Betty Compson

Betty Compson

Born: March 17, 1897
Died: April 18, 1974
in Beaver, Utah, USA
Betty Compson (March 19, 1897 – April 18, 1974) was an American actress and film producer. Most famous in silent films and early talkies, she is best known in her performances in The Docks of New York and The Barker, the latter earning a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress.

Movies for Betty Compson...

Fragments: Surviving Pieces of Lost Films
Title: Fragments: Surviving Pieces of Lost Films
Character: Herself (archive footage)
Released: April 3, 2011
Type: Movie
Among the pieces featured in Fragments are the final reel of John Ford's The Village Blacksmith (1922) and a glimpse at Emil Jannings in The Way of All Flesh (1927), the only Oscar®-winning performance in a lost film. Fragments also features clips from such lost films as Cleopatra (1917), starring Theda Bara; The Miracle Man (1919), with Lon Chaney; He Comes Up Smiling (1918), starring Douglas Fairbanks; an early lost sound film, Gold Diggers of Broadway (1929), filmed in early Technicolor, and the only color footage of silent star Clara Bow, Red Hair (1928). The program is rounded out with interviews of film preservationists involved in identifying and restoring these films. Also featured is a new interview with Diana Serra Cary, best known as "Baby Peggy", one of the major American child stars of the silent era, who discusses one of the featured fragments, Darling of New York (1923).
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Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?
Title: Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?
Character: Self (archive footage)
Released: August 6, 1975
Type: Movie
Period music, film clips and newsreel footage combined into a visual exploration of the American entertainment industry during the Great Depression.
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Here Comes Trouble
Title: Here Comes Trouble
Character: Martha Blake
Released: March 15, 1948
Type: Movie
A blundering rookie reporter runs into some unexpected difficulty when he is assigned to cover the police beat.
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Second Chance
Title: Second Chance
Character: Mrs. Davenport
Released: July 18, 1947
Type: Movie
Jewel thieves battle investigators.
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Hard Boiled Mahoney
Title: Hard Boiled Mahoney
Character: Selena Webster
Released: May 10, 1947
Type: Movie
Sach just lost his job as an assistant to a private detective, but he wasn't paid. Slip goes with him down to the detective's office to demand payment, but finds the office empty. A woman enters the office and mistakes Slip for the detective and convinces him to take on a case to find her sister after offering a $50 retainer.
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Her Adventurous Night
Title: Her Adventurous Night
Character: Miss Spencer
Released: June 5, 1946
Type: Movie
A boy's tall tale about a gun puts his parents and school principal in jail.
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Danger! Women at Work
Title: Danger! Women at Work
Character: Madame Sappho
Released: August 23, 1943
Type: Movie
Three women inherit a 10-ton truck and decide to go into business. Hi jinks ensue.
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Confessions of a Vice Baron
Title: Confessions of a Vice Baron
Character: Mrs. Lucy Morgan (edited from Mad Youth) (archive footage) (uncredited)
Released: June 30, 1943
Type: Movie
On the eve of his execution, a vice-rackets bigshot recalls his various exploits in crimes such as abortion and white slavery, in which he frequently operated under an alias.
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Escort Girl
Title: Escort Girl
Character: Ruth Ashley
Released: November 4, 1941
Type: Movie
A pair of nightclub owners run a string of escort bureaus where men pay for the "companionship" of young women. The district attorney sends an undercover agent to infiltrate the bureaus.
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Invisible Ghost
Title: Invisible Ghost
Character: Mrs. Kessler
Released: April 25, 1941
Type: Movie
The town's leading citizen becomes a homicidal maniac after his wife deserts him.
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Roar of the Press
Title: Roar of the Press
Character: Mrs. Thelma Tate
Released: April 17, 1941
Type: Movie
While on their honeymoon, a reporter and his new bride stumble upon a ring of fifth columnists.
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Mr. & Mrs. Smith
Title: Mr. & Mrs. Smith
Character: Gertie
Released: January 31, 1941
Type: Movie
Happily married for three years, Ann and David Smith live in New York. One morning Ann asks David if he had to do it over again, would he marry her? To her shock, he answers, "No". Later that day, they separately discover that, due to a legal complication, they are not legally married.
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Laughing at Danger
Title: Laughing at Danger
Character: Mrs. Van Horn
Released: August 12, 1940
Type: Movie
Frankie Kelly, pageboy at the beauty salon ran by Madam Celeste, and his helper Jefferson find the routine broken when the body of one of the operators, Florence, is found in the dumbwaiter. She had been shot just before she was to give Detective Dan Haggerty information about a blackmail gang. Since Mary Baker, Frankie's girl friend saw her last, she is suspected, and Frankie determines to clear her using his own sleuthing methods. He has hardy begun when Pierre, another member of the staff, and Florence's fiancée is found dead.
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Mad Youth
Title: Mad Youth
Character: Lucy Morgan
Released: May 5, 1940
Type: Movie
A rich society mother hires a male escort, but he falls for her daughter instead. The mother-daughter conflict forces the daughter to run off to stay with a friend who is enslaved by a prostitution ring.
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Strange Cargo
Title: Strange Cargo
Character: Suzanne (uncredited)
Released: March 1, 1940
Type: Movie
Convicts escaping from Devil's Island come under the influence of a strange Christ-like figure.
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Cafe Hostess
Title: Cafe Hostess
Character: Cafe Hostess
Released: January 11, 1940
Type: Movie
A dancehall girl meets a sailor and they fall in love, but the club’s owner doesn’t want the girl to leave.
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Cowboys from Texas
Title: Cowboys from Texas
Character: Belle Starkey
Released: November 29, 1939
Type: Movie
Cowboys from Texas is a 1939 American Western "Three Mesquiteers" B-movie directed by George Sherman.Texas has opened up land for homesteaders. Clay Allison wants their land and has his men led by Plummer try to start a range war between them and the ranchers. With each side suspecting the other of their problems, the Mesquiteers realize someone else is responsible. Stony suspects Plummer and fakes leaving the Mesquiteers to join Plummer's gang hoping to find out who it is.
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News Is Made at Night
Title: News Is Made at Night
Character: Kitty Truman
Released: July 20, 1939
Type: Movie
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.
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Hotel Imperial
Title: Hotel Imperial
Character: Soubrette (uncredited)
Released: May 11, 1939
Type: Movie
It is the fate of a small frontier town, adjoining the no-man's-land where the Russians and Austrians are fighting out one of the final campaigns of World War I, to be occupied one day by the Russians, the next by the Austrians, and the inhabitants soon acquire a complacent view of the changing allegiances. To the town comes Ann Warschaska, intent on avenging the suicide of her sister, who has killed herself after being betrayed by an Austrian officer. She knows no more about his identity than the number of his room at the "Hotel Imperial".
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Under the Big Top
Title: Under the Big Top
Character: Marie
Released: August 31, 1938
Type: Movie
Director Karl Brown's 1938 circus drama stars Marjorie Main as a tough, fur-coat-wearing circus boss who raises her orphaned niece to be a trapeze star.
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Religious Racketeers
Title: Religious Racketeers
Character: Ada Bernard
Released: July 7, 1938
Type: Movie
A wealthy young woman, racked with guilt because she wasn't there when her mother died, is so desperate to contact her that she gets involved with a phony mystic who promises to put her in touch with her mother's spirit, but who is really after her money. A reporter who loves the young woman sets out to expose the phony "psychic" for the charlatan he is.
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Torchy Blane in Panama
Title: Torchy Blane in Panama
Character: Kitty, Gomez's Moll
Released: May 7, 1938
Type: Movie
Torchy, Steve, and Gahagan are on the trail of a bank robber aboard an ocean liner traveling from New York to L.A. via the Panama Canal.
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The Beloved Brat
Title: The Beloved Brat
Character: Eleanor Sparks
Released: April 30, 1938
Type: Movie
Roberta Morgan is being raised in a wealthy home where her mother is occupied with her society-club activities and her father is immersed in his business activities. She also feels that the household staff is against her and that no one understands her needs and problems. Things spiral out of control.
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Two Gun Justice
Title: Two Gun Justice
Character: Kate
Released: April 29, 1938
Type: Movie
A western town is being overrun and ruled by a gang of outlaws led by Bart (John Merton). Former Ranger Tim (Tim McCoy) is called out of retirement and assigned to clean up the gang. He disguises himself as a Mexican bandit, joins the gang and works from within.
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A Slight Case of Murder
Title: A Slight Case of Murder
Character: Loretta
Released: February 26, 1938
Type: Movie
Former bootlegger Remy Marco has a slight problem with forclosing bankers, a prospective son-in-law, and four hard-to-explain corpses.
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Port of Missing Girls
Title: Port of Missing Girls
Character: Chicago
Released: February 24, 1938
Type: Movie
Nightclub singer Della Mason witnesses a murder and is forced by the killer to flee with him from the scene of the crime. Escaping from the gangster, she secretly boards the ship of Captain Josiah Storm, a woman-hater, and the ship sails from San Francisco headed for China. Della is discovered by Jim Benton, the ship's first mate and he pleads her case to the captain. He leaves her in under the protection of Minnie at "Minnie's Joint in Shanghai, until her innocence can be established.
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Blondes at Work
Title: Blondes at Work
Character: Blanche Revelle
Released: February 5, 1938
Type: Movie
When a rival newspaper publisher complains to his captain about possible collusion between himself and reporter Torchy Blane on scooping her rivals in crime news reporting, Det. Lt. Steve McBride determines to thwart her efforts to get inside information - and she determines to go on getting it, by whatever means necessary.
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Federal Bullets
Title: Federal Bullets
Character: Sue, Gang Moll
Released: October 29, 1937
Type: Movie
Federal Bullets is a leisurely paced Monogram crime melodrama with not a few clever plot twists. The FBI, represented by Milburn Stone and William Harrigan, investigates a seemingly respectable charitable organization. In fact, the enterprise is a front for a crime ring, headed by Ma Barker clone Zeffie Tilbury (Trivia note: Ms. Tilbury was totally blind, and had to learn her "blocking" by rote).
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God's Country and the Man
Title: God's Country and the Man
Character: Roxey Moore
Released: September 2, 1937
Type: Movie
Cowboy and his friends set out to track down his father's killer. On the way, they discover a vein of gold. The killer finds out about it, and returns to try to take it from them.
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Circus Girl
Title: Circus Girl
Character: Carlotta
Released: March 1, 1937
Type: Movie
A jealous trapeze star decides he must eliminate his romantic rival.
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Two Minutes to Play
Title: Two Minutes to Play
Character: 'Fluff' Harding
Released: November 2, 1936
Type: Movie
Martin Granville Jr., a star track-and-field athlete, has intentions of going to Claxton College, but changes his mind when he meets Pat Meredith, a co-ed at a rival college, changes his mind team and goes to college there, just as his father Martin Granville Sr., an alum of the school, had wished. But his father has ordered him not to play football. "Dad" Granville, has offered a $100,000 endowment to his old school, not knowing his son has joined the football team, but is going to withdraw it if his son plays in the Big Game against Claxton.
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Killer at Large
Title: Killer at Large
Character: Kate
Released: October 27, 1936
Type: Movie
A master of disguise poses as a wax figure to rob a safe of its jewels.
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Bulldog Edition
Title: Bulldog Edition
Character: Billie Blake
Released: September 13, 1936
Type: Movie
Two rival newspapers are engaged in a circulation battle, complicated by the fact that a vicious gangster inserts himself into the middle of it. Also complicating matters is that one newspaper's editor and circulation director are competing for the affections of a pretty blonde reporter.
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Hollywood Boulevard
Title: Hollywood Boulevard
Character: Betty
Released: August 20, 1936
Type: Movie
With a full Hollywood background and settings but more an expose of scandal-and-gossip magazines of the era, has-been actor John Blakeford agrees to write his memoirs for magazine-publisher Jordan Winston. When Blakeford's daughter, Patricia, ask him to desist for the sake of his ex-wife, Carlotta Blakeford, he attempts to break his contract with Winston.
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The Drag-Net
Title: The Drag-Net
Character: Mollie Cole
Released: April 15, 1936
Type: Movie
A playboy takes a job as an assistant district attorney, finds himself up against a tough crime boss and his gang.
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The Millionaire Kid
Title: The Millionaire Kid
Character: Gloria Neville
Released: March 13, 1936
Type: Movie
The Millionaire Kid is young Tommy Neville whose wealthy parents, Thomas and Gloria Neville are preparing to fight it out in divorce court.Tommy runs away from home. The private detective assigned to watch him tells Mrs. Neville he has been kidnapped. She immediately suspects her husband. Meanwhile, Tommy is selling newspapers in another city. He is attacked by a bully, and is rescued by gangster Terry Mallon and his daughter Kitty. Unaware of his identity, they take him to their beach home. Reporter Breezy Benson is sent to interview Mrs. Neville about the divorce, and is fired when she won't talk to him. He meets Kitty at the beach and is intrigued by her. He meets her father, who is curious but not suspicious as news of the alleged kidnapping has not been reported.
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Laughing Irish Eyes
Title: Laughing Irish Eyes
Character: Molly
Released: March 4, 1936
Type: Movie
An Irish crooner flirts with prize-fighting.
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August Week End
Title: August Week End
Character: Ethel Ames
Released: February 17, 1936
Type: Movie
At a high-society dinner party, a wealthy, older and married man sets his sights on a beautiful young girl who's loved by a younger and not-so-wealthy man.
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False Pretenses
Title: False Pretenses
Character: Clarissa Stanhope
Released: October 21, 1935
Type: Movie
A girl who's just lost her job meets a drunk millionaire on a bridge who's just lost his money. They go back to his house, and eventually come up with a plan to benefit them both: he'll scrounge enough money together to teach her how to be a lady, and then introduce her to his rich friends so she can snag a husband, after which she'll pay him a finder's fee. Complications ensue.
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Notorious But Nice
Title: Notorious But Nice
Character: Millie Sprague
Released: August 4, 1933
Type: Movie
A lover selflessly steps aside to let her guy go so he can hook up with a rich dame. Sadly, the goodie good girl ends up marrying some scum bag gambler. When the scum bag is shot and killed, the little goodie good is the prime suspect. Can her old beau come to the rescue and save her from the death penalty? Hell, its the least he can do, or is he a scum bag too!
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Destination Unknown
Title: Destination Unknown
Character: Ruby Smith
Released: April 1, 1933
Type: Movie
A group of people are stuck on a schooner in the middle of the Pacific with no wind.
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West of Singapore
Title: West of Singapore
Character: Lou
Released: January 31, 1933
Type: Movie
Tropical "heat" drives a man into the arms of a disreputable tramp, making things tough for the woman who really loves him.
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Guilty or Not Guilty
Title: Guilty or Not Guilty
Character: Maizie
Released: November 15, 1932
Type: Movie
Ruth Payne, innocent to begin with, is trying to extradite herself from the clutches of a gang-mob who obtained her release from prison on a falsified confession because they thought she knew something they didn't want known.
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The Silver Lining
Title: The Silver Lining
Character: Kate Flynn
Released: April 16, 1932
Type: Movie
A women in prison tale. One's rich, one's poor. Can they prosper after prison?
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The Gay Diplomat
Title: The Gay Diplomat
Character: Baroness Corri
Released: August 22, 1931
Type: Movie
Captain Orloff is sent to Bucharest to capture a Mata Hari type of spy, but many different women fit the bill and are attractive enough to make one question one's allegiance.
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The House That Shadows Built
Title: The House That Shadows Built
Character: (archive footage)
Released: July 8, 1931
Type: Movie
The House That Shadows Built (1931) is a short feature, roughly 48 minutes long, from Paramount Pictures made to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the studio's founding in 1912. It was a promotional film for exhibitors and never had a regular theatrical release and includes a brief history of Paramount, interviews with various actors, and clips from upcoming projects (some of which never came to fruition). The title comes from a biography of Paramount founder Adolph Zukor, The House That Shadows Built (1928), by William Henry Irwin.
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Three Who Loved
Title: Three Who Loved
Character: Helga Larson Hanson
Released: July 3, 1931
Type: Movie
A bank teller's love life falls apart when he's accused of embezzling.
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Virtuous Husband
Title: Virtuous Husband
Character: Inez Wakefield
Released: April 12, 1931
Type: Movie
When a rich young man marries, he lets the books and letters left him by his dead mother guide his life.
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The Lady Refuses
Title: The Lady Refuses
Character: June
Released: March 8, 1931
Type: Movie
A wealthy London nobleman hires a pretty but poor young woman to distract his playboy son from marrying a golddigger. Complications ensue when the girl and the father begin to fall for each other, and things get even more complicated when the son declares his love for her, too.
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The Boudoir Diplomat
Title: The Boudoir Diplomat
Character: Helene
Released: December 5, 1930
Type: Movie
A ladies' man flirts with the wives of other governments' officials.
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She Got What She Wanted
Title: She Got What She Wanted
Released: November 9, 1930
Type: Movie
Mahyna, a dissatisfied Russian peasant girl, marries Boris and comes to New York in search of "the soul of love," only to become a drudge in their cheap flat. Meanwhile, Boris, a bookshop keeper, dreams of a prosperous future from the book he is writing. Their boarder, Dave, a partner in a gambling establishment, makes a play for Mahyna; she is tempted to leave with him when Eddie, a former admirer, arrives on the scene, and the two get into constant arguments over her.
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The Spoilers
Title: The Spoilers
Character: Cherry Malotte
Released: September 20, 1930
Type: Movie
On a voyage to Nome, Roy Glenister, one of the several owners of a rich mine, The Midas, is captivated by Helen Chester, while he both fascinates and disquiets her by his primitive nature. He arrives to find his partners, Slapjack Simms and Joe Dextry, befuddled by a trio of no-gooders: Voorhees, the U. S. marshal, Judge Stillman, and McNamara, a politician. Their racket is to cloud title to the various mine claims, eject the miners, and make McNamara owner of the disputed properties.
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Inside the Lines
Title: Inside the Lines
Character: Jane Gershon
Released: July 5, 1930
Type: Movie
During World War I, German spies will stop at nothing to spy on the allied war plans stored at Gibraltar.
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Midnight Mystery
Title: Midnight Mystery
Character: Sally Wayne
Released: June 1, 1930
Type: Movie
A fog-shrouded house provides the setting for this early talkies thriller.
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The Czar of Broadway
Title: The Czar of Broadway
Character: Connie Colton
Released: May 25, 1930
Type: Movie
Mort Bradley, New York political boss and underworld czar, controls not only the city's most popular nightclub but also much of the press; however, the managing editor of the Times is determined to expose him. Jay Grant, a San Francisco reporter, is assigned to investigate Mort, who believes Jay to be a country boy and is delighted to see him fall in love with Connie Colton, of whom Mort has tired. Dismayed to learn that Jay is a reporter, Mort plans to have his gunman, Francis, kill him, but both Mort and Francis are shot by rival gangsters. Jay, believing that Mort will recover, rushes to the newspaper with an exposé, but while writing it he learns of Mort's death and decides their friendship would not permit him to submit the story. He leaves his paper and embarks on a new life with Connie.
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Those Who Dance
Title: Those Who Dance
Character: Kitty
Released: April 18, 1930
Type: Movie
A policeman doubles as a gunman to get in with the mob.
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Isle of Escape
Title: Isle of Escape
Character: Stella
Released: March 1, 1930
Type: Movie
On a South Sea island, Stella operates a hotel for her mother, who is constantly drunk on liquor smuggled by Shane, the principal trader and virtual dictator of the island. Dave Wade, exhausted from the heat, lands on the shore near the hotel and reports having escaped from a nearby cannibal island. Stella has her servants, Manua and Loru, care for him, but Shane, to whom she is married but with whom she has never lived, orders him taken to his house, intent on stealing his gold. In a drunken orgy, Shane takes the gold, provoking a fight in which Stella aids Wade. When Ma Blackney dies and Stella recovers the gold, she suggests they go to another island and establish a trading business; but because of a misunderstanding, Stella is kidnaped by the natives and taken to the cannibal island. Disregarding their differences, Wade and Shane join forces and go to the island; Shane sacrifices himself to stall the cannibals while Stella and Wade flee to the sea.
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The Case of Sergeant Grischa
Title: The Case of Sergeant Grischa
Character: Babka
Released: February 23, 1930
Type: Movie
This film earned an Oscar nomination for Sound Recording. It is the only film nominated in this category that is among the lost. No negative or print material is known to have survived. Contemporary reviews were scathing, describing the film as a vastly overlong and boring talk-fest.
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Blaze o' Glory
Title: Blaze o' Glory
Character: Helen Williams
Released: December 30, 1929
Type: Movie
On trial for the murder of Carl Hummel, Eddie Williams tells his story, which begins just before the World War
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Show of Shows
Title: Show of Shows
Character: Performer in 'The Pirate Number' & 'Lady Luck' Numbers (uncredited)
Released: November 21, 1929
Type: Movie
Now hear this. The studio that gave the cinema its voice offered 1929 audiences a chance to see and hear multiple silent-screen favorites for the first time in a gaudy, grandiose music-comedy-novelty revue that also included Talkie stars, Broadway luminaries and of course, Rin-Tin-Tin. Frank Fay hosts a jamboree that, among its 70+ stars, features bicyclers, boxing champ Georges Carpentier, chorines in terpsichore kickery, sister acts, Myrna Loy in two-strip Technicolor as an exotic Far East beauty, John Barrymore in a Shakespearean soliloquy (adding an on-screen voice to his legendary profile for the first time) and Winnie Lightner famously warbling the joys of Singing in the Bathtub. Watch, rinse, repeat!
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Woman to Woman
Title: Woman to Woman
Character: Deloryce / Lola
Released: November 1, 1929
Type: Movie
While on leave in WW I France an English officer and French cabaret star fall in love with one another and plan to marry. However, he is recalled to the front, wounded and has memory loss.
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The Great Gabbo
Title: The Great Gabbo
Character: Mary
Released: September 12, 1929
Type: Movie
For the ventriloquist Gabbo his wooden dummy Otto is the only means of expression. When he starts relying more and more on Otto, he starts going mad.
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Street Girl
Title: Street Girl
Character: Frederika Joyzelle
Released: August 21, 1929
Type: Movie
A homeless and destitute violinist joins a combo to bring it success, but has problems with her love life.
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On With the Show!
Title: On With the Show!
Character: Nita
Released: July 13, 1929
Type: Movie
With unpaid actors and staff, the stage show Phantom Sweetheart seems doomed. To complicate matters, the box office takings have been robbed and the leading lady refuses to appear. Can the show be saved?
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The Time, the Place and the Girl
Title: The Time, the Place and the Girl
Character: Doris Ward
Released: July 7, 1929
Type: Movie
A musical comedy that follows the progress of a college All America football player whose swollen head is deflated when, after graduating , he takes a job as a Wall Street stock salesman. While poor at selling, he knows how to charm women and his boss has him concentrate his efforts on disposing of bad stock to gullible females, one of whom turns out to be the wife of his boss. The film is considered lost, with only its soundtrack remaining.
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Weary River
Title: Weary River
Character: Alice Gray
Released: February 10, 1929
Type: Movie
A gangster is put in prison, but finds salvation through music while serving his time. Again on the outside, he finds success elusive and temptations abound.
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Fashion News
Title: Fashion News
Character: Self (1930)
Released: November 6, 1928
Type: Movie
Hollywood actresses including Jeanette Loff and Raquel Torres modeling Spring fashions in color.
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The Barker
Title: The Barker
Character: Carrie
Released: October 2, 1928
Type: Movie
A successful carnival barker deals with the arrival of his eager son, who he'd hoped would stay far from the carnival world, his son's entanglement with a showgirl, and his own jealous mistress.
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The Docks of New York
Title: The Docks of New York
Character: Mae
Released: September 16, 1928
Type: Movie
A blue-collar worker on New York's depressed waterfront finds his life changed after he saves a woman attempting suicide.
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Court-Martial
Title: Court-Martial
Character: Belle Starr
Released: August 12, 1928
Type: Movie
During the American Civil War, A Union-Army officer is ordered by U. S. President Abraham Lincoln to bring in Belle Starr, the leader of a Missouri guerrilla band, dead or alive. However, he falls in love with her, does not bring her in, and is facing a court-martial.
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The Desert Bride
Title: The Desert Bride
Character: Diane Duval
Released: March 26, 1928
Type: Movie
Captain Maurice de Florimont, a French Army intelligence officer, is captured by Arab nationalists while on an espionage mission. His sweetheart Diane Duval is also taken prisoner. Both are tortured by Kassim Ben Ali, leader of the Arab nationalists, but they refuse to divulge any information. They are finally rescued by French troops who storm the fortress and kill Kassim.
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The Big City
Title: The Big City
Character: Helen
Released: March 23, 1928
Type: Movie
Gangster boss Chuck Collins, despite his ruthlessness, is a basically decent fellow. Collins is plagued by a rival gang, led by deceptively boyish Curly, who has been stealing jewelry from the rich and famous. Our "hero" tricks the other crooks into turning the gems over to him, intending to use them for his own profit (he throws the cops off track by hiding jewels in a plate of spaghetti!) But sweet heroine Sunshine eventually persuades Collins and his cohorts to turn honest.
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Scarlet Seas
Title: Scarlet Seas
Character: Rose
Released: January 12, 1928
Type: Movie
A sea captain comes to rescue of a prostitute in Shanghai, who is being run out of town. He takes her aboard his ship and heads out to sea. Not long afterwards the ship sinks but the pair manage to get into a lifeboat before it goes under. They are later picked up by a passing ship, but it turns out that the crew had just mutinied against their captain and taken over the ship.
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Cheating Cheaters
Title: Cheating Cheaters
Character: Nan Carey
Released: December 5, 1927
Type: Movie
Nan Carey ( Betty Compson ), a shoplifter, is caught by the police but acquitted through the influence of Lazare ( Lucien Littlefield ), a crooked lawyer, who places her with a gang of crooks. Posing as the Brockton family, they move to a seaside home, where they plan to steal the jewel collection of the Palmers, their neighbours. Nan wins the confidence of the family by flirting with Tom ( Kenneth Harlan ), who becomes infatuated and wants to go away with her, but she refuses him. Tom is caught red-handed in the Brockton mansion attempting to steal their jewels while Nan is making a success of the Palmer robbery.
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Love Me and the World is Mine
Title: Love Me and the World is Mine
Character: Mitzel
Released: September 26, 1927
Type: Movie
In Old Vienna in the days prior to The Great War, a beautiful woman, Hannerl, has her choice of two men; the first is a dashing young army officer who can provide blazing romance and little long-time security. The other is an older man, influential in the affairs of Austria, who could provide wealth...and tender devotion. Hannerl thinks about it.
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Say It with Diamonds
Title: Say It with Diamonds
Character: Betty Howard
Released: June 2, 1927
Type: Movie
American silent drama film following an early Vitagraph leading man and matinee idol. Prints of the film are held at the Library of Congress and George Eastman House Motion Picture Collection.
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The Belle of Broadway
Title: The Belle of Broadway
Character: Marie Duval
Released: August 15, 1926
Type: Movie
Madame Adele, once a great star of the Paris theatre, has fallen upon hard times. But she allows a young American performer, Marie Duval, to perform as the Madame Adele of old, and both become the darlings of Paris, one again and the other newly-crowned.
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The Wise Guy
Title: The Wise Guy
Character: Hula Kate
Released: May 23, 1926
Type: Movie
A carnival huckster who decides to turn pennies into dollars by passing himself off as a hellfire-and-brimstone evangelist.
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The Palace of Pleasure
Title: The Palace of Pleasure
Character: Lola Montez
Released: January 10, 1926
Type: Movie
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The Pony Express
Title: The Pony Express
Character: Molly Jones
Released: September 3, 1925
Type: Movie
The Pony Express is a silent 1925 Western film produced by Famous Players-Lasky and distributed by Paramount Pictures. The film was directed by James Cruze and starred his wife Betty Compson along with Ricardo Cortez, Wallace Beery, and George Bancroft.
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Paths to Paradise
Title: Paths to Paradise
Character: Molly
Released: June 28, 1925
Type: Movie
Two thieves discover a professional and personal relationship when individual heist plans are thrown together by circumstance.
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Beggar on Horseback
Title: Beggar on Horseback
Character: Princess in Pantomime
Released: June 5, 1925
Type: Movie
Neil McRae, an impoverished composer, loves Cynthia Mason, but, fearing poverty, proposes to wealthy Gladys Cady. Can he compose himself and find the courage to seek love over comfort?
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Eve's Secret
Title: Eve's Secret
Character: Eve
Released: May 11, 1925
Type: Movie
Eve's Secret is that she's not the elegant society woman she seems to be. In fact, Eve is an unkempt country girl who's been "transformed," Pygmalion style, by European duke Poltava.
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New Lives for Old
Title: New Lives for Old
Character: Olympe
Released: February 22, 1925
Type: Movie
Olympe is a cabaret dancer who offers her services to France when her country goes to war. She becomes a spy and provides valuable intelligence information during World War I by winning the confidence of a German officer. Hugh Warren is the American soldier who falls for Olympe. She allows him to believe she is a simple peasant and reveals nothing of her career as a spy. The two fall in love and are married, but the villainous German agent De Montinrich reveals to her husband's family that she is a tawdry club dancer. Unable to reveal her role in espionage, Olympe is ostracized by her friends and family. When the French government honors Olympe for her wartime bravery, her family no longer considers her a blemish on their sterling reputation.
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Locked Doors
Title: Locked Doors
Character: Mrs. Norman 'Mary Reid' Carter
Released: January 5, 1925
Type: Movie
A young woman marries a man several years her senior to provide a comfortable home for her invalid father and then feels the call of youth and falls desperately in love with a young man.
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The Garden of Weeds
Title: The Garden of Weeds
Character: Dorothy Delbridge
Released: November 2, 1924
Type: Movie
The title refers to the estate owned by Flagg, a man of great wealth and few morals. He installs chorus girls there until he grows tired of them
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The Fast Set
Title: The Fast Set
Character: Margaret Sones
Released: October 20, 1924
Type: Movie
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The Female
Title: The Female
Character: Dalla
Released: August 31, 1924
Type: Movie
A Sam Wood silent South Africa romance is a love story (based on Cynthia Stocklet Story) with a sad...and then happy ending. antic love triangle melodrama, from the Cynthia Stocklet Story. Dalla (Betty Compson) is a pretty orphan who is adopted by a wealthy man. When she matures, he invites her to England (leaving her beau behind),and eventually marries her. After her husband is murdered, she is accused of the crime, because she has still been seeing her old beau Col. Valentia (Warner Baxter). After eventually being cleared of the crime Della maries her first love...Valentia.
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Ramshackle House
Title: Ramshackle House
Character: Pen Broome
Released: August 31, 1924
Type: Movie
Don Counsel, a New Yorker who is traveling through southern Florida, is being framed by Ernest Riever for a murder he did not commit. Riever is holding the real killer captive on his yacht while detectives are searching for Counsel. Pen Broome, who lives with her father (Henry James) on their rundown estate, tries to help Counsel out. Riever's men find Counsel and trap him in a ballast bulkhead, but Pen rescues him.
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The Enemy Sex
Title: The Enemy Sex
Character: Dodo Baxter
Released: August 25, 1924
Type: Movie
A well-known sextet has been invited to a society gathering, and when one of them turns up missing, their manager asks Dodo to fill in. At the party, she meets four new men. She's smart enough to steer clear of two of them -- corrupt society leader Albert Sasson and powerful newspaper publisher Harrigan Blood. Instead she becomes passionately involved with Judge Massingale. The man who really steals her heart, however, is Garry Lindaberry, who seems to be a hopeless drunk.
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The White Shadow
Title: The White Shadow
Character: Nancy Brent / Georgina Brent
Released: May 5, 1924
Type: Movie
The White Shadow is a British drama film directed by Graham Cutts based on the novel "Children of Chance" by Michael Morton. Alfred Hitchcock worked on it as assistant director and also handled the writing, editing, and art direction. The film was long thought to be lost. In August 2011, it was announced that the first three reels of the six-reel picture had been found in a garden shed and donated to the NFPF. The film cans were mislabled Two Sisters and Unidentified American Film and only later identified. The film was restored by Park Road Studios and is now in the New Zealand Film Archive.
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The Stranger
Title: The Stranger
Character: Peggy Bowlin
Released: February 4, 1924
Type: Movie
"The Stranger," an outcast who works in a saloon frequented by Peggy Bowlin, a poor girl suffering through hard times. She finds romance with Larry Darrant and her life begins to improve. They make plans to wed and leave England, but when a convict assaults Peggy, Larry gets involved and accidentally kills him. The Stranger is arrested for the murder, but he refuses to declare his innocence because he doesn't want to destroy Peggy's happiness.
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The Royal Oak
Title: The Royal Oak
Character: Lady Mildred Cholmondeley
Released: October 1, 1923
Type: Movie
King Charles flees and hides in a huge oak tree when the troops loyal to Oliver Cromwell close in. The royal entourage is disguised, and the king's sweetheart masquerades as Charles. Only when she is brought before Cromwell is it discovered the switch has been made.
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Hollywood
Title: Hollywood
Character: Betty Compson
Released: August 19, 1923
Type: Movie
Angela comes to Hollywood with only two things: Her dream to become a movie star, and Grandpa. She leaves an Aunt, a brother, Grandma, and her longtime boyfriend back in Centerville. Despite seeing major movie stars around every corner, and knocking on every casting office door in town, at the end of her first day she is still unemployed. To her horror, when she arrives back at their hotel, she finds that Grandpa has been cast in a movie by William DeMille and quickly becomes a star during the ensuing weeks. Her family, worried that Angela and Grandpa are getting into trouble, come to Hollywood to drag them back home. In short order Aunt, Grandma, brother, boyfriend and even the parrot become superstars, but Angela is still unemployed...
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The Woman with Four Faces
Title: The Woman with Four Faces
Character: Elizabeth West
Released: June 24, 1923
Type: Movie
The woman with four faces is a movie about a woman who happens to be both a thief and a con artist and who cannot be arrested because she is faceless.
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The Rustle of Silk
Title: The Rustle of Silk
Character: Lala De Breeze
Released: May 13, 1923
Type: Movie
Lola de Breze loves Lord Arthur Fallaray from afar, though there seems to be no way to bring them together -- he is England's Colonial Secretary and married, while she is merely a working class maiden. But when she is given a maid's position in his household, it brings her that much closer to her idol. She puts on a fancy gown and heads to the Ritz in hopes of getting a formal introduction. After being fired from the household, she follows Fallaray to his country home and nurses him when he falls ill. Lord Fallaray's wife Lady Feo doesn't love him and is having an affair with Paul Chalfont. When it looks like he will be faced with scandal, Fallaray contemplates giving up politics and marrying Lola.
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The White Flower
Title: The White Flower
Character: Konia Markham
Released: March 4, 1923
Type: Movie
Konia Markham, the daughter of an American father and a Hawaiian mother, is told by a sorceress that the man who presents her with a perfect white flower will be her true love. When Bob Rutherford offers a gardenia to Konia at a banquet, David Panuahi, a rejected suitor, becomes even more jealous and persuades Konia to have the kahuna put a death curse on Bob's fiancee, Ethel Granville. Bob's devotion to a failing Ethel softens Konia, however, and she has the curse removed. She is about to jump into a volcano when Bob, now released by Ethel from their engagement, finds her and declares his love.
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Woman to Woman
Title: Woman to Woman
Character: Louise Boucher / Deloryse
Released: January 2, 1923
Type: Movie
David Compton leaves his expecting French girl-friend Louise Boucher, a dancer at the Moulin Rouge, for the war where he looses his memory. Building a new life from scratch after the war, he gets married in London. Louise, now a mother, thinks him dead. She becomes a famous dancer under the name Deloryse but falls gravely ill. One night, as David is in the audience of her show, he recovers his memory. When she learns that David is married to another woman, Louise turns her son in the care of David's new wife and accepting a dancing job at a party, she dies there of exhaustion and sorrow.
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Kick In
Title: Kick In
Character: Molly Brandon
Released: December 17, 1922
Type: Movie
After serving time in Sing Sing, Chic Hewes wants to go straight, but when he refuses to be a stool pigeon for the cops, they hound him mercilessly. Hewes witnesses a car accident in which Jerry Brandon, the son of the district attorney, runs over a child. He also meets Molly, the D.A.'s daughter. Because he feels the child's mother was treated unfairly, Hewes decides to pull one last heist to square things.
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To Have and to Hold
Title: To Have and to Hold
Character: Lady Jocelyn Leigh
Released: October 29, 1922
Type: Movie
King James I gives his consent to the marriage between Lord Carnal and Lady Jocelyn Leigh. Lady Jocelyn, however, does not want to wed the evil Lord Carnal, and makes her escape on a bridal ship headed for Jamestown, VA. When it lands, a ruffian tries to take Jocelyn as his bride, but Captain Ralph Percy rescues her by marrying her himself. The marriage, however, is in name only, as Jocelyn wants little to do with Percy.
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The Bonded Woman
Title: The Bonded Woman
Character: Angela Gaskell
Released: August 21, 1922
Type: Movie
Angela Gaskell travels and sails around the Pacific Ocean to rescue the man she loves, John Somers. Her task takes her from San Francisco bondage-servitude to a dance-hall in Honolulu to a remote South Seas island. She survives a shipwreck along the way.
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A Trip to Paramountown
Title: A Trip to Paramountown
Character: Self
Released: July 10, 1922
Type: Movie
Documentary short film depicting the filmmaking activity at the Paramount Studios in Hollywood, featuring dozens of stars captured candidly and at work.
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Over the Border
Title: Over the Border
Character: Jen Galbraith
Released: June 4, 1922
Type: Movie
Jen Galbraith is in love with Sgt. Tom Flaherty of the Royal Mounted. She is the daughter of Peter Galbraith, who is engaged in smuggling moonshine whiskey across the Canadian border. When she tries to warn her father and brother of the approaching police, she is arrested with the entire gang.
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The Green Temptation
Title: The Green Temptation
Character: Genelle / Coralyn / Joan Parker
Released: April 1, 1922
Type: Movie
Genelle and Gaspard operate an itinerant Parisian theatre in which the greatest profits are realized by picking the pockets of the audience and robbing their homes while they are watching the show. When the First World War breaks out, Genelle volunteers as a Red Cross nurse and renounces her criminal ways. She travels to America, but re-encounters Gaspard, who is determined to use her new contacts in the upper class to continue their larcenous partnership.
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Law and the Woman
Title: Law and the Woman
Character: Margaret Rolfe
Released: January 22, 1922
Type: Movie
Although Margaret and Julian Rolfe are deeply in love, Rolfe has a bit of a past. At one time he had befriended Clara Foster, a woman of the streets. When he discovers that his ward Phil Long is about to wed Clara, he tries to stop him. But he finds that Long and Clara have already married, so he heads back home. When Phil is found murdered, Rolfe is arrested and tried for the crime.
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The Little Minister
Title: The Little Minister
Character: Lady Babbie
Released: December 25, 1921
Type: Movie
In 1840 Scotland, a young lass named Babbie revels in the country life and frolics with the locals, simple weavers whose livelihood is threatened by increasing industrialization. When Lord Rintoul attempts to rout the rebellious weavers, Babbie always manages to send word in time to prevent their being taken by surprise. Gavin, new minister to the town, falls in love with Babbie, and his relationship with the young gypsy almost costs him his position. But what Gavin and his parishioners do not know is that Babbie is actually Lady Babbie, ward of Lord Rintoul.
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Ladies Must Live
Title: Ladies Must Live
Character: Christine Bleeker
Released: October 29, 1921
Type: Movie
A societal romance drama based on an Alice Duer Miller novel.
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For Those We Love
Title: For Those We Love
Character: Bernice Arnold
Released: September 1, 1921
Type: Movie
Berenice Arnold spends her time trying to keep her family happy. This is easier said than done -- her brother, Jimmy, is a gambler and he steals 80 dollars that his father was responsible for. Berenice sets out to get the money back, but winds up causing a scandal because of her association with Trix Ulner, a gambler and thief.
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At the End of the World
Title: At the End of the World
Character: Cherry O'Day
Released: August 14, 1921
Type: Movie
This dramatic adventure finds the flirtatious Cherry O'Day as the daughter of the Shanghai saloon keeper Terrence. She works in the dive and entertains the patrons, sending them away after they cease to amuse her. Cherry falls for Gordon Deane, the American writer and adventurer who barely notices her.
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Prisoners of Love
Title: Prisoners of Love
Character: Blanche Davis
Released: January 16, 1921
Type: Movie
Blanche Henry, a vivacious young woman, finds what she believes is true love with a handsome young man, but then learns that he has designs on her younger sister.
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The Miracle Man
Title: The Miracle Man
Character: Rose
Released: August 26, 1919
Type: Movie
A gang of crooks evade the police by moving their operations to a small town. There the gang's leader encounters a faith healer and uses him to scam gullible public of funds for a supposed chapel. But when a real healing takes place, a change comes over the gang. Lost film, only the most famous scene has survived.
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The Devil's Trail
Title: The Devil's Trail
Character: Rose
Released: June 16, 1919
Type: Movie
Whiskey smuggler Dubec, trades liquor to the Indians, takes revenge on the Royal North West Mounted Police pursuing him by killing the wife of post commander Sergeant Delisle and abducting his teen-aged daughter Nonette.
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The Light of Victory
Title: The Light of Victory
Character: Jane Ravenslee
Released: March 17, 1919
Type: Movie
U.S. Navy Lieutenant George Blenton becomes drunk at an official reception, and his fiancee, Jane Ravenslee, the captain's daughter, breaks their engagement. After war is declared, George, entrusted with a secret code book to deliver to an English admiral, drinks and loses the book which German spies recover. During a private court-martial he is offered a pistol for suicide. After drinking again, he fires a shot, but still lives. Put ashore on the island of Tafofu "to rot," George, hating the U.S., moves in with Lehua, a half-white who tries to wean him from drink.
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The Sheriff
Title: The Sheriff
Character: School Teacher
Released: November 24, 1918
Type: Movie
Roscoe Arbuckle plays a Douglas Fairbanks fan who becomes a rotund version of his hero. As "The Sheriff", he must rescue abducted schoolteacher Betty Compson.
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Border Raiders
Title: Border Raiders
Character: Rose Hardy
Released: October 6, 1918
Type: Movie
Ranch owner John Hardy becomes the dupe of Cleo Dade when he marries her and brings her home to be a mother to his daughter Rose.
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Crazy by Proxy
Title: Crazy by Proxy
Released: September 12, 1917
Type: Movie
A young man is about to marry; it is the dawn of his wedding morn. The bride-to-be is also present; but while she eagerly pursues preparations for the wedding, the bridegroom is kidnapped by a jealous cousin who is envious of his position as heir of a fortune.
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As Luck Would Have It
Title: As Luck Would Have It
Released: March 5, 1917
Type: Movie
Eddie Barry wants to keep wife Betty Compson happy, and she wants him to be a race car driver, so he hires a driver to impersonate himself on the track; but there is an accident and he has to go to the hospital and convince the doctor to have him bandaged.
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Hubby's Night Out
Title: Hubby's Night Out
Character: Wifey
Released: February 20, 1917
Type: Movie
Neal hates to give up his evenings with "the boys." even for his wife Betty. She gets a burglar scare and insists on his staying home. However, he wants to go to a masked ball, so he gives her a powder, telling her it will make her sleep soundly. She slips the powder into his favorite decanter, hides his costume, and then retires. In the kitchen, the cook gives a policeman some of the doped whiskey. Neal takes the cop's coat, hat, and stick and starts for the ball. On the way he is called on to restrain a wife-beating husband. He gets a black eye, so decides to go home.
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That Doggone Baby
Title: That Doggone Baby
Character: Wifie Parker
Released: October 20, 1916
Type: Movie
That Doggone Baby (1916) is about a small puppy who is supposed to be a baby.
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The Making Over of Mother
Title: The Making Over of Mother
Character: Mrs. Newlywed
Released: October 15, 1916
Type: Movie
Neal and Betty are newlywed when her father dies. Betty goes to visit her mother and decides to take her to live with them. Neal, who has never met her, remonstrated furiously but in vain.