Gladys Brockwell

The edition of Screen Snapshots celebrates 25 years of production. It looks at the content of edition #1, then a tribute to movie people who have died in those 25 years. Finally there are tributes to the Screen Snapshots series by Cecil De Mille, Walt Disney, Louella Parsons and Rosalind Russell.

From Headquarters (1929)

A Southern Belle must work in a gambling house to pay off her father's debts, which drove him to suicide. She then meets a man who sweeps her off her feet and takes her away from it all.

5.2/10

A silent film from the end of the silent era.

Two sailors with a rivalry over chasing women become friends. But when one decides to finally settle down, will this mysterious young women come between them?

6.6/10

The Home Towners is a 1928 American comedy film directed by Bryan Foy and starring Richard Bennett, Doris Kenyon and Robert McWade.

A hotel clerk from Iowa believes he's destined to collect first prize in a contest: a movie contract at a Hollywood studio.

6.1/10

An adventuress in love with an Austrian agrees to become the mistress of a Russian officer in exchange for the release of Austrian hostages.

7.3/10

Eddie is conned into fronting a speakeasy for a local gangster who intends to frame him for the murder of a cop.

5.7/10

A dejected Parisian sewer worker feels his prayers have been answered when he falls in love with a street waif.

7.6/10
10%

Harry Shelby has been kept in knee pants for years by his overprotective parents, but the day finally comes when Harry is given his first pair of long pants. Almost immediately, he is expected to marry his childhood sweetheart Priscilla... but instead, Harry's first heady whiff of manhood has got him panting after Bebe, a "fast" woman from the big city. Mistakenly thinking that Bebe fancies him too, Harry risks everything to help her out when she lands in jail, only to end up in hot water himself. Through it all, sweet Priscilla waits for her man to come to his senses.

6.3/10

A young man takes a succession of odd jobs in order to save enough money to buy he and his mother a house. He lands a position in a newspaper office and falls in love with the beautiful society editor, who is secretly having an affair with the married managing editor. She returns the young man's affections in order to make her lover jealous, but finds herself falling for him.

5.9/10

Released on July 24, 1927

Country Doctor...

7.1/10

"Twinkletoes" Minasi wants to be a great dancer like her deceased mother. Twink meets Chuck Lightfoot, a noted prizefighter, who falls in love with her at first sight. She tries to avoid falling in love with Chuck, whose wife, Cissie, is a drunken harridan and more than a little bit spiteful. Meanwhile, Twink has secured a job in a singing-dancing act in a Limehouse theater, under the auspices of Roseleaf, who has more than just a protective interest in the girl. The jealous Cissie discovers that Twink's sign-painting father also has a night job as a burglar, and she turns him into the police. While a big success dancing on the stage, the arrest of her father has left her somewhat down in the dumps, and she decides to toss herself into the Thames. Possibly, the now-free Chuck, since Cissie has been killed in an accident, might come along and rescue her.

7.1/10

A woman with a sordid past is redeemed by love in this silent melodrama from low-budget Sanford Productions.

In the prologue Sharon Kimm and Mickey Reid are childhood friends in a tenement neighborhood but are separated when Sharon is placed in an orphanage. In the story we see Sharon as a young Hollywood star whose quick rise to fame leaves her self-centered, superficial, and a spendthrift. Ironically, the film that skyrocketed her to fame was written by Mickey. But her success is brief; and when it comes crashing to earth, Mickey is there to pick up the pieces.

Young Sandra De Hault arrives by ship in Sacramento, California, during the 1849 Gold Rush. While on board she adopted three children whose mother had died during the voyage. While in Sacramento she is saved from the attentions of a violent drunk by Stanton Holliday, an agent for eastern banker John Grey. They fall for each other, but Sandra believes that the daughter of Halliday's boss is in love with him, and not wanting to hurt his career she leaves town.

Doris Matthews, a beautiful, innocent young girl, forsakes her sweetheart, Joel Barlowe, in favor of Victor Brant, a wealthy roué. On the night before they are to elope, an old sailor gives Brant a strange potion to drink and then unfolds before his eyes "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner." Deeply touched by this story about the consequences of the wanton destruction of innocent beauty, Brant leaves without Doris. After some time, he returns and finds to his pained satisfaction that Doris, having overcome her infatuation for him, has again turned her tender attentions toward Joel.

6/10

Stella Maris (1925)

Ben Lyon and Viola Dana co-star in this heavy society drama

7.1/10
8.6%

Jim Owens (Robert Frazer), a reformed thief and successful inventor, meets quiet, meek and refined Mary Adams (Elaine Hammerstein) at a jazz party. They fall in love and all goes well until she finds out about his sordid past. It's Only after he rescues her from a blazing forest fire that she forgives him and confirms her love.

In 15th century France, a gypsy girl is framed for murder by the infatuated Chief Justice, and only the deformed bellringer of Notre Dame Cathedral can save her.

7.2/10
9.2%

Santussa, an orphan who becomes separated from her nurse en route to America to live with her grandfather, is cared for by gangsters who hide their stolen jewels in her ragdoll. In New York, Big Mike, finding Santussa a nuisance, dumps her and the doll in a trash can, where a newsboy finds her. After several adventures, Santussa finds her grandfather, the jewels are handed over to customs officials, and the gang of crooks is reformed.

6.9/10

Oliver's mother, a penniless outcast, died giving birth to him. As a young boy Oliver is brought up in a workhouse, later apprenticed to an uncaring undertaker, and eventually is taken in by a gang of thieves who befriend him for their own purposes. All the while, there are secrets from Oliver's family history waiting to come to light. Written by Snow Leopard

6.7/10

Wealthy orphan Carol Gordon marries the executor of her estate, though she does not love him. Soon afterward, trying to help a friend who is being blackmailed, she is misunderstood by her husband to be herself compromised.

Tenement dweller Molly Moore, trying to forget her crooked past and go straight, runs a cheap restaurant in the underworld district in order to educate her younger sister Marion.

Just prior to World War I, the Kaiser sends Baron von Zeller to inform Emperor Franz Josef of Austria that he is ready to declare war on France. Sensing the impending crisis, the French War Office dispatches secret agent René de Bornay to investigate the situation, and upon his arrival, he cultivates the friendship of Franz Josef's mistress, the Countess Griselda von Arenburg.

Serama, the consort of Lucifer, is driven from Paradise by the Archangel Michael, who commands Conscience to enter human souls to judge and punish them. In the main story, society girl Ruth Somers, a reincarnation of Serama, prepares to marry Cecil Brooke, the wealthiest man of her set. Her guardian, Dr. Norton, an incarnation of Lucifer, constantly accompanies her. Ruth is summoned to the Court of Conscience, where the witnesses, Lust, Avarice, Hate, Revenge and Vanity, testify about Ruth's history of seducing and abandoning men. This behavior resulted in the suicide of Madge, the lover of Ned Langley, whom Ruth enthralled and promised to marry, and also the deaths of two rivals for her love. Ruth is ordered back to earth to learn her sentence. When Ned interrupts the wedding, Ruth scorns him and he shoots himself. After Brooke leaves her, the Court dooms Ruth to live with the torment of remembrance. Ruth sends Norton away, and then kneels and repents.

Conchita Cordova sings in the cathedral choir in her village of San Miguelito near the Rio Grande. Millionaire oil man John Rannie, whose oil fields have displaced the peasants, desires Conchita, and when he learns that her fiance, Juan Mendoza, has been employed by Adolf Wylie, a German spy, Rannie threatens to expose Juan unless Conchita gives herself to him.

A potentially lost film, this film tells the story of a man is convicted unjustly of a crime and then subjected to inhumane torment in a prison run by corrupt administrators.

The She-Devil is a 1916 short starring Constance Talmadge.

George Baxter presents his new wife, Margery. Paul Sneed, Baxter's neighbor, knew Margery before the marriage. When Baxter returns home unexpectedly one night, he finds Sneed and his wife together. As Sneed runs away, Baxter shoots and kills him. Both Margery and Sneed's father, Judge Randolph Sneed, witness the shooting.

A stagecoach robber falls in love with a saloon girl. However, she falls for a pastor, who converts her and she marries him. The robber is so impressed by this that he decides to turn over a new leaf. However, a shady gambler sets his sights on the former saloon girl, and the robber has to protect her from his advances.

5.7/10

Double Trouble is a 1915 American silent romantic comedy film written and directed by Christy Cabanne and stars Douglas Fairbanks in his third motion picture. The film is based on the novel of the same name by Herbert Quick. A print of the film is held by the Cohen Media Group.

5/10

Two couples are at the seaside. A young man proposes to his gal. She accepts, and promptly tells him to re-tie his tie. He objects, so she returns the ring and walks away. An older couple has their own squabble: the middle-aged husband, who thinks himself a dandy, is happy to see his complaining wife roll away in a small, unattended carriage. He immediately approaches the younger woman. To make her ex-fiancé jealous, she takes up with the dandy and off they go to swim. What of the wife and the jilted beau? Can things be set right?

5.3/10

An American sailor falls in love with a fisherman's daughter and convinces her that Jesus is more powerful than the gods who have cursed her.

5.7/10

Tokoramo, a Japanese diplomat on a mission to Paris, begins a love affair with Helene, a chorus girl, who subsequently rejects her American fiancé, Richard Bernisky. When the Japanese discover the affair, they try to force Tokoramo to end it, but Helene refuses to stop visiting him. One night, during one of her visits, Bernisky comes to Tokoramo's apartment and, while Helene hides, rebukes her to her lover. After Bernisky leaves, Tokoramo orders Helene out, but when he realizes his love for her, he calls her back. Suddenly, she rejects and insults him to the point that he strangles her. Tokoramo wants to confess his crime, but he must complete his work, and so his countrymen sacrifice a boy, Hironari, who pleads guilty to the murder and eventually is guillotined. In the end, Tokoramo also dies and his colleagues burn his valuable papers in order to protect Japan. -From the TCM.com Database, powered by the AFI.

5/10

A film about Sioux leader Chief Gray Otter (Joe Goodboy) who sends his son Tiah (Sessue Hayakawa) off to a "white man's school" so that he can become a great leader. The son returns home as a worthless drunk, disappointing the father but things get worse when the son joins a group of renegades and robs a payroll. The father is then forced to make a decision.

6.5/10