Clarissa Selwynne

Clarissa Selwynne

Profile

Clarissa Selwynne

Movies

Call It a Day
Annoyed Woman in Theater (uncredited)
The various members of the middle-class Hilton family have a series of romantic misadventures during one eventful spring day.
Women of Glamour
Woman
A girl with a reputation falls for a wealthy playboy.
Everything in Life
Matilda Tewkes
An opera singer pretends to be poor in order to romantically win over a composer.
One Good Turn
Ma Pearson
In this comedy a pair of aspiring music hall entertainers attempt to live their dream while saving their landlady's daughter from ruin.
Everything Is Rhythm
Miss Mimms
Based on the spectacular rise of bandleader and vaudevillian Harry Roy, this is the comic tale of a Ruritanian princess who elopes with a dance-band leader.
Cynara
Onslow
A London barrister's marriage is under strain after his affair with a shopgirl who is out to have him. The story is told in flashback.
Slightly Married
Mrs. Martin
Mary Smith is picked up by the police and is about to be sentenced, in night court, to jail for prostitution. But a stranger, Jimmie Martin, stands up and tells the judge that Mary was waiting for him and they were going to be married.
The Man Called Back
Mrs. Cartright
Fresh from his success with the moody melodrama Murders in the Rue Morgue, director Robert Florey dashed off The Man Called Back at bargain-basement Tiffany Studios. The film is set in the tropics; Conrad Nagel tops the cast as a dissipated, derelict doctor, hopelessly in love with married socialite Doris Kenyon. Doris' insane husband John Halliday commits suicide, but arranges the evidence so that his wife will be charged with murder.
My Pal, the King
Dowager Queen
The king of a European country, who is a child, meets the cowboy star of a traveling circus.
Lilies of the Field
Second Maid
Mildred Harker loses custody of her child in a messy divorce settlement. Leaving her hometown in disgrace, Mildred heads to New York, where after a crash course in the school of hard knocks she joins the chorus of a Ziegfeld-like musical revue. Now a full-fledged gold-digger, she enjoys the favors of backstage johnnies and elderly sugar daddies, but finally finds true love in the form of Park Avenue socialite Ted Willing.
The Isle of Lost Ships
Aunt Emma / Mrs. Renwick
The Isle of Lost Ships is a 1929 talking film released in an alternative silent version with a Vitaphone track of effects and music. It was produced by Richard A. Rowland and distributed by Warner Bros..
The Love Trap
Mrs. Harrington
A chorus girl loses her job and thus the room she owes back rent on, and ends up being rescued from the street by a dashing rich man. But his family isn't over-accepting of chorus girls joining their family.
Come Across
Harriet Houston
Mary, a high society girl, wants to see how the other half lives, so she becomes a cabaret dancer in a New York nightclub. The owner of the nightclub, Pop Hanson, and his criminal friends, Harry and Cassie, scheme to rip off a Montana millionaire. Finding herself interested in Harry, Mary goes along with their plan and decides to pose as his wife. The gang moves into Mary's aunt's deserted mansion as their base of operations. A silent film with sound sequences.
My Man
Landlady
Fannie Brand, an industrious girl who supports her brother and sister by working in a theatrical costume house, falls in love with Joe Halsey, a young fellow who earns a precarious living demonstrating an elastic exerciser in a drugstore window. Fannie and Joe set a date to be married, but the wedding is called off when Fannie finds Joe making love to her unprincipled sister, Edna. Fannie auditions for Landau, a theatrical producer, and goes on the Broadway stage. Fannie is a great success, and she and Joe soon find their way back into each other's arms.
Jazz Mad
Mrs. Ostberg
A composer and his daughter emigrate to America in the hope that he can sell his symphony. But he meets with little success and begins to give up hope. His daughter and her friends, however, never give up hope.
The Baby Cyclone
Mrs. Webster
A woman thinks a small dog is an angel pet in this silent comedy.
Sinners' Parade
Mrs. Adams
Sinner's Parade is a 1928 American silent crime film directed by John G. Adolfi and starring Victor Varconi, Dorothy Revier, and John Patrick. It is not known whether this film survives. The film's sets were designed by the art director Harrison Wiley.
Glorious Betsy
Aunt Mary
Vitaphone production reels #2471-2478; third Warner Bros. feature film - the first being The Jazz Singer and the second Tenderloin - to include talking sequences, along with the by now usual Vitaphone musical score and sound effects. A copy of this film survives at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., but the sound disks are lost.
Broadway Daddies
Mrs. Winthrop Forrest
Eve, a beautiful young nightclub dancer, turns down a string of wealthy and powerful suitors for Robert, a poor but ambitious young man. What Eve doesn't know is that Robert is the son of a wealthy businessman and is just pretending to be poor to see if she really loves him. However, an item in the society pages gives away Robert's true identity. Complications ensue.
The Crystal Cup
Mrs. Pleyden
A beautiful young girl has been raised by her bitter mother to hate all men, but her beauty means that men are constantly after her. She rejects them all, leading some to believe that she may be a lesbian. To stop those rumors, she begins a platonic relationship with a young writer, but things don't work out exactly as planned.
Naughty But Nice
Miss Perkins
Naughty But Nice was based on The Bigamists, a story by Lewis Alen Brown. Gawky country girl Berenice Summers (Colleen Moore) is catapulted head-first into High Society when her Uncle Seth (Burr McIntosh) strikes oil. Shipped off to a fancy boarding school, Berenice suffers at the hands of her snooty classmates, but the last straw comes when she's publicly humiliated by local wise-guy Paul Carroll (Donald Reed).
Resurrection
Princess Olga Ivanovitch Nekhludof
Katusha, a country girl, is seduced and abandoned by Prince Nekludov. Nekludov finds himself, years later, on a jury trying the same Katusha for a crime he now realizes his actions drove her to. He follows her to imprisonment in Siberia, intent on redeeming her and himself as well.
Quarantined Rivals
Mrs. Peyton
Quarantined Rivals is a 1927 silent Comedy
High Steppers
Mrs. Perryam (as Clarissa Selwyn)
Perryam is going through a round of bad luck; he is thrown out of school and loses at love. In search of a change, he heads for London, where he meets Audrey Nye, a former jazz baby who has gotten a responsible job on a newspaper. She helps Perryam get hired as a reporter.
Infatuation
Lady Ethridge
Infatuation is based on Caesar's Wife, a story by Somerset Maugham. Dazzlingly British socialite Viola Morgan falls madly in love with professional soldier Sir Arthur Little at a dinner party. The two marry, and before long Viola has relocated to Egypt with her husband. Soon bored by her hothouse existence, Viola succumbs to the attentions of young British attache Ronald Perry.
A Broadway Lady
Mrs. Westbrook
Chorus girl Rosalie Ryan catches the eye of Bob Westbrook, a wealthy playboy. He proposes to her but she refuses, mainly because of his heavy drinking. However, after being brazenly insulted by his family, she accepts his proposal, just to get under their skin. She finds out that Bob's sister Phyllis is planning to run off with Martyn Edwards, a cad who once betrayed a close friend of Rosalie's. Rosalie goes to Phyllis' apartment to talk her out of it, but soon finds herself involved in, and arrested for, a murder.
We Moderns
Lady Kitty Sundale
A 1925 film directed by John Francis Dillon.
Sackcloth and Scarlet
Miss Curtis
Silent Drama
The Last Man on Earth
Dr. Prodwell
An epidemic has killed off all of the fertile men on earth, except for Elmer Smith, a hillbilly who lives out in a cabin in the Ozarks, when he is discovered, every woman on the planet begins fighting over him.
The Fast Worker
Mrs. O'Dell Carney
Roxbury asks his friend Terry to assume his identity and go on vacation with his wife, Edith, and their daughter. When Terry falls in love with Edith's sister, a scandal erupts at the resort.
Mademoiselle Midnight
Empress Eugénie - Prologue
Renée (Mae Murray) is the heiress of a Mexican ranch, granddaughter of a woman known for her recklessness and frivolity at night. This first "Mademoiselle Midnight" is banished in the opening scene by Napoleon III at Empress Eugenie's insistence to Mexico. Renee is kept locked at the hacienda at night by her father to prevent her following in her grandmother's wayward footsteps. She falls in love with a visiting American (Monte Blue) but is also pursued by the craven outlaw Manuel Corrales. Miss Murray gets to do some of her trademark dancing, but this one isn't a comedy, despite comic relief provided by Johnny Arthur.
Beau Brummel
Mrs. Wertham
George Bryan Brummel, a British military officer, loves Lady Margery, the betrothed of Lord Alvanley. Despite her own desperate love for Brummel, she submits to family pressure and marries Lord Alvanley. Brummel, broken-hearted, embarks upon a life of revelry.
The Brass Bottle
Mrs. Hamilton (as Clarissa Selwyn)
Horace Ventimore, a young London architect, stumbles across an old brass bottle. When he picks it up a genie suddenly appears and promises Horace that he will grant every wish Horace wants in exchange for his freedom. Horace accepts the genie's offer but finds out that things aren't working out quite as well as he thought they would.
The Woman Conquers
Jeanette Duval
Tired of her friends and life as a society leader, Ninon Le Compte goes north to the Hudson Bay area to inspect trapping holdings inherited from her uncle.
Sacred and Profane Love
Mrs. Sardis
Carlotta Peel, who though sheltered from the facts of life by her Victorian aunt has acquired some knowledge from indiscriminate reading, meets Diaz, a celebrated pianist, at a concert and spends the evening with him. Later, in London, she acquires fame as a novelist and is followed to France by married publisher Frank Ispenlove, who commits suicide when she spurns him. In Paris, Carlotta finds Diaz a physical wreck from drinking absinthe and devotes herself to his regeneration.
Straight from Paris
Mrs. Van Austen
A young man takes a trip to Europe, and when he returns home he brings along the woman he fell in love with and became engaged to. However, his snooty mother finds out that she doesn't come from a "good" family and is, in fact, a clerk in a shoe store, and refuses to sanction the engagement. The young man's uncle disagrees and tries to convince the mother to accept the young girl--but then begins to realize he is developing feelings for her himself.
Society Secrets
Aunt
Amos Kerran and his wife live a traditional, old-fashioned life on a Connecticut farm, while their son and daughter, Arthur and Maybelle, are successes in New York society. The children want to invite their parents to the city at Christmastime but are ashamed of their unrefined appearance.
Dangerous Days
Natalie Spencer
Patriotism, love and treason in the United States during the First World War. Barker manages to give every scene the right climate through inventive use of color. From semi-documentary to cruel melodrama.
The Cup of Fury
Lady Clifton-Wyatt
Sir Joseph and Lady Webbing are the foster parents of Marie-Louise. The couple are also in league with Verrinder, a German spy. When their work against England is discovered, they commit suicide. Marie-Louise, who has been an unwitting part of their schemes, is allowed to go to the U.S. if she promises to keep everything a secret.
Home
The Big Little Person
Mrs. Manning
After Arathea Manning loses her hearing during an epidemic of scarlet fever among the children she teaches, her fiancé Arthur Endicott, who is involved with another woman, complains of always having to shout to make himself heard. An inventor, Gerald Staples, gives Arathea an auriphone, a device to restore her hearing, but one of her problem pupils, in a fit of rage, breaks it. Gerald asks Arathea, whom he calls "The Big Little Person -- small in size, but big in ideas," to be the secretary of his new company marketing the invention. He falls in love with her and plays the piano for her even though she hears only rumblings.
The Scarlet Shadow
Edith Presby
Elena Evans is raised by her puritanical Aunt Elvira, who believes that because of Elena's mother, Elena possesses "the scarlet strain."
Creaking Stairs
The Buyer (as Clarissa Selwyn)
Dearie Lane refuses to marry Fred Millard, whom she loves, because of her previous affair with roué Mark Winfield. When she confesses, Fred forgives her, and they marry and live happily in a modest home until the owner, who turns out to be Winfield, comes to collect a delinquent payment and suddenly dies. Dearie, afraid that the absent Fred will misunderstand, hides the body with the help of a boarder and a cook until midnight when they carry it down the stairs to the countryside, but the creaking of the steps is heard by Fred.
The Talk of the Town
Aunt Harriet
Her strict upbringing is driving Genevra French (Dorothy Phillips) crazy, so when she gets her hand on a book called "How to Attract the Opposite Sex," she takes its advice to heart. She uses her newly found wiles on Lawrence Tabor (William Stowell) and gets him to marry her. Only after the wedding does she tell him she married him just to get away from her family, and that she intends to do exactly as she pleases.
Mother, I Need You
The Love Swindle
A wealthy woman attempts to win over a man who hates the rich.
The White Man's Law
Lady Falkland
Japanese leading man Sessue Hayakawa stars as John A. Ghengle, the Oxford-educated son of an Arab chieftain. Entering into a business partnership with Sir Harry Falkland (Jack Holt), a notorious roue, Ghengle relocates to Sierra Leone, where he falls in love with French-Sudanese girl Maida Verne (Florence Vidor.) Upon proposing marriage, Ghengle is turned down and hotly demands to know why.
A Weaver of Dreams
Cynthia Bancroft
A Weaver of Dreams is a lost silent film directed by Edison's John H. Collins
Face Value
Mrs. Van Twiller (as Clarissa Selwyn)
A runaway becomes a thief and is sentenced to a reformatory.
The Bride's Awakening
A husband orders his wife to keep their marriage a secret, in order to better continue his affair with a married woman.
Princess Virtue
Countess Oudoff
The daughter of a disowned upper class Bostonian finds acceptance in Parisian society.
The Calendar Girl
Madame Lizette
Mildred Manning, known as Middy, is an apprentice in Madame Lizette's fashionable shop. Her beauty is discovered by Madame's brother, George Martin, and she is made a model. One afternoon, she tries on a rejected bathing suit and by adding a touch here and there, makes it into a beautiful creation. Madame then sends her to the beach to carry out a clever advertising scheme. At the shore, Middy is pursued by a reporter and photographer, who have been commissioned by Madame to photograph the girl for calendar advertising. In her flight from the publicity men, Mildred takes refuge in a car owned by lawyer Philip Gordon, who gets into the vehicle and drives off with Middy. Middy has him drop her off where she doesn't live, and he ends up having to try to track her down.
The Double Standard
Grace Fairbrother (as Clarissa Selwyn)
Newly elected police court judge John Fairbrother is impassioned when it comes to the laws affecting the dives and cabarets of the city, and promises equal justice for all.
Gloriana
A newly adopted girl is doted on by her adopted father but faces indifference from her adopted mother.
The Flash of an Emerald
Marie
The picture starts with Robert Warwick walking into the office of director Albert Capellani (the film's actual director). Capellani offers him the role of a heavy and hands him the script. The next four reels show Warwick playing a Raffles-like character, an ingenious crook who moves through society, committing robberies and even murder.