
Directing
Elmer Clifton
Born — Died
1890-03-12 — 1949-10-15
Place of birth
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Known for
Directing
Credits
59 titles
Born in Chicago, he was an actor in touring stock companies before making his screen debut in 1912. Joining D.W. Griffith's Fine Arts Studio in 1914, he was cast as Union officer Phil Stoneman in "The Birth of a Nation" (1915) and as The Rhapsodie in the Babylonian story of "Intolerance" (1916). He was also a second-unit director for those films. Promoted to director in 1917, Clifton supervised several successful Fine Arts comedies starring Dorothy Gish while continuing to serve as Griffith's assistant. Their association culminated with the blockbuster "Way Down East" (1920). Clifton shot much of its famous "Rescue from the ice" sequence and doubled for star Richard Barthelmess in the riskie…
Known for
5.9Two families, abolitionist Northerners the Stonemans and Southern landowners the Camerons, intertwine. When Confederate colonel Ben Cameron is captured in battle, nurse Elsie Stoneman petitions for his pardon. In Reconstruction-era South Carolina, Cameron founds the Ku Klux Klan, battling Elsie's congressman father and his African-American protégé, Silas Lynch.
The Birth of a Nation
1915
7.1The story of a poor young woman, separated by prejudice from her husband and baby, is interwoven with tales of intolerance from throughout history.
Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages
1916
5.3Superhero Captain America battles the evil forces of the archvillain called The Scarab, who poisons his enemies and steals a secret device capable of destroying buildings by sound vibrations.
Captain America
1944
5.0Famed striptease artist Ann Corio stars as Annabelle, a cabaret dancer who returns to the Florida bayous whence she came.
Swamp Woman
1941
8.0A young woman is so superstitious that she cannot make a move or a decision without the approval of the cards or the stars. Pursued romantically by two men, one virtuous, the other villainous, the cards point her toward the villain. Which will she follow, her cards or her heart?
Nobody Home
1919
6.8After a beautiful but unsophisticated girl is seduced by a worldly piano player and gives up her out-of-wedlock baby, her guilt compels her to kidnap another child.
Not Wanted
1949
Film credits
1910s · 18 titles
5.9Two families, abolitionist Northerners the Stonemans and Southern landowners the Camerons, intertwine. When Confederate colonel Ben Cameron is captured in battle, nurse Elsie Stoneman petitions for his pardon. In Reconstruction-era South Carolina, Cameron founds the Ku Klux Klan, battling Elsie's congressman father and his African-American protégé, Silas Lynch.
The Birth of a Nation
1915
7.1The story of a poor young woman, separated by prejudice from her husband and baby, is interwoven with tales of intolerance from throughout history.
Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages
1916
NRThe tale of an individualist proletarian in a time marked by the rise of mass political movements. In early 20th-century Italy, illiterate sailor Martin Eden seeks fame as a writer while torn between the love of a bourgeois girl and allegiance to his social class.
Martin Eden
1914
NRMay and her younger sister, Carol, live in a small town. May is the more lovely of the two, but Carol is wooed by Frank, a country boy. George, a city man, comes to town on a visit, falls in love with Carol and wins her away from Frank. Carol is pleased with his attentions and poor Frank is brokenhearted. Calling one day to see Carol, George meets May and falls madly in love with her, and finally runs away with her and they are married. Carol, in despair, turns back to Frank and they are married, and a year later a baby is born.
The Sisters
1914
NRSenator John Coburn's son Steve, who associates more with gamblers, criminals and drug addicts than with his father's congressional cronies, impulsively murders his mistress' new lover. The senator tries to use his influence to have Steve acquitted, but all of the evidence firmly and correctly implicates him, and so the jury prepares to find Steve guilty without much deliberation. Before the verdict can be announced, however, Steve's mother rises in court to make an impassioned plea for her son. As a result, moved by the mother's grief, the jurors choose to ignore all of the evidence, and declare that Steve is not guilty.
The Old Folks at Home
1916
NRTo the dismay of Allison Edwards, her bookworm, adoring neighbor, Mary Randolph, falls in love with and marries Jack Van Norman, a rich and handsome former football star. After a few months of marital contentment, Jack becomes infatuated with Rose, an exotic dancer.
The Lily and the Rose
1915
NRNina, a blind girl, lives with her grandmother, who has taught her to make artificial flowers, which she sells at a flower-stand. Nina, and Jimmie, a crippled newsboy who sells papers on the same corner, are sweethearts. Nina's grandmother dies, and she turns to Jimmie. One day Jimmie has a fight with another newsboy, whom he thinks is hanging about Nina's stand too much, and the other boy is soon begging for mercy. Miss Fifi Chandler, an artist, happens to be passing, and becoming interested, she accompanies Nina and Jimmie to their rooms, and is surprised to find that Jimmie is an artist, having made a beautiful plaster cast of Nina. Fifi brings Jimmie and his protégé to the notice of her fellow artist, Fred Townsend, who falls in love with Nina.
Nina, the Flower Girl
1917
A Duel for Love is a 1914 dramatic short.
A Duel for Love
1914
A picture from the short story of Ellen Farley in "The Cavalier," and screened by John O'Brian. The story is of a girl who tries to be an author and has the usual fate of such. The new interest comes when she enters the home of the publisher because the policemen won't let her sit on the park benches and she wants to hide out of sight of them. She is starving and there is fruit on the table which she eats, but when the "burglar" comes she feels in duty bound to protect the place from him; it is the publisher, and from this meeting the two young people fall in, it always happens in fiction, why say it? But even with this ending the offering has much to commend it. Able direction and good acting give it atmosphere and it will go all right.
The Folly of Anne
1914
Young teacher Nan Cartwright leaves Virginia for a narrow-minded Western town. Facing constant harassment from townspeople, her reputation is ultimately ruined after a carriage accident forces her to spend the night in the woods.
The Little School Ma'am
1916
NRElam Harnish, known as "Burning Daylight," is a leader among the men of Circle City, Alaska in the days before the gold rush. Nell, a dance hall girl, loves Harnish, though he has never offered her anything but friendship. Harnish's hunch that the big strike is coming soon proves true, and he throws himself into the frenzy of activity that follows, staking claims and eventually accumulating eleven million dollars. Harnish leaves Alaska for San Francisco without knowing that Nell has killed herself because of his departure. -From TCM.com Database, powered by the AFI.
Burning Daylight: The Adventures of 'Burning Daylight' in Alaska
1914
NRBefore his niece and ward, Dosia Dale, comes of age, her uncle, who has spent her entire fortune, must think of a way to account for his actions. He proposes marriage, and when Dosia indignantly refuses him, he conspires with his evil friend, Dr. Protheroe, to do away with her. Declaring Dosia insane, the two men lock her up in the doctor's insane asylum, but she manages to drop a note from the window. Her plea for help is found by a reporter named Ford, who feigns insanity in order to gain admittance to the asylum. Dr. Protheroe becomes suspicious of Ford and locks him up with Dosia, whereupon Ford, knowing that his friend Cuthbert will notify the police if he and Dosia do not emerge safely by twelve, barricades the door and waits. In a furious battle with the police and the militia, Dosia's uncle and Dr. Protheroe are killed and the house set ablaze, but Ford and Dosia escape, leaping from the roof into a fire net below. All danger passed, Ford and Dosia become engaged.
The Lost House
1915
Based on the autobiographical novel of the same name. Jack London has struggled with alcoholism most of his life. At age five he was instructed to bring a pail of beer to his father and drank some to prevent it spilling over, getting drunk for the first time. As an adult, he goes through cycles of abstinence only to return to hard drinking.
John Barleycorn
1914
Hard-working insurance company bookkeeper John Carter, comes home Easter eve to his suburban cottage with a potted lily for his loving wife and two daughters. The Carters live happily until cashier Charles Ryder is murdered by the night watchman, a "coke sniffer" in need of money, and Carter is accused because he worked with Ryder that evening.
Acquitted
1916
NRIn China, a man is arrested and tortured for a crime committed years before by his twin brother.
The Sable Lorcha
1915
NRA 1916 film directed by Lloyd Ingraham.
The Missing Links
1916
According to Japanese legend, the Fox Woman was not possessed of a soul. To exist, she was obliged to steal the soul of others.
The Fox Woman
1915
Hoping to elope, farmer's daughter Myrtle Fairley and her beau Jack Holt are forced to return home after finding the minister not at home. Upon arrival they discover a pair of incompetent safe crackers trying to force Mr. Fairley to give up his money, leading to a tense resolution.
A Lucky Disappointment
1914
Behind the camera
5.3Superhero Captain America battles the evil forces of the archvillain called The Scarab, who poisons his enemies and steals a secret device capable of destroying buildings by sound vibrations.
Captain America
1944
5.0Famed striptease artist Ann Corio stars as Annabelle, a cabaret dancer who returns to the Florida bayous whence she came.
Swamp Woman
1941
8.0A young woman is so superstitious that she cannot make a move or a decision without the approval of the cards or the stars. Pursued romantically by two men, one virtuous, the other villainous, the cards point her toward the villain. Which will she follow, her cards or her heart?
Nobody Home
1919
6.8After a beautiful but unsophisticated girl is seduced by a worldly piano player and gives up her out-of-wedlock baby, her guilt compels her to kidnap another child.
Not Wanted
1949
7.0Big Hearted Jim, the sheriff, loves the tomboyish Nugget Nell ( Dorothy Gish ), who runs a hash house in the mining country, but although she has romantic feelings, they are not aroused by Jim. Nell agrees to an old miner friend's request to care for his "child," Nell is shocked to meet the six-foot girl, but she cares for her just the same. Nell falls in love with the City Chap, out West to look after his mining property, but he barely notices her, having become intrigued by the Ingenue, whom he met on the stagecoach. The jealous Nell steals stylish clothes to allure him, but she has trouble walking in French high-heels.
Nugget Nell
1919
5.3Kit Cardigan seeks the killer of his father...among other plot threads leading up to the famous historical incident.
Custer's Last Stand
1936
9.0Hanson is using Bobby's carrier pigeons to receive messages. His man Slim shoots them down before they reach Bobby. When Slim is injured, Ranger Daniels posing as a drunk gets the job. He misses the next pigeon on purpose and gets the message from Bobby. But his identity has now become known and the gang rides to get him.
Rough Riding Ranger
1935
9.0Hanson is using Bobby's carrier pigeons to receive messages. His man Slim shoots them down before they reach Bobby. When Slim is injured, Ranger Daniels posing as a drunk gets the job. He misses the next pigeon on purpose and gets the message from Bobby. But his identity has now become known and the gang rides to get him.
Rough Riding Ranger
1935
9.0Driving a herd of cattle to market, Jimmy finds the trail has been fenced off by an old friend of his. While the two sides try to settle the matter peaceably, a man from each outfit get together to try and start a range war between them figuring they will end up with the cattle. When cattle are rustled, Jimmy finds the clue, horses with shoes that make tracks that look like cattle.
Rainbow Over the Rockies
1947
6.5Quick on the Trigger was Charles Starrett's second "Durango Kid" picture for 1949. It all begins when ousted sheriff Steve Warren (Starrett) is put on trial for the murder of heroine Nora Reed's (Helen Parrish) brother. Steve is innocent, of course, but he doesn't stand a chance against prosecuting attorney Garvey Yager (Lyle Talbot) -- especially since Yager is the real killer.
Quick on the Trigger
1948
4.0Boots is a young servant girl who polishes shoes in an English inn. She is an incurable romantic, addicted to melodramatic stories of love and adventure. When she discovers a Bolshevik plot to blow up a government official, she takes it on herself to foil the plot.
Boots
1919
3.3In a banana republic, way south of the Texas border, a dumb-Dora American girl, Norma (Olive Borden), lets her ruby-red lips promise more than she is willing to deliver, and she finds herself a prisoner in a notorious dance-hall/brothel. But her American aviator boyfriend, Barry Blake (John Boles), is flying to her rescue. He does just that but, alas, they are quickly captured by a gang of outlaws. Possibly the many expensive pieces of jewelry she has gathered from the many male friends she has made along the way, including El Presidente, captured the outlaws' attention.
Virgin Lips
1928
NRDuring the Alaskan gold rush, two unscrupulous fortune-seekers, Amy and her husband Gambler Joe, rob Mathew Smith, who has offered them shelter from a snow storm. Mathew pursues them but loses his way, and by the time Harkness finds him, he is nearly dead from exposure. Mathew, nicknamed "Silent" Smith because the storm has robbed him of his voice, lives in friendship with Harkness until the latter marries Amy, who has found employment in a local dance hall.
The Guilt of Silence
1918
5.7Being the story of the Morgans, a 19th-century Massachusetts whaling family, their tightly-knit Quaker community, and the dangerous adventures of an unwilling stowaway aboard one of the elder Morgan's harvest vessels.
Down to the Sea in Ships
1922
5.7Being the story of the Morgans, a 19th-century Massachusetts whaling family, their tightly-knit Quaker community, and the dangerous adventures of an unwilling stowaway aboard one of the elder Morgan's harvest vessels.
Down to the Sea in Ships
1922
5.7Investigators crack down on a gang of nightclub con artists that has been victimizing wealthy bachelors.
Hard Guy
1941
NR“Speed” Cannon, an ambitious young businessman is determined to win the affections of a boarding-school girl whose father made millions in the pork industry. He must use his wit and "speedy" business acumen to navigate the social demands of the girl's father, ultimately trying to win her hand in marriage.
High Speed
1917
Teen-Age is another "exposé" film of the 1940s, cheaply made but widely distributed. In the guise of a warning against wartime juvenile delinquency, the film offers the exploitational tale of a bunch of wild, unsupervised kids at large in a small community. With nothing but time on their hands, the young protagonists become involved with petty theft, inevitably leading to some pretty serious consequences.
Teen Age
1944
2.9A high-school girl gets involved with a ring of teenage marijuana smokers and starts down the road to ruin. A reporter poses as a soda jerk to infiltrate the gang of teen dope fiends.
Assassin of Youth
1938
2.9A high-school girl gets involved with a ring of teenage marijuana smokers and starts down the road to ruin. A reporter poses as a soda jerk to infiltrate the gang of teen dope fiends.
Assassin of Youth
1938
8.0A young woman is in love, but the man of her affections wants only her and no part of her vast wealth.
I'll Get Him Yet
1919
4.5A variety of people are searching for a long-hidden treasure somewhere on an island. Chapters: 1. The Isle of Fear, 2. The Ghost Talks, 3. The Phantom Duel, 4. Buried Alive, 5. The Girl Who Vanished, 6. Trapped by the Flood, 7. The Cannon Roars, 8. The Circle of Death, 9. The Pirate's Revenge, 10. The Crash, 11. Dynamite, 12. The Bridge of Doom, 13. The Mad Flight, 14. The Jaws of Destruction, 15. Justice
The Secret of Treasure Island
1938
4.5A variety of people are searching for a long-hidden treasure somewhere on an island. Chapters: 1. The Isle of Fear, 2. The Ghost Talks, 3. The Phantom Duel, 4. Buried Alive, 5. The Girl Who Vanished, 6. Trapped by the Flood, 7. The Cannon Roars, 8. The Circle of Death, 9. The Pirate's Revenge, 10. The Crash, 11. Dynamite, 12. The Bridge of Doom, 13. The Mad Flight, 14. The Jaws of Destruction, 15. Justice
The Secret of Treasure Island
1938
8.0Jimmy Wakely wishes to sell to the government a group of wild mustangs which he has captured and trained for rancher Matt Blake. The competition is Flora Carter, the owner of a near-by ranch. The army colonel in charge decides to buy the winning horses of a cross-country race. Flora has her henchmen, led by Sam Phelps resort to foul means in order to try to win the race.
Song of the Sierras
1946
4.3Tex put the Kern gang away once but they have returned with reinforcements and have take over the town of Red Rock capturing the townsmen and forcing them to work for them in the gold mines. Dave and Tex then organize the ranchers into the Territorial Rangers. After blowing up the mines to keep the gang from getting the gold, they are ready for the showdown between the two sides. Written by Maurice VanAuken
Gangsters of the Frontier
1944
4.3Tex put the Kern gang away once but they have returned with reinforcements and have take over the town of Red Rock capturing the townsmen and forcing them to work for them in the gold mines. Dave and Tex then organize the ranchers into the Territorial Rangers. After blowing up the mines to keep the gang from getting the gold, they are ready for the showdown between the two sides. Written by Maurice VanAuken
Gangsters of the Frontier
1944
5.2Sunset Carson is trying to raise money for a new school and his partner Sam Webster is out to stop him. When Carson plans a benefit prize-fight, Webster plans to make off with the proceeds.
Sunset Carson Rides Again
1948
8.0Ore shipments are being stolen and the Rangers send Buck and his men to guard the next shipment. When that is stolen also, Buck is kicked out of the Rangers.
Law of the Texan
1938
6.3Desperados menace a mining operation.
Fighting Caballero
1935
6.3Desperados menace a mining operation.
Fighting Caballero
1935
6.0An architect (Chick Chandler) studies the doors of six shops and an apartment house to solve a gem theft/double murder.
Seven Doors to Death
1944
6.0An architect (Chick Chandler) studies the doors of six shops and an apartment house to solve a gem theft/double murder.
Seven Doors to Death
1944
NRJane is a rootless young lady who finds an abandoned child and adopts it as her own. The decision, however, leads to great conflict with the child's vicious outlaw father.
Battling Jane
1918
9.0Peggy Barlou is a young rancher who refuses to sell her spread to greedy stage-line proprietor John Rankin. Tex Haines, meanwhile, is accused of killing Bill Dugan, Rankin's bodyguard, but eludes capture long enough to hook up with Dave Wyatt and Panhandle Perkins, a couple of rangers in disguise.
Three in the Saddle
1945
7.0Jim Steele spots Pete Dawson taking horses over the Mexico-Texas border, but Dawson has an alibi. A new group of recruits arrives at the Ranger station, among them Tex Wyatt, the son of Ranger Captain John Wyatt, whom he hasn't seen for many years. Captain Wyatt tells Tex that he is in the Rangers strictly on his own merit and there will be no favors played. He assigns Tex to pick up Dawson's trail, but orders that no arrest be made without proof.
The Rangers Take Over
1942
8.0Polly has herself arrested and committed to a reformatory in order to investigate conditions at the institution, after the committee charged with the investigation whitewashes the facts.
Peppy Polly
1919
7.0Johnny Mack Brown's Universal western series was drawing to a close when Cheyenne Roundup was released in mid-1943. Brown is herein cast in a dual role, as honest Gils Brandon and his less-than-honest brother Buck. Pursued by lawman Steve Rawlins (Tex Ritter), Buck tries to pass himself off as the upright Gils.
Cheyenne Roundup
1943
7.0Jolley is the leader of the Devil's Brand gang of rustlers. When Molly Dawson sends for the Texas Rangers, Tex, Jim, and Panhandle arrive pretending not to know each other. But eventually their identities become known and they are captured by the gang.
Brand of the Devil
1944
6.3Aircraft are being shot down by a large black plane with a big "X" painted on the wing. The chief suspects are invited for the weekend to an old dark mansion.
Pilot X
1936
5.5Larry Evans, champion race car driver, is envied by his chief rival, Eddie DeSylva, who has more ambitions than merely winning the races; he has designs on the motor patent held by Corbett (Tom Moore), Larry's employer. Eddie also has a yen for Corbett's daughter, Norma, who prefers Larry. Eddie intentionally causes a race wreck that injures Larry and sends him to the hospital.
Ten Laps to Go
1936

