Author Archive: Retro

Romantic comedy about an aging dressmaker with amorous designs on a tough-guy sailor she hopes to make her husband.

Mannish ultra-efficient A.B. is the real force behind the Bancroft paint business. But on a weekend house-party when she overhears the boss’s grandson (Jimmy)’s unflattering opinion of her (unseen) lack of charms, she’s hurt. Jimmy’s grandmother takes her under her wing, makes her over, and teaches her to flutter her eyelashes and only say the two phrases to win a man: “Do go on!” and “Aren’t you wonderful?”. And Jimmy falls hard, not knowing his darling girl is the dreaded A.B. But can A.B. maintain her girlish guise while setting Jimmy on the right track to financial security and a proposal?

Wealthy, avaricious miser forces his wife and daughter to suffer in poverty, while trying to put a stop to his daughter’s affair with a rich young dandy. Dir. John Baxter.

A man traveling through a small western town meets a girl who is the daughter of the local land agent. To please her, he buys a parcel of land from her father. Then he finds himself involved in a plot to cheat him out of his land.

Early Tyler western that defined his cowboy character as he falls for outlaw gangleader’s daughter.

Norma Talmadge plays a pretty young secretary who must dress dowdily to avoid the licentious overtures of her male employers. She takes a job as the social secretary to a wealthy woman, whose daughter is about to marry a nasty foreign count. Talmadgepulls a few strings to set the daughter on the right course. Out of gratitude, Talmadge’s employer grants permission for the girl to marry her handsome son. A straightforward, unadorned comedy-drama, The Social Secretary is of interest today for the presence of Erich von Stroheim, cast as one of Talmadge’s predatory former bosses (he should have played the count).

A Pair of Silk Stockings is a 1918 American silent marital comedy film starring Constance Talmadge and Harrison Ford. It was directed by Walter Edwards and produced and distributed by Select Pictures Corporation. The film is based on a 1914 Broadway play of the same name.