Robert G. Vignola

Directing

Robert G. Vignola

Born 1882-08-05 · Trivignano, Veneto, Italy

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Robert G. Vignola (born Rocco Giuseppe Vignola, August 5, 1882 – October 25, 1953) was an Italian-born American actor, screenwriter and film director in American cinema. One of the silent screen's most prolific directors, he made a handful of sound films in the early years of talkies but his career essentially ended in the silent era. Born at Trivigno, in the province of Potenza, Vignola left Italy with his family at the age of 3 and was raised in upstate New York. He made his acting debut at 19 performing in "Romeo and Juliet", with Eleanor Robson Belmont and Kyrle Bellew. He began his film career as an actor in 1906 with the short film The Black Hand, directed by Wallace McCutcheon and produced by Biograph Company, generally considered the film that launched the mafia genre. In 1907 he joined Kalem Studios, for which he made numerous movies. One of Vignola's most notable film roles was as Judas Iscariot in From the Manger to the Cross (1912), directed by Sidney Olcott, one of the most successful films of the period. Vignola directed 87 films, most notably The Vampire (1913), sometimes cited as the first "vamp" movie, and Seventeen (1916), where Rudolph Valentino did an uncredited cameo. He had a long association directing the early movies of Pauline Frederick such as Audrey (1916) and Double Crossed (1917). His biggest success was the big-budget epic When Knighthood Was in Flower (1922), starring Marion Davies, which achieved critical and commercial acclaim. Other films include Déclassée (1925), with the uncredited appearance of the then unknown Clark Gable; Broken Dreams (1933), which received a nomination for Best Foreign Film at the Venice Film Festival, and The Scarlet Letter (1934), the last film of Colleen Moore. Vignola died in Hollywood, California in 1953. He lived in a mansion at Whitley Heights owned by William Randolph Hearst. Hearst's mistress Marion Davies was allowed to stay without him at Vignola's mansion, worried that she was having affairs and considering Vignola a trusted companion for her as he was homosexual. He was buried in St. Agnes Cemetery, Menands, New York.

Acting credits

The Vampire poster
6.5

The story hinges on the redemption of a country boy, an artist, who has fallen among evil companions, and is an outcast.

The Vampire

1913

No artwork available
9.0

Alice Durand, after weeks of discouragement, reads the following advertisement in the New York Herald: "Governess wanted. Young American woman, well educated and speaking French and German, may obtain lucrative position with prominent Egyptian. Fare and expenses will be advanced. Write, enclosing photograph, to Mahmoud Pasha, Sphinx Club, Cairo, Egypt." Answering the advertisement, Alice seven weeks later, secures the position and leaves her New York boarding-house for Egypt.

A Prisoner of the Harem

1912

The War Correspondent poster
7.0

Jack Fisher secures a position as reporter on a metropolitan daily and incurs the enmity of Martin, the star reporter, because of friendly relations which he establishes with Myrtle, a young lady in the office. Martin secretly changes the copy which Jack has prepared for an important story and places the young man in such a position that he is discharged. Some time later Jack learns of an opening in Central America. He bids goodbye to Myrtle, who has never lost faith in him, and leaves for his new field. Shortly after his departure war is declared in a Central American republic and Martin is sent to the scene as war correspondent.

The War Correspondent

1913

The Prosecuting Attorney poster
7.0

The prosecuting attorney's impassioned address clinches the conviction of the criminal who, breaking away from his guard, viciously assaults the prosecutor but is finally quieted. At home, the attorney's wife reads a newspaper account of the affair and is greatly disturbed.

The Prosecuting Attorney

1913

From the Manger to the Cross poster
5.1

The life of Jesus is played out in tableaux shot in the Holy Land.

From the Manger to the Cross

1912

No artwork available
7.0

The old musician playing his fiddle in his garret home dreams of his youth and his lost love. As the past unfolds itself he sees his sweetheart, Dolores, forced by her parents to sign a contract of marriage with Don Carlos, and he again reads over in memory her message of farewell: "My on Love, This is my marriage ever, the death day of my soul. I cannot go without one last farewell to you, whom I will never see again. Wait for ma by the lake until you hear the bells chime. Yours in spirit until death, Dolores." Meeting her at the lake as requested, she gives him her old violin, saying, "I have breathed my soul into this violin. Whene'er it plays, it is my soul that speaks."

The Fiddler’s Requiem

1911

An Arabian Tragedy poster
7.0

Ayub Kashif becomes embittered toward his wife, Fatima, because their union has been childless. He eventually determines to divorce Fatima and free her slave, whom he then will wed. Fatima, who still loves her husband, lives a life of sorrow, praying that her husband's love will return to her.

An Arabian Tragedy

1912

Shenandoah poster
10.0

Bronson Howard's Great Civil War Story in Three Reels, Featuring General Philip Sheridan's Ride from Winchester, 20 Miles Away.

Shenandoah

1913

The Lad from Old Ireland poster
5.4

A young man leaves Ireland for America, but doesn't forget home.

The Lad from Old Ireland

1910

No artwork available
NR

Although it means the mortgaging of their home, Roger Dayton's parents send him to law school. Selfish and ungrateful, the boy forgets all about the old folks after his graduation.

Honor Thy Father

1915

The Message of the Palms poster
7.0

Henry Strong, a young civil engineer, is placed in charge of a party which makes a preliminary survey for a railroad. In their work they enter the property of Colonel Carlton who objects decidedly to the invasion of his ancestral land. Henry secures the aid of the sheriff, who convinces Carlton that the young engineer is acting within his rights but the Colonel develops a spirit of animosity toward the surveyor.

The Message of the Palms

1913

Over the Hills to the Poor House poster
4.8

The widowed elderly mother of three adult children, two sons and a daughter, wishing to relieve herself of the burden of care of her property, decides to divide it up among her children. To her son Charles, a wild but kind young fellow, she leaves a small amount, feeling that he will soon run through it. The good-hearted boy is perfectly satisfied, believing in the wisdom of his mother's actions. He assumes she will find a home with one of his siblings, who are married and settled. The old woman moves in with her married son, but is driven out by his wife over an argument about her young granddaughter. She is forced to move into a squalid apartment in a cheap tenement house, but is evicted for failing to pay her rent. Mack Sennett appears as a bartender in this film.

Over the Hills to the Poor House

1908

No artwork available
8.0

In a saloon in a Mexican border town, a group of cowboys, including a Mexican named Pedro, play poker. One man is discovered cheating, and is shot dead by Pedro, who is wounded as he attempts to escape. Pedro is followed home by the local sheriff, who proves the next victim of Pedro's quick temper and pistol. Pedro's wife, Juanita, is thrown into jail, but he manages to break her out. They head for the border, unaware that a posse is waiting for them.

The Fight for Freedom

1908

The Little Gluers poster
9.0

The Kerry Gow is a 1912 short

The Little Gluers

1912

Tragedy of the Desert poster
9.0

An English doctor based in Egypt finds his wife in the arms of a local diplomat, and in a madness-induced frenzy departs for the desert. After being discovered by wandering Bedouins, Dr. Cochran embraces their practices and begins to fall in love with Zeinab, the daughter of a Sheik. Tragedy ensues when his forgotten wife visits the village and beckons him to take her back.

Tragedy of the Desert

1912

The Colleen Bawn poster
7.4

A young Irish boy has fallen in love with a poor girl and wants to marry her, but his mother will stop at nothing, including murder, to see that he marries his rich cousin.

The Colleen Bawn

1911

The Black Hand poster
6.2

Two gang members send a threatening letter to a butcher, demanding money if he did not want his shop to be destroyed and his daughter Maria kidnapped. When he is unable to meet their request, they take Maria away. The Black Hand is the earliest surviving gangster film.

The Black Hand

1906

No artwork available
NR

Mrs. Herton, a widow, lives in comfortable circumstances with her son, Roland. Over forty years of age, she is still an attractive woman, but lacks self-reliance and is greatly impressed by Geoffrey Stern who seeks her hand. Roland objects to Stern and endeavors to convince his mother that the selfish and unscrupulous suitor has been attracted by the comfortable home and timber lands owned by the widow. But the good woman is deceived by Stern's well-feigned devotion and agrees to marry him.

A Sawmill Hazard

1913

The Scimitar of the Prophet poster
10.0

While touring Egypt, Harris and his wife visit an old temple and are fascinated by a sacred scimitar, which, at the corner of a shrine, is religiously guarded by Hadjji, a Mohammedan priest. The wife is a curio fiend, and demands that Harris secure the scimitar, but the husband, having read in his guidebook that the scimitar was supposedly presented to the prophet in a vision and that the vengeance of Allah will follow whosoever disturbs it, begs her to abandon the foolish idea. She insists. That night Harris enters the temple with a rope ladder, steals the scimitar and escapes.

The Scimitar of the Prophet

1913

No artwork available
7.0

Robert Ffolliott is a young Irish lad who is done out of his land and sent off to a penal colony in Australia following false accusations by the greedy Kinchella. Conn the Shaughraun comes to his rescue, helps him to escape from the prison ship and return to Ireland where he is united with his sweetheart.

The Shaughraun

1912

No artwork available
NR

A railroad melodrama.

A Desperate Chance

1913

Ireland, the Oppressed poster
10.0

The story of the Emerald Isle years ago. Showing the struggle against poverty, evictions by hard-hearted landlords, hill fighting and the final triumph of the downtrodden.

Ireland, the Oppressed

1912

The Show Girl's Glove poster
8.0

Hampton, a broker, employs a detective to investigate Stella, a show girl, with whom his younger brother Dick is in love. As a result of the detective's discoveries, Dick breaks his engagement with Stella. The woman calls at Dick's office late that afternoon. Hampton leaves the two alone. Unable to alter Dick's decision, Stella seizes a knife and threatens suicide. Dick tries to wrest the weapon from her and is accidentally killed.

The Show Girl's Glove

1914

Captured by Bedouins poster
10.0

An American officer disguises himself as an Arab in order to rescue an American woman kidnapped by Arab tribesmen.

Captured by Bedouins

1912

Behind the camera

Madame Jealousy poster
NR

Charm and Valor fall in love and are married. Jealousy, however, is angry at their happiness and decides to ruin their marriage, so she arranges for Charm to find an old photograph of her husband's former sweetheart Forgotten. Valor is also led to mistrust Charm, and the two return to their respective parents: his, Finance and Display, and hers, Commerce and Pride. While Charm spends her days with Sorrow, Treachery endeavors to ruin Valor by luring him to a disreputable roadhouse, and when Valor's father tries to bring him home, the young man strikes his father with a bottle. The two sets of parents are in the midst of a financial battle when Charm gives birth to a child, Happiness. The child reunites the couple, and Madame Jealousy, along with her servants Mischief, Treachery and Rumor, finally are banished.

Madame Jealousy

1918

Great Expectations poster
NR

Orphan Pip discovers through lawyer Mr. Jaggers that a mysterious benefactor wishes to ensure that he becomes a gentleman. Reunited with his childhood patron, Miss Havisham, and his first love, the beautiful but emotionally cold Estella, he discovers that the elderly spinster has gone mad from having been left at the altar as a young woman, and has made her charge into a warped, unfeeling heartbreaker.

Great Expectations

1917

Cabaret poster
9.0

Gloria Trask, who has risen from a squalid East Side environment to stardom in Costigan's nightclub, is admired by Tom Westcott, detective, and Sam Roberts, a gangster with whom her brother is involved. Andy, threatened by the gang, is forced to pay off, and in a showdown in Gloria's dressing room, Andy shoots Roberts in self-defense. Gloria helps her brother to leave on a South American liner, while Tom forces Roberts' girlfriend Blanche to admit to witnessing the crime. Blanche insists that it was murder, but Tom forces her to admit that Roberts had a gun by accusing her of the killing.

Cabaret

1927

Double Crossed poster
NR

Young Frank Stratton, the scion of a wealthy family who is temporarily short of funds, has borrowed a valuable bracelet and hasn't returned it to its owner. A crooked detective, Jim Foley, finds the bracelet in Stratton's possession and promises not to arrest him for it in return for Stratton signing a confession that he stole it, which Foley intends to use at a future date. Years pass and a political boss in danger of losing an election asks Foley's help in getting valuable papers from his opponent, Worthington Lawrence. Foley knows that Lawrence is a friend of Stratton and tells Stratton that unless he steals those papers Foley will make his signed confession public. Complications ensue.

Double Crossed

1917

Seventeen poster
NR

Seventeen year old William Sylvanus Baxter has fallen madly in love with young coquette, Lola Pratt. After spending all of his money on the fickle girl, she runs off with an older man. William now heartbroken, contemplates suicide, until a friend from childhood, May Parcher, pays a visit and William decides to fall in love with her.

Seventeen

1916

Under Cover poster
NR

A woman returning from a trip to Paris must help U.S. customs inspectors find a valuable necklace suspected to be in the possession of a fellow traveler. The film is presumed lost.

Under Cover

1916

Audrey poster
NR

Audrey, an orphan, becomes the ward of a wealthy man, but when he travels to England, she is turned over to an unscrupulous couple who usurp her money and turn her into a slave.

Audrey

1916

No artwork available
10.0

Louisiana is a mountain girl living in North Carolina. A poor girl, she is sent by her father to work in a resort hotel in order to obtain some cultural improvements. There she falls in love with a wealthy young man, much to the chagrin of the angry young mountain boy who wants her to give up her cultured ways and come back to the hills with him.

Louisiana

1919

The Spider poster
NR

Valerie St. Cyr, seizes a chance for excitement and money, deserts her infant daughter Joan and her impoverished husband and runs away to Paris with the Count Du Poissy. Years later, without knowing that they are mother and daughter, both Valerie and Joan fall in love with artist Julian St. Saens, who rejects the former but becomes engaged to the latter. Enraged, Valerie convinces the count to kidnap Joan, but after she is captured, Joan stabs the count to death. When Valerie learns that Joan is her daughter, she takes the blame for the murder and goes to the guillotine while Joan, still unaware that Valerie is her mother, makes plans with Julian for their marriage.

The Spider

1916

The 13th Commandment poster
9.0

Disillusioned by the transience of wealth when her father's bank balance can no longer support his family's posh lifestyle, and when her fiancé Clay Wimborn admits that he has gone into debt to shower her with presents, Daphne Kip determines to become financially independent.

The 13th Commandment

1920

The Vampire poster
6.5

The story hinges on the redemption of a country boy, an artist, who has fallen among evil companions, and is an outcast.

The Vampire

1913

The Evil Thereof poster
NR

A manicurist gives up the honest love of a barberr to become the mistress of a wealthy broker. But she comes to hate the man who has caused her downfall, and her loathing peaks during a dinner party he is holding. Other guests include three other men and their mistresses. Each young lady gets a $100 bill as a party favor, tucked away in one of the meal's several courses. The broker proudly brags about how each bill was obtained by giving the screws to the lower classes.

The Evil Thereof

1916

Straight Is the Way poster
7.3

Bob Carter and "Loot" Follet, are two thieves who locate themselves in the unused part of the New Hampshire home of Aunt Mehitable and her niece Dorcas. Loan shark Jonathan Squoggs presses Mehitable for payment of the mortgage, and the two crooks decide to help the ladies when they consult their Ouija board to find a hidden treasure. Finding the treasure reveals a surprise thief and a chance for new lives for the crooks, Dorcas, and Mehitable.

Straight Is the Way

1921

The Fortunes of Fifi poster
NR

Fifi is an actress in Napoleon-era France. She wins a lottery and leaves Cartouche, the man she loves to go live with a rich family. The conniving Louis Bourcet tries to woo her because he wants her money. But Fifi wants nothing to do with him, and ultimately she gives up her money and returns to Cartouche. But Cartouche, believing he is too old, refuses to marry her until Napoleon himself orders him to do it.

The Fortunes of Fifi

1917

The Way of a Girl poster
7.0

To spite her fiancé, who claims to know how to handle women, Rosamond engages in reckless behavior, including racing cars and getting arrested. Climax: After surviving a car crash, she is captured by criminals but eventually rescued, leading to her submissive reform.

The Way of a Girl

1925

The Night Operator at Buxton poster
NR

Bob's daughter is sick, so Helen volunteers to take his place on the night run, unaware that the Blackhall gang intends to rob the train which carries a valuable gold shipment. Learning of Helen's peril, Bob and Tracy pursue the train by automobile, arriving just as the hijackers are about to explode a charge of dynamite under the rails.

The Night Operator at Buxton

1915

No artwork available
NR

Dr. Warren, engaged to Marjory, gives the girl her freedom when his negligence brings about his dismissal from the hospital staff. Warren disappears. Despairing of ever hearing from him, Marjorie weds Priestman, an elderly scientist who has been blinded as the result of an accident. Years later Warren and Marjory meet. Warren has won prominence as a bacteriologist. The old love springs up anew.

A Midnight Tragedy

1914

The Black Crook poster
NR

A Faust-like meringue involving a wealthy Count who enters into a deal with the Devil: for every soul he delivers to Satan, the count will be granted an extra year of life. One of the count's victims, an artist named Rodolphe, dedicates his life to punishing the nobleman, a mission he accomplishes with the help of the beautiful Fairy Queen.

The Black Crook

1916

The Moment Before poster
NR

The film begins by presenting the elderly and elegant Duke and Duchess of Maldon, engaged in charitable acts in a Dickensian village. The following day, the duke falls off his horse and is mortally injured. Mourning the loss of her great love, the duchess collapses in church, and in the “moment before death” she reviews her own life. “It was in her youth that she had fractured practically all the Biblical commandments,” says the intertitle. In fact, when she was young, Madge the duchess was a seductive gypsy, engaged to the fiery gypsy John, but fascinated by Harold, the idle aristocratic son of the Maldons, who was prone to the family vice of excessive drinking. In love with the gypsy, Harold brings her home as a servant, scandalizing his older brother. A fight between the brothers and John’s jealousy lead to a fatal accident that forces both Harold and the gypsy couple to flee to Australia.

The Moment Before

1916

No artwork available
10.0

Spurned by Iola Neville, George Judson vows to ruin the happiness of the woman and Jack Worthington, the man she marries. Impelled by his bitter hatred, Judson concentrates all his energy to bring this about. Jack soon discovers the shallowness of his wife's nature. Bitter quarrels arise.

The Hate That Withers

1914

The Heart of Youth poster
10.0

Josephine Darchat lives with her Whipple grandparents in the country and loves Russ Prendergast, son of wealthy Calvin Prendergast, despite the dispute between the families over a spring between their properties.

The Heart of Youth

1919

The Man of Iron poster
NR

A hard man is Lucius Stanley. Uncompromisingly upright, he lacks sympathy for characters weaker than his own. Thus, when his son John asks for money with which to some debts, the stern father refuses the boy's request. John is to inherit a fortune on his twenty-fifth birthday. Hard pressed, the boy takes money from his father's safe

The Man of Iron

1914

An Innocent Adventuress poster
9.0

Lindy, an innocent girl reared in a small town, accepts a letter for her friend Mrs. Bates from wealthy landlady Mrs. Cribbley. Believing the letter to be an eviction notice, Lindy postpones delivery, but soon becomes terrified upon learning that mail theft is a felony, and that her dog has destroyed the letter.

An Innocent Adventuress

1919

Yolanda poster
8.0

The backdrop is fifteenth century France, and Charles, Duke of Burgundy has promised his daughter, Princess Mary, that she can marry the man she loves, Prince Maximilian of Styria. But when the Swiss threaten war, the duke is compelled to take back his word and he arranges for Mary to wed the half-witted dauphin of France's King Louis XI .

Yolanda

1924