Movies by Charles Ray
Hay Foot, Straw Foot
Silent military romantic love triangle comedy (based on the story by Julien Josephson), about a soldier named Ulysses S. Grant Briggs, who comes from the south and enlists in the army. He and his best friend, who is from the north, compete for a beautiful stage actress, and risks court-martial to win her.
The Lure of Woman
John Found, a well-educated American Indian, works as an interpreter on an army post in the West. Although John Lane, a post officer, loves Katie O'Day, a rancher's daughter, he becomes the amorous target of the widowed Mrs. Van Allen. To rid herself of Katie, Mrs. Van Allen starts a rumor that Lane has a wife in an insane asylum.
Vanity
Barbara Fiske, a beautiful girl of social standing, is about to be married to Lloyd Van Courtland. On the eve of their marriage, she foolishly pays a visit to a colorful steamship captain aboard his ship.
Getting Gertie's Garter
Attorney Ken Walrick, not quite realizing the difference between a garter and a bracelet, gives Gertie Darling a bejewelled garter with his photograph in miniature attached. But then he must cover his indiscretion by getting the garter back before his fiancee finds out.
Paris
The power of love in the violent underground world of the Apaches in Paris in the early 20th century.
His Mother's Boy
After his father dies amidst rumors that he was an oil swindler, Matthew Denton goes to Texas to discover the truth. But he has been spoiled by his mother and he has a hard time adjusting to his rough surroundings.
String Beans
Farmer Toby Watkinsm whose fanciful poetry does not impress his exasperated uncle, leaves the farm to become a subscription solicitor for the "Sawbert Weekly Clarion." In Sawbert, Toby meets Mayor Lot Morris' daughter Jean, and the shy young people fall in love. Crooked stock promoter Kendall Reeves arrives in town and unveils his plan to open a string-bean cannery.
Old Mammy's Secret Code
Jim Black, learning that his rival, David Durard, son of Colonel Durard, wealthy Southern wholesale grocers, has won the heart of Marion, plans to separate the lovers before war breaks out.
The Quakeress
The setting is an early American village, where a young Quaker woman, Priscilla, is in love with the schoolmaster, John Hart. The local minister, Rev. Cole, who calls on her at her cabin with flowers, is an unwelcome suitor. In revenge, he has "blue laws" passed, among them is one requiring attendance at church on Sunday. Priscilla refuses to comply with the law and is arrested. After being plunged in and out of water and pilloried, she is banished from the colony. John goes with her. They are attacked by Indians and John is badly wounded. P...
Ticket to a Crime
After a jeweler hires a private detective to help him find $50,000 missing from his company, he is murdered while attending a society party; and the private eye, aided by his comely secretary, vies with a bumbling police detective to find the murderer among several suspects, including the dead man's daughter, her current husband, her former husband, and an ex-convict.
The Boomerang
Virginia Chester visits her Aunt Betty who resides near an army post. Lieut. Calhoun falls in love with Virginia, and after a whirlwind courtship persuades her to marry him secretly. Helen Brassey, the daughter of the Colonel, is in love with Calhoun, and gets her father to help her win the lieutenant's affections.
Bright Lights
Tom loves Patsy, but she lives in the city while he is every bit the country bumpkin. When an invention of his sells, he decides to take the money and go to the city. There he will show Patsy that he can be just what he thinks she wants: a city slicker. But Patsy yearns for the simple pleasure of her country boy, Tom, and is shocked at what shows up at her door.
Peggy
The heroine, Peggy Cameron, is a high-society debutante with a mind of her own. After making a public spectacle of herself once too often, Peggy is bundled off to Scotland, where she is to be looked after by her no-nonsense uncle Andrew Cameron (William H. Thompson). If Peggy's family had hoped that she would straighten up and behave herself in Scotland, they were sorely mistaken. Restored in 2018 by the Academy Film Archive with restoration funding provided by the Louis B. Mayer Foundation.
Staking His Life
In this re-edited, re-titled version of 'Conversion of Frosty Blake, The (1915)', some character names are changed but the story, of a New England pastor who goes out west for his health and encounters a gun-toting dance-hall owner and a beautiful dancer, remains fairly intact.
Playing the Game
Millionaire Larry Prentiss inherits a ranch. He decides to visit his new property incognito and gets a job as a ranch-hand. He falls in love with the ranch foreman's daughter and complications ensue.
The House That Shadows Built
The House That Shadows Built (1931) is a short feature, roughly 48 minutes long, from Paramount Pictures made to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the studio's founding in 1912. It was a promotional film for exhibitors and never had a regular theatrical release and includes a brief history of Paramount, interviews with various actors, and clips from upcoming projects (some of which never came to fruition). The title comes from a biography of Paramount founder Adolph Zukor, The House That Shadows Built (1928), by William Henry Irwin.
The Courtship of Miles Standish
A dramatization of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem 'The Courtship of Miles Standish,' this is the story of the Pilgrims who fled religious persecution in England and came to America aboard the Mayflower.
The Claws of the Hun
An American munitions manufacturer and his son become ensnarled with enemy agents from Germany during the First World War.
The Egg Crate Wallop
Assistant to freight express agent Dave Haskell in the town of Pitt's Junction, Jim Kelly develops strong biceps lifting egg crates onto the daily train. Jim soon falls in love with Dave's lovely daughter Kitty, who, he worries, is interested in city slicker Perry Woods. When Woods steals $2,000 from the station safe, Jim, thinking that Dave took the money, confesses the crime and leaves for Chicago.
Greased Lightning
Andy Fletcher is a blacksmith in a country village, but he dreams of racing automobiles. He gets his chance to enter a big race, but winning is complicated by a band of bank robbers.