
Owen Davis
Writing
Known For

In 1850s Louisiana, the willfulness of a tempestuous Southern belle threatens to destroy all who care for her.
Jezebel

A prostitute living in Panama shoots her pimp and is charged with murder. The lawyer who gets her off fronts her money to start a new life in NY where she becomes a successful business woman and meets wealthy businessman, Harry Davenport. He knows nothing of her past. Then someone from the past shows up. Will she be exposed? Will she follow through on her plan to marry?
My Sin

Nick Carraway, a young Midwesterner now living on Long Island, finds himself fascinated by the mysterious past and lavish lifetyle of his landlord, the nouveau riche Jay Gatsby. He is drawn into Gatsby's circle, becoming a witness to obsession and tragedy.
The Great Gatsby

China, during the rule of the Qing Dynasty. The arranged marriage between Wang Lung, a humble farmer, and O-Lan, a domestic slave, will endure the many hardships of life over the years; but the temptations of a fragile prosperity will endanger their love and the survival of their entire family.
The Good Earth

Rubber-legged comedian Leon Errol made his talkie starring bow in Paramount's Only Saps Work. Based on a play by Owen Davis Sr., the film casts Errol as James Wilson, a kleptomaniac who starts with picking pockets and ends up robbing a bank. Wilson's friend Lawrence Payne (Richard Arlen) inadvertently aids our hero during one of his heists, ending up in deep doo-doo with the law. Before Wilson is able to extricate Payne from his dilemma for the sake of heroine Barbara Tanner (Mary Brian), he pauses long enough to pose as a private eye -- and even gives bellboy Oscar (Stu Erwin) tips on how to spot a crook! If only all of Leon Errol's feature films had been as consistently hilarious as Only Saps Work.
Only Saps Work

Gloria Trask, who has risen from a squalid East Side environment to stardom in Costigan's nightclub, is admired by Tom Westcott, detective, and Sam Roberts, a gangster with whom her brother is involved. Andy, threatened by the gang, is forced to pay off, and in a showdown in Gloria's dressing room, Andy shoots Roberts in self-defense. Gloria helps her brother to leave on a South American liner, while Tom forces Roberts' girlfriend Blanche to admit to witnessing the crime. Blanche insists that it was murder, but Tom forces her to admit that Roberts had a gun by accusing her of the killing.
Cabaret

Mr. Hedder is an old fashioned man who will not let his daughter Anna own an evening gown, but she is given one by a friend who is a model. Hedder believes that she stole it and confers with Mr. Wallace, the owner of the store. On Wallace's advice, Hedder hits Anna, causing her to leave home and move in with some gold diggers.
Why Girls Leave Home

Hypochondriac Danny Weems gets drafted and accidentally smuggles his girlfriend aboard his Pacific-bound troopship.
Up in Arms

Through the Breakers, the 1928 Joseph C. Boyle silent South Seas tropical island seafaring romantic love triangle melodrama about a London socialite who loves a man who is assigned to be a plantation manager on a South Seas island. She agrees to join him after a year, but puts it off, but later winds up shipwrecked on the same island. An island girl there is in love with him, but when he refuses to reciprocate her love and returns to his old sweetheart, she chooses to commit suicide rather than marry one of her own kind.
Through the Breakers

A lighthouse keeper and his daughter are in trouble on two fronts--if the authorities find out he is going blind they will remove him, and a gang of liquor-smugglers is trying to destroy the lighthouse so they can land their illegal cargo on shore without being spotted.
The Lighthouse by the Sea

Hiram Draper is an all-American self-made man with a profound distaste for everything British. Yet he must travel to London with his family. When Junior falls in love with an aristocratic girl, whose father despises Americans with equal intensity, fireworks are just about to start.
So This Is London

A Lothario tries to get arrested as protection from the gangster husband who has threatened him.
The Girl Habit

The neighborly "feud" between a Jewish and an Irish families escalates when two of their youngsters fall in love.
The Shamrock and the Rose

Married sleuths (Gracie Allen, William Post Jr.) find a corpse in their closet and round up suspects.
Mr. and Mrs. North

A scientist resurrects his dead daughter, only to realize she now lacks a soul.
Lola

Ben Jordan runs away after accidentally setting fire to a barn in his small New England community. He returns when his mother dies to find that she has left everything to her ward, Jane Crosby.
Icebound

Inspector Killian tries to solve a murder case with his assistant Carney.
The Donovan Affair

World War I veteran Jack Dunbar who, like a lot of veterans then and now, is finding it hard to land a job. When he fixes the broken down auto of the newly rich Nicholas Small, he finally runs into some luck. The blustery Small explains that the way to get ahead is to blow your own horn, and then he takes Dunbar to an estate, where he is introduced as a millionaire.
Blow Your Own Horn

A wounded captain recalls his youth, his time at college, and the woman he fell in love with.
Forever After

Nellie Horton, when mistreated by her father, is taken in charge by Thomas Lipton. She grows up in poverty not knowing her true identity as the heiress to her mother's millions. Upon the death of her benefactor, she becomes a model in a fashionable shop. There she falls into the hands of her mother's unscrupulous nephew, who contrives to do away with her in order to obtain her fortune. ....