Tag Archives: Sidney Franklin

The story of a farmer in China: a story of humility and bravery. His father gives Wang Lung a freed slave as wife. Read More »

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There is a big charity function at the house of Mrs. Cheyney and a lot of society is present. Read More »

Elyot and Sibyl are being married in a big church ceremony. Amanda and Victor are being married by a French Justice of the Peace. Read More »

The daughter of a Chinese mandarin is sentenced to death for her secret marriage to an American. Their child, raised in the mandarin’s palace, grows up and escapes to seek her father, now a high-ranking official in the Philippines.
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Kitty Vane, Alan Trent, and Gerald Shannon have been inseparable friends since childhood. Kitty has always known she would marry one of them, but has waited until the beginning of World War I before finally choosing Alan. Gerald graciously gives them his blessing. Then, Gerald and Alan go to war. Angered over a misunderstanding involving Alan and Kitty, Gerald sends Alan on a dangerous mission that will change all their lives forever.
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Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp was another of Fox’s lavishly produced “Sunset Kiddies” series, wherein most of the principal roles were enacted by children. In this case, Aladdin is portrayed by juvenile performer Francis Carpenter, while other key roles were filled by such stars-in-the-making as Virginia Lee Corbin, Gertrude Messenger and Buddy Messenger and Lewis Sargent. The film was by no means a parody: the youthful performers played their parts with utmost sincerity, and most effectively. As was traditional in the “Sunset Kiddies” films, a few adult performers were scattered throughout the proceedings, notably Elmo Lincoln, the screen’s first Tarzan, who here portrayed the towering Genie of the Lamp. Unfortunately, none of the “Sunset Kiddies” efforts is currently available for reappraisal.
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Silent screen heartthrob Ramon Novarro (Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ) sounds off in his all-talking debut, a romantic musical adventure directed by Sidney Franklin. When Napoleon is exiled to Elba, loyal officer Armand de Tr?ville (Novarro) manages to elude the firing squad only to find his heart captured by Leonie de Beaufort (Dorothy Jordan), the lovely Royalist who turns him in. Making a daring escape, Armand hides with the Countess Louise (Marion Harris), unaware that Leonie is her cousin. Leonie’s sudden arrival forces him to choose between love and war as he awaits the emperor’s return. Featuring a two-color Technicolor® ballet sequence scored by future Oscar®-winner* Dimitri Tiomkin, plus seven new songs by Herbert Stothart and Clifford Grey, Devil-MayCare was one of M-G-M’s earliest musicals, a box-office hit that ensured that Novarro’s career as a leading man would continue well into the ’30s.
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John has lead a solitary life for thirty years since the death of Moonyeen Clare. But now Owens, a close friend, insists that he care for his niece, Kathleen, orphaned when her parents were lost at sea. Kathleen is five, but the years pass and now she is a young woman who is the image of Moonyeen. Willy wants Kathleen for his wife, but Sparks fly when she meets Kenneth Wayne one dark and stormy night. John is horrified for it was Wayne’s father who shot Moonyeen dead on her wedding day and John has never found him or forgiven the family. When Ken goes off to war, John forbids any marriage and Ken agrees, while Kathleen does not. When Ken returns four years later when the war is over, he is crippled. He conceals his condition and makes plans to leave for America.
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In 1845 London, the Barrett family is ruled with an iron fist by its stern widowed patriarch, Edward Moulton-Barrett. His nine grown children are afraid of him more than they love him. One of his rules is that none of his children are allowed to marry, which does not sit well with youngest daughter Henrietta as she loves and wants to marry Captain Surtees Cook. Of the nine, the one exception is his daughter Elizabeth, who abides faithfully to her father’s wishes. Elizabeth does not think too much about the non-marriage rule as she has an unknown chronic illness which has kept her bedridden. She feels her life will not be a long one. With her time, she writes poetry, which she shares by correspondence with another young poet, Robert Browning. Elizabeth’s outlook on her life changes when she meets Mr. Browning for the first time, he who has fallen in love with her without even having met her. She, in return, falls in love with him after their meeting. With Mr. Browning’s love and …
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