Oscar Apfel
Birthday: 1878-01-17 Place of Birth: Cleveland, Ohio, USA
Synopsis
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Oscar C. Apfel (January 17, 1878 – March 21, 1938) was an American film actor, director, screenwriter and producer. He appeared in 167 films between 1913 and 1939, and also directed 94 films between 1911 and 1927. Apfel was born in Cleveland, Ohio. After a number of years in commerce, he decided to adopt the stage as a profession. He secured his first professional engagement in 1900, in his hometown. He rose rapidly and soon held a position as director and producer and was at the time noted as being the youngest stage director in America.[1] He spent eleven years on the stage on Broadway then joined the Edison Manufacturing Company. Apfel first directed for Thomas A. Edison, Inc. in 1911–12, where he made the innovative short film The Passer-By (1912). He also did some experimental work at Edison's laboratory in Orange, on the Edison Talking Pictures devices. After many years as a director, he gradually returned to acting. On March 21, 1938, Apfel died in Hollywood from a heart attack.
Acting
Shadows of the Orient
A classic "B" featurette about "smugglin' in Chinamen for $300 a load"
The Bridge of Sighs
Assistant District Attorney Jeffery Powell has just sent an innocent man to prison for the murder of a gambler. Powell is in love with, Marion Courtney, but he's unaware that Marion is the sister of the innocent man he sent to prison. Marion gets herself committed to a women's prison to get proof from inmate, Evelyn 'Duchess' Thane, that her brother is innocent. Powell learns of Marion's plight and believes she's in love with the man he sent to prison.
That Girl From Paris
Nikki Martin (Lily Pons), a beautiful French opera star, stows away on an ocean liner in hopes of escaping her jealous fiancee. Once aboard, she joins an American swing band and falls in love with its leader, who, after hearing her sing, eventually comes to reciprocate her feelings.
Mary Jane's Pa
Sam Preston is a small-town newspaper publisher who suffers from wanderlust. Leaving his family, he thinks well-provided for, he packs a suitcase and hits the road. Ten years later he comes back to find the newspaper shuttered and his family gone.
Cappy Ricks Returns
"Cappy" Ricks comes out of retirement to fight against a bill, sponsored by his old political rivals, that, if passed, would forbid the selling of wooden shingles for house-roofs. He also takes time, along the way, to smooth the rocky road to romance being traveled by Bill Peck and Barbara Blake.
Fifteen Wives
Shortly after his arrival from South America to New York, Steven Humbolt is found dead in his apartment at the Savoia Hotel. Inspector Decker Dawes investigates the case and although the cause of death is described as apoplexy, Dawes is convinced it as murder, especially after he learns that Humbolt had been married fifteen times.
Whirlpool
An ex-convict tries to connect with the daughter who doesn't even know he exists.
Tomorrow at Seven
People in an old, dark mansion are menaced by a maniac called "The Black Ace".
Storm at Daybreak
Sarajevo June 28, 1914. Dushan, the Serbian mayor of a Hungarian town, has come to see the parade of Archduke Ferdinand. While there he runs into Geza, an old friend in the Hungarian Army and invites him to come to his house and visit him and his new wife.
Pick Up
The scheme of a pair of married con artists goes awry when their victim dies, and they are both caught and imprisoned. When she gets out of prison, she tries to put her life back together.
The Man Who Played God
While giving a private performance for a visiting monarch, concert pianist Montgomery Royale is deafened when a bomb is detonated in an attempt to assassinate the foreign ruler. With his career over as a result of his injury, Royale returns to New York City with his sister Florence, close friend Mildred Miller, and considerably younger fiancée Grace Blair. After abandoning thoughts of suicide, Montgomery discovers he can lip read, and he spends his days observing people in Central Park from his apartment window. As he learns of people's problems, he tries to help them anonymously. He becomes absorbed in his game of "playing God" but his actions are without sincerity.
The Menace
A man framed for murder escapes from prison in order to prove his innocence.
Shopworn
A waitress falls for a wealthy young man but has to fight his mother to find happiness.
The Famous Ferguson Case
A foreword warns against the peril of yellow journalism, and the story illustrates it by following events in the upstate New York town of Cornwall after prominant financier George Ferguson is killed. Two types of New York City journalists descend on Cornwall, one interested in facts, the other in getting sensational "news". Mrs. Ferguson is known to have been friendly with a local banker. The Fergusons quarrel the evening he is killed (by "burglars", his wife tells the police later), and she is arrested, spurred on by the "bad" journalists, who also manage to badger the banker's wife into the hospital. Meanwhile, young Bruce Foster runs the Cornwall Courier, and shows the big city reporters how to dig out real news while they attempt to subvert justice for their own ends.
High Pressure
Gar Evans is a con artist, who pretends to be the owner of a "Golden Gate Artificial Rubber Company", and he is looking for investors. Finding them is relatively easy, but it becomes difficult when those want to see the inventor of the synthetic rubber...
Hell's Highway
A prison-camp convict learns that his younger brother will soon be joining him behind bars.
Five Star Final
Searching for headlines at any cost, an unscrupulous newspaper owner forces his editor to print a serial based on a past murder, tormenting a woman involved.
The Finger Points
Lee is a fresh young kid from the South when he gets a job with The Press. His first assignment on gangsters gets his name in the paper, the police on a raid and Lee in the hospital.
Man Trouble
A hard-boiled nightclub owner saves a beautiful young girl from drowning. He promptly falls in love with her, but she prefers a younger, more-genteel lover.
The Texan
Outlaw Llano Kid poses as a rich Mexican widow's son and falls in love with a cousin.
It's a Great Life
Casey and Babe are sisters who work in a department store and each year the store puts on a show. As expected, things are going wrong with every act until Casey comes out to help Babe with her song. They are a hit, but in the final act, Casey again comes out and this time the president sees her act and fires both her and Babe on the spot. Benny is able to book Casey, Babe and Dean into Vaudeville and their act is popular. But before they have their shot at stardom, Dean and Babe leave Casey and the act.
Marianne
At the conclusion of World War I, a French girl is romanced by an American doughboy even though she is promised to a French soldier who was sent to the front.
