Mack Swain
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Mack Swain (born Moroni Swain, February 16, 1876 – August 25, 1935) was an early American film actor, who appeared in many of Mack Sennett's comedies at Keystone Studios, including the Keystone Cops series. He also appeared in major features by Charlie Chaplin.
In the early 1900s Swain had his own stock theater company, which performed in the western and midwestern United States.
Swain worked in vaudeville before starting in silent film at Keystone Studios under Mack Sennett. While with Keystone, he was teamed with Chester Conklin to make a series of comedy films. With Swain as "Ambrose" and Conklin as the grand mustachioed "Walrus", they performed these roles in several films including The Battle of Ambrose and Walrus and Love, Speed and Thrills, both made in 1915.
Besides these comedies, the two appeared together in a variety of other films, 26 all told, and they also appeared separately and/or together in films starring Mabel Normand, Charles Chaplin, Roscoe Arbuckle and most of the rest of the roster of Keystone players.
Swain later took his Ambrose character with him to the L-KO Kompany. Having already worked with Charles Chaplin at Keystone, Swain began working with him again at First National in 1921, appearing in The Idle Class, Pay Day, and The Pilgrim. He is also remembered for his large supporting role as Big Jim McKay in the 1925 film The Gold Rush, for United Artists, written by and starring Chaplin.
For his contribution to the motion picture industry, Mack Swain received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, at 1500 Vine Street.
| Known For | Acting |
|---|---|
| Most Rating | 3.216 |
| Birthday | 1876-02-15 |
| Place of Birth | Salt Lake City, Utah, USA |
| Also Known As | Moroni Swain, Мак Свейн, |
1925
The Gold Rush
7.992/1602
A gold prospector in Alaska struggles to survive the elements and win the heart of a dance hall girl.
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The Gold Rush
1914
Laughing Gas
5.553/66
Although only a dental assistant, Charlie pretends to be the dentist. After receiving too much anesthesia, a patient can't stop laughing, so Charlie k...
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Laughing Gas
1914
The Fatal Mallet
5.4/44
Three men compete for the attentions of a pretty girl. One of them, a little tramp, plays dirty.
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The Fatal Mallet
1914
Tillie's Punctured Romance
6.1/75
A womanizing city man meets Tillie in the country. When he sees that her father has a very large bankroll for his workers, he persuades her to elope w...
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Tillie's Punctured Romance
1926
Hands Up!
5.25/8
Jack, a southern spy during the Civil War, must try to capture a shipment of gold. His task is complicated by the two sisters, Native Americans, and a...
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Hands Up!
1921
The Idle Class
6.639/104
At an upper class golf resort, a tramp discovers he's the lookalike of a rich man with a beautiful, unhappy wife.
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The Idle Class
1914
Love and Gasoline
0/0
A short comedy directed by Mabel Normand and Mack Sennett. believed to be a lost film.
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Love and Gasoline
1953
Yesterday and Today
0/0
A compilation of early-day silent films that serves as a glimpse back to the formative days of the movie industry as a salute to Hollywood's Golden Ye...
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Yesterday and Today
1929
The Locked Door
5.769/13
On her first anniversary, Ann Reagan finds that her sister-in-law is involved with a shady character that she used to be intimate with, and determines...
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The Locked Door
1914
Mabel’s Nerve
0/0
A silent comedy short directed by Mabel Normand.
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Mabel’s Nerve
1931
Stout Hearts and Willing Hands
6/1
Stout Hearts and Willing Hands is a 1931 short comedy film directed by Bryan Foy. It was nominated for an Academy Award in 1932 for Best Short Subject...
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Stout Hearts and Willing Hands
1914
A Gambling Rube
0/0
A comedy short that revolves around a poker game, both above and underneath the table. This is considered to be a lost film.
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A Gambling Rube
1914
Hello, Mabel
5.3/3
Hello, Mabel (also known as On a Busy Wire) is a 1914 American short silent comedy film directed by Mack Sennett.
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Hello, Mabel
1914
Other People's Business
0/0
Other People's Business
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Other People's Business
1927
The Girl from Everywhere
0/0
Mack Sennett comedy short subject spoofing filmmaking, with girls, lions, and limburger cheese.
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The Girl from Everywhere
1928
The Girl from Nowhere
0/0
Dress shop owner, Tillie Tucker, lands a job at a Hollywood film studio and brings her boyfriend and employee, Miss Boyle, out West.
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The Girl from Nowhere
1914
Caught in the Rain
5.6/42
When a married couple become separated in the park, a tramp sits with the lady and is beat up when her husband rejoins her. He takes a room in their h...
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Caught in the Rain
1914
A Busy Day
4.7/52
A jealous wife is chasing her unfaithful husband during a parade, after he starts to flirt with a pretty woman.
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A Busy Day
1914
Mabel's Married Life
5.9/69
Mabel goes home after being humiliated by a masher whom her husband won't fight. The husband goes off to a bar and gets drunk.
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Mabel's Married Life
1914
His Musical Career
5.9/47
Charlie and his partner are to deliver a piano to 666 Prospect St. and repossess one from 999 Prospect St.
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His Musical Career
1914
His Trysting Places
6.2/45
On his way to a restaurant, Ambrose, a happily married man, obliges to mail a letter for a woman in the apartment lobby. Unbeknownst to him, the lette...
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His Trysting Places
1914
Getting Acquainted
5.3/45
Charlie and his wife are in the park when he encounters Ambrose and his wife. Each man is attracted to and shows unwanted attention to the other man's...
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Getting Acquainted
1914
Gentlemen of Nerve
5.7/44
Mabel and her beau go to an auto race and are joined by Charlie and his friend. As Charlie's friend is attempting to enter the raceway through a hole,...
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Gentlemen of Nerve
1914
His Prehistoric Past
5.6/50
Set mostly in the Stone Age, a prehistoric king, with a harem of wives, rules a beach. Charlie arrives and falls for the king's favorite wife. In the...
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His Prehistoric Past
1922
Pay Day
7/141
A bricklayer and his wife clash over his end-of-the-week partying.
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Pay Day
1923
The Pilgrim
6.8/134
The Tramp is an escaped convict who is mistaken as a pastor in a small town church.
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The Pilgrim
1914
A Thief Catcher
4.919/31
Two criminals chase a plainclothes policeman who, while taking out his dog, witnesses their crime.
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A Thief Catcher
1927
A Texas Steer
0/0
Laconic cowboy Maverick Brander just happens to be a very wealthy rancher, but the money doesn't really mean that much to him. The same can't be said...
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A Texas Steer
1927
Mockery
6.7/9
There is hunger in Siberia during the Russian Civil War. One day while dim-witted peasant Sergei is searching corpses for food, he meets a young woman...
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Mockery
1923
Pitfalls of a Big City
0/0
Pitfalls of a Big City is a 1923 short comedy
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Pitfalls of a Big City
1926
Torrent
6.9/8
A young girl and her father are kicked out of their house by a cruel noblewoman, and the girl's heart is broken when her sweetheart, the noblewoman's...
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Torrent
1915
Fatty's New Role
5.2/6
Fatty gets kicked out of a bar, and then the place gets a bomb threat.
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Fatty's New Role
1914
Leading Lizzie Astray
4.2/3
A city slicker tries to woo a country girl while her boyfriend fixes his tire.
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Leading Lizzie Astray
1914
Ambrose's First Falsehood
4.2/4
After running into a friend and two ladies, a married man sends his wife a note saying that he's taken a train for business, but then his wife reads t...
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Ambrose's First Falsehood
1914
A Rowboat Romance
0/0
A Rowboat Romance is a 1914 Comedy short.
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A Rowboat Romance
1917
The Late Lamented
0/0
The Late Lamented is a 1917 Comedy short.
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The Late Lamented
1914
Gussle, the Golfer
5/1
The ever-disreputable Reggie Gussle, mistreating his caddy and generally making an ass of himself on the golf course, receives a well-deserved golf ba...
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Gussle, the Golfer
1914
Double Crossed
4.6/12
Ford Sterling and Mack Swain are a couple of neighborhood toughs who fight over Emma Clifton and get involved in burglary in this Keystone from 1914.
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Double Crossed
1915
Ambrose's Lofty Perch
4.5/2
King Ambrose chooses a queen from among the maidens of his kingdom. After they are married, Robin, a young man the queen had known earlier, attempts t...
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Ambrose's Lofty Perch
1915
Willful Ambrose
5/1
Marksman Ambrose accidentally shoots a beer stein his wife has bought for him as a gift, so he tries to replace it.
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Willful Ambrose
1915
Love, Speed and Thrills
5/6
After Walrus has been shot, Ambrose takes him into his house. When Ambrose sees Walrus flirting with his wife he leaves. When Walrus runs away with Mr...
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Love, Speed and Thrills
1915
Ambrose's Sour Grapes
5/1
Ambrose loses his girl-friend to Harry Gribbon in the park. When Ambrose's "girl-friend"'s twin sister and husband arrive everybody gets mixed-up betw...
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Ambrose's Sour Grapes
1915
Mabel Lost and Won
6.2/2
Mabel has just gotten engaged during a housewarming party of which her mother is the hostess. When an annoying party guest persuades Mabel to dance wi...
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Mabel Lost and Won
1915
Ambrose's Nasty Temper
5/1
Ambrose's nasty temper gets him in trouble when he accidentally puts his boss's attractive daughter in danger.
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Ambrose's Nasty Temper
1915
When Ambrose Dared Walrus
5/1
Walrus and his wife run the Walrus Hotel, which acrobats Mr. & Mrs. Ambrose are staying at. Walrus gets a letter from his insurance broker Mr. Cin...
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When Ambrose Dared Walrus
1915
Ambrose's Fury
3/2
A couple of roving husbands are caught at the seashore by their wives.
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Ambrose's Fury
1919
Oh, What a Knight
0/0
A slapstick comedy featuring Mack Swain.
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Oh, What a Knight
1930
Cleaning Up
5/3
Two street cleaners save the life of the police commissioner. In gratitude, he gives them jobs as policemen. Their first assignment? Capture the #1 cr...
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Cleaning Up
1919
Heroic Ambrose
1/1
When his sweetheart's mother chases Ambrose away from her daughter on a beach outing, Ambrose finds a bevy of bathing beauties to frolic with. Everyon...
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Heroic Ambrose
1931
Finn and Hattie
5.3/3
The Haddocks are going on a European vacation and from their reception at the station, where the whole town goes to see them off, it is clear who wear...
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Finn and Hattie
1926
Kiki
7/2
Kiki, a poor young woman who sells newspapers on the street corners of Paris, is able to land a job singing and dancing at a nearby theater. While she...
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Kiki
1913
A Muddy Romance
4.8/8
Two rivals for Mabel's hand play a series of dirty tricks on each other. Finally, one of them gets Mabel alone and is about to marry her, but his riva...
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A Muddy Romance
1913
Fatty Joins the Force
5.4/12
Fatty rescues the daughter of the police commisioner and is given a job as an officer as a reward, but its not all its cracked up to be!
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Fatty Joins the Force
1914
The Under-Sheriff
0/0
The Under-Sheriff is a 1914 movie starring Roscoe Arbuckle and George Nichols.
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The Under-Sheriff
1914
A Robust Romeo
0/0
A Robust Romeo is a 1914 movie starring Roscoe Arbuckle and Emma Bell Clifton.
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A Robust Romeo
1930
The Sea Bat
4.6/8
The sister of a sponge diver killed by a stingray loves an escaped convict posing as a priest.
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The Sea Bat
1916
A Movie Star
5.5/3
The star of a film attends a public showing.
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A Movie Star
1915
Saved by Wireless
0/0
Swain and Conklin, two international secret service men of questionable reputation, have taken up headquarters in an underground refuge from which the...
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Saved by Wireless
1930
Redemption
4.5/2
In Russia in the early 1900s, Fedya, a handsome, self-indulgent womanizer, falls in love with and marries Lisa, his friend Victor's fiancée. Fedya qui...
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Redemption
1916
His Bitter Pill
5.2/3
Jim, the apple of his mother's eyes, is the big-hearted galoot of a man and is sheriff of his small town. He is sweet on Nell, who he has known all hi...
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His Bitter Pill
1916
Madcap Ambrose
4/1
Ambrose likes his mother's assistant, but when she inherits a fortune, the obstacles to their relationship keep mounting.
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Madcap Ambrose
1914
Mabel at the Wheel
5.628/39
A villain, competing with his rival's race car, kidnaps the rival before the race. Mabel decides to take the wheel in his place.
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Mabel at the Wheel
1914
Caught in a Cabaret
5.623/53
Charlie is a clumsy waiter in a cheap cabaret, suffering the strict orders from his boss. He meets a pretty girl in the park and tries to impress her...
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Caught in a Cabaret
1914
The Knockout
5.713/47
To show his girl how brave he is, Pug challenges the champion to a fight. Charlie referees, trying to avoid contact with the two monsters.
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The Knockout
1915
That Little Band Of Gold
5.1/9
A happy young couple become engaged, and soon afterwards they are married. But after their marriage, the husband begins to stay out carousing with his...
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That Little Band Of Gold
1928
Tillie's Punctured Romance
6/1
The ring master is plotting to get the circus owner done away with in a lion cage so he can take over.
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Tillie's Punctured Romance
1926
The Nervous Wreck
5.9/4
Henry Williams, out in Arizona looking for a cure for his imaginary ills, stops at the ranch of Jud Morgan, and decides to stay. Jud's daughter, Sally...
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The Nervous Wreck
1925
The Eagle
6.3/48
Vladimir Dubrouvsky, a lieutenant in the Russian army, catches the eye of Czarina Catherine II. He spurns her advances and flees, and she puts out a w...
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The Eagle
1915
Caught in a Park
5/1
Featuring Charlie Chaplin's half-brother as The Husband, Phyllis Allen as The Wife, Slim Summerville as The Boy Friend, Cecile Arnold as The Girl Frie...
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Caught in a Park
1920
Full o' Spirits
0/0
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Full o' Spirits
1913
The Gusher
4.5/3
Mabel has two suitors - an oily con man, whom she mocks in a very funny scene where she is shown twiddling a fake moustache and making her feelings ve...
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The Gusher
1915
Ye Olden Grafter
5/1
Largely a typical Keystone flirting-in-the-park one-reeler, this one is differentiated slightly by dressing the players in early nineteenth century ga...
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Ye Olden Grafter
1926
Footloose Widows
0/0
Department-store models Flo and Marian set their sights on wealthy young soft-drink magnate J. A. Smith. Through a misunderstanding, they pick on the...
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Footloose Widows
1919
Her First False Hare
0/0
Four men are out rabbit hunting and encounter a beautiful young lady, who promises to marry the first one who brings her a white rabbit.
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Her First False Hare
1918
Adventurous Ambrose
0/0
Ambrose and his wife are going to take charge of a seabeach hotel.
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Adventurous Ambrose
1927
My Best Girl
7/18
Joe Merrill, son of the millionaire owner of a chain of 5 and 10 cent stores, poses as Joe Grant, and takes a job in the stockroom of one of his fathe...
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My Best Girl
1926
Sea Horses
0/0
Sea Horses is a 1926 American drama silent film directed by Allan Dwan and written by Becky Gardiner, James Shelley Hamilton and Francis Brett Young....
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Sea Horses
1928
Caught in the Fog
0/0
Wealthy Bob visits his mother's Florida houseboat in order to remove her jewelry and stumbles upon a bobbed-hair bandit and her male accomplice, who m...
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Caught in the Fog
1930
Soup to Nuts
5.8/8
Mr. Schmidt's costume store is bankrupt because he spends his time on Rube Goldberg-style inventions; the creditors send a young manager who falls for...
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Soup to Nuts
1927
The Shamrock and the Rose
5.5/2
The neighborly "feud" between a Jewish and an Irish families escalates when two of their youngsters fall in love.
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The Shamrock and the Rose
1927
The Beloved Rogue
7/12
François Villon, in his lifetime the most renowned poet in France, is also a prankster, an occasional criminal, and an ardent patriot.
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The Beloved Rogue
1928
The Last Warning
6.476/21
A producer decides to reopen a theater, that had been closed five years previously when one of the actors was murdered during a performance, by stagin...
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The Last Warning
1914
Fatty's Wine Party
0/0
Fatty's Wine Party is a 1914 American short comedy film directed by and starring Fatty Arbuckle.
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Fatty's Wine Party
1917
The Pullman Bride
0/0
The Pullman Bride is a 1917 American silent comedy film directed by Clarence G. Badger and starring Gloria Swanson.
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The Pullman Bride
1923
This Way Out
0/0
A rival courtships in a variety of absurd situations.
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This Way Out
1915
The Home Breakers
0/0
Bankers Mack Swain & Chester Conklin courting each other's wives.
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The Home Breakers
1917
His Naughty Thought
0/0
Café ownder Mack Swain goes gaga over a gal.
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His Naughty Thought
1928
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
0/0
Gold digging blonde Lorelei and her brunette friend Dorothy are searching for rich husbands. This film is believed lost.
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Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
1959
The Chaplin Revue
7.4/31
Three Chaplin silent comedies "A Dog's Life", "Shoulder Arms", and "The Pilgrim" are strung together to form a single feature length film. Chaplin pro...
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The Chaplin Revue
1927
Becky
0/0
Becky (1927) film
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Becky
1920
Innocent Ambrose
0/0
Mack "Ambrose" Swain, the ladies man, finds himself in all kinds of lady trouble.
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Innocent Ambrose
1943
Happy Times and Jolly Moments
0/0
This short film takes a nostalgic look at the Mack Sennett comedies of the silent cinema era.
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Happy Times and Jolly Moments
1998
Star Power: The Creation Of United Artists
0/0
The careers of D.W. Griffith, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, and Charlie Chaplin are chronicled culminating in the formation of United Artists and...
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Star Power: The Creation Of United Artists
1917
Thirst
0/0
A woman has moved to a small town boarding house to seek peace and quiet. All too soon she finds herself in a Keystone movie, where there's everything...
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Thirst
1926
Whispering Wires
0/0
A woman hears of a murder plot through a whispered voice on the telephone.
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Whispering Wires
1915
Ambrose's Little Hatchet
5/1
Mack Swain is making a dress for Louise Fazenda. He discovers his dressmaker's dummy requires his adjustment, so he pulls out his hatchet for the job....
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Ambrose's Little Hatchet
1932
Lighthouse Love
5.5/2
Two marines stationed in the Chinese port of Hang Chow decide to swear off women and join the lighthouse patrol.
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Lighthouse Love
1914
The Sea Nymphs
0/0
Fatty, his wife and mother-in-law are on a ferry to Catalina Island for an outing. So are Mabel and her father. Mabel and Fatty flirt with each other,...
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The Sea Nymphs
1915
Hogan's Romance Upset
5/1
Charles Murray out romancing in the park.
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Hogan's Romance Upset
1932
The Midnight Patrol
0/0
A cub reporter rashly makes a promise to solve a murder mystery within 24 hours, then must make good on his boast.
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The Midnight Patrol
1935
Bad Boy
5/1
An unemployed loafer who spends his time playing pool decides he's ready to look for a job so he can secure his girlfriend's parents' approval for the...
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