Bessie Love

The epic life story of Alice Guy-Blaché (1873–1968), a French screenwriter, director and producer, true pioneer of cinema, the first person who made a narrative fiction film; author of hundreds of movies, but banished from history books. Ignored and forgotten. At last remembered.

7.6/10
9.5%

Miriam promises her lovers the gift of eternal life, but John, her companion for centuries, suddenly discovers that he is getting old minute by minute, so he looks for Dr. Sarah Roberts, a researcher on the mechanisms of aging, and asks her for help.

6.7/10
5.2%

A young black pianist becomes embroiled in the lives of an upper-class white family set among the racial tensions, infidelity, violence, and other nostalgic events in early 1900s New York City.

7.3/10
9.2%

A film adaptation of D.H. Lawrence's novel. After a crippling injury leaves her husband impotent, Lady Chatterly is torn between her love for her husband and her physical desires. With her husband's consent, she seeks out other means of fulfilling her needs.

5.2/10

An account of the revolutionary years of the legendary American journalist John Reed (1887-1920), who shared his adventurous professional life with his radical commitment to the socialist revolution in Russia, his dream of spreading its principles among the members of the American working class, and his troubled romantic relationship with the writer Louise Bryant (1885-1936).

7.3/10
8.9%

Hollywood is a 1980 documentary series produced by Thames Television which explored the establishment and development of the Hollywood studios and its impact on 1920s culture.

9.3/10

On his deathbed Carmine Vespucci's father tells him to "get Proclo". With "the hit" on, Gaetano tells a cab driver to take him where Carmine can't find him. He arrives at the Ritz, a gay bathhouse.

6.9/10
5.6%

A high school teacher separated from his son plots revenge on his ex-wife.

5.9/10

A duo of bisexual female vampires prey on passing motorists, whom they seduce and murder in the English countryside.

6.1/10

Recently divorced career woman Alex Greville begins a romantic relationship with glamorous mod artist Bob Elkin, fully aware that he's also intimately involved with middle-aged doctor Daniel Hirsh. For both Alex and Daniel, the younger man represents a break with their repressive pasts, and though both know that Bob is seeing both of them, neither is willing to let go of the youth and vitality he brings to their otherwise stable lives.

7.1/10
8.6%

A biography of the dancer Isadora Duncan, the 1920s dancer who forever changed people's ideas of ballet. Her nude, semi-nude, and pro-Soviet dance projects as well as her attitudes on free love, debt, dress, and lifestyle shocked the public of her time.

7/10
7.5%

Young office assistant Majorie will marry soon, however she's plagued by doubts if her fiance is the right one. On her last day at work, her male colleagues don't miss a chance to comfort her... and flirt.

6.2/10

The life of an old man, John Cartner Ronson, living alone in a huge block of flats in London since his wife died nine years earlier.

7.1/10

Critics and the public say Karen Stone is too old -- as she approaches 50 -- for her role in a play she is about to take to Broadway. Her businessman husband, 20 years her senior, has been the angel for the play and gives her a way out: They are off to a holiday in Rome for his health. He suffers a fatal heart attack on the plane. Mrs. Stone stays in Rome. She leases a magnificent apartment with a view of the seven hills from the terrace. Then the contessa comes calling to introduce a young man named Paola to her. The contessa knows many presentable young men and lonely American widows.

6.5/10

Based on the American play, Pickup Girl by Elsa Shelley. A story of a young girl's lapse into sex delinquency.

5.9/10

A professional thief is sprung from prison with the assistance of a new partner who what's to know where he's hid his loot.

6.9/10

Unassuming planning engineer David Webb finds himself on the Queen Elizabeth to New York with instructions to negotiate a high-powered loan. His lack of confidence means he is completely out of his depth, at least until he finds his personality changes every day during the hour the ship's clocks stop to make allowance for their westward passage.

5.7/10

Eighteen-year-old Esther has been deaf and blind since the accident which killed her mother. Wealthy Margaret Landi, a native of Esther's village in Ireland, is talked into helping to educate and possibly heal Esther. Margaret grows to love Esther as a daughter, but finds Esther's innocence threatened by sleazy promoters and her own sleazy ex-husband. Radiant performance by Heather Sears. Based on a book that nearly had Helen Keller's co-workers suing for libel due to perceived parallels between Carlo Landi and the husband of Annie Sullivan

6.2/10

When Jim Fletcher is told by his firm, that his new furniture designs, are not in keeping with the firms image. he threatens to resign, and decides to uproot his family, and emigrate to Australia. but his problems are only just beginning.

6.2/10

Has-been director Harry Dawes gets a new lease on his career when independently wealthy Kirk Edwards hires him to write and direct a film. They go to Madrid to find Maria Vargas, a dancer who will star in the film. Millionaire Alberto Bravano takes Maria from Kirk. Count Vincenzo Torlato-Favrini takes Maria from Alberto.

7/10
10%

Jean Raymond (Glynis Johns) an upper class woman with a gambling addiction, is given a twelve-month prison sentence resulting from her inability to pay her debts. At first she is overwhelmingly depressed by life in the women's prison; gradually, however, her misery is relieved by the many close friends she makes there. This sympathetic drama traces the contrasting lives and often faltering progress of the inmates of a women's prison.

6.3/10

James Stewart plays aeronautical engineer Theodore Honey, the quintessential absent-minded professor: eccentric, forgetful, but brilliant. His studies show that the aircraft being manufactured by his employer has a subtle but deadly design flaw that manifests itself only after the aircraft has flown a certain number of hours. En route to a crash site to prove his theory, Honey discovers that he is aboard a plane rapidly approaching his predicted deadline.

7.2/10

Now old, ill, poor, and largely forgotten, William Freise-Greene was once very different. As young and handsome William Green he changed his name to include his first wife's so that it sounded more impressive for the photographic portrait work he was so good at. But he was also an inventor and his search for a way to project moving pictures became an obsession that ultimately changed the life of all those he loved.

7/10

Two Englishmen (Richard Attenborough, Jack Watling) train with the Royal Air Force, ending with a bombing raid on Berlin.

6.6/10

Propaganda short showing how London is coping with World War II.

5.8/10

The MacIver brothers (Michael Redgrave, Griffith Jones) build the first ship to cross the Atlantic by steam power alone.

6.2/10

This short travelogue depicts snippets of locations in Hollywood, California, most of them as seen from the streets. Considerable time is taken showing the kinds of architecture of private homes. There are images of various important buildings, and a depiction of the Hollywood Bowl. Finally, there is a sequence revolving around the premiere of the film “Dirigible” (1931) at the famed Chinese Theatre.

6.2/10

A desperate woman turns to prostitution but is saved by true love.

6.3/10

Margaret Holt and her brother Victor set out to smash a narcotics ring responsible for their father's death. Young reporter John Howell and eccentric mystery writer Winthrop Clavering help unravel the truth about the murder.

5.4/10

The road-show troupe of a top Broadway show go cross-country while taking the audience along on the on-stage scenes as well as what happens and is happening back stage of the production. The spectacular dancing ensembles and colorful costumes and pulchritude on-stage offers a contrasting background to the drabness of the backstage, where joy, sorrow, tragedies, deception, and romance are intertwined.

6/10

Two men, one timid and one aggressive, make out as comical criminals.

5.4/10

Jack and Jerry are doing okay between profession baseball and Vaudeville. That is, until love and gold-diggers get in the way.

5.5/10

A college football star falls for his mousy French tutor.

5.6/10

Harriet and Queenie Mahoney, a vaudeville act, come to Broadway, where their friend Eddie Kerns needs them for his number in one of Francis Zanfield's shows. Eddie was in love with Harriet, but when he meets Queenie, he falls in love to her, but she is courted by Jock Warriner, a member of the New Yorker high society. It takes a while till Queenie recognizes, that she is for Jock nothing more than a toy, and it also takes a while till Harriet recognizes, that Eddie is in love with Queenie

5.7/10
3.3%

Millionaire William van Luyn falls in love with his secretary Joan Thayer and marries her. Her family, part of "the great middle class" (as blowhard nephew Henry keeps reminding us), is happy for Joan, but reluctant to take charity from Will. He moves in with them, and they keep resisting, until one day he takes drastic action.

5.9/10

An all-star revue featuring MGM contract players.

5.9/10
5%

In this drama, a traveling troupe of actors find themselves in danger of becoming unemployed when their manager up and leaves. Two of the actors decide to marry and settle down. The lead actor helps set up the rest of the troupe with some performances. He then destroys the new marriage. Later the woman and the head actor fall in love. He then gives her the lead role in his newest show.

5.2/10

The famous matinee idol and blackface comedian, Don Wilson, heads out of town to escape adulation. There, calling himself Harry Mann, he accidentally joins a traveling acting troupe, and falls in love with Ginger Bolivar, who runs the troupe and stars in their Civil War melodrama. Don's producer sees the play, and thinks it's a comic masterpiece, and just what Don's Broadway show needs. But when Ginger finds out she's been played for a fool, will she forgive Don?

6.8/10

Sally of the Scandals is a 1928 American silent crime drama film produced and released by Film Booking Offices of America. It was directed by Lynn Shores and starred Bessie Love.

Anybody Here Seen Kelly? is a 1928 American silent comedy film directed by William Wyler. This was the first non-Western film to be directed by Wyler and is now considered to be a lost film. This is Bessie Love's final silent film.

6.3/10

The Swell Head is a 1928 silent comedy short

When the Stack family suffers some financial setbacks, daughter Mary Ellen suggests they buy a car and relocate to California. Unbeknownst to them, their used car is worth more than they ever could have imagined.

7.1/10

An amateur boxing champion stops at West Point to see a dress parade and falls for the commandant's daughter. He wins an appointment to the Academy and begins a rivalry for her affection.

7.3/10

Seref, who returns to his country after many years in America, as a dollar billionaire with a cowboy hat on his head, and with his Dallas-type boots has an interesting past: Twenty years ago he has lost his sweetheart Melek to his closest friend, and furthermore, has been put in prison. He found a way to escape from prison, going to America, the country of dreams. Here, he has become a businessman with boundless wealth, known as Seref The Turk. When he returns to his country as an American, even though he has some commercial aims in mind, his real desire is to take revenge. He will settle accounts with the friend who stabbed him in the back many years ago, and with Melek who is betrayed him. However, when he sets foot in Turkey with yearning, he meets 'Small America' in chaos. On top of that, while looking for Melek, he finds himself in the middle of a funny and exciting adventure where sexuality and violence mingle.

Young orphan Victoria Sax becomes a grand duchess and is summoned to a remote kingdom.

7.6/10

Lovely Mary, an orphan girl, reluctantly takes charge of her sister's child when her sister Kate is jailed.

Song and Dance Man was based on the play of the same name by George M. Cohan. Tom Moore plays vaudevillian Happy Farrell, who gives up show biz to take a "civilian" job. Finding success in the business world, Happy tries to go back on stage, only to find that it isn't quite so easy the second time around. Meanwhile, our hero's former vaude partner Leola Lane (Bessie Love), now a headliner at the Palace, gives it all up to become the bride of artist Joseph Murdock

A young women is part a jewel theft ring, but opts out of a robbery because guns will be used. A man gets killed in that operation and the district attorney convicts an innocent man.

Eric Fane (Richard Barthelmess) is a composer unwilling to compromise his dream for a steady job back home in the United States. After his studies in Italy, he moves to Paris, where he is forced to write popular songs for money when he stops receiving support from his father. He tires of selling out and, after an encounter with the mob, starts to travel. He begins a madcap journey from Paris to Port Said, Egypt, and to the South Seas, where he believes he has found love with Teita (Bessie Love).

4.1/10

'Big Boy' Morgan and his friend, invalid Charlie Grey, must overcome the efforts of the villainous Holdbrook to foreclose on the Los Rosas ranch and make off with the beautiful Nora Shea.

5.1/10

The first film adaptation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's classic novel about a land where prehistoric creatures still roam.

7/10
10%

A European Ruler falls in love with an American.

6.8/10

Gladstone Smith, a fearful young reporter, gets on the wrong side of a murderous criminal and flees to Alaska, along with the killer's wife, who is equally frightened of her husband. But the murderer pursues them to the frozen north and Gladstone must overcome his cowardice in order to overcome his nemesis.

The Silent Watcher is a lost 1924 American silent melodrama film directed by Frank Lloyd. It stars Glenn Hunter and Bessie Love.

The story of a woman on trial for her life for shooting the man who had promised to love her but had deserted her...and of a woman on the jury who refused to condemn her when eleven men had voted guilty...a woman brave enough to defy public opinion, brave enough to lose the loss of the love of her husband by baring her soul to the world in order to save the girl on trial.

A federal agent assigned to stop a bootlegging gang joins forces with the gang leader's wife and the sister of one of the ring's truck drivers to break up the gang.

Cattlemen attempt to keep their lands and herds from being overrun by nesters.

The Native American Siwash people have been displaced from their land and live on a reservation. The wealthy Mr. Boland attempts to buy the reservation from the Siwash for dubious reasons.

Torment is a 1924 American silent film crime drama produced and directed by Maurice Tourneur and distributed by Associated First National. This film stars Bessie Love, Owen Moore, and Jean Hersholt.

A young woman hits Hollywood, determined to become a star.

7/10

A doctor's adopted son turns out to be an ungrateful whelp. He beds the doctor's maid, then his secretary, and finally targets the doctor's wife, his own stepmother as his next conquest....

1/10

An attorney's wife is determined to fight the evils of addictive substances.

7.2/10
6.7%

Originally planned as 12 two-reelers, only three were made: The Little Knight, The Love Charm, The Crown of Courage.

4/10

Poet Raphael de Valentin is down on his luck until a friend introduces him into society. He meets the Countess Fedora, and after she reads his poems, his work becomes an overnight sensation.

2.2/10

The Purple Dawn is a 1923 American silent romantic drama film that was produced, written, and directed by Charles R. Seeling. Starring Bessie Love, Bert Sprotte, and William E. Aldrich. The film is presumed lost.

St. Elmo is a 1923 American silent drama film directed by Jerome Storm. Distributed by Fox Film Corporation, the film is based on the 1867 novel of the same name written by Augusta Jane Evans. Today, St. Elmo is a lost film.

Gentle Julia is a 1923 American silent romantic drama film based on the popular novel Gentle Julia by Booth Tarkington. Directed by Rowland V. Lee, the film starred Bessie Love.

Three Who Paid is a 1923 American silent Western melodrama film directed by Colin Campbell, and starring Dustin Farnum, with Bessie Love and Frank Campeau. The film was based on the 1922 short story by George Owen Baxter,

Partially Lost film. Difficult to know the plot.

5.1/10

College athlete Jimmy Brent is sent to Wyoming by his wealthy uncle John Morton, who has promised him $50,000 if he beats up Bob Phillips, who was once Morton's rival for Mary Allen. Jimmy finds Phillips, but when he falls in love with Phillips' daughter Gloria, he starts to think twice about performing his "job" for Uncle John. Matters are further complicated when a ranch hand tricks Phillips into thinking that Jimmy is the head of a gang of rustlers.

Young mother Mary Gordoon is too poor to take care of her infant daughter, Ann, and leaves the child at an orphanage. Ann grows up with a crippled leg in the orphanage, and has fallen in love with a fellow orphan, Jimmy.

6.4/10

Another entry in the popular one-reel series.

Anna Moore, a poor orphaned country girl, and her little brother, Tommy, live with hypocritical Squire Simpson, who conspires with his son to acquire the inheritance due the girl.

The WAMPAS Baby Stars was a promotional campaign sponsored by the United States Western Association of Motion Picture Advertisers, which honored 13 (15 in 1932) young actresses each year whom they believed to be on the threshold of movie stardom.

The Vermilion Pencil is a 1922 American silent drama film directed by Norman Dawn, and produced and distributed by Robertson–Cole. It is based on the eponymous 1908 novel by Homer Lea. The film stars Japanese actor Sessue Hayakawa in multiple roles, and white actors Ann May, Bessie Love, and Sidney Franklin, all in Asian roles. It is now a lost film.

6%

The Spirit of the Lake is a 1921 American silent short Western drama film produced by Cyrus J. Williams and distributed by Pathé Exchange. It was directed by Robert North Bradbury and stars Tom Santschi, Bessie Love, and Ruth Stonehouse.

The Honor of Rameriz is a 1921 American silent short Western film produced by Cyrus J. Williams and distributed by Pathé Exchange. It was directed by Robert North Bradbury and stars Tom Santschi, Bessie Love, and Ruth Stonehouse.

This film was directed by Rowland V Lee and tells the story of a bitter sea captain angry with the world because his wife left him.

6.5/10

A Yankee Princess is a 1919 American silent comedy-drama film produced and distributed by the Vitagraph Company of America. It was directed by David Smith and stars Bessie Love, who also wrote the screenplay. It is a lost film.

7/10

Geraldine Farleigh, a timid village schoolteacher, supports her family and must pay off her late father's debt to Bruce Cartwright.

Peggy ( Bessie Love ) and her sister Frances ( Myrtle Reeves ) live with their father, but because of his idleness, they must all move to humbler quarters. Peggy adapts quickly to their new surrounding, while Frances misses the social life she once enjoyed. Their neighbors are well off, and Peggy begins a romance with their son, whom she thinks is the chauffeur. Meanwhile, Frances has become involved with a roguish character and plans to elope with him. Peggy saves her sister from imminent disgrace, but comes close to compromising herself instead. Peggy's sweetheart comes to her rescue and now his true identity is revealed to the very grateful girl.

Young and spunky Alannah, an Irish immigrant living in a tenement, sells newspapers to support her family. She is soon helping a district attorney secure proof that the unjust town mayor is collecting bribes. For her reward, Alannah and her boyfriend Jimmy are appointed managers of a municipal restaurant.

The story of an orphan girl and her dog.

The Little Boss is a 1919 American silent romantic comedy film directed by David Smith and produced by Vitagraph Studios.[2] The story and screenplay were by Rida Johnson Young starring Bessie Love and Wallace MacDonald.

How Could You, Caroline? is a 1918 American silent comedy-drama film directed by Frederick A. Thomson, with a screenplay by Agnes Christine Johnston. It stars Bessie Love, James W. Morrison, and Dudley Hawley.

The Dawn of Understanding is a lost 1918 American silent Western comedy film produced by The Vitagraph Company of America and directed by David Smith. It stars Bessie Love in the first film of her nine-film contract with Vitagraph.

Young Celeste Janvier ( Bessie Love ) lives in an East Side tenement with her immigrant grandfather, a humanitarian and socialist. Like her kindly grandfather, Celeste also has a kindhearted soul, and her friendly nature has earned her the nickname, " the little sister of everybody."

Wee Lady Betty rules the O'Reilly castle with a stern hand and a big heart until she learns that Roger, the O'Reilly heir, is coming to take possession of his estate. Unable to provide for her aged father, Betty conceives of a scheme. Feigning to leave the castle, she returns after dark with her father and installs him in the haunted chamber.

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.

A 1917 film directed by Paul Powell.

Young Polly-Ann works in a small town inn as a maidservant. A troupe of actors comes to town and the innocent girl falls in love with one of its members. Howard Straightlane is sent to the small town by his father, to work as a schoolteacher in hopes of smartening up the young man from his wild ways. Howard soon meets Polly-Ann and saves her from the unscrupulous actor.

A young girl, Rose Eastmen lives with her lazy Uncle, who works as a janitor in a publishing house. Lacking education, both Rose and her Uncle are susceptible to the socialist ideas of writer Rudolph Creig. One day Rose encounters Jack Steven's the wealthy son of the publishing house, working on his car. She believes he is a common laborer, and begins seeing him. Through her exposure to Jack, Rose begins to realize the rich are not such an abominable people. Rudolph has also reached this conclusion after learning Steven's has published his book. Now with a hefty royalty check and success, Rudolph is able to marry Rose.

H. Ulysses Watts is a traveling Shakespearean actor whose career is on the decline, as his audiences are more interested in cinema and vaudeville. When the troupe is robbed by Stoner, Watts cares for an injured young trapeze artist.

After her father's death, little Briar Rose is taken in by the men at a lumber camp. The girl shows a definite preference for one of the lumberjacks, "Hell-to-Pay" Austin, so he becomes her new "father." Just as much as Hell-to-Pay takes care of Briar, she watches over him, and it is largely through her influence that he gives up hard drinking and needless fighting. Then, when Briar is old enough, she goes away to school and quickly falls in with the wrong crowd. Hell-to-Pay comes after her and takes her away from Doris Valentine, an adventuress who had been teaching Briar the tricks of the trade. When they are reunited, Hell-to-Pay and Briar realize that they are in love, so they decide to change their relationship from guardian and ward to husband and wife.

The story of a poor young woman, separated by prejudice from her husband and baby, is interwoven with tales of intolerance from throughout history.

7.7/10
9.7%

Reggie, a wealthy young man about town, is eager for excitement, so he takes to visiting the rougher sections of the city in search of thrills. He meets and falls for a cabaret singer, but she turns out to be the inamorata of the local gang boss. The gangster sends his men after Reggie, but eventually it comes down to a duel between the two men themselves.

4.8/10

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.

"Waffles," the waitress at "Coffee Dan's" hash-house, is selected by Bert Gallagher and Clara Johnstone, a pair of crooks, to be represented as a missing heiress whose story they have read about in the papers. "Waffles" herself believes the story, as she was orphaned early and remembers little of her childhood, and by adroit coaching is able to convince the estate's none too bright lawyers of the validity of her claim. With this unlimited money, poor little "Waffles" nevertheless has only three desires: to buy the little restaurant for her old benefactor, Shorty Olson, to publish the music written by her lover, Carl Miller, a young, eccentric, absent-minded musical genius, and to adopt the baby that a Mrs. O'Shaughnessy is too poor to care for.

Coke Ennyday, the scientific detective, divides his time into periods of "Sleep", "Eat", "Dope" and "Drinks". In fact, he overcomes every situation with drugs: consuming cocaine to increase his energy or injecting it in his opponents to incapacitate them. To help the police, he tracks down a contraband of opium (which he eagerly tastes) transported within "leaping fishes", saving a "fish-blower" girl from blackmail along the way.

6.9/10

In the future (1921), an alliance of several foreign countries plot to attack the US. American officials, coming to the realisation that the country is basically defenceless, offer $1,000,000 to anyone who can come up with a weapon to defeat the invaders. Winthrop Clavering, a writer and inventor, hears of the reward and tells his friend Bartholomew Thompson, a scientist and inventor who has been working on developing flying torpedo. However, enemy agents have also heard about Thompson's project, and set out to kill him and steal his plans. This film is now considered lost.

5/10

An outlaw calling himself Passin' Through halts his "evil" ways long enough to help out some children in difficulty.

6.6/10

Steve Denton, rich from years of prospecting, is fleeced by the citizens of Yellow Ridge. In his rage, he kidnaps the woman most responsible and makes her his slave in a desert hideaway.

6.6/10

A young woman and her five little brothers and sisters are left orphans by the murder of their father over gold found on his ranch. Together the seven offspring fight against their greedy neighbors to keep what is rightfully theirs.

5.8/10

The Hollisters, a bright, spirited, wholesome family, are compelled to move into the country. After many efforts to secure a home, Shirley, eldest of the Hollisters, contrives a way out by renting a magnificent old stone barn at a ridiculously low price, transforming it into a house. The owner of the barn is not an ordinary landlord, as you will see, for he is a young man with fine ideals, and he is not content with establishing Shirley and her family in the quaintly beautiful old place, but makes the world a much happier place to live in for all of them.