Author Archive: Retro

Original stuntman Canutt gets a chance to flex in this stunt- and action-packed western which includes a high dive off a cliff and a climactic stampede.

A woman goes to a sideshow fortune-teller to have her fortune told, and is astonished when the man looks into his crystal ball and goes into great detail about events in her past that few people ever knew about. Shaken, she leaves and later tells her girlfriend about the incident. The girlfriend insists that she invite the fortune-teller to a party they’re having at her house. What the woman doesn’t realize is that the “fortune-teller” is actually the ex-husband she abandoned years ago, when she took their daughter and ran off with her lover. When the “charlatan” is invited to the party, he sees an opportunity to take his revenge on his faithless ex-wife.

Ruth, a young girl, runs away from an abusive stepfather, who owns a circus, and takes the circus’ trained elephant–her only friend–with her. She winds up in a logging camp in the Canadian woods and meets Paul, a young crippled musician who has made an enemy of the town bully, Caesare. Caesare starts to take out his wrath on Ruth also, but she receives protection from an unexpected source.

The trials and tribulations of an unhappily married socialite who is cheating on her husband, resulting in scorn from her peers. Dir. Phil Rosen.

Part-sound drama of a spoiled rich girl who is forced to grow up fast when she experiences the horrors of war first-hand while working in a canteen during WWI.

In this film, set in Old California, William Norton Bailey plays a rancher who saves his lovely neighbor from a vile Spaniard. This film was part of a series of low-budget oaters, all directed by the veteran Louis Chaudet.

Social worker and soldier yearn for a society where all are equals. To cure his son of such idealistic views, the soldier’s father sets up a commune on an island off the Florida coast to prove it could never work.

Mad scientist attempts to put all of Paris in a trance, and succeeds, except for six people! Written by Rene Clair. English titles. Dir. Rene Clair.

In the year 1550, Sir George Vernon agrees to have his young daughter Dorothy betrothed to John Manners, the son of the Earl of Rutland. Sir George signs a contract, promising that the marriage will take place on Dorothy’s 18th birthday, or else he will have to pay a large penalty to Rutland. But when the two children have grown older, rumors of John’s wild behavior in France provoke Sir George to call off the engagement, and to pledge his daughter instead to her cousin Malcolm. Rutland now claims the forfeit from Sir George, and meanwhile, John has befriended Mary Stuart, the sworn enemy of Elizabeth, who is now Queen of England.