Directing

B.A. Rolfe

Born — Died

1879-10-24 — 1956-04-23

Place of birth

Brasher Falls, New York, USA

Known for

Directing

Credits

18 titles

Known for

The Duchess of Doubt poster
NR

Clover Ames's life consists only of the drudge work that she performs at her Aunt Sarah's boardinghouse. No longer able to withstand her aunt's abuse, Clover runs away and obtains a job as a maid to a wealthy woman. Willed $7,000 by Pierre Dubois, a boarder at her aunt's house, Clover, inspired by a novel that she has read, poses as a duchess at a fashionable winter resort. There she meets and falls in love with Walter Gray, who is also traveling incognito as a ribbon clerk. When Clover's money runs out, her trick is discovered and she vanishes. Obtaining employment in Gray's department store, Clover learns that her ribbon clerk is actually the owner's son, who rushes her to the wedding bureau.

The Duchess of Doubt

1917

Aladdin's Other Lamp poster
NR

As a baby, Patsy Smith is kidnapped by her father following a bitter quarrel with her mother. After her father dies at sea, a seafarer named Captain Barnaby places Patsy at Mrs. Duff's boardinghouse. She grows up working as a domestic drudge, deeply unhappy with her life. Inspired by Captain Barnaby's storytelling about Aladdin, Patsy sets out to find an old Oriental lamp that once belonged to her father. She learns that Mrs. Duff sold it to a junk peddler and goes to buy it back. Patsy rubs the lamp, unleashing a Genie. The Genie helps Patsy by providing her with fine clothing, exposing her abusive boardinghouse mistress, and eventually reuniting Patsy with her long-lost mother. With her life transformed, Patsy also finds romance with Harry, a young man who resides at the boardinghouse.

Aladdin's Other Lamp

1917

Peggy, the Will O' the Wisp poster
NR

Neil Dacey falls in with loves Peggy Desmond. Terence O'Malley, nephew of Squire O'Malley, is anxious to win Peggy. Terence and his uncle have a quarrel because Terence cannot win Peggy, and the squire is killed. Terence does the killing with Neil's gun, so Neil is held for the murder. Peggy, to save her fiance, dresses as the will-o'-the-wisp.

Peggy, the Will O' the Wisp

1917

A Woman's Business poster
7.0

No synopsis available yet.

A Woman's Business

1920

Sowers and Reapers poster
NR

Annie Leigh, a factory worker who marries Earle Courtney, the son of a millionaire. However, Earle's father, Major James Courtney, is determined to see his son marry a wealthy socialite, Ethel Ainsworth. To achieve this, the Major orchestrates a cruel scheme:

Sowers and Reapers

1917

Miss Robinson Crusoe poster
NR

Rich, spoiled social butterfly Pamela Sayre lives the good life with her two maiden aunts. Bertie Holden, the somewhat slacker son of a wealthy couple, is in love with Pamela, who seems to prefer muscular, daredevil-type men, which Bertie definitely isn't. Pamela flirts with the wealthy but much older Charles Van Gordon in order to make Bertie jealous, but her plan seems to backfire.

Miss Robinson Crusoe

1917

Film credits

Behind the camera

The Duchess of Doubt poster
NR

Clover Ames's life consists only of the drudge work that she performs at her Aunt Sarah's boardinghouse. No longer able to withstand her aunt's abuse, Clover runs away and obtains a job as a maid to a wealthy woman. Willed $7,000 by Pierre Dubois, a boarder at her aunt's house, Clover, inspired by a novel that she has read, poses as a duchess at a fashionable winter resort. There she meets and falls in love with Walter Gray, who is also traveling incognito as a ribbon clerk. When Clover's money runs out, her trick is discovered and she vanishes. Obtaining employment in Gray's department store, Clover learns that her ribbon clerk is actually the owner's son, who rushes her to the wedding bureau.

The Duchess of Doubt

1917

Aladdin's Other Lamp poster
NR

As a baby, Patsy Smith is kidnapped by her father following a bitter quarrel with her mother. After her father dies at sea, a seafarer named Captain Barnaby places Patsy at Mrs. Duff's boardinghouse. She grows up working as a domestic drudge, deeply unhappy with her life. Inspired by Captain Barnaby's storytelling about Aladdin, Patsy sets out to find an old Oriental lamp that once belonged to her father. She learns that Mrs. Duff sold it to a junk peddler and goes to buy it back. Patsy rubs the lamp, unleashing a Genie. The Genie helps Patsy by providing her with fine clothing, exposing her abusive boardinghouse mistress, and eventually reuniting Patsy with her long-lost mother. With her life transformed, Patsy also finds romance with Harry, a young man who resides at the boardinghouse.

Aladdin's Other Lamp

1917

Peggy, the Will O' the Wisp poster
NR

Neil Dacey falls in with loves Peggy Desmond. Terence O'Malley, nephew of Squire O'Malley, is anxious to win Peggy. Terence and his uncle have a quarrel because Terence cannot win Peggy, and the squire is killed. Terence does the killing with Neil's gun, so Neil is held for the murder. Peggy, to save her fiance, dresses as the will-o'-the-wisp.

Peggy, the Will O' the Wisp

1917

A Woman's Business poster
7.0

No synopsis available yet.

A Woman's Business

1920

Sowers and Reapers poster
NR

Annie Leigh, a factory worker who marries Earle Courtney, the son of a millionaire. However, Earle's father, Major James Courtney, is determined to see his son marry a wealthy socialite, Ethel Ainsworth. To achieve this, the Major orchestrates a cruel scheme:

Sowers and Reapers

1917

Miss Robinson Crusoe poster
NR

Rich, spoiled social butterfly Pamela Sayre lives the good life with her two maiden aunts. Bertie Holden, the somewhat slacker son of a wealthy couple, is in love with Pamela, who seems to prefer muscular, daredevil-type men, which Bertie definitely isn't. Pamela flirts with the wealthy but much older Charles Van Gordon in order to make Bertie jealous, but her plan seems to backfire.

Miss Robinson Crusoe

1917

Madonnas and Men poster
7.0

In the Roman Coliseum, at the beginning of the Christian era, the Emperor Turnerius, accompanied by his favorite, Nerissa, watches the bestial games in the arena. His son Gordian is asked by Grimaldo the magician to save the life of a Christian girl about to be thrown to the lions. He refuses, whereupon Grimaldo prophesies the fate of the Empire by telling the prince a story of the future: Two thousand years hence, in New York, a parallel situation takes place in which a young man is led to put a stop to the base plans of his father. The prince is so deeply affected by the injustice of the story that he plunges into the arena to save the girl, causing the emperor to die in a fit of rage, thus precipitating the coronation of his son as the new emperor.

Madonnas and Men

1920

The Millionaire's Double poster
NR

After his wife has run off with another man, New Yorker Bide Bennington decides to stay in Europe. After hearing of his wife's death years later, he returns home but finds it lonely there and heads West. While he is gone his house is robbed, and the leader of the crooks, Richard Glendo, leaves Bennington's coat and identification on an East River pier. The newspapers pick up on this and announce Bennington's "suicide." Since he is now officially deceased, Bennington decides to start life all over again -- but first he must foil a scheme by a gang of con artists, who have forced pretty Constance Brent to pose as Bennington's widow so that they can lay claim to his estate.

The Millionaire's Double

1917

Miss 139 poster
10.0

France is being swamped by counterfeit bills that are being made by a ring in the US. A beautiful female member of the French gang circulating the bills negotiates a deal with the counterfeiters' ringleader in the US, and in so doing falls in love with a returning US soldier who has his own reasons for trying to destroy the gang.

Miss 139

1921

Even as Eve poster
9.0

Eileen O'Hara lives as a member of a cult in a remote retreat in the Adirondacks with her father, an embittered man since his wife's infidelity years earlier. Because his wife was untrue, O'Hara is determined that his daughter, Eileen, shall never marry. Peyster Sproul was the man who had the affair Mrs. O'Hara's infidelity, and when he shows up as president of the Sagamore Club and attempts to buy O'Hara's land, the two men come to blows.

Even as Eve

1920

Even as Eve poster
9.0

Eileen O'Hara lives as a member of a cult in a remote retreat in the Adirondacks with her father, an embittered man since his wife's infidelity years earlier. Because his wife was untrue, O'Hara is determined that his daughter, Eileen, shall never marry. Peyster Sproul was the man who had the affair Mrs. O'Hara's infidelity, and when he shows up as president of the Sagamore Club and attempts to buy O'Hara's land, the two men come to blows.

Even as Eve

1920

The Jury of Fate poster
NR

Henri Labordie (Tavernier) is the father of twins. Jeanne (Taliaferro) is sweet and winsome while her brother Jaques (Taliaferro), pampered by her father, is ill-tempered. When Jaques dies through his own caddishness, Jeanne, to spare her father from the shock, clips off her hair and dons boys clothing so that her father will think that it was her and not Jaques who drowned in a stream. When Labordie dies, Jeanne's deception ends when she goes to Montreal to fulfill an ancient pact, and there she finds happiness

The Jury of Fate

1917

The White Raven poster
5.5

William Baldwin, ruined in business by his partner, John Blaisdell, implores Blaisdell's aid, and receives in answer a five-dollar bill across the face of which is written, "Spend this for a gun and use it on yourself."

The White Raven

1917

The Pretenders poster
9.0

Upon striking oil on his farm, Silas T. Pettingill (Charles Eldridge) moves to Park Avenue at the behest of his social-climbing wife Maria (Kate Blancke) and daughter Helen (Emmy Wehlen). But like Jiggs in the comic strip, Pettingill never loses his common touch, and one evening he goes out on a toot with his new chauffeur Hubert Stanwood (Paul Gordon).

The Pretenders

1916

Love Without Question poster
10.0

Old Silas Blackburn, a wealthy recluse, lives alone with his butler and his ward Katherine. One night, Katherine discovers Silas murdered in the room where three generations of Blackburns have mysteriously died. Silas' grandson Robert, whom Katherine loves, comes to visit the next day, suffering from amnesia.

Love Without Question

1920

Love Without Question poster
10.0

Old Silas Blackburn, a wealthy recluse, lives alone with his butler and his ward Katherine. One night, Katherine discovers Silas murdered in the room where three generations of Blackburns have mysteriously died. Silas' grandson Robert, whom Katherine loves, comes to visit the next day, suffering from amnesia.

Love Without Question

1920

Wings of Pride poster
7.0

Olive Muir, a haughty society girl, objects when Alice Prentice, a girl of lower station, comes to visit her family. After Alice's drunken father comes to visit the Muir home, Olive learns to her horror that she is adopted and that Prentice is her real father.

Wings of Pride

1920