Robert Edeson

The King of Kings is the Greatest Story Ever Told as only Cecil B. DeMille could tell it. In 1927, working with one of the biggest budgets in Hollywood history, DeMille spun the life and Passion of Christ into a silent-era blockbuster. Featuring text drawn directly from the Bible, a cast of thousands, and the great showman’s singular cinematic bag of tricks, The King of Kings is at once spectacular and deeply reverent—part Gospel, part Technicolor epic.

At the conclusion of World War I, a French girl is romanced by an American doughboy even though she is promised to a French soldier who was sent to the front.

The first part tells the story of Moses leading the Jews from Egypt to the Promised Land, his receipt of the tablets and the worship of the golden calf. The second part shows the efficacy of the commandments in modern life through a story set in San Francisco. Two brothers, rivals for the love of Mary, also come into conflict when John discovers Dan used shoddy materials to construct a cathedral.

A con artist masquerades as Russian nobility and attempts to seduce the wife of an American diplomat.

A go-getting bank messenger falls in with unsuccessful gambler.

Film was released on August 8th, 1927

Mrs. Adams (Hedda Hopper) succumbs to the spirit of jazz, moves into her own apartment, and even has an affair with Mr. Bell (Charles Richman), the father of her son's sweetheart. Miss Bell (Elinor Fair) discovers their meetings, and only then does Mrs. Adams realize the unhappiness she has caused. Shortly thereafter, she effects a general reconciliation.

To avoid hostilities, Maryan, the ward of Doc May, a medicine show owner, induces Pop Garner, a circus owner, to join forces with her guardian. Doc May and Daphne, his wife, work as clowns; and Garry, a singing soldier of fortune, sings along with Maryan's act. Ruth, Maryan's partner, quits to get married; and Joe, who is jealous of Garry, replaces her with Trixie, his former assistant. When Garry announces his engagement to Maryan, Trixie persuades him to join a strip poker game in a drunken state and "compromises" him in the presence of his fiancée. Grief-stricken, Maryan falls during her act, and Garry, robbed of circus funds, is arrested. In spite of her injuries, Maryan, learning of Trixie's treachery, performs the act with her and forces a confession by threatening to drop her; Garry is released and is welcomed back to the show.

Fox's immediate follow-up to its successful early-talkie western In Old Arizona was 1929's Romance of the Rio Grande. The story focuses on the Alvarez family of Mexico, specifically fabulously wealthy Don Fernando. Intending to bequeath his vast fortune and estate to his long-estranged grandson Pancho, Don Fernando must contend with his ne'er-do-well nephew Juan.

Mae Murray plays a willful American lass whose wealthy dad (Robert Edeson) sends her to Paris so that she may pick up some "refinement." Instead, she picks up a fortune-hunting nobleman, played as a frivolous fop by a monocled Andre Beranger. True-blue hero Conway Tearle prevents Murray from making a bigger fool of herself than she already is.

Stereotypical Jewish man Isadore Solomon (Dore Davidson) arrives with his daughter Essie (Virginia Brown Faire) in a small, predominantly-Christian New England town. The discriminating viewpoints of the populace, including the Mayor, drive them to try to get rid of the newcomers. Solomon is persuaded by Clem (William V. Mong) to invest in an electric-light plant. The town is brought prosperity and the Solomons' former adversaries honor him.

Graehme, Ned Stewart's father, was accused of adultery and killed being innocent. Ned decided to avenge his father, but got captured and sent to the long journey to death "la longue traverse".

While Jim Barlow is hiding from the cops, his wife Ann goes to a mission The minister, Reverend John Matthews, gives her the address of a good Samaritan, Dr. LeRoy Clifford . When her child is hit by an automobile, she takes him to Clifford, who proceeds to operate right at his house. Meanwhile, one of Barlow's former associates, known as the Weasel tracks him down and convinces him to come on a job. The home they break into is Clifford's, while he is in the middle of working on Barlow's little boy. Barlow helps the doctor by holding a spotlight so he can complete the operation. The Library of Congress holds a 35 mm shortened version.

A young woman hits Hollywood, determined to become a star.

Chief Standing Rock's tribe has a treaty protecting their fishing grounds, but a canning corporation is violating the treaty through intimidation and force. The tribe is divided as to how to handle the threat. Standing Rock's son, Braveheart, is sent to college to study law so that he can protect their rights, but others in the tribe, led by the hot-tempered Ki-Yote, want to provoke a more violent confrontation.

The marriage of Jim and Esther spirals downhill rapidly when Esther purchases a sable coat for herself. Hoping to live up to her expensive accessory, Esther soon is keeping company with caddish Morrell. Jim brings his wife's galavanting to an abrupt end by committing suicide. Esther as an object lesson for young Alice Kendall, returns the fur coat that she's bought on impulse.

Peter Olsen, a young social outcast who lives alone on a rundown farm and raises vegetables for a living, finds his only consolation in liquor, though Dorcas Chatham, daughter of the general store owner, begs him to forego this indulgence. Returning from town, he finds a dog by the roadside, apparently injured by a car, and takes it home. Later, on a drunken spree, Peter is attacked by robbers, but the dog comes to his rescue and frightens the assailants away. Stirred by the unselfish devotion of his dog, Peter gradually regains his self-respect, and Dorcas falls in love with him and accepts his proposal, though she fears the dog. When Peter enters the dog in a show, another exhibitor proves to be its owner, and Peter is first parted from, then reunited with, "his" dog. Dorcas overcomes her fear and is united with Peter.

Cardelanche, the son of an Indian chief, returns from the East to find himself rejected by his own people. He is made captain of the U.S. army when he saves a detachment of cavalry from a group of renegade Indians, and further removes himself from his race when he develops a relationship with Miriam, the daughter of the Fort Remmington commandant. Lieutenant Parkman (Walker) gets into a fight with Cardelanche when Parkman is demoted, while General Custer's troops are slaughtered by Cardelanche's people. Cardelanche decides that his true allegiance is to his own race, and gives up Miriam to return to them.

The naive newspaper cub Clem lands a scoop when he's sent out to cover a murder. In his enthusiasm he writes that the main suspect is Jane. When she confronts Clem, she convinces him to help her prove her innocence.

Soldier of fortune Maxton is stranded in a Central American country. He and Tom, the nephew of the country's richest man, try to end Morloff's banditry but just barely escape a firing squad. They become rivals for Rosita.

Tim Kelly is an orphan who runs away after his orphanage burns down. Presumed to be killed in the fire, he is able to roam the streets of New York City freely. He meets Max Ginsberg, an old Jewish junk dealer with rheumatism, and the two strike a partnership and a close friendship.

During World War I, an American soldier is captured and taken prisoner by the Germans. However, instead of being placed in a prisoner-of-war camp, he is assigned to the small farm of a young woman and her son to help raise crops to help feed the German army and people.

A pair of elderly Civil War veterans, Judge Holt and his friend Joel Ketchum, spent most of their time reminiscing about their wartime experiences. In the meantime, Holt's granddaughter falls in love with a devil-may-care aviator. The only problem is that Holt hates aviators and will do whatever he can to break up the romance.

Laura Sergeant (Leatrice Joy), together with her husband, Humphrey Sergeant (Sidney Blackmer) operates a scam scheme to extort money from millionaires through blackmail and victimization until she mistakenly victimizes Tony Williams (Walter Pidgeon), the man she really loves.

Film which tells the story of immigrants coming to the United States.

Based on a true story, two-timing boozing wife Roxie Hart kills her lover in cold blood after he leaves her, and finagles her way out being indicted.

Ted is riding for Pa Martin against Cooper in the big race. When Cooper has his men capture Ted, Peggy overhears them and sets out to free Ted in time for the race.

A kingdom's ascending heir, marked for assassination, switches identities with a lookalike, who takes his place at the coronation. When the real king is kidnapped, his followers try to find him, while the stand-in falls in love with the king's intended bride, the beautiful Princess Flavia.

Feuding ranchers and sheepherders.

Wealthy Cynthia is in love with not-so-wealthy Roger, who is married to Marcia. The threesome is terribly modern about the situation, and Marcia will gladly divorce Roger if Cynthia agrees to a financial settlement. But Cynthia's wealth is in jeopardy because her trust fund will expire if she is not married by a certain date. To satisfy that condition, Cynthia arranges to marry Hagon Derk, who is condemned to die for a crime he didn't commit. She pays him so he can provide for his little sister. But at the last minute, Derk is freed when the true criminal is discovered. Expecting to be a rich widow, Cynthia finds herself married to a man she doesn't know and doesn't want to.

Prima donna Rita Coventry charms Richard Parrish from his fiancée, Alice Meldrum. Tiring of Parrish, Miss Coventry casts him aside and begins a flirtation with Patrick Delaney, a piano tuner of some musical talent. Parrish attempts to return to Alice, who, on the advice of a girl friend, rebuffs him; later she agrees to become his wife. A lost film.

Femme fatale Flora marries a titled European to save the family planation. Her husband and a rival fall to their deaths in a glacier. Next Flora weds her sister Margaret's love Admah. She bleeds him dry, until he goes to prison.

When a hardened businesswoman who goes by the initials A.B. overhears someone calling her an “Amazon” because of her butch ways, she agrees to a more “feminine” makeover. In the end she learns that no matter how she looks she’s still the smartest person in any room. 

Head railroad man Dan is as ugly as he is honorable. When he spots a drifter who'd hopped a freight held up by a landslide, Dan offers the man a job; then he finds the man was a railroader, too, and takes him under his wing. Engaged to Mary, Dan doesn't notice the growing attraction between his protégé and his intended but focuses instead on running the railroad.

A nobleman returns home to Southern California after the Mexican American War to find his people mistreated by unscrupulous Americans.

Young Englishwoman Lillian Garson is unhappy with her marriage and decides to elope with another man. However he is killed in a car accident and she returns home to her husband and tries to carry on as if nothing had happened. Only the doctor who shows up at their house for dinner that night, and who dealt with the crash, knows the truth. A lost film.

A young man is bet $100,000 that his famous luck can hold out and he can make that sum in one year's time, literally starting with nothing. He proceeds to Pennsylvania, where prize fight winnings are used to build a new town.

A Spanish soldier seduces and falls in love with the young wife of a smuggler.

Gilda is a crook who wants to go straight, but her pals keep holding her back. She moves to Hollywood to begin anew but the old gang follows behind. Can she stop them from ruining her new life?

William C. DeMille, Cecil B. DeMille's talented director brother, teamed with his favorite collaborator, scenarist Clara Beranger, for the 7-reel silent The Bedroom Window. Essentially a by-the-book mystery tale, the film is lifted from the ordinary by the expertise of DeMille and the charm of leading lady May McAvoy. She plays the daughter of a murder victim, while Ricardo Cortez co-stars as the Accused. Cortez is saved from the chair by his aunt Ethel Wales, a mystery writer. The real culprit is...well, keep your eye on the least likely, most cooperative member of the cast.

Willie, as an assistant window-dresser, is the lowest man on the totem pole at a department store. To add insult-to-injury Willie is also the store's designated 'Fired Man."; when a disgruntled customer demands that somebody-must-be-fired, Willie is summoned and summarily fired, only to be rehired when the now-satisfied customer has departed. Willie inadvertently adopts a four-year-old orphan at a cost of ten-dollars a week, and things go from bad to worse since Willie doesn't make ten-dollars a week. But, with the help of Mary, a beautiful young nurse, Willie manages to turn some corners and improve his lot in life, albeit with some skids along the way.

During the Russian Revolution Princess Vera, though betrothed to Prince Dimitri, is attracted to the peasant Feodor.

The Boy, involved in a maritime disaster as a child, suffers from hydrophobia. He invents a life preserver that automatically inflates when it hits the water, using it to save the life of Rose Ryan, the daughter of a steamship magnate.

Col. Landers adopts two children, "How," an Indian boy, and Bess, whose parents were killed in an Indian uprising. When the children are grown, How proposes to Bess, whom he has loved since his childhood. She accepts his proposal, thus angering Clayton Craig, Lander's nephew who also wants to marry her. After Lander's death, How is exiled from the ranch, so he and Bess buy new land. One day, after he has been away, How returns to his cabin to see Bess and Craig embracing. How grants Bess her freedom after which she marries Craig and moves to New York. Some time later, How discovers oil on the land that he gave Bess, so he follows them to New York. There he finds that Craig has been unfaithful to Bess. In the end, Bess rejects Craig so that she and How can remarry and find "a trail to happiness together." -From TCM.com Database, powered by the AFI.

Cameo Kirby, an honest riverboat gambler who works the Mississippi, rescues a girl from a gang of ruffians in New Orleans, but she disappears after he sings her a love song.

Wall Street clerk George Coburn leaves the employ of broker Ralph Coombes to become an independent speculator. Although she disapproves, George's wife, Lisa, insists on being his "silent partner" with a fifty percent share of the profits. Lisa avoids spending lavishly and saves her share of the money. Later, Ralph, who is in love with Lisa, conspires with brokers Jim Harker and Charles Nesbit to involve George in a stock deal that will likely ruin his business and his marriage. George loses his fortune and leaves his wife. Ralph conspires with his friend, Gertie Page, to lure Lisa on a voyage to Europe. Soon after boarding the ship, Lisa learns of the plot and disembarks. She reunites with George and assures him that they are not destitute. (Source: AFI)

Judy Nichols (Leatrice Joy), a poor girl from Chicago, has decided she cannot marry without money. Her sweetheart, Ronald McKane, a struggling civil engineer (Edmund Burns), is encouraging her to join him in New York, but she only goes when she is bequeathed an inheritance. Unfortunately, the amount adds up to less than ten dollars a week. When she meets banker Sanford Gillespie (Robert Edeson), she convinces him to help McKane out financially. Once McKane has become a success, Judy marries him, but then he becomes interested in another woman. Judy seeks revenge and asks Gillespie to ruin her estranged husband, offering him anything he wants in return.

Oliver and Elizabeth wed. He is a famous lawyer, careless of his personal conduct, but has implicit faith in Elizabeth. She is a woman of strong mind, a magazine writer of repute, and believes he should guide himself by the same code that governs her. Two of their associates are profligates, Charles, an artist, and Catherine. Oliver trifles with Catherine and this so embitters Elizabeth, that she pretends to receive the attentions of Charles, although it is made clear that she has remained pure. Nevertheless, she purposely permits her husband to believe otherwise. He has considered her like Caesar's wife, but his faith is shattered. A child is born to her and the father doubts its parentage.

Right after a husband and wife (Robert Edeson and Eulalie Jensen) arrive home from their honeymoon, the husband goes to fetch his sister from boarding school. While he is away, the wife's friend and neighbor, McGregor (Harry Morey), invites her to a party, and she accepts. On the way back home, they're involved in an accident, and McGregor takes the wife, who's unconscious, to recover at a nearby roadhouse. Unfortunately, McGregor's coke fiend brother (William R. Dunn) is there partying, and he threatens to put a seamy spin on the innocent situation and tell all.

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.

After his father refuses to lend him his car, jazz age youngster Smoke Thatcher 'borrows' a neighbor's car to take Patsy, his sweetheart, to a dance. A car-fight with a rival results in the wreck of the borrowed automobile. The garage to which the car is taken for repair turns out to be a gang's hideaway and a place where stolen cars are brought and fenced.

Jeffrey (Matt More), a jewelry store clerk prevents a robbery and, as a reward, given a vacation in Honolulu, provided that he transports a valuable emerald to the Hawaiian Islands. On the boat he meets a blonde named Mary (Dorothy Revier) whom he mistakes for a jewel thief called Blonde Mary (Hazel Howell).

A variety of broad-painted and unlikely characters are trapped in an underground café when a Mississippi River levee breaks and causes flood havoc above and below.

Paul Kurt, embittered and disillusioned by war, returns to Budapest and devotes his life to roistering and gambling. He falls in love with Anna Galambos but leaves her when he realizes his unworthiness. She returns to her father, a gamekeeper at the castle of Count Franz, a despotic bachelor whose brothers Lazlos and Michael covet his estate. Disheartened by her shattered romance, Anna accepts the proposal of Franz. The brothers conspire to hire Paul to compromise the girl, but Paul, discovering she is none other than the woman he loves, decides to win her for himself. Paul finally exposes the plot to Franz, and Anna, convinced of his sincerity, is reunited with him after Franz releases her.

Kerry Harlan (La Rocque) is unable to work because he was injured in a battle with a shark, so his youthful wife Amy (Reynolds) becomes a fashion model. While she is away from home, Bertha, the wife of his surgeon, is trying to force her attentions on Kerry and is accidentally killed in an attempt to evade her husband. After the scandal Amy is courted by Tony Channing, but she returns to her husband and finds him near death from gas fumes. Because they both attempted to make suicide, their spirits are rejected by "the other side," and learning the truth from Bertha's spirit they fight their way back to life. This film is presumed lost.

Based on the novel The Spoilers by Rex Beach.

Will Prescott (Richard Dix) is a bank cashier whose assistant, Ned Seabury (Neil Hamilton), has made a killing in the stock market. With his newfound riches, Seabury proceeds to woo Prescott's wife, Agnes (Claire Adams), by buying her luxurious items that her husband can not afford. Seabury makes no secret of his aim, and Prescott desperately steals some of the bank's bonds, hoping to make enough money to keep Agnes by his side.

A beautiful secretary has her pick of the men in the office, but instead of marrying the boss, she takes one of his junior staff. Later, when she is suspected of committing a murder, her husband confesses to it--although he didn't do it--in order to protect her. Complications ensue.

Surgeon Crisp announces to his student doctors and friends that he has solved the problem of limb-grafting, and shows proofs. Among those deeply interested is Mortmain, a musician and a friend of the surgeon.

Railroad foreman Murray Sinclair is dismissed by George McCloud, division superintendent, for ransacking wrecks. Sinclair along with his henchmen, retire to his ranch and forays against the railroad. "Whispering Smith," engaged by the railroad to restore order, is hesitant in dealing with Sinclair when he falls in love with Marion, Sinclair's wife, who is separated from her husband and operates a small shop in Medicine Bend. Dicksie, McCloud's sweetheart, overhears Sinclair threaten McCloud, and she rides through a storm to warn him; Smith, with the aid of Bill Dancing, tracks down Sinclair and his men, and Bill kills the villain. Dicksie and McCloud marry and take Marion under their protection.

Marriage by Contract is a 1928 American sound part-talkie drama film directed by James Flood.

Renée (Mae Murray) is the heiress of a Mexican ranch, granddaughter of a woman known for her recklessness and frivolity at night. This first "Mademoiselle Midnight" is banished in the opening scene by Napoleon III at Empress Eugenie's insistence to Mexico. Renee is kept locked at the hacienda at night by her father to prevent her following in her grandmother's wayward footsteps. She falls in love with a visiting American (Monte Blue) but is also pursued by the craven outlaw Manuel Corrales. Miss Murray gets to do some of her trademark dancing, but this one isn't a comedy, despite comic relief provided by Johnny Arthur.

A young woman finds herself trapped by a bandit gang. Rather than be raped by the gang, she commits suicide. When her brother finds out what happened, he turns to a life of banditry, hoping to find the gang responsible for his sister's death.

Fred Martin is a Southern spy. A northern dispatch bearer is captured, the signature to his messages is forged, and Martin is sent on the dangerous mission of luring the Northern troops into an ambush. He accomplishes this and a terrible battle results, in which the Federals are driven back. The work of Martin is so damaging to the North that plans are laid for his capture, and John Bruce, a secret service man, is assigned to the task.

In the South Seas, a half-caste island girl refuses to follow tradition and marry a fellow islander, instead falling in love with a white man and heir to an American fortune.

After forming his own studio in 1925, Cecil B. DeMille produced this exuberant blend of orientalist melodrama and gender-bending comedy featuring his THE TEN COMMANDMENTS leading lady Leatrice Joy. An over-protective sea captain forces his daughter Eve to pass as a boy. But she craves romance and sets her sights on a handsome American tourist (Boyd) who still thinks she's a boy when she shanghais him aboard her father's ship; then a lustful Chinese pirate (Walter Long) takes them prisoner. Joy, an appealing comedienne whose career nosedived when talkies came in, sparkles in both her tomboy and love-hungry phases. -Martin Rubin, Gene Siskel Film Center

Cleo lives in Marseilles and works as a waitress in a waterfront dive. A stranger entices her into coming to Paris to take dancing lessons, but instead she is taken to a baron, who betrays her. In spite of this inauspicious start, Cleo becomes a successful and renowned actress, but her feelings about men have never recovered. She loathes them and uses them only for the money they offer her, which she then hands over to a penniless girl.

Big Jim Garrity, a mine superintendent, is falsely accused of murder by a dope doctor and is forced into exile in Europe. After several years, he has made a fortune and returns to the U.S. under an assumed name. He makes his way into society, where he falls in love with the girl whose brother he is accused of murdering.

A young woman marries a man several years her senior to provide a comfortable home for her invalid father and then feels the call of youth and falls desperately in love with a young man.

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.

When bank president Leslie Morrison dips into the till, he seeks to place the blame on bank clerk David Moulton by altering the figures in Moulton's books. He lays his plan carefully, but upon leaving the building late one night, Morrison falls into an elevator shaft and is killed. Moulton, the one man known to have been there, is charged with murder and tried by district attorney Robert Murdock. Unable to afford a competent defense, Moulton is convicted and sentenced to die in an electric chair. However, Mary Reed, a stenographer who loves Moulton, appeals as a last resort to the newly elected public defender, Arthur Nelson. Nelson investigates the case and discovers evidence on the very eve of the execution, evidence that will warrant a stay. Rescued from death in the nick of time, Moulton is granted a new trial under the supervision of the public defender and is found innocent.

Little Johnny Jones is a jockey who is in love with his all-American sweetheart, Mary Baker, and also his career as the rider of thoroughbred horses. But he almost loses both when he is tricked by a showgirl, Vivian Dale. His story of vindication swings from the racetracks of America to England and the historical National Derby, with plenty of red-white-and-blue bunting waving behind the little patriot.

A recently widowed and destitute young mother (Jane Novak) appeals to her wealthy and heartless father-in-law (Robert Edeson) for financial aid. Instead, he convinces her to hand over her new baby to his care so that the child will be brought up with "everything money can buy." Unbeknownst to the grandfather, we learn that there are twin sons and our heroine keeps one baby to raise herself. The narrative jumps ahead to the boy's twenty-first birthday and we see what's become of them. Not surprisingly, the wealthy son has grown up spoiled and greedy while the poor one works hard and loves his mother.

Frank Prentiss, a multi-millionaire who hates and distrusts women, convinces his adopted son, Jack, that they are detrimental to a man's success. The overworked Frank is forced to rest at the country home of his friend, Mr. Gray, where he meets and falls in love with the host's daughter, Kate. She refuses his proposal at first, but later accepts because her father, who has two younger children, is experiencing financial difficulties. Following the wedding, Kate is subjected to Frank's verbal abuse and seeks solace with Jack. Their friendship enrages Frank, who tortures them with his accusations. During a dinner party, Frank accuses Jack and Kate of being lovers in front of the male guests. Jack is restrained from accosting his father, but Frank suffers a fatal heart attack. Later, Jack and Kate fall in love and are married.

Waterfront rivals George Darcy and Big Tim Ryan are both in love with Rose Kelly, and continue their feud when they join the Navy. After the war, they call a temporary truce to take on dope peddlers who are destroying their neighborhood.

Sure-Fire Flint, an energetic chap just returned from wartime military service, meets June De Lanni, the girl of his dreams, while working as a cabdriver and busboy. Her father gives Flint a job in his factory, but Dipley Poole, who hoped to marry June, becomes jealous of Flint's success and attempts to rob the company safe. June is trapped in the safe, but after a series of adventures, Flint arrives in time to rescue her.