Robert Florey was a French-American director, screenwriter, film journalist and actor.
The Bat is a 1926 American silent comedy mystery film directed by Roland West and starring Jack Pickford and Louise Fazenda. The film is based on the 1920 Broadway hit play The Bat by Mary Roberts Rinehart and Avery Hopwood.
The Last Warning is a 1928 sound part-talkie American mystery film directed by Paul Leni, and starring Laura La Plante, Montagu Love, and Margaret Livingston. 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 apparently only survives in a cut-down edited silent version which was made for theaters that had not yet converted to sound. The soundtrack for the sound version, which was also released on sound-on-disc format, survives in private hands on Vitaphone type discs.
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).
The American Releasing Corporation was an American film distribution company active during the silent era. The company was founded in 1920, but was primarily active from 1922 until 1923, producing or handling films of a generally higher quality than many independent studios who specialized in Poverty Row second features.
Bradley Barker was an American actor and film director of the silent era. He also created sound effects for film and radio.
Shorty Hamilton was an American actor and silent film comedian who appeared in more than 80 films, mostly westerns, from 1909 to 1925. His birth name was William John Schroeder, and he was also known as "Jack Hamilton." He had served in the United States Cavalry for several years and worked as a cowboy in Montana and Texas. He was best known for the "Adventures of Shorty" series of two-reel silent films that were released from 1912 to 1917.
On August 10, 1965, a fire erupted in Vault 7, a storage facility at the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studio (MGM) backlot in Culver City, California. It was caused by an electrical short that ignited flammable stored nitrate film. The initial explosion reportedly killed at least one person, and the resulting fire destroyed the entire contents of the vault, which included archived prints of silent and early sound films produced by MGM and its predecessors. The only known copies of hundreds of films were destroyed.
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.
Murder with Pictures is a 1936 American crime-mystery film based on a story by George Harmon Coxe. The film was directed by Charles Barton, the screenplay was written by Jack Moffitt and Sidney Salkow. Lew Ayres starred as Kent Murdock, Gail Patrick starred as Meg Archer; Paul Kelly and Benny Baker also appeared in the film. The film was released September 25, 1936.
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.
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.
Sam Baker, born Samuel D. Baker, was an American actor who usually performed with Rudolph Valentino, Ramon Novarro, Harold Lloyd and Charlie Chaplin.
Arthur Ashley was an actor, writer, and director of silent films and also acted in legitimate theater. He was involved with World Pictures. He directed and acted in several film productions. Later in his career he established his own stock company for theatrical productions.
Enlighten Thy Daughter is a 1934 American drama film directed by John Varley and starring Herbert Rawlinson, Charles Eaton and Claire Whitney. It was shot at the Photocolor Studios in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York. It is a remake of the 1917 silent film of the same title by Ivan Abramson.
Playgoers Pictures was an American film production and distribution company active between 1921 and 1923 during the silent era. Unlike many other independent companies it concentrated on a variety of genres rather than just westerns. The 1921 film Tropical Love was one of the first to be shot in Puerto Rico. It also released several British films including The Pauper Millionaire. Norma Shearer starred in the 1923 film A Clouded Name while other actors appearing in the company's films include Dolores Cassinelli, Marjorie Daw, Fred Niblo, Lillian Lorraine, Wyndham Standing, Noah Beery, Dorothy Mackaill and Reginald Denny.
Arthur Reeves (1892–1954) was an American cinematographer active in the silent and early sound era. He began his career at the Chicago-based Essanay and went on to work for a variety of other studios including Metro, Universal and FBO Pictures.
Behind the Curtain is a 1924 American silent mystery crime film directed by Chester M. Franklin and starring Lucille Ricksen, John Harron and Winifred Bryson. It was produced and distributed by Universal Pictures. It was based on a story by William J. Flynn, a former Director of the Bureau of Investigation.
