King Wallis Vidor was an American film director, film producer, and screenwriter whose 67-year film-making career successfully spanned the silent and sound eras. His works are distinguished by a vivid, humane, and sympathetic depiction of contemporary social issues. Considered an auteur director, Vidor approached multiple genres and allowed the subject matter to determine the style, often pressing the limits of film-making conventions.
Sunset Boulevard is a 1950 American black comedy film noir directed and co-written by Billy Wilder, and produced and co-written by Charles Brackett. It was named after a major street that runs through Hollywood, the center of the American film industry.
Marion Davies was an American actress, producer, screenwriter, and philanthropist. Educated in a religious convent, Davies fled the school to pursue a career as a chorus girl. As a teenager, she appeared in several Broadway musicals and one film, Runaway Romany (1917). She soon became a featured performer in the Ziegfeld Follies.
Charles William Haines was an American actor and interior designer.
Hollywood is a British television documentary miniseries produced by Thames Television and originally broadcast on ITV in 1980. Written and directed by film historians Kevin Brownlow and David Gill, it explored the establishment and development of the Hollywood studios and their cultural impact during the silent film era of the 1910s and '20s. At the 1981 BAFTA TV Awards, the series won for Best Original Television Music and was nominated for Best Factual Series, Best Film Editing and Best Graphics.
The Extra Girl is a 1923 American silent comedy film directed by F. Richard Jones and starring Mabel Normand. Produced by Mack Sennett, The Extra Girl followed earlier films about the film industry and also paved the way for later films about Hollywood, such as King Vidor's Show People (1928). It was still unusual in 1923 for filmmakers to make a film about the southern California film industry, then little more than ten years old. Still, many of the Hollywood clichés of small town girls travelling to Hollywood to become film stars are here to reinforce the myths of "Tinseltown".
Cain and Mabel is a 1936 American romantic comedy film directed by Lloyd Bacon and designed as a vehicle for Marion Davies in which she co-stars with Clark Gable. The story had been filmed before, in 1924, by William Randolph Hearst's production company, Cosmopolitan, as a silent called The Great White Way, starring Anita Stewart and Oscar Shaw. In this version, Robert Paige introduced the song "I'll Sing You a Thousand Love Songs", with music by Harry Warren and words by Al Dubin, who also wrote "Coney Island", "Here Comes Chiquita", and other songs.
The Red Mill is a 1927 American silent comedy film directed by Roscoe Arbuckle that starred Marion Davies and was produced by King Vidor. Although Arbuckle was acquitted in the third trial for the death of Virginia Rappe, he could not obtain work in Hollywood under his own name, so he adopted the pseudonym William Goodrich for directing the comedy shorts he made under his contract with Educational Film Exchanges.
Wine of Youth is a 1924 American silent comedy drama film directed by King Vidor, and released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, shortly after the merger which created MGM in April 1924. Vidor did not consider it important enough to mention in his autobiography, although it did advance the careers of three young stars-to-be: Ben Lyon, Eleanor Boardman, and William Haines.
The Wife of the Centaur is a 1924 American silent drama film directed by King Vidor, and released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer shortly after it formed from a merger of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures, and Mayer Pictures in April 1924. Metro had acquired the movie rights to Cyril Hume's debut novel Wife of a Centaur in November. A novelist imagines that he has been reincarnated as a creature from Greek mythology and becomes entangled in a love triangle.
The Patsy is a 1928 American silent comedy-drama film directed by King Vidor, co-produced by and starring Marion Davies for Cosmopolitan Productions, and released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It was based on a play of the same name by Barry Conners, and served as Marie Dressler's comeback film after a long slump in her film career. Davies played the dowdy and downtrodden Patricia, the younger daughter in a household ruled by an imperious mother (Dressler) and selfish sister.
Cosmopolitan Productions, also often referred to as Cosmopolitan Pictures, was an American film company based in New York City from 1918 to 1923 and Hollywood until 1938.
Not So Dumb is a 1930 pre-Code comedy motion picture starring Marion Davies, directed by King Vidor, and produced for Cosmopolitan Productions for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
Zander the Great is a 1925 American silent comedy drama film directed by George W. Hill, in his first directing role for MGM. The film stars Marion Davies. The screenplay by Frances Marion is based upon the Edward Salisbury Field 1923 play of the same name.
The Fair Co-Ed, also known as The Varsity Girl, is a 1927 American silent film comedy starring Marion Davies and released through MGM. The film was produced by William Randolph Hearst, through Cosmopolitan Productions and directed by Sam Wood. The film was released in a sound version in 1928 with a synchronized musical score with sound effects.
Peggy is a 1916 American silent comedy film produced and directed by Thomas Ince and stars Billie Burke in her motion picture debut.
The Bride's Play is a 1922 American silent romance film produced by William Randolph Hearst as a starring vehicle for Marion Davies. It was directed by George Terwilliger and distributed by Paramount Pictures. It is an extant film that is preserved at the Library of Congress.
Tillie the Toiler is a 1927 American silent film comedy produced by Cosmopolitan Productions and released through Metro Goldwyn Mayer studios. It is based on Russ Westover's popular comic strip Tillie the Toiler. The film was directed by Hobart Henley and stars Marion Davies.
A Man's Man is a lost 1929 synchronized sound film produced and distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and directed by James Cruze. While the film has no audible dialog, it was released with a synchronized musical score with sound effects using both the sound-on-disc and sound-on-film process. The film starred William Haines and Josephine Dunn. It was based on a Broadway play, A Man's Man by Patrick Kearney. Greta Garbo and John Gilbert notably appear in a cameo. The film is believed to be lost, although the Vitaphone type sound discs exist and are currently held at the UCLA Film and Television Archive.
How to Handle Women is a 1928 American silent comedy film directed by William James Craft and starring Glenn Tryon. Bela Lugosi had a brief uncredited role as a diplomatic aide, and Krazy Kat cartoonist George Herriman played himself in a cameo appearance. It also featured Bull Montana and Cesare Gravina. It was produced and distributed by Universal Pictures. The film had several working titles: Fresh Every Hour, The Prince of Peanuts, Meet the Prince, The Prince of Knuts and Three Days.
