Anthony O'Sullivan
While packing her trunk preparatory to leaving home for the adjoining county, where she has been called to teach, the young schoolteacher discovers that one of her rings is broken. Her father volunteers to have the ring mended and bring it to her. On her first day at school a new pupil is enrolled, the motherless daughter of a resident, who personally escorts the child to school. The acquaintance thus begun ripens into love. The girl's father writes that he is coming to visit her. He does not come, but is brought in, dead, by men who have found his body on the trail, a victim of bandits. When the girl resumes her school work, her lover's daughter, among others, brings her a little token of sympathy.
Under police espionage, Crooked Joe is living with his wife and baby when Norris, his former pal, tries to interest him in a job. He refuses, and subsequently earns his old pal's animosity when Norris makes advances to his wife. Norris "frames" Joe, and he is sent to prison on a charge of robbing his employers.
The new foreman falls in love with the ranchman's daughter, and notes with jealousy her joy over a letter which her father receives.
The old inventors daughter is a mission worker. She makes a convert of a young crook and eventually becomes engaged to marry him. But her father does not approve of him, and shows him the door when he learns from a detective the record of his daughter's suitor. The inventor's plans are stolen by an unscrupulous manufacturer, and the crook volunteers to recover them.
The waif came to live with the unsuspecting old shoemaker. Then a homeless newsboy followed. One friendly heart bred another. That was too much for the proud, wealthy widowed sister. She declared she would have no orphans wished on her. Stilling her conscience, she took the children's legacy, but one Sunday morning after the war, peace silenced all conflict.
Engineer Daily is forced to discharge his fireman for habitual drunkenness. His young daughter, Rosanna, wanders down to the tracks, and the door of the freight is closed upon her. She falls into the discharged fireman's hands. He is quite in love with her, and when he learns whose daughter she is, concludes to keep her from the exasperated parents. That's where his conscience came in, leading to regeneration and better days.
The young lawyer took the cracksman's part when he was falsely accused. Later, the chemist, in revenge for his fancied wrong, refused the lawyer's wife the serum which would save her husband's life. It was then the cracksman showed his gratitude.
An early short film in which the young widow is protected by the employer of her recently deceased husband.
The dead man's decentralized life is exemplified in a half-finished will and an incompleted invention of a printing press. The mother impresses upon her two sons the power of concentration by a magnifying glass held to the sun's rays. One accepts the lesson and finishes the work of the father. The other becomes the tool of the rival printer. His lesson was to come through experience and the suffering of others.
Success is often coveted instead of honestly earned. Through honest effort the farmer was enjoying the fruits of his labor. A large irrigation well was among his new acquisitions. Therein his designing helpers held him prisoner while they left with his wealth and his daughter. There is an old saying, however, that an evil purpose always defeats its own end by some committing act.
Theron is Lavina's natural choice, though she imagines herself in love with Luke, who is secretly loved by Lavina's sister, Susan. Susan sees that the couple are ill-suited to each other and adopts her own means to break the match. She is successful, but it is not until all have passed through a stirring and leavening experience that each couple realizes they were meant for each other.
When Mrs. Van Nostra returned from Europe her new tiara was much advertised. A new lady's maid arrived, highly recommended, but following events proved that she was but the accomplice of Raffles. His crafty substitution of the diamonds on the famous tiara was discovered by the society detective, who captured the offenders in spite of their clever ruse.
No doubt the old antique dealer was prejudiced against his junior clerk. After frequent shortages, the clerk's visit to the gambling house was reported by the detective and he was discharged. In truth, he had gone to find the senior clerk, who owed him money which he needed for his mother, hovering close to the edge of life. By sharp detective work, the designs of the senior clerk were frustrated.
A crime drama in which a police officer does everything possible to help his criminal younger brother.
Arrogant tramps, a railroad man , counterfeiters, detectives and a boy to the rescue.
The tenderfoot came into camp with his ill-gotten money intending to purchase a claim. The faker salted a claim, hoping thereby to secure the money. But the gambler got ahead of him through cheating at cards. Later the tenderfoot sought to regain his money and in the struggle it fell into worthier hands.
In the guise of a gardener he came to steal the paper telling the whereabouts of the second will. That was so the nephew might enjoy the inheritance alone. Then the girl learned his true mission, but in the end he restored her confidence and beat her enemies at their own game.
In this picture it is shown how a convict's life still remains under the ban of the law, even after the expiration of his term. With the detective continually on his track, he is able to save both a young woman's honor and her weak brother from the hands of a designing employer.
The judge's young daughter championed the cause of Ching Fow against "The Bull." Kindness begot kindness again in a manner unlooked for and unusual. Ching Fow proved himself an unconscious humorist, but his very practical joke saved a life, making as well an exceptionally thrilling story.
The reporter assigned to obtain a copy of the message from the Japanese Government unraveled the mystery of its disappearance in a clever manner. Every foreign government naturally was eager for a copy ahead, while the meeting of the Japanese Ambassador and Secretary of State was surrounded with greater risk than they imagined.
The stakes were to go to the one who outlived the other two. In a quarrel one ended the chance of another. In the mountain the two survivors of the bet came together again, one now an outlaw but through a woman's subterfuge the money fell to the less likely of them all, Reed, declared to be "on his last legs."
Bessie, the bookkeeper, and Harry, the confidential clerk, are sweethearts. Harry does not fully realize the strength of Bessie's affection, but later, on the eve of a false step, he is made to appreciate her devotion and grit.
The girl's lessons from the young station agent on the manipulation of the telegraph code served her in good stead. By it, hemmed in on all sides at the lonely farmhouse, she was able to save both herself and her father's money from desperate tramps, an experience which is grippingly illustrated in this Biograph melodrama.
The brother at cards failed to make up the shortage at the express office, but the gambler determined to save him. His intention, however, was misconstrued until the sheriff's investigation brought the truth. The gambler then awoke to the justice of the girl's plea against his previous life and the tragedy of a dead brother's weakness was lightened.
Happy in her devotion to her unfortunate sister and the promise of honest love that had come into her life, the girl was perhaps blind to true values. She became indifferent to her life and its surroundings. Accordingly she accepted the stranger and his doubtful promises. Honest love and duty were forgotten, until, caught near life's uncertain edge, she was called back by her blind sister's peril. Thus was true love separated from blind infatuation and life's lesson learned.
After a lifetime of hard work, Dad consents to live with his married daughter in the city. The young couple try to make him forget work. Ill at ease under his enforced idleness, he makes a deal with a disabled old street cleaner to keep his job. Finding him out, the young folks give in, and it's "back to the farm" for Dad.
The girl decided after what happened at the garden party that she did not want his love any longer, but could not live without it. She decided to leave this world. Her unexpected caller had something to say about that. He did not have to read "Sarah Hardcrab's Advice to the Lovelorn" to know what to do. Being a very human and sensible person, he brought two young people together in his own original way.
On the day of the meeting which should settle the controversy regarding the Panama Canal, the Japanese Embassy commissioned Olga to obtain a copy of the agreement. The young Secretary to the Secretary of State became her dupe, but the detective succeeded in recovering the stolen treaty by a clever unwinding of threads taking thereby a desperate and thrilling chance.
In her own outraged sense of injury Galora sought to bring the young express agent into the justice that men might give, while the other woman sought to save his life from moral disaster and won. So the vengeance of Galora worked for the common good; one man was saved in a moment of weakness, while through many thrilling adventures the real offenders were brought to justice.
In this film one is shown the contrast of two fathers. One father refuses to believe his son guiltless, while the other, fully realizing the weakness of his son, struggles to save him from further disgrace. In this attempt he exonerates the innocent youth, but at the same time exposes the guilt of his own son.
After all, the young chemist proves himself quite human. He would have ended his life because he had not the money to spend on his desired research for a cancer cure, had not his uncle prevented. The old man became a thief "for science, not personal gain." The young man, however, fell in love with the very girl who was sent to track him, and thus forgot his original intention.
An eye strain was really the cause of making the young business man realize that he loved the young typist and a wrongly compounded remedy for the same eye strain placed the girl in grave danger, the danger being averted merely through the ingenuity of the young business man with the help of his friend, the power superintendent of the city's street-car lines.
A 1911 short starring Marion Leonard and James Kirkwood. It is believed to be a lost fim.
A wealthy, callous moneylender finds a terrifying way to learn about money's limitations.
A young man with a beer budget learns a hard lesson when he takes out a young lady with champagne tastes.
In China, before leaving for America, Charlie Lee promises that he will never dishonour his family by cutting his pigtail. Later, as a laundryman in a California mining town, Charlie is tormented by local men but is finally befriended by a young woman and her cowboy sweetheart. One of Charlie’s tormentors is a well-dressed idler and, secretly, a bandit who robs the mail. The cowboy and the bandit become rivals for the girl’s affections. Suspicious of the bandit, Charlie follows him, observes him robbing a mail-carrier, and contrives to capture him, cutting off his pigtail to bind the bandit. Rewarded for the bandit’s capture, but disgraced in his own eyes for dishonouring his family, Charlie gives the cash reward to the young couple and surreptitiously leaves Golden Gulch.
A prospector in the Gold Rush days of ‘49 strikes pay dirt after a long struggle. He stakes the claim and stays to guard it while his wife and ten-year-old son hurry off to the claim office to register it. Two scoundrels observe the action, and go in pursuit. Arriving after the wife and her son, they trick her into leaving the queue waiting for the agent to arrive. A woman who pretends to faint is the accomplice who leads the wife to a cabin. The scoundrels lock the wife in, but she ties her son to a rope and lowers him out the window to bring help. She is rescued and manages to register their claim in the last moment.
An experiment goes wrong and blinds a newly married chemist. The chemist's wife does not want to take on the burden of caring for the blind chemist so she has her younger sister take her place.
Poor Hiram didn't anticipate the trouble laid out for him when he and his wife went for a stroll in the park.
Two eccentric Frenchmen argue for the hand of an eligible American girl, who finally discouraged both of them by introducing her betrothed.
Ramona, a young girl growing up on her adoptive mother's rancho in California, falls in love with the Indian lad Alessandro. When Ramona is denied permission to marry Alessandro, the two lovers elope, only to find a life of great hardship and unhappiness amidst the bigotry and greed of the white landowners.
A young secretary is locked in an airtight vault by a robber. Only her boss knows the combination, and he is off on a journey. Can the boss's son locate his absent-minded father before it is too late for the girl?
Soon after their engagement, Bill goes to sea, and Emily vows to stay true until his return. Unknown to her, Bill marries another woman from a different port. Emily waits faithfully for six years, finally becoming dangerously ill. When Bill suddenly appears in town with his family, Joe, who has loved Emily all along, forces Bill to make Emily's final moments happy by pretending he has returned to marry her.
Mary Pickford's debut! Henry and Marion have a lover's quarrel and part in anger. They do not reconcile, and ten years pass without contact. Marion becomes a society girl and spends her time at parties with her friends. Henry has become very ill and wishes to see Marion one more time. He writes asking her to visit. When she recieves the note, she laughs and tosses it on the floor, but, later, on a whim, decides to take all her drunken friends with her to visit him. When they arrive, Marion finds Henry dead, clutching her portrait in his hand. She sends her friends away and falls to her knees in remorse.
Pippa awakes and faces the world outside with a song. Unknown to her, the music has a healing effect on all who hear her as she passes by.
Nellie flees her old life and goes east to become a nurse, where she marries a doctor. One of her old colleagues finds her and tries to blackmail her. When the blackmail plot is exposed, Nellie's husband expresses his complete faith in her.
A son leaves to seek his fortune in the city. Many years later he returns and checks into his parents' inn. They don't recognize him, but noticing his fat wallet, plan to rob him.
An Indian comforts a dying prospector in his last moments. In exchange, the prospector tells him the location of his gold claim. A group of cowboys tries to get the information and go as far as kidnapping the Indian's wife.
A confirmed bachelor learns that he will inherit his late uncle's fortune only if he marries, which he does reluctantly. Shortly afterward he returns to his bachelor lifestyle but realizes he can't get his wife's face out of his thoughts.
House painter Jim Brooks thinks his wife is cheating on him with his best friend John West. The intrigue is in fact a birthday surprise.
George Peabody is a young man who has been giving free rein to his inclinations, the principal one being drink. One might have concluded he was lost, but there was the chance which the hand of Providence always bestows in the person of pretty little Ruth King, who had secretly loved George since their childhood days. She succeeds in persuading him from his reckless life, and he determines to cut off from his old loose companions by going out West and making a man of himself. Bidding Ruth and her mother good-bye, he realizes that he loves his little preserver and promises to return worthy of her love and confidence. They plight their troth with their first kiss and a heart shaped locket, which Ruth wears, she breaking it in two, giving George one side while she retains the other, which symbolized the reunion of their hearts with his return.
A mountain girl is seduced by a traveler from the valley. Her brother tracks the seducer down and kills him. In retaliation, the sheriff captures the brother and prepares to lynch him. Mother intervenes and, to save her son the disgrace of hanging, shoots him.
Nekhludoff, a Russian nobleman serving on a jury, discovers that the young girl on trial, Katusha, is someone he once seduced and abandoned and that he himself bears responsibility for reducing her to crime. He sets out to redeem her and himself in the process.
One of the members of a suicide club learns he has inherited some money, but only after he drew the fatal lot and is expected to kill himself. Presumed to be a lost film.
A contest is being held in Cremona for the best violin, with Giannina's hand in marriage as the prize. Filippo is secretly in love with her, but is also ashamed of being a cripple, so he switches his superior violin with that of another apprentice, Sandro, whom Giannina loves.
All the young men in the mining camp flirt with Lucy. Bud, the youngest of them, doesn't stand a chance. At a dance, Bud dresses as a woman and all the men flirt with him and abandon Lucy. When his disguise is revealed, the other men are too embarrassed to approach Lucy, and Bud dances the rest of the night with her.
Out-of-work, Tim steals a sandwich, then knocks out the policeman who chases him. He changes into the policeman's uniform, and is approached by a wife who needs help with her drunken husband.
A girl is being shipped off to Europe with her aunt to break up her romance. Her suitor dresses himself as the aunt and manages to fool everyone long enough for them to elope.
A shoe-factory worker puts a note in a shoe box offering to marry the lucky buyer. As a result, she is dismissed from her job, but her employer finds her so attractive that he suggests a new job for her, as his wife.
Mr. Jones jumps to the wrong conclusions when he sees a bouquet of flowers and a man's hat in the parlor.
Mack Sennett appears as a bartender in this film produced by the Biograph Company.
Mack Sennett appears as a man in a bar in this film produced by the Biograph Company.
A poorly compensated bank clerk is, we may say, to that trying position of "Tantalus" in sight of tons of money but not a dollar of his own. This became more torturing as time went on, until at last, when the bank was arranging to ship a large quantity of cash to the West to relieve the recent money stringency, he made up his mind to heed the solicitude of that specter which had haunted him. Listening to the instructions given to the bank's messenger as to the shipment of the funds, he hustles off to a gang of crooks in whose company he had fallen.
William Thompson and John Smith occupied offices in the same New York skyscraper, and both being seized with an irrepressible desire to cut loose and paint things crimson, arranged it as follows in this Biograph picture. Thompson sent a message to his wife that his friend Smith was ill, and it was his duty to perform that spiritual work of mercy, "comfort the afflicted," hence he would not have her wait up for him as he might be late. Smith did likewise, using Thompson as the object of his humane consideration. This done, they start off to make a night of it. First they visit the gilded throne room of a temple of Bacchus, where they moisten their parched spirits with dry Martinis. They are soon in a most glorious condition. Smith suggests the show where "Amateur Night" is on. - Written by Moving Picture World synopsis
Hulda is a maiden fair to look upon. Her artless rustic simplicity, rivaling Hebe's gorgeous radiance, phlogisticates the susceptible hearts of the village swains. But alas, Hulda was a fickle maid, and seemed to have as many phases as the moon, with a smile for all and a frown for none. Her capriciousness was the cause of much unrest, both for herself and her lovers, for when her parents had departed for a visit, leaving her in charge of the kitchen, she received most effusively Jocular Jake, the village cut-up, only to hide him above stairs at the entrance of Previous-Hearted Pat, the hostler, who in turn is hidden in the Dutch oven at the approach of Handy Hank, the chore boy.
In a saloon in a Mexican border town, a group of cowboys, including a Mexican named Pedro, play poker. One man is discovered cheating, and is shot dead by Pedro, who is wounded as he attempts to escape. Pedro is followed home by the local sheriff, who proves the next victim of Pedro's quick temper and pistol. Pedro's wife, Juanita, is thrown into jail, but he manages to break her out. They head for the border, unaware that a posse is waiting for them.
A thug accosts a girl as she leaves her workplace but a man rescues her. The thug vows revenge and, with the help of two friends, attacks the girl and her rescuer again as they're going for a walk. This time they succeed in kidnapping the rescuer. The girl runs home and gets help from several neighbors. They track the ruffians down to a cabin in the mountains where the gang has trapped their victim and set the cabin on fire.
This one-reeler is regarded as a Griffith thriller. It engages with the Chinese White slave traffic from the perspective of a female detective, Marion Leonard, whose assignment is to expose and break the traffic ring.
Mack Sennett appears as a man in the bar in this film produced by the Biograph Company.
With the family of Mr. Phlipp there is employed that wrecker of domestic serenity, a pretty French maid, whose trim figure and cherry lips are simply irresistible. This is all very fine for Phlipp, who is wont to bask in the radiance of her smiles and to sip the honey from her rose-leaved lips. But, alas! his bliss is short-lived, for, the perspicacious Mrs. Phlipp grows suspicious and surprises the erring couple in an osculatory diversion. The meretricious maiden is put to right, and the sinful Phlipp is assailed with most vociferous vituperative verbosity.
Had the poor melancholy Dane, Hamlet, lived in this, the twentieth century, he would never have given voice to the remark, "Oh, that this too, too solid flesh would melt, thaw and resolve itself into a dew!" No indeed! He would have procured some of the mysterious fluid compounded by an erudite scientist by which things animate and inanimate were rendered non est, for ten minutes at least, by simply spraying them with it. In an atomizer, he sends a quantity, accompanied by a letter, to his brother. In the hope of his putting it on the market. The brother regards it as a joke, and, while toying with the atomizer, accidentally sprays himself. Presto! he is gone, to the amazement of the messenger boy who has carried the package thither. The boy reads the letter, and at once sees the amount of fun he can get out of it, so he nips it.
Mack Sennett appears as a policeman in this film produced by the Biograph Company.
Mack Sennett appears as a policeman and waiter in this film produced by the Biograph Company.
At a political club, the members debate whose bust will replace that of Theodore Roosevelt. Unable to agree, each goes to a sculptor's studio and bribes him to sculpt a bust of the individual favorite. Instead, the sculptor spends their fees on a dinner with his model during which he becomes so inebriated that he is taken to jail. There he has a nightmare, wherein three busts are created and animated from clay (through stop-motion photography) in the likenesses of Democrat William Jennings Bryan and Republicans Charles W. Fairbanks and William Howard Taft. Finally an animated bust of Roosevelt appears.
Two gang members send a threatening letter to a butcher, demanding money if he did not want his shop to be destroyed and his daughter Maria kidnapped. When he is unable to meet their request, they take Maria away. The Black Hand is the earliest surviving gangster film.
