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Robert W. Chambers Filmography proprietary
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Robert W. Chambers Filmography proprietary
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| Filmography
1921-1930 |
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Title and Credits
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Cast
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Descr.
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| Cardigan (1922) | ||
USA 1922 B&W
Directed by: John W. Noble Written by:
Cinematography by: Max Schneider
Other crew Messmore Kendall .... presenter
Cardigan Cast: William Collier Jr. (Michael Cardigan) |
Cast (in credits order)
William Collier Jr. .... Michael Cardigan
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Synopsis: This middling period drama, based on the Robert W. Chambers novel, takes place in pre-Revolutionary War times and relied quite a lot on the audience's patriotism for its interest. Michael Cardigan (William "Buster" Collier, Jr.) is one of many American inhabitants who don't want to be under the King's rule. However, he's in love with Felicity -- called "Silver Heels" by the Native Americans (Betty Carpenter) -- the ward of the English governor. As the friction between the Tories and the Colonists builds, Cardigan finds himself fighting for both a new country and for Felicity's love. Along the way, he exposes the treachery of Captain Butler (William Pike), and is almost burned at the stake by Indians sympathetic to the British. Then Paul Revere (Austin Hume) makes his famous ride, the battles of Lexington and Concord are fought and the Red Coats are sent packing. Eventually Cardigan and Felicity are reunited. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide |
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| The Common Law (1923) | ||
USA 1923 B&W
Release Date: 30 Aug 1923 Directed by: George Archainbaud Written by Edward J. Montagne
Other crew
The Common Law Cast: Corinne Griffith (Valerie West) |
Cast (in credits order)
Corinne Griffith .... Valerie West
rest of cast listed alphabetically Phyllis Dare
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Synopsis: A remake of a 1916 Clara Kimball Young vehicle, Common Law stars Corinne Griffith as a woman more sinned against than necessary. Forced to support herself after the death of her wealthy mother, Griffith becomes an artist's model in Paris. While being kept by wealthy Conway Tearle (reprising his role from the 1916 film), she falls in love with tempestuous artist Elliot Dexter. A tragedy results, but don't worry, Griffith ends up with the man she truly loves all the same. Common Law was remade a second time in 1931, with Constance Bennett in the lead. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide Valerie West, an artist's model, falls in love with Louis Neville, an aristocratic artist. His family, scorning Valerie, elicits her promise that she won't marry him. Valerie promises Neville that she will become his common-law wife on a certain date the next summer. Before that time arrives, the fiancé of Neville's sister forces his attentions on Valerie, but she escapes to Neville's home and wins his father's consent to their marriage. Corinne Griffith Biography The Orchid Lady of the silent screen, Corinne Griffith (born Griffin) became a star with First National in the 1920s, her films more noted for their protagonist's much lauded beauty than any dramatic claims. Her later court testimony to the contrary, the former dancer had made her screen debut with Vitagraph as far back as 1915, when she was considered a replacement for the defecting Anita Stewart . Top stardom, however, eluded her until signing with First National in 1924. Tagged The Orchid Lady of the Screen, Griffith played a series of beautiful yet suffering women in dramas whose focal points became the star's ever-changing wardrobe. She made up for a lack of thespian talent by sheer beauty, however, much like the later Billie Dove and Hedy Lamarr . As a personality rather than an actress, Griffith was ill-equipped to tackle talkies, and is considered one of the more notorious casualties of sound. The studio did everything they could for her, however, and the expensively mounted The Divine Lady (1929), a silent with talkie sequences, for which she earned an Academy Award nomination for playing Lady Hamilton, was vastly popular and so was Saturday's Children (1939), from Maxwell Anderson 's stage hit. Griffith's voice, unfortunately, was not distinct and she retired in 1932, after a notorious string of flops. A wealthy woman due to shrewd real-estate investments, the outspoken, politically conservative Griffith proved a fine author, whose childhood memoirs were turned into Papa's Delicate Condition, a pleasantly nostalgic family comedy that featured the Academy Award-winning song "Call Me Irresponsible." Despite her literary triumphs, Griffith remained a controversial figure and never more so than during the divorce proceedings from one of her four husbands. On the witness stand, Griffith issued the startling claim that she wasn't the real Corinne Griffith at all, but her much -- MUCH! -- younger sister and stand-in, the original silent star having died years before. A parade of former coworkers, including actress Lois Wilson, then took the stand, all testifying that the plaintiff was unmistakably the one and only Corinne Griffith. Earning a bit of renewed notoriety when her memoirs were sold to Paramount, Griffith herself returned to the screen briefly in 1957, when she accepted a supporting role in something called Stars in the Back Yard, a cheap Hugo Haas production about former film actors making their own home movie. Retitled Paradise Alley, the film was finally released to stony silence in 1961. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All
Movie Guide
Conway Tearle Biography American actor Conway
Tearle headed
for England after graduating West Point, in hopes of pursuing a stage
career.
He made his theatrical debut in 1892, working steadily in London until
his return to the States thirteen years later. Establishing himself as
a romantic lead on Broadway, Tearle eased in motion pictures in 1914
with
The Nightingale. None of his silent films were particularly memorable,
but he was able to build up a following in roles calling for
dependability
and inner strength. Such was his fame with female fans that the ad copy
of his first talking picture, The Gold Diggers of Broadway (1929),
enthusiastically
promised "love scenes as only CONWAY TEARLE can play them."
Unfortunately
the actor was well past 50 when talkies came in, and also reportedly
was
fighting a losing battle with Demon Rum. By the mid '30s Tearle's stock
in Hollywood had fallen so low that he was forced to accept a starring
job in a mercifully brief series of B-westerns! Conway Tearle's last
film
role of value was as Prince of Verona in Romeo and Juliet (1936),
wherein
he carried himself well despite the fact that he (and the rest of the
cast,
for that matter) was twenty years too old for the part. ~ Hal Erickson,
All Movie Guide
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| America (1924) | ||
USA 1924 B&W
Premiere February 21, 1924 at the 44th Street
Theatre
in New York, New York.
Survival Status: Print exists in the Museum of
Modern
Art film archive (of the British Love and Sacrifice version). The
surviving British version differs from the American release in
stressing
Butler’s American birth and did not emphasize his disfavor with the
British.
{Restored version: Runtime: 141 min / USA:93 min (Killiam Restoration
with
narration) Distributed by: Kino On Video (video)]
Directed by: D.W. Griffith Scenario by John L E. Pell, from a story by Robert W. Chambers (also story) Cinematography by: G.W. Bitzer
Film Editing by: James Smith
Original Music by Joseph Carl Breil &
Adolph Fink
Art Direction by Charles M. Kirk Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Art Department
Visual Effects by
Other crew
America Available Formats
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Cast (in credits order)
Neil Hamilton .... Nathan Holden
rest of cast listed alphabetically
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Tagline:
Love of tender girlhood! Passionate deeds of heroes! A rushing, leaping drama of charm and excitement! A Thrilling Story of Love and Romance Plot Outline: The story of a family caught up in the American Revolutionary War.
Summary:
Theatrical release: February 21, 1924.Filmed
on location
in Virginia and New York.According to the 1924 Variety review, this
film
supposedly cost about $950,000 to make--a high figure for the time.Star
Neil Hamilton later played Comissioner Gordon in the popular 1960s
BATMAN
TV series.According to the 1924 Variety review, this film supposedly
cost
about $950,000 to make -- a high figure for the time.Other crew: Robert
W. Chambers (story and titles); John L.E. Pell (historical
arrangement);
and H. S. Sintzenich (cinematographer).
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| TV GUIDE: One of D.W.
Griffith's most
ambitious films, AMERICA is a stirring survey of the key events of the
American Revolution, overlaid with and compromised by an outdated
melodrama
of villainy amok.
Nathan Holden (Neil Hamilton)--Minute Man, express rider, and humble farmer--is in love with Nancy Montague (Carol Dempster), an aristocratic Virginian far above his station. Nancy's father (Erville Alderson), a Tory, opposes the message of support sent by the Virginia House of Burgesses to the Boston insurrectionists led by Samuel Adams (Lee Beggs) and John Hancock (John Dunston), who are about to flee to Lexington to avoid arrest. The war begins when the redcoats meet the rebels at Lexington and Concord. After fighting in both battles Nathan furtively woos Nancy, who is stopping with her family in Lexington, midway in a trip north. Their tryst is interrupted by Nancy's brother Charles (Charles Emmett Mack), who challenges Nathan to a duel, but the duel is forestalled by the sudden appearance of Paul Revere (Harry O'Neill), who has come to alert the countryside that "the British are coming!" Charles shifts allegiances and joins the colonial forces at Bunker Hill, where he is mortally wounded. Meanwhile, his father is seriously injured by a bullet he and Nancy mistakenly believe was fired by Nathan. As her father lies at the brink of death, Nancy comforts him by bringing Charles's body to his bedside. Montague is not told that his son died fighting for the rebels. Montague recovers and he and Nancy travel to the Mohawk Valley to visit Montague's brother (Sidney Deane). The area is the site of a series of massacres perpetrated by the followers of Captain Walter Butler (Lionel Barrymore), an ostensible Royalist who is in truth a megalomaniac secretly seeking to establish his own private empire on American soil. Nathan, who has been sent north to spy on Butler, overhears him planning to attack Fort Esperance and kill all the colonials there, including the women and the children. Nathan is forced to choose between riding forth to warn the inhabitants of the fort and saving Nancy from being raped by Butler. He chooses to answer his country's call, but Nancy is saved from Butler's lust when the captain is called away to battle. During the attack on Fort Esperance, Butler is killed and Nancy and her father are rescued from death by Nathan and Morgan's Raiders. Shortly thereafter, Britain surrenders and George Washington (Arthur Dewey) is inaugurated first president of the new republic. Cheering him on are Nathan, Nancy, and Montague, who now heartily approves of both his new country, the United States of America, and his future son-in-law, Nathan. A decade after his monumental Civil War film THE BIRTH OF A NATION (1915), Griffith was motivated to make a Revolutionary War epic by a suggestion made in a letter the Daughters of the American Revolution sent to Will Hays, the head of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America. It turned out to be one of the costliest pictures he ever created but far from the most popular: its failure to turn a profit essentially ended Griffith's tenure as a major independent filmmaker. Critical reaction was mixed. Although Variety, felt that the film "ranks with the best that this director has given to the screen" and Theatre Magazine said, "In sheer pictorial beauty, AMERICA has no equal among the moving pictures of the past," the consensus was that the inspiring historical material had been seriously undercut by the climactic melodramatics. Particularly unimpressed was Griffith's leading lady and acolyte Lillian Gish, who wrote in her autobiography: "Apart from a few scenes, the film was a heartbreaking disappointment."L Although the picture has survived as a more striking achievement than Gish and posterity have allowed, the critics were right about its split personality. Watching AMERICA is like watching a double bill made up of a good movie of some 90 minutes in length followed by a mediocre co-feature of some 60 minutes in length. Part one of AMERICA is an involving survey of the events that launched the Revolutionary War. Most of the major milestones and talismans (such as the Liberty Bell) are invoked and the locations and colonial buildings on display are highly evocative. Framed by the immortal lines "One if by land, two if by sea" and "To arms-the British are coming!", the sequence that retells the story of the midnight ride of Paul Revere provided the American silent cinema with one of its high points. The fictional thread that Griffith and writer Robert Chambers introduced to humanize the historical drama is generally unobtrusive and, indeed, the romance between Nathan and Nancy is by and large quite charming. The action shifts from Massachusetts to the Mohawk Valley and stock Victorian melodrama sets in, as The Shot Heard 'Round the World gives way to The Fate Worse Than Death. What had begun as a stirring saga about a group of ordinary people caught up in the sweep of history degenerates into a potboiler in which history is reduced to local color. Un-Americanism is personified and trivialized in the figure of Walter Butler, who, as Griffith expert Edward Wagenknecht noted "may have been as bad in life as he is in the film but can hardly have been quite so important; in the second half of AMERICA, the colonials almost seem to be fighting not England but Captain Butler." The most complete and widely viewed extant print of AMERICA is the one that was prepared for release in England under the title LOVE AND SACRIFICE. Somewhat of an anglophile, Griffith probably suffered little discomfort in revising his film to placate the British. Viewers of this print will find it easy to identify the adjustments, as the most ingratiating intertitles are rendered in smaller letter than the others. (Violence.) — Dale Thomajan see also:
Corliss, Richard and Schickel, Richard
References: Baer-Film p. 7;
Bardèche-History p.
202; Barry-Griffith pp. 32, 33, 71, 73; Brownlow-Parade pp. 80-81, 93,
578; Everson-American p. 52; Lahue-Triangle p. 106; Limbacher-Feature
p.
7; Maltin-Guide p. 32; Pitts-Hollywood pp. 6, 38, 39-41, 89, 176;
Shipman-Cinema
p. 82; Sweeney-Coming p. 70.
Synopsis: This epic tale about the American Revolution broke the bank for filmmaker D.W. Griffith. Robert W. Chambers loosely adapted his novel, The Reckoning, which focuses on the battles in New York state. Griffith however, found it necessary to add a romance, so Chambers obligingly added one for him. Captain Walter Butler (Lionel Barrymore), a supporter of the king, goads the Iroquois Indians into attacking settlers who are loyal to the Revolution. Nathan Holden (Neil Hamilton) is a dispatch rider for the Boston Committee on Public Safety, and a patriot. While on a mission in Virginia he meets Nancy (Carol Dempster), the daughter of Justice Montague, a Tory (Erville Alderson). The Montagues are on hand in Lexington for the ride of Paul Revere (Harry O'Neill)--one of the highlights of the film. Nancy's brother, Charles (Charles Mack) sides with the rebels and dies during the fighting at Bunker Hill. Nancy and her father go to visit relatives in the Mohawk Valley; Holden meanwhile is with Washington (Arthur Dewey) at Valley Forge. He is sent North with Morgan's raiders to quell the Indian uprising and discovers that Montague has naively betrothed Nancy to the evil Captain Butler. When Montague finds out that Butler is responsible for the massacres it is too late. Holden overhears Butler's plan for another attack and he goes to sound the alarm, even though he must leave Nancy in the lustful clutches of Butler. But the Indians insist on attacking immediately, saving Nancy from Butler's grasp. Morgan's raiders come to the rescue, killing Butler and halting the massacre. Montague finally realizes Holden's worth and approves of a match between him and Nancy. This picture cost nearly a million dollars, got mixed reviews, and did not make its money back. Griffith made one more picture--Isn't Life Wonderful--as an independent. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide |
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| Between Friends (1924) | ||
| USA 1924
Sound Mix: Silent Produced by: Vitagraph Company of America Directed by: J. Stuart Blackton
Cinematography by W. Steve Smith Jr. (as Stephen Smith Jr.) Other crew
Between Friends Cast: Lou Tellegen (David Drene) |
Cast (in credits order)
Lou Tellegen .... David Drene
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Synopsis:
Based on
a 1914 novel by Robert William Chambers, this silent melodrama from the
pioneering Vitagraph Company starred one of the era's great
matinee-idols,
the Dutch-born Lou Tellegen. Tellegen, who had been a leading man to
stage
diva Sarah Bernhardt, played David Drene, whose supposedly docile wife
Jessica (Anna Q. Nilsson) suddenly elopes with her husband's best
friend
Jack (Norman Kerry). Jessica's guilt drives her to suicide, and the
affair
goes unnoticed for years, until the day David announces his engagement
to Cecile (Alice Calhoun) and is contacted by a jealous rival, Quair
(Stuart
Holmes). The evil Quair obligingly tells David of Jack's treachery, and
the latter proposes to kill himself. But David, using telepathic
powers,
prevents the tragedy and forgives him. Between Friends was directed by
Vitagraph's founder J. Stuart Blackton. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie
Guide
Anna Q. Nilsson Biography Born in Sweden, actress
Anna Q.
Nilsson was lured to the U.S. as a teenager by dreams of luxury and
creature
comforts. Her first job was as a nursemaid, but Anna learned English
quickly
and was able to advance herself professionally. Her striking Nordic
beauty
made her a much sought-after commercial model; one of the photographers
with whom Nillson worked suggested that the girl was pretty enough for
motion pictures, and recommended her for a one-reel epic titled Molly
Pitcher
(1913). She worked her way up to stardom, and her career might have
continued
unabated had not Nillson been seriously injured in 1925 when, while
riding
a horse, she was thrown against a stone wall. Nillson was an invalid
for
one whole year, working arduously with therapists and specialists in
Sweden
and Vienna until she was finally able to walk without aid. One of
Nillson's
comeback films was The Babe Comes Home (1927), in which she worked like
a Spartan to give her own performance while trying to make baseball
star
Babe Ruth look good. When talking pictures came in, Nillson, whose
career
had been faltering since her accident, gave up films to concentrate on
charity work. Occasionally she'd accept featured or bit roles, though
few
are worth mentioning except for her appearance as one of the
silent-star
"waxworks" - including Buster Keaton and H.B. Warner - in the 1950 film
drama Sunset Boulevard. Anna Q. Nilsson retired in 1963 to Sun City,
California.
~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Lou Tellegen Biography At the apex of his film career, Dutch actor Lou Tellegen was considered one of the best-looking players on stage and screen. Born Isidor Van Dameler in Holland, he first appeared on the Amsterdam stage in 1903. By 1909, he had become a leading man in Paris and frequently played opposite Sarah Bernhardt . In 1910, Bernhardt and Tellegen went on a North American tour. A little later, the two acted together in three films for the Film d'Art company. One of those films, Queen Elizabeth , was a box-office smash in America. In 1913, Tellegen returned to the U.S. and launched a brief Broadway career before going to Hollywood to star in a number of silent films. At one time he was married to film and opera star Geraldine Farrar. He published his memoirs, Women Have Been Kind, in 1931. Tellegen also directed a few films. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Norman Kerry Biography Of German descent,
American silent
screen actor Arnold Kaiser wisely changed his name to the less
inflammatory
Norman Kerry at the outset of World War I. With his waxed mustache and
devilish smile, Kerry would become a popular leading man to such
powerful
female stars as Mary Pickford, Lillian Gish, Marion Davies, and Corinne
Griffith. But the actor's lack of thespian qualities became painfully
obvious
when directorErich Von Stroheim surprisingly chose him to portray his
alter
ego in The Merry-Go-Round (1923). Much of Kerry's inadequacy could be
blamed
on Von Stroheim's replacement, Rupert Julian, and Kerry was equally
unsatisfactory
as the nominal leading man in Julian's later Phantom of the Opera
(1925).
An early talkie, Bachelor Apartment (1931), only proved that Kerry had
little future in sound films. He did not have a good speaking voice, a
fact he tended to hide by mumbling. Offscreen, Kerry earned the same
kind
of notoriety as the later Errol Flynn and he generated a great deal of
publicity by stowing away on an ocean liner in an attempt to woo back
an
estranged wife. He later joined the French Foreign Legion, returning to
the U.S. only when France was invaded by Nazi Germany. ~ Hans J.
Wollstein,
All Movie Guide
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