Charles Brabin

Directing

Charles Brabin

Born — Died

1882-04-17 — 1957-11-03

Place of birth

Liverpool, England, UK

Known for

Directing

Credits

40 titles

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Charles J. Brabin (April 17, 1882 in Liverpool, England - November 3, 1957 in Santa Monica, California) was an American film director and screenwriter. He was active during the silent era, then pursued a short-lived career in talkies. Born in Liverpool, England, he was educated at St. Francis Xavier College. Brabin sailed to New York in the early 1900s and, while holding down odd jobs there, he tried his hand as a stage actor. He joined the Edison Company around 1908, first acting then writing then directing. His last film was A Wicked Woman for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1934. Brabin wed silent-film "vamp" star Theda Bara in 1921, remaining married to he…

Known for

The Mask of Fu Manchu poster
5.4

The villainous Dr. Fu Manchu races against a team of Englishmen to find the tomb of Ghengis Khan, because he wants to use the relics to cause an uprising in the East to wipe out the white race.

The Mask of Fu Manchu

1932

The Secret of Madame Blanche poster
4.2

A murder trial reunites a former chorus girl and her son, a grandson of an English aristocrat.

The Secret of Madame Blanche

1933

The Beast of the City poster
5.9

Police Chief Jim Fitzpatrick is after gangster Sam Belmonte. He uses his police detective brother Ed to watch over Daisy who is associated with Belmonte but things don't go as planned.

The Beast of the City

1932

The Valley of the Giants poster
7.0

Bryce Cardigan struggles to protect his Redwood inheritance from a railroad-owner, who is also the guardian of the woman Bryce loves.

The Valley of the Giants

1927

Vanity Fair poster
NR

In early 19th century England, ambitious and ruthless orphan Rebecca Sharp advances from the position of governess to the heights of British society.

Vanity Fair

1915

The Raven poster
6.5

After a brief view of Edgar Allan Poe's family background, his grandfather, David Poe, Sr., an Irish immigrant to America, and his father, David Poe, Jr., the poet's life is depicted from the death of his mother and his subsequent adoption by John Allan, to his own tortured death in 1849. Expelled from the University of Virginia for incurring too many debts, Poe nonetheless courts and marries Virginia Clemm but is disowned by his foster father. While residing in Fordham, New York, Poe tries to earn a living as a writer but meets with little financial success. Overwhelmed by their impoverished state, Virginia dies and Poe sinks into a profound depression. Always a victim of alcohol and subject to hallucinations, Poe first imagines that his neighbor, Helen Whitman, is Virginia, then plunges himself into an elaborate delusion in which his wife's spirit, various other spectres and a raven finally drive him to his own death.

The Raven

1915

Behind the camera

The Mask of Fu Manchu poster
5.4

The villainous Dr. Fu Manchu races against a team of Englishmen to find the tomb of Ghengis Khan, because he wants to use the relics to cause an uprising in the East to wipe out the white race.

The Mask of Fu Manchu

1932

The Secret of Madame Blanche poster
4.2

A murder trial reunites a former chorus girl and her son, a grandson of an English aristocrat.

The Secret of Madame Blanche

1933

The Beast of the City poster
5.9

Police Chief Jim Fitzpatrick is after gangster Sam Belmonte. He uses his police detective brother Ed to watch over Daisy who is associated with Belmonte but things don't go as planned.

The Beast of the City

1932

The Valley of the Giants poster
7.0

Bryce Cardigan struggles to protect his Redwood inheritance from a railroad-owner, who is also the guardian of the woman Bryce loves.

The Valley of the Giants

1927

Vanity Fair poster
NR

In early 19th century England, ambitious and ruthless orphan Rebecca Sharp advances from the position of governess to the heights of British society.

Vanity Fair

1915

The Raven poster
6.5

After a brief view of Edgar Allan Poe's family background, his grandfather, David Poe, Sr., an Irish immigrant to America, and his father, David Poe, Jr., the poet's life is depicted from the death of his mother and his subsequent adoption by John Allan, to his own tortured death in 1849. Expelled from the University of Virginia for incurring too many debts, Poe nonetheless courts and marries Virginia Clemm but is disowned by his foster father. While residing in Fordham, New York, Poe tries to earn a living as a writer but meets with little financial success. Overwhelmed by their impoverished state, Virginia dies and Poe sinks into a profound depression. Always a victim of alcohol and subject to hallucinations, Poe first imagines that his neighbor, Helen Whitman, is Virginia, then plunges himself into an elaborate delusion in which his wife's spirit, various other spectres and a raven finally drive him to his own death.

The Raven

1915

The Raven poster
6.5

After a brief view of Edgar Allan Poe's family background, his grandfather, David Poe, Sr., an Irish immigrant to America, and his father, David Poe, Jr., the poet's life is depicted from the death of his mother and his subsequent adoption by John Allan, to his own tortured death in 1849. Expelled from the University of Virginia for incurring too many debts, Poe nonetheless courts and marries Virginia Clemm but is disowned by his foster father. While residing in Fordham, New York, Poe tries to earn a living as a writer but meets with little financial success. Overwhelmed by their impoverished state, Virginia dies and Poe sinks into a profound depression. Always a victim of alcohol and subject to hallucinations, Poe first imagines that his neighbor, Helen Whitman, is Virginia, then plunges himself into an elaborate delusion in which his wife's spirit, various other spectres and a raven finally drive him to his own death.

The Raven

1915

Stage Mother poster
6.3

Kitty Lorraine has one purpose in life: turning her daughter Shirley into a star. Kitty controls every aspect of the girl's nascent career -- even blackmailing a stage manager so that Shirley can take a more prestigious gig. But Kitty goes too far when she breaks up her daughter's budding relationship with sweet artist Warren Foster. Heartbroken, Shirley sets off on a series of disastrous but profitable relationships.

Stage Mother

1933

New Morals for Old poster
4.5

Proper parents who treat their adult children as teenagers have a son who wants to go to Paris to study art, and a daughter in love with a married man.

New Morals for Old

1932

Mary Jane's Pa poster
NR

After wandering the world for fifteen years, Hiram Perkins returns home to find his wife running a small town newspaper to support their two daughters. With pity in her heart, Mrs. Perkins allows her husband to stay in the house providing that he not disclose his identity. Mrs. Perkins is waging a battle against the re-election of Joel Skinner for a seat in the assembly, and when she learns that Skinner has mistreated old Mrs. Miller, she is determined to expose his actions. Rome Preston, running in opposition to Skinner, requests that she stop the story, but Mrs. Perkins refuses and so Preston disables the press. With Hiram's help, Mrs. Perkins prints the story and Skinner is defeated. In revenge, Skinner's men burn the press and demand that Hiram be tarred and feathered. At this moment, Mrs. Perkins acknowledges that Hiram is her husband and all is forgiven as the Perkins family is reunited.

Mary Jane's Pa

1917

Breakers Ahead poster
NR

After young Ruth Bowman's mother dies, the child is raised by Agatha Pixley, and in time, the girl falls in love with Agatha's son, Eric. While Eric is at sea with Captain Scudder on a boat owned by Jim and Hiram Hawley, a jealous villager spreads the tale that Ruth is illegitimate, and the townspeople inevitably snub her. Jim Hiram sets his boat on fire after its arrival in port so that he can collect insurance money, and Ruth, believing that Eric is on board, tries to rescue him. When Ruth and Eric escape safely, Captain Scudder reveals that he, Ruth's long-lost father, was legally married to her mother, which re-establishes Ruth's good name and enables her to marry Eric.

Breakers Ahead

1918

Breakers Ahead poster
NR

After young Ruth Bowman's mother dies, the child is raised by Agatha Pixley, and in time, the girl falls in love with Agatha's son, Eric. While Eric is at sea with Captain Scudder on a boat owned by Jim and Hiram Hawley, a jealous villager spreads the tale that Ruth is illegitimate, and the townspeople inevitably snub her. Jim Hiram sets his boat on fire after its arrival in port so that he can collect insurance money, and Ruth, believing that Eric is on board, tries to rescue him. When Ruth and Eric escape safely, Captain Scudder reveals that he, Ruth's long-lost father, was legally married to her mother, which re-establishes Ruth's good name and enables her to marry Eric.

Breakers Ahead

1918

No artwork available
4.0

Lieutenant John Miller, U.S.A., receives a note from his southern sweetheart chiding him for not getting through the enemy's lines to visit her. His pride determines him, and going to his general he asks leave of absence. The general tells Miller that leave of absence will be given him on condition that he purposely gets captured in his fiancée's home with a decoy dispatch on him.

A Soldier's Duty

1912

What Happened to Mary poster
NR

The forerunner of all serials, What Happened to Mary was a series of twelve monthly one reel episodes, each a complete entity in itself, revolving its immediate dramatic and melodramatic problems within the framework of a single episode and designed more for story and suspense situations than action.

What Happened to Mary

1912

No artwork available
NR

Young lord of Whitehall Manor, Sir Anthony Elliott, becomes secretly engaged to Elinore Vane, but she marries his brother Paul. Resentful Anthony, decides to go to America, Nina Desmond, whom he earlier rescued from a fall, asks to go with him, but he refuses. Nina overhears him also refuse Elinore, whom Paul mistreats.

The House of the Lost Court

1915

Mismates poster
7.0

"Mismates" is the story of a wealthy youth who, against his mother's wishes, marries a poor girl and is disowned. At first determined to support himself and his wife, he soon craves the accustomed luxury and deserts his wife and child. On false information provided by the boy's mother and substantiated by himself the wife is sent to jail and the child kidnapped by the husband. This is where the drama kicks in.

Mismates

1926

Twinkletoes poster
6.8

"Twinkletoes" Minasi wants to be a great dancer like her deceased mother. Twink meets Chuck Lightfoot, a noted prizefighter, who falls in love with her at first sight. She tries to avoid falling in love with Chuck, whose wife, Cissie, is a drunken harridan and more than a little bit spiteful. Meanwhile, Twink has secured a job in a singing-dancing act in a Limehouse theater, under the auspices of Roseleaf, who has more than just a protective interest in the girl. The jealous Cissie discovers that Twink's sign-painting father also has a night job as a burglar, and she turns him into the police. While a big success dancing on the stage, the arrest of her father has left her somewhat down in the dumps, and she decides to toss herself into the Thames. Possibly, the now-free Chuck, since Cissie has been killed in an accident, might come along and rescue her.

Twinkletoes

1926

No artwork available
8.0

Tim spends his days running with a railroad gang which frustrates his struggling parents. When his father falls ill Tim reluctantly gets a job begrudging being forced into that position, but when events take a tragic turn he realizes the need for him to become a responsible adult.

Tim

1912

The Awakening of John Bond poster
NR

A slumlord learns just how important it is to maintain clean living quarters when his wife contracts tuberculosis.

The Awakening of John Bond

1911

His Mother's Hope poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

His Mother's Hope

1912

Call of the Flesh poster
5.7

A postulant falls in love with a flamboyant singer from a cafe next door to her convent.

Call of the Flesh

1930

The Secret Kingdom poster
NR

The Secret Kingdom is a 1917 silent action movie serial comprised of 15 chapters: 1. Land of the Intrigue 2. Royalty at Red Wing 3. Sealed Packet 4. Honorable Mr. Oxenham 5. Carriage Call #101 6. Human Flotsam 7. Ghost Ship 8. Rum Cay 9. Swamp Adder 10. A Goat Without Horns 11. The White Witch 12. The Shark's Nest 13. The Tragic Masque 14. The Portrait of a King 15. The Tocsin.

The Secret Kingdom

1917

The Ship from Shanghai poster
6.8

On a yacht sailing from Shanghai to the United States, the sailors, led by the megalomaniac steward, revolt and take control.

The Ship from Shanghai

1930

The Usurer's Grip poster
5.7

Here with the Edison Company -- most notably Charles Ogle as the usurer -- we see a 'typical' case of the victims of usury. Although offered as a 'realistic' view of the effects of usury, it veers frequently into melodrama.

The Usurer's Grip

1912

No artwork available
NR

John Farley and his wife were in very comfortable circumstances. They owned their own little farm and, as a result, were able to live very nicely on John's income as a railroad switchman, and to put money in the bank as well. The one great drawback to the farm, was the fact that it was so far from the tower in which John worked.

The President’s Special

1914

The Lights of New York poster
8.0

Silent drama with two different New York stories. One tells of a good man led astray until a dream causes him to change his ways. The other is about a man whose despair over his love marrying another is lifted through increasingly unlikely events.

The Lights of New York

1922

The Lights of New York poster
8.0

Silent drama with two different New York stories. One tells of a good man led astray until a dream causes him to change his ways. The other is about a man whose despair over his love marrying another is lifted through increasingly unlikely events.

The Lights of New York

1922

No artwork available
5.7

An elderly bank clerk declines to donate money to a tuberculosis fund, but soon his daughter comes down with the disease.

Hope - A Red Cross Seal Story

1912

No artwork available
NR

No synopsis available yet.

His Bonded Wife

1918

The Ambassador's Daughter poster
6.0

The theft of an important document from the ambassador's residence leads his daughter to investigate the crime.

The Ambassador's Daughter

1913

Red, White and Blue Blood poster
NR

A hard-core socialite turns over a new leaf after spending time with a less fortunate family.

Red, White and Blue Blood

1917

Framed poster
8.0

Wrongfully court martialed from the French Army Captain Hilaire heads to Brazil. Upon arrival he is hired as a foreman in a Diamond mine eventually falling in love with the boss’s daughter, Diane. Remsen who wants both Hilaire’s job and Diane frames him for stealing from the company while Hilarie is away. Convicted, he is sent to a Devil's Island-like prison camp. Eventually, Remson, too is sent there, where he confesses on his death bed, freeing Hilaire.

Framed

1927

Kathleen Mavourneen poster
9.0

Kathleen, the daughter of a poor tenant farmer, dreams of her wedding with her beloved Terrence. The dream is interrupted when the Squire of the estate takes an interest in Kathleen and forces her father to allow him to marry her to forgive the father's debt.

Kathleen Mavourneen

1919

Kathleen Mavourneen poster
9.0

Kathleen, the daughter of a poor tenant farmer, dreams of her wedding with her beloved Terrence. The dream is interrupted when the Squire of the estate takes an interest in Kathleen and forces her father to allow him to marry her to forgive the father's debt.

Kathleen Mavourneen

1919

A Wicked Woman poster
5.0

A woman and her children escape severe poverty and abuse. She successfully betters her family's condition while living with the secret that she killed her abusive husband in order to protect her children from him.

A Wicked Woman

1934

The Poor Rich Man poster
6.0

Vantyne Carter is a playboy living in luxury off his father. Vantyne's cousin Teddy, meanwhile, leads a fine upstanding life -- or at least he appears to, so he can curry favor with his wealthy uncle, Vantyne's father. One day, the senior Carter, fed up with his son's antics, decides to play a trick on both Vantyne and Teddy. The old man and his lawyer go off on a hunting trip, and then the lawyer returns with news that Carter was killed in an accident.

The Poor Rich Man

1918

Social Quicksands poster
NR

Claiming that he has no need for social butterflies, Warren Dexter refuses to attend a reception at which he was to meet debutante Phyllis Lane. Humiliated, Phyllis makes a wager that she will lead Warren to the altar within the month. To gain his attention, she faints on his doorstep and then realizes that he is not at home. Peering through the window, Phyllis spies a woman stealing the silver, whereupon she enters the house and forces Mollie, the burglar, to exchange clothing with her. When Warren arrives, Phyllis feigns a guilty look and explains that her father and brother force her to steal. Hoping to reform the attractive "crook," Warren offers her a position as his maid and soon falls in love with her. Later the crooks again try to rob him, and after Phyllis helps him to foil their plan, he proposes. Upon learning her true identity, Warren is greatly offended, but Phyllis easily convinces him that her love is genuine.

Social Quicksands

1918

Sporting Blood poster
5.4

A horse with great potential is reluctantly sold by the breeder and by chance passes through multiple hands who do not treat him well.

Sporting Blood

1931

Sporting Blood poster
5.4

A horse with great potential is reluctantly sold by the breeder and by chance passes through multiple hands who do not treat him well.

Sporting Blood

1931

Footfalls poster
10.0

A blind cobbler is able, by dint of his extraordinary hearing, to recognize the identity of a murderer. His own son is accused of the killing, and the old man waits, knowing the murderer will return to prevent the blind man from revealing what he knows.

Footfalls

1921