Viola Dana

Now hear this. The studio that gave the cinema its voice offered 1929 audiences a chance to see and hear multiple silent-screen favorites for the first time in a gaudy, grandiose music-comedy-novelty revue that also included Talkie stars, Broadway luminaries and of course, Rin-Tin-Tin. Frank Fay hosts a jamboree that, among its 70+ stars, features bicyclers, boxing champ Georges Carpentier, chorines in terpsichore kickery, sister acts, Myrna Loy in two-strip Technicolor as an exotic Far East beauty, John Barrymore in a Shakespearean soliloquy (adding an on-screen voice to his legendary profile for the first time) and Winnie Lightner famously warbling the joys of Singing in the Bathtub. Watch, rinse, repeat!

Young bride Patricia Morley's flirtatious ways at a summer resort keep her husband Henry in a state of continual anxiety. At an old-fashioned barn dance, Patricia enacts the role of a chicken breaking out of an egg, and Henry's wrath explodes. After accusing her of being in love with another man, Henry returns to New York and files for divorce. Heartbroken, Patricia sends her friend Victoria French to tell Henry that she is dying.

Katherine Trowbridge, a rebellious young orphan, lives with her aunt and uncle, the Curtises, who desire a match between Katherine and Weathersbee but pretend to oppose the union, knowing she will be the more likely to accept it. Accidentally discovering their trickery, she leaves home and determines to marry the first man who will have her.

Songwriter Mack Gordon introduces flagpole sitter Shipwreck Kelly, who hoists some girls aloft with him and shows them sights around Hollywood.

Angela 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...

A wannabe film star journeys to Hollywood, but soon finds his dreams do not pan out. This film is lost.

Happy O'Brien, called "The Microbe," or "Mike" for short, a female street urchin who sells newspapers dressed as a boy to avoid harassment, is saved from arrest for fighting other newsboys in Chinatown by wealthy author DeWitt Spense. DeWitt, there to purchase drugs, is so moved by Mike's pugnacity, that he takes her to his mansion for literary inspiration. When DeWitt learns that Mike is a girl, he resolves to educate her. As Mike blossoms, DeWitt's attentions turn to love, to the dismay of Judith Winthrope, who wants to marry him, and his friend Robert Breton, who, with Judith, convinces Mike that DeWitt's writing is suffering because of her.

Katie O'Doone is left a worthless, run-down estate and a thoroughbred race horse. She mortgages the property in order to get the money needed to enter her horse in the Derby. Dennis Reilly, a wealthy sportsman, also has a horse in the race and his jockey accidentally runs Reilly's horse into Kate's horse, causing her horse to lose. She swears vengeance on O'Reilly. She is forced to go to work for a crooked bookie, Jake Trumbull, and a crooked competitor of Reilly's,Tod Cuyler, who plan on switching a dead-ringer horse for Reilly's favored-to-win horse, and clean up betting against Reilly's horse.

As a baby, Patsy Smith is kidnapped by her father following a bitter quarrel with her mother. After her father dies at sea, a seafarer named Captain Barnaby places Patsy at Mrs. Duff's boardinghouse. She grows up working as a domestic drudge, deeply unhappy with her life. Inspired by Captain Barnaby's storytelling about Aladdin, Patsy sets out to find an old Oriental lamp that once belonged to her father. She learns that Mrs. Duff sold it to a junk peddler and goes to buy it back. Patsy rubs the lamp, unleashing a Genie. The Genie helps Patsy by providing her with fine clothing, exposing her abusive boardinghouse mistress, and eventually reuniting Patsy with her long-lost mother. With her life transformed, Patsy also finds romance with Harry, a young man who resides at the boardinghouse.

After leaving Sing Sing for serving time for theft, The Boy drifts into a small Pennsylvania town and falls in love with Marie, an innocent local girl. The Boy leaves for New York, first obtaining Marie's promise to follow him in a week to become his wife. The Boy runs into some of his former associates in crime, however, and they hold him prisoner until they can pull off a big job. Meanwhile, Marie arrives in the city, and there is no one to meet her. Ashamed to return home, Marie supports herself by prostitution until she is reformed by a kindly priest, who, unknown to her, is also attempting to help The Boy, who has become a dope fiend. The Boy and Marie finally meet and are reconciled. The priest then sends for her parents, and Marie and The Boy are married.

When, on a prank, shimmy dancer Marcia Meadows visits bookworm Horace Tarbox in his Yale dormitory, Horace falls madly in love and follows her to New York where he and Marcia marry. Denounced by his wealthy father, Horace attempts to support Marcia through his writing, but all his manuscripts are rejected, and he is fired from every job.

Wealthy society girl Ardita Farnam is held up in her roadster by two thugs and is rescued by Nevkova, a Russian in search of a rich wife, with whom she falls in love against her uncle's wishes.

"I hope people see me as an artist, not a blind artist." Tou suffered a severe eye injury in an accident at a young age. The journey into complete blindness was a torment to him. Yet, he doesn't want his struggle and vulnerability to be seen. It is not until he meets Iris that light seems to come into his sight again.

Clytie Whitmore (Viola Dana) finally consents to marry Cadbury Todd (Gerald Pring), but while walking down the aisle she runs out of the church and into the passing car of Ken Pauling (Bryant Washburn), a well-known jazz musician. Shortly after returning home, Clytie escapes from her locked room and goes to Pennetti's roadhouse, where Ken is appearing, closely pursued by gossip columnist Hamilton Peeke (Leon Barry). She dances in the show in place of Sonora, then escapes with Ken when the roadhouse is raided. They elope but eventually her family accepts the couple.

When a wealthy young lady loses her inheritance, she decides to apply for work in disguise. In prim and proper working girl attire she becomes the respectable companion of a woman looking to reform her wayward nephew.

Evelyn and her boyfriend William Bard are members of a small Shaker community. They rock the community one day when they announce that they want to get married and have children, in direct opposition to the Shaker prohibition against marriage and procreating. The Shakers drive the couple out of town, but before she leaves Evelyn gives birth to a daughter, Eve. Shortly afterward Evelyn dies, and the Shakers inform William that their daughter Eve has died also. William leaves town, but vows to take his revenge on the Shakers, whom he blames for the loss of his family.

In San Francisco, California, Rosa Moreland of the Secret Service is unable to obtain evidence against suspected opium smuggler George Sala. She then advises Detective Flint of her plan to develop a relationship with John King, an impoverished, disabled ex-soldier who Rosa met in George's office. After claiming to have lost her home in a fire, Rosa is invited to stay in John's modest flat. He receives money from a mysterious source, enabling them to afford a more expensive apartment, and they soon fall in love. Although Rosa secretly witnesses John receiving a package from George, she tells the skeptical Flint that her lover is above suspicion. John agrees to end his association with George if Rosa will marry him, and, realizing that a wife cannot legally testify against her husband, she agrees.

Echo, the orphaned "flower of no man's land," has been raised by an Indian foster father, Kahoma. Then, when opera singer Roy Talbot goes West to recover his health, Echo falls instantly in love and forgets all about Big Bill, her cowboy sweetheart. Roy marries Echo and takes her back East, but soon after returning to his adoring public, he loses all interest in her. Finally, Echo leaves Roy and goes back to the wilderness, where she discovers that Roy had already been married when they met and had deserted his wife years before. For so deceiving his adopted daughter, Kahoma tracks Roy down and kills him, while Echo forgets about her big-city unhappiness and returns to Big Bill, with whom she makes plans to marry.

Miser Ebenezer Scrooge is awakened on Christmas Eve by spirits who reveal to him his own miserable existence, what opportunities he wasted in his youth, his current cruelties, and the dire fate that awaits him if he does not change his ways. Scrooge is faced with his own story of growing bitterness and meanness, and must decide what his own future will hold: death or redemption.

Another of a successful string of Metro features directed by the vastly underrated John H. Collins, Riders of the Night was set in Kentucky hill country. Collins' wifeViola Dana stars as Sally Castleton, a country girl in love with a brooding and idealistic aristocrat. When her sweetheart joins a night-riding vigilante organization, Sally is temporarily dismayed but resolves to hide the man from the authorities.

The story of two young sisters, one a somewhat demure musician who is in love with a scoundrel who's no good for her, and the other a wild, free spirit who is the object of a shy young carpenter's affections.

Connie McGill, a scullery maid at the Valentines, dreams of better things. One day, while serving, she sees her Prince Charming, Prentice Blue. Although Blue has nothing but his social standing, the nouveau riche Nathaniel Flint wishes his daughter Helen to marry him in order to gain family status. Flint gives a big party for Helen, which attracts the attention of the Du Geen band of crooks. In a scheme, they furnish the unsuspecting Connie with proper clothes, transforming her, and she ends up at the party dancing with Blue, who is enchanted with her. As she departs, she accidentally leaves her slipper with Blue. Unknown to her, she has aided the crooks in stealing jewels that night, and her slipper contains the key to Flint's safe.

Stranded in the small town of Buckeye Junction young actress Madge Joy crawls upon a load of hay and falls asleep. Knocked unconscious when young farmer Robert Deep hitches up the wagon not realizing she’s inside she awakes in the Deep living room. "Ma" Deep takes to her at once, but old “Pa” Deep looks at her sternly. Claiming to be a runaway orphan rather than an actress she becomes a member of the family. Falling for Madge Robert confesses he dreams of being a playwright, that night his sister Susan, who has run away to be an actress, reappears. Pa Deep is furious when he finds out his daughter has been on the stage, but Madge reveals that she is herself an actress threatening to go away with Robert unless he makes up with his daughter. Eventually Madge finds fame in New York with Robert following with a play he knows is right.

A 1980 documentary series exploring the establishment and development of the Hollywood studios and its impact on 1920s culture.

A series about the life, career and works of the movie comedy genius.