John Barrymore appeared in movies since 1912, but his first viewable film is December 1917 "Raffles the Amateur Cracksman." Despite the claim his earliest surviving feature is 1915's "The Incorrigible Dukane," it has yet been made available tp the general public.
John was the product of a two-generational family of actors, dating back to the mid-1800's. His parents were the famous stage actors Maurice and Georgie Drew Barrymore, great grandparents to actress Drew Barrymore. John's older siblings, Lionel and Ethel, also became well-known stage and movie stars.
After an unsettled childhood where he was shipped from school to school, only to get expelled, John's first love was painting. However, a few years of an unsuccessful career in art, Barrymore turned to the theatre "There isn't any romance about how I went on stage," he reminisced, "I needed the money."
For the next ten years, from 1903 until 1912, John concentrated solely on live acting. He drew praise for his stage work, being compared to his uncle John Drew, who was a legendary actor in his own right. Barrymore dabbled in film in 1912, appearing in four shorts before becoming more serious about cinema the following year. His first lead in a feature film was in the romantic comedy "An American Citizen." From that point on in his acting career, Barrymore appeared in a string of films. But his heart, even though it didn't nearly pay as much, was acting on the stage, where he returned to time and time again.
In "Raffles The Amateur Cracksman," adapted from a series of short stories by E. W. Hornung, John, 35 when making the movie, plays a member of high society posing as a cricket player stealing from unscrupulous swindlers. Not keeping any of the valuables, he readily donates them to charity. From pearls to necklaces, the film centers on Raffles' cleaver ways Barrymore achieves his goals without being caught by the con artists and their sympathetic detectives.
Appearing as his sidekick is actor Frank Morgan in one of his earliest roles. A Cornell University graduate, Morgan is known for his later roles as a confused but kind-hearted person, such as his most famous appearance as the Wizard in 1939's "Wizard of Oz." But in the silent movie era he played a series of romantic leads, such as in "Raffles."
