Movies by Don Alvarado

The Bridge of San Luis Rey

The Bridge of San Luis Rey

This first cinematic version of the classic book is a part-talkie, although the only surviving print is silent (housed in the George Eastman House, Rochester, NY). It is a straight-forward telling of the intermingled lives of a group of strangers doomed to die in a collapsing bridge accident. The Art Direction, paltry and unremarkable, surprisingly won an Oscar over the far more remarkable work nominated in THE IRON MASK. The special effect scene of the lovers plummeting with the bridge into the chasm is unforgettable and remarkably done.

A Demon for Trouble

A Demon for Trouble

Dyer is buying ranches and then retrieving his check by having his gang kill the owner. Bob Worth arrives just as Buck Morton is killed and gets blamed for the murder. Fleeing from the Sheriff, Bob teams up with the Mexican outlaw Golinda. Having seen Dyer pay off his men, he has a plan to trap him and Golinda is just the man he needs to make it work.

The Monkey Talks

The Monkey Talks

In 1927 Olive Borden starred in Fox drama The Monkey Talks directed by Raoul Walsh. She played a circus performer who meets a man pretending to be a talking monkey.

The Battle of the Sexes

The Battle of the Sexes

Gum-chewing frizzy-haired golddigger Marie Skinner cooks up a scheme with her lover Babe Winsor, a jazz hound, to fleece a portly middle-aged real estate tycoon, William Judson. Marie moves into Judson's apartment building and contrives to meet and seduce him, plying him with compliments, music, swoons, décolletage, and batted eyes. When his loyal wife (and their two children) see him out catting with Marie at a night club, mom's devastated and confronts him. He moves out. Babe wants Marie to sell Judson worthless bonds. Will mom commit suic...

The Apache

The Apache

Sonya, a Marseilles Cafe performer involved with a pack of thieves is rescued from her criminal life by a police official who sends her lover and partner in a knife-throwing act to jail and then tries to seduce her. Not submitting to the official's advances, she falls in love with an Apache dancer in Paris and works with him, holding her other admirer at a distance. The official is mysteriously killed, presumably by her lover, it then falls to Sonya to find the real felon.

Under Secret Orders

Under Secret Orders

A young bank employee is sent to South America to bring some valuable bonds to a client there. Unfortunately for him, he tends to drink a bit too much and winds up getting involved with a gang that's planning on stealing the bonds to start a revolution.

A Hero of the Big Snows

A Hero of the Big Snows

Rin-Tin-Tin is saved from the beatings of a trapper by Ed Nolan, a shiftless trapper himself, and 'Rinty" follows Nolan home to his cabin but refuses to enter. Nolan takes him to the home of Mary Mallory, the girl he has failed to win as his wife because of his ways, and in their mutual love of 'Rinty," a new understanding is born and Nolan goes to work.

La Cucaracha

La Cucaracha

Señor Martinez, a famous theater owner, visits a local café in Mexico because of its reputation for good food and to audition the famous dancer who performs there. Martinez tells the café owner that if the dancer is as good as he has heard, he will offer the dancer a contract to perform in his theater. The café's female singer hears about this and is determined that he won't leave the café without her.

Rose of the Rancho

Rose of the Rancho

It is California in 1852 that only recently being surrendered by Mexico to the United States and admitted into the union. Most of the land-owners of California were the descendants of the Dons who had colonized it a hundred years before and whose title deeds bore the signature and seal of a long-dead Spanish king. But, by a loop-hole in the law, the title-deeds of the Dons could not be recognized, and this opened the door of organized gangs of land-grabbers, such as the one led by Joe Kincaid, to operate with a prime excuse for legitimate pl...

On Secret Service

On Secret Service

Greta Nissen stars as an Italian noblewoman living a dangerous double life as a spy. A remake of the celebrated German thriller Spione am Werk. Co-starring noted German actor Karl Ludwig Diehl and American matinee idol Don Alvarado. The film takes place in Vienna, 1912. When an Austrian staff officer is implicated by association with a known Italian spy he goes on the run. Three years later - as the Great War gets into full swing - he returns and begs the Austrian Secret Service to allow him to clear his name from suspicion.

The Loves of Carmen

The Loves of Carmen

Carmen, a gypsy, working in a Spanish cigar factory, is flaunted by Escamillo, the bullfighter, but infatuates José, a soldier, who aids her to escape from jail and follows her to the gypsy camp. Tiring of his love, Carmen finally fascinates Escamillo and the love-crazed José kills her at a bull fight just as Escamillo is being proclaimed by the audience.

Rose of the Rio Grande

Rose of the Rio Grande

The story, based on a novel by Johnston (Zorro) McCulley, concerns a group of aristocratic vigilantes, who go about trying to restore their prominence in Mexico by killing anyone who stands in their way.

No Other Woman

No Other Woman

No Other Woman

Bachelor's Affairs

Bachelor's Affairs

A middle aged millionaire falls in love with a gorgeous, but stupid blonde gold digger, being guided by her ever-present shrewish friend.They marry but the man soon regrets his rash move when she's constantly bored and looking for dancing and excitement, leaving him feel his age. He conspires with a loyal friend to find a suitable man she might run away with so he can divorce her.

The Night Cry

The Night Cry

A giant condor decimates a herd of sheep, and Rin-Tin-Tin is accused of having turned killer.

Captain Thunder

Captain Thunder

A notorious Mexican bandit goes all soft and mushy when he falls for a beautiful senorita. Warner Bros.' Captain Thunder contains some of the darndest Mexican accents you've ever heard in your life. The star is Hungarian-born Victor Varconi, portraying a legendary south of the border outlaw who tries to force Canadian senorita Fay Wray to marry a rival rustler whom she despises. She pleads with the bandito so pathetically that he is moved to grant her a single wish. Without hesitation she chooses her poor but true love. The bandit king, ...