Elmer Clifton

Elmer Clifton

Born: March 12, 1890
Died: October 15, 1949
in Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Born in Chicago, he was an actor in touring stock companies before making his screen debut in 1912. Joining D.W. Griffith's Fine Arts Studio in 1914, he was cast as Union officer Phil Stoneman in "The Birth of a Nation" (1915) and as The Rhapsodie in the Babylonian story of "Intolerance" (1916). He was also a second-unit director for those films. Promoted to director in 1917, Clifton supervised several successful Fine Arts comedies starring Dorothy Gish while continuing to serve as Griffith's assistant. Their association culminated with the blockbuster "Way Down East" (1920). Clifton shot much of its famous "Rescue from the ice" sequence and doubled for star Richard Barthelmess in the riskier scenes. He then left Griffith to form his own production company and had a smash hit with "Down to the Sea in Ships" (1922), a colorful whaling saga made on location in New England. It made a star of future "It Girl" Clara Bow, who appeared as a cross-dressing stowaway. In 1923 Clifton signed a lucrative seven-year contract with Fox and was poised to become one of Hollywood's major directors. Then tragedy struck. He was filming "The Warrens of Virginia" in Texas when his lead actress died from burns in an accident on the set. Although Clifton was blameless in the incident, he was fired by Fox and his career never regained its momentum.

Movies for Elmer Clifton...

Nina, the Flower Girl
Title: Nina, the Flower Girl
Character: Jimmie
Released: January 21, 1917
Type: Movie
Nina, a blind girl, lives with her grandmother, who has taught her to make artificial flowers, which she sells at a flower-stand. Nina, and Jimmie, a crippled newsboy who sells papers on the same corner, are sweethearts. Nina's grandmother dies, and she turns to Jimmie. One day Jimmie has a fight with another newsboy, whom he thinks is hanging about Nina's stand too much, and the other boy is soon begging for mercy. Miss Fifi Chandler, an artist, happens to be passing, and becoming interested, she accompanies Nina and Jimmie to their rooms, and is surprised to find that Jimmie is an artist, having made a beautiful plaster cast of Nina. Fifi brings Jimmie and his protégé to the notice of her fellow artist, Fred Townsend, who falls in love with Nina.
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Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages
Title: Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages
Character: The Rhapsode (Babylonian Story)
Released: September 4, 1916
Type: Movie
The story of a poor young woman, separated by prejudice from her husband and baby, is interwoven with tales of intolerance from throughout history.
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Acquitted
Title: Acquitted
Character: Ned Fowler
Released: February 6, 1916
Type: Movie
Hard-working insurance company bookkeeper John Carter, comes home Easter eve to his suburban cottage with a potted lily for his loving wife and two daughters. The Carters live happily until cashier Charles Ryder is murdered by the night watchman, a "coke sniffer" in need of money, and Carter is accused because he worked with Ryder that evening.
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The Missing Links
Title: The Missing Links
Character: Horace Gaylord
Released: January 16, 1916
Type: Movie
A 1916 film directed by Lloyd Ingraham.
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The Sable Lorcha
Title: The Sable Lorcha
Character: Phillip Clyde - Evelyn's Fiancé
Released: November 28, 1915
Type: Movie
In China, a man is arrested and tortured for a crime committed years before by his twin brother.
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The Lily and the Rose
Title: The Lily and the Rose
Character: Allison Edwards
Released: November 6, 1915
Type: Movie
To the dismay of Allison Edwards, her bookworm, adoring neighbor, Mary Randolph, falls in love with and marries Jack Van Norman, a rich and handsome former football star. After a few months of marital contentment, Jack becomes infatuated with Rose, an exotic dancer.
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The Fox Woman
Title: The Fox Woman
Character: Marashida
Released: July 15, 1915
Type: Movie
According to Japanese legend, the Fox Woman was not possessed of a soul. To exist, she was obliged to steal the soul of others.
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The Lost House
Title: The Lost House
Character: Cuthbert
Released: March 25, 1915
Type: Movie
Before his niece and ward, Dosia Dale, comes of age, her uncle, who has spent her entire fortune, must think of a way to account for his actions. He proposes marriage, and when Dosia indignantly refuses him, he conspires with his evil friend, Dr. Protheroe, to do away with her. Declaring Dosia insane, the two men lock her up in the doctor's insane asylum, but she manages to drop a note from the window. Her plea for help is found by a reporter named Ford, who feigns insanity in order to gain admittance to the asylum. Dr. Protheroe becomes suspicious of Ford and locks him up with Dosia, whereupon Ford, knowing that his friend Cuthbert will notify the police if he and Dosia do not emerge safely by twelve, barricades the door and waits. In a furious battle with the police and the militia, Dosia's uncle and Dr. Protheroe are killed and the house set ablaze, but Ford and Dosia escape, leaping from the roof into a fire net below. All danger passed, Ford and Dosia become engaged.
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The Birth of a Nation
Title: The Birth of a Nation
Character: Stoneman's Elder Son Phil
Released: February 8, 1915
Type: Movie
Two families, abolitionist Northerners the Stonemans and Southern landowners the Camerons, intertwine. When Confederate colonel Ben Cameron is captured in battle, nurse Elsie Stoneman petitions for his pardon. In Reconstruction-era South Carolina, Cameron founds the Ku Klux Klan, battling Elsie's congressman father and his African-American protégé, Silas Lynch.
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The Sisters
Title: The Sisters
Character: Frank (Carol's country lover)
Released: November 29, 1914
Type: Movie
May and her younger sister, Carol, live in a small town. May is the more lovely of the two, but Carol is wooed by Frank, a country boy. George, a city man, comes to town on a visit, falls in love with Carol and wins her away from Frank. Carol is pleased with his attentions and poor Frank is brokenhearted. Calling one day to see Carol, George meets May and falls madly in love with her, and finally runs away with her and they are married. Carol, in despair, turns back to Frank and they are married, and a year later a baby is born.
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The Folly of Anne
Title: The Folly of Anne
Character: The Sympathtic Publisher
Released: November 14, 1914
Type: Movie
A picture from the short story of Ellen Farley in "The Cavalier," and screened by John O'Brian. The story is of a girl who tries to be an author and has the usual fate of such. The new interest comes when she enters the home of the publisher because the policemen won't let her sit on the park benches and she wants to hide out of sight of them. She is starving and there is fruit on the table which she eats, but when the "burglar" comes she feels in duty bound to protect the place from him; it is the publisher, and from this meeting the two young people fall in, it always happens in fiction, why say it? But even with this ending the offering has much to commend it. Able direction and good acting give it atmosphere and it will go all right.
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Burning Daylight: The Adventures of 'Burning Daylight' in Alaska
Title: Burning Daylight: The Adventures of 'Burning Daylight' in Alaska
Character: Charley Bates
Released: September 14, 1914
Type: Movie
Elam Harnish, known as "Burning Daylight," is a leader among the men of Circle City, Alaska in the days before the gold rush. Nell, a dance hall girl, loves Harnish, though he has never offered her anything but friendship. Harnish's hunch that the big strike is coming soon proves true, and he throws himself into the frenzy of activity that follows, staking claims and eventually accumulating eleven million dollars. Harnish leaves Alaska for San Francisco without knowing that Nell has killed herself because of his departure. -From TCM.com Database, powered by the AFI.
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Martin Eden
Title: Martin Eden
Character: Cub Reporter
Released: August 16, 1914
Type: Movie
A sad story about how a working-class man tries, and succeeds, to become a writer, but finds difficulty in fitting into that world.
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John Barleycorn
Title: John Barleycorn
Released: January 1, 1914
Type: Movie
Based on the autobiographical novel of the same name. Jack London has struggled with alcoholism most of his life. At age five he was instructed to bring a pail of beer to his father and drank some to prevent it spilling over, getting drunk for the first time. As an adult, he goes through cycles of abstinence only to return to hard drinking.
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I Am Not a Racist
Title: I Am Not a Racist
Character: Phil
Released: December 31, 1969
Type: Movie
A parody of D. W. Griffith's "The Birth of a Nation", "I Am Not a Racist" rearranges the scenes of the classic movie and recreates its dialogues to criticize the racism in it and also in the world today. Freemenville is a little city somewhere in the USA. A city ashamed because of its past of slavery, but proud of being the first in the country to end it. There is an annual ball to celebrate this fact. And this year's ball may be the biggest ever, because of the possible presence of a big celebrity, who is coming to town to see the premiere of a play. However, the play happens to be D. W. Griffith's "The Birth of a Nation", a racist work that starts a series of events exposing the racism that still exists in the city, culminating in the recreation of the KKK.