The Courage of Marge O'Doone | |
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Directed by | David Smith |
Written by | Robert N. Bradbury James Oliver Curwood (novel) |
Produced by | Albert E. Smith |
Starring | Pauline Starke Niles Welch Billie Bennett Boris Karloff |
Production company | Vitagraph Company of America |
Release date |
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Running time | 70 minutes (7 reels) |
Country | United States |
Language | Silent (English intertitles) |
The Courage of Marge O'Doone is a 1920 American silent drama film directed by David Smith and featuring Pauline Starke, Billie Bennett, Niles Welch and Boris Karloff (as Buck Tavish, a mountain man). It was written by Robert N. Bradbury, based on the novel by James Oliver Curwood. [1] The film is considered to be lost. [2]
Michael O'Doone (George Stanley), his wife Margaret (Billie Bennett) and daughter Marge (Pauline Starke) are settlers living in the Northwest. While traveling on a winter day, Michael meets with an accident and never returns home. Thinking that her husband is dead, Margaret begins to lose her grip on sanity which enables Buck Tavish (Boris Karloff), a mountain man who always admired her, to abduct her and take her to his cabin. When she finally regains her senses, she departs on a search for Michael O'Doone, leaving her daughter Marge behind. At one point in the film, there is a scene where two large ferocious grizzly bears fight with each other, a highlight of the movie.
Years later, David Raine (Niles Welch) comes across a young girl's photograph and determines to find her. Soon after, he meets Rolland, a man who spends much of his life helping others. While searching in the wilderness, David finally finds the girl in the picture, who turns out to be Marge O'Doone. He brings her to Rolland's cabin and there they discover to her surprise that Rolland is actually her missing father Michael O'Doone. Miraculously, the whole family is reunited when her mother Margaret is found soon after.
William Henry Pratt, known professionally as Boris Karloff and occasionally billed as Karloff the Uncanny, was an English actor. His portrayal of Frankenstein's monster in the horror film Frankenstein (1931), his 82nd film, established him as a horror icon, and he reprised the role for the sequels Bride of Frankenstein (1935) and Son of Frankenstein (1939). He also appeared as Imhotep in The Mummy (1932), and voiced the Grinch in, as well as narrating, the animated television special of Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (1966), which won him a Grammy Award.
James Oliver Curwood was an American action-adventure writer and conservationist. His books were often based on adventures set in the Hudson Bay area, the Yukon or Alaska and ranked among the top-ten best sellers in the United States in the early and mid 1920s, according to Publishers Weekly. At least one hundred and eighty motion pictures have been based on or directly inspired by his novels and short stories; one was produced in three versions from 1919 to 1953. At the time of his death, Curwood was the highest paid author in the world.
Boris Karloff (1887–1969) was an English actor. He became known for his role as Frankenstein's monster in the 1931 Frankenstein, leading to a long career in film, radio, and television.
Black Friday is a 1940 American science fiction horror film starring Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi.
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Pauline Starke was an American silent-film actress.
Niles Eugene Welch was an American performer on Broadway, and a leading man in a number of silent and early talking motion pictures from the early 1910s through the 1930s.
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Billie Bennett was an American film actress of the silent era. She appeared in more than 50 films between 1913 and 1930. She was born in Evansville, Indiana, and died in Los Angeles, California.
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David Smith was an English film director and cinematographer of the silent era. He directed more than 70 films between 1915 and 1927. He was born in Faversham, Kent, and died in Santa Barbara, California. He was the older brother of Albert E. Smith, one of the co-founders of the Vitagraph Studios.
The Cave Girl is a 1921 American silent drama film directed by Joseph J. Franz and featuring Teddie Gerard, Charles Meredith, Lillian Tucker and Boris Karloff in an early film role. The source for the William Parker screenplay was the stage play of the same name by George Middleton and Guy Bolton. The film's tagline was "A Romance of Silent Trails and Rushing Waters... A Drama of Youth Gone Wild... Enacted in the Yosemite Valley in the Middle of Winter.". The film is presumed lost.
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