Writing
Jack Cunningham
Born — Died
1882-04-01 — 1941-10-04
Place of birth
Ionia, Iowa
Known for
Writing
Credits
40 titles
Date of Death 4 October1941, Santa Monica, California (cerebral hemorrhage) One the more prolific and fast working screenwriters in Hollywood. He once completed ten five-reel films in ten-weeks. Between 1918 and 1925 he turned out one hundred full-length films. Had been the editor of The Pittsburgh Leader and The New York Evening Sun. Was working for the publicity department of an Eastern US film company when he decided to try his hand at scenario writing. His father, Maurice Frederick Cunningham (c.1861-1937), was a building contractor who had built many of the Hollywood studios constructed in the early 1920s. Never recovered from a stroke he suffered while working on the film Union Pa…
Known for
NRPat Dugan puts his last penny into oil prospecting and finds the oil. He deserts the old shack for his idea of what a palace should be and sends Jimmie to college. Jimmie promptly thrashes three of the students and polishes off the policeman who interferes. Then he leaves college for a partnership in a nursery business with a young Italian. Pat moves east and settles next door to Lady Blessington, but supposes the placid old lady who fraternizes with his wife to be the house- keeper. Jimmy turns up and falls in love with Joyce, Lady Blessington's god-daughter and marries her in spite of his father's commands, but when Pat sees how it all comes out he takes the full credit to himself.
Real Folks
1918
8.0After inheriting a newspaper in a small country town, Carmel Lee leaves her home in the city to take charge of it. She soon discovers that the town is terrorized by a band of bootleggers, who abduct and later kill the local sheriff. With the aid of Professor Pell, who has been recently fired as school superintendent, Carmel makes a public issue of the sheriff's murder, editorializing in her paper for justice and reform. Pell and Carmel are kidnapped by the bootleggers, but Carmel escapes and alerts the police. The bootleggers are arrested, the sheriff's murder in solved, and Abner Fownes, a politician and one of the town's leading citizens, is uncovered as the leader of the gang.
Contraband
1925
10.0Wealthy wastrel Neil Sparks devotes more attention to the pursuit of pleasure than to his inherited oil business. Neil's neglect allows two schemers, Craig and Abbott, to siphon the Sparks' Texas oil through the construction of an illegal pipeline. Upon receiving notification that his wells are running dry, and in an attempt to rid himself of the unwelcome attentions of his mercenary fiancée, Bess Kinloch, Neil ventures West to investigate, using an assumed name. Discovering the theft, Neil sends for his butler, and the two of them force the crooks to buy a parcel of land and deed the property to Myrtle Pratt, whose father had been swindled and murdered by the scoundrels. Justice served, Neil returns East to be followed by Myrtle and her five brothers, who arrive during his engagement party to Bess. Neil shocks his guests by announcing that the children are his, and he and Myrtle wed.
Live Sparks
1920
NRA murderer is driven slowly insane by a sequence of coincidences and suggestive events which will not allow him to escape his own sense of guilt for his crime.
The Bells
1918
9.0Burke Harlan an artist, saves Anne Warren from auto thieves, but he is wrongfully arrested and accused of stealing her car. The girl's father is a criminologist and has Harlan released into his custody as he would like to try to reform the young man. Harlan finds this highly amusing and goes along with the idea, mainly because it will allow him to be nearer lovely Anne. He does his best at convincing he is a delinquent, however Anne has a beau who is the police commissioner. But the clever Harlan outwits everyone and elopes with Anne before revealing his true identity.
The Joyous Liar
1919
NRAdele Bleneau is a young nurse who assists her father, a renowned surgeon/. While in Washington, DC, she meets and falls in love with a British army officer, Capt. Fraser. While traveling by ship to France with her father, she meets Count von Schulling, a German diplomat who is an acquaintance of her father. Von Schulling falls for the pretty young Adele. While in France, Adele organizes a rescue party to save Capt. Fraser, who has been on a secret mission behind enemy lines and has been wounded. In a twist of fate, Adele finds the wounded Fraser and takes him to a hospital, but Count von Schuling, who has also been wounded, is placed in the same room as Fraser. When the hospital is overrun by German forces, Adele is placed in a delicate position by von Sculling: either spy for the Germans or Fraser will be shot.
Adele
1919
Behind the camera
NRPat Dugan puts his last penny into oil prospecting and finds the oil. He deserts the old shack for his idea of what a palace should be and sends Jimmie to college. Jimmie promptly thrashes three of the students and polishes off the policeman who interferes. Then he leaves college for a partnership in a nursery business with a young Italian. Pat moves east and settles next door to Lady Blessington, but supposes the placid old lady who fraternizes with his wife to be the house- keeper. Jimmy turns up and falls in love with Joyce, Lady Blessington's god-daughter and marries her in spite of his father's commands, but when Pat sees how it all comes out he takes the full credit to himself.
Real Folks
1918
8.0After inheriting a newspaper in a small country town, Carmel Lee leaves her home in the city to take charge of it. She soon discovers that the town is terrorized by a band of bootleggers, who abduct and later kill the local sheriff. With the aid of Professor Pell, who has been recently fired as school superintendent, Carmel makes a public issue of the sheriff's murder, editorializing in her paper for justice and reform. Pell and Carmel are kidnapped by the bootleggers, but Carmel escapes and alerts the police. The bootleggers are arrested, the sheriff's murder in solved, and Abner Fownes, a politician and one of the town's leading citizens, is uncovered as the leader of the gang.
Contraband
1925
10.0Wealthy wastrel Neil Sparks devotes more attention to the pursuit of pleasure than to his inherited oil business. Neil's neglect allows two schemers, Craig and Abbott, to siphon the Sparks' Texas oil through the construction of an illegal pipeline. Upon receiving notification that his wells are running dry, and in an attempt to rid himself of the unwelcome attentions of his mercenary fiancée, Bess Kinloch, Neil ventures West to investigate, using an assumed name. Discovering the theft, Neil sends for his butler, and the two of them force the crooks to buy a parcel of land and deed the property to Myrtle Pratt, whose father had been swindled and murdered by the scoundrels. Justice served, Neil returns East to be followed by Myrtle and her five brothers, who arrive during his engagement party to Bess. Neil shocks his guests by announcing that the children are his, and he and Myrtle wed.
Live Sparks
1920
NRA murderer is driven slowly insane by a sequence of coincidences and suggestive events which will not allow him to escape his own sense of guilt for his crime.
The Bells
1918
9.0Burke Harlan an artist, saves Anne Warren from auto thieves, but he is wrongfully arrested and accused of stealing her car. The girl's father is a criminologist and has Harlan released into his custody as he would like to try to reform the young man. Harlan finds this highly amusing and goes along with the idea, mainly because it will allow him to be nearer lovely Anne. He does his best at convincing he is a delinquent, however Anne has a beau who is the police commissioner. But the clever Harlan outwits everyone and elopes with Anne before revealing his true identity.
The Joyous Liar
1919
NRAdele Bleneau is a young nurse who assists her father, a renowned surgeon/. While in Washington, DC, she meets and falls in love with a British army officer, Capt. Fraser. While traveling by ship to France with her father, she meets Count von Schulling, a German diplomat who is an acquaintance of her father. Von Schulling falls for the pretty young Adele. While in France, Adele organizes a rescue party to save Capt. Fraser, who has been on a secret mission behind enemy lines and has been wounded. In a twist of fate, Adele finds the wounded Fraser and takes him to a hospital, but Count von Schuling, who has also been wounded, is placed in the same room as Fraser. When the hospital is overrun by German forces, Adele is placed in a delicate position by von Sculling: either spy for the Germans or Fraser will be shot.
Adele
1919
6.7A nobleman vows to avenge the death of his father by the hands of pirates. To this end, he infiltrates the pirate band; Acting in character, he single-handedly captures a merchant vessel, but things are complicated when he finds that there is a beautiful young woman of royal blood aboard.
The Black Pirate
1926
9.0Robert, a young steelworker, lives with his family and George, a good friend who has invented a new method of refining steel and promises Robert that they will split the proceeds if they sell the process to their employer. Robert goes to the company's board of directors and receives what he considers to be a good offer, but his wife June doesn't think it's enough. She talks to the board and persuades them to make George the company president. Now that he's rich, Robert becomes convinced that his wife is having an affair with George, and he embarks on his own affair with a sophisticated, attractive--and ambitious--woman.
Just a Woman
1925
7.0$30,000 is a 1920 American silent mystery film directed by Ernest C. Warde and starring J. Warren Kerrigan, Fritzi Brunette and Carl Stockdale.
$30,000
1920
8.0John living a Bohemian life in Paris when his twin brother James, a British financier, appears and implores John to assume his identity so that he can secretly cross the Atlantic for a business deal. John consents and soon discovers that James is a cruel, unethical man who has forced his wife June into their marriage. John attempts to rectify the situation, and June falls in love with him.
Big Happiness
1920
10.0Jefferson Hunter (Frank Keenan) is a Western mining man. Anne Kepple (Catherine Adams) has inherited the mine next to his, but a loan shark steals it from her. Hunter helps her get it back, and out of gratitude Anne marries him, even though she is half his age.
The Silver Girl
1919
NRMary Thorne is the quarter-breed daughter of prospector Marshall Thorne. She has just returned from college and when a pair of hunters, Mark Hamilton and Chester Martin, come along, she decides it would be fun to dress in native garb and fool them. Both men find themselves attracted to her, even though Indians were taboo for whites in the racist days of the 1910s.
The Goddess of Lost Lake
1918
5.6The film begins in the southern California home of Alexander MacAllister (Lawson Butt) where he is confronting Andrew Hyde (Miles McCarthy) who is accused of crooked dealings. Alexander threatens to expose Hyde, and Hyde defies him to do his worst. A banker friend tells MacAllister, "Why don't you get married?" They are interrupted by an unexpected caller on that rainy evening, a young lady, Jean Ogilvie, the daughter of a Scotsman family friend from Mexico. He puts her up and later remarks that she has dark skin for a Scottish lass. "Mexican sun," she explains. "I expected to find an old man," Jean remarks to herself.
The Tiger's Coat
1920
6.4After he inherits some money, Harold Bissonette ("pronounced bis-on-ay") decides to give up the grocery business, move to California and run an orange grove. Despite his family's objections and the news that the land he bought is worthless, Bissonette packs up and drives out to California with his nagging wife Amelia and children.
It's a Gift
1934
NRShopgirl Rhoda Regan is in love with the Harmony Lad, the leader of a New York street gang called the Hudson Dusters. After two gang murders are committed in the Pepper Box, a local cabaret, the Harmony Lad promises his worried sweetheart that he will abandon the gang for a singing career, and true to his word, he soon accepts a job on the Pepper Box stage. When Stumpy Darcy, the new leader of the Dusters, kills rival gang leader Wedge Barker, who had flirted with Stumpy's girlfriend, Mamie Conlon, the Harmony Lad flees to New Jersey to escape police interrogation.
The Shoes That Danced
1918
5.8Egyptologist, Dean Lambert, accused of car-theft, skips bail and begins a cross-country trek to join a group in New York headed for Egypt. With the police close on his trail he gets in and out of scrapes along the way.
Professor Beware
1938
8.0Randolph Scott plays Jim Cleve, one of several volunteers keeping the US-Mexican border safe on behalf of American settlers. Ostensibly the hero, Cleve is actually out-heroed by the film's nominal villain, outlaw leader Jack Kells (Monte Blue). It is Kells who brings about the story's happy ending, sacrificing his own life to ensure the blissful future of young lovers Cleve and Joan Randall (Barbara Fritchie).
The Last Round-up
1934
10.0Helen Rowland is indifferent towards her wealthy husband Henry and spends most of her time at social events. Henry agrees to give financial assistance to young clergyman John Sterling if Helen can become interested in Sterling's work in the slums.
Playthings of Passion
1919
6.3Beasley, who is after Gayner's land, plans to kidnap his daughter. But Dale overhears their plan and kidnaps her himself. When Gayner arrives to retrieve his daughter, Beasley kills him and makes the Sheriff arrest Dale for the murder.
Man of the Forest
1933
6.7Don Cesar De Vega crosses swords with a vicious member of the Queen's Guard, and steals the affection of a young heiress. When the officer frames the young upstart for murder, Don Cesar fakes his own death and retreats to the crumbling ruins of the family castle, where he plots his vengeance.
Don Q Son of Zorro
1925
8.0Ranch owner Jack Kennedy is in need of some cowhands. Young Betty Craig, a friend of Jack's sister Florence, bets her that she can disguise herself as a man and get a job at the ranch, fooling all the cowboys As "Bob Craig", she gets hired, but although Jack and the cowboys aren't fooled by her "disguise", they decide to have some fun with "Bob" and put her through a series of practical jokes to test "Bob's" mettle. However, things don't turn out quite the way the boys expected--and Betty has an even bigger surprise in store for them.
Two-Gun Betty
1918
6.0A young divinity student helps and protects a down and out prostitute, at the cost of his own standing in the community.
Captain Salvation
1927
6.3Two wagon caravans converge at what is now Kansas City, and combine for the westward push to Oregon. On their quest the pilgrims will experience desert heat, mountain snow, hunger, and Indian attack. To complicate matters further, a love triangle develops, as pretty Molly must chose between Sam, a brute, and Will, the dashing captain of the other caravan. Can Will overcome the skeleton in his closet and win Molly's heart?
The Covered Wagon
1923
10.0To boost the ratings of a kiddie show, the host agrees to take guardianship of of a bratty boy who has a lovely older sister.
Easy to Take
1936
5.9In Kentucky just after the Civil War, the Hayden-Colby feud leads to Jed Colby being sent to prison for 15 years for murder. The Haydens head for Nevada and when Colby gets out of prison he heads there also seeking revenge. The head of the Hayden family tries to avoid more killing but the inevitable showdown has to occur, complicated by Lynn Hayden and Ellen Colby's plans to marry.
To the Last Man
1933
7.2The Great McGonigle and his troupe of third-rate vaudevillians manage to stay one step ahead of the bill collectors and the sheriff.
The Old-Fashioned Way
1934
6.9A young pacifist, after refusing on principle to defend her sweetheart's honor and being banished in disgrace, joins a riverboat troupe as a singer, acquires a reputation as a crackshot after a saloon brawl in which the villain of the piece accidentally kills himself with his own gun, falls in love with his former fianceé's sister and finally bullies an apprehensive family into accepting him.
Mississippi
1935
8.5Rigby, Larribee, and Grant each have one third of Bill Joyce's map locating his gold mine. The three plus Joyce's sister Helen head for the mine. An accident with a runaway horse carrying supplies leaves them stranded in the desert with very little water.
The Rider of Death Valley
1932
8.0John Marble, a construction engineer is stricken by paralysis and begins to envision the growth of love between his wife Marion and his best friend, Bob Alten. Bent on suicide, however, the shock of seeing his wife and child endangered on a broken bridge shakes him to recover from his illness and discover that his suspicions were all imaginary.
The Man Who Fights Alone
1924
7.8Documentary short film depicting the filmmaking activity at the Paramount Studios in Hollywood, featuring dozens of stars captured candidly and at work.
A Trip to Paramountown
1922
7.8Documentary short film depicting the filmmaking activity at the Paramount Studios in Hollywood, featuring dozens of stars captured candidly and at work.
A Trip to Paramountown
1922
9.0About Dick Heldar, an aspiring artist. Although he is devoted to his childhood sweetheart, Maisie Wells, his ambition drives him to faraway places. He meets Torpenhow, a war correspondent, at Port Said, and accompanies him into battle.
The Light That Failed
1923
9.0The daughter of a wealthy French vintner, Justine is promised in marriage to German aristocrat Kurt Von Klassner, even though her heart belongs to Bertrand Duroc, the humble overseer of her father's estate. His pride wounded, Von Klassner murders Duroc and shifts the blame to marauding poachers.
A Law Unto Herself
1918
6.0A young woman dutifully marries an older millionaire and then falls in love with a handsome nobleman-- who'd previously saved her life-- on her unhappy honeymoon.
Beyond the Rocks
1922
6.9In 1910 Manhattan, Victoria Van Brett, a bitter spinster heiress lives an isolated life with her sister Caroline. Her domineering urges go into overdrive when their half-brother Rip brings a new bride home to the family’s gloomy Fifth Avenue mansion, built by their late industrialist father. The title refers to a secret soundproofed chamber that the villainess uses to entrap her enemies.
Double Door
1934
9.0Retiring from a life of train robbing, Benjamin R. Jones takes over the ghost town of Stillwell, knowing full well that the property belongs to Molly O'Rourke. Enter horse wrangler Tom Mason, who smells a rat and does his best to unmask Jones as the crook he knows him to be. Molly at first falls for Jones' scheme, but confronts him when a general feeling of lawlessness sets in. The villain, alas, has an ace up his sleeve: Molly owes back taxes on her property, which is ripe for a takeover.
The Fourth Horseman
1932
9.0Jack Holt plays Sam Sandell, an American engineer working in India who rescues a pretty half-caste girl (Aileen Pringle) from a tiger's attack, but is badly wounded himself. The girl, Chameli Brentwood, nurses him back to health and out of gratitude he marries her, ignoring the fact that he has a fiancée, Harriet Halehurst (Eva Novak), back home.
The Tiger's Claw
1923
7.0Small town politician and banker Brent Warren is responsible for a murder, but only George Roan is sent to the gallows for it. Roan, however, is resuscitated after he is hung and proceeds to secretly haunt Warren's life. District attorney Cullen Grant is sure that Warren was behind the killing and has him arrested. Warren's fiancee, Dare Keeling, also happens to the Grant's ex-sweetheart, and she believes in his innocence. Her brother, Larry, however, isn't so sure and he goes to work as Warren's secretary.
The Devil to Pay
1920
5.1A wagon train heads west from Independence, Mo., along the Oregon Trail, led by proud cowboy Clint Belmet. On board are feisty young widow Nancy Wellington and her toddler, Sonny, as well as the older Abby Masters, who begins a romance with scout Jim Burch. Along the way, the wagon train battles Indians led by Kenneth Murdock, a trapper who doesn't welcome competition for Oregon's lucrative fur trade. Wagon Wheels is a 1934 remake of 1931's Fighting Caravans, using stock footage from the original.
Wagon Wheels
1934
7.5A ranch manager falls in love with a banker's daughter, but after a quarrel with the girl's parents, flee across the border into Mexico.
Flaming Guns
1932
