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Wheeler Oakman
Wheeler Oakman (born Vivian Eichelberger; February 21, 1890 – March 19, 1949) was an American film actor. Early years Oakman was born as Vivian Eichelberger in Washington, D.C., and educated in that city's schools—specifically Henry School and William McKinley Manual Training School—after having spent the bulk of his childhood in Fairfax, Virginia. Career Before acting in films, Oakman was active in Repertory theatre, stock theater in the eastern United States. Oakman appeared in over 280 films between 1912 and 1948. In silent films, he was often a leading man. Among his leading ladies were Priscilla Dean, Kathlyn Williams, Colleen Moore and Annette Kellerman. One of his features was ''Mickey'', a 1918 comedy-drama, in which he played the love interest of Mabel Normand. In 1928, he portrayed the crime boss in the first all-talking feature movie ever made, Lights of New York (1928 film), ''Lights of New York''. One clip from this feature has often been revived in comp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Spoilers (1914 Film)
''The Spoilers'' is a 1914 American silent Western film directed by Colin Campbell. The film is set in Nome, Alaska during the 1898 Gold Rush, with William Farnum as Roy Glennister, Kathlyn Williams as Cherry Malotte, and Tom Santschi as Alex McNamara. The film culminates in a spectacular saloon fistfight between Glennister and McNamara. In 1916, an expanded version was released, running 110 minutes. The film was adapted to screen by Lanier Bartlett from the Rex Beach novel of the same name. The film was remade in 1923 (with Noah Beery as McNamara), 1930 (with Gary Cooper as Glennister and Betty Compson as Malotte), 1942 (with John Wayne as Glennister, Randolph Scott as McNamara, and Marlene Dietrich as Malotte), and 1955 (with Jeff Chandler as Glennister, Rory Calhoun as McNamara, and Anne Baxter as Malotte). All of the films feature a lengthy, intense fight sequence. Plot summary Cast * William Farnum as Roy Glenister * Kathlyn Williams as Cherry Malotte * Thomas ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mabel Normand
Amabel Ethelreid Normand (November 9, 1893 – February 23, 1930), better known as Mabel Normand, was an American silent film actress, comedienne, director and screenwriter. She was a popular star and collaborator of Mack Sennett in their Keystone Studios films, and at the height of her career in the late 1910s and early 1920s had her own film studio and production company, the Mabel Normand Feature Film Company. On screen, she appeared in twelve successful films with Charlie Chaplin and seventeen with Roscoe Arbuckle, Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, sometimes writing and directing (or co-writing and directing) films featuring Chaplin as her leading man. Normand's name was repeatedly linked with gun violence, including the 1922 murder of her friend, director William Desmond Taylor, and the non-fatal 1924 shooting of Courtland S. Dines by Normand's chauffeur, Joe Kelly. After police interrogation, she was ruled out as a suspect in Taylor's murder. Normand was a very heavy smoker who ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bela Lugosi
Blaskó Béla Ferenc Dezső (; October 20, 1882 – August 16, 1956), better known by the stage name Bela Lugosi ( ; ), was a Hungarian–American actor. He was best remembered for portraying Count Dracula in the horror film classic Dracula (1931 English-language film), ''Dracula'' (1931), Igor (character), Ygor in ''Son of Frankenstein'' (1939) and his roles in many other horror films from 1931 through 1956. Lugosi began acting on the Hungarian stage in 1902, appearing in more than a hundred productions. Beginning in 1917, he performed in Hungarian silent films. After Hungarian Soviet Republic, the failed Hungarian Communist Revolution of 1919, Lugosi was forced to emigrate to Germany due to his socialist activities. He acted in several films in Weimar Germany, before arriving in New Orleans as a seaman on a merchant ship, then making his way north to New York City and Ellis Island. In 1927, he starred as Count Dracula in a Broadway adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula, novel, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Monogram Pictures
Monogram Pictures Corporation was an American film studio that produced mostly low-budget films between 1931 and 1953, when the firm completed a transition to the name Allied Artists Pictures Corporation. Monogram was among the smaller studios in the golden age of Hollywood, generally referred to collectively as Poverty Row. Lacking the financial resources to deliver the lavish sets, production values, and star power of the larger studios, Monogram sought to attract its audiences with the promise of action and adventure. The company's trademark is now owned by Allied Artists International. The original sprawling brick complex which functioned as home to both Monogram and Allied Artists remains at 4376 Sunset Drive, utilized as part of the Church of Scientology Media Center (formerly KCET's television facilities). History Monogram was created in the early 1930s from two earlier companies: W. Ray Johnston's Rayart Productions (renamed Raytone when sound pictures came in) and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Betty Compson
Betty Compson (born Eleanor Luicime Compson; March 19, 1897 – April 18, 1974) was an American actress and film producer who got her start during Hollywood's silent era. She is best known for her performances in ''The Docks of New York'' and ''The Barker'', the latter of which earned her an Academy Awards, Academy Award nomination for Academy Award for Best Actress, Best Actress. Early life Compson was born on March 19, 1897, the daughter of Virgil and Mary ( Rauscher) Compson, in Beaver, Utah, at a mining camp. Her father was a mining engineer, a gold prospector, and a grocery store proprietor, and her mother was a maid in homes and in a hotel. Compson graduated from Salt Lake High School. Her father died when she was young, and she obtained employment as a violinist at 16 at a theater in Salt Lake City. Career Playing in vaudeville sketches with touring circuits, Compson was noticed by Hollywood producers. While touring, she was discovered by comedic producer Al Christie and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Escort Girl (film)
''Escort Girl'' is a 1941 American crime drama film directed by Eddie Kaye and starring Betty Compson, Wheeler Oakman, Robert Kellard, and Margaret Marquis. It was produced and distributed by the independent company Continental Pictures, operated by veteran exploitation film producer J. D. Kendis. It is also known by the alternative title ''Scarlet Virgin''. Plot Ruth Ashley is a former escort girl who, together with hard-boiled Gregory Stone, now owns the Hollywood Escort Bureau in Los Angeles. The escort bureau is managed by Breeze Nolan, who provides customers with both male and female escorts. Ruth also has an interest in the Café Martinique, where the escorts go with their dates to watch cabaret acts and drink champagne. Ruth had sent her daughter June to a private school on the east coast. Now an adult, June is ignorant of her mother's occupation, believing that her mother works in real estate. June is engaged to young Drake Hamilton, and they visit her mother. Ruth is ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Exploitation Film
An exploitation film is a film that seeks commercial success by capitalizing on current trends, niche genres, or sensational content. Exploitation films often feature themes such as suggestive or explicit sex, sensational violence, drug use, nudity, gore, destruction, rebellion, mayhem, and the bizarre. While often associated with low-budget "B movies", some exploitation films have influenced popular culture, attracted critical attention, gained historical significance, and developed cult followings. History While their modern form first appeared in the early 1920s, the peak periods of exploitation films were mainly the 1960s through the early 1980s, with a few earlier and later outliers. Early exploitation of the 1930s and the 1940s were often disguised as "educational" but were really sensationalist. These were shown in traveling roadshows, skirting censorship under the guise of moral instruction. 1950s saw low-budget sci-fi, monster movies, and teen rebellion films. They were ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
G Men
''G Men'' is a 1935 Warner Bros. crime film starring James Cagney, Ann Dvorak, Margaret Lindsay and Lloyd Nolan in his film debut. According to ''Variety,'' the movie was one of the top-grossing films of 1935. The supporting cast features Robert Armstrong and Barton MacLane. ''G Men'' was made as part of a deliberate attempt by the Warners to counteract what many political and business leaders claimed was a disturbing trend of glorifying criminals in the early 1930s gangster film genre. Although the gangster films were typically presented as moral indictments of organized crime where the criminal protagonist inevitably died, they nevertheless depicted a life of freedom, power and luxury enjoyed by gangsters in the midst of a real-life economic crisis. Foremost of these films were '' Little Caesar'', the original '' Scarface'', and perhaps the most memorable, '' The Public Enemy'', in which Cagney portrayed street tough Tom Powers, the role that catapulted him to stardom. What ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Operator 13
'' Operator 13'' is a 1934 American pre-Code romance film directed by Richard Boleslawski and starring Marion Davies, Gary Cooper, and Jean Parker. Based on stories written by Robert W. Chambers, the film is about a Union spy who impersonates a black maid in the early days of the Civil War, but complications arise when she falls in love with a Confederate officer. George J. Folsey received an Academy Award nomination for Best Cinematography. The film features the Four Mills Brothers and Davies performing musical numbers and the supporting cast includes Ted Healy, Douglas Dumbrille as Jeb Stuart, Sidney Toler as Allan Pinkerton, Fuzzy Knight, and an uncredited Sterling Holloway as a wounded Union soldier. Plot In the American Civil War, Union forces are reeling after their defeat in the Second Battle of Bull Run. The Pauline Cushman Players are performing for wounded soldiers at a Union military hospital. Pauline, a spy who works for Allan Pinkerton, recommends her close ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Texas Cyclone (film)
''Texas Cyclone'' is a 1932 American pre-Code Western film directed by D. Ross Lederman for Columbia Pictures. The film stars Tim McCoy as "Texas Grant", Shirley Grey, Wheeler Oakman and John Wayne, and features an early appearance by Walter Brennan as the sheriff. Plot "Texas" Grant rides into a strange town only to find that everyone there recognizes him, but not as Texas Grant. The town villains confuse him with a lawman named Jim Rawlings whom they had murdered a few years prior, because the two men look very similar. Hefty the bartender and Sheriff Collins used to be friends with Rawlings and come up with a plan to fool the local crooks into thinking Grant really is the man they killed. Even Helen, the dead lawman's widow, thinks her husband has returned from the grave when she first sees him. Grant sees how the woman's ranch hands are mismanaging the ranch her husband left her and are even stealing from her, and decides to help her get the place back to financial solven ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Wayne
Marion Robert Morrison (May 26, 1907 – June 11, 1979), known professionally as John Wayne, was an American actor. Nicknamed "Duke", he became a Pop icon, popular icon through his starring roles in films which were produced during Hollywood's Golden Age, especially in Western film, Western and war film, war movies. His career flourished from the silent film era of the 1920s through the American New Wave, as he appeared in a total of 179 film and television productions. He was among the top box-office draws for three decades and appeared with many other important Hollywood stars of his era. In 1999, the American Film Institute selected Wayne as one of the AFI's 100 Years...100 Stars, greatest male stars of classic American cinema. Wayne was born in Winterset, Iowa, but grew up in Southern California. After losing his Athletic scholarship, football scholarship to the University of Southern California due to a bodysurfing accident, he began working for the 20th Century Fox, Fox ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sundown Rider
''Sundown Rider'' is a 1932 American pre-Code Western film directed by Lambert Hillyer and starring Buck Jones. It was produced and distributed by Columbia Pictures. A print is held by the Library of Congress Packard Campus for Audio-Visual Conservation.''Catalog of Holdings The American Film Institute Collection and The United Artists Collection at The Library of Congress'', (<-book title) p.177 c.1978 by the American Film Institute Plot Cast * - Camp O'Neil (as Charles 'Buck' Jones) * Barbara Weeks - Molly McCall * Pat O'Malley - Lafe Armstrong * |
