Thomas J. Geraghty
Birth : 1883-04-10, Rushville - Indiana - USA
Death : 1945-06-05
History
Born and raised in Indiana, Thomas Geraghty left for New York after graduating school and got a job as a reporter for the New York Herald and later the New York Tribune. His entrance into the film business was as a publicist, and he later became a writer for the one-reel comedies of Sidney Drew. In Los Angeles he got a job as a writer for Douglas Fairbanks, and was sent to New York by Famous Players-Lasky when it opened a studio there. He ran the studio for several years, then was sent to London to run the studio there, before returning to the US in 1922. He turned out screenplays for various studios throughout the 1920s and 1930s, including the highly regarded 'Wings of the Morning' (1937).
Screenplay
A beautiful Gypsy girl falls in love with a horse trainer.
Writer
A Colonel's daughter steals from the regimental mess funds to pay off her gambling debts. One of the officers, who is love with her, takes the blame, and is sent to Africa.
Screenplay
Despite being on his uppers, George is still prepared to pawn his beloved banjo in order to help his girlfriend save her niece from the orphanage. Help seems to be at hand when George is left a fortune by his old auntie, but unfortunately his inheritance is hidden inside a chair which has already been auctioned off! Can George and his chums track down his rightful due before his grasping solicitor (Alastair Sim, in an early film appearance) snatches the lot? It's hard to say, but he still finds time to perform both the title song and the classic 'When I'm Cleaning Windows'.
Screenplay
George Shuttleworth is convinced that he has the talent to win the Isle of Man TT races, despite what his neighbours back home in Wigan may think. During the trials, the brakes go on George's bike, 'The Shuttleworth Snap', which he made himself. As a result, he breaks the TT lap record, becoming an instant motor-cycling star. As the big race approaches, George soon realises that other jealous riders will stop at nothing to make sure he does not take part in the race. An early George Formby film and probably his best.
Story
The owner of a small Italian restaurant in central London is left a million pound inheritance, the only stipulation to the will being that he cannot speak or write anything for a period of one month.
Writer
When a meek secretary goes to work for her new boss, she becomes a sophisticated lady.
Scenario Writer
A pseudo-documentary, “Samarang” tells the story of lowly Ahmang (Captain A.V. Cockle) and his socially superior love, Sai-Yu (Theresa Seth). Both live in the village of Samarang in the Indian Ocean. Because Sai-Yu is the daughter of a chief and Ahmang is but a poor fisherman, he needs to increase his wealth before asking for her hand. Thus he accepts the perilous offer of the wily Chang-Fu, who seeks pearl divers. Ahmang must brave the treacherous waters of the Forbidden Lagoon of Sakai, home to bloodthirsty cannibals, killer sharks, and a monstrous grasping octopus. Sai-Yu and Ahmang’s younger brother Ko-Hai come along for kicks, too. Ahmang finds his pearl, but he and Sai-Yu are stranded on the island, where they befriend a local orangutan. When they return to the boat, a shark kills Ko-Hai, and Ahmang must get revenge.
Screenplay
Elmer does not want to leave Gentryville, because Nellie is the one that he loves. Even when Mr. Wade of the Chicago Cubs comes to get him, it is only because Nellie spurns him that he goes. As always, Elmer is the king of batters and he wins game after game. When Nellie comes to see Elmer in Chicago, she sees him kissing Evelyn and she wants nothing to do with him anymore. So Healy takes him to a gambling club, where Elmer does not know that the chips are money. He finds that he owes the gamblers $5000 and they make him sign a note for it. Sad at losing Nellie, mad at his teammates and in debt to the gamblers, Elmer disappears as the Cubs are in the deciding game for the Series.
Adaptation
Steve Drexel voluntarily strands himself on a deserted island on a bet. He intends to re-create civilization and carves a miniature city of 52nd Street and Park Avenue out of the jungle. Drexel is befriended by his dog, a native monkey, and a wild goat that is captured in one of his traps. He attempts to cultivate a native as his Man Friday from Robinson Crusoe, but fails as the native escape.
Writer
Moore plays the "dual" role of a French singer in America who was originally an American chorus girl in France to acquire a new persona.
Adaptation
Peggy and Bill are high society lovebirds, but their marriage plans are put on hold while Peggy spends most of her summer straightening out her wayward parents and her unlucky-in-love sister Janet. Mama and Papa are set to rights fairly quickly, but Janet's the one with real problems. It seems she sent some compromising love letters to a worthless cad, and now the bounder wants to use the letters for blackmail. Peggy's friend Roger and his flapper sweetheart Tootie hatch an elaborate plan to retrieve the incriminating letters and salvage Janet's reputation.
Screenplay
A 1929 film directed by William A. Seiter.
Writer
A young woman impulsively marries a young playwright who whisks her away to New York promises her a role in his next production. Unfortunately the production is a disaster and her husband proclaims her unfit for the role. Rather then return home in defeat, she stays in New York and accidentally gets involved with some vicious gangsters.
Writer
Farmboy Harold moves to the city and there attends high school. Soon he is very popular, his spirited nature causing much excitement on the campus. He joins a fraternity, goes out for football, and directs his class theatrical effort. Instead of a school play, Harold suggests doing a western motion picture. Part of the plot requires them to blow up the dam that has cut off the water supply to Harold's homestead in the country. After the explosion Harold runs away because he is afraid of being arrested, but he returns just in time to win a football game for his team.
Adaptation
John Stoval, a guard in a New York subway, thinks that Philip Hurd, who owns a concession at Coney Island, would make a good husband for his daughter Sophie. Sophie, however, has her sights set on Bill Hedges, the son of a wealthy farmer in upstate New York. Her father arranges for her to marry Hurd in exchange for a 25% interest in the concession, but matters come to a halt when John slips and falls off a subway platform and is injured.
Writer
Mad Hour is a 1928 American silent drama film directed by Joseph Boyle and starring Sally O'Neil, Alice White and Donald Reed. It was adapted from a novel by Elinor Glyn.
Writer
The film is about a desert-bound member of the French Foreign Legion who exposes a betrayer to the Legion and is then sent on a mission among the Arabs to conclude the signing of a crucial peace treaty.
Writer
While stationed in Switzerland, soldiers Louis and Rodney fall in love with local damsel Colette, much to the dismay of Colette's self-appointed boyfriend General Lavoris.
Writer
Wally and Ray are cousins intent upon getting the fortune of their Scots grandad, an aviation nut. They become mixed-up with the U. S. flying corps and are wafted over the enemy lines in a runaway balloon. Through misunderstanding they are honored as heroes of the enemy forces, and sent back to the U.S. lines to spy. Here they are captured and almost shot, but everything ends happily. Only 20 minutes of this 6 reel comedy are extant.
Writer
Two firemen must put up with a variety of travails in their job, especially their chief's spoiled and bratty daughter, who keeps turning in false alarms whenever she needs some heavy lifting done so that she can get the responding firemen to do it.
Writer
Tom Kelly, a small-town baseball pitcher, is sent to a minor-league team in Florida, and fails to make the team. He starts dabbling in real estate, in the midst of the Florida land boom (in which a lot of the land sold was under water), makes a fortune and buys into the team that cut him from its roster.
Co-Writer
Alfred E.Green silent family relationship romantic melodrama
Writer
Familiar story of spoiled heiress, Blanche Sweet, who dabbles in romance with commoner Ronald Colman. They roam the highlands together hunting since this is Sweet's "sport." They seem to have an idyllic affair going when into the mix comes an impoverished prince (Lew Cody). He determines to steal away the heiress and pay off his creditors. Indeed, this is the plan he shares with them.
Writer
Silent Drama
Screenplay
Pied Piper Malone (1924)
Writer
At sight of a woman, he got a ticket for speeding.
Writer
Angela comes to Hollywood with only two things: Her dream to become a movie star, and Grandpa. She leaves an Aunt, a brother, Grandma, and her longtime boyfriend back in Centerville. Despite seeing major movie stars around every corner, and knocking on every casting office door in town, at the end of her first day she is still unemployed. To her horror, when she arrives back at their hotel, she finds that Grandpa has been cast in a movie by William DeMille and quickly becomes a star during the ensuing weeks. Her family, worried that Angela and Grandpa are getting into trouble, come to Hollywood to drag them back home. In short order Aunt, Grandma, brother, boyfriend and even the parrot become superstars, but Angela is still unemployed...
Scenario Writer
Austin Bevans, a lively car-salesman, suddenly finds himself heir to the Bevans School for Girls. Since Austin feels that acquiring grace and charm are more important to a young girl than acquiring knowledge, academic courses are dropped, and a charm school emerges. He submits to the charms of Elsie, a student at the school, whose grandfather takes him into his employ after a newly discovered will dispossesses him of the school. Elsie resents Austin for accepting a job with those who formerly thought him undesirable, but later she relents and takes him back.
Writer
Reckless heir of an influential San Francisco family, Perry Danton must prove his worth by taking a job with the family lawyer before he is entrusted with the Danton fortune.
Writer
Bebe Daniels is charming in this light comedy, based on a Saturday Evening Post story by Grace Lovell Bryan.
Writer
The original film featured the then unknown Rudolph Valentino. To cash in on his rise to stardom, it was re-edited to feature more of him. Various shots were repeated several times; long shots were blown up into close-ups and inter-cut with other footage; some scenes were projected on a loop, so that Rudolph Valentino repeated the same motions several times over; one scene was used as a flashback; and out-takes from the original were inserted into the new film. In addition, the locale of the new picture was switched from World War 1 Germany to a desert island by the simple expedient of inserting shots of bathing beauties on a palm-fringed beach throughout the film.
Himself
Daniel Boone Brown is a pleasure-seeking playboy carousing around New York City without a care in the world -- that is, until he becomes the unwitting subject of a series of experiments at the hands of a sadistic psychiatrist. Through various means of control, the mad scientist drives Daniel to think he's losing his mind, but ultimately introduces him to the lovely Lucette.
Scenario Writer
Daniel Boone Brown is a pleasure-seeking playboy carousing around New York City without a care in the world -- that is, until he becomes the unwitting subject of a series of experiments at the hands of a sadistic psychiatrist. Through various means of control, the mad scientist drives Daniel to think he's losing his mind, but ultimately introduces him to the lovely Lucette.
Writer
Illiterate Blue Ridge Mountain girl Madge Brierly falls in love with vacationing Blue Grass aristocrat Frank Layson, when he stops Horace Holten from defrauding her of her coal-rich lands. For revenge, Holten tells moonshiner Joe Lorey, who loves Madge, that Frank is a revenue officer. After Madge rescues Frank from Joe's attack, they go to Frank's home, where he teaches her reading and writing, and she rescues his racehorse, Queen Bess, from a fire set by Holten. Because Frank has nearly all of his family's money riding on the big Kentucky race, Holten gets Frank's jockey drunk. Madge, discovering this, disguises herself and rides Queen Bess to victory. She leaves for home unnoticed, and comes across the Night Riders chasing Lorey. After she persuades them that Holten killed her father years earlier, and was responsible for Lorey's attack, they chase Holten who falls from a mountain and dies. Years later, Madge's and Frank's children play at feuding.
Scenario Writer
Augustus Billings has a domineering mother-in-law, and to get away from both her and his wife, he takes a trip, claiming that he is going off to check on Mexican oil investments. But he's really going on a cruise with Mrs. Dathis, who has purchased his yacht. To throw everyone off track, he uses the name Mr. Johnson. When he decides to repeat the trip, however, all hell breaks loose -- the jealous Mr. Dathis is out to get his hands on this Johnson character, while a real Mr. Johnson shows up in Mexico, and Mrs. Billings shows up with her mother, and the confusion continues from there.
Screenplay
An impertinent son of a wealthy New Yorker, Roger Carr takes the blame for the murder of Norman Evans, whom Roger believes his sister Ethel shot when Evans assaulted her.
Story
Sessue Hayakawa was making the transition from Asian villain to sympathetic hero in this picture. The plot is a combination of racial stereotypes that were common in the U.S. during the silent era and real-life situations experienced by Asians living Stateside. Hayakawa plays Suki Iota, a student who, while born and bred in America, wants a wife with traditional Japanese values. She appears in the form of Rei (Tsuru Aoki, Hayakawa's real-life wife), a singer who becomes known as the Japanese Nightingale.
Writer
Toyama wants to go to college in America but his alcoholic father won't supply the funds. He gets the money to go, however, from Sada, whom he has married in secret. But Sada has a secret of her own -- she told Toyama that she got the money from a relative, but the truth is that she has signed up to do a four-year stint as a Geisha girl.
Scenario Writer
Toyama wants to go to college in America but his alcoholic father won't supply the funds. He gets the money to go, however, from Sada, whom he has married in secret. But Sada has a secret of her own -- she told Toyama that she got the money from a relative, but the truth is that she has signed up to do a four-year stint as a Geisha girl.
Writer
Directed by Wallace Worsley.
Scenario Writer
Directed by Wallace Worsley.
Scenario Writer
Melaine is captured by a northern soldier while she is carrying secret southern messages. She falls into the hands of her father's former superior who attempts to compromise her. She is saved by a successful Confederate attack.
Writer
Country lawyer Abel Manning is very passionate about his political party. Through the force of his oratory, he helps elect James Kitwell to the U.S. Senate. Kitwell has promised to reward Manning an important post. No job is forthcoming until a scheme is offered to the unscrupulous Kitwell by Pedro Gonzales. Gonzales plans a revolution in Mexico and needs a corruptible American consul.