Writing

Elliott J. Clawson

Born — Died

1883-01-19 — 1942-07-21

Place of birth

Salt Lake City, Utah, USA

Known for

Writing

Credits

40 titles

Known for

Polly Redhead poster
NR

Aside from the fact that Polly had red hair in abundance, she was not otherwise an exceptional child, save for one thing. She was willing to work and slave, if need be, to keep her baby brother, affectionately termed "The Lump," from being sent to the poor house. So she did housework and prepared breakfasts for John Ruffin, an attorney, and Hon. Gedge-Tompkins. John Ruffin's sister, Lady Osterly, has separated from her husband, and he holds their child. When Lady Osterly calls on Ruffin she is struck with the remarkable resemblance Polly bears to her own child. Ruffin and Lady Osterly formulate a plan to come into possession of her daughter, by using Polly as a substitute.

Polly Redhead

1917

Celebrity poster
9.0

Kid Reagan is a prizefighter who poses as a poet as a publicity ploy. Jane, an actress hired to impersonate his high-class love interest, can’t help falling for the big lug.

Celebrity

1928

West of Zanzibar poster
6.9

A magician seeks vengeance upon the man who paralyzed him and the illegitimate daughter he sired with the magician's wife.

West of Zanzibar

1928

The Leatherneck poster
5.7

A film about male bonding. At the end of WW I, two Americans befriend a simple minded German and win him over into becoming an American. All three are still peacetime officers in the US Marines when an unscrupulous character steals Boyd's girl and his two buddies go off to rescue her. When they don't come back, Boyd goes after them to rescue all. This is all done in flashback from a court martial trial for desertion.

The Leatherneck

1929

The Flame of Life poster
9.0

Joan Lowrie and her brutal father, Dan, labor in the English coal mines of the 1870's. Fergus Derrick, a new over-man, attempts to make his workers' lives more bearable but incurs Lowrie's wrath when he fires him for smoking in the mine. Bent on vengeance, Lowrie is beaten when he picks a fight with Fergus, then defiantly smokes in a mine tunnel. There is an explosion, Joan rescues Fergus, and their love triumphs over their class barriers. −

The Flame of Life

1923

The Man in the Moonlight poster
7.0

Two mysterious strangers arrive uninvited at the wedding of Sergeant O'Farrell of the Royal Mounted Police and Rosine Delorme, the daughter of an innkeeper. After O'Farrell receives a message that Rosine's wayward brother Louis has escaped from prison with the notorious devil-may-care outlaw Rossingnol, O'Farrell postpones the wedding to find the convicts.

The Man in the Moonlight

1919

Behind the camera

Polly Redhead poster
NR

Aside from the fact that Polly had red hair in abundance, she was not otherwise an exceptional child, save for one thing. She was willing to work and slave, if need be, to keep her baby brother, affectionately termed "The Lump," from being sent to the poor house. So she did housework and prepared breakfasts for John Ruffin, an attorney, and Hon. Gedge-Tompkins. John Ruffin's sister, Lady Osterly, has separated from her husband, and he holds their child. When Lady Osterly calls on Ruffin she is struck with the remarkable resemblance Polly bears to her own child. Ruffin and Lady Osterly formulate a plan to come into possession of her daughter, by using Polly as a substitute.

Polly Redhead

1917

Celebrity poster
9.0

Kid Reagan is a prizefighter who poses as a poet as a publicity ploy. Jane, an actress hired to impersonate his high-class love interest, can’t help falling for the big lug.

Celebrity

1928

West of Zanzibar poster
6.9

A magician seeks vengeance upon the man who paralyzed him and the illegitimate daughter he sired with the magician's wife.

West of Zanzibar

1928

The Leatherneck poster
5.7

A film about male bonding. At the end of WW I, two Americans befriend a simple minded German and win him over into becoming an American. All three are still peacetime officers in the US Marines when an unscrupulous character steals Boyd's girl and his two buddies go off to rescue her. When they don't come back, Boyd goes after them to rescue all. This is all done in flashback from a court martial trial for desertion.

The Leatherneck

1929

The Flame of Life poster
9.0

Joan Lowrie and her brutal father, Dan, labor in the English coal mines of the 1870's. Fergus Derrick, a new over-man, attempts to make his workers' lives more bearable but incurs Lowrie's wrath when he fires him for smoking in the mine. Bent on vengeance, Lowrie is beaten when he picks a fight with Fergus, then defiantly smokes in a mine tunnel. There is an explosion, Joan rescues Fergus, and their love triumphs over their class barriers. −

The Flame of Life

1923

The Man in the Moonlight poster
7.0

Two mysterious strangers arrive uninvited at the wedding of Sergeant O'Farrell of the Royal Mounted Police and Rosine Delorme, the daughter of an innkeeper. After O'Farrell receives a message that Rosine's wayward brother Louis has escaped from prison with the notorious devil-may-care outlaw Rossingnol, O'Farrell postpones the wedding to find the convicts.

The Man in the Moonlight

1919

The Cop poster
6.7

Pete Smith, a lift bridge operator in a harbor, feels lonely in his cabin, his only visitor being a policeman on patrol, Sgt. Coughlin. One night, after hearing shots, Smith gives shelter to a wounded man, whom he hides from Coughlin. Before leaving, the man, Marcas, promises to return the favor and the coat he borrows from him. Later, Smith enters the police, and his chief, Mather, suspects he is protecting Marcas, who is actually a gangster. Marcas sends a girl, Mary Monks, to deliver a luxurious coat with a fur collar to Smith. Pete and Mary get along well, and for his sake, she betrays Marcas, who is eventually shot to death by the cops, after having stopped his mob from killing Smith. Mary goes away alone into the night, and when Mather finds out that Pete is protecting her, he drops away the evidence of her presence on the spot.

The Cop

1928

Love's Whirlpool poster
9.0

Toughened criminal Jim Reagan tries to persuade his brother, Larry, to go straight, but Larry attempts to rob a banker, Richard Milton, and is arrested. Milton refuses to be lenient, and when Larry is killed trying to escape from prison, Jim and his wife, Molly, resolve to have vengeance.

Love's Whirlpool

1924

The Code of Marcia Gray poster
NR

Early film by Frank Lloyd

The Code of Marcia Gray

1916

A Soul for Sale poster
NR

After Neila Pendleton's father dies, leaving his wife and daughter penniless, the avaricious Mrs. Pendleton decides to marry Neila to the highest bidder. At the cost of her daughter's reputation, Mrs. Pendleton accepts money from elderly broker Wilbur Simons, and later tries to force Neila into a marriage with a dissolute old millionaire named Hale Faxon.

A Soul for Sale

1917

The Thirteenth Chair poster
5.5

Although his murdered friend was by all accounts a scoundrel, Edward Wales is determined to trap his murderer by staging a séance using a famous medium. Several of the thirteen participants had a motive, and one uses the cover of darkness to kill again. When someone close to the medium is suspected, she turns detective in hopes of uncovering the true perpetrator.

The Thirteenth Chair

1929

The Field of Honor poster
NR

Although she is secretly in love with Wade Clayton, Laura Sheldon accedes to the wishes of her parents and marrries George Baring. Soon after, war breaks out between the North and South, and Clayton is made captain of the regiment. The entreaties of Laura prompt Baring to enlist against his will. Seized with fear during battle, Baring attempts to run away but is shot by a comrade and left for dead. At the finish of the war, Clayton returns home and relates how bravely Baring died in action. A few years later, Baring, who had been hiding in Cuba, returns.

The Field of Honor

1917

Skyscraper poster
5.8

Blondy and Swede are gruff best friends who build skyscrapers. Blondy gets sweet on a girl he saves from a falling beam, Sally, but when he is injured in an accident and temporarily crippled, he rejects her. Swede tries every desperate measure to get Blondy to fight back, to try to walk, even masquerading as stealing Sally away from him.

Skyscraper

1928

From Broadway to a Throne poster
NR

Just before a big bout, Jimmie, a New York prize fighter, gets a lucky medal from his friend Billy. Herman Marlex, a chronic teller of tall tales informs Jimmie that the medal is really a royal one, worn by the infant Prince of Magonia when he was kidnapped years before. Then, on fight night, Jimmie is knocked senseless. On his way home, Magonian emissaries see him wearing the medal, and so haul him back to the "homeland." Despite his insisting that he is merely a boxer, Jimmie is hailed as the returning prince.

From Broadway to a Throne

1916

The Savage poster
NR

When Marie Louise, the daughter of the town factor, returns home from school, Julio Sandoval, a reckless young half-breed ruled by his animal instincts, develops a passion for the girl, even though she is engaged to Captain McKeever of the mounted police. Meeting Marie when she is alone in the woods one day, the half-breed carries her to his cabin on the mountain top where he collapses from an attack of mountain fever brought on by overexertion.

The Savage

1917

The Right to Be Happy poster
10.0

Considered to be lost.

The Right to Be Happy

1916

The Spoilers poster
9.0

Based on the novel The Spoilers by Rex Beach.

The Spoilers

1923

The Evil Women Do poster
NR

Paris vamp Ernestine Bergot, posing as wealthy Englishwoman Sarah Brandon, goes to work on aging Count Ville Handry after first warming up on Malgat, a banker whom she ruined. Ernestine convinces the count to marry her despite his daughter's strenuous objections and then gains complete control of his fortune. Her steady milking of his funds makes the count decide to kill himself, but just as he is about to do it, Malgat, who has managed to catch up with Ernestine, exposes her to the authorities. Then, instead of the count, it is Ernestine who commits suicide rather than submit to arrest. A lost film.

The Evil Women Do

1916

Sal of Singapore poster
5.7

SAL OF SINGAPORE was nominated for an Oscar for achievement in Writing during the second year of the Academy Awards. The film, being a part-talkie, nearly disappared from view. However, a preservation print does exist at UCLA, although it is unavailable for public viewing, awaiting restoration.

Sal of Singapore

1928

The Bugler of Algiers poster
NR

Gabrielle Picard (Elda Hall) and Pierre Dupont (Rupert Julian) are lovers in a small French village in the early 1870s; Gabrielle's brother Anatole (Kingsley Benedict) is Pierre's best friend. The two young men are called to service by their country and go to Algiers. Anatole becomes the bugler and one day when he is commanded to sound the retreat, he sounds for the troops to charge instead. Anatole becomes a hero because of his action, but when the two men make their victorious return home, they find the Picard home ransacked and Gabrielle gone.

The Bugler of Algiers

1916

Hungry Eyes poster
NR

Ex-convict Dale Revenal arrives at Dudley Appleton's ranch bearing a letter of introduction from John Silver, Appleton's old friend. Appleton hires Dale, who, through his winning manner, soon wins the respect of the ranch hands and the love of the ranch owner's daughter Mary Jane. Believing himself unworthy of her, Dale tells Mary Jane that he has a wife and child in Arizona, and she reluctantly agrees to marry Jack Nelda, a local rancher. Nelda realizes that Mary Jane is still in love with Dale and plots with Bessie Dupont and her brother Pinto to kill him.

Hungry Eyes

1918

The Desire of the Moth poster
NR

The Desire of the Moth is a 1917 American silent western film directed by Rupert Julian

The Desire of the Moth

1917

Bettina Loved a Soldier poster
NR

Very wealthy Bettina is also very reluctant to get married. She changes her mind in a hurry when she meets Reynaud, the nephew of Abbe Constantin, the poverty-stricken religious leader of the small French village of Longueval.

Bettina Loved a Soldier

1916

The Mysterious Mr. Tiller poster
NR

Police headquarters has been plagued by a series of robberies, culminating in the theft of a priceless necklace smuggled from Europe. The detectives are on the track of a gang led by master thief Ramon Mordant and his accomplice known as "the Face" because of his twisted and hideous countenance.

The Mysterious Mr. Tiller

1917

The Heritage of Hate poster
NR

After watching her mother die gradually from a broken heart, Roberta, an illegitimate child, decides to seek vengeance from her father Bradley, who ran away before she was born. Bradley is wealthy now, and so Roberta secures a job as his secretary and schemes to ruin his financial empire.

The Heritage of Hate

1916

The Flaming Forties poster
9.0

A young cowhand befriends a disreputable gambler and pulls him out of some trouble. Hoping to square things with his new friend, the gambler seeks to warn him about the cowhand's fiancée, about whom the gambler knows some unsavory details.

The Flaming Forties

1924

The Double Room Mystery poster
NR

William Newman, a notorious shyster lawyer, in return for a cut of the jewels, agrees to take the case of Morris, a man convicted of stealing diamonds. After gaining possession of the gems, Newman appropriates all of them and then refuses to carry out his share of the deal. Subsequently, Newman, who is attracted to Georgianna, a maid at his boardinghouse, frames the girl on charges of theft and then arranges for her freedom, thus appearing to be her savior.

The Double Room Mystery

1917

The Little Orphan poster
NR

Three bachelor buddies, David Clark (Jack Conway), Dick Porter (Richard LeReno), and Jerry Mathers (George Webb) adopt three Belgian children who have been orphaned by the war. David winds up with Rene Lescere (Ella Hall), who -- much to his dismay -- comes with a pet goat and chicken. But Rene comes to love her foster father and vice versa. In fact, she's determined to find him a wife who will also serve as a foster mom for her.

The Little Orphan

1917

Under Two Flags poster
8.0

On the run from punishment for a crime committed by his brother, Bertie Cecil (alias Lewis Victor) joins the French Foreign Legion. In Algeria, he becomes the hated rival of his commander, Chateauroy, who despises Victor's breeding and also competes for the same woman. Victor is beloved of Cigarette, an Algerian camp follower, who saves his life, though he loves another.

Under Two Flags

1922

The Gift Girl poster
NR

An English orphan, raised by a Persian household, runs away to Paris.

The Gift Girl

1917

Love and Glory poster
10.0

During an uprising in Algeria in 1869, two Frenchmen--Anatole, the brother of Gabrielle, and Pierre, her sweetheart--join the colors and are later reported dead. Gabrielle is kidnaped and taken to Paris, and the soldiers return.

Love and Glory

1924

The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come poster
10.0

An orphan boy from the Kentucky hills joins the Union Army and rescues his adopted family from Morgan's raiders. He learns his real identity when he returns after the war.

The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come

1920

Another Man's Wife poster
7.0

Vengeful husband pursues, kidnaps his wife aboard a deserted ship when he becomes injured and taken aboard, then sinks in a collision following a fight with the captain for his wife. Stars real life husband-wife James Kirkwood, Lila Lee.

Another Man's Wife

1924

Desperate Trails poster
7.0

Bart Carson is in love with Lou and even goes to jail to save Walter A. Walker, a man she says is her brother but who is really a husband who has deserted his wife and two children.

Desperate Trails

1921

Let 'Er Go Gallegher poster
7.0

Young John Gallagher wants to be a newspaper reporter. One day he witnesses a murder committed by a mysterious man with only four fingers on one hand. He gives his account of the murder and a description of the killer to his hero, newsman Henry Callahan, resulting in his getting a job on the paper as an office boy. When circumstances arise that result in Callahan losing his job on the paper, he and Gallagher set out to discover the identity of the killer and help Callahan get his job back.

Let 'Er Go Gallegher

1928

The Circus of Life poster
1.0

A man is tormented by the thought that his wife's child might not be his.

The Circus of Life

1917

The Sleeping Lion poster
9.0

Italian potter Tony adopts an Italian waif, little Tony, and takes him from New York to the West to realize a long-held dream of owning a ranch.

The Sleeping Lion

1919

The Silent Lady poster
NR

Little orphaned Kate lives happily in a New England lighthouse with its old keepers, Philemon, Peter and Captain Bartholomew. When Kate falls sick, the prudish Philemon hires Miss Summerville, a live-in nurse, to care for her, but is concerned about possible gossip. To alleviate the situation, each keeper and Dr. Carlyle propose to Miss Summerville, but she rejects them all. After hearing that Captain Peyton, a lighthouse inspector, is scheduled to arrive, Miss Summerville makes sudden plans to depart without explanation. At the urging of Carlyle, she agrees to stay, but tries to avoid Peyton by turning off the lighthouse beacon.

The Silent Lady

1917

The Little Pirate poster
4.0

In dire financial straits, businessman John Baird considers liquidating the bonds that are held in trust for his little daughter Margery. Failing to comprehend her husband's desperation, Virginia Baird refuses his request and, upon overhearing his lawyer advising him to utilize the bonds without consulting her, she decides to place them in the hands of George Drake, an old friend. Drake hijacks the securities, however, and their disappearance leads to the break up of the Baird's marriage, resulting in Virginia leaving the house. Attempting to console her father, Margery sets out on her pony to bring her mother home. But she is held up on the road by Captain Kidd Jr., who adopts her as his first mate, and the two children take up residence on a grass hut on a nearby island.

The Little Pirate

1917

Midnight Madness poster
NR

In the act of robbing a set of rare jewels from a museum, a robber is wounded in the hand. Prentice Tiller, while dressing a wound in his hand, overhears the woman in the next hotel room, Gertrude Temple, telephoning Aaron Molitor, to whom she is to deliver some jewels. Posing as Molitor, Prentice calls on Gertrude but disappears when Molitor, who also has been wounded in the hand, suddenly arrives. Molitor's men capture Prentice, who narrowly escapes death in the ruins of an old church and then continues to track Molitor.

Midnight Madness

1918