Writing

Roy Somerville

Known for

Writing

Credits

15 titles

Known for

The Bandbox poster
NR

On an ocean liner returning to America, Alison Landis, an actress, avoids paying duty on a valuable pearl necklace by hiding it in the lining of a hat which she sends to Benjamin Staff, a playwright. The necklace is being trailed by a crook who is related to another passenger, Eleanor Searle, who also has a striped hatbox similar to the one recovered by the unsuspecting playwright. The crook bears an uncanny resemblance to Eleanor's father. The two bandboxes are inadvertently switched at the dock.

The Bandbox

1919

The First Law poster
NR

When her surgeon father loses his fortune, Norma Webb (Castle) turns her family home into a boarding house.

The First Law

1918

The Challenge of Chance poster
NR

A ranch foreman innocently works for a crooked horse dealer. When he discovers the truth about his boss, and about the boss's plans to rob a young woman, the foreman quits his job and offers his services to the young woman. The task she presents him is to rescue her herd of Kentucky thoroughbred horses from the crooked dealer's bandits.

The Challenge of Chance

1919

The Devil's Needle poster
6.4

Renee is a French artist's model who uses morphine as an escape from the dull reality of her life. She recommends it to a neurotic artist because "it kindles the fires of genius." The artist quickly becomes addicted to the drug and the quality of his work begins to disintegrate. He takes on a new model, marries her, and starts her on the same path of moral degradation, until a guilt-ridden Renee decides to intervene in order to save them both. According to silent film historian Kevin Brownlow, THE DEVIL'S NEEDLE was banned by the state of Ohio, but the censor board reversed its decision after recognizing the positive message beneath the film's scandalous surface. This special edition was mastered from a 35mm preservation print of the 1923 re-release version. The only known surviving copy, the element suffers significant nitrate decomposition during some scenes.

The Devil's Needle

1916

The Children in the House poster
4.8

A woman is stuck with an unfaithful husband until he is killed robbing a bank.

The Children in the House

1916

An Innocent Magdalene poster
NR

When Dorothy's Southern, aristocratic father Colonel Raleigh refuses to let her marry Forbes Stewart, a Northern gambler, the couple elopes. When Dorothy soon thereafter becomes pregnant, Forbes vows to reform, but authorities arrest him on a gambling charge, and he serves a year in prison. During that time, and just before the birth of the baby, a woman comes to Dorothy and claims to be Forbes' wife. Stunned, Dorothy returns to her father, but the colonel throws her out, and so, on her own, she has her baby, whom the community believes to be illegitimate. Convinced that she has sinned, Dorothy is about to kill herself when Forbes, just out of jail, finds her and explains that the other woman simply had been an ex-sweetheart trying to win him back.

An Innocent Magdalene

1916

Behind the camera

The Bandbox poster
NR

On an ocean liner returning to America, Alison Landis, an actress, avoids paying duty on a valuable pearl necklace by hiding it in the lining of a hat which she sends to Benjamin Staff, a playwright. The necklace is being trailed by a crook who is related to another passenger, Eleanor Searle, who also has a striped hatbox similar to the one recovered by the unsuspecting playwright. The crook bears an uncanny resemblance to Eleanor's father. The two bandboxes are inadvertently switched at the dock.

The Bandbox

1919

The First Law poster
NR

When her surgeon father loses his fortune, Norma Webb (Castle) turns her family home into a boarding house.

The First Law

1918

The Challenge of Chance poster
NR

A ranch foreman innocently works for a crooked horse dealer. When he discovers the truth about his boss, and about the boss's plans to rob a young woman, the foreman quits his job and offers his services to the young woman. The task she presents him is to rescue her herd of Kentucky thoroughbred horses from the crooked dealer's bandits.

The Challenge of Chance

1919

The Devil's Needle poster
6.4

Renee is a French artist's model who uses morphine as an escape from the dull reality of her life. She recommends it to a neurotic artist because "it kindles the fires of genius." The artist quickly becomes addicted to the drug and the quality of his work begins to disintegrate. He takes on a new model, marries her, and starts her on the same path of moral degradation, until a guilt-ridden Renee decides to intervene in order to save them both. According to silent film historian Kevin Brownlow, THE DEVIL'S NEEDLE was banned by the state of Ohio, but the censor board reversed its decision after recognizing the positive message beneath the film's scandalous surface. This special edition was mastered from a 35mm preservation print of the 1923 re-release version. The only known surviving copy, the element suffers significant nitrate decomposition during some scenes.

The Devil's Needle

1916

The Children in the House poster
4.8

A woman is stuck with an unfaithful husband until he is killed robbing a bank.

The Children in the House

1916

An Innocent Magdalene poster
NR

When Dorothy's Southern, aristocratic father Colonel Raleigh refuses to let her marry Forbes Stewart, a Northern gambler, the couple elopes. When Dorothy soon thereafter becomes pregnant, Forbes vows to reform, but authorities arrest him on a gambling charge, and he serves a year in prison. During that time, and just before the birth of the baby, a woman comes to Dorothy and claims to be Forbes' wife. Stunned, Dorothy returns to her father, but the colonel throws her out, and so, on her own, she has her baby, whom the community believes to be illegitimate. Convinced that she has sinned, Dorothy is about to kill herself when Forbes, just out of jail, finds her and explains that the other woman simply had been an ex-sweetheart trying to win him back.

An Innocent Magdalene

1916

Our Little Wife poster
NR

Dodo Warren, an ingenuous young bride, decides to take her three rejected suitors - Bobo Brown, Tommy Belden, and Dr. Elliott - along with her and her husband Herb on their honeymoon. Herb's protests fall on deaf ears, and soon all five are comfortably ensconced in a Florida resort.

Our Little Wife

1918

The Teeth of the Tiger poster
9.0

Living quietly under the assumed name Paul Sernine, reformed gentleman crook Arsene Lupin is summoned to protect his invalid, wealthy friend Henry Forbes.

The Teeth of the Tiger

1919

The Danger Game poster
NR

Wealthy Clytie Rogers writes a novel in which a society girl commits a burglary, but it is "roasted" by critic Jimmy Gilpin, who writes that her story is completely implausible. To prove him wrong, Clytie decides to feign a robbery and enters an apartment through an open window. She is apprehended by a policeman, who mistakes her for local robber "Powder Nose Annie." Gilpin sees her in jail and, posing as crook Jimmy of the Dives, arranges to break her out and take her on a robbing spree. Finally, Jimmy returns her to her parents and then calls at her home as Gilpin, the critic. Clytie is suprised but forgives the deception and agrees to marry him.

The Danger Game

1918

Sacred Silence poster
3.0

Lieut. Ralph Harrison is in love with Major Marston's wife, who pretends to love him. Harrison's mother implores Capt. Jim Craig to intervene to save her son from dishonor. When Craig visits Mrs. Marston, Harrison appears, precipitating a quarrel during which Harrison is wounded in the shoulder. Craig then leaves, and the major discovers Harrison. The major kills Harrison, and places the blame on Craig. To avoid a scandal, Craig runs away. Madge Summers of the Secret Service tracks him down and the two fall in love, but Craig is arrested and taken back to the army post.

Sacred Silence

1919

The Girl from Bohemia poster
7.0

Alice Paige lives the Bohemian life in New York's Greenwich Village until she receives a letter informing her that she soon will inherit a fine country estate, provided that she live on the property with her maiden aunt. Alice reluctantly leaves New York for the provincial Southern town of Mayport, where she shocks the local inhabitants with her unconventional ways.

The Girl from Bohemia

1918

The Little Yank poster
10.0

Sallie is a beautiful Kentucky girl who belongs to a family of Union sympathizers. Her brother is a lieutenant in the Union army, and on a visit home brings Major Rushton, his superior officer, who falls in love with Sallie, "the little Yank."

The Little Yank

1917

Eastward Ho! poster
10.0

When a group of Arizona ranchers discover that an Eastern syndicate has cheated them out of options on their cattle, they send Buck Lindsay to New York to straighten things out.

Eastward Ho!

1919

Her Official Fathers poster
NR

A 1917 film directed by Elmer Clifton, Joseph Henabery, and Dorothy Gish.

Her Official Fathers

1917

Reggie Mixes In poster
5.8

Eager for excitement, man about town Reggie Van Deuzen takes to visiting the rougher sections of the city in search of thrills. He meets and falls for a cabaret singer, but she turns out to be the inamorata of the local gang boss, who sends his men after Reggie.

Reggie Mixes In

1916