Norma Shearer
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Edith Norma Shearer (August 10, 1902 – June 12, 1983) was a Canadian-American actress. Shearer was one of the most popular actresses in North America from the mid-1920s through the 1930s. Her early films cast her as the girl next door, but for most of the Pre-Code film era, beginning with the 1930 film The Divorcee, for which she won an Oscar for Best Actress, she played sexually liberated women in sophisticated contemporary comedies. Later she appeared in historical and period films.
Unlike many of her MGM contemporaries, Shearer's fame declined steeply after retirement. By the time of her death in 1983, she was largely remembered at best for her "noble" roles in The Women, Marie Antoinette, and Romeo and Juliet. Shearer's legacy began to be re-evaluated in the 1990s with the publication of two biographies and the TCM (Turner Classic Movies) and VHS release of her films, many of them unseen since the implementation of the Production Code some sixty years before. Focus shifted to her pre-Code "divorcee" persona, and Shearer was rediscovered as "the exemplar of sophisticated [1930's] woman-hood... exploring love and sex with an honesty that would be considered frank by modern standards".
Simultaneously, Shearer's ten-year collaboration with portrait photographer George Hurrell and her lasting contribution to fashion through the designs of Adrian were also recognized.
Shearer is widely celebrated by some as one of cinema's feminist pioneers: "the first American film actress to make it chic and acceptable to be single and not a virgin on screen". In March 2008, two of her most famous pre-code films, The Divorcee and A Free Soul, were released on DVD.
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| Known For | Acting |
|---|---|
| Most Rating | 0.06 |
| Birthday | 1902-08-10 |
| Place of Birth | Montreal, Quebec, Canada |
| Also Known As | Edith Norma Shearer, Queen Norma, Norma Sherer, The First Lady of MGM, |
1939
The Women
7.1/157
A happily married woman lets her catty friends talk her into divorce when her husband strays.
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The Women
1929
The Hollywood Revue of 1929
5.7/25
An all-star revue featuring MGM contract players.
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The Hollywood Revue of 1929
1924
He Who Gets Slapped
7.6/91
After a baron steals his scientific discoveries, runs away with his wife, and slaps him in public, a man joins a Parisian circus sideshow as a clown w...
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He Who Gets Slapped
1924
The Wolf Man
6.5/2
Gerald Stanley (John Gilbert) is an English gentleman who is engaged to Beatrice Joyce (Alma Frances). But Stanley's personality changes whenever he d...
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The Wolf Man
1924
Empty Hands
0/0
Claire Endicott throws a wild party and her father walks in to find her flirting with the very married Milt Bisnet. In an attempt to straighten her ou...
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Empty Hands
1938
Marie Antoinette
6.565/31
The young Austrian princess Marie Antoinette is arranged to marry Louis XVI, future king of France, in a politically advantageous marriage for the riv...
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Marie Antoinette
1939
Idiot's Delight
6.1/15
A group of disparate travelers are thrown together in a posh Alpine hotel when the borders are closed at the start of WWII.
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Idiot's Delight
1936
Romeo and Juliet
6.2/30
Young love is poisoned by a generations long feud between two noble families.
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Romeo and Juliet
1934
The Barretts of Wimpole Street
6/19
Remarkable poet Elizabeth Barrett is slowly recovering from a crippling illness with the help of her siblings, especially her youngest sister, Henriet...
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The Barretts of Wimpole Street
1922
Channing of the Northwest
0/0
A foppish Londoner joins the Royal Canadian Mounties and tries to break a smuggling ring.
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Channing of the Northwest
1924
Married Flirts
0/0
Nelly is so intent on her writing career, that she neglects her appearance and her husband, Wayne. Jill Wetherell, who is looking for a rich husband,...
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Married Flirts
1929
A Man's Man
0/0
An aspiring actress goes to Hollywood to make movies and marries a soda jerk.
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A Man's Man
1930
The Divorcee
6.3/49
When a woman discovers that her husband has been unfaithful, she decides to pay him back in kind.
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The Divorcee
1931
A Free Soul
6.1/42
An alcoholic lawyer who successfully defended a notorious gambler on a murder charge objects when his free-spirited daughter becomes romantically invo...
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A Free Soul
1931
The Stolen Jools
5.6/29
Famous actress Norma Shearer's jewels are stolen… (Star-packed promotional short film intended to raise funds for the National Variety Artists Tubercu...
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The Stolen Jools
1925
Lady of the Night
6/12
The story of two baby girls, born near in proximity but worlds apart in society: Molly Helmer, the daughter of a thief, and Florence Banning, the daug...
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Lady of the Night
1932
Smilin' Through
6/20
On the day of his wedding, Sir John Carteret's fiancée, Moonyeen, is killed by a jealous rival named Jeremy, leaving him emotionally devastated. Carte...
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Smilin' Through
1928
The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg
7.3/27
A young prince falls in love with a beautiful barmaid while at university in old Heidelberg.
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The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg
1942
Her Cardboard Lover
5.1/4
A flirt tries to make her fiancée jealous by hiring a gigolo.
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Her Cardboard Lover
1931
Strangers May Kiss
5.1/8
After years of fighting off the advances of her old flame Steve, Lisbeth settles into a steamy, casual romance with journalist Alan. Against the advic...
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Strangers May Kiss
1931
Private Lives
6.3/16
Amanda and Elyot are one another's former spouse. Elyot is remarried to Sibyl and Amanda married Victor. Unexpectedly, both honeymooning couples arriv...
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Private Lives
1929
Their Own Desire
4.8/15
Lally is a rich girl whose father writes books and plays polo. After 23 years of marriage her father decides to divorce Lally's mother and remarry to...
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Their Own Desire
1972
Hollywood: The Dream Factory
6/2
A documentary about the glorious history of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios and its decline leading to the sale of its back lot and props. By extension th...
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Hollywood: The Dream Factory
1929
The Trial of Mary Dugan
6/3
A woman is tried for the murder of her lover. Director Bayard Veiller's 1929 courtroom drama stars Norma Shearer, Lewis Stone, Lilyan Tashman and H. B...
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The Trial of Mary Dugan
1940
Escape
7.4/15
An American goes to pre-war Germany to find his mother and discovers her in a concentration camp. With the help of an American-born widowed countess h...
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Escape
1932
Strange Interlude
5.7/11
After Nina Leeds finds out that insanity runs in her husband's family, she has a love child with a handsome doctor and lets her husband believes the c...
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Strange Interlude
1930
Let Us Be Gay
4/6
A housewife divorces her self-centered husband. Years later, she attends a party where her ex is pursuing another woman. Unbeknownst to him, she is th...
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Let Us Be Gay
1925
Pretty Ladies
4.7/3
Maggie, a headlining comedienne with the Follies, takes a fall off the stage into the orchestra pit and lands on the drum of musician Al Cassidy. One...
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Pretty Ladies
1926
Upstage
6/2
Dolly Havens, a small-town girl with big-town ambitions that are larger than her talents, hooks up with Johnny Storm, a vaudeville performer, whose ta...
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Upstage
1928
A Lady of Chance
6.5/3
A con woman working the Atlantic City hotels targets a visiting businessman from Alabama.
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A Lady of Chance
1926
The Waning Sex
5.8/2
Nina Duane is a criminal lawyer whose gender was professionally resented by Philip Barry, the District Attorney. She wins acquittal for man-chasing wi...
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The Waning Sex
1983
Hollywood Out-takes and Rare Footage
6.5/2
Out-takes (mostly from Warner Bros.), promotional shorts, movie premieres, public service pleas, wardrobe tests, documentary material, and archival fo...
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Hollywood Out-takes and Rare Footage
1926
The Devil's Circus
6.9/4
In 1913, Carl is released from prison, where he served a sentence for stealing. Spurned by his circumstance, Carl rejects God and resumes his fast lif...
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The Devil's Circus
1927
After Midnight
7/1
When Joe, a hold-up man, tries to rob Mary, a nightclub hostess, she winds winds up knocking him out. She takes pity on him, however, and nurses him b...
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After Midnight
1934
Riptide
6.2/5
Mary is an impetuous romantic who marries British aristocrat Lord Philip Rexford on a whim. Their marriage is successful, though, and they grow closer...
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Riptide
2007
Girl 27
6.4/14
The reclusive Patricia Douglas comes out of hiding to discuss the 1937 MGM scandal, in which the powerful film studio tricked her and over 100 other u...
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Girl 27
1942
We Were Dancing
4.2/4
A penniless former princess weds an equally cash-strapped baron, so they support themselves by becoming houseguests at the homes of wealthy American s...
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We Were Dancing
1923
Lucretia Lombard
5/1
Lucretia Morgan has been married to an old man for the past seven years. The marriage is loveless but the whole time Lucretia has been a devoted wife....
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Lucretia Lombard
1929
The Last of Mrs. Cheyney
5.545/11
There is a big charity function at the house of Mrs. Cheyney and a lot of society is present. With her rich husband, deceased, rich old Lord Elton and...
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The Last of Mrs. Cheyney
1923
A Clouded Name
6/1
To avoid seeing Marjorie Dare, Jim Allen visits Stewart Leighton at the latter's country home. (Five years earlier Jim's engagement to Marjorie Dare w...
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A Clouded Name
2004
Checking Out: Grand Hotel
7/2
Until 1932's Grand Hotel, never had there existed an all-star ensemble cast on film. Conceived by MGM's production genius Irving Thalberg, the film bo...
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Checking Out: Grand Hotel
1925
The Tower of Lies
0/0
After his beloved daughter leaves for the city to pay off his debt, an old farmer goes mad when her letters become less frequent and it is suspected s...
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The Tower of Lies
1997
Sports on the Silver Screen
10/1
HBO (in association with the American Film Institute) presents this 1997 anthology, narrated by Liev Schreiber, which looks at sports in cinema from t...
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Sports on the Silver Screen
1931
The Christmas Party
4.929/7
In this holiday short, Jackie Cooper wants to throw a Christmas party for his friends on his football team but doesn't know how to go about it. His fe...
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The Christmas Party
1924
Broadway After Dark
0/0
Ralph Norton, man-about-town and wealthy favorite in Broadway society circles, is attracted to Helen Tremaine, but her flirtatious behavior causes him...
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Broadway After Dark
1990
You're the Top: The Cole Porter Story
0/0
Biographical portrait of one of Broadway's most brilliant songwriters. Told through the use of archival material and interviews with the rich and famo...
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You're the Top: The Cole Porter Story
1928
The Actress
0/0
A theatrical troupe from the west end of London loses its leading lady when she goes off to marry a rich young man from the other side of town. The re...
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The Actress
1920
Way Down East
7/103
A naive country girl is tricked into a sham marriage by a wealthy womanizer, then must rebuild her life despite the taint of having borne a child out...
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Way Down East
1933
Going Hollywood
5.5/12
The film tells the story of Sylvia, a French teacher at an all-girl school, who wants to find love. When she hears Bill Williams on the radio, she dec...
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Going Hollywood
1974
That's Entertainment!
7.3/62
Various MGM stars from yesterday present their favorite musical moments from the studio's 50 year history.
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That's Entertainment!
1996
Joan Crawford: Always the Star
7.5/2
Glamorous and hugely popular Joan Crawford raised herself from brutal poverty to Academy Award-winning stardom by guts, determination and hard work. D...
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Joan Crawford: Always the Star
1931
We're switching to Hollywood
4.8/4
A German reporter visits Hollywood and is escorted through the MGM Studio by a German nobleman, who is working there as an extra. They meet and speak...
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We're switching to Hollywood
1940
A New Romance of Celluloid: The Miracle of Sound
6.7/6
This short documentary, presented and directed by MGM sound engineer Douglas Shearer, goes behind the scenes to look at how the sound portion of a tal...
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A New Romance of Celluloid: The Miracle of Sound
1925
1925 Studio Tour
6.2/15
A tour of the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studio in 1925 shows the people who make the movies there, and gives viewers a glimpse at how movies are made.
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1925 Studio Tour
1920
The Restless Sex
0/0
A love triangle drama, based on a novel by Robert W. Chambers, who is better-known for weird fiction (which is not noticeable in this story.)
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The Restless Sex
1994
That's Entertainment! III
6.972/36
Some of MGM'S musical stars review the studios history of musicals. From The Hollywood Revue of 1929 to Brigadoon, from the first musical talkies to G...
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That's Entertainment! III
2002
The Kid Stays in the Picture
6.643/91
Documentary about legendary Paramount producer Robert Evans, based on his famous 1994 autobiography.
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The Kid Stays in the Picture
1937
The Romance of Celluloid
7/2
Several behind the scenes aspects of the movie-making business, which results in the enjoyment the movie going public has in going to the theater, are...
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The Romance of Celluloid
1925
Waking Up the Town
0/0
Jim Joyce runs a garage with old Abner Hope. When Hope's granddaughter, Mary Ellen, comes to visit, Joyce falls in love with her. Joyce has a number o...
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Waking Up the Town
1928
The Latest from Paris
0/0
The Latest from Paris takes place in New York's garment district, where business rivals Blogg and Littauer have been carrying on a feud for years. In...
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The Latest from Paris
1924
The Snob
0/0
Two schoolteachers, married for love, are parted by the husband's obsessive desire for wealth and social position.
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The Snob
1925
A Slave of Fashion
2/1
Katherine Emerson, an Iowa girl hungry for the good things in life, leaves her small hometown and sets out for New York. En route, she is involved in...
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A Slave of Fashion
2004
Judy Garland: By Myself
7.5/2
As Hollywood biographies go, Judy Garland's story is one of the saddest success stories you'll ever hear. The sanitized studio version of her life pre...
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Judy Garland: By Myself
1940
Cavalcade of the Academy Awards
6.5/3
This 1940 presentation features highlights of earlier (1928 onward) Oscar ceremonies including Shirley Temple and Walt Disney, plus acceptance speeche...
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Cavalcade of the Academy Awards
1940
Hollywood: Style Center of the World
5.5/2
This short promotes the premise that movies often create a demand for the fashions seen in them. It starts with a vignette in rural America. A mother...
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Hollywood: Style Center of the World
1938
Hollywood Goes to Town
7/3
This short shows how Hollywood gets ready for the world premiere of an "important" movie. The film celebrated here is Marie Antoinette (1938), which h...
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Hollywood Goes to Town
2003
Complicated Women
6.7/11
Looks at the stereotype-breaking films of the period from 1929, when movies entered the sound era, until 1934 when the Hays Code virtually neutered fi...
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Complicated Women
1939
From the Ends of the Earth
0/0
An MGM short showing how materials are shipped by boat 'From the Ends of the Earth' to Hollywood. Featuring footage from the MGM films being made at t...
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From the Ends of the Earth
1944
Twenty Years After
6/1
This short celebrates the 20th anniversary of MGM. Segments are shown from several early hits, then from a number of 1944 releases.
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Twenty Years After
1988
The Making of a Legend: Gone with the Wind
8/3
This documentary revisits the making of Gone with the Wind via archival footage, screen tests, insightful interviews and rare film footage.
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The Making of a Legend: Gone with the Wind
2008
Thou Shalt Not: Sex, Sin and Censorship in Pre-Code Hollywood
6.4/14
A look at the forces that shaped Pre-Code Hollywood and brought about the strict enforcement of the Hays Code in 1934.
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Thou Shalt Not: Sex, Sin and Censorship in Pre-Code Hollywood
1933
The Film Parade
0/0
Pioneer filmmaker J. Stuart Blackton was intrigued by the idea of a film about the history of the movies as early as 1915. He finally released a 52-mi...
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The Film Parade
1938
Another Romance of Celluloid
5/2
This second entry in MGM's "Romance of Film" series documents how celluloid movie film is processed and features behind-the-scenes glimpses of current...
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Another Romance of Celluloid
2019
Hollywood, la vie rêvée de Lana Turner
9.5/2
Portrait of Julia Jean Turner, from her childhood to her rise of fame as Lana Turner, to her last role.
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Hollywood, la vie rêvée de Lana Turner
1936
Master Will Shakespeare
5.5/2
A short biography of William Shakespeare that highlights the various jobs he worked at in the theater.
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Master Will Shakespeare
1925
His Secretary
0/0
When a secretary overhears her boss disparaging her looks, she decides to show him how wrong he is.
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His Secretary
1924
Blue Water
0/0
Early Canadian Drama
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Blue Water
1919
The Star Boarder
7/2
Larry's absurdly plush life of ease as a convict comes to an end when his sentence is up. Tossed out, he tries several ways, including a stickup to ge...
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The Star Boarder
1920
Torchy's Millions
0/0
A 1920 silent comedy short.
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Torchy's Millions
1920
The Stealers
0/0
Rev. Robert Martin is an ex-minister who has lost his faith because of his wife's faithlessness, and taken up a life of crime as head of a band of pic...
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The Stealers
1922
The Man Who Paid
0/0
In her first leading role, a very young Norma Shearer played Jeanne, a wild girl of the Canadian Northwest who marries and has a child with a mystery...
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The Man Who Paid
1922
The Taming of the Shrewd
0/0
Part 5 of The Leather Pushers boxing film series.
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The Taming of the Shrewd
1922
The Bootleggers
0/0
Jose Fernand seems interested in luring Helen Barnes onto his ship than he is in smuggling. The innocent orphan miss goes, accompanied by her younger...
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The Bootleggers
1923
Man and Wife
0/0
Dora Perkins is a country girl who runs away to New York City. She gets work as a nurse and marries Dr. Howard Fleming, a famed brain surgeon. Suppose...
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Man and Wife
1923
The Devil's Partner
0/0
An adventure tale set in the North Woods. The villain, smuggler Jules Payette, would give anything if Jeanne would give in. Saving her virtue in the n...
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The Devil's Partner
1923
Pleasure Mad
0/0
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Pleasure Mad
1923
The Wanters
0/0
Elliot Worthington falls in love with Myra, the maid in his sister's household. Myra is dismissed; Elliot finds her, proposes marriage, and returns ho...
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The Wanters
1924
The Trail of the Law
0/0
In Maine, a girl masquerades as a boy during the day after her mother is killed by an unknown assailant.
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The Trail of the Law
1924
Broken Barriers
1/1
A young girl is forced to give up college when her father loses all his money. She soon meets and falls for a young man at a party, only to discover t...
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Broken Barriers
1925
Excuse Me
0/0
A sailor and his would-be bride search their train for a clergyman to marry them.
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Excuse Me
1925
The End of the World
0/0
Jack Joyce, who worked in old Abner Hope's garage, was always dreaming of big schemes, but had no capital with which to realize them. Abner Hope, who...
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The End of the World
1927
The Demi-Bride
0/0
Trouble begins when Madame Girard steps out on her husband, Criquette's father, to fool around with rakish Phillippe Levaux. When Monsieur Girard find...
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The Demi-Bride
1939
Screen Snapshots Series 18, No. 8
4/1
Ice skating is the theme; at the Tropical Ice Garden, in Westwood Hills, are seen a flock of skating stars including Irene Dare and Phyllis Ann Thomos...
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Screen Snapshots Series 18, No. 8
1920
The Flapper
6/14
A Southern teen at a ritzy boarding school gets into mischief while acting the sophisticated grownup to impress a suave gentleman and match wits with...
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The Flapper
1925
The End of the World
0/0
Jack Joyce, who worked in old Abner Hope's garage, was always dreaming of big schemes, but had no capital with which to realize them. Abner Hope, who...
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