The Magician is a 1926 American silent fantasy horror film directed by Rex Ingram about a magician's efforts to acquire the blood of a maiden for his experiments to create life. It was adapted by Ingram from the 1908 novel The Magician by W. Somerset Maugham. It stars Alice Terry, Paul Wegener and Iván Petrovich. Critic Carlos Clarens wrote that it was "perhaps the most elusive of lost films." However, since the time Clarens wrote this, various prints of the film have surfaced. Some have screened at independent movie festivals from 1993 onwards, and the film has also been shown on Turner Classic Movies. It remained commercially unavailable until being released on DVD in the Warner Brothers Archive Collection in 2011.
Eleanor Audley was an American actress with a distinctive voice and a diverse body of work. She played Oliver Douglas's mom, Eunice Douglas, on the CBS sitcom Green Acres (1965–1969), and provided two Disney animated classics with the voices of the two iconic villains: Lady Tremaine, Cinderella's evil stepmother in Cinderella (1950), and Maleficent, the wicked fairy in Sleeping Beauty (1959). She had roles in live-action films, but was most active in radio programs such as My Favorite Husband as Liz Cooper's mother-in-law, Mrs. Cooper, and Father Knows Best as the Anderson family's neighbor, Mrs. Smith. Audley's television appearances include those in I Love Lucy, The Dick Van Dyke Show, Mister Ed, Hazel, The Beverly Hillbillies, Pistols 'n' Petticoats, and My Three Sons.
The Bat is a 1959 American crime-mystery thriller starring Vincent Price and Agnes Moorehead. It is the fourth film adaptation of the story, which began as a 1908 novel The Circular Staircase by Mary Roberts Rinehart, which she later adapted into the 1920 play The Bat. The first film version of the play was the 1926 American silent film The Bat. The film version was adapted by playwright Crane Wilbur, who also directed.
The Cat and the Canary is a 1927 American silent comedy horror film directed by the German Expressionist filmmaker Paul Leni. An adaptation of John Willard's 1922 black-comedy play of the same name, the film stars Laura La Plante as Annabelle West, Forrest Stanley as Charlie Wilder, and Creighton Hale as Paul Jones. The plot revolves around the death of Cyrus West, who is Annabelle, Charlie, and Paul's uncle, and the reading of his will twenty years later. Annabelle inherits her uncle's fortune, but when she and her family spend the night in his haunted mansion, they are stalked by a mysterious figure. Meanwhile, a lunatic mainly known as the Cat escapes from an asylum and hides in the mansion.
Stella LeSaint was an American silent film actress.
Barbara Bedford was an American actress who appeared in dozens of silent movies. Her career declined after the introduction of sound, but she continued to appear in small roles until 1945.
The Gorilla is an American 1927 silent mystery film directed by Alfred Santell based on the play The Gorilla by Ralph Spence. It stars Charles Murray, Fred Kelsey, and Walter Pidgeon.
Edward T. Lowe Jr. was an American film writer, producer and editor. He wrote 120 films between years 1913–1947, produced 18 films and directed one: The Losing Game (1915).
Frederick J. Jackson, also known professionally as Fred Jackson and Frederick Jackson and under the pseudonym Victor Thorne, was an American author, playwright, screenwriter, novelist, and producer for both stage and film. A prolific writer of short stories and serialized novels, most of his non-theatre works were published in pulp magazines such as Detective Story Magazine and Argosy. Many of these stories were adapted into films by other writers.
Bradley Barker was an American actor and film director of the silent era. He also created sound effects for film and radio.
The Bat Whispers is a 1930 American pre-Code mystery film directed by Roland West, produced by Joseph M. Schenck, and released by United Artists. The film is based on the 1920 mystery play The Bat, written by Mary Roberts Rinehart and Avery Hopwood, and is the second film version by the same director, previously adapted in 1926. An early talkie and one of the first widescreen films, West financed the cinematography, which required two cameramen and several techniques. It was considered a lost film for many years, but was restored from duplicate filmstock in 1988.
Seven Footprints to Satan is a sound part-talkie 1929 American mystery film directed by Danish filmmaker Benjamin Christensen. Based on the 1928 story of the same name by Abraham Merritt, it stars Thelma Todd, Creighton Hale, William V. Mong and Sheldon Lewis. In addition to sequences with audible dialogue or talking sequences, the film features a synchronized musical score and sound effects along with English intertitles. The film survives at the Cineteca Italiana in an alternate sound version known as an International Sound Version. The sound disks for this foreign sound version are apparently not extant.
The Bat is a three-act play by Mary Roberts Rinehart and Avery Hopwood that was first produced by Lincoln Wagenhals and Collin Kemper in 1920. The story combines elements of mystery and comedy as Cornelia Van Gorder and guests spend a stormy night at her rented summer home, searching for stolen money they believe is hidden in the house, while they are stalked by a masked criminal known as "the Bat". The Bat's identity is revealed at the end of the final act.
The Circular Staircase is a mystery novel by American writer Mary Roberts Rinehart. The story follows dowager Rachel Innes as she thwarts a series of strange crimes at a summer house she has rented with her niece and nephew. The novel was Rinehart's first bestseller and established her as one of the era's most popular writers. The story was serialized in All-Story for five issues starting with the November 1907 issue, then published in book form by Bobbs-Merrill in 1908.
Aladdin's Other Lamp is a 1917 American fantasy-comedy silent film based on the play, The Dream Girl by Willard Mack. It was adapted for the screen by June Mathis and directed by John H. Collins. The film stars Viola Dana and Robert Walker, and was distributed by Metro Pictures Corp., a forerunner of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It is not known whether the film currently survives.
The Ancient Mariner is a 1925 American silent fantasy drama film based on the popular 1798 poem, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. The film was directed by Henry Otto and Chester Bennett, and it was adapted for the screen by Eve Unsell. The film stars Clara Bow, Gladys Brockwell, Nigel De Brulier and was distributed by Fox Film Corporation. The film is presumed to be lost.
Double Door is a 1934 American pre-Code thriller film directed by Charles Vidor, written by Jack Cunningham and Gladys Lehman, and starring Evelyn Venable, Mary Morris, Anne Revere, and Kent Taylor. The film follows a young bride who finds herself tormented by her wealthy husband's abusive spinster sister in their New York City mansion. It is based on the 1933 Broadway play of the same name by Elizabeth A. McFadden and was billed in the opening credits as "The play that made Broadway gasp". Both Morris and Revere reprised their Broadway roles in the film. Though Morris had a long stage career, this is her only film performance.
The Wizard is a lost 1927 American mystery film directed by Richard Rosson. The film is based on the 1911 story Balaoo by Gaston Leroux. The film is about Dr. Paul Coriolos who has grafted a human face onto an ape, and sends it out to capture people and bring them back to his home to be tortured and killed. Reporter Stanley Gordon is booked to a write-up on the mystery, and finds that Anne Webster and her father have been mysteriously disappeared from their dinner home. Gordon follows the clues to discover them at Coriolos's home.
The Circular Staircase is a 1915 mystery silent film directed by Edward LeSaint and starring Guy Oliver, Eugenie Besserrer, and Stella Razeto. The film was produced by the Selig Polyscope Company. It is based on the mystery novel of the same name by Mary Roberts Rinehart, which was originally published in five parts starting with the November 1907 issue of All-Story magazine. The film is now lost.
Edna Hunter was an American stage and film actress of the silent film era, who appeared in more than a dozen films between 1915 and 1918.
