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

The Black Pirate poster
6.7

A 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

It's a Gift poster
6.3

After 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

Real Folks poster
NR

Pat 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

Don Q Son of Zorro poster
6.7

Don 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 he plots his vengeance.

Don Q Son of Zorro

1925

Big Happiness poster
8.0

John 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

To the Last Man poster
5.9

In 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

Behind the camera

The Black Pirate poster
6.7

A 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

It's a Gift poster
6.3

After 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

Real Folks poster
NR

Pat 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

Don Q Son of Zorro poster
6.7

Don 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 he plots his vengeance.

Don Q Son of Zorro

1925

Big Happiness poster
8.0

John 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

To the Last Man poster
5.9

In 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

The Rider of Death Valley poster
8.5

Rigby, 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

Beyond the Rocks poster
6.0

A 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

Mississippi poster
6.8

A 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

Silent Men poster
9.0

In prison for a crime he didn't commit, Tim Richards has escaped and is now a cattle inspector. He is after the Wilder brothers who he thinks are rustling cattle.

Silent Men

1933

The Bells poster
NR

A 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

Live Sparks poster
10.0

Wealthy 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

Contraband poster
8.0

After 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

Man of the Forest poster
6.3

Beasley, 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

Professor Beware poster
6.0

Egyptologist, 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

The Old-Fashioned Way poster
7.2

The 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

Captain Salvation poster
6.0

A young divinity student helps and protects a down and out prostitute, at the cost of his own standing in the community.

Captain Salvation

1927

Two-Gun Betty poster
8.0

Ranch 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

A Trip to Paramountown poster
7.8

Documentary 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

A Trip to Paramountown poster
7.8

Documentary 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

The Fourth Horseman poster
9.0

Retiring 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

Easy to Take poster
10.0

To 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

Double Door poster
6.9

In 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

The Covered Wagon poster
6.3

Two 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

Adele poster
NR

Adele 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

No artwork available
9.0

Galen Albret (Noah Beery) is the factor, or manager, of an important trading post of the Hudson Bay Company. He's also a jealous and vindictive man, and because he believes that Graham Stewart (Edward Martindel) has slept with his wife, he sends him into the Northwoods to die. Stewart's son, who grows up with the name Ned Trent (Jack Holt), swears revenge.

The Call of the North

1921

Wagon Wheels poster
5.1

A 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

The Silver Girl poster
10.0

Jefferson 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

The Viking poster
6.8

In this historical adventure based on traditional legend concerning Leif Ericsson and the first Viking settlers to reach North America by sea, Norse half-brothers vie for a throne and for the same woman.

The Viking

1928

The Goddess of Lost Lake poster
NR

Mary 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

Just a Woman poster
9.0

Robert, 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

The Heart Raider poster
7.0

A young troublemaker sets her eyes on a confirmed bachelor.

The Heart Raider

1923

The Last Round-up poster
8.0

Randolph 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

The Deceiver poster
8.0

Broadway matinee idol, Shakespearean actor Reginald Thorpe, is found dead in his dressing room on the eve of his departure for Hollywood. Thorpe's understudy, Tony Hill, is suspected, particularly in light of his skill with knives. Thorpe, however, was a lady's man who seems to have been involved in blackmailing one of his lovers.

The Deceiver

1931

The Adventurer poster
7.0

American mining engineer Jim McClellan is in love with Dolores de Silva, daughter of the deposed president of a Latin American country. He becomes involved in the revolution....

The Adventurer

1928

The Dream Cheater poster
8.0

An adaptation of Balzac's novel set in the roaring twenties, it tells the story of a young man who finds a magic piece of shagreen that fulfills his every desire. For each wish granted, however, the skin shrinks and consumes a portion of his physical energy. La Peau de chagrin belongs to the Études philosophiques group of Balzac's sequence of novels, La Comédie humaine.

The Dream Cheater

1920

The Light That Failed poster
9.0

About 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

Double Adventure poster
10.0

15 part adventure serial directed by W. S. Van Dyke survives in a Russian archive.

Double Adventure

1921

$30,000 poster
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

The Tiger's Claw poster
9.0

Jack 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