William Fox
Birth : 1879-01-01, Tolcsva, Austria-Hungary [now Hungary]
Death : 1952-05-08
History
Starting at the age 8 he had a series of jobs before starting his own business in 1900, which was sold to buy a Brooklyn nickelodeon in 1904. As the new owner with an empty house, Fox hired a coin manipulator and a barker to attract patrons into the dark 146-seat theatre. Once audiences adequately understood what moving pictures were, live acts were dispensed with. More nickelodeons were opened and he became a successful film exhibitor. He then won a long legal battle against Thomas Edison's Motion Pictures Patent Company, ending the film trust and allowing him to start his own production company in 1913. Operations were consolidated into the Fox Film Corporation in 1915. Theda Bara and Tom Mix starred in successful pictures made at the Fox Hollywood studios and the profits from them, and from the 1000 house Fox theatre chain, paid for "artistic" projects like Sunrise (1926), for awards and critical acclaim. In 1927, Fox acquired the American patent rights to the sound-on-film process developed by a Swiss firm. Fox pioneered the widescreen film with The Big Trail (1930). Poised for the future of talkies, he attempted to buy MGM just in time for 1929s stock market crash. In 1930 Fox was forced out of his company after a federal anti-trust investigation. His version is told in 1933 Upton Sinclair's book, 'Upton Sinclair Presents William Fox.' In 1936, a year after Darryl F. Zanuck's 20th Century Pictures merged with Fox Films, Fox bribed a judge during the liquidation of his holdings in bankruptcy proceedings. His sentence, a year in prison, began in 1941. Paroled in 1943, he was a pariah in Hollywood. Though secure from his many patent holdings, the industry for which he had been so visionary was closed to him. A virtual pariah at the time of his death, no industry representative came to eulogize at his funeral.
HImself (archival footage) (uncredited)
Documentary focusing on the film careers F.W. Murnau, Frank Borzage and William Fox and their impact on the history of cinema.
Producer
Eddie Howard, a fast-thinking, two-fisted bodyguard, is hired by nightclub-owner Tim Martin to protect him from chiseling gangsters operating an extortion-racket. But Eddie meets and falls in love with Laura Grant, Tim's sweetheart, and complications quickly arise.
Executive Producer
Princess Wilma is forced to wed by midnight or lose her inheritance. She impulsively chooses gypsy vagabond Latzi, offering him a huge sum of money if he'll consent. Swallowing his pride, Latzi agrees to the marriage, but soon the coy Countess falls in love with young Lieutenant de Tokay, who is himself in love with Latzi's gypsy sweetheart Tinka.
Presenter
A hula dancer at a carnival sets out to seduce the naive son of the show's manager.
Presenter
An aviator who crash landed on an island in the South Pacific returns home to find that he is the last fertile man left on Earth after an epidemic of masculitus.
Presenter
Gambler/racketeer "Knucks" McGloin takes note of just how much money and action (aside from the game itself) takes place around and about the annual Rose Bowl football game, and decides this is one sweet proposition and could be even sweeter if one had his own college and football game and had a large say beforehand as to the outcome of any game this team had. So he ups and creates his own college---Carnasie after his own neighborhood. His gangster rival. Gilatti, thinks this give McGloin a definite inside advantage and, if there is one thing a gambler can't abide, it is that someone has an inside advantage and they are not that someone. Gilatti gets himself a college football team. Education marches on.
Producer
After becoming involved in a killing, Kiddo gets on board Boyton's ship. When he learns what happened he dumps her on a South Sea island.
Producer
Johnny is training for a championship fight. Judy distracts him, so his manager Briscoe walks out on him. Then so does Judy.
Producer
Mrs. Doray sits with a Juvenile Court Judge to learn more about problem children and what to do about them. One of the cases involves 13 year old Arthur, "the worst kid in town", who moves cars away from fiire-plugs without the knowledge of the owners. The judge gives Arthur and friend Nutty another chance. However they run into further trouble when they break into Mr. Doray's drugstore to get medicine for Nutty's grandmother. Mr. Doray is not sympathetic and completely against his wife's plan to become Arthur's guardian. More incidents occur with Mr. Doray quick to judge prior to getting all of the facts. Mrs. Doray must choose between her marriage and Arthur.
Producer
When motorcycle cop Dick Fay gives a ticket to Phyllis Crawford, her father's graft-fed influence leads to his demotion to foot patrolman.
Producer
Impoverished Jane Miller is loved by millionaire Roger and newspaperman William. Though William warns her otherwise, she goes with the millionaire to his French chateau where she risks terrible cruelty and even death.
Producer
This is the Spanish-language version, with a different cast and crew, of the Charlie Chan film Charlie Chan Carries On, in which Charlie sets out to discover the killer of an American found dead in a London hotel room.
Producer
Producer
Producer
Spanish-language remake of Paid to Love (1927)
Producer
A woman owning a small dressmaker's shop decides to reopen it in Broadway in luxury at all expenses, trusting merely on the cards'premonitions. She wants her little children to pair with the richest boys. Her husband, who discouraged her, dies and the business soon takes flight.
Executive Producer
After only 11 hours of marriage, Annabelle and her husband separate-not knowing what each other truly looks like. Annabelle is given stocks by her husband and told not to part with them. However she is an extravagant spender and is forced to give the stocks to her husband's millionaire rival.....
Producer
Troubles begin for the Sterlings when they buy an expensive car and friends start pressing them for rides.
Producer
A truck driver "too lazy to work and too nervous to steal" gets mixed up in racketeering. Naturally his underhanded business practices make him a pillar of the community.
Producer
A large caravan of settlers attempt to cross the Oregon Trail..
Executive Producer
Disenchanted opera star Carlotta Manson falls for ruffian cat burglar Barney McGann and gives up her career to marry him. But Barney grows disenchanted himself at being known as the husband of a diva and itches to get back to his life of crime and manliness.
Producer
Daily life at men and women's prison units where baseball and the marching band are serious business. Two prisoners escape in order to help paroled Steve from being blackmailed by his girlfriend's ex-partner-in-crime.
Executive Producer
Young Ellen Neal gets work as a servant with the wealthy Fullerton family. She falls in love with the Fullerton's handsome young son. But he leaves her with child, and when she attempts to gain recognition for her child, the Fullerton family treats her as a blackmailer. But a surprise awaits them all.
Producer
After selling his business in Iowa, Eli Granger and his family move to an exclusive Scarsdale area in New York, where by chance he occupies a house adjacent to Horace Divine, a wealthy businessman with whom he made his business transaction...
Presenter
A wealthy and powerful industrialist changes his identity to avenge himself on the wife that spurned him on their wedding night.
Producer
A waitress from Chicago falls in love with a man from rural Minnesota and marries him, with the intent of living a better life - but life on the farm has its own challenges.
Producer
Passion carried an innocent boy and a worldly woman beyond the barriers of conscience.
Executive Producer
Oklahoma mechanic Pike Peters finds himself part owner of an oil field. His wife Idy, hitherto content, decides the family must go to Paris to get "culture" and meet "the right kind of people." Pike and his grown son and daughter soon have flirtatious French admirers; Idy rents a chateau from an impoverished aristocrat; while Pike responds to each new development with homespun wit. In the inevitable clash, will pretentiousness and sophistication or common sense triumph?
Producer
Margie, singer on a showboat, decides to try her luck in New York inspite of being in love with the owners grandson. She is successful, but suddenly she hears that the showboat is in deep financial trouble, and she calls all the boats former stars to join in a big show to rescue it.
Producer
Mary, a poor farm girl, meets Tim just as word comes that war has been declared. Tim enlists in the army and goes to the battlefields of Europe, where he is wounded and loses the use of his legs. Home again, Tim is visited by Mary, and they are powerfully attracted to each other; but his physical handicap prevents him from declaring his love for her. Deeper complications set in when Martin, Tim's former sergeant and a bully, takes a shine to Mary.
Presenter
A man condemned to execution tries to convince two women that he is not their son and brother, and that they must get on with their lives.
Presenter
"Strong Boy" is offered a promotion for saving a child from being crushed by a trunk, but to the frustration of his girlfriend Mary, he is not ambitious enough to take a white-collar position. But when he thwarts an attempted train robbery and saves the Queen of Lisonia's jewels, he is viewed as a hero and Mary finally agrees to marry him.
Producer
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of the famous sleuth Sherlock Holmes, talks about his fictional detective, the real-life professor who inspired him, and his own belief in the supernatural.
Presenter
When a gangster's speakeasy is raided by the police, one of the people picked up is the gangster's pretty young girlfriend. A kind-hearted cop takes pity on her and helps her get out of that life. While waitressing to earn money for college, she meets a wealthy and handsome young man and they fall in love--but he doesn't know about her somewhat shady past and her relationship with the gangster.
Producer
An Arab prince born and raised in the desert and a beautiful Frenchwoman from Paris fall in love and marry, but the tremendous differences in their backgrounds and the cultural differences between their two different societies put strains on their marriage that may well prove irreparable.
Producer
A spirited young woman finds herself destitute and on the streets before joining a traveling carnival, where she meets a vagabond painter.
Producer
Two sailors with a rivalry over chasing women become friends. But when one decides to finally settle down, will this mysterious young woman come between them?
Presenter
Joe and Eve are engaged, but Joe cannot help contrasting the drabness of her attire with the dressy clothes of their friends. Eve overhears him talking of this and breaks with him. Then, with the help of her friend, Mazie, she metamorphoses into a ravishing beauty. Joe is remorseful, but the situation is made more complex when he suspects Eve of questionable relations with her boss.
Producer
A married farmer falls under the spell of a slatternly woman from the city, who tries to convince him to drown his wife.
Producer
Director Allan Dwan’s excellent use of New York locations enlivens a rags-to-riches tale that fully exploits star George O’Brien’s championship boxing prowess.
Producer
A dejected Parisian sewer worker feels his prayers have been answered when he falls in love with a street waif.
Presenter
The Loves of Carmen is a 1927 American silent romantic drama film directed by Raoul Walsh. The film, based on the novella Carmen by Prosper Mérimée, stars Dolores del Río in the title role, and Don Alvarado as Jose.
Presenter
Tom heroically saves rancher's daughter Dorothy Dwan from both a raging river and a gang of cattle rustlers led by popular western villain Wallace McDonald.
Writer
To cure their flirtatious husbands of consorting with flappers, three wives -Susan Martin, Ethel Drake, and Kitty Ladd- arrange with three college boys -Henry Winton, Oscar, and Joe Valley- to flirt with them at a house party. Joe Valley, who poses as a hot-blooded Spaniard, is vamped by Ginsberg in female attire, and Oscar, a bashful Swede, uses caveman methods when aroused. During a rehearsal of the party, the three husbands arrive, followed by their flapper friends, leading to comic complications that are resolved
Producer
A silent comedy set in an actor's boardinghouse. Some plot points are seemingly inspired by the Barrymore dynasty.
Presenter
Adam, a plumber, is happily married to Eve, a wardrobe-obsessed housewife, until she accidentally meets a supercilious fashion designer. At the prompting of her neighbor, who has secret designs on Adam, Eve secretly becomes a fashion model by day, knowing that her husband would disapprove.
Presenter
This film is the story of a small-town boy and girl. The hero, Denny Bolton, thrashes the town bully only to meet him later in the boxing ring in New York City. Ambition has swept him to Broadway, but the search for love brings him back to the Main Street of his home town.
Presenter
The drama of a girl who knew beauty's power.
Presenter
A man tries to woo a woman, rescue an orphanage, and bet on the right horse.
Presenter
Terry Dunniva, a retired sea-captain living in Marblehead, Massachusetts, adopts two children, Chrystal and Ned. As the girl grows to womanhood, Terry realizes his fatherly-love had grown to something stronger. He asks her to become his wife. Chrystal, who is in love with her foster-brother, consents rather than destroy Terry's happiness. On the day of their marriage, Ned returns from a long voyage with the intent of making Chrysal his wife. And, he, too, rather than destroy the happiness of his adopted-father, leaves to embark on an Artic voyage that might mean his death. When Terry learns of the sacrifice both Chrystal and Ned are making on behalf of his happiness, he takes Ned's place on the voyage and gets both to pledge that if he does not return, they will marry each other.
Presenter
Barry Craven meets former sweetheart Gillian Locke, who is visiting India with her father. Craven's love for Gillian is revived, but he already has a wife, Lolaire, a native. In a jealous rage, Lolaire kills herself, freeing Craven, who returns to England and marries Gillian. His Indian servant, Kunwar Singh, casts a spell on Craven, causing him to leave Gillian and to go into the Algerian desert. There he joins Said, an old university friend who is the son of an Algerian sheik. Gillian follows, the servant is killed, and with him dies the spell, "The Shadow of the East."
Presenter
It is a remake of a 1913 film of the same name directed by James Gordon and a 1916 William Farnum Fox feature titled A Man of Sorrow and based on the play Hoodman Blind.
Executive Producer
A compilation of archive footage from previously filmed Fox comedies.
Executive Producer
Producer
Mark Sabre hires young Effie Bright to keep his snobbish, cold-hearted wife Mabel company while he goes off to war. When he returns home from the front wounded, he finds that Mabel has fired Effie, who shows up at Mark's door with her baby, having no place to go. Mark takes her in, but Mabel leaves him when the town shuns him for what they believe is going on with Mark and Effie. Matters are further complicated when Effie, driven to desperation, commits an unspeakable act that results in Mark having a nervous breakdown--and then things get worse.
Executive Producer
Step Lively, Please is a 1922 silent comedy
Producer
A film adaptation of the classic Alexandre Dumas novel. Edmond Dantes is falsely accused by those jealous of his good fortune, and is sentenced to spend the rest of his life in the notorious island prison, Chateau d'If. While imprisoned, he meets the Abbe Faria, a fellow prisoner whom everyone believes to be mad. The Abbe tells Edmond of a fantastic treasure hidden away on a tiny island, that only he knows the location of...
Presenter
Presenter
Producer
Executive Producer
If you can't buy it... make your own! A Fox silent short subject comedy.
Producer
Bim (Buck Jones) seems to be his town's biggest loser, but when he takes a needy 13-year-old boy named Bill (George Stone) under his wing, it seems there may be some hope for Bim. After learning about Bill, a young teacher, Mary (Helen Ferguson), whom Bim secretly adores, helps get the young boy into school. And when Bim then helps Mary repay a loan, defaulted on by shifty boyfriend (William Buckley), it becomes evident that Bim can reform. As the plot in this captivating film twist and turns, the stakes get higher, the action gets more intense and hope for Bim bounds upward.
Producer
Palestine, under the rule of Rome. Salome, daughter of Herodias and both niece and stepdaughter of King Herod, becomes infatuated with the prophet John the Baptist, who publicly denounces the depravity of the royal family and proclaims the arrival of a new messiah. (Film presumed lost.)
Producer
The story of Cleopatra, the fabulous queen of Egypt, and the epic romances between her and the greatest men of Rome, Julius Caesar and Antony.
Producer
A potentially lost film, this film tells the story of a man is convicted unjustly of a crime and then subjected to inhumane torment in a prison run by corrupt administrators.
Producer
A sultan agrees to help an evil witch destroy a mysterious beauty if the witch will bring his young son back to life.
Producer
An adaptation of the 1861 novel by English author Ellen Wood: The story of long-suffering Lady Isabel Carlisle cast in a modern setting.
Producer
A scheme by a beautiful vamp to marry a wealthy young man fails, and the woman returns to her former lover, a sculptor. She is shocked to discover he has committed suicide, and the tragedy catapults her into insanity.
Producer
Anna Karenina is a married aristocrat and socialite living in Saint Petersburg. She is living a torrid romance with a wealthy and young count, he loves her and is willing to marry her once she leave her husband.
Producer
John Schuyler, a happily married lawyer, is appointed diplomat and sent to England; But, due to an unfortunate accident, his wife and child can not come along with him. On the ship to England, Schuyler meets the notorious Vampire-- A relentless gold-digger who causes the moral degradation of those she seduces, first fascinating and then draining the very life from her victims.
