Betty Compson
Acting
Biography
Betty Compson (March 19, 1897 – April 18, 1974) was an American actress and film producer. Most famous in silent films and early talkies, she is best known in her performances in The Docks of New York and The Barker, the latter earning a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress.
Born: March 17, 1897
Place of Birth: Beaver, Utah, USA
Known For
Fragments: Surviving Pieces of Lost Films
Among the pieces featured in Fragments are the final reel of John Ford's The Village Blacksmith (1922) and a glimpse at Emil Jannings in The Way of All Flesh (1927), the only Oscar®-winning performance in a lost film. Fragments also features clips from such lost films as Cleopatra (1917), starring Theda Bara; The Miracle Man (1919), with Lon Chaney; He Comes Up Smiling (1918), starring Douglas Fairbanks; an early lost sound film, Gold Diggers of Broadway (1929), filmed in early Technicolor, and the only color footage of silent star Clara Bow, Red Hair (1928). The program is rounded out with interviews of film preservationists involved in identifying and restoring these films. Also featured is a new interview with Diana Serra Cary, best known as "Baby Peggy", one of the major American child stars of the silent era, who discusses one of the featured fragments, Darling of New York (1923).
The Enemy Sex
A well-known sextet has been invited to a society gathering, and when one of them turns up missing, their manager asks Dodo to fill in. At the party, she meets four new men. She's smart enough to steer clear of two of them -- corrupt society leader Albert Sasson and powerful newspaper publisher Harrigan Blood. Instead she becomes passionately involved with Judge Massingale. The man who really steals her heart, however, is Garry Lindaberry, who seems to be a hopeless drunk.
Hollywood
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...
A Trip to Paramountown
Documentary short film depicting the filmmaking activity at the Paramount Studios in Hollywood, featuring dozens of stars captured candidly and at work.
The White Shadow
The White Shadow is a British drama film directed by Graham Cutts based on the novel "Children of Chance" by Michael Morton. Alfred Hitchcock worked on it as assistant director and also handled the writing, editing, and art direction. The film was long thought to be lost. In August 2011, it was announced that the first three reels of the six-reel picture had been found in a garden shed and donated to the NFPF. The film cans were mislabled Two Sisters and Unidentified American Film and only later identified. The film was restored by Park Road Studios and is now in the New Zealand Film Archive. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in partnership with National Film Preservation Foundation in 2012.
Strange Cargo
Convicts escaping from Devil's Island come under the influence of a strange Christ-like figure.
The Barker
A successful carnival barker deals with the arrival of his eager son, who he'd hoped would stay far from the carnival world, his son's entanglement with a showgirl, and his own jealous mistress.
The Little Minister
In 1840 Scotland, a young lass named Babbie revels in the country life and frolics with the locals, simple weavers whose livelihood is threatened by increasing industrialization. When Lord Rintoul attempts to rout the rebellious weavers, Babbie always manages to send word in time to prevent their being taken by surprise. Gavin, new minister to the town, falls in love with Babbie, and his relationship with the young gypsy almost costs him his position. But what Gavin and his parishioners do not know is that Babbie is actually Lady Babbie, ward of Lord Rintoul.
The House That Shadows Built
The House That Shadows Built (1931) is a short feature, roughly 48 minutes long, from Paramount Pictures made to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the studio's founding in 1912. It was a promotional film for exhibitors and never had a regular theatrical release and includes a brief history of Paramount, interviews with various actors, and clips from upcoming projects (some of which never came to fruition). The title comes from a biography of Paramount founder Adolph Zukor, The House That Shadows Built (1928), by William Henry Irwin.
Her Adventurous Night
A boy's tall tale about a gun puts his parents and school principal in jail.
Filmography
as Herself (archive footage)
as Self (archive footage)
as Martha Blake
as Mrs. Davenport
as Selena Webster
as Miss Spencer
as Madame Sappho
as Mrs. Lucy Morgan (edited from Mad Youth) (archive footage) (uncredited)
as Ruth Ashley
as Mrs. Kessler
as Mrs. Thelma Tate
as Gertie
as Mrs. Van Horn
as Lucy Morgan
as Suzanne (uncredited)
as Cafe Hostess
as Belle Starkey
as Kitty Truman
as Soubrette (uncredited)
as Marie
as Ada Bernard
as Kitty, Gomez's Moll
as Eleanor Sparks
as Kate
as Loretta
as Chicago
as Blanche Revelle
as Sue, Gang Moll
as Roxey Moore
as Carlotta
as 'Fluff' Harding
as Kate
as Billie Blake
as Betty
as Mollie Cole
as Gloria Neville
as Molly
as Ethel Ames
as Clarissa Stanhope
as Mrs. Eldridge
as Millie Sprague
as Ruby Smith
as Lou
as Maizie
as Kate Flynn
as Baroness Corri
as (archive footage)
as Helga Larson Hanson
as Inez Wakefield
as June
as Helene
as Cherry Malotte
as Jane Gershon
as Sally Wayne
as Connie Colton
as Kitty
as Stella
as Babka
as Helen Williams
as Performer in 'The Pirate Number' & 'Lady Luck' Numbers (uncredited)
as Deloryce / Lola
as Mary
as Sadie Rogers
as Frederika Joyzelle
as Nita
as Doris Ward
as Alice Gray
as Carrie
as Mae
as Belle Starr
as Betty
as Diane Duval
as Helen
as Rose
as Nan Carey
as Mitzel
as Betty Howard
as Marie Duval / The Young Adele
as Hula Kate
as Lola Montez
as Katherine West
as Molly Jones
as Molly
as Princess in Pantomime
as Eve
as Olympe
as Mrs. Norman 'Mary Reid' Carter
as Dorothy Delbridge
as Margaret Sones
as Pen Broome
as Dalla
as Dodo Baxter
as Nancy Brent / Georgina Brent
as Joan Bruce
as Peggy Bowlin
as Betty Compson
as Elizabeth West
as Lala De Breeze
as Konia Markham
as Louise Boucher / Deloryse
as Molly Brandon
as Lady Jocelyn Leigh
as Angela Gaskell
as Self
as Celia Thaxter / Queen Neco Tokris
as Jen Galbraith
as Genelle / Coralyn / Joan Parker
as Margaret Rolfe
as Lady Babbie
as Christine Bleeker
as Bernice Arnold
as Cherry O'Day
as Blanche Davis
as Rose
as Rose
as Jane Ravenslee
as Thelma Grant
as School Teacher
as Rose Hardy
as Wifey
as Mrs. Newlywed