Dorothy West
Douglas Fairbanks stars as "Sunny" Wiggins, who believes in eternal optimism and good spirits. This places Wiggins at odds with his staid, wealthy family, who decide to get even when he blithely invites a group of derelicts to his sister's coming-out party.
Louise (Pickford) is a sewing-machine girl in a sweatshop in New York City. She lives together with her sisters Amy (Loretta Blake) and Jane (Dorothy West) and are all deprived by bad conditions at work and sickness. Louise tries for the three of them to survive and regards herself as the keeper of her sisters. Meanwhile, she stands up to her bosses and complains about the dreadful circumstances they work in. When Amy is seduced by the son of the shop-owner, Louise butts in and stops the romance. He eventually abandons Amy and becomes seriously injured in a cave-in. Louise has a secret crush on the son herself and tries to rescue him, hoping he will admit he loves her. The film is inspired by the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, which took place in 1911. The only version of the film is a nitrate print in the Cinematheque Francaise, but only the first half remains.
Continuing where His Trust (1911) leaves off, George takes care of his deceased master's daughter after her mother's death. He sacrifices his own meager savings to give the girl a good life, until the money runs out and he tries to steal money from the girl's rich cousin.
A struggling young seamstress supports her elderly parents by working at home. The landlord offers free rent for sex, but she declines. He threatens foreclosure, but she is saved when a large sewing order comes her way. She rushes to the landlord’s office to arrange for an extension on the rent, encounters the landlord’s son, and leaves an ambiguous message saying only that she must see the landlord on important business. The old man receives the message and leaves for her apartment. His son, unaware of his father’s lechery, innocently follows after him to convey an urgent business message. When he walks in on his father attacking the seamstress, he interferes, denounces the old man, and provides the girl’s family with food and medical help.
William Hart, a prospector in the west, who, with his wife and child sought vainly for gold day after day, while hope waned and starvation faced them. One day while alone save for Nellie, their little girl, Mrs. Hart is visited by two tramp Mojave Indians who, with threats of vengeance, make her give them food.
In the Kentucky backwoods, Dorothy West helps her moonshiner father take some jugs to his still; along the way, she meets dashing Edwin August. Ms. West and Mr. August are immediately attracted to each other -- but he is "The Revenue Man ", which means, of course, trouble for the moonshiners. After August begins arresting the bootleggers, citizens dependent on the alcohol trade take up arms against the man. Even West wields a rifle; when a loved one is shot, she wants to hunt down, and kill, revenue man August.
A feud existed between two Italian houses and it meant disaster to any one of the belligerents to intrude into the opposing house. The Lord of the house gives a feast in honor of the arrival of a wealthy foreign noble, whom he expects to make his son-in-law. The daughter, however, has given her heart to the son of her father's enemy. That he may be present at the festival, she surreptitiously takes her father's signet ring, throwing it to him from the window, which, of course, admits him. The father, anticipating the intrusion of his enemies, orders death to any member who enters the hall. After the festivities the unwelcome betrothal takes place and the forbidden lover braves death to see his loved one. While they are in clandestine meeting a guard is seen to enter the corridor so the girl hides her sweetheart in a secret closet, turning the key and taking it with her. Not finding the intruder, the guard imagines he was mistaken.
During the Civil War a young soldier loses his nerve in battle and runs away to his home to hide; his sister puts on his uniform, takes her brother's place in the battle, and is killed. Their mother, not wanting the shameful truth to become known, closes all the shutters (hence the film's title) and keeps her son's presence a secret for many years, though two boyhood chums stumble upon the truth...
Typical morality tale has a Deacon coming onto a "wild child" (Dorothy West) but after she rejects him he goes back into town saying that the girl and her mother are witches.
After her mother's death, Ruth struggles to support herself as a seamstress. While Ruth delivers shirts to the factory owner, the owner's son steals some money and Ruth is accused of the crime. She flees the ghetto of New York's Lower East Side and hides in the country where a young farmer takes her in and they fall in love
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.
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.
Two Johns, a Confederate and an Union soldier, leave their families to go to the front. After a skirmish they end up separated from their respective sides, the Union soldier shoots the Confederate, but he has to escape and look for refuge in the house of his enemy.
In this story set at a seaside fishing village and inspired by a Charles Kingsley poem, a young couple's happy life is turned about by an accident. The husband, although saved from drowning, loses his memory. A child is on the way, and soon a daughter is born to his wife. We watch the passage of time, as his daughter matures and his wife ages. The daughter becomes a lovely young woman, herself ready for marriage. One day on the beach, the familiarity of the sea and the surroundings triggers a return of her father's memory, and we are reminded that although people age and change, the sea and the ways of the fisherfolk remain eternal.
Julian loves his cousin and foster sister Camilla, who is wooed and won by Lionel, his friend and rival. He is a witness to their marriage and after the ceremony he departs heartbroken to his own house. Utopian was the existence of Lionel and Camilla, until some time later Camilla is seized with a serious illness, and Lionel's grief knew no bounds when he heard "That low knell tolling his lady dead." "She had lain three days without a pulse all that look'd on her had pronounced her dead, So they bore her, for in Julian's land they never nail a dumb head up in elm, bore her free-faced to the free airs of heaven, and laid her in the vault of her own kin." Julian learns of the death of Camilla, and hastens to the house, arriving in time to see the funeral cortège moving slowly towards the sepulcher. Following in its wake he exclaims, "Now, now, will 1 go down into the grave; I will be all alone with all I love."
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.
This is a very short and rare attempt at comedy by D. W. Griffith.
Mary is coerced into helping with a burglary of a minister's apartment. Later she repents and goes to the minister's storefront mission to help.
"Fine feathers make fine birds." and handsome gowns make handsome women, and a handsome woman is the most fascinating thing extant. Hence it is when Isabelle appears on the scene clad in a gown that is a masterpiece of the dressmaker's art she easily fascinates the male contingent, among whom is Enrico, the sweetheart of Veronica, a street singer. Enrico is so enraptured at the sight of Isabelle in her resplendent attire that he becomes her abject slave, casting aside the poor, peasant-clad little Italian street singer, who has loved him devotedly. Crushed almost beyond endurance the poor girl stands sobbing at the entrance of the park where the inconsistent lever left her. Her tears attract the attention of a wealthy young couple who happen to pass. In answer to their queries she tells them how contemptibly her sweetheart acted, and all because of the fascinating influence of a gown.
Two boys find a pistol their father has hidden. While they're playing with it, they line up a target, not realizing their sisters are on the other side of the door. The parents realize the gun is missing and avert the disaster.
Jones's mother-in-law prohibits his smoking and drinking, so he takes her out for the evening and gets her drunk.
A pair of young ladies cause trouble at the cinema with their lavish hats.
After three years at sea, Edward returns home to find his sweetheart forced into an engagement with a much older man.
At the Italian boarding house the male boarders were all smitten with the charms of Minnie, the landlady's pretty daughter, but she was of a poetic turn of mind and her soul soared above plebeianism and her aspirations were romantic. Most persistent among her suitors was Grigo, a coarse Sicilian, whose advances were odiously repulsive. The arrival at the boarding house from the old country of Giuseppe Cassella, the violinist, filled the void in her yearning heart. Romantic, poetic and a talented musician, Giuseppe was indeed a desirable husband for Minnie.
Mack Sennett appears as a cop in this film produced by the Biograph Company.
Antonine, a worthless, good-for-nothing scoundrel, demands money of his cousin Galora, an energetic, provident husband and father. His demands are met with a positive rebuff, and when he becomes insistent be is forcibly ejected by Galora. As he leaves the tenement he vows to get even, and lies in wait until Galora has gone out on business. Climbing to the fifth floor, on which the Galoras live, he watches his chance, which comes when Mrs. Galora goes for an instant to visit a neighbor on the same floor. Darting into the apartment and raising the window he perceives the awful result of a drop to the ground, five stories below, and so evolves a plan that is dastardly in the extreme. Taking the infant child from the cradle, and placing it in a basket he lets it out with a short rope, the end of which he secures by letting the sash down on it, so that to raise the window would precipitate the baby to destruction.
Mercedes orders her sweetheart to prove his love by doing something dangerously heroic. He agrees, breaking into another young woman's house in order to steal a photograph. The young woman catches him and has him arrested, but he is released when a family friend bribes the police. Mercedes eventually returns the stolen photograph only to find her boyfriend in the other woman's arms.
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.
Mack Sennett appears as a footman in this film produced by the Biograph Company.
Harry's jealous former mistress puts poison in some candy intended for his new fiancée. Harry discovers what she has done, and races to save his fiancée before she eats the candy.
After a judge (Harry Solter) does his job and sentences a man, a gypsy woman (Marion Leonard) erupts in vehement protests and has to be taken forcefully out of the courtroom. Later the gypsy follows the judge to his home and plots a vicious revenge on his wife (Florence Lawrence).
Mack Sennett appears as a Native American in this film produced by the Biograph Company.
