Thomas Graal's Best Film

The Mistress of Shenstone

February 1921 •English

The husband of Lady Myra Ingleby is off fighting in the World War. She is devastated when Sir Derysk Brand tells her that her husband has been killed. The War Office gives her the details - Lord Ingleby was killed, not by enemy fire, but because of an error committed by one of his fellowmen, whose name is never to be disclosed. The grieving widow retreats to her Cornwall estate for a rest. Staying at the inn is a man known as Jim Airth, who carries a grief of his own.

Two Weeks

January 1920 •English

Molly and Me

March 1929 •English

A Star Is Born

October 1954 •English

A movie star helps a young singer-actress find fame, even as age and alcoholism send his own career into a downward spiral.

The Law Forbids

April 1924 •English

Paul and Rhoda Remsen, having marital difficulties, separate; and each is awarded custody of their child Peggy for 6 months of the year. Rhoda and Peggy move to a farm town, while Paul remains in the big city to write a play for actress Inez Lamont, who is in love with him. Peggy knows that her mother still loves Paul, so she flees to the big city to explain the situation to her father.

The American Venus

January 1926 •English

A lost film - Mary Gray, whose father manufactures cold cream, is engaged to sappy Horace Niles, the son of Hugo Niles, the elder Gray's most competitive rival in the cosmetics business. Chip Armstrong, a hot-shot public relations man, quits the employ of Hugo Niles and goes to work for Gray, persuading Mary to enter the Miss America contest at Atlantic City, with the intention of using her to endorse her father's cold cream should she win. Mary breaks her engagement with Horace. When it appears that she will win the contest, Hugo lures her home on the pretext that her father is ill, and she misses the contest. Chip and Mary return to Atlantic City, discovering that the new Miss America has told the world that she owes all her success to Gray's cold cream. On this note, Chip and Mary decide to get married.

The Valley of Silent Men

September 1922 •English

The hunter becomes the hunted, an officer of the Royal Mounted, fleeing, fighting for his life. Guided to a secret valley in the frozen North by a hot-blooded French-Canadian beauty, with a secret of her own...

Suzanna

February 1923 •English

Hoping to consolidate their adjoining ranches, Don Fernando and Don Diego betroth their children, Ramón and Dolores, although Ramón is in love with Suzanna, the daughter of a peon on his father's ranch, and Dolores is interested in Pancho, a toreador. When Suzanna learns that she was kidnapped in infancy and is really Don Diego's daughter, she keeps silent; but Ramón finally rebels and steals Suzanna from the altar as she is about to marry Pancho. There are explanations, Ramón marries Suzanna, and Dolores marries Pancho. Suzanna (1923) has been mastered from a good quality but incomplete 35mm print.

A Daughter of the Poor

March 1917 •English

A young girl, Rose Eastmen lives with her lazy Uncle, who works as a janitor in a publishing house. Lacking education, both Rose and her Uncle are susceptible to the socialist ideas of writer Rudolph Creig. One day Rose encounters Jack Steven's the wealthy son of the publishing house, working on his car. She believes he is a common laborer, and begins seeing him. Through her exposure to Jack, Rose begins to realize the rich are not such an abominable people. Rudolph has also reached this conclusion after learning Steven's has published his book. Now with a hefty royalty check and success, Rudolph is able to marry Rose.

The Ghosts of Yesterday

January 1918 •English

After his wife/model has died of starvation with her portrait unfinished, an impoverished artist meets another woman with a striking resemblance to her.

The Probation Wife

May 1919 •English

A 1919 film directed by Sidney Franklin.

He Comes Up Smiling

September 1918 •English

Jerry Martin quits his dull job as a bank clerk and falls in with a band of hobos. He takes on the guise of Bachelor, the "king of the market," and finds himself pursued by dangerous men who are after the real Bachelor. *Only fragments are known to exist. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2010.

Satan Junior

March 1919 •English

Famous playwright Paul Worden decamps to a country bungalow to work on a new play, rehearsing with his leading lady, Marjorie Sinclair, who is staying nearby. Going riding one day to relax, Paul rescues his neighbor, teenager Diana Ardway when her horse runs wild. The pair clash initially, as she does with Marjorie, but after a series of misunderstandings true love triumphs.

An Even Break

August 1917 •English

Claire Curtis, Jimmie Strong and Mary have spent their childhood together in the country. Upon reaching adulthood, Claire goes to New York and becomes a success on stage. Jimmie, who has always dreamed of becoming an inventor, goes to New York to sell the machine he invented, and there he renews his acquaintance with Claire. Soon their old friendship ripens into love. Meanwhile, back in the country, Ralph and David Harding, who are making Jimmie's machine, plan to steal the right to it. Back in New York, Mary appears and informs Claire that she loves Jimmie, and the actress resolves to give her a chance to win him. When it appears that the Hardings' scheme to steal Jimmie's machine will succeed, however, Mary's ardor turns cold. Claire and Jimmie then rush back to the country in time to avert the takeover and save his firm from bankruptcy.

The Denial

March 1925 •English

When Dorothy wants to marry Bob (Robert Agnew), her mother, Mildred, forbids the match. Dorothy angrily asserts that Mildred might reconsider if her own mother had forbid her marriage. The rest of the film is a flashback, as Mildred recalls her own youth, when her dictatorial mother did forbid her to marry Lyman. Lyman enlisted with Teddy Roosevelt's Rough Riders to fight in the Spanish-American War, but was killed in battle.

Reckless Youth

March 1922 •English

A cautionary tale for aspiring flappers. Five of six reels survive.

Daughters of Pleasure

June 1924 •English

Newly rich Mark Hadley drifts from his old-fashioned wife into a secret liason with Lila Millas, a pretty French girl. At the same time, he advises his daughter, Marjory, to break her ties with Kent Merrill...

Sadie Thompson

January 1928 •English

A young, beautiful prostitute named Sadie Thompson arrives on the South Pacific island of Pago Pago looking for honest work and falls for Timothy O'Hara, an American sailor who is unfazed by her unsavory past. However, Mr. Davidson, a missionary who arrived on the island at the same time, aims to "save" Sadie from her sinful life and petitions to have her separated from her beau and deported back to San Francisco.

Adoration

December 1928 •English

Billie Dove, as Elena, pulls out all stops as a Russian princess and a woman-of-the-streets in Paris in an exotic romance and hand-wringing drama set in two countries and the way-stations in between.

Camille

September 1927 •English

Based on the 1852 novel and play La Dame aux Camélias by Alexandre Dumas, fils.