor. He falls in love with Becky, and she never gets the opportunity to tell him the truth about her background.
At the suggestion of his sons Horace and Henry, aging Ebenezer Boyce turns over control of his pistol factory to Martin. However, when Ebenezer discovers the extent of Martin's dishonesty and corruption, the shock gives the old man a heart attack and he dies. Soon afterward Martin is discovered dead, and the brothers begin to suspect each other of the murder.
The story of a racetrack tout whose prayers could bring a dry or muddy racetrack, and how he learned to capitalize on those powers. Until the day he lost the power and bet the wrong way.
In order to prove his manliness to the girl he loves, a young urban dandy takes a job at a dude ranch. Predictable misadventure ensues in this poorly-made early talkie.
A Mountie and his dog must bring in his wanted brother.
A dog and his dead master's brother track down murderers.
Cowboy Snappy Walton (Art Acord) trying to same a damsel in distress, hunting down the bad men that's troubling her in this 2-reel western.
Back in '65 there was an old Southern fire eater, Pennington, and his daughter, Lucille, fell in love with Carr who was then a lieutenant in the small Yankee force that arrived in their city at the base of the mountains. When the confederacy fell, Pennington fled into the mountains with his daughter, rather than submit and there buried himself in the same place where Carr now lived with Rosemary. Several years passed and Lucille did not forget Carr, her Yankee lover. It was then that fate brought them together and old Pennington finally consented to the marriage, exacting a promise from Carr, not to take Lucille away from him and her mountain home.
After experimenting on himself and becoming invisible, scientist Jack Griffin, now aggressive due to the drug's effects, seeks a way to reverse the experiment at any cost.
Mona Stewart, madcap, spoiled daughter of a wealthy man, becomes upset when she learns that her father is engaged to a woman she hates. She runs away, via various modes of transportation, and hires an ex-con, David Mannering, to drive her around as she eludes the all-out search conducted by her father and her fiancée, Ronnie Van Zandt. A romance is blossoming until her chauffeur is arrested for the murder of a crime-syndicate boss.
"Fearless" the dog saves the day in this silent short.
A struggling lawyer is named as special prosecutor in a racketeering case.
A pretty female drummer charms the rural swains. She borrows money and makes away with it. The village belle then refuses to take back her old admirers and weds another.
Richard Mead was a sheepherder who lived with his daughter in a hut in the mountains. He was hated by the cattlemen and was ordered to quit the range. Returning to his home he tells his daughter what has happened, and prepares to protect himself.
In Southern California lived Jose de Cabrillo on an estate which he had inherited from his ancestors, who obtained the land from the King of Spain. The scene is laid in the year 1840, "Before the Gringo came." A young American, Sam Blythe. who wishes to settle in California, notices in riding by the gate of the ranch, that it is offered for sale. He says he will buy it if the olive industry is what he desires. Mercedes, the daughter of Jose, is incensed at the thought of her father's selling the ranch, and especially so when she thinks of an American as a possible owner.
James Collins leaves his dear old mother and goes West, where he becomes connected with the Bar Diamond Outfit. He finds the life of a cowboy arduous and the pay meager. The possibilities of owning a herd of his own by blotting brands or branding calves, occurs to him, as it has to many others, who desire quick results from very little effort. Six months later, he is a full-fledged cattle thief, branding cattle, under his own registered brand, while ostensibly an honest cowboy in the employ of the Bar Diamond Ranch. He writes his mother of his success and she, never dreaming of the hazardous occupation her son is following, plans to join him in the West.
Eastern capitalists hire a stranger to head out to Arizona to investigate property near the Bar C Ranch, which contains gold. The Bar C is run by Buck Moran, and he and his cowboys are a lawless bunch. They don't know about the gold, but Dave Moore does, and so does his daughter Bobbie, whom he dresses up like a boy. Her true gender is eventually sussed out by the stranger.
'Calamity,' having fallen into money, receives a letter purporting to be from two long lost cousins, who were really Los Angeles confidence men. With her burro she goes to Los Angeles. After many adventures, she succeeds in getting her burro into the Pullman, and is met at the great amusement park, Venice, by the confidence men.
While trying to nab a gang of diamond smugglers, the police are notified by Scotland Yard that the gang's leader, a beautiful Englishwoman who was on her way to the States to take control of the gang, has been caught. Because the American gangsters don't know what their English boss looks like, the police persuade a female impersonator to pretend to be her and infiltrate the gang.
Pete Marlan is a gambler with an unsavory past. Suspected of being an outlaw, Pete plays along with this misconception, the better to infiltrate a gang of smugglers. Along the way, he clears the name of the brother of Texas Ranger Mike Donovan, and helps patch up the romance between Donovan and heroine Bernice.
Egotistical race-car driver Dusty Rhoades learns that humility pays off even better than acclaim.
Christine, known as Tiny, whose mother eloped with a circus clown and became a parachutist, spends most of her time with her lame dog and an elephant.
The sheriff, Dan Beckham, and his deputy, Bud Cameron, are posting signs offering a reward for the capture of Cheyenne Harry, accused of holding up a Wells Fargo shipment. Shortly after they have tacked the sign to a tree Cheyenne Harry removes it.
Restored by the George Eastman House in 2001, this 1928 serial was considered a “last hurrah” for the silent-era serial, and brought together some of the biggest names of the era: director J.P. McGowan, actors Francis Ford and Joe Bonomo (a carnival strongman-turned-actor), producer Trem Carr (who would later help found Monogram Pictures), and a slew of silent-era supporting icons such as Ruth Hiatt, Grace Cunard, and more. Chapter names like “The Clutching Claw,” “The Devil’s Dice, “Galloping Fury,” and “The Invisible Hand” offer all one needs to know of the film’s concerns: to promise and deliver as much action and suspense as possible, and move our intrepid hero and heroine from one perilous situation to another. One of the biggest stars of the early silent era and a successful serials director in his own right, Francis Ford was the brother of director John Ford.
Sheriff Crane's wife and child are preparing for a little journey with their wagon and team. On arriving at the store, the wife, on attempting to get out, stumbles and startles the horses, which causes them to run away, the child hanging on to the wagon. This is seen by Harry, who gives chase, captures the runaway horses, and returns the child, unhurt, to the mother
Major Carter, owner of the Sunset mines, reads of a reward offered for Cheyenne Harry if captured. The butler gives him a telegram telling of the flooding of several shafts in his mine. He is soon on the way to the mine in his car. Ruth, his daughter, follows in her roadster.
Tiger Thompson promises a dying train robber to mind his innocent daughter and return the stolen loot. Along the way, Thompson is attacked by the dead man's gang but manages to reach the law (and the girl) in one piece and with the stolen money intact.
Wanted for a murder he didn't commit, Lightnin' Jack travels to Arizona where he gets a job on the Manning ranch. Two men are out to get the Manning ranch and see their chance when Manning decides to use Lightnin's horse in the big race. They get Manning to bet his ranch and then kidnap Lightnin' so he won't be there to ride.
Out to avenge his brother's death at the hands of cattleman Kingston, Tim gets hired at Dawley's sheep ranch. The sheep men are greatly outnumbered but Tim has some tricks planned that will even the odds.
A ranchman is best by a bully whose unwelcome attentions are resented by the ranchman's daughter. Everything seems to be in favor of the bully until the hero makes his appearance, when the tide changes and one defeat after another is the lot of the vicious bully until he is driven away in disgrace.
Honest Arizona rancher Sam Gardner, goes with his motherless son Billy to the city, where he is cheated out of ten thousand dollars by a band of crooks. Taking up residence in a boardinghouse where he meets Jane Ingraham, Sam decides that the only way to regain his losses is by gambling. To achieve this, he makes friends with gambler Kittie Hinch who takes him to Jack Bloom's gambling house. When Bloom begins flirting with Hinch's wife Florry, the injured husband kills his rival and the evidence points to Sam as the killer. Jane tries to provide him with an alibi, but fails. Just as things look grim for the rancher, a wire arrives from Hinch, now in Mexico, confessing to the crime. His faith in mankind thus rewarded, Sam is free to marry Jane
A scrupulously honest lawyer discovers that the client he's gotten off was really guilty.
One of the earliest surviving short films by Franke Borzage. A simple western about a man who enjoys boozing, gambling and women.
A drifter enters town to establish himself. Working as a cowhand, he meets the boss's daughter, who's eager to absorb some local color.
Dan (Kenneth MacDonald) knocks out the foreman (Boris Karloff) at his workplace so the foreman accuses him of stealing money from the company safe. Dan takes off to visit his girlfriend when they're attacked by a man who Dan eventually knocks out with a single punch. A boxing manager see this and signs him up.
The setting is the Old West town of Paradise, Nevada, where a young woman, Mercedes Murphy (played by Louise Glaum), co-owns and operates a combination saloon and dance hall called the Red Hen with her business partner, Slick Barney (played by Jack Richardson). Her little half-sister, Olive "Live" Sumner (played by Mildred Harris), who is crippled, lives with her and she makes every effort to protect the child. A tough, but good-hearted businesswoman, Mercedes shows a tender side at home with Live. Her partner, Slick, and a cowboy called the Heller (played by John Gilbert), who has a heart of gold, are both interested in Live.
A Mexican girl stabs a man who has wronged her. The hero is arrested for the crime and though the crime cannot be fastened upon him, is advised by the court to leave town. His sweetheart clears him.
Trouble begins when a hated cad of a sponsor is found murdered during the climax of a live radio show. A radio engineer then tries to solve the murder.
Prizefighter Jimmy Nolan, facing an opportunity to get a championship fight, is knocked out when he sustains what is apparently a permanent injury to his arm. From there, Nolan's path leads downhill. He is drawn into a romance with a nightclub entertainer, then is framed on a theft charge by a jealous suitor. After his prison term, Nolan makes a spectacular comeback in a fight which proves his courage and integrity, while disproving the fallacy about the old sports adage that "they never come back."
A long-absent father is reunited with his daughter, who still holds a grudge that he had deserted his family years earlier.
Wanting the Lance ranch, Burkett kills Lance and brings in an imposter to pose as the heir Ken Lance. Ken learns of the plan, captures the imposter, and arrives posing as himself. In an ensuing gunfight a man is killed and Ken is in trouble when not only is he accused of the murder, but the imposter escapes and convinces the Sheriff he's the real Ken Lance.
During World War I, Jane Whiting, a bright young lawyer who is engaged to Senator Wheeler, is assigned by the district attorney to expose a gang of spies who are collecting money for the German government through the operation of a fraudulent charity organization. Wheeler's son Frank has fallen in love with Lola Schram, whose pro-German mother is forcing the girl to work for Frederick Kube, the head of the spy ring, but when Kube learns of the romance, he orders Mrs. Schram to break it off. When Lola finally confesses her activities to Frank, Kube kills her and then frames Frank for the murder. Meanwhile, Jane, through the help of Jimmy and Tilly Ware, has discovered Kube's headquarters and modus operandi
Beleaguered adventurer Carl Denham returns to the island where he found King Kong.
After being dismissed for imitating his boss's voice on radio, former Assistant District Attorney Richard Deming witnesses a store robbery and is taken captive by the criminals. Suspected of the crime, he is sought by the police, but his sweetheart, Marie, convinced of his innocence, enlists the help of two friends, a newspaper reporter and a half-witted detective. Hoping to win the girl's favor, the two go to the gangsters' hideout, encounter a violent gang war, and accidently set off a case of police tear bombs. The police, summoned by Marie, arrive just in time to save the kidnaped attorney.
A man is promised $25,000 if he can bring the circulation of a newspaper up to one million.
Sailors Pike and Shorty are on leave when a street woman swindles them out of some money by telling them she is looking for her long-lost brother, a sailor.
An American woman falls in love with a romantic Parisian head waiter who tries to save her from her possessive wealthy ex-husband who wants to keep her under his control.
A young woman hits Hollywood, determined to become a star.
Working under cover, Tex goes south of the border and joins Rand's gang where he befriends gang member Kansas. He plans to lead the gang into the Sheriff's trap, but hopes to spare his new friend.
Confirming his principle that no one escapes the news, a tabloid editor prints a scathing story about his wife.
Bob Warner sells some cattle to two men who later drug him and rob him of the sale money. He takes a job with a medicine show as a barker, offering a reward to any spectator to last three rounds in fighting him. While in the ring, he notices in the audience the two men who stole his money. He knocks out his contestant, pursues the crooks, and recovers the money.
In 1911, minor stage comic, Vernon Castle meets the stage-struck Irene Foote. A few misadventures later, they marry and then abandon comedy to attempt a dancing career together. While they're performing in Paris, an agent sees them rehearse and starts them on their brilliant career as the world's foremost ballroom dancers. However, at the height of their fame, World War I begins.
Newspaper editor (Foster) will do almost anything to increase circulation. He campaigns to free a condemned man while accusing a wealthy ex-criminal of a string of murders.
After the death of a United States Senator, idealistic Jefferson Smith is appointed as his replacement in Washington. Soon, the naive and earnest new senator has to battle political corruption.
A mobster's moll leads a newsman, cub reporter and photographer to a scoop.
Three sisters come to Hollywood to be movie stars. Complications arise when two of them fall in love with the same man.
Outlaw Black Deering leads a band of desperadoes, but decides to give up the bandit life. Agreeing to go on one last job with his gang, he is captured when his henchman Jordan betrays the gang for the reward. Deering escapes and determines to avenge himself on Jordan.
An US Army misfit and his pals roam the west in search of adventure. Arriving in a small town, they befriend the elderly newspaper editor and his young granddaughter. The trio learn that the community is under the thumb of a covetous land baron, who's endeavoring to push out ranch owners and take over the territory.
The Daring Young Man is hotshot-reporter Don McLane, played by James Dunn. Always on the prowl for a good story, McLane is persistently outscooped by his rival, sob sister Martha Allen (Mae Clarke). After several reels of double-crossing one another, hero and heroine give in to the inevitable and fall in love. But as Martha waits at the altar in her wedding gown, McLane is off on another crusade, this time getting himself arrested to expose corruption within the prison system.
It's no accident when wealthy Charles falls for Jean. Jean is a con artist with her sights set on Charles' fortune. Matters complicate when Jean starts falling for her mark. When Charles suspects Jean is a gold digger, he dumps her. Jean, fixated on revenge and still pining for the millionaire, devises a plan to get back in Charles' life. With love and payback on her mind, she re-introduces herself to Charles, this time as an aristocrat named Lady Eve Sidwich.
Young Stella Mowbray, from a wealthy family, goes to work in a slum hospital and campaigns for improved conditions for the poor.
Silent film directed by Irvin Willat
The distant relative is a scheming woman who installs herself as the guardian of the two orphan girls and then tries to gain possession of their ranch. Cowboy friends of the orphan girls expose the schemer and her accomplice.
A self-made businessman rekindles a romance with a former flame while their two teenage children begin a romance of their own with drastic consequences for both couples.
A handsome boxer is sent out to manage his father's ranch. This is no easy task, as the ranch foreman's a no-good louse!
Helen Williams, lured to a wild cattle-town on the promise of a job learns that the job she has is not the kind she thought she had, and finds herself selling drinks and dancing with drunk cowboys in the saloon. She meets Jim Blake, the rough-and-ready foreman of the Bar-X Ranch and they fall in love. And face more than a few problems on the way to getting married.
Idealistic young American falls under the influence of Communist agitators.
Auctioneer Spot Cash Cutler is planning the scam of a lifetime, but will he get burned?
1928 was the last year when silent films dominated the market, and this aviation-based action serial from Pathe was one of the studio's last. Some pieces are no longer extant (half of chapters 3&6, all of 7, 8, and 9, and the beginning of the 10th and final chapter), but the beginning and end are there as well as enough to follow the action adequately. The surviving Grapevine print is beautifully restored and tinted in spots, although you can tell the print is deteriorated in some of the surviving sections. Basically, an inventor (Josef Swickard, in a role not unlike the one he later played in THE LOST CITY) has created a silencer/muffler for planes to silence any engine sounds, and the bad guys are out to steal the invention and put it to evil use.
Marked Money stars Junior Coghlan as the orphaned son of a seafaring man. His late father has left instructions that The Boy is to be delivered to the home of Captain Fairchild (Bert Woodruff) the father's old sailing master, along with $25,000 in cash to finance the boy's education. The villains aren't interested at all in The Boy, but they do dearly covet the 25 grand he carries with him in a box. (From the Rotten Tomatoes page: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/marked_money/)
Millionaire sportsman Hiram Brighton hires gumshoe Michael Shayne to keep his spoiled daughter Phyllis away from racetrack betting windows and roulette wheels. After Phyllis slips away and continues her compulsive gambling, Shayne fakes the murder of her gambler boyfriend, who is also romancing the daughter of casino owner Benny Gordon, in order to frighten her. When the tout really ends up murdered, Shayne and Phyllis' Aunt Olivia, an avid reader of murder mysteries, both try to find the identity of the killer.
Dashing pirate Geoffrey Thorpe plunders Spanish ships for Queen Elizabeth I and falls in love with Dona Maria, a beautiful Spanish royal he captures.
The boys get jobs as a butler and maid-- Stan in drag-- for a dinner party. When that ends in disaster, they resort to sweeping streets and accidentally capture a bank robber. The grateful bank president sends them to Oxford, at their request, and higher-education hijinks ensue.
A love story that takes place at the time of the gold rush. Prospector Allister Burke is in love with Mary, but he believe the slanderous lies that are spread by Burke, his competitor.
The ups and downs in the lives and careers of a group of ambitious young actresses and show girls from disparate backgrounds brought together in a theatrical hostel.
Robert, a young businessman, has a house party at his shooting lodge in the Adirondack Mountains. Among the guests are Vera, with whom Robert is in love, and Inez, who in her turn, loves Robert. To complicate matters, Inez is loved by Tom. He proposes to Inez and is refused. Inez decides to remove Vera from his life, and to this end sends for Graham to come and camp near them. Graham progresses far enough in his suit to arrange a meeting with Vera alone. Inez, in the meantime, is making her advances to Robert and to all outward appearances her plan is working. On the evening of his engagement with Vera while waiting, Graham passes the time away smoking, and as he leaves his camp for the meeting place. He smells smoke and sees the fire caused by his carelessness. Leaving Vera to her fate, Graham has alarmed everyone. Failing to find her in the house, The fire is raging on every side but they find her and carry her to safety. Months later, Robert and Vera have a little love scene.
Corrupt politicians resort to murder and blackmail when a young boy accidentally witnesses them taking payoffs.
A love quadrangle in a Western mining town leads to fisticuffs and reconciliation before the fade out.
Lem Schofield, a lawyer in a one-time small-town turned industrialized big city, runs his firm on examples set by Abraham Lincoln and is a friend to the poor. Clay Clinton, his late partner's son joins the firm but is anxious for fast success and considers Schofield's old-fashioned principles antiquated. Being in love with Schofield's daughter and impatient for success he moves to offices supplied by the city's most powerful industrialist, J.T. Tapley, who has plans to use Clay's good family lineage as a stepping stone to political power. The unscrupulous Tapley precipitates a strike in his factory mill which causes a rupture between the former partners. Schofield sets out to bring Tapley and his political henchmen to justice.
This low-budget western stars Tim McCoy as federal agent Tim Hammond, who follows a gang of big-city gangsters to the Wide Open Spaces. Don't be fooled by the opening credits: the "Peter Stewart" listed as director Gun Code was actually PRC workhorse Sam Newfield.
Following a killing and robbery in a big city back east, gang leader Kedge Darvas and some of his henchies take a train to a small western town in Idaho, with intentions of hiding out there until things cool down back in Chi or NYC, or wherever they lammed from.They are welcomed with open arms by the citizens under the impression they are there as capital investors with money to spend. Before long, Darvas figures the town is ripe for the taking and sends word for reinforcements, and each arriving train unloads a few suits and snappy-brim hats.Then they get rough, kill Sheriff Posey Meed and rile up the citizens, led by cowhand Brad Farley, who had Darvas spotted for a wrong number just by the way he made moves on Sue Vancey.
After the death of her husband, Mrs. Kendall found the management of the ranch, with its attendant responsibilities, a source of worry. Her daughter, recently returned from an Eastern boarding school, could not assist her and, although the cowboys in her employ were faithful, the ranch needed an executive head. John Morgan, a neighboring ranchman, had long cast envious eyes upon the widow's increasing herd of cattle, and desired to marry the daughter in order to obtain possession of her ranch. He offers to manage her affairs for her, but the widow distrusts him and refuses his offer.
During the raid on an emigrant train the girl and her brother, the only survivors, are attacked by the villain who kidnaps the girl and takes her to the camp of Calamity Anne, who takes a liking to the girl and becomes her guardian angel. The girl's brother is killed and a ranger takes the locket containing the girl's picture from his neck and recognizes the girl in Calamity Anne's camp. Later, Calamity Anne holds the villain and his band at bay and the girl and the ranger make their escape. The girl and the ranger come to the spot where the girl's brother is buried and here she asks the ranger if he is going to leave her there alone. His answer is to take her into his arms.
A woman attempts to shelter a young girl from the publicity surrounding her socialite parents' divorce.
An Irish policeman handles gangsters, a mystery woman and a wise-guy reporter.
Wastrel son of a railroad magnate, Jack's father becomes frustrated with his son's wild ways. To prove himself, Jack goes to work in the railroad yard as a laborer. An escaped convict, Silent Bill Brachley, steals Jack's car, and the chase leads to a meeting between Jack, the engineer of the Midnight Express, and the engineer's pretty daughter, Mary. As he is led back to jail, Brachley swears revenge.
Roscoe the Rainmaker is invited to California (with sidekick "Billy") to relieve a terrible dry spell and to save the community from an unscrupulous businessman who stands to profit from the drought
Jim Richeson was a haunted man, but he smiled carelessly as he handled the sign offering a reward for his capture, dead or alive. He smiled again as he wheeled his horse and galloped off down the road, waving a satirical adieu to the posse. A pretty mountain girl with pail in hand, stood at the pump when Jim rode up. He took the pail from her, drank deeply, and then, as an afterthought, seized her and kissed her heartily. Then he leisurely mounted his horse and galloped off. Furious at the insult, the girl rushed for a gun, only to meet her lover, just as he rounded the bunkhouse. That person at once flew into a passion and gave hot chase to the vanishing bandit, vowing to have his life. Meanwhile, the girl, at the head of a posse, followed less swiftly. A royal battle took place in the mountains. Dick and Jim, sheltered behind the great rocks, tried every expedient known to the West in an effort to kill each other.
Historically significant as Universal's first 100% all-talkie, the production suffered from having a tight shooting schedule. Carl Laemmle was only able to rent the Fox Movietone sound-on-film recording system for one week, having to be filmed at night while the Fox Studio was closed down for the evenings.
Like many Easterners who suffer from consumption, "The White Plague," Jim Warren goes to Arizona for the curative powers of its dry climate. When he arrives in Tucson, though, he cannot find a room because he is a 'lunger.' Ill and despondent, Jim is befriended by Betty Blake, the daughter of rancher and town sheriff Frank Blake, who suggests that he try the open desert. Wandering the desert, Jim happens upon members of the gang headed by Scar-face Jordon, a notorious rustler.
After Wes Channing's partner, the feckless Buck Littleton, loses his half-interest in their ranch to gambler Flash Denby, Wes stands up against the sheriff's men when they try to seize the ranch-- land that has a gold mine on it. Denby tries to trick Mary Sims, granddaughter of Wes's neighbor Rufe Sims, into signing over the rights to the land. Denby's machinations are all set in order-- but Wes's right hook may prove to be a hell of a monkey wrench!
When a young woman named Barbara Clarke has an affair with adventurer Roger Coverman, it causes a scandal in the Puritanical town of Salem, Massachusetts. After a meddling girl arouses their suspicions, the town's elders accuse Barbara of being a witch. She is tried, convicted of sorcery and sentenced to death. As the townspeople prepare to burn Barbara at the stake, Roger tries desperately to save the woman he loves.
"Hurricane" Jack Foster is a smuggler who ignores his wife and child in order to pursue Marguerite Blair, the unhappy wife of the Chief Ranger of the North West Mounted Police. Foster lays plans for his final theft, after which he will elope with Marguerite, although Blair lays his own plans to thwart his rival. Dispirited over Blair's lack of attention, Marguerite nonetheless calls his office before running away with Foster in a last effort to reconcile with her husband. Marguerite cannot reach Blair but does receive a message that his remoteness has been due to his job rather than "another woman." When Foster then attempts to carry out his plan and knocks out Blair in the process, Marguerite does not hesitate to shoot Foster. With Foster and his gang rounded up, the Blairs reconcile.
Pampered Easterner Tom Ransom is sent West by his father, a meatpacking tycoon, to buy a large herd. Tom soon comes into conflict with the agents of Bennett, an unscrupulous rival, who tries to steal the herd from him. Tom eventually proves himself by outwitting Bennett.
Set in the Great White North, the film stars Bennett as the object of affections for several rugged northerners, including a couple of disreputable gamblers.
An eccentric, wealthy spinster, 'Queenie' Baxter is erroneously presumed to be kidnapped. She subsequently pretends to indeed be kidnapped, , in order to allow a reward of $50,000 to benefit an impecunious family headed by Tony Orsatti and his three sons, Blackie, Doc and Flash.
Bob Ford murders his best friend Jesse James in order to obtain a pardon that will free him to marry his girlfriend Cynthy. The guilt-stricken Ford soon finds himself greeted with derision and open mockery throughout town. He travels to Colorado to try his hand at prospecting in hopes that marriage with Cynthy is still in the cards.
Spendthrift Willie Hale again returns penniless to the family home in London. His father is none too pleased, but Willie smooth-talks him into letting him stay. At the same time he turns the charm on Dorothy Hope, whose father is big in linoleum and who, before Willie's arrival, was about to become engaged to a Russian aristocrat.
Art editor Madeleine Damian carries on numerous loveless affairs. After a failed relationship with advertiser Felix Courtland, the increasingly depressed Madeleine attempts suicide. When Jack Garet, her secretary and former lover, tries to blackmail her, Madeleine resigns and seeks a reclusive life. Neighbor David Cousins befriends Madeleine, but soon Courtland and Garet discover her whereabouts and disrupt her new life.
An heiress abandons an out-of-work husband, two sons and a lovesick daughter.
Two bit hood Eddie Condon (Kane Richmond) sells babies under the counter. A highly lucrative racket he soon finds out. But when will the police get wise to this highly immoral scheme of his? And will they be able to pin a rap on him before he goes a little too far? ALL IS TOLD in this EXCITING tale of CRIME and CORRUPTION!
A ranch owner hires a young woman (Texas Guinan) to serve as foreman over a rambunctious group of cowboys.
U.S. Marshal, Dan Patterson, goes undercover as a criminal to infiltrate a gang holding a young woman named Alice Allison captive. He must earn her trust while battling the outlaws and keeping his true identity hidden.
While on a "slumming" excursion, debutante Bobbie Walsh (Viola Dana) falls in love with tenement-district doctor Thornton (Allan Simpson). Not wishing to scare the doctor off, Bobbie doesn't tell him that she's the wealthy daughter of a prominent senator. But when Dr. Thornton ends up in night court after punching out a pair of would-be mashers, Bobbie is forced to reveal her true identity. The expected resentments arise, leading to the inevitable reconciliation. Star Viola Dana's final film.
The dying mother, tells her only child, an orphan, of the wealth and power of her family and of her royal blood.
Beware of Strangers is a 1917 American silent drama film directed by Colin Campbell
Dr. Hohner, theatre physician at the Vienna Royal Theatre, murders his mistress, the star soprano when his jealousy drives him to the point of mad obsession. Ten years later, another young singer reminds Hohner of the late diva and his old mania kicks in. Hohner wants to prevent her from singing for anyone but him, even if it means silencing her forever.
Janet sets out to find her circus ringleader father, who her mother abandoned believing him to be unfaithful. Along the way, Janet and her friend Peter join Colonel Simmonds's circus, she as a trick horse rider and he as a clown, but Janet cannot help but wonder why she finds Simmonds so familiar. The original, feature-length release of "The Sawdust Ring" is not known to survive.
Promising young lawyer Jack Dunn,, becomes a victim of drugs and loses his standing in the legal world. He passes his idle hours in the slums where he meets Nan Bishop, an underworld figure. Nan's influence helps to make a man out of Dunn and with her help he breaks his dependence on drugs and is successful in obtaining a position as a criminal lawyer. Years later, they meet again in a courtroom. Nan has been falsely accused of murder and Dunn is the prosecuting attorney. Learning that Dunn's professional future depends on his winning the case, Nan pleads guilty, but, at the last minute, the real criminal is discovered and Nan is cleared of the crime. She then accepts Dunn's offer of marriage and together they look forward to a happy future.
Patricia Reynolds, the belle of the summer resort she is visiting with her friend, Amy Powellson, attracts the attention of Arthur Kirby, whom Amy loves. On an evening drive, Arthur tries to kiss Patricia , whereupon she leaps from the car and walks home. While Amy, disguised in Patricia 's clothing, accompanies Arthur to a roadhouse, Patricia , walking near the beach, sees her invalid friend, Jim Wheeler, jump into the ocean intending to kill himself. After rescuing him, Patricia persuades Jim to visit a specialist, but when she later is accused of spending the night with Arthur, she refuses to defend herself in order to conceal Jim's attempted suicide.
Sylvia Hamilton rehabilitates an alcoholic attorney and marries him. When World War I breaks out, she is persuaded to help the German cause and later commits suicide rather than compromise her husbands career.
Cabaret dancer Suzie La Motte is in love with Jim Moran, a boxer, but she tempts a young man named John Browning. Moran and John get into a fight in which Moran accidentally shoots himself. Out of anger at John, Suzie accuses him of Moran's murder.
When brilliant lawyer Harry Sevier, an alcoholic, cannot cope with the prosecution's tactics, his innocent client Paddy the Brick goes to prison. After Harry's sweetheart Echo Allen, the daughter of Judge Beverly Allen, breaks their engagement, Harry leaves to combat his problem. Meanwhile, Cameron Craig, whose interest in a distilling corporation is threatened when a suit is brought before Judge Allen, steals incriminating love letters written by the Judge years earlier. Echo boards a train to offer to marry Craig for returning the letters. Harry, on the same train, and now beardless, follows Echo to Craig's home, where a burglary occurs. After Harry, not recognized by Echo, gives her the letters, Craig is shot, and Harry, along with Paddy--now a burglar--is sent to prison. Harry escapes and finds himself nominated to run for governor on the "dry" ticket. After Echo confirms that he was innocent of shooting Craig, Harry wins the election and her love.
Lieutenant Parker reports for duty to Major Wilkins, commanding Ft. Sill, where Geronimo is a prisoner. Parker quickly wins the love of Pauline, the major's daughter, and the undying hatred of Captain Gray. The captain plans to release Geronimo in the dead of the night, throwing the blame on Parker.
A film about male bonding. At the end of WW I, two Americans befriend a simple minded German and win him over into becoming an American. All three are still peacetime officers in the US Marines when an unscrupulous character steals Boyd's girl and his two buddies go off to rescue her. When they don't come back, Boyd goes after them to rescue all. This is all done in flashback from a court martial trial for desertion.
A once great stage and screen actor has fallen from fame because of his alcoholism; his young son is determined to see his father "make good" again.
In the Old West Charles Garvin and Clarice Winslow are happily engaged. One day artist, Ed Gardner arrives seeking lodging and is welcomed into Clarice's home, where he meets the young cowboy. However, when Charles must depart for a round-up, Ed begins to charm Clarice, who seems amused by his company and a triangle develops.
A cowboy takes a job as sheriff in a small town and finds that one of his first jobs is trying to stop trouble between newly arrived sheepmen and local cattle ranchers, who don't want the sheep grazing on "their" range.
The cattle on the Langton Ranch are mysteriously dying and cowhands are disappearing or being shot. Two Langton riders bring a wounded rider they found wounded and hung up in a barbed-wire fence to Sally Langton and report that her father is missing. A lone rider, Jess Ryder, tops a rise and sees a band of men working on some calves in a secluded corral, and he frowns as he sees what Bat Murchinson is doing.
President Franklin Roosevelt appoints a theatrical producer as the new Secretary of Amusement in order to cheer up an American public still suffering through the Depression. The new secretary soon runs afoul of political lobbyists out to destroy his department.
Lydia Lovell, a heartless society butterfly, seeks to know more about Dane Strong, a poet known as "the poet of the peaks" who lives in a cabin in the mountains. Based on John Keats's poem "La Belle Dame sans Merci."
Independently produced social drama directed by John Gorman.
Rubber-legged comedian Leon Errol made his talkie starring bow in Paramount's Only Saps Work. Based on a play by Owen Davis Sr., the film casts Errol as James Wilson, a kleptomaniac who starts with picking pockets and ends up robbing a bank. Wilson's friend Lawrence Payne (Richard Arlen) inadvertently aids our hero during one of his heists, ending up in deep doo-doo with the law. Before Wilson is able to extricate Payne from his dilemma for the sake of heroine Barbara Tanner (Mary Brian), he pauses long enough to pose as a private eye -- and even gives bellboy Oscar (Stu Erwin) tips on how to spot a crook! If only all of Leon Errol's feature films had been as consistently hilarious as Only Saps Work.
Jim, a cowboy, comes to town with the boys of the Lazy B, and stops at the Last Chance Saloon. One of the girls of the dancehall is Madge. Hardy, owner of a distant ranch, comes to her and offers her a position as housekeeper, which proposition she spurns. Jim has a flirtation with Madge, and she interests him. Late that night, Jim, well under the influence of liquor, chances to meet her again. On the impulse of the moment he asks her to marry him.
Immediate Lee, employed on the ranch owned by one Masters, is discharged by the manager through the influence of one of his men, who is in the brand blotting game with Masters. Beulah, a dance-hall girl, has attracted the attention of Hurley, a brand blotter, but prefers Lee. Hurley entraps Lee and cuts his mouth open with a wide gash, which leaves a permanent scar. Lee vows vengeance and follows the man all over the country. He at last meets him face to face, but Hurley is saved by the intercession of Beulah. He later is killed in a fierce encounter. The brand blotters are discovered and punished by the aid of Immediate Lee, and Beulah receives the reward of loyalty and devotion by becoming Lee's wife.
Brandon, a surveyor, dreams of building a railway to the west. He sets off with his son, Davy, to survey a route. They discover a new pass which will shave 200 miles off the expected distance, but they are set upon by a party of Cheyenne. One of them, a white renegade with only two fingers on his right hand, kills Brandon and scalps him. Davy is all alone now.
Engine No. 19 is the pride of Tom's heart, but as he is unable to lot drink alone he is discharged. Feeling that he no longer can obtain employment, he leaves home, and soon starts on the downward path. He is about to enter a bar-room when the face of his mother haunts him. He puts aside the temptation and decides to return home. A bandit tries to overpower the engineer on the Limited, but is captured by Tom who creeps over the top of the car. He refuses a reward, but states that if he had his position back he would prove himself a man. He returns to his mother and sweetheart who have read of his heroism and are pleased to see him.
A gambler shoots a man in self defense and receives a prison sentence. Upon release, he disguises as a mining engineer and pursues revenge on the judge who sentenced him.
This girl (a frowzy backwoods maiden who pines for the romance of the world), who has never known what it means to have the association of men, has derived all her romantic ideas from one lone novel, read when her father was away. She blossoms into womanhood and the call for companionship becomes insistent. One evening she slips away and travels to a distant ranch, to find employment as a maid-of-all-work, and it is here that she first experiences men. it is not as she thought and hoped it would be. They are rough, brutal and selfish. It is a rude awakening, and when the old lady, her employer, tells her to go back where she came from she accepts her advice, glad to get away from it all and live alone with her father
A woman suspects her husband to be a thief.
After being found wandering the streets of Los Angeles, a severely catatonic woman tells a doctor the complex story of how she wound up there.
A kind-hearted young man is thrown out of his corrupt home town of West Rome, Oklahoma. He falls asleep and dreams that he is back in the days of olden Rome, where he gets mixed up with court intrigue and a murder plot against the Emperor.
Fay Wray plays Jean Hastings, the wealthy and spoiled scion of a factory-owning family led by her irrepressible grandmother. Sparks fly when Jean meets Jim Devlin, the labor leader who’s spearheading a tense worker’s strike against the factory. After circumstances force Jean and Jim to spend a night together in his cabin, she begins questioning her family’s ruthless tactics. This hard-to-see Columbia film by British director Roy William Neill not only features Wray as a brunette but also includes an explosive depiction of labor strife. (Block Cinema)
U.S. Marshal James Hardeman investigates counterfeiters in Red Gulch and meets flower-selling orphan Two Bits.
While in Shanghai reporting on the Sino-Japanese war, Chris Hunter, a shrewd news reporter, meets pilot Alma Harding. She does not trust him, but he manages to hire her as his assistant. During an adventurous expedition through the jungles of South America, her opinion of him begins to change.
Jack Lanning defies his father by becoming a prizefighter. Although he is successful, Jack is exiled to Texas by his father. There he falls in love with Jenny Jenkins, a pretty girl whose widowed aunt has fallen in love with Jack. Jack helps the widow recover her ranch payroll, stolen by outlaws, and tries to find a way to marry Jenny without causing trouble with her aunt.
Dave Sethman has been brought up to believe that he is the half-breed son of Sethman, a tough rancher who opposes the plans of John Crawford, an eastern industrialist, to buy up a group of ranches. Crawford comes west with his daughter, Jean, and attempts to break the elder Sethman's opposition. Dave saves Jean from a runaway horse and later protects her when Murdock, Crawford's unprincipled assistant, makes unwanted advances. Sethman plans to rustle Crawford's cattle and is mortally wounded by him, telling Dave, as he lies dying, that Crawford is Dave's real father from whom he was stolen as an infant. Dave and Crawford are reconciled, and Crawford, whom Dave has shot in the hand, tells the boy that Jean is his adopted daughter, leaving the way free for a romance between the young people.
North of Alaska is a 1924 American silent adventure film directed by Frank S. Mattison.
Wealthy Easterner Dick Latham, determined to disprove his father Amos' accusation that he is an idler, rides the rails West to the mining town of Twin Bridges. Hugh Godson, the town's corrupt political boss, appoints Dick sheriff, supposing him an easily manipulated tenderfoot. To Godson's dismay, Dick proceeds to clean up Twin Bridges, closing the saloons and gambling dens, and forcing even the most hardened miners to attend church.
Directed by B. Reeves Eason. With William Fairbanks, Eva Novak, Lydia Knott, Bob Rhodes.
Luke Drummond, popularly known as "Unlucky Luke," and Seth Powers, his friend and chum, have a mock quarrel over a new school teacher as to who saw her first. They roll in the dirt to the disgust of the lady herself, who witnesses the bout, though she does not know the cause. Luke and Seth, in common with many other citizens, are unsettled by the charm and grace of the new teacher. The two young men vie with each other as to which shall escort her home from school, leading to humorous situations.
Jack is just a cowboy on the Gilman cattle ranch. Born and bred of the west, he is broad-mined and easy going. In direct contrast to him is Frances, a girl of the east, who comes to the west with Gilman's daughter. Frances has been born and brought up in wealth and culture and does not understand the cowboy who refuses to cater to her whim but who tries to dominate her. Later, when he proposes to her, she accepts him. She leaves for the east, promising to marry him when her course at school is finished. Jack sets about to build a cabin for their home. While at her home in the east, Frances is constantly being urged by Raymond Welton, a club man, to forget the rough cowboy, and to marry him.
James Oliver, has a delicate little wife about to become a mother. Their family doctor advises Oliver that he must not become engaged in any physical encounter or get hurt in any way or it would kill her. Soon thereafter Oliver is at the bar when a rough patron of the place invites him to drink. Oliver declines and on insistence by the rough, asks for soda water, which the rough throws in Oliver's face in disgust. Forced to fight or acknowledge himself a coward, Oliver admits cowardice. They all jeer him, when an old man a quiet spectator of the scene, tells the following story visioned in and out in pictures. He takes for his text the statement that, "No man who will admit that he is a coward for a principal is one". He depicts the story of a young man, Thomas Marsh by name, who had a feeling of fear born in his physical being.
Tommie Burke is a tomboy, and she can braid a hackamore, rope a steer, ride a broncho, or do any of the things cowboys usually accomplish. Arnold Blake, son of the wealthiest cattleman, is her companion on many wild rides and innocent escapades. Away back in the back bay district of Boston, Charles Percival is starting for the west, with out the farewells of an uncle and two stern maiden aunts, who feel that he has disgraced them forever by his reckless habits. About the time he arrives at the Burke ranch, the latter receives his New York sister and her daughter Mabel.
Mojava Matt realizes that he is slipping away from God, when one Sunday morning he cannot even remember the Lord's prayer. He goes as far as "give us this day our daily bread," and stopped there in self-abasement. Packing his burro, he deserts his camp and starts back toward civilization, to find somebody who can tell him the next words.
A small town girl goes to Hollywood with ambitions of becoming major dramatic star. However, the melodrama she appears in is unintentionally amusing and becomes a comedy hit.