Janet Gaynor Movies List

Molly and Bee, sweet young 'working girls,' live in a cheap room over a New York grocery store. Molly's idol, wealthy Jack Cromwell, lives in a Long Island mansion but is markedly less happy, since his fiancée Jane won't discourage her other admirers. Fleeing in his car, Jack ends up in an urban block party where he meets you-know-who.

A married farmer falls under the spell of a slatternly woman from the city, who tries to convince him to drown his wife.

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.

The circus provides the backdrop for this melodrama that chronicles the lives of four children raised within the big top. Film historian and collector William K. Everson stated that the only surviving print was lost by actress Mary Duncan who had borrowed it from Fox Studios. In the December 1974 issue of "Films in Review," he explained that Mary Duncan, one of the film's stars, wanted it to show to a group of friends in Florida. The star was aware that it was a dangerous nitrate print and assumed that Fox had others. She threw the only copy in the ocean, a mistake characterized by Everson as "a monumental blunder to rank with Balaclava, Sarajevo, and the Fall of Babylon as one of history's blackest moments."

Erstwhile childhood friends, Judah Ben-Hur and Messala meet again as adults, this time with Roman officer Messala as conqueror and Judah as a wealthy, though conquered, Israelite. A slip of a brick during a Roman parade causes Judah to be sent off as a galley slave, his property confiscated and his mother and sister imprisoned. Years later, as a result of his determination to stay alive and his willingness to aid his Roman master, Judah returns to his homeland an exalted and wealthy Roman athlete. Unable to find his mother and sister, and believing them dead, he can think of nothing else than revenge against Messala.

A dejected Parisian sewer worker feels his prayers have been answered when he falls in love with a street waif.

Esther Blodgett is just another starry-eyed farm kid trying to break into the movies. Waitressing at a Hollywood party, she catches the eye of her idol Norman Maine, is sent for a screen test, and before long attains stardom as newly minted Vicki Lester. She and Norman marry, though his career soon dwindles to nothing due to his chronic alcoholism.

A spirited young woman finds herself destitute and on the streets before joining a traveling carnival, where she meets a vagabond painter.

The story of the gold-plated statuette that became the film industry's most coveted prize, AND THE OSCAR GOES TO... traces the history of the Academy itself, which began in 1927 when Louis B. Mayer, then head of MGM, led other prominent members of the industry in forming this professional honorary organization. Two years later the Academy began bestowing awards, which were nicknamed "Oscar," and quickly came to represent the pinnacle of cinematic achievement.

A teenager pines for (and sings about) his dream girl.

Kay is a girl living in a small rural town whose life is just too dull and repetitious to bear. One night, she meets young, handsome, and rich Bob Dakin, who asks her for directions while drunk and then proceeds to take her out on a night on the town. Kay likes the stranger, and when the drunken Bob decides that they should get married, Kay hesitates little before consenting. The morning after the affair, Bob, once sober, regrets his mistake. His strict and upright parents, however, insist that the young couple pretend marriage for 6 months before divorcing, in order to avoid bad publicity. Bob resents Kay for standing in the way of him and his fiancée, Priscilla, but Kay still hopes that he'd have a change of heart.

A dramatic recreation of the Johnstown Flood of 1889.

A family of confidence tricksters sets their sights on a very rich, very lonely old lady named Miss Fortune.

Catherine and Mack and their close friends Chris and Madge graduate from a West Coast college and fly to New York City to find work.

Young and disenchanted Sam meets a mysterious and beautiful woman who's swimming in his building's pool one night. When she suddenly vanishes the next morning, Sam embarks on a surreal quest across Los Angeles to decode the secret behind her disappearance, leading him into the murkiest depths of mystery, scandal and conspiracy.

A comic group of Europeans coming to the USA have romantic and immigration troubles.

The children of Iowa farmers find love, with mixed results, at the state fair.

Returning home from the Great War, "Breezy" Hart (Fred Humes) and his shell-shocked buddy Frank Wilcox (Ralph McCullough) discover the Wilcox property in the hands of evil Sam Hardy (William Norton Bailey). Frank, who is the rightful heir to the ranch, goes into hiding, while "Breezy" takes a job in the ranch kitchen. Learning of Frank's whereabouts, Hardy plots to have the young heir killed. Luckily, Breezy overhears the villain plotting with his henchmen and is able to rescue his friend. Hardy and his men are arrested, and Frank, now cured of his illness, is reunited with his girl, June Marston (Nita Cavalier). Breezy, meanwhile, is busy romancing his kitchen staff colleague, Mary Jane (Louise Lorraine).

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.

A farmer tries to convince a girl to leave her life on a canal boat to live with him on his farm.

Hugh Carver is an athletic star and a freshman at Prescott College. He falls in love with Cynthia Day, a popular girl who loves to party, and finds that it's impossible to please her and still keep up with his studies and athletic training. Soon the two face some difficult decisions.

Three young women in Budapest share living quarters while searching for romance.

Period music, film clips and newsreel footage combined into a visual exploration of the American entertainment industry during the Great Depression.

Three people live together in the maintenance shed at Central Park as an alternative to living on the streets.

Because he refuses to collect rent payments from his impoverished tenants, kindly Irish nobleman Sir Miles Gaffney is in danger of losing his estate. He is forced to sell off part of his racing stable to a wealthy American, who takes along Gaffney's jockey Neil Ross as part of the bargain. When Neil is crippled in a racing accident, Sir Miles and his daughter Sheila sail to America with their prize horse "Dark Rosaleen" in tow. The first film having an Irish motif that John Ford directed, a six reel delight set in Eire's County Kildare and in the United States, with a steeplechase background, mixing charged elements of comedy and sentimental drama.

Waterfront rivals George Darcy and Big Tim Ryan are both in love with Rose Kelly, and continue their feud when they join the Navy. After the war, they call a temporary truce to take on dope peddlers who are destroying their neighborhood.

A small-town country homebody goes to New York to find her missing fiancé and gets romantically involved with two sophisticated men.

Rebellious Princess Marie "Mitzi" Christine must try to marry the man she loves, instead of the stuffy old prince her parents want her to marry.

A spoiled carefree rich kid gets into too much trouble for his father who sends him out on his own to prove himself capable of making a respectable man of himself.

Wealthy Jervis Pendleton acts as benefactor for orphan Judy Abbott, anonymously sponsoring her in her boarding school. But as she grows up, he finds himself falling in love with her, and she with him, though she does not know that the man she has fallen for is her benefactor.

In Ireland, Major Adair’s older daughter Eileen is about to marry Lawrence Blake for his money in order to pay off her father’s debts, even though she really loves Jack Breen.

Story of a cowboy who falls for a notorious dance-hall girl. The girl is brought back home to the farm, where a crooked ranch foreman who knew the girl before, tries to seduce her. Gilbert, alas, is reformed and remains faithful to her benefactor.

A professional boxer known as "Smiling Bill Flannigan" accidentally kills an opponent in the ring. He gives up the sport and heads west. He gets a job on a ranch as a cook, and before he knows it he finds himself involved in a war between ranchers and sheepherders.

Orphan drudge Mary Ann finds love and hope in the arms of a promising but poor composer, John Lonsdale.

Bill Crane is a fun-loving cowboy who likes to play pranks with an Australian bull-whip, much to the dismay of his ranch-owning uncle, Pete Perry. Bill and his cousin, Jack Perry, compete for the affections of Mary Pinkleby. Jack, unknown to Bill, is also an outlaw gang-leader, known as Poncho. The latter frames Bill as being the gang leader, and now Bill has to elude the sheriff and also prove his own innocence.

The Haunted Honeymoon is a 1925 American silent comedy film directed by Fred Guiol and Ted Wilde, starring Glenn Tryon and Blanche Mehaffey with Janet Gaynor in one of her first films. One of the first comedies to parody horror films, it was produced by Hal Roach and released by Pathé Exchange.

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...

While vain Lenore Hastings busies herself with her romantic pursuits, Lenore's kid sister Mildred tries to keep the family of her boyfriend Thomas from going broke. Mildred works up a business arrangement, whereby she will sell Thomas' father's 250 pigs for a dollar each. Though Lenore is appalled by Mildred's "disgraceful" behavior, the younger girl quickly earns the respect of everyone in town

Grace Livingston is leading a happy life in her small town, with her mother and father, being courted by two men, the steady but predictable Tommy Tucker and the more ambitious, flashy, and worldly Dick Loring, who seems closer to Grace in his desire for travel and adventure.

During Civil War Reconstruction, the Connelly family is romantically restored to their former glory when Will Connelly marries a Yankee farm girl, Joanna Tate, despite the objects of his temperamental father Bob Connelly.

"Old Peter Grimm makes his ward Katie promise to marry his nephew Frederik [ sic ] and then dies. Frederik proves to be a scapegrace and Peter's spirit returns to right matters and finally succeeds in doing so by communicating with Jimmie who is in a delirium." ( Moving Picture World, 20 Nov 1926, p164.) Peter thus thwarts selfishness and greed and rewards virtue.

A look at the past, present and future of Hollywood as seen through the eyes of the movie columnist.

A party of campers return to Tom Stewart's ranch resort to report they have been held up by bandits. Lawrence, their guide, explains that it is a staged stunt for their benefit; Stewart confirms this and refunds the losses but writes to his old pal Jeff Morgan, a former gunfighter, telling him of his predicament. Morgan sends his son, Jeff, Jr., a superb rider and dead shot but otherwise an awkward lout; at the insistence of Pauline, Stewart places Jeff in charge of a camping party. Laura Mayhew, a city girl in league with Lawrence, sends up a flare signal at night, and while Jeff chases some bears into the woods, Lawrence and his men hold up the camp.

Heiress Hedda Nillson certain that her family is about to lose all its money, takes a job as a maid. After the usual trials and tribulations, Hedda falls in love with humble chauffeur Eric Landstrom.

When Captain Howland decides that his daughter Tess is getting a bit to old to continue to go to sea with him, they move into a small cottage on the coast of Maine, but not for long. A local millionaire, Frederick Garfield, lays a false claim to the property and has them evicted. Later, when Tess saves a young man about her age from drowning, she is a bit dismayed to learn that he is Garfield's son. But when her father is jailed on a false-accusation charge of murder, the younger Garfield comes to their aid and proves he himself.

Henry Fonda hosts this retrospective on the career and films of iconic filmmaker David O. Selznick, who epitomized the era of the auteur producer in the 30s and 40s.