Frank Hall Crane

Frank Hall Crane

Profile

Frank Hall Crane

Movies

The Speed Reporter
Roger Renfrew
Spectacular stunt work by Richard Talmadge, circus acrobat and stunt man for Douglas Fairbanks, Sr., highlights this expose of a big city criminal mastermind.
Give Us This Night
Stage Doorman
After being introduced to the world of opera, a fisherman (Jan Kiepura) falls for a woman (Swarthout) whose guardian is a noted composer (Philip Merivale). They met when the fisherman evaded the police by seeking refuge in the village church. While there, they are each captivated by hearing the other singing Mass. The beautiful woman falls in love with the fisherman with the wonderful voice.
Step on It
Doctor Greene (as Frank Crane)
A cop is fired from the force and attempts to solve a string of truck holdups.
If You Could Only Cook
Member of Board of Directors (uncredited)
An auto engineer and a professor's daughter pose as married servants in a mobster's mansion.
The Daring Young Man
Clerk
The Daring Young Man is hotshot-reporter Don McLane, played by James Dunn. Always on the prowl for a good story, McLane is persistently outscooped by his rival, sob sister Martha Allen (Mae Clarke). After several reels of double-crossing one another, hero and heroine give in to the inevitable and fall in love. But as Martha waits at the altar in her wedding gown, McLane is off on another crusade, this time getting himself arrested to expose corruption within the prison system.
'Neath the Arizona Skies
Express Agent (uncredited)
Chris Morrell, the guardian of half-Indian girl Nina, is helping her find her missing white father. so she can cash in on her late mother's oil lease. Outlaw Sam Black is after the girl and her father as well. Besides dealing with the Black gang, Morrell has to find another robber, Jim Moore, who switches clothes with him after he finds Chris unconscious from a fight with Sam Black. Along the way, he meets a lady who's the sister of Jim Moore, another bad hombre who's in cahoots with Jim Moore, and an old friend who takes in Nina and helps Chris locate Nina's father and fight off the various desperadoes
Mystery Ranch
Percy Jenkins
The famous western fiction writer Bob Morris arrives at the Henderson ranch. He quickly realizes the hanging, runaway horses, and the shootout are fakes for his benefit. But when a real robbery takes place he thinks it's another fake.
Out of Singapore
Capt. Carroll
While a ship's captain is being slowly poisoned, a gang of thugs try to take over the ship.
Mason of the Mounted
Frank
Canadian Mountie Mason is sent south of the border to look for a horse thief with only a watch chain for evidence. He befriends young Andy and when Calhoun hits Andy, Mason and Calhoun fight. In the scuffle Calhoun's watch with the missing chain is dislodged. Mason then sets out to bring in Calhoun and his gang.
My Old Dutch
James Vrayford
Silent family drama.
Tons of Money
Director
Tons of Money is a 1924 British silent comedy film directed by Frank Hall Crane and starring Leslie Henson, Flora le Breton and Mary Brough. Aubrey Allington is pursued by creditors and on learning of a family inheritance is persuaded by his wife to fake his own death and return as his own long-lost relative, George Maitland, the rightful claimant. Things get complicated when the real Maitland turns up with another Maitland impersonator, the brother of Aubrey’s butler, Sprules. It is an adaptation of the 1922 play Tons of Money by Will Evans and Arthur Valentine. Both were co-produced with Tom Walls. It was remade as a sound film Tons of Money in 1930
Little Wildcat
Jack Wilding
Robert Ware takes it upon himself to tame wild girl, Mag, to prove to his doubting friend Arnold, he can turn her into a graceful young lady. Later, when Arnold is in the war, he meets a pretty nurse who greatly impresses him. Back home he recalls the pleasant encounter to Robert, telling him of the gentle beauty he never forgot. Mag, now Margaret, overhears the story and reveals to Arnold, she was the nurse. The surprised Arnold now has to admit that Robert was right about gentling the little wild cat.
A Girl's Desire
'Lord' Cecil Dysart
Elizabeth Browne is the daughter of nouveau riche parents, who became wealthy when they struck oil. While she attends finishing school, her folks travel to England in search of a family tree so that they can enter society. They encounter Lady Dysart, an adventuress who married Lord Dysart shortly before his death. Lady Dysart tries to convince the Brownes that Cecil, her son from a previous marriage, is the new Lord Dysart.
The Puppet Man
Director
A disfigured man becomes a circus puppeteer and tries to destroy a waif's love.
Thais
Director
Stranded in Arcady
Director
Lucy Millington is an independent woman who looks upon men with contempt. Novelist Donald Prime, who has written a book on women, considers himself an authority on the subject. Both are lured into the desolate backwoods of Arcady by adventurers who plan to keep them in captivity until a fortune bequeathed to them has been safely deposited in the hands of their rivals.
Paying the Price
Director
While developing a powerful explosive, naval officer Paul Towne introduces his friend Richard Tracy to Judith Corbin, his friend since childhood. For years, Paul had assumed that he would marry Judith, but when Richard proposes, Judith, tired of waiting for Paul, accepts. Soon after the marriage, Richard becomes more interested in the new explosive than in his new wife, and to pay off gambling debts, he agrees to steal the formula and sell it to a foreign government.
As in a Looking Glass
Director
Scandalous European temptress Lila Despard, travels to America to escape her lover, criminal Jack Firthenbras. On the ship, she meets Andrew Livingston, a United States Navy planner, and Senator and Mrs. Gales. Her new friends host a party for Lila in Washington, D.C., where a spy named Dromiroff threatens to expose her past unless she steals Andrew's secret naval plans. In order to secure the papers, Lila makes love to Andrew, but the plan backfires when she falls in love with him.
The Stolen Voice
Director
The Moonstone
Director
Men and Women
Ned Seabury
Robert Stevens robs the bank where he is employed, and through the efforts of Calvin Stedman, the prosecuting attorney, he is sentenced to six years' imprisonment. While in jail his wife dies and his little daughter, Agnes, is placed in a convent.
Classmates
Clay
Bert Stafford, who is in love with Sylvia Randolph, his mother's ward, despises Duncan Irving, a poor boy who is the object of Sylvia's affections.
Cinderella
Elaborately produced version of the well known George O. Nichols fairy tale interrupted by just a few summarizing intertitles, with Florence LaBadie and Harry Benham.
David Copperfield
Thanhouser Company three-reel silent film based on Charles Dickens’s story of an English lad's tribulation-filled journey to adulthood, Thanhouser released the three films over the course of three weeks beginning on October 17, 1911, one 1,000 foot reel per week.
The Pied Piper of Hamelin
According to the tale found in the ancient annals, the little town of Hamelin, in Hanover, found itself, five hundred years ago overrun with rats. The citizens tried every way to abate the plague, but without result. Finally a mysterious stranger appeared in the town and offered for the sum of 1000 guilders to clear the place of vermin.
Lorna Doone
Lorna Dugal, the little daughter of an English nobleman, is carried off by her father's enemies, the Doones, when she is five years old. Sire Ensor Doone had been banished from court, and he and his family had established themselves in a well-protected valley, becoming outlaws and highwaymen.
The Old Curiosity Shop
The Old Curiosity Shop
A kindly shop owner whose overwhelming gambling debts allow a greedy landlord to seize his shop of dusty treasures. Evicted and with no way to pay his debts, he and his granddaughter flee.
The Vicar of Wakefield
Edwin Thanhouser re-made The Vicar of Wakefield in 1917 as a eight-reel feature film providing us with a frame of reference for the maturation of film language and cinematic techniques over the ensuing eight year period.
The Two Roses
Tony Prolo
Released on June 7, 1910, THE TWO ROSES was Thanhouser's 16th release and was advertised as "A powerful, pathetic, pretty story of life in Little Italy." The film featured Marie Eline (Tony, an Italian boy), Frank H. Crane (Tony Prolo, young Tony's father), and Anna Rosemond (Tony Prolo's wife). In this film Marie Eline was billed as "The Thanhouser Kid" for the first time.
The Girl of the Northern Woods
Will Harding, a Surveyor
This picture tells the story of Lucy Dane, a Canadian lumberman's daughter, and of Will Harding's love for her. Will is a worthy young surveyor and Lucy feels honored to have his love, and returns it. Jose, a half-breed trapper, adores Lucy and necessarily dislikes Will, whom he correctly counts his successful rival. More, he bears Will a grudge for responding to Lucy's cries for help when he forced his attentions on her in a lonely neck of the woods.
The Winter's Tale
Polixenes
The first of six Shakespeare adaptations from Thanhouser, The Winter’s Tale was just the 13th or 14th title from the studio in its first nine weeks of releases.
Daddy's Double
Daddy
This deft comedy about a foiled elopement and assumed identity shows the importance of a carefully worked out scenario for narrative flow.
The Actor's Children
The Actor
When his play closes down, an actor returns home to find that his children are gone. He's then notified that a wealthy relative has died and left him a substantial amount of money.
Jane Eyre
Directed by Theodore Marston.
Ten Nights in a Barroom
This story is based upon the celebrated drama of that title
Ten Nights in a Bar-room
Silent film.