J. Searle Dawley

Nacimiento : 1877-10-04, Del Norte, Colorado, USA

Muerte : 1949-03-29

Historia

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia James Searle Dawley was an American film director, producer, screenwriter, stage actor, and playwright. Between 1907 and the mid-1920s, while working for Edison, Rex Motion Picture Company, Famous Players, Fox, and other studios, he directed more than 300 short films and 56 features, which include many of the early releases of stars such as Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford, Pearl White, Marguerite Clark, Harold Lloyd, and John Barrymore. He also wrote scenarios for many of his productions, including one for his 1910 horror film Frankenstein, the earliest known screen adaptation of Mary Shelley's 1818 novel. While film direction and screenwriting comprised the bulk of Dawley's career, he also had earlier working experience in theater, performing on stage for more than a decade and managing every aspect of stagecraft. Dawley wrote at least 18 plays as well for repertory companies and for several Broadway productions.

Películas

Edison's Frankenstein
Screenplay
Thoroughly researched remake of the first screen version of Mary Shelley's story. Blending visual nightmare & Gothic romance, it tells this much trampled tale more as Jekyll and Hyde ghost story. A look at one man's struggle with the inadequacies of solitary creation.
Broadway Broke
Director
Nellie Wayne, a retired Broadway actress, has a small dog named "Chum", who is part of a vaudeville act and is the sole support of the family.
The Phantom Honeymoon
Writer
Professor Tidewater tours Ireland with his two daughters to investigate the origins of ghost stories. After the girls leave him at Belmore Castle, reputed to be haunted, the Hindu caretaker Sakes relates the following tale: Henry Claven, Sakes' master, courted his beautiful neighbor Betty Truesdale, but when she became engaged to Captain Bob Lambert, Claven precipitated a duel by telling Lambert that he knew his mother was a negress
The Phantom Honeymoon
Director
Professor Tidewater tours Ireland with his two daughters to investigate the origins of ghost stories. After the girls leave him at Belmore Castle, reputed to be haunted, the Hindu caretaker Sakes relates the following tale: Henry Claven, Sakes' master, courted his beautiful neighbor Betty Truesdale, but when she became engaged to Captain Bob Lambert, Claven precipitated a duel by telling Lambert that he knew his mother was a negress
When Men Desire
Story
A woman detained in Germany attempts to escape so she can reunite with her American lover.
The Death Dance
Director
Arnold Maitland is devastated when he finds out that his wife Cynthia is having an affair with a man named Boresky. He falls in love with Flora Farnsworth, a cabaret dancer, and sets out to divorce his wife and marry Flora. Unfortunately, Arnold is killed in an accident, and Flora turns for comfort to his business partner Philip Standish, and soon falls for him. Enter Cynthia, who has tired of Boresky and wants Philip for herself. She hatches a plan that will get rid of both Flora and Boresky and leave Philip for her.
Rich Man, Poor Man
Writer
Born and raised in poverty, Marguerite Clark has learned to expect very little out of life and thus is rather surprised to learn that she is the niece of a wealthy financier. Alas, this puts a crimp in her romance with a handsome young architect, who has long despised the financier for causing the downfall of the architect's father.
Rich Man, Poor Man
Director
Born and raised in poverty, Marguerite Clark has learned to expect very little out of life and thus is rather surprised to learn that she is the niece of a wealthy financier. Alas, this puts a crimp in her romance with a handsome young architect, who has long despised the financier for causing the downfall of the architect's father.
The Lie
Director
Elinor Shale's happiness at being engaged to Gerald Forster is interrupted by the arrival of her sister Lucy, who confesses that she will soon give birth to an illegitimate child. Elinor goes into seclusion with her sister until the baby is born and then tries to find a foster mother. Seeking to estrange Gerald from Elinor so that she may marry him herself, Lucy convinces him that Elinor is the child's mother. After Lucy and Gerald's marriage, Elinor learns of her sister's perfidy and resolves to tell Gerald the truth, but at the sight of their happiness, she relents and returns home.
Bab's Diary
Director
Bab comes home for the Christmas holidays. Given to fabrications, Bab has been keeping a diary in which she describes and imaginary boyfriend named Harold Valentine. Imagine what happens when a real Harold Valentine shows up as her parents' house guest.
The Mysterious Miss Terry
Writer
In her first Paramount film, Billie Burke plays Helen Wentworth, an heiress who's bored with the high life and decides to enjoy a bit of the low life.
The Mysterious Miss Terry
Director
In her first Paramount film, Billie Burke plays Helen Wentworth, an heiress who's bored with the high life and decides to enjoy a bit of the low life.
Conscience
Writer
Serama, the consort of Lucifer, is driven from Paradise by the Archangel Michael, who commands Conscience to enter human souls to judge and punish them. In the main story, society girl Ruth Somers, a reincarnation of Serama, prepares to marry Cecil Brooke, the wealthiest man of her set. Her guardian, Dr. Norton, an incarnation of Lucifer, constantly accompanies her. Ruth is summoned to the Court of Conscience, where the witnesses, Lust, Avarice, Hate, Revenge and Vanity, testify about Ruth's history of seducing and abandoning men. This behavior resulted in the suicide of Madge, the lover of Ned Langley, whom Ruth enthralled and promised to marry, and also the deaths of two rivals for her love. Ruth is ordered back to earth to learn her sentence. When Ned interrupts the wedding, Ruth scorns him and he shoots himself. After Brooke leaves her, the Court dooms Ruth to live with the torment of remembrance. Ruth sends Norton away, and then kneels and repents.
Snow White
Director
Snow White, a beautiful girl, is despised by a wicked queen who tries to destroy her. With the aid of dwarfs in the woods, Snow White overcomes the queen.
The Rainbow Princess
Director
Hope has an act in a traveling circus where she is "the rainbow princess" and performs a Hula dance. The owner of the circus pawns the girl off on Judge Daingerfield as his long-lost granddaughter. Hope goes to live with the judge, and to the horror of his upstanding family, insists on having the circus performers over as her guests. But the whole ruse, unbeknownst to her, is so that the circus owner's sons can rob the judge.
Silks and Satins
Director
On the eve of her wedding to a man she does not love, young Felicite (Marguerite Clark) stumbles upon a diary written by one of her ancestors.
Four Feathers
Director
Marta of the Lowlands
Director
Sebastien, a landowner, shelters the orphan Marta in exchange for sexual favors. When, years later, Sebastien's fortunes ebb, he marries Muri, the daughter of a rich man, and arranges for Marta to marry the shepherd Manelich. Sebastien assures Marta that Manelich knows of their relationship and will not interfere, but she discovers that her husband is ignorant of the affair and, in fact, loves her. Because she comes to return her husband's love, she confesses her past, after which Manelich kills Sebastien. With Marta at his side, the shepherd then returns to the hills. -From TCM.com Database, powered by the AFI.
The Lost Paradise
Director
Unknown to Reuben Warren, the foreman of an ironworks, his invention, the volta-dynamo, was stolen years earlier by his employer, Knowlton, and is the foundation for the iron magnate's financial empire. Reuben is in love with Knowlton's daughter Margaret, who is engaged to Ralph Standish, the son of Reuben's deceased mentor. A strike against inhumane working conditions at the mill coincides with the discovery of Knowlton's theft by Reuben, who confronts the employer with proof of his treachery. Margaret later breaks her engagement to Ralph and proclaims her love for Reuben. As Margaret's husband, Reuben now owns half of the mill and gladly meets the strikers' demands. -From TCM.com Database, powered by the AFI.
A Good Little Devil
Director
A partially lost film, with only one surviving reel. A movie released in 1914 directed by Edwin S. Porter.
An American Citizen
Director
A young American broker at large in London.
An American Citizen
Writer
A young American broker at large in London.
A Lady of Quality
Scenario Writer
News is received by Sir Jeoffrey, a dissolute roué, whose contempt for the other sex extends even to his own daughters, of the arrival of another female child in the family. The mother dies shortly after, and the child, Clorinda, is brought up among the servants without a guiding hand. True to his vow to ignore his offspring, Sir Jeoffrey does not come in contact with Clo, until her sixth year, when he finds her playing with his powder horn in the great hall of his castle, Wildair, and sternly upbraids her.
A Lady of Quality
Director
News is received by Sir Jeoffrey, a dissolute roué, whose contempt for the other sex extends even to his own daughters, of the arrival of another female child in the family. The mother dies shortly after, and the child, Clorinda, is brought up among the servants without a guiding hand. True to his vow to ignore his offspring, Sir Jeoffrey does not come in contact with Clo, until her sixth year, when he finds her playing with his powder horn in the great hall of his castle, Wildair, and sternly upbraids her.
Leah Kleschna
Director
Leah Kleschna has been a thief all her life. However, an encounter with a man she intends to rob makes her question her life's course. The film is lost.
Caprice
Director
A lost film. A wealthy young man's marriage to a mountain girl he meets while hunting is disastrous until she abandons him and later reappears incognito as a tutored and sophisticated woman.
Chelsea 7750
Writer
Chelsea 7750
Director
In the Bishop's Carriage
Director
A lost film. A successful stage actress with a hidden past as a criminal is kept on the path of righteousness by a benefactor.
Tess, la de los D'Urberville
Director
Una campesina enviada a reclamar la casa ancestral de su familia en Wessex, Inglaterra, es seducida y dejada con un hijo por su actual propietario.
Bill's Sweetheart
Director
Bill, who is with a bunch of cowboys on their way to town, picks up from the wreckage of a prairie schooner a little baby girl. Five years later the little girl, while running after butterflies, gets lost. Bill, waking up from his siesta, goes in search of her, but she cannot be found. The little girl, in the meantime, has climbed into a freighter's wagon. For twelve years she lives with him. One evening, while gambling with Mexican Pete, the freighter loses his money, and the girl, whom he had staked against the Mexican's winnings. But before the Mexican can take the girl away, Bill wins her from the Mexican, places her in the care of a woman neighbor and eventually marries her.
Hulda of Holland
Director
A Dutch romance. Hulda and Heintz are bashful, giggling lovers, hut their spooning opportunities are few, as well as being forbidden. One day they get a chance to spoon, but the village gossip sees them and hastens to Hulda's mother, exaggerating what she saw.
In A Japanese Tea Garden
Director
Looking for love in the tea garden
The Old Monk's Tale
Director
A monk tells a tale about a woman who can only surrender her heart to a man who can offer her jewels. A poor man falls in love with her and steals jewels off a statue of the Madonna to give to her.
The Charge of the Light Brigade
Director
Silent film drama of the famous incident..
The Lord and the Peasant
Director
In a peasant's cot we find a fair, young maiden who is loved by an honest, true-hearted peasant lad, while yonder stands the manor of Glenwood with its noble lord, who chanced to pass by one fair day and there noble eyes met peasant meekness and love found work a-plenty to do. But maiden thought naught of my lord o' the manor, nor so much as gave him cause to hope that all his castles and lands could win her heart from the true peasant lad who had gone forth in the world to win humble living for his bride to be. It was then that Dame Poverty came knocking at the peasant's door and upon her heels crept a fever which held the young sister close within her breast only waiting for death to knock gently at the humble cot. And still no word from the loved one in a foreign land! Had he deserted his fond-hearted lassie? Weeks passed by and still no word nor sign of the one held most dear, and then my lord of Glenwood Keep came suing for her hand.
The Relief of Lucknow
Director
The story of the siege and eventual relief of British soldiers garrisoned at Lucknow during the 1857 Indian Rebellion. Only a fragment of the original film remains.
Jack and the Beanstalk
Director
We see Jack and his mother very poor and the project of selling the cow discussed. Jack meets the familiar figure of the butcher who bargains with him for the cow and finally Jack consents to part with the animal for the wonderful beans which will grow up overnight until they reach the sky. He takes them to his mother, and, of course, she is heart-broken and throws the beans out of the window. The next morning the vine not only covers the window, but reaches far above the top of the house out of sight in the clouds, and we see Jack start to climb upward. Upon arriving at the giant's castle Jack meets the ogre's wife, who towers majestically above him, and after some parley is invited in, on his plea of hunger. Before he can be served the giant is heard and Jack is hidden in the kettle. The giant comes on and then follows the familiar scenes in which the ogre calls for his bags of gold, his magic harp and the wonderful hen that lays the golden eggs.
A Romance of the Cliff Dwellers
Director
La historia misma trata del instinto primitivo de la humanidad; desear era tomar la fuerza de las armas, y así uno de los jefes eligió para la suya una hermosa doncella amada a su vez por una joven valiente, y cuya admiración ella correspondía. Pero al igual que en la Edad Media, cada vez que un hombre deseaba una doncella la aceptaba con o sin permiso. Hasta ahí llegó la jefa, pero su amante decide igualar la fuerza de sus brazos para una novia tan hermosa, y luchan al borde del acantilado.....
A Modern Cinderella
Director
This 20th-century retelling of the classic fairy tale keeps all the familiar elements — a selfish step-sister, a put-upon beauty, a Prince Charming, and, of course, a lost slipper — but shifts the action to a contemporary boarding house. Cinderella, played by Mary Fuller, befriends an elderly resident, who buys a party outfit for her favorite when Cinderella’s elder sister preens for a dance. The new clothes transform the unassuming maiden into the toast of the ball. Finding Cinderella’s missing shoe, a dashing young man follows the clue to his grandmother, Cinderella’s friend at the boarding house, who works her magic to reunite the couple.
The Ransom of Red Chief
Director
After reading a newspaper article regarding old Tightwad's rise in the world, Bill and Jim hit upon a plan to get some of Tightwad's easy money by holding young Tightwad for ransom. They accordingly hire a rig, take the boy and conceal him in a cave. The boy, instead of weeping and wailing for home and mother, proclaims himself "Red Chief" and makes it uncomfortable for his captors. (Moving Picture World)
Aida
Director
Aida, daughter of the King of Ethiopia, having fallen a prisoner into the hands of the Egyptians, is given as a slave by their king to his daughter Amneris who, captivated by the grace and beauty of the unknown maid, takes her into favor. Radames, a young captain of the king's guards, loved by Amneris, suspecting a rival in her slave, swears to be avenged. Meanwhile war is again declared between Egypt and Ethiopia and Radames, appointed leader of the army by the High Priest of Isis, is invested with the sacred arms and departs to fight the Ethiopians who, headed by their king, have invaded Egypt. Radames defeats them and returns victorious, followed by the prisoners, among whom is the king himself, disguised as an officer.
A Christmas Carol
Director
The day before the Christmas holiday, Ebenezer Scrooge, a hard-fisted miser, refuses to contribute to the Charity Relief Committee, and then rudely rejects his nephew Fred when he visits Scrooge in his office. When Scrooge returns home, he sees the ghost of his former business partner Jacob Marley, who warns him of the punishment he will suffer in the next life if he does not change his ways. That night, Scrooge is visited by three more spirits, who show him his past, the present, and the future that awaits him.
A Daughter of the Mines
Director
A Romeo and Juliet story of the rivalry between two miners, one rich and one poor, whose son and daughter overcome their respective fathers' opposition.
The Song That Reached His Heart
Director
A Story of the Lumber Regions of Western Canada: a lumberjack remember his past while he listens to a record of the song his fiancée used to sing him.
An Unselfish Love
Director
Unsuccessful in his suit for Mabel, John goes to farm in western Canada. Mabel's father convinces her that John has found another sweetheart, so Mabel accepts an old suitor. A spinster who cares for John discovers he still loves Mabel and brings her out west where she and John are reunited.
Michael Strogoff
Director
A graphic reproduction of Jules Verne's famous story under the above title. It deals with a secret mission in Russia
Michael Strogoff
Writer
A graphic reproduction of Jules Verne's famous story under the above title. It deals with a secret mission in Russia
Frankenstein
Screenplay
Frankenstein, un joven médico, trata de crear al ser humano perfecto y, sin intención, termina creando un monstruo. Primera versión cinematográfica de la novela de Mary Shelley.
Frankenstein
Director
Frankenstein, un joven médico, trata de crear al ser humano perfecto y, sin intención, termina creando un monstruo. Primera versión cinematográfica de la novela de Mary Shelley.
Hansel and Gretel
Scenario Writer
One of the first, of not the first, film adaptation of Grimm's fairytale.
Hansel and Gretel
Director
One of the first, of not the first, film adaptation of Grimm's fairytale.
The Prince and the Pauper
Scenario Writer
Directed by J. Searle Dawley.
The Prince and the Pauper
Director
Directed by J. Searle Dawley.
Tale the Autumn Leaves Told
Director
A handful of short tales of love, framed by leaf masks.
Cupid’s Pranks
Director
After receiving a scolding for falling asleep on the job, Cupid is sent out in search of potential lovers to unite. While flying over a city, he finds a ballroom dance and identifies a likely couple. He is successful in getting them to meet, but many obstacles still stand in the way of Cupid achieving his goal for them. (IMDb)
Fireside Reminiscences
Director
A broken-hearted husband thinks about the past as he sits by the fireplace.
Rescued from an Eagle's Nest
Director
A woodsman leaves a hut followed by a woman with their baby. Nearby some men chop down a tree. The baby is left outside the hut, but an eagle flies away with it.
A Suburbanite's Ingenious Alarm
Director
An office worker takes desperate measures in an attempt to get up on time in the morning.
A Little Girl Who Did Not Believe in Santa Claus
Director
A generous boy tries to help a girl who does not believe in Santa Claus because of her family's poverty.
College Chums
Director
While in a park, a young woman sees her fiancé being quite affectionate with another woman. When she calls him on the telephone to demand an explanation, he tells her that it was his sister. She is not satisfied, and insists on coming over to meet his 'sister'. As the young man broods over how to get out of trouble, an old college friend comes over, and he offers to pretend to be the sister. At first this works, but soon it has created even more complications.
The Trainer’s Daughter; or, A Race for Love
Director
Jack and the daughter of a horse trainer are in love with each other, but when the trainer discovers them together, he makes it clear that Jack is unwelcome. Later, at the stables, another suitor for the daughter's hand appears. An unusual agreement is reached, under which the result of a race will determine which of the two the daughter will marry. But Jack's rival proves to be unscrupulous, and he will stop at nothing to be successful.
The Rivals
Director
Chollie and George compete for a young woman's affection, using trickery and sabotage.