Lewis Stone

  • George B. Seitz – The Thirteenth Chair (1937)

    1931-1940DramaGeorge B. SeitzMysteryUSA

    The 1937 Thirteenth Chair was the third film version of the 1919 stage melodrama by Bayard Veiller. Dame Mae Whitty dominates the proceedings as Mme. La Grange, a phony mystic who is on hand when a man is killed during one of her seances. The killing takes place in the home of a provincial British Indian governor, and the victim was a blackmailer whom everyone present had good reason to despise. Complicating matters for Mme. La Grange is the fact that one of the suspects, Nell O’Neill (Madge Evans) is her own daughter. Dissatisfied with the manner in which brusque Scotland Yard inspector Marney (Lewis Stone) is investigating the case, La Grange takes matters in her own hands, stage-managing a second seance so that the guilty party will be frightened into a confession. More slickly produced than the 1929 version of Thirteenth Chair, the remake isn’t quite as enjoyable, lacking two vital ingredients: Margaret Wycherly and Bela Lugosi, the earlier version’s Mme. LaGrange and Inspector Marney.Read More »

  • Clarence Brown – Inspiration (1931)

    1931-1940Clarence BrownClassicsDramaUSA

    Inspiration is a 1931 English language film adapted from the Alphonse Daudet short novel Sappho (1884). It was adapted by Gene Markey, directed by Clarence Brown and produced by Irving Thalberg. The cinematography was by William H. Daniels, the art direction by Cedric Gibbons and the costume design by Adrian.Read More »

  • Clarence Brown – A Woman of Affairs (1928)

    1921-1930Clarence BrownDramaSilentUSA

    Synopsis:
    Greta Garbo is the misunderstood heroine of this silent classic based on the controversial novel THE GREEN HAT by Michael Arlen. Diana Merrick is a free-spirited and wealthy socialite who loses Neville (John Gilbert), her one true love, because of the disapproval of his stubborn father (Hobart Bosworth). Heartbroken, Diana reluctantly weds David (John Mack Brown), a longtime admirer and best friend of her brother, Jeffry (Douglas Fairbanks Jr.).Read More »

  • Sidney Franklin – Wild Orchids (1929)

    1921-1930DramaRomanceSidney FranklinUSA

    Plot: Lillie Sterling comes with her husband, John, on a business trip to Java, expecting a second honeymoon. On the ship, she witnesses Javanese Prince De Gace mercilessly whipping a servant and shrinks in horror from the sight. When John is befriended by the Prince, who is very attracted to Lillie, she tries to have little to do with him. During a conversation in their room, John is called away to answer a wire, and the Prince steals a kiss in his absence, for which she slaps him. So she is understandably upset when John accepts the Prince’s invitation to stay at his plantation in Java when he promised to arrange a tiger hunt. She tries to dissuade John from going, but John says he always wanted to shoot a tiger and she is being unreasonable.Read More »

  • George B. Seitz – Yellow Jack (1938)

    1931-1940DramaGeorge B. SeitzMysteryUSA

    Quote:,This intelligent drama follows a group of medical scientists as they attempt to find the cause behind the dreaded yellow fever. It is just after the Spanish-American War, and Stone (playing Major Walter Reed) is head of a medical staff stationed in Cuba. Convinced he has found the carrier of yellow fever (nicknamed “yellow jack” by the men), Stone needs five volunteers from the US Army to serve as human guinea pigs. Montgomery heads up the enlisted volunteers, understanding well the unknown dangers of what he is about to undergo. Read More »

  • Charles Brabin & Charles Vidor – The Mask of Fu Manchu (1932)

    1931-1940AdventureCharles BrabinCharles VidorHorrorUSA

    Englishmen race to find the tomb of Genghis Khan. They have to get there fast, as the evil genius Dr. Fu Manchu is also searching, and if he gets the mysteriously powerful relics, he and his diabolical daughter will enslave the world!Read More »

  • Lionel Barrymore – Madame X (1929)

    1921-1930ClassicsDramaLionel BarrymoreUSA

    Plot: Young Raymond Floriot, following in his father Louis Floriot’s professional footsteps, he now France’s attorney general, has just passed the bar exam. Raymond’s first case, appointed to him by the courts, is a murder case. His pitiful and poor Jane Doe client, who refers to herself only as Madame X, admits to killing the scoundrel of a man named Laroque, but won’t disclose why or in turn defend herself in court. Raymond knows nothing of her past, which includes once being a woman of class, married to man of prestige. But that marriage ended because he treated her without love, which resulted in her leaving him for another man, who in turn passed away shortly thereafter. Read More »

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