
Directing
J. Searle Dawley
Born — Died
1877-10-04 — 1949-03-29
Place of birth
Del Norte, Colorado, USA
Known for
Directing
Credits
40 titles
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia James Searle Dawley was an American film director, producer, screenwriter, stage actor, and playwright. Between 1907 and the mid-1920s, while working for Edison, Rex Motion Picture Company, Famous Players, Fox, and other studios, he directed more than 300 short films and 56 features, which include many of the early releases of stars such as Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford, Pearl White, Marguerite Clark, Harold Lloyd, and John Barrymore. He also wrote scenarios for many of his productions, including one for his 1910 horror film Frankenstein, the earliest known screen adaptation of Mary Shelley's 1818 novel. While film direction and screenwriting compri…
Known for
9.0A baby, found strapped to a donkey in the North Carolina mountains where her father drowned, is called Twilight and raised by the Anwells. At sixteen, Twilight, in love with her foster brother Jim, who runs the family's lumber business, grows jealous when Elise Charmant, vacationing with her father, a brain specialist, monopolizes Jim at the Fireman's Ball.
Twilight
1919
6.1Frankenstein, a young medical student, trying to create the perfect human being, instead creates a misshapen monster. Made ill by what he has done, Frankenstein is comforted by his fiancée; but on his wedding night he is visited by the monster.
Frankenstein
1910
6.0While in a park, a young woman sees her fiancé being quite affectionate with another woman. When she calls him on the telephone to demand an explanation, he tells her that it was his sister. She is not satisfied, and insists on coming over to meet his 'sister'. As the young man broods over how to get out of trouble, an old college friend comes over, and he offers to pretend to be the sister. At first this works, but soon it has created even more complications.
College Chums
1907
NRA canal boat captain disowns his daughter when she marries a circus performer. Years later he is reunited with the granddaughter he never knew.
Still Waters
1915
NRBorn and raised in poverty, Marguerite Clark has learned to expect very little out of life and thus is rather surprised to learn that she is the niece of a wealthy financier. Alas, this puts a crimp in her romance with a handsome young architect, who has long despised the financier for causing the downfall of the architect's father.
Rich Man, Poor Man
1918
9.0Mrs. Adams (Hedda Hopper) succumbs to the spirit of jazz, moves into her own apartment, and even has an affair with Mr. Bell (Charles Richman), the father of her son's sweetheart. Miss Bell (Elinor Fair) discovers their meetings, and only then does Mrs. Adams realize the unhappiness she has caused. Shortly thereafter, she effects a general reconciliation.
Has the World Gone Mad!
1923
Behind the camera
9.0A baby, found strapped to a donkey in the North Carolina mountains where her father drowned, is called Twilight and raised by the Anwells. At sixteen, Twilight, in love with her foster brother Jim, who runs the family's lumber business, grows jealous when Elise Charmant, vacationing with her father, a brain specialist, monopolizes Jim at the Fireman's Ball.
Twilight
1919
6.1Frankenstein, a young medical student, trying to create the perfect human being, instead creates a misshapen monster. Made ill by what he has done, Frankenstein is comforted by his fiancée; but on his wedding night he is visited by the monster.
Frankenstein
1910
6.1Frankenstein, a young medical student, trying to create the perfect human being, instead creates a misshapen monster. Made ill by what he has done, Frankenstein is comforted by his fiancée; but on his wedding night he is visited by the monster.
Frankenstein
1910
6.0While in a park, a young woman sees her fiancé being quite affectionate with another woman. When she calls him on the telephone to demand an explanation, he tells her that it was his sister. She is not satisfied, and insists on coming over to meet his 'sister'. As the young man broods over how to get out of trouble, an old college friend comes over, and he offers to pretend to be the sister. At first this works, but soon it has created even more complications.
College Chums
1907
NRA canal boat captain disowns his daughter when she marries a circus performer. Years later he is reunited with the granddaughter he never knew.
Still Waters
1915
NRBorn and raised in poverty, Marguerite Clark has learned to expect very little out of life and thus is rather surprised to learn that she is the niece of a wealthy financier. Alas, this puts a crimp in her romance with a handsome young architect, who has long despised the financier for causing the downfall of the architect's father.
Rich Man, Poor Man
1918
NRBorn and raised in poverty, Marguerite Clark has learned to expect very little out of life and thus is rather surprised to learn that she is the niece of a wealthy financier. Alas, this puts a crimp in her romance with a handsome young architect, who has long despised the financier for causing the downfall of the architect's father.
Rich Man, Poor Man
1918
9.0Mrs. Adams (Hedda Hopper) succumbs to the spirit of jazz, moves into her own apartment, and even has an affair with Mr. Bell (Charles Richman), the father of her son's sweetheart. Miss Bell (Elinor Fair) discovers their meetings, and only then does Mrs. Adams realize the unhappiness she has caused. Shortly thereafter, she effects a general reconciliation.
Has the World Gone Mad!
1923
Faust, an aged philosopher and magician who has grown weary of life and has sought in vain for the secret of eternal youth, decides, after a night's long vigil, to call forth from the realms of darkness the evil one to aid him. Mephistopheles appears and offers him his services in return for Faust's soul. The aged philosopher refuses to accept until the devil shows him a vision of Marguerite in all her maiden simplicity and beauty. Faust agrees to accept the compact providing Mephistopheles will give him youth, wealth and love.
Faust
1909
NRFour-year-old Dorothy, the daughter of rich lawyer Winfred North, is inconsolable over her mother's recent death. Her father, too absorbed with business to pay attention to his daughter and her problems, marries Helen Stillwell, a widow with her own two children. Helen ignores Dorothy while taking care of her own children, treating Dorothy as if she's always "in the way". Finally Dorothy can take no more and runs away. She is found by the Goodwins, a married missionary couple, but when they bring her home, Helen Stillwell denies knowing Dorothy at all, seeing a chance for her own children to inherit Winfred's wealth and cut Dorothy out of the picture altogether. The Goodwins take Dorothy to Africa with them to bring Christianity to the natives, but matters don't work out quite as well as they expected.
Always in the Way
1915
NRA partially lost film, with only one surviving reel. A movie released in 1914 directed by Edwin S. Porter.
A Good Little Devil
1914
5.2Jack and the daughter of a horse trainer are in love with each other, but when the trainer discovers them together, he makes it clear that Jack is unwelcome. Later, at the stables, another suitor for the daughter's hand appears. An unusual agreement is reached, under which the result of a race will determine which of the two the daughter will marry. But Jack's rival proves to be unscrupulous, and he will stop at nothing to be successful.
The Trainer’s Daughter, or A Race for Love
1907
NRLeah Kleschna has been a thief all her life. However, an encounter with a man she intends to rob makes her question her life's course. The film is lost.
Leah Kleschna
1913
In her first Paramount film, Billie Burke plays Helen Wentworth, an heiress who's bored with the high life and decides to enjoy a bit of the low life.
The Mysterious Miss Terry
1917
In her first Paramount film, Billie Burke plays Helen Wentworth, an heiress who's bored with the high life and decides to enjoy a bit of the low life.
The Mysterious Miss Terry
1917
7.0Sally Marrio, neglected wife of a prominent shoe designer, has three wishes: to be a millionaire's wife, to be famous, and to have a child.
Beyond Price
1921
5.4A woman goes to the dentist for a toothache and is given gas. On her way home on the subway she can't stop laughing, and every other passenger catches the laughter from her.
Laughing Gas
1907
10.0Sherry Mason, the playboy son of wealthy parents, lives a life of self-indulgence until he meets Nadia Meredith, the daughter of a poor bookseller. Smitten with her, he asks her to marry him but she refuses, detecting an evil streak hidden beneath his surface. He heads to Paris with his father's crooked business partner, where they get mixed up in a murder and Mason must flee back to the US, where he once again runs into Nadia under an entirely different set of circumstances.
As a Man Lives
1923
6.4Miser Ebenezer Scrooge is awakened on Christmas Eve by spirits who reveal to him his own miserable existence, what opportunities he wasted in his youth, his current cruelties, and the dire fate that awaits him if he does not change his ways. Scrooge is faced with his own story of growing bitterness and meanness, and must decide what his own future will hold: death or redemption.
A Christmas Carol
1910
NRSebastien, a landowner, shelters the orphan Marta in exchange for sexual favors. When, years later, Sebastien's fortunes ebb, he marries Muri, the daughter of a rich man, and arranges for Marta to marry the shepherd Manelich. Sebastien assures Marta that Manelich knows of their relationship and will not interfere, but she discovers that her husband is ignorant of the affair and, in fact, loves her. Because she comes to return her husband's love, she confesses her past, after which Manelich kills Sebastien. With Marta at his side, the shepherd then returns to the hills. -From TCM.com Database, powered by the AFI.
Marta of the Lowlands
1914
10.0A monk tells a tale about a woman who can only surrender her heart to a man who can offer her jewels. A poor man falls in love with her and steals jewels off a statue of the Madonna to give to her.
The Old Monk's Tale
1913
5.5A woodsman leaves a hut followed by a woman with their baby. Nearby some men chop down a tree. The baby is left outside the hut, but an eagle flies away with it.
Rescued from an Eagle's Nest
1908
When Kentucky plantation owner George Shelby is forced to sell several of his slaves, one of them, Eliza Harris, escapes across the icy Ohio River with her child. Kindly old Uncle Tom, however, is sold to a Southern slave trader and begins his voyage down the Mississippi River. During the trip, he rescues little Eva St. Clair from the river, and out of gratitude, the girl's father buys him.
Uncle Tom's Cabin
1918
NRA Roman gladiator marries a shepherdess, who is horrified by his brutality in the arena, until he is moved by the Christian evangelism of Paul.
The Daughter of the Hills
1913
NRA Roman gladiator marries a shepherdess, who is horrified by his brutality in the arena, until he is moved by the Christian evangelism of Paul.
The Daughter of the Hills
1913
NRBab comes home for the Christmas holidays. Given to fabrications, Bab has been keeping a diary in which she describes and imaginary boyfriend named Harold Valentine. Imagine what happens when a real Harold Valentine shows up as her parents' house guest.
Bab's Diary
1917
The highlight of the picture will be the delivery of the Gettysburg Address and the singing of a number of camp-fire songs. This film is considered lost, and not to be confused with "Life of Lincoln" (1915) or "Dramatic Life of Lincoln" (1924).
Abraham Lincoln
1924
NRAn Eastern drifter stakes a claim near Boiseville but spends his nights gambling away his gold. Moll, one of the owners of the gambling hall, tries to help him quit the habit. When is neighbor, Peter Gardner teams up with Moll’s partner, Dick Weed, to try and steal the claim, Moll (who is secretly the drifter’s mother) and Gardner’s daughter, Kate, who is in love with the drifter, attempt to stop them. Gardner nearly succeeds in winning the drifter's claim in a card game, but an amnesiac named Crazy Oby suddenly regains his memory, recognizes Gardner as the man who robbed him years ago, and shoots him. Before dying, Gardner confesses that Oby is Kate’s real father. With the villains defeated and the truth revealed, the drifter and Kate find happiness together and prepare for their wedding.
Out of the Drifts
1916
NRThe film follows the character "Bab," a popular young woman, who is caught between the adoration of a matinee idol and the affection of a rival.
Bab's Matinee Idol
1917
3.5Extremely condensed version of the Mark Twain story of a royal heir and his poor doppelganger trading places.
The Prince and the Pauper
1909
7.0Defying her obdurate Colonel father Betty Lewis elopes with Bob Hale. When Bob is killed in an automobile accident, the colonel discovers Betty is pregnant and after the birth cruelly tells Betty that the baby died while placing the child in an orphanage. When Betty later marries Ken Tyler she stays silent about her previous marriage, at the colonel's request. One day while visiting an orphanage with her sister, Barbara, who hopes to adopt, she finds her own daughter. Taking her home she admits to Ken the child's true parentage. Angered at first, he is persuaded by his own mother and accepts the child.
Who Are My Parents?
1922
NRA female detective goes undercover as a chorus girl to solve the murder of a scientist whose son was threatened with disinheritance for his a romance with a chorus girl.
An Hour Before Dawn
1913
NRA female detective goes undercover as a chorus girl to solve the murder of a scientist whose son was threatened with disinheritance for his a romance with a chorus girl.
An Hour Before Dawn
1913
5.8A handful of short tales of love, framed by leaf masks.
Tale the Autumn Leaves Told
1908
1.0A lost film. A wealthy young man's marriage to a mountain girl he meets while hunting is disastrous until she abandons him and later reappears incognito as a tutored and sophisticated woman.
Caprice
1913
Young Jim Hawkins is caught up with the pirate Long John Silver in search of the buried treasure of the buccaneer Captain Flint, in this adaptation of the classic novel by Robert Louis Stevenson.
Treasure Island
1912
NRMarion, a young girl, is given up by her guardian to be raised by her father who has a criminal past. Under the enchanting influence of his daughter, he renounces his life of crime. However, a former partner frames him for a robbery he did not commit, and he is sent to prison. The distraught Marion runs away and upon taking refuge in a church, she is eventually adopted by the kindly clergyman's family. As the years pass, Marion grows into a young woman who becomes engaged. When her father is finally released , he seeks his ashamed daughter's forgiveness and explains being sent to prison on false charges. He wins the sympathy of Marion and along with her fiancés, a happy ending prevails for all.
The Valentine Girl
1917
NRMarion, a young girl, is given up by her guardian to be raised by her father who has a criminal past. Under the enchanting influence of his daughter, he renounces his life of crime. However, a former partner frames him for a robbery he did not commit, and he is sent to prison. The distraught Marion runs away and upon taking refuge in a church, she is eventually adopted by the kindly clergyman's family. As the years pass, Marion grows into a young woman who becomes engaged. When her father is finally released , he seeks his ashamed daughter's forgiveness and explains being sent to prison on false charges. He wins the sympathy of Marion and along with her fiancés, a happy ending prevails for all.
The Valentine Girl
1917
7.5The story of the siege and eventual relief of British soldiers garrisoned at Lucknow during the 1857 Indian Rebellion. Only a fragment of the original film remains.
The Relief of Lucknow
1912
6.0An office worker takes desperate measures in an attempt to get up on time in the morning.
A Suburbanite's Ingenious Alarm
1908
