Gladys Brockwell

The edition of Screen Snapshots celebrates 25 years of production. It looks at the content of edition #1, then a tribute to movie people who have died in those 25 years. Finally there are tributes to the Screen Snapshots series by Cecil De Mille, Walt Disney, Louella Parsons and Rosalind Russell.

In 15th century France, a gypsy girl is framed for murder by the infatuated Chief Justice, and only the deformed bellringer of Notre Dame Cathedral can save her.

In 1910s Paris, a sewer worker disillusioned with Christianity feels his prayers have been answered when he chances upon a street waif and they fall in love.

Two sailors with a rivalry over chasing women become friends. But when one decides to finally settle down, will this mysterious young woman come between them?

At a three-ring circus, 'Spangles' Delancy, a beautiful bareback horse rider, falls in love with a wanted man, Dick Radley, who uses the circus as a hideout. The show's owner Big Bill Bowman also falls in love with Spangles-- But only one man can have her.

Eddie is conned into fronting a speakeasy for a local gangster who intends to frame him for the murder of a cop.

A young man takes a succession of odd jobs in order to save enough money to buy himself and his mother a house. He lands a position in a newspaper office and falls in love with the beautiful society editor, who is secretly having an affair with the married managing editor. She returns the young man's affections in order to make her lover jealous, but finds herself falling for him.

After graduating from a fashionable finishing school and touring Europe with her father, Selina Peake returns to the United States, where her father is accidentally killed after losing his fortune in a gambling den. Selina is reduced to teaching in a high school in the Dutch community at High Prarie near Chicago. She boards in the farmhouse of Klass Poole, a dull-witted market gardener, and finally marries Pervus DeJong, a poor and backward farmer. She shares the drudgery of her husband's futile life and finds happiness only in their small son, Dirk, whom she calls "So-Big."

Santussa, an orphan who becomes separated from her nurse en route to America to live with her grandfather, is cared for by gangsters who hide their stolen jewels in her ragdoll. In New York, Big Mike, finding Santussa a nuisance, dumps her and the doll in a trash can, where a newsboy finds her. After several adventures, Santussa finds her grandfather, the jewels are handed over to customs officials, and the gang of crooks is reformed.

An orphan endures a harsh life in a workhouse before fleeing to London, where he falls in with a gang of juvenile pickpockets led by the criminal Fagin, and eventually finds a better life, exposing the cruelties of poverty and child labor in Victorian England.

A silent film from the end of the silent era.

Impoverished by the Civil War and eager to replenish his fortune in the West, Colonel Halliday, his wife, and his daughter, Beth, proceed toward Salina, Kansas by wagon train, at the persuasion of Tom Kirby, a government scout and Beth's fiancé. Although Bill Hickok, Tom's friend, and a company of cavalry are in charge, Pawnee Killer, chief of the Sioux, attacks the wagon train, and Halliday and his wife are killed. Bill rides to Salina for help and to deliver the news to Buffalo Bill Cody. Beth, now hostile to Kirby, joins the household of Lige Morris, a trader in Salina, and, at the suggestion of Bill, Kirby joins General Custer's scouting expedition.

A woman with a sordid past is redeemed by love in this silent melodrama from low-budget Sanford Productions.

Young Sandra De Hault arrives by ship in Sacramento, California, during the 1849 Gold Rush. While on board she adopted three children whose mother had died during the voyage. While in Sacramento she is saved from the attentions of a violent drunk by Stanton Holliday, an agent for eastern banker John Grey. They fall for each other, but Sandra believes that the daughter of Halliday's boss is in love with him, and not wanting to hurt his career she leaves town.

An adventuress in love with an Austrian agrees to become the mistress of a Russian officer in exchange for the release of Austrian hostages.

Young stenographer Chickie Bryce dreams of marrying a millionaire. Until then, though, she is content to carry on with Barry, a lawyer from a nearby office. The relationship soon becomes serious, but one day Chickie meets an actual millionaire, Jake, who sweeps her off her feet. Barry tries to win her back, but his efforts are stymied by Ila, a girl who is in love with Barry and doesn't want him to get back with Chickie.

During a raging Montana snowstorm, Doctor Jim Barnes collapses at Esther Anderson's cabin door. Esther offers Jim refuge, but when he discovers that their food supplies are running dangerously low, he braves the journey into town in order to replenish them. On the way, he is overcome with exhaustion and fails to return. Esther, unaware of Jim's condition and abused by her stepfather, joins a theatrical troop and leaves home.

No synopsis available yet.

Ben Lyon and Viola Dana co-star in this heavy society drama

Candace is deeply distraught and on the verge of suicide after being betrayed and discarded by her lover when a man named Craig Boardman intervenes. He stops her by convincing her to live and proposes a plan to exact revenge on all men. Boardman takes Candace to Paris. There, under the guidance of a famous courtesan named Madame Binnat, she changes her name to Laure and transforms into an alluring seductress. Her path crosses with members of the Eastcoat family—including an American millionaire and his sons—setting the stage for her calculated vengeance.

When famous opera singer Elinore Duane undergoes an operation on her throat, she has a series of ether-induced visions. In one, she is transported to ancient Rome where she appears as a much-admired woman in love with Paul, a young heretic, and at odds with Lutor, the high priest. To save her love, she poisons Lutor with her ring. After several other visions which involve variations on this love triangle, Elinore awakens to discover that Lutor is actually her doctor, Sascha Jaccard, and that Paul is the son of a friend who has come to visit the recovering prima donna.

In the prologue Sharon Kimm and Mickey Reid are childhood friends in a tenement neighborhood but are separated when Sharon is placed in an orphanage. In the story we see Sharon as a young Hollywood star whose quick rise to fame leaves her self-centered, superficial, and a spendthrift. Ironically, the film that skyrocketed her to fame was written by Mickey. But her success is brief; and when it comes crashing to earth, Mickey is there to pick up the pieces.

Harry Shelby has been kept in knee pants for years by his overprotective parents, but the day finally comes when Harry is given his first pair of long pants. Almost immediately, he is expected to marry his childhood sweetheart Priscilla... but instead, Harry's first heady whiff of manhood has got him panting after Bebe, a "fast" woman from the big city. Mistakenly thinking that Bebe fancies him too, Harry risks everything to help her out when she lands in jail, only to end up in hot water himself. Through it all, sweet Priscilla waits for her man to come to his senses.

Talkie about a maid who is accused of killing the lady of the house

United States Marine Corps Captain "Happy" Smith and Gunnery Sergeant Wilmer lead a squadron of Marines in a search of a party of American tourists lost in a Central America banana republic jungle.

No synopsis available yet.

A hotel clerk from Iowa believes he's destined to collect first prize in a contest: a movie contract at a Hollywood studio.

A Southern Belle must work in a gambling house to pay off her father's debts, which drove him to suicide. She then meets a man who sweeps her off her feet and takes her away from it all.

Based on a novel by William J. Locke, Stella Maris is a remake of the 1918 Mary Pickford vehicle of the same name.

"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.

The Hottentot is a lost 1929 American pre-Code film directed by Roy Del Ruth and starring Edward Everett Horton and Patsy Ruth Miller. It is based on a 1920 Broadway play, The Hottentot, by William Collier, Sr. and Victor Mapes.

Penrod and his gang don't want to let neighborhood "goodie-goodie" Georgie Bassett into their club, but Penrod's father pressures him to allow the boy in because his parents are wealthy and prominent members of the town. Finally the boys agree to let Georgie join, but first they demand that he undergo an "initiation", and they're determined to make it one that Georgie won't soon forget.

Man from small town comes to New York to be best man at an old friend's wedding. He mistakenly supposes that the girl and her family are after his friend's money, and almost wrecks their romance.

Jane Croft is the subject of cruel gossip in Silver Creek, Arizona, in 1880, and is nicknamed "The Sage Hen." The Home Purity League drives her out of town with her son, John. She sends him back to town on a horse when they are attacked by Indians. There he is adopted by the Rudds; and when they move away, Jane loses contact with her son for 20 years. In the meantime, she becomes housekeeper to George Sanson and a "mother" to his daughter, Stella. A gold rush brings John back as a lieutenant of cavalry. He falls in love with Stella, but Craney, a gambler, threatens to expose Jane's past unless she gives Stella to him. The father is killed, but John saves his mother and Stella from further jeopardy. Jane confesses her past to her son and is able to find happiness after years of sorrow.

Wealthy orphan Carol Gordon marries the executor of her estate, though she does not love him. Soon afterward, trying to help a friend who is being blackmailed, she is misunderstood by her husband to be herself compromised.

Jim Owens (Robert Frazer), a reformed thief and successful inventor, meets quiet, meek and refined Mary Adams (Elaine Hammerstein) at a jazz party. They fall in love and all goes well until she finds out about his sordid past. It's Only after he rescues her from a blazing forest fire that she forgives him and confirms her love.

Dorothy Reid -- who before her marriage to ill-fated screen idol Wallace Reid was better known as Dorothy Davenport -- was both producer and star of Satin Woman. After the death of her husband from drug abuse in 1923, Davenport dedicated herself to helping others avoid the pitfalls of modern life by turning out a series of cautionary film fables. In Satin Woman, she endeavored to warn society women not to neglect their families for the sake of fads, foibles, and handsome younger men.

An American sailor falls in love with a fisherman's daughter and convinces her that Jesus is more powerful than the gods who have cursed her.

When Sadie, a waitress in a Kansas City railroad station, discovers that her lover Jim Lacy is married and has a child, she transfers to the small desert town of Bagdad, determined to hate all men, but the open spaces and friendliness of the people work to soften her attitude. She falls in love with Billy Thompson, the restaurant's manager, after they rescue an Indian girl from her furious lover.

Clifton Boyle, a lead actor in a disbanded theater troupe. Boyle returns home to find his sister dying; she reveals she married Harold Welles, another actor, who abandoned her and their deceased baby. Boyle swears vengeance on Welles. Boyle tracks Welles down and uses the theatrical world to enact his revenge, making a real-life drama out of his sister's tragedy.

Dick Brown kills himself in front of Adele Durant after she rejects him and Dick's friend Robert Bradley threatens to accuse her of murder unless she places her life in his hands. He leaves her at a dance hall in an isolated spot in Mexico, where she falls in with a group of bandits planning to seize an American mine.

Miriam Lee is a young woman in New York who works hard for a living. Her life changes when she meets Joe Valdez, a handsome and ruthless gambler. After the couple is married Valdez opens an elegant gambling house and uses Miriam, who is nicknamed "the queen of the night", as bait to attract rich and gambling customers.

Serama, the consort of Lucifer, is driven from Paradise by the Archangel Michael, who commands Conscience to enter human souls to judge and punish them. In the main story, society girl Ruth Somers, a reincarnation of Serama, prepares to marry Cecil Brooke, the wealthiest man of her set. Her guardian, Dr. Norton, an incarnation of Lucifer, constantly accompanies her. Ruth is summoned to the Court of Conscience, where the witnesses, Lust, Avarice, Hate, Revenge and Vanity, testify about Ruth's history of seducing and abandoning men. This behavior resulted in the suicide of Madge, the lover of Ned Langley, whom Ruth enthralled and promised to marry, and also the deaths of two rivals for her love. Ruth is ordered back to earth to learn her sentence. When Ned interrupts the wedding, Ruth scorns him and he shoots himself. After Brooke leaves her, the Court dooms Ruth to live with the torment of remembrance. Ruth sends Norton away, and then kneels and repents.

Diminutive heroine Ella Hall dreams that she's Cinderella, and that a wealthy gentleman of her acquaintance (played by Leonard) is her Prince Charming. All of this takes place during a musical stage production of Cinderella, a sequence distinguished by its authentic backstage atmosphere.

Sioux leader Chief Gray Otter sends his son Tiah to the white man's school so that he can become a great leader. The son returns home drunk, disappointing his father. Things get worse when the son joins a group of renegades and robs a payroll wagon. The father, observing the clash from a distance, takes a side.

No synopsis available yet.

Gun Connor decides to fight the drug evil, after learning that his brother is a victim. He redoubles his efforts when he learns that the father of the girl he loves is the manufacturer and chief distributor of the drug. In his effort and with revenge as a motive he becomes responsible for Ailene Graham, daughter of the head of the drug gang, succumbing to the influence of the deadly narcotic. He works every angle to torture her father into realizing the dangers he has been dealing out to others, through daily letters in which the girl's growing helplessness is pointed out. Finally, when she becomes a helpless victim of the drug, Connor takes her to her father, who, upon seeing that his dealings in the drug have reached his own fireside, refrains from the further dealings, and months later, joins his daughter in the mountains, where Connor has taken her and his own brother. Completely cured, Connor's love is rewarded. A cure is effected and contentment reigns.

Double Trouble is a 1915 American silent romantic comedy film written and directed by Christy Cabanne and stars Douglas Fairbanks in his third motion picture. The film is based on the novel of the same name by Herbert Quick. A print of the film is held by the Cohen Media Group.

Tokoramo, a Japanese diplomat on a mission to Paris, begins a love affair with Helene, a chorus girl, who subsequently rejects her American fiancé, Richard Bernisky. When the Japanese discover the affair, they try to force Tokoramo to end it, but Helene refuses to stop visiting him. One night, during one of her visits, Bernisky comes to Tokoramo's apartment and, while Helene hides, rebukes her to her lover. After Bernisky leaves, Tokoramo orders Helene out, but when he realizes his love for her, he calls her back. Suddenly, she rejects and insults him to the point that he strangles her. Tokoramo wants to confess his crime, but he must complete his work, and so his countrymen sacrifice a boy, Hironari, who pleads guilty to the murder and eventually is guillotined. In the end, Tokoramo also dies and his colleagues burn his valuable papers in order to protect Japan. -From the TCM.com Database, powered by the AFI.

A stagecoach robber falls in love with a saloon girl. However, she falls for a pastor, who converts her and she marries him. The robber is so impressed by this that he decides to turn over a new leaf. However, a shady gambler sets his sights on the former saloon girl, and the robber has to protect her from his advances.

Daire Vincent elopes with the revivalist Davids. He soon abandons her and their child, moving to New York where he becomes successful. Daire, after many hardships, becomes a dance hall singer to support their child. Eventually Daire moves to New York where she and Davids later cross paths again.

Tenement dweller Molly Moore, trying to forget her crooked past and go straight, runs a cheap restaurant in the underworld district in order to educate her younger sister Marion.

Jim and Flora work together to rob a diamond broker's office, successfully stealing several large, valuable diamonds. Making their getaway in a taxi Flora asks Jim for her agreed-upon share of the stolen diamonds. Jim refuses to give her the diamonds immediately, telling her it wouldn't be safe for her to have them at that time, and promises to divide the loot later. This causes tension and conflict between the two accomplices.

Young Nella Babard is alone in her cabin, left there temporarily by her parents who have gone to the city. A pair of escaped convicts, fleeing from the police, come upon the cabin and duck inside. One of the pair, "Sporting Chance" Johnson, was imprisoned for a crime he didn't commit and he and Nella find themselves attracted to each other.

A potentially lost film, this film tells the story of a man is convicted unjustly of a crime and then subjected to inhumane torment in a prison run by corrupt administrators.

Two couples are at the seaside. A young man proposes to his gal. She accepts, and promptly tells him to re-tie his tie. He objects, so she returns the ring and walks away. An older couple has their own squabble: the middle-aged husband, who thinks himself a dandy, is happy to see his complaining wife roll away in a small, unattended carriage. He immediately approaches the younger woman. To make her ex-fiancé jealous, she takes up with the dandy and off they go to swim. What of the wife and the jilted beau? Can things be set right?

George Baxter presents his new wife, Margery. Paul Sneed, Baxter's neighbor, knew Margery before the marriage. When Baxter returns home unexpectedly one night, he finds Sneed and his wife together. As Sneed runs away, Baxter shoots and kills him. Both Margery and Sneed's father, Judge Randolph Sneed, witness the shooting.

Gypsy princess Rhona's love for artist Roger Barrington leads to jealousy from her rejected suitor, Francisco. It all culminates in betrayal, a duel, and tragic consequences for those involved, showcasing a tale of forbidden love, jealousy, and betrayal within a gypsy community.

Conchita Cordova sings in the cathedral choir in her village of San Miguelito near the Rio Grande. Millionaire oil man John Rannie, whose oil fields have displaced the peasants, desires Conchita, and when he learns that her fiance, Juan Mendoza, has been employed by Adolf Wylie, a German spy, Rannie threatens to expose Juan unless Conchita gives herself to him.

Just prior to World War I, the Kaiser sends Baron von Zeller to inform Emperor Franz Josef of Austria that he is ready to declare war on France. Sensing the impending crisis, the French War Office dispatches secret agent René de Bornay to investigate the situation, and upon his arrival, he cultivates the friendship of Franz Josef's mistress, the Countess Griselda von Arenburg.