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J. Searle Dawley

J. Searle Dawley

Directing

Biography

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.

Known For

Frankenstein
6.1

Frankenstein, a young medical student, trying to create the perfect human being, instead creates a misshapen monster. Made ill by what he has done, Frankenstein is comforted by his fiancée; but on his wedding night he is visited by the monster.

Frankenstein

1910
The Lie
N/A

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.

The Lie

1918
A Christmas Carol
6.4

Miser Ebenezer Scrooge is awakened on Christmas Eve by spirits who reveal to him his own miserable existence, what opportunities he wasted in his youth, his current cruelties, and the dire fate that awaits him if he does not change his ways. Scrooge is faced with his own story of growing bitterness and meanness, and must decide what his own future will hold: death or redemption.

A Christmas Carol

1910
In the Bishop's Carriage
1.0

A lost film. A successful stage actress with a hidden past as a criminal is kept on the path of righteousness by a benefactor.

In the Bishop's Carriage

1913
Rescued from an Eagle's Nest
5.5

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.

Rescued from an Eagle's Nest

1908
Laughing Gas
5.4

A woman goes to the dentist for a toothache and is given gas. On her way home on the subway she can't stop laughing, and every other passenger catches the laughter from her.

Laughing Gas

1907
Conscience
N/A

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.

Conscience

1917
Has the World Gone Mad!
9.0

Mrs. Adams (Hedda Hopper) succumbs to the spirit of jazz, moves into her own apartment, and even has an affair with Mr. Bell (Charles Richman), the father of her son's sweetheart. Miss Bell (Elinor Fair) discovers their meetings, and only then does Mrs. Adams realize the unhappiness she has caused. Shortly thereafter, she effects a general reconciliation.

Has the World Gone Mad!

1923
No image
N/A

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.

Aida

1911
No image
N/A

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

1917
A Good Little Devil
N/A

A partially lost film, with only one surviving reel. A movie released in 1914 directed by Edwin S. Porter.

A Good Little Devil

1914
Four Feathers
N/A

A British army officer refuses to avenge the death of a general who was murdered years earlier. He is awarded three feathers by his officers. When his fiancée fails to defend his stance, he plucks a feather from her fan. He proves his courage by rescuing his comrades in dangerous and life-threatening situations. Later he returns each feather as proof of his redemption and courage.

Four Feathers

1915
No image
N/A

The Battle of Trafalgar is a possibly lost 1911 American silent docudrama film that portrayed the 1805 victory of Great Britain’s Royal Navy over the combined naval forces of France and Spain during the Napoleonic Wars. The death of British Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson in that decisive sea battle was also depicted in this "one-reeler", which was directed by J. Searle Dawley and produced by Thomas A. Edison, Inc. The film starred Sydney Booth with Herbert Prior, James Gordon, Charles Ogle, and Laura Sawyer in supporting roles.

The Battle of Trafalgar

1911
Who Are My Parents?
7.0

Defying her obdurate Colonel father Betty Lewis elopes with Bob Hale. When Bob is killed in an automobile accident, the colonel discovers Betty is pregnant and after the birth cruelly tells Betty that the baby died while placing the child in an orphanage. When Betty later marries Ken Tyler she stays silent about her previous marriage, at the colonel's request. One day while visiting an orphanage with her sister, Barbara, who hopes to adopt, she finds her own daughter. Taking her home she admits to Ken the child's true parentage. Angered at first, he is persuaded by his own mother and accepts the child.

Who Are My Parents?

1922
A Lady of Quality
N/A

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

1913
The Charge of the Light Brigade
7.0

Silent film drama of the famous incident..

The Charge of the Light Brigade

1912
Miss George Washington
N/A

Chronic liar Berenice Somers and her friend Alice, skip school to see a matinee, however, the two girls must think quickly when they see Alice's parents, Judge and Mrs. Altwold. Trying to escape, they run into the hotel room where young diplomat Cleverley Trafton is staying. Alice's parents find them, however, and are shocked that two young women would be in a man's room. Undaunted, Berenice says that she is Cleverley's wife, and that Alice simply had been visiting. Going from hostile to hospitable, the Altwolds then insist that Berenice and Cleverley stay with them. Cleverley is unable to argue his way out of the situation, and both he and Berenice are embarrassed at having to spend the night together. They soon realize, however, that they have come to like each other, and so, deciding to change Berenice's lie into the truth, they begin making plans for their marriage

Miss George Washington

1916
Snow White
5.8

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.

Snow White

1916
The Relief of Lucknow
7.5

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.

The Relief of Lucknow

1912
Bab's Burglar
N/A

When Bab Archibald's father gives her $1,000 with the proviso that the gift will serve as her allowance for the year, our heroine proceeds to blow the dough on a brand new car. The car is subsequently totaled when Babs runs afoul of a milk truck, and paying for the damages leaves her with a measly 16 cents. Frustrated yet undeterred, Babs takes a job as a cabbie. One of her customers leaves something behind - a blueprint for the Archibald mansion. Could this customer be nothing more than a crook? Bab is on the case!

Bab's Burglar

1917