Warner Oland
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Warner Oland (born Johan Verner Ölund, October 3, 1879 – August 6, 1938) was a Swedish-American actor most remembered for playing several Chinese and Chinese-American characters: the Honolulu Police detective, Lieutenant Charlie Chan; Dr. Fu Manchu; and Henry Chang in Shanghai Express. His family emigrated to the United States when he was 13. He pursued a film career that would include time on Broadway and dozens of film appearances, including 16 Charlie Chan films. After several years in theater, including appearances on Broadway as Warner Oland, in 1912 he made his silent film debut in Pilgrim's Progress, a film based on the John Bunyan novel. As a result of his training as a Shakespearean actor and his easy adoption of a sinister look, he was much in demand as a villain and in ethnic roles. Over the next 15 years, he appeared in more than 30 films, including a major role in The Jazz Singer (1927), one of the first talkies produced. Oland's normal appearance fit the Hollywood expectation of caricatured Asianness of the time, despite his having no definitively proven Asian cultural background. Oland portrayed a variety of Asian characters in several movies before being offered the leading role in the 1929 film, The Mysterious Dr. Fu Manchu. It was the first onscreen portrayal of the Fu Manchu character in film. Oland continued to appear onscreen as an Asian, probably more often than any other white actor in the history of cinema. In Old San Francisco, Oland played an Asian unsuccessfully impersonating a white man.
Oland was the first actor to play a werewolf in a major Hollywood film, biting the protagonist, played by Henry Hull, in Werewolf of London (1935). Once again, Oland's character was Asian.
A box office success, The Mysterious Dr. Fu Manchu made Oland a star, and during the next two years he portrayed the evil Dr. Fu Manchu in three more films (although the second one was purely a cameo appearance). Firmly locked into such roles, he was cast as Charlie Chan in the international detective mystery film Charlie Chan Carries On (1931) and then in director Josef von Sternberg's 1932 classic film Shanghai Express opposite Marlene Dietrich and Anna May Wong.
The enormous worldwide box office success of his Charlie Chan film led to more, with Oland starring in 16 Chan films in total. The series, Jill Lepore later wrote, "kept Fox afloat" during the 1930s, while earning Oland $40,000 per movie. Oland took his role seriously, studying the Chinese language and calligraphy.
Known For | Acting |
---|---|
Most Rating | 3.353 |
Birthday | 1879-10-03 |
Place of Birth | Nyby, Västerbottens län, Sweden |
Also Known As | Johan Verner Ölund, |
1929
The Jazz Singer
6.1/209
A young Jewish man is torn between tradition and individuality when his old-fashioned family objects to his career as a jazz singer. This is the first...
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The Jazz Singer
1932
Shanghai Express
6.879/194
A beautiful temptress re-kindles an old romance while trying to escape her past during a tension-packed train journey.
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Shanghai Express
1937
Charlie Chan at the Olympics
6.739/23
Get ready for a Gold Medal murder mystery! This "tense, thrilling mystery" ('California Congress of Parents and Teachers') pits Charlie Chan against i...
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Charlie Chan at the Olympics
1935
Charlie Chan in Egypt
7.019/27
While investigating the theft of antiquities from an ancient tomb excavation , Charlie discovers that the body of the expedition's leader concealed in...
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Charlie Chan in Egypt
1935
Charlie Chan in Shanghai
6.64/25
When a prominent official is murdered at a banquet honoring Charle Chan, the detective and son Lee team up to expose an opium-smuggling ring.
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Charlie Chan in Shanghai
1936
Charlie Chan at the Circus
6.136/22
While visiting the circus with his family, Charlie is recruited by the big top's co-owner to investigate threatening letters that he's received.
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Charlie Chan at the Circus
1935
Charlie Chan in Paris
6.639/18
Charlie's visit to Paris, ostensibly a vacation, is really a mission to investigate a bond-forgery racket. But his agent, apache dancer Nardi is kille...
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Charlie Chan in Paris
1936
Charlie Chan at the Race Track
7.167/21
When a friend of Charlie's is found kicked to death by his own race horse on board a Honolulu-bound liner, the detective discovers foul play and uncov...
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Charlie Chan at the Race Track
1934
Charlie Chan in London
6.952/30
Charlie Chan is sought out by Pamela Gray, a desperate young socialite whose brother Paul awaits execution for the murder of a weapons inventor. Pamel...
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Charlie Chan in London
1936
Charlie Chan's Secret
6.783/23
Allen Colby, heir to a huge fortune, is presumed drowned after an ocean liner sinks off the coast of Honolulu. Mysteriously, Colby reappears at his ma...
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Charlie Chan's Secret
1917
The Fatal Ring
0/0
A silent movie serial directed by George B. Seitz.
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The Fatal Ring
1935
Werewolf of London
6.02/126
A strange animal attack turns a botanist into a bloodthirsty monster.
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Werewolf of London
1936
Charlie Chan at the Opera
6.677/31
A dangerous amnesiac escapes from an asylum, hides in the opera house, and is suspected of getting revenge on those who tried to murder him 13 years a...
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Charlie Chan at the Opera
1931
The Big Gamble
6/5
A gambler, hopelessly in debt, agrees to pay off his debt by allowing his creditor to take out a life insurance policy on him and collecting once the...
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The Big Gamble
1937
Charlie Chan on Broadway
7.071/21
Returning from European exile where she avoided testifying against her criminal associates, a former singer with a tell-all diary is murdered to insur...
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Charlie Chan on Broadway
1937
Charlie Chan at Monte Carlo
6.5/19
Although Charlie and Lee are in Monaco for an art exhibit, they become caught up in a feud between rival financiers which involves the Chan's in a web...
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Charlie Chan at Monte Carlo
1931
The Black Camel
6/34
Movie star Shelah Fane is seeing wealthy Alan Jaynes while filming in Honolulu, Hawaii, but won't marry him without consulting famed psychic Tarneverr...
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The Black Camel
1934
The Painted Veil
6.635/26
The wife of a doctor in China falls in love with a diplomat.
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The Painted Veil
1931
Dishonored
6.754/63
The Austrian Secret Service sends its most seductive agent to spy on the Russians.
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Dishonored
1931
Daughter of the Dragon
5.139/18
At her Chinese father's bidding, a woman goes to murder an enemy and meets a Scotland Yard detective.
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Daughter of the Dragon
1926
Don Juan
6.6/12
If there was one thing that Don Juan de Marana learned from his father Don Jose, it was that women gave you three things - life, disillusionment and d...
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Don Juan
1927
When a Man Loves
6.4/7
A nobleman studying for the priesthood abandons his vocation in 18th Century France when he falls in love with a beautiful, but reluctant, courtesan.
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When a Man Loves
1925
Don Q Son of Zorro
6.6/18
Don Cesar De Vega crosses swords with a vicious member of the Queen's Guard, and steals the affection of a young heiress. When the officer frames the...
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Don Q Son of Zorro
1929
The Mysterious Dr. Fu Manchu
5.222/10
A Chinese doctor vows revenge against the allied troops who killed his wife and child during the Boxer Rebellion.
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The Mysterious Dr. Fu Manchu
1931
The Drums of Jeopardy
5.3/14
A mad doctor is determined to take revenge on the family he believes is responsible for his daughter's death.
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The Drums of Jeopardy
1929
The Studio Murder Mystery
4/5
Philandering actor Richard Hardell is murdered at a movie studio. His jealous wife Blanche, his director Rupert Borka, and a girl he mistreated, Helen...
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The Studio Murder Mystery
1935
Shanghai
7/1
A New York socialite travels to Shanghai to visit her ailing aunt and falls in love with a Russian banker, who harbors a family secret.
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Shanghai
1928
Stand and Deliver
5.8/4
Our heroine, Miss Velez (despite the fact that she seems to be just along for the ride) is much her usual over-eloquent self (how fortunate she has no...
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Stand and Deliver
1934
Bulldog Drummond Strikes Back
5.35/10
Bulldog Drummond finds himself immersed in another adventure when he stumbles upon a corpse in the mysterious London mansion of Prince Achmed. Enlisti...
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Bulldog Drummond Strikes Back
1930
The Return of Dr. Fu Manchu
5.042/12
The sinister Dr. Fu Manchu returns to destroy the people he holds responsible for the death of his family.
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The Return of Dr. Fu Manchu
1932
The Son-Daughter
7/3
Young Asians in San Francisco find their love thwarted by clan warfare.
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The Son-Daughter
1930
Dangerous Paradise
4/3
Heyst, a hermit on his own tropical island, plays unwilling host to red-headed stowaway Alma. Danger looms...
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Dangerous Paradise
1934
Mandalay
5.9/15
Abandoned by her lover, a woman becomes the main "hostess" in a decadent nightclub, but tries to put her past behind her on a steamer to Mandalay.
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Mandalay
1932
Charlie Chan's Chance
7/1
Charlie is the intended murder victim here, and he avoids death only by chance. To find the murderer (since, of course, murder does occur), Charlie mu...
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Charlie Chan's Chance
1934
Charlie Chan's Courage
10/1
Charlie is hired to deliver a pearl necklace to a millionaire at his ranch. When murder intervenes he disguises himself as a Chinese servant and begin...
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Charlie Chan's Courage
1919
The Lightning Raider
0/0
A beautiful young woman is a daring master thief. She meets the young millionaire Thomas Babbington Norton, while fleeing from the scene of her latest...
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The Lightning Raider
1928
Dream of Love
7/2
A duke has deposed Prince Mauritz's father, so Mauritz spends his time in affairs with a countess, the duke's wife and a gypsy girl Adrienne. Years la...
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Dream of Love
1926
Tell It to the Marines
6.278/18
U.S. Marine Sergeant O'Hara has his hands full training raw recruits, one of whom, 'Skeets' Burns, is a particular thorn in his side. If Burns's lacka...
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Tell It to the Marines
1935
Movies on Sundays
0/0
A short, introduced in Pennsylvania when the state had laws disallowing the screening of films on Sunday, to sway voters on a referendum to allow such...
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Movies on Sundays
1932
A Passport to Hell
5.3/6
Just prior to the outbreak of World War I, in the British West African town of Akkra, English woman Myra Carson becomes involved in a scandal and is d...
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A Passport to Hell
1929
The Faker
0/0
Rita Martin, the partner of a phony spiritualist who uses information supplied by her to gull and astonish the rubes, gets work as private secretary t...
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The Faker
1927
Old San Francisco
5.714/8
In San Francisco, a villainous landowner with underworld connections seeks to steal the property of an old Spanish family.
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Old San Francisco
1927
Good Time Charley
0/0
Song-and-dance man Charles Edward Keene (Good Time Charley) is bereft when his wife, Elaine, dies as a result of a fall incurred trying to evade the a...
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Good Time Charley
1926
The Marriage Clause
0/0
A Broadway actress becomes a star due to the guidance of her director. The two fall in love, but are prevented from marrying due to a clause put into...
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The Marriage Clause
1929
Chinatown Nights
4.167/6
Joan Fry, a society woman, falls in love with Chuck Riley, the white-leader of a powerful gang in Chinatown, and he quickly drags her down into the de...
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Chinatown Nights
1925
Riders of the Purple Sage
5.7/9
A Texas Ranger searches for his kidnapped sister.
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Riders of the Purple Sage
1924
Curlytop
0/0
Big Bill Branigan, one of the tough characters of London's Limehouse district, falls in love with Curlytop because of her sweet innocence. He leaves h...
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Curlytop
1930
The Vagabond King
6/4
The story takes place in medieval France. Poet-rogue Francois Villon, sentenced to hang by King Louis XI for writing derogatory verses about him, is o...
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The Vagabond King
1917
Patria
6.5/1
Spies from Japan conspire to steal the Channing "preparedness" fortune and invade the United States, beginning in New York, then allying themselves wi...
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Patria
1916
The Rise of Susan
0/0
Susan takes the place of model and shows the clothes so well that she is asked to impersonate a Countess at a reception given by a customer.
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The Rise of Susan
1916
The Eternal Sapho
0/0
A scheme by a beautiful vamp to marry a wealthy young man fails, and the woman returns to her former lover, a sculptor. She is shocked to discover he...
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The Eternal Sapho
1928
The Scarlet Lady
0/0
Silent film drama...
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The Scarlet Lady
1961
Days of Thrills and Laughter
5.5/2
An appreciative, uncritical look at silent film comedies and thrillers from early in the century through the 1920s.
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Days of Thrills and Laughter
1925
Flower of Night
0/0
Triumph of the daughter of a cheated mine owner over a renegade and her love for the superintendent.
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Flower of Night
1933
Before Dawn
5.6/7
After the death of a gangster, those familiar with his million dollar stash start mysteriously dying. Police detectives with the help of a clairvoyant...
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Before Dawn
1926
Twinkletoes
7/2
"Twinkletoes" Minasi wants to be a great dancer like her deceased mother. Twink meets Chuck Lightfoot, a noted prizefighter, who falls in love with he...
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Twinkletoes
1933
Charlie Chan's Greatest Case
0/0
When a good-for-nothing man named Dan is stabbed to death and his arm broken, Charlie Chan is on the case. His first clue comes from the victim's sist...
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Charlie Chan's Greatest Case
1927
A Million Bid
0/0
To satisfy her controlling mother and secure both of their futures, a daughter hesitantly enters a loveless marriage to a wealthy businessman. Years l...
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A Million Bid
1929
The Mighty
5/2
In this melodrama set during WWI, a gangster joins the army and is promoted to major. He then returns from war torn Europe to tell a family that their...
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The Mighty
1930
Paramount on Parade
6.4/7
This 1930 film, a collection of songs and sketches showcasing Paramount Studios' contract stars, credits 11 directors
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Paramount on Parade
1933
How to Break 90 #3: Hip Action
0/0
Bobby Jones is playing golf with his buddies, oblivious to the fact that they are being watched by a drunken juggler.
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How to Break 90 #3: Hip Action
1916
Beatrice Fairfax
5/1
Beatrice Fairfax, the original advice-to-the-lovelorn reporter and her friend and not-so-secret admirer Jimmy Barton investigate calls for help and es...
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Beatrice Fairfax
1919
The Twin Pawns
5.7/3
A drama about twin sisters Daisy and Violet, who grow up unaware of each other's existence, one with their wealthy father and the other with their poo...
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The Twin Pawns
1931
Charlie Chan Carries On
6.5/2
Charlie steps in to solve the murder of a wealthy American found dead in a London hotel. Settings include London, Nice, San Remo, Honolulu and Hong Ko...
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Charlie Chan Carries On
2003
Complicated Women
6.7/11
Looks at the stereotype-breaking films of the period from 1929, when movies entered the sound era, until 1934 when the Hays Code virtually neutered fi...
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Complicated Women
1927
What Happened To Father
0/0
Film was released in 1927
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What Happened To Father
1922
East Is West
0/0
She'd wink till hearts went on the blink. And staid professors couldn't think. And everywhere they'd stop to stare. And say "Some Chink!" when Ming To...
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East Is West
1921
Hurricane Hutch
6/1
Story concerns a paper mill, a mortgage and the struggle to obtain the lost formula for making paper from seaweed. Star is given opportunity to introd...
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Hurricane Hutch
1923
His Children's Children
0/0
Follows three generations of the Mayne family through the year 1921-22. The 81-year-old patriarch reminisces about his rough beginnings in post-Civil...
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His Children's Children
1922
The Pride of Palomar
6/1
A soldier inaccurately reported as dead returns home to his Spanish family’s estate in California, only to find his father deceased and his ancestral...
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The Pride of Palomar
1916
The Eternal Question
0/0
Pierre Felix, a couturier, makes a $25,000 bet with Ralph Courtland that he can take a girl from the streets, dress her appropriately, and within thre...
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The Eternal Question
1925
Infatuation
0/0
Infatuation is based on Caesar's Wife, a story by Somerset Maugham. Dazzlingly British socialite Viola Morgan falls madly in love with professional so...
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Infatuation
1915
Destruction
1/1
Fernande marries a man and schemes to get his wealth when his expected death occurs. But he dies before he can change his will. She next tries to kill...
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Destruction
1924
The Fighting American
5.5/2
On the wager that he will propose marriage to any girl selected by his fraternity brothers, Bill finds himself making love to Mary, an old-fashioned g...
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The Fighting American
1920
The Third Eye
0/0
A pretty movie star is stalked by a strange gang whose leader is infatuated with her in this superior Pathé serial written by genre specialist H.H. va...
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The Third Eye
1919
The Witness for the Defense
6.3/3
Stella Derrick and Dick Hazelwood love each other, but their families want them to make better financial matches.
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The Witness for the Defense
1915
Sin
0/0
Italian peasant girl deserts her fiancé for wealthy gangster and departs for America.
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Sin
1918
The Yellow Ticket
0/0
Anna Mirrel, a young Jewish girl in Czarist Russia, is forced to degrade herself in order to visit her father, whom she believes to be ill. She obtain...
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The Yellow Ticket
1920
The Phantom Foe
0/0
Janet Dale feels that there is a danger looming over her home but cannot put her finger on what it is. Days later her father disappears at her 18th bi...
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The Phantom Foe
1924
So This Is Marriage?
0/0
The only known copy of this film copy was reported to have been destroyed in the 1967 MGM Vault fire.
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So This Is Marriage?
1999
Monster by Moonlight! The Immortal Saga of 'The Wolf Man'
6.9/9
Starting with "The Wolf Man" (in 1941), Universal Studios made five movies featuring The Wolf Man, a character portrayed by Lon Chaney, Jr. Monster by...
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Monster by Moonlight! The Immortal Saga of 'The Wolf Man'
1915
The Romance of Elaine
0/0
The heroine had little time for romancing newspaper reporter Walter Jameson, what with Doctor X, alias Marcus Del Mar, threatening American democracy...
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The Romance of Elaine
1925
The Winding Stair
0/0
Paul is a fearless French Foreign Legion officer. Ordered to quell a native uprising at a far-away outpost, he discovers that the revolt is actually a...
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The Winding Stair
1926
Man of the Forest
0/0
Nancy Raynor (Georgia Hale) is arriving from the East to see her dying uncle. Clint Beasley (Oland) and his gang are determined to kidnap her before s...
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Man of the Forest
1918
The Naulahka
0/0
Trying to win the Three C's railroad line for his home town of Topaz, Colorado, Nicholas "Nick" Tarvin journeys to India to secure the famed jewel kno...
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The Naulahka
1934
As Husbands Go
0/0
As Husbands Go charts the romantic misadventures of Lucille Lingard .
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As Husbands Go
2019
Yellowface: Asian Whitewashing and Racism in Hollywood
6/4
A history of anti-Asian racism and yellowface in Hollywood after the 1941 Pearl Harbor attack.
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Yellowface: Asian Whitewashing and Racism in Hollywood
1919
The Avalanche
0/0
A woman with a gambling addiction finds that her daughter is threatened by the same tendencies.
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The Avalanche
1916
The Reapers
0/0
Albert Jordan, publishing house manager, lavishes his salary on his adored wife, Rita, and little daughter Edna. She is a churchgoing woman, while his...
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The Reapers
1912
Pilgrim's Progress
0/0
Consists of two parts: Part One: The Life of John Bunyon (2 reels); Part Two: The Pilgrim's Progress (3 reels).
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Pilgrim's Progress
1942
Screen Snapshots (Series 22, No. 10)
0/0
The edition of Screen Snapshots celebrates 25 years of production. It looks at the content of edition #1, then a tribute to movie people who have died...
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Screen Snapshots (Series 22, No. 10)
1979
The Horror Show
6/2
A history of horror movies.
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The Horror Show
1927
Sailor Izzy Murphy
0/0
Izzy Murphy is a street vendor of scents that falls in love with the beautiful woman (Audrey Ferris) whose picture adorns the perfume bottle he sells....
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Sailor Izzy Murphy
1928
Wheel of Chance
0/0
A Russian family, the Turkeltaubs, emigrates to the US before the Communist revolution that overthrew the Czar. One of their twin sons, Schulke, disap...
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Wheel of Chance
2006
In Search of Charlie Chan
7/1
A documentary on the creation of the popular Charlie Chan detective character as well as the history of Chan films of the 1930s.
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