William Desmond
Starting out in dramatic parts, Desmond soon switched to westerns and action serials, and became a major western star. When the sound era began Desmond was almost 50 years old, and was soon relegated to supporting roles.
| Known For | Acting |
|---|---|
| Most Rating | 2.782 |
| Birthday | 1878-01-23 |
| Place of Birth | Horseheads, New York, USA |
| Also Known As | William Mannion, The King of the Silent Serials, Bill Desmond, |
1919
The Prince and Betty
7.5/2
Young American John Maude is forced to find a job when he falls in love with society girl Betty Keith. He accepts a sudden offer to go to Mervo, a tin...
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The Prince and Betty
1928
The Vanishing Rider
0/0
William Desmond plays Jim Davis, a secret service agent by day and masked avenger by night. Ethlyne Clair provided feminine appeal, while Bud Osborne,...
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The Vanishing Rider
1915
Peer Gynt
0/0
A fantasy from Ibsen's verse drama. Ne'er-do-well and braggart Peer Gynt has many adventures in varied countries, making and losing money, gaining for...
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Peer Gynt
1918
Captain of His Soul
0/0
At the suggestion of his sons Horace and Henry, aging Ebenezer Boyce turns over control of his pistol factory to Martin. However, when Ebenezer discov...
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Captain of His Soul
1933
The Rustler's Roundup
0/0
Winters is after the Brand ranch, and his man Brett who is foreman there is rustling the Brand stock. But Tom is on to their game and breaks up their...
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The Rustler's Roundup
1934
When Lightning Strikes
5/1
Lightning the German Shepherd dog stars in this wilderness melodrama.
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When Lightning Strikes
1943
Phantom of the Opera
6.2/190
Following a tragic accident that leaves him disfigured, crazed composer Erique Claudin transformed into a masked phantom who schemes to make beautiful...
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Phantom of the Opera
1944
The Mummy's Ghost
5.8/71
An Egyptian high priest travels to America to reclaim the bodies of ancient Egyptian princess Ananka and her living guardian mummy Kharis. Learning th...
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The Mummy's Ghost
1921
The Policeman and the Baby
0/0
A crook returns home to find his mother dead and about to be buried in Potters Field. This prompts him to go out upon a "job" so that he may secure mo...
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The Policeman and the Baby
1917
Master of His Home
0/0
Unhappy with her daughter's choice to marry a miner instead of her choice, a man of wealth, a mother tries to convince her daughter to get an abortion...
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Master of His Home
1945
The Return of the Durango Kid
8/2
A masked outlaw steals from bank robbers to help the poor.
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The Return of the Durango Kid
1933
Mr. Broadway
0/0
Ed Sullivan shows night spots all over New York in this movie, joking and listening to stories the patrons tell.
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Mr. Broadway
1931
The Lightning Warrior
5/2
A Rin-Tin-Tin serial presented in 12 episodes. The mysterious Wolf Man is terrorizing settlers in a western town. With the help of Rinty, young Jimmy...
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The Lightning Warrior
1936
Song of the Gringo
4.7/3
In his film debut Ritter is sent to investigate miners being killed and their mines confiscated. The culprit is Evans and after Tex joins the gang, he...
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Song of the Gringo
1944
Phantom Lady
7/122
A mystery woman is a murder suspect's only alibi for the night of his wife's death.
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Phantom Lady
1935
Wild Waters
0/0
A young man and his trusty dog go up against a gang of crooks that are building a dam out of shoddy materials, which could collapse and flood the enti...
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Wild Waters
1923
The Extra Girl
5.9/16
Sue Graham is a small town girl who wants to be a motion picture star. She wins a contract when a picture of a very pretty girl is sent to a studio in...
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The Extra Girl
1932
The Last Frontier
6/1
A frontier newspaper editor Kirby battles outlaw Tiger Morris who is causing indian uprisings to drive away settlers so that he will can claim a gold...
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The Last Frontier
1934
Crack-Up
0/0
Daredevil flyer David flirts with a waitress. An orphan accidentally takes off in a biplane requiring an aerial rescue. The villain reports a fake rob...
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Crack-Up
1936
The Broken Coin
0/0
A police chief and two security agencies work to find out who is behind a recent rash of hijackings.
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The Broken Coin
1935
Frisco Kid
6.8/8
After a roustabout sailor avoids being shanghaied in 1850s San Francisco, his audacity helps him rise to a position of power in the vice industry of t...
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Frisco Kid
1931
The Vanishing Legion
9/1
A mysterious master criminal known as The Voice plots with his gang to sabotage the Milesburg Oil Company, but the rightful heir has a secret army of...
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The Vanishing Legion
1934
The Vanishing Shadow
6.5/3
A 12-episode serial in which a son avenges the death of his father at the hands of corrupt politicians. He develops a wide variety of complex devices...
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The Vanishing Shadow
1946
Desert Command
3.6/8
Tom Wayne rescues Clancy, Renard and Schmidt in the Arabian desert and they join him in going after El Shaitan, a bad guy who is never seen as he trie...
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Desert Command
1925
Straight Through
0/0
O'Day, the terror of Red Gulch, wins the entire stake of a gambler named Granger in a poker game but gives it all to Denver Nell, a dancehall girl, wh...
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Straight Through
1925
The Burning Trail
0/0
A professional boxer known as "Smiling Bill Flannigan" accidentally kills an opponent in the ring. He gives up the sport and heads west. He gets a job...
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The Burning Trail
1925
The Meddler
2/1
Richard Gilmore, a staid Wall Street broker, is jilted by Dot Parkhurst when he fails to provide her with the romance and adventure that she wants out...
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The Meddler
1935
Born to Battle
1.5/1
Good-natured troublemaker "Cyclone" Tom Saunders is hired by a ranchers' association manager to investigate recent cattle rustling at one of their ran...
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Born to Battle
1934
I Can't Escape
0/0
An ex-convict, unable to get a good job because of his prison record, gets mixed up in a phony stock scam.
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I Can't Escape
1936
The Vigilantes Are Coming
5.5/1
A masked hero called "The Eagle" leads California ranchers in a struggle against Russian Cossacks who are plotting to take over California and turn it...
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The Vigilantes Are Coming
1934
Pirate Treasure
4/3
An accomplished aviator sets out to locate treasure hidden by one of his ancestors. He encounters interference from various adversaries.
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Pirate Treasure
1926
The Strings of Steel
0/0
The Strings of Steel is a silent Action serial. Episode titles: 1. The Voice on the Wire 2. The First Central 3. Fighting for Love 4. The Power of Mig...
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The Strings of Steel
1935
Courage of the North
0/0
A Mountie (John Preston) catches fur thieves with the help of his horse, Dynamite, and dog, Captain.
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Courage of the North
1933
The Three Musketeers
5.5/6
Tom Wayne rescues Clancy, Renard and Schmidt in the Arabian desert and they join him in going after El Shaitan, a bad guy who is never seen as he trie...
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The Three Musketeers
1940
Winners of the West
0/0
Beyond Hell's Gate Pass is territory controlled by a man who calls himself King Carter; he uses a variety of schemes to prevent the railroad from bein...
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Winners of the West
1919
Her Code of Honor
0/0
A man brings up, on Long Island, the illegitimate daughter of a deceased woman who'd been an art student in love with a married Parisian. Is a French...
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Her Code of Honor
1934
Frontier Days
4/1
Henry Jethrow is after the Wilson ranch. He has George Wilson unknowningly sign a note for the ranch, has him killed, and then presents the note. The...
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Frontier Days
1934
The Rawhide Terror
4.2/7
Twelve renegades dressed as Indians kill the parents of two brothers. The brothers who have similar birth marks then separate. Ten years later a man k...
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The Rawhide Terror
1933
Laughing at Life
6/1
Easter, a soldier of fortune and gunrunner, leaves his family behind escaping from the authorities and an American detective named Mason. His globe ho...
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Laughing at Life
1922
Perils of the Yukon
0/0
A silent serial with the following chapter titles: 1. Fangs of Jealous; 2. Doomed; 3. Tricked by Fate; 4. Master and Man; 5. Terrors of the North; 6....
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Perils of the Yukon
1933
Strawberry Roan
5.5/2
Ken Maynard stars as a roving cowboy who tells the tale of taming the stallion that inspired the titular poem.
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Strawberry Roan
1933
Fargo Express
0/0
When Mort loses his and Ken's money at poker, Goss gets him to rob the stage. He is captured, identified by his palomino horse. Ken tries to clear him...
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Fargo Express
1917
Paws of the Bear
0/0
In Belgium, at the outbreak of the war, Russian agent Olga Raminoff shoots at a German general when the enemy enters town. Ray Bourke, an American tra...
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Paws of the Bear
1934
Border Guns
0/0
A cowboy drifting around the border gets mixed up with Mexican revolutionary gun smuggling when he becomes friends and rivals with the chief smuggler.
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Border Guns
1929
No Children
0/0
Parents pretend they are in show business and their kids are ventriloquist dummies.
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No Children
1923
Shadows of the North
0/0
Ben Darby and Pancake, his father, are owners of a mining claim in Northwest Canada. Ben goes to war, leaving Pancake to run the mine. During Ben's ab...
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Shadows of the North
1931
Battling with Buffalo Bill
5/3
A western adventure serial in 12 episodes. Buffalo Bill battles gambler Jim Rodney who is trying to scare off the townspeople so he can gain possessio...
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Battling with Buffalo Bill
1923
The Extra Girl
5.9/16
Sue Graham is a small town girl who wants to be a motion picture star. She wins a contract when a picture of a very pretty girl is sent to a studio in...
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The Extra Girl
1935
The Cowboy and the Bandit
6/1
Bill travels to a new state after the outlaw Scarface saves him from a lynch mob. There he takes a job on the Barton ranch and joins in the fight agai...
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The Cowboy and the Bandit
1936
Custer's Last Stand
4.5/2
Kit Cardigan seeks the killer of his father...among other plot threads leading up to the famous historical incident.
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Custer's Last Stand
1935
Cyclone of the Saddle
5.2/2
Sent by the Army, Andy Thomas poses as a renegade to find out who has been harassing the wagon trains.
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Cyclone of the Saddle
1936
Treachery Rides the Range
1/1
The Indians need the Buffalo to survive and the Government has promised to keep the herds free from hunters. But Carter, of Carter and Barton, just si...
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Treachery Rides the Range
1932
Heroes of the West
5.5/2
Efforts to build a transcontinental railroad are resisted by crooks and Indians on the warpath. A 12-chapter movie serial.
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Heroes of the West
1933
Gordon of Ghost City
4/1
A cowboy is hired to track down a gang of rustlers, but gets involved with a beautiful girl trying to run her grandfather's gold mine and other outlaw...
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Gordon of Ghost City
1935
The Call of the Savage
5/1
Two competing teams of scientists search the African jungles for a secret formula.
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The Call of the Savage
1936
Headin' for the Rio Grande
0/0
Western - Singing cowboy Tex Saunders (Tex Ritter) finds himself in a heap of trouble when he agrees to investigate local gangsters at the behest of a...
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Headin' for the Rio Grande
1932
A Scarlet Week-End
1/1
A woman's cheating husband is murdered at their country estate, and suspicion immediately falls on her.
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A Scarlet Week-End
1935
The Ghost Rider
5/2
Jim Bullard escapes from prison and returns to settle matters with the Rascob's that framed him. He kills two of them leaving an ace as his calling ca...
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The Ghost Rider
1935
Social Error
5/1
A wild college student gets in fights, steals cars, is caught by the police and finally expelled from college. Later on, though, he comes to the aid o...
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Social Error
1936
Hollywood Boulevard
2.5/2
With a full Hollywood background and settings but more an expose of scandal-and-gossip magazines of the era, has-been actor John Blakeford agrees to w...
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Hollywood Boulevard
1947
Code of the West
5/1
Knowing the railroad is coming, Carter is after the rancher's land. Bob and Chito return just in time to save Banker Stockton and his money from Carte...
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Code of the West
1934
The Red Rider
4/1
"Red" Davison(Buck Jones), the sheriff of Sun Dog, sacrifices his job and his good name to save his best friend, "Silent" Slade from the hangman's noo...
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The Red Rider
1936
The Adventures of Frank Merriwell
4/2
A 12-episode serial in which scholastic sports star Frank Merriwell leaves school to search for his missing father. His adventures involve a mysteriou...
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The Adventures of Frank Merriwell
1935
Timber Terrors
5/1
Inspector Dawson promises "Morton of the Mounted" a long-awaited vacation as soon as he solves the mystery of who killed an old fur trapper called Old...
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Timber Terrors
1941
Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie
5/1
A young mining engineer sets out to catch the killers of both his brother and a beautiful young girl's father.
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Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie
1936
Song of the Saddle
7/1
Frank Sr. sells his supplies to Hook, but then Hook has the Bannion Boys bushwhack his wagon to get the money back. Frank is murdered, but Junior gets...
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Song of the Saddle
1940
The Boys from Syracuse
6.5/4
The action takes place in Ephesus in ancient Asia Minor, and the concerns The efforts of two boys from Syracuse, Anthipholus and his servant Dromio, t...
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The Boys from Syracuse
1935
Tailspin Tommy in The Great Air Mystery
6/1
A 12-episode serial in which Tailspin Tommy evades volcanoes, anti-aircraft shells, and time bombs as he foils a plan by corrupt profiteers to steal a...
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Tailspin Tommy in The Great Air Mystery
1940
Junior G-Men
6.1/4
A gang of urban street kids and a club of suburban would-be federal agents, at first rivals, join forces to rescue the father of one of the kids, the...
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Junior G-Men
1943
Thank Your Lucky Stars
6.1/33
An Eddie Cantor look-alike organizes an all-star show to help the war effort.
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Thank Your Lucky Stars
1937
Tim Tyler's Luck
0/0
A 12-episode serial in which Tim Tyler goes to Africa in search of his father in gorilla country. He meets up with Laura, who is after Spider Webb who...
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Tim Tyler's Luck
1933
The Phantom of the Air
6/3
An adventure serial presented in 12 chapters. Inventor Thomas Edmunds uses a super plane, 'The Phantom,' to protect his new anti-gravity invention, th...
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The Phantom of the Air
1930
The Phantom of the West
0/0
A young man's father is murdered and the man convicted of the crime escapes prison, leaving a note intimating that seven local men know the real kille...
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The Phantom of the West
1918
Society for Sale
0/0
Successful model, Phyllis Clyne, convinces a down-and-out nobleman, Billy, to pass her off in society as titled gentry. They fall in love and when it...
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Society for Sale
1917
The Last of the Ingrams
0/0
Jules Ingram ( William Desmond ), the sole survivor of an old Puritan family, seeks solace and forgetfulness in drink. Unable to pay his debts, Jules...
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The Last of the Ingrams
1921
Fightin' Mad
0/0
Returning to his father's cattle ranch after the excitement of serving in combat overseas, Bud McGraw becomes restless, and his father decides to send...
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Fightin' Mad
1942
Down Rio Grande Way
0/0
Slightly more elaborate than most Charles Starrett westerns, Down Rio Grande Way is set in the mid-19th century, when the Republic of Texas was poised...
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Down Rio Grande Way
1942
The Silver Bullet
4/2
A cowboy heads for the town where his father was murdered to find out who was responsible.
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The Silver Bullet
1942
Overland Mail
0/0
Two investigators for a stagecoach company are assigned to find out why the company's stages keep being ambushed. They discover that the culprits are...
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Overland Mail
1935
Rustlers of Red Dog
8/1
A movie serial in 12 chapters: After gold is discovered in the town of Nugget, the titular band of thieves and cutthroats inundates the frontier sett...
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Rustlers of Red Dog
1943
The Lone Star Trail
5/2
Rancher Blaze Barker returns to Dead Falls after being framed by land-grabbers and spending two years in jail. Paroled, he can't wear a gun, but is ai...
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The Lone Star Trail
1943
Cheyenne Roundup
4/1
Johnny Mack Brown's Universal western series was drawing to a close when Cheyenne Roundup was released in mid-1943. Brown is herein cast in a dual rol...
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Cheyenne Roundup
1929
No Defense
0/0
No Defense is a 1929 romantic drama directed by Lloyd Bacon and starring Monte Blue. It was a silent film with part talking and sound-effects by the V...
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No Defense
1923
McGuire of the Mounted
0/0
A film about a man named McGuire of the Royal Mounted Police.
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McGuire of the Mounted
1917
The Iced Bullet
0/0
A "scientific detective" story about the attempted murder of a wealthy New Yorker in his mountain lodge is framed with a satire of Hollywood as the wr...
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The Iced Bullet
1921
The Child Thou Gavest Me
0/0
On her wedding day, Norma Huntley wants to tell Edward Berkley, her husband-to-be, her secret -- that she mothered a child out of wedlock which subseq...
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The Child Thou Gavest Me
1924
Hello, 'Frisco
5/1
A comedy short directed by character Slim Summerville.
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Hello, 'Frisco
1956
Savage Fury
0/0
Separately released feature version of the 1935 Serial, Call of the Savage.
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Savage Fury
1935
Powdersmoke Range
0/0
Three cowboys buy a ranch but have to fight off gunmen to keep it.
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Powdersmoke Range
1941
Where Did You Get That Girl?
5/3
In this musical comedy, a motley band of musicians have only their extreme poverty in common. They end up writing a hit and getting a recording contra...
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Where Did You Get That Girl?
1925
Outwitted
0/0
After being captured by T-Man Jack Blaisdell and sentenced to 20 years of hard labor on a counterfeiting rap, Tiger McGuire is sprung from jail by his...
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Outwitted
1925
Ridin' Pretty
0/0
A red-blooded romance of a millionaire cowboy and a city girl with stirring chase after a racing express that'll hold you spellbound.
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Ridin' Pretty
1925
Barriers of the Law
0/0
When a woman who belongs to a bootlegging gang asks the gang for help when her father is arrested, they refuse. She quits the gang, but the gang's lea...
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Barriers of the Law
1919
A Sage Brush Hamlet
0/0
Larry Lang is out to get desperado Claude Dutton (Ed Piel), the man who killed his father, which is why he is known as a sagebrush Hamlet.
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A Sage Brush Hamlet
1916
A Gamble in Souls
0/0
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A Gamble in Souls
1945
The Naughty Nineties
6.7/23
In the gay '90s, cardsharps take over a Mississippi riverboat from a kindly captain. Their first act is to change the showboat into a floating gamblin...
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The Naughty Nineties
1928
The Mystery Rider
0/0
Silent cowboy Western serial.
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The Mystery Rider
1916
Peggy
0/0
The heroine, Peggy Cameron, is a high-society debutante with a mind of her own. After making a public spectacle of herself once too often, Peggy is bu...
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Peggy
1934
The Way of the West
0/0
Government agent Gordon, working undercover, is investigating a cattleman sheepman war. The Culprit is Horton and when Horton kills Parker he frames G...
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The Way of the West
1915
Kilmeny
0/0
Little Doris Calhoun, of a wealthy English family, makes a playmate of Pierre, a crippled gypsy boy, and drifts away with him and the gypsy band on th...
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Kilmeny
1916
The Dawn Maker
0/0
Half-breed Joe Elk wavers between the "civilized" nature of his white father and the passion of his Indian mother. He falls in love with Alice McRae,...
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The Dawn Maker
1935
Naughty Marietta
4.9/18
In order to avoid a prearranged marriage, a rebellious French princess sheds her identity and escapes to colonial New Orleans, where she finds an unli...
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Naughty Marietta
1924
The Sunset Trail
0/0
On a passenger train passing through the desert, Louise offers to pay the fares of Happy Hobo and Collie. The boy Collie accepts, but Happy continues...
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The Sunset Trail
1915
The Majesty of the Law
0/0
The story of a Virginia judge who sternly hands down severe sentences while in court only to later help the families of those he condemns
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The Majesty of the Law
1944
The Climax
5.4/31
Dr. Hohner, theatre physician at the Vienna Royal Theatre, murders his mistress, the star soprano when his jealousy drives him to the point of mad obs...
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The Climax
1935
The Roaring West
0/0
A 15-episode serial involving the land rush, gold mines, stolen maps, etc.
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The Roaring West
1922
Night Life in Hollywood
0/0
A picture depicting the engrossing adventures of a small town youth in Hollywood and showing the intimate home life of some of the screen's greatest s...
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Night Life in Hollywood
1945
Strange Confession
6.8/22
A scientist who is working on a cure for influenza is victimized by his unscrupulous boss, who releases the vaccine before it's ready, resulting in th...
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Strange Confession
1933
Perils of Pauline
5.7/3
A famous scientist and his beautiful daughter travel to Indochina to find an ivory disc that has the formula for a deadly gas engraved on it. An evil...
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Perils of Pauline
1947
The Egg and I
7/42
World War II veteran Bob MacDonald surprises his new wife, Betty, by quitting his city job and moving them to a dilapidated farm in the country. While...
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The Egg and I
1931
Oklahoma Jim
0/0
A gambler sets out to help a pretty young woman save her trading post.
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Oklahoma Jim
1947
Thunder Mountain
5/1
Marvin Hayden returns to find his ranch is about to be sold at auction and the Hayden Jorth feud still going strong. Carson wants the Hayden ranch and...
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Thunder Mountain
1918
The Marriage Bubble
0/0
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The Marriage Bubble
1924
The Breathless Moment
0/0
Unwilling to arrest Billy Carson, a crook who once befriended him, Officer Quinn forces him and Dan, his confederate, to spend a year in a small town.
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The Breathless Moment
1921
Women Men Love
0/0
Prosperous architect David Hunter, lives with his wife Evelyn, who loves gambling and admiration, as well as his small daughter Dora, and his sister-i...
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