Author Archive: Retro

Two sisters are hired by a renowned philanthropist who is actually the leader of a group of white slavers, and they must use their wits to free the enslaved women. Written by George Loane Tucker. Dir. George Loane Tucker.

This picture is one of Norma Shearer’s early starring efforts, and she’s not nearly as good here as she was in other pictures she made around the same time such as Channing of the Northwest or Man and Wife. When Jim Allen (Gladden James believes Dare to be responsible for his father’s ruin, he avoids the man’s daughter, Marjorie (Shearer). But Marjorie is in love with Jim and she tracks him down to a cabin in the mountains. Stewart Leighton (Richard Neill) is also there. Leighton takes her in, but his polite demeanor is a ruse and he tries to attack her. She’s saved only by the intervention of a bearded stranger — who turns out to be Jim’s father. The truth finally comes out and the young couple are united. The star’s mother, Edith Shearer, has a small part as a secretary, which she performs with a flair that Norma lacked.

Swashbuckling rogue battles with Bergundians for King and Country. Dir. Basil Dearden.

Mountain climbers are trapped by a blizzard. English titles.

Lazy scoundrel makes his wife support him and his family, but when his wife chases him away for flirting with another woman, he meets an old man who gives him a drink that makes him sleep for twenty years. Dir. Bob Hill.

Male student cross-dresses as a female chaperone for his chums in this classic farce from Charlie Chaplin’s big brother.

A white child is adopted and raised by a Chinese citizen and brought to San Francisco, where no one surmises that she is actually not Chinese.

A wealthy young man in South Carolina inherits property in a valley he has never seen. He goes there to inspect his new holdings and is mistaken for a revenue officer by the native population, which supports itself by circumventing the Volstead Act. The young man falls in love with the ward of one of the moonshiners, and he eventually must fight another man to win her hand in marriage.

An out-of-work pants presser starts an umbrella business and makes a fortune. His daughter is set to marry the nephew of a rich neighbor until the nephew is accused of stealing money from his uncle–but the money was really stolen by the rich man’s son.