Author Archive: Retro

Groundbreaking film tells the story of a Russian family shattered by the 1905 uprising, as a mother betrays her strike-breaking son to the police. Written by Vsevolod Pudovkin. English titles. Dir. Ernest B. Schoedsack and Irving Pichel.

Feature version of serial “The Lost City” (1920). Group of adventurers with varied backgrounds join together for a safari into the heart of Africa, where they find a lost white race. Produced by William N. Selig.

A hypnotic Svengali controls the singing voice of a young starlet, but he cannot control her heart.

Silent adaptation of James Fenimore Cooper’s novel, set during the French and Indian War. Produced by Maurice Tourneur. Dir. Maurice Tourneur.

An inventor travels to the South Seas, where there is buried treasure belonging to a girl. The girl’s father is being held captive by cannibals until she returns a pearl that belongs to one of their idols.

In his fourth and final adventure, Gotham Productions’ canine star Peter the Great played a police dog chasing down a gang of bank robbers along with his master, Robert Conway (Edward Hearn). Peter discloses that one of the robbers, Jimmie Bryson (Joe Bennett), is actually forced into a life of crime by Al Stokes (Lee Shumway, the dog’s former owner. With the assistance of Robert and Jimmie’s sister Mildred (Ethel Shannon), the clever pooch catches the real criminal after an exciting automobile chase. Peter the Great was poverty row company Gotham’s answer to Warner Bros.’ world famous Rin Tin Tin. His films, although popular with the small fry, never enjoyed Rinty’s above-average budgets and wide distribution.

Wealthy cripple Markley finances the education of blacksmith’s daughter Ruth. When she returns to their small town he asks to marry her, but she runs off with city worker Jim Dirk who is then killed in a subway accident. Markley offers to marry her in name only to protect her new son.

Town idler must find the bank embezzlers who murdered a small-town bank teller, who happens to be his girlfriend’s father.

A reporter writing the story of the Average Woman, discovers he is falling for the plain Jane he is basing his story on.