William S. Hart
Actor · 1864 – 1946 · Newburgh, New York, USA
The first Western superstar, the taciturn Hart actually was a successful Shakespearean actor who played Messala in “Ben-Hur” on Broadway in 1899 before riding the range in movies. A longtime fan of the Old West, Hart was friends with Wyatt Earp and Bat Masterson. His film career began in 1914. After two supporting roles he gained fame as the lead in the feature-length western “The Bargain” shot on location at the Grand Canyon. Hart strove to make his westerns realistic with detailed attention played to costumes and props. Though Hart could be cast as a villain, he imbued all of his characters with honor and integrity. After making western shorts for producer Thomas Ince, he went to Famous Players-Lasky, which merged with Paramount Pictures in 1917. At Paramount he made such gritty feature westerns as “Square Deal Sanderson” and “The Toll Gate.” His star began to fade in the early 1920s when audiences grew tired of his moralistic Western tales. Not helping his career was his 1923 divorce from his wife, Winifred, who accused him of having two children by another woman. He made one last film, 1925’s “Tumbleweeds, which he financed himself. In 1939, the film was reissued this time with a prologue featuring a 75-year-old Hart shot on location at his ranch in Newhall talking about the West and his days in films. He died in 1946 at age 81. His home and ranch were turned into William S. Hart Park in Newhall.
Movies24
Movie7.1ComedyRomanceHollywood hopeful Peggy Pepper arrives at a major studio, from Georgia, to become a great dramatic star. Things don't go entirely according to plan.
Show People
1928 · 57 votes
Movie7.5DocumentaryA collection of film clips profiling animal actors.
It's Showtime
1976 · 2 votes
Movie8.5DocumentaryThe House That Shadows Built (1931) is a short feature, roughly 48 minutes long, from Paramount Pictures made to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the studio's founding in 1912. It was a promotional film for exhibitors and never had a regular theatrical release and includes a brief history of Paramount, interviews with various actors, and clips from upcoming projects (some of which never came to fruition). The title comes from a biography of Paramount founder Adolph Zukor, The House That Shadows Built (1928), by William Henry Irwin.
The House That Shadows Built
1931 · 2 votes
Movie7.0DocumentaryTV MovieA documentary of Hollywood's first great Latin Lover, the contradictions in his personal life, and his premature death.
The Legend of Rudolph Valentino
1961 · 1 votes
Movie6.0DocumentaryA parade highlights the Screen Actors Guild's Film Stars Frolic, hosted by Walter Winchell as Master of Ceremonies.
The Hollywood Gad-About
1934 · 3 votes
Movie6.0AdventureDramaIn this 1918 film, newly restored by MoMA, Hart is a ship's captain in the Pacific Northwest who abandons his post to pursue a woman who does not love him (MacDonald) across the Klondike, eventually rescuing her from the grip of a white slaver.
Shark Monroe
1918 · 1 votes
- MovieWestern
Jim Cameron becomes desperate at his failure to get work, and resolves to hold up the stage in order to provide necessities for his wife and sick child, Mildred.
Movie7.0DocumentaryHedda Hopper guides us through some of Hollywood's sights; the home of William S. Hart and a Kay Kyser recording-session being among them.
Hedda Hopper's Hollywood No. 1
1941 · 1 votes
Movie9.0ComedyDramaAngela comes to Hollywood with only two things: Her dream to become a movie star, and Grandpa. She leaves an Aunt, a brother, Grandma, and her longtime boyfriend back in Centerville. Despite seeing major movie stars around every corner, and knocking on every casting office door in town, at the end of her first day she is still unemployed. To her horror, when she arrives back at their hotel, she finds that Grandpa has been cast in a movie by William DeMille and quickly becomes a star during the ensuing weeks. Her family, worried that Angela and Grandpa are getting into trouble, come to Hollywood to drag them back home. In short order Aunt, Grandma, brother, boyfriend and even the parrot become superstars, but Angela is still unemployed...
Hollywood
1923 · 3 votes
Movie6.5AdventureDramaFormer crook 'Square' Kelly serves in the First World War. When he returns from the war, one of his comrades-in-arms convinces him to join the police force. But Kelly finds himself confronting the very criminals who made up his old gang.
The Cradle of Courage
1920 · 10 votes
- Movie7.5Comedy
A comedy short directed by character Slim Summerville.
Hello, 'Frisco
1924 · 2 votes
Movie6.5DocumentaryA meditation on the human quest to transcend physicality, constructed from decaying archival footage and set to an original symphonic score.
Decasia: The State of Decay
2002 · 25 votes
Movie6.1WesternRomanceWhen Reverend Robert Henley and his sister Faith arrive in the town of Hell's Hinges, saloon owner Silk Miller and his cohorts sense danger to their evil ways. They hire gunman Blaze Tracy to run the minister out of town. But Blaze finds something in Faith Henley that turns him around, and soon Silk Miller and his compadres have Blaze to deal with.
Hell's Hinges
1916 · 33 votes
MovieActionWesternWhen Gawne finds his brother dying and hears that the killer has run off with his brother's wife, he swears revenge.
Riddle Gawne
1918
Movie4.4RomanceWesternA stagecoach robber falls in love with a saloon girl. However, she falls for a pastor, who converts her and she marries him. The robber is so impressed by this that he decides to turn over a new leaf. However, a shady gambler sets his sights on the former saloon girl, and the robber has to protect her from his advances.
On the Night Stage
1915 · 5 votes
- MovieWestern
Pinto Ben is a pink-nosed cow-pony. A hundred head of cattle are rounded up for beef to be shipped alive to Chicago. Ben and his master, with Segundo Jim, are put in charge. In the Chicago stockyards, men who don't know range-bred cattle from a herd of mountain goats, calmly inform Jim and Ben's master that the steers are to be driven into the big pen. At the same instant two or three stock hands run behind the herd and begin shouting and waving their arms to start the cattle. The beasts, a thousand strong, with horns and hoofs beating the air, bellowing their rage, glaring with bloodshot eyes, thunder into the chute. The two men in front prepare for their death ride. Suddenly Pinto Ben flattens himself before a high, iron-bound gate, and leaps. The pony cleans the gate. The great wave of scorching breath falls back on the other side. Ben's master finds himself sitting on the ground, the head of his dying horse in his lap.
Pinto Ben
1915
Movie5.2WesternAdventureA small town marshal’s secret past as an outlaw comes back to haunt him when an old associate shows up and threatens to expose his former dark deeds.
The Return of Draw Egan
1916 · 18 votes
Movie7.0DocumentaryA compilation of early-day silent films that serves as a glimpse back to the formative days of the movie industry as a salute to Hollywood's Golden Year, so proclaimed by the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce as 1953.
Yesterday and Today
1953 · 1 votes
Movie8.0WesternThe Lion of the Hills is a Western film.
A Lion of the Hills
1918 · 1 votes
- MovieWestern
Bill Evers, a gambling house keeper, is in reality the "Desert Scourge," an outlaw.
MovieWesternRev. Horace Brightray, pastor of a New England village church, is ordered by his physician to seek another climate. He goes to Agua Caliente, where he attempts to hold services in the hotel dining room, but nobody attends excepting the hotel clerk and maid, and a dance hall girl, Bubbles. The proprietor of the Legal Tender saloon is very bitter toward Horace and commands them not to attend services. Horace is soon out of funds and is ejected from the hotel. Sick and hopeless, he goes to the Legal Tender and slaps Frosty across the face with his hat, feeling sure it will mean death to him.
MovieWestern"Bowie" Blake is a gambler in a mining camp. One day, an artist, Van Dyke Tarleton comes to town with his wife, Naomi. He sees Bowie and decides he is perfect as a model for Lucifer in his latest painting. At first he refuses to pose, but Naomi talks him into it. Tarleton sees that Bowie is attracted to his wife, and purposely insults her just to get the right evil look in his eyes. But finally Bowie, whose feelings have become too much for him, quits.
Movie3.0CrimeDramaA silent romantic love triangle crime melodrama about a man who gets out of prison after ten years and discovers that his wife has divorced him and married the man who sent him to prison. Worse yet, she fears he will want to exact revenge, so she sets up her new husband to frame her first husband, so he will be sent back to prison!
The Poppy Girl's Husband
1919 · 3 votes
Movie6.0WesternSmoky Gap Railroad president Murray Lemantier is fed up with a bandit gang led by Buck Andrade constantly holding up his train and getting away with it. He hires ace detective David Cassidy to track down and get Buck, dead or alive. However, when Buck goes to see his dying mother she makes him promise to reform, and he does. Cassidy, though, doesn't care about that and tries to arrest him. Buck decides to do something that will once and for all show everyone that he has indeed reformed--especially Faith Lawson, a pretty station agent he's in love with.
Wolves of the Rail
1918 · 1 votes