Evelyn Brent

A 1929 American musical crime film directed by Paul Fejos from the 1926 play of the same name by George Abbott and Philip Dunning. Universal's first talking picture with Technicolor sequences, Broadway follows the backstage drama of a Paradise Nightclub choreographer Roy (Glenn Tryon) and his dancer girlfriend Billie Moore (Merna Kennedy), who try to avoid the criminal element running the club. Evelyn Brent plays Pearl, a woman tied to the nightclub's gangster owner. Director Fejos developed a special crane capable of moving the extremely cumbersome camera at 600 feet per minute, giving the film inventive camera work that contrasts sharply with the mostly static musicals of the 1928-30 period. The film was produced by Carl Laemmle Jr. and distributed by Universal Studios. The film is in the public domain.

Musical · Crime · Drama

A 15-chapter Columbia cliffhanger serial directed by James W. Horne, with Chapter 1 titled "Chaotic Greek." Jack Holt plays a Secret Service agent infiltrating a gang of counterfeiters who have kidnapped the government's best engraver to produce undetectable phony money. Evelyn Brent co-stars as his undercover partner Kay Drew. Holt, Columbia's longest-tenured star, was effectively demoted to serials by studio head Harry Cohn, but the production retained a feature-film crew under producer Larry Darmour. The serial is in the public domain.

Action · Crime

A Depression-era family drama built around music. Aging concert violinist Adolph Greig (Al Shean, of the vaudeville team Gallagher and Shean) has sacrificed everything for his art; his son (John Darrow) distrusts him and keeps his own boy from the old man, while Paula (Evelyn Brent) — once Adolph's pupil — is torn between the two generations. Directed by Poverty Row workhorse Frank R. Strayer for Invincible Pictures, it is a sentimental studio B-feature redeemed by its musical sequences and Shean's warm performance. The film's copyright was not renewed; it is in the public domain in the United States.

Drama · Music

Josef von Sternberg's first American film with Emil Jannings, made the year before they would make The Blue Angel together. Jannings plays a deposed Russian grand duke who has fled the Revolution and now scrapes by as a Hollywood extra, hired to play a general in a film about his own downfall. The role-within-a-role lets Jannings collapse the distance between his past authority and present humiliation, and the framing device is what the film is built on. William Powell plays the revolutionary who once served him and now directs him. The Last Command is a film about cinema's power to re-stage a life, and it earned Jannings the first Academy Award for Best Actor. The 1928 film entered the United States public domain on January 1, 2024.

Drama · War · Silent

An RKO pre-Code adventure drama adapted from Rex Beach's 1909 novel, directed by George Archainbaud. Joel McCrea plays Boyd Emerson, a young man who heads to Alaska to make his fortune in the salmon fisheries and finds himself squeezed between ruthless cannery interests and two very different women — society girl Mildred Wayland (Jean Arthur) and Cherry Malotte (Evelyn Brent), the worldly saloon keeper who truly loves him. Louis Wolheim is memorable as George Balt, the rough-edged fisherman who becomes Boyd's loyal ally. Shot partly on location in Alaska, it was an early talkie showcase for McCrea on his way to stardom. The film entered the public domain in the United States in 1958 after its copyright was not renewed.

Drama · Adventure · Romance

A district attorney who uncovered a utilities price-fixing racket is murdered before he can present his evidence, and his successor (Pat O'Brien) picks up the case with a fast-talking reporter (Neil Hamilton) while the killers work through everyone connected to the grand jury. Evelyn Brent plays the dead man's mistress, who knows where the evidence is hidden. Made at Majestic Pictures during the pre-Code window, it moves quickly and lets O'Brien do the cocky, irritable thing he did best, with J. Carrol Naish among the heavies. Released in April 1933, weeks before the studios began enforcing the Production Code. The film is in the public domain.

Crime · Drama · Mystery

Underworld is the film that launched the American gangster genre. Josef von Sternberg directed it from a story by Ben Hecht, who would win the first Academy Award for Best Original Story the year the awards began. George Bancroft plays Bull Weed, a criminal kingpin whose jealous devotion to his moll, Feathers, drags him into a war with a rival and the law. Evelyn Brent is the woman caught between the gangster and the alcoholic lawyer he befriends. Von Sternberg's camera work is fluid and expressive, already showing the style he would bring to his films with Marlene Dietrich. The film entered the public domain in the United States on January 1, 2023.

Crime · Drama · Silent