The Big Parade is a 1925 American silent war drama film directed by King Vidor, starring John Gilbert, Renée Adorée, Hobart Bosworth, Tom O'Brien, and Karl Dane. Written by World War I veteran Laurence Stallings, the film is about an idle rich boy who joins the U.S. Army's Rainbow Division, is sent to France to fight in World War I, becomes a friend of two working-class men, experiences the horrors of trench warfare, and finds love with a French girl. A sound version of the film was released in 1930. While the sound version of the film has no audible dialog, it featured a synchronized musical score with sound effects using both the sound-on-disc and sound-on-film process.
José Ramón Gil Samaniego, known professionally as Ramon Novarro, was a Mexican-American actor. He began his career in silent films in 1917 and eventually became a leading man and one of the top box-office attractions of the 1920s and early 1930s. Novarro was promoted by MGM as a "Latin lover" and became known as a sex symbol after the death of Rudolph Valentino. He is recognized as the first Latin American actor to succeed in Hollywood.
The Viking is a 1928 American synchronized sound drama film. While the film has no audible dialog, it was released with a synchronized musical score with sound effects using the sound-on-film Western Electric Sound System process. This film was the first feature-length Technicolor film that featured a soundtrack, and it was the first film made in Technicolor's Process 3. It stars Pauline Starke, Donald Crisp, and LeRoy Mason. The film is loosely based on the 1902 novel The Thrall of Leif the Lucky by Ottilie A. Liljencrantz. The Viking was directed by Roy William Neill.
The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg, also known as The Student Prince and Old Heidelberg, is a 1927 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer silent drama film based on the 1901 play Old Heidelberg by Wilhelm Meyer-Förster. It was directed by Ernst Lubitsch, and stars Ramon Novarro and Norma Shearer.
Dorothy Janis was an American actress.
Call of the Flesh is a 1930 American Pre-Code musical film directed by Charles Brabin. The film stars Ramon Novarro, Dorothy Jordan, and Renée Adorée. It featured several songs performed by Novarro and originally included a sequence photographed in Technicolor.
Romola is a 1924 American silent drama film directed by Henry King and shot on location in Italy. The film stars Lillian Gish, Dorothy Gish, William Powell, and Ronald Colman, and is based on the 1863 George Eliot novel of the same name.
The Mating Call is a 1928 American silent drama film about a soldier who returns home from World War I to find his marriage has been annulled and his wife has remarried. Due to the public apathy towards silent films, a sound version was also prepared. While the sound version 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 was produced by Howard Hughes for his Caddo Corporation, and was originally released by Paramount Pictures. It is based on the novel of the same name by Rex Beach. Renée Adorée has a brief nude scene in the film.
Renée Adorée was a French stage and film actress who appeared in Hollywood silent movies during the 1920s. She is best known for portraying the role of Melisande, the love interest of John Gilbert in the melodramatic romance and war epic The Big Parade. Adorée‘s career was cut short after she contracted tuberculosis in 1930. She died of the disease in 1933 at the age of 35.
Devil-May-Care is a 1929 American Pre-Code musical film directed by Sidney Franklin with a Technicolor sequence of the Albertina Rasch Dancers. The film was released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer on December 27, 1929 and was Ramon Novarro's talkie debut.
The Bandolero is a lost 1924 American drama film starring Pedro de Cordoba, Gustav von Seyffertitz, and Renée Adorée and directed by Tom Terriss. The screenplay is by Tom Terriss based on a novel by Paul Gwynne.
A Certain Young Man is a 1928 comedy film directed by Hobart Henley. The film stars Ramon Novarro, Marceline Day, Renée Adorée, Carmel Myers and Bert Roach. The film is considered lost. A trailer for the film is preserved at the Library of Congress.
Trifling Women is a 1922 American silent romantic drama film directed by Rex Ingram. It is credited with boosting the careers of its leads, Barbara La Marr and Ramon Novarro. It has been described as Ingram's most personal film.
Son of India is a 1931 American pre-Code romance film directed by Jacques Feyder and starring Ramón Novarro and Madge Evans. The film is based on the 1882 novel Mr. Isaacs written by Francis Marion Crawford.
What Every Woman Knows is a 1934 American romantic comedy film directed by Gregory La Cava and starring Helen Hayes, Brian Aherne and Madge Evans. The film was produced and distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and is based on the play What Every Woman Knows (1908) by J. M. Barrie. It was filmed by Paramount back in the silent era in 1921 and stars Lois Wilson. An even earlier British silent version was filmed in 1917. Hayes was familiar with the material as she had starred in a 1926 Broadway revival opposite Kenneth MacKenna.
The Cossacks is a 1928 American silent drama film produced and distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) and directed by George Hill and Clarence Brown. Due to the public apathy towards silent films, a sound version was also prepared. While the sound version 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 stars John Gilbert and Renée Adorée and is based on the 1863 novel The Cossacks by Leo Tolstoy.
The Flying Fleet is a 1929 synchronized sound romantic drama film directed by George W. Hill and starring Ramon Novarro, Ralph Graves, and Anita Page. 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. Two United States Navy officers are rivals for the love of the same woman.
Forbidden Hours is a 1928 American silent romantic drama film directed by Harry Beaumont as a vehicle for Mexican-born star Ramon Novarro. It was the second of four films to pair Novarro with leading lady Renée Adorée.
Huddle is a 1932 American pre-Code sports drama film directed by Sam Wood and starring Ramon Novarro, Madge Evans, Ralph Graves and Una Merkel. This was the first of two films Ramon Novarro would make in 1932, and his first after appearing in the acclaimed, successful Mata Hari.
Mother Knows Best is a 1928 American sound part-talkie film directed by John G. Blystone, based on a novel by Edna Ferber, fictionalizing the life of vaudevillian Elsie Janis. The film was Fox's first part talkie, using the Movietone sound system which had primarily been used for synchronised music scores and effects tracks in Fox features beforehand, although as early as "Mother Machree" (1928), a single synchronous singing sequence was included in the film. The talking sequences in Mother Knows Best were directed by actor Charles Judels, while the synchronized sequences were directed by John G. Blystone. The film starred Madge Bellamy, with Louise Dresser as her domineering mother, Barry Norton, and Albert Gran.
