Victor McLaglen

A silent comedy directed by Howard Hawks, starring Victor McLaglen as Spike Madden, a rough-and-tumble sailor who leaves a girl in every port he visits. When he befriends fellow sailor Salami (Robert Armstrong), the two become inseparable buddies—until they both fall for the same woman, the alluring Marie (Louise Brooks) in a French port. Brooks, in one of her earliest American roles, is magnetic, her bobbed hair and smoldering gaze already hinting at the icon she would become. The film's blend of brawling humor, male bonding, and exotic locales made it a hit, and Fox remade it as Goldie (1931) with Spencer Tracy and Jean Harlow. The film is in the public domain.

Comedy · Silent

John Ford's silent drama set against the Irish War of Independence. Victor McLaglen plays a man who returns to Ireland disguised as a hangman to avenge himself on the brutal commandant who drove his family out, while a young woman is forced into a marriage she does not want. Ford, who was born in Maine to Irish immigrant parents, made several films about Ireland across his career, and this is one of the earliest: the sympathy for the rebel cause and the suspicion of the colonial authorities are already in place here, decades before The Quiet Man. The film was made in the transitional sound period and uses a synchronized score and effects rather than spoken dialogue. A young John Wayne appears briefly as an uncredited spectator at a horse race. The 1928 film entered the United States public domain on January 1, 2024.

Drama · Romance · Silent

A Scottish officer ordered to the Western Front instead deserts into India's Khyber Pass on a secret mission to quell a tribal uprising, torn between duty and the beguiling princess who may be friend or foe. Victor McLaglen and Myrna Loy star in John Ford's first sound film. The 1929 film entered the public domain on January 1, 2025.

Adventure · War

Mary (Ava Gardner) returns to her small whistle-stop hometown and reignites an old rivalry between two men who never got over her — bitter, jobless Kenny Veech (George Raft) and slick nightclub owner Lew Lentz (Tom Conway). When Kenny gets pulled into a robbery scheme aimed at Lentz, old jealousy turns to murder. An early starring role for Gardner and a moody small-town noir from Russian émigré director Léonide Moguy, produced by Seymour Nebenzal (M) for United Artists release. The film is in the public domain.

Noir · Crime · Drama