
Cullen Landis
1896 - 1975James Cullen Landis was the middle of three siblings (two sons and a daughter) raised by Lulan and Margaret (née Cullen) Landis in Nashville, Tennessee, where his father supported his family as a stock broker. As a boy, James was a train enthusiast and dreamed to be an railroad engineer. Though the ambition eventually faded, his interest in railroads did not, and some years later he helped design for himself a model train set powered by steam. He began working in the fledgling film industry at age 18 around the time his older sister, Margaret Landis, appeared in her first film.
In 1928 Cullen Landis starred in the first ‘all talking’ motion picture, Lights of New York. He once confided in a friend that talkies were perfect for musicals and that he was no "song and dance man". He left Hollywood for Detroit in 1930 to produce and direct industrial films for automobile companies. Landis began as a movie director, only turning to acting after his lead player broke a leg and it was discovered that the actor’s costumes fit him. He went on to become one of the more popular lead actors of the silent era, appearing in some one hundred films over 14 years. During World War II, he served as a captain with US Army Signal Corps producing training films in the South Pacific. By war’s end he was twice decorated and promoted to major. In the post war years he made documentaries for the US State Department that took him to the far corners of the world. James Cullen Landis died on August 28, 1975, aged 79, at a nursing home in Bloomfield, Michigan, three months after the death of his wife, Jane.
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Forsaking All Others
Émile Chautard
Colleen Moore, Cullen Landis
Jealous of her son Oliver's interest in Penelope Mason, Mrs. Newell takes him to a resort where he is easy prey for designing Enid Morton. After some near-disastrous situations with Enid's suspicious husband, Penelope comes to Oliver's rescue at Mrs. Newell's request.
Forsaking All Others
Gay and Devilish
William A. Seiter
Doris May, Cullen Landis
Doris May plays Fanchon Browne, a poor girl about to enter into a marriage of convenience with wealthy old Peter Armitage (Otis Harlan). When she falls in love with Armitage's handsome nephew Peter (Cullen Landis), Fanchon is in quite a quandary.
Gay and Devilish
Upstairs
Victor Schertzinger
Mabel Normand, Cullen Landis
While working as a dishwasher in a fashionable New York hotel, Elsie MacFarland often sneaks upstairs to enviously peek at the people dancing to jazz music. Seeing the attractive Elsie dressed in a boy's uniform, wealthy Lemuel Stallings wagers a friend that he can get Elsie onto the dance floor....
Upstairs
Watch Your Step
William Beaudine
Cullen Landis, Patsy Ruth Miller
Elmer Slocum has just served a jail sentence for speeding. On his first day of liberty he encounters a physician whose car has broken down and offers to take him to his patient; he is pursued by motorcops for speeding, wrecks his car in a closed street, and knocks down and believes he has killed a policeman. Elmer boards a freight train and makes his way to a small town in Iowa, where he meets Margaret Andrews.....
Watch Your Step
The Dixie Flyer
Charles J. Hunt
Cullen Landis, Eva Novak
The railroad is building a new line, but the workers are unhappy. That's because one of the board members, hoping to oust the man in charge of the project (Rapley), has a saboteur on site. Rapley's daughter, Rose, sneaks out to the project to become their telegraph operator and, with the help of the supervisor, "Sunrise" Smith, eventually discovers the plot and helps catch the bad guys amid several thrilling train chases.
The Dixie Flyer
Almost a Husband
Clarence G. Badger
Will Rogers, Peggy Wood
A New England schoolteacher arrives in a small Southern town. He becomes the savior of several local people in time of emergency, including a young who is oppressed by the unwelcome romantic intentions of a local ne'er-do-well. The teacher pretends to marry the girl to fool the unwanted suitor, but then finds that the marriage was inadvertently legal....
Almost a Husband
Cupid In Quarantine
Cullen Landis, Cullen Landis
Eleanor Field and Cullen Landis are in love, but her father, Billy Bevan, objects because.... hey this is a one-reel comedy and we don't have time for things like that. After he sneaks past Bevan, the young couple decide to force the issue. The pastor next door has small pox, so they paint marks on each other's face. Bevan catches on and with the aid of a cooperative beat officer, he does his best to scare them.
Cupid In Quarantine
The Voice That Thrilled the World
Jean Negulesco
Art Gilmore, Sheldon Jett
This short traces the history of sound in the movies, beginning with French scientist Leon Scott's experiments in 1857. Featured are snippets from early sound pictures.
The Voice That Thrilled the World