While New York Sleeps | |
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Directed by | Charles Brabin |
Written by | Charles Brabin Thomas Fallon |
Produced by | William Fox Fox Film company |
Cinematography | George W. Lane Bennie Miggins |
Distributed by | Fox Film Corporation |
Release date |
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Running time | 8 reels at 7,516 ft. |
Country | United States |
Language | Silent (English intertitles) |
While New York Sleeps is a 1920 American crime drama film produced by Fox Film Corporation and directed by Charles Brabin, who was the husband of actress Theda Bara. The film tells three distinct episodic stories using the same actors, Estelle Taylor and Marc McDermott. Long thought to be a lost film like many other Fox Film productions from this period, a copy of this movie is now in the collection of the UCLA Film and Television Archive. [1]
As described in a film magazine, [2] [3] in the first story a suburban wife (Taylor) has married a wealthy man (Locke) in the belief that her first husband (McDermott), a cad, had been killed. While the second husband is away, her first husband appears and demands money for his silence. A struggle ensues after a burglar (Southern) enters the home to rob it, and the burglar shoots the first husband. The wife, hearing her second husband arriving in his car, takes the revolver in her hand as the burglar escapes, telling her second husband that she shot a burglar (the body of her first husband). The second episode is a recital of the badger game with the vamp (Taylor), the man (McDermott), and his friend (Southern), and includes a scene depicting the Frolic at Ziegfeld Follies. The third episode involves a tragedy that takes place in New York's Lower East Side.
According to author Aubrey Solomon, this film was Fox's biggest moneymaker for the year 1920 with a profit of $192,000. [4] While this would seem to conflict with the enormous success of Fox's Over the Hill to the Poorhouse (1920), the latter film did not achieve its largest rentals until it went into full release in 1921. [5]
Theda Bara was an American silent film and stage actress.
Ida Estelle Taylor was an American actress, singer, model, and animal rights activist who was the second of world heavyweight champion Jack Dempsey's four wives. With "dark-brown, almost black hair and brown eyes," she was regarded as one of the most beautiful silent film stars of the 1920s.
Charles Brabin was a British-American film director.
The Soul of Buddha is a 1918 American silent romance film directed by J. Gordon Edwards and starring Theda Bara, who also wrote the film's story. The film was produced by Fox Film Corporation and shot at the Fox Studio in Fort Lee, New Jersey.
Blind Wives is a 1920 American silent drama film produced and distributed by Fox Film Corporation and directed by Charles Brabin. The film reunites director Brabin with the stars of his previous success While New York Sleeps, Marc McDermott and Estelle Taylor. The film is based on a 1914 Broadway stage play by Edward Knoblock, My Lady's Dress which starred Mary Boland. This film survives in prints held by George Eastman House and by the Library of Congress.
Nobody Home is a 1919 American silent comedy film starring Dorothy Gish and Ralph Graves. "Rudolph Valentine" had an early role. Its working title was Out of Luck. This is now considered to be a lost film.
Wealth is a 1921 American silent drama film directed by William Desmond Taylor, written by Cosmo Hamilton and Julia Crawford Ivers, and starring Ethel Clayton, Herbert Rawlinson, J.M. Dumont, Larry Steers, George Periolat, and Claire McDowell. It was released on August 21, 1921, by Paramount Pictures. It is not known whether the film currently survives, and it may be a lost film.
A Homespun Vamp is a 1922 American silent drama film directed by Frank O'Connor and written by Harvey F. Thew and Hector Turnbull. The film stars May McAvoy, Darrell Foss, Lincoln Stedman, Josephine Crowell, Charles Stanton Ogle, Guy Oliver and Helen Dunbar. The film was released on February 12, 1922, by Paramount Pictures.
Mary of the Movies is a 1923 American silent semi-autobiographical comedy film based on the career of Marion Mack. It was written by Mack and her husband Louis Lewyn, and stars Mack and Creighton Hale. Hale and director John McDermott play fictionalized versions of themselves in the film, which was also directed by McDermott.
Kathleen Mavourneen is a lost 1919 American silent drama film directed by Charles J. Brabin and starring his wife Theda Bara. It was produced and distributed by Fox Film Corporation. A much filmed story based on the poem, Kathleen Mavourneen, by Annie Crawford and play by Dion Boucicault.
The Untamed is a 1920 American silent Western film directed by Emmett J. Flynn and starring Tom Mix, Pauline Starke, and George Siegmann. It was based on a novel of the same name by Max Brand and was remade as a sound film Fair Warning in 1931.
The Last Straw is a 1920 American silent Western film directed by Denison Clift and Charles Swickard and starring Buck Jones, Vivian Rich, and Jane Talent. It cost $31,000 to make, considerably exceeding its planned budget. It was Jones' first starring role.
The Iron Heart is a 1920 American silent drama film directed by Denison Clift and starring Madlaine Traverse, George A. McDaniel, and Edwin B. Tilton.
Manhattan Madness is a 1925 American silent drama film directed by John McDermott and starring Jack Dempsey and Estelle Taylor, a then real life husband and wife duo. It was produced by Fine Arts Pictures and distributed through Associated Exhibitors. This film is a remake of Douglas Fairbanks's 1916 film Manhattan Madness.
A Stage Romance is a 1922 American silent historical drama film directed by Herbert Brenon and starring William Farnum, Peggy Shaw, and Holmes Herbert.
Roughshod is a 1922 American silent Western film directed by B. Reeves Eason and starring Buck Jones, Helen Ferguson, and Ruth Renick.
Pawn Ticket 210 is a 1922 American silent drama film directed by Scott R. Dunlap and starring Shirley Mason, Robert Agnew, and Irene Hunt.
The Net is a 1923 American silent melodrama film directed by J. Gordon Edwards and starring Barbara Castleton, Raymond Bloomer, and Albert Roscoe. It is a film adaptation of the 1919 Broadway play of the same name, itself based on the novel The Woman's Law by Maravene Thompson. The film depicts the story of Allayne Norman (Castleton) and her husband Bruce (Bloomer). Bruce commits murder and convinces Allayne to help him blame the crime on a man suffering from amnesia (Roscoe). After Bruce dies and the man recovers, he marries Allayne.
Three Miles Out is a 1924 American silent drama film directed by Irvin Willat and starring Madge Kennedy, Harrison Ford, and Marc McDermott. The title of the film refers to the three-mile limit which formerly defined the territorial waters of the United States.
The Lights of New York is a 1922 American silent drama film directed by Charles Brabin and starring Clarence Nordstrom, Margaret Seddon and Frank Currier.