J. Searle Dawley

Thoroughly researched remake of the first screen version of Mary Shelley's story. Blending visual nightmare & Gothic romance, it tells this much trampled tale more as Jekyll and Hyde ghost story. A look at one man's struggle with the inadequacies of solitary creation.

7.4/10

A woman detained in Germany attempts to escape so she can reunite with her American lover.

A ghost debunker is touring Europe with his niece when he gets a new case to tackle.

Elinor Shale's happiness at being engaged to Gerald Forster is interrupted by the arrival of her sister Lucy, who confesses that she will soon give birth to an illegitimate child. Elinor goes into seclusion with her sister until the baby is born and then tries to find a foster mother. Seeking to estrange Gerald from Elinor so that she may marry him herself, Lucy convinces him that Elinor is the child's mother. After Lucy and Gerald's marriage, Elinor learns of her sister's perfidy and resolves to tell Gerald the truth, but at the sight of their happiness, she relents and returns home.

Arnold Maitland is devastated when he finds out that his wife Cynthia is having an affair with a man named Boresky. He falls in love with Flora Farnsworth, a cabaret dancer, and sets out to divorce his wife and marry Flora. Unfortunately, Arnold is killed in an accident, and Flora turns for comfort to his business partner Philip Standish, and soon falls for him. Enter Cynthia, who has tired of Boresky and wants Philip for herself. She hatches a plan that will get rid of both Flora and Boresky and leave Philip for her.

Born and raised in poverty, Marguerite Clark has learned to expect very little out of life and thus is rather surprised to learn that she is the niece of a wealthy financier. Alas, this puts a crimp in her romance with a handsome young architect, who has long despised the financier for causing the downfall of the architect's father.

7.1/10

Bab comes home for the Christmas holidays. Given to fabrications, Bab has been keeping a diary in which she describes and imaginary boyfriend named Harold Valentine. Imagine what happens when a real Harold Valentine shows up as her parents' house guest.

Serama, the consort of Lucifer, is driven from Paradise by the Archangel Michael, who commands Conscience to enter human souls to judge and punish them. In the main story, society girl Ruth Somers, a reincarnation of Serama, prepares to marry Cecil Brooke, the wealthiest man of her set. Her guardian, Dr. Norton, an incarnation of Lucifer, constantly accompanies her. Ruth is summoned to the Court of Conscience, where the witnesses, Lust, Avarice, Hate, Revenge and Vanity, testify about Ruth's history of seducing and abandoning men. This behavior resulted in the suicide of Madge, the lover of Ned Langley, whom Ruth enthralled and promised to marry, and also the deaths of two rivals for her love. Ruth is ordered back to earth to learn her sentence. When Ned interrupts the wedding, Ruth scorns him and he shoots himself. After Brooke leaves her, the Court dooms Ruth to live with the torment of remembrance. Ruth sends Norton away, and then kneels and repents.

In her first Paramount film, Billie Burke plays Helen Wentworth, an heiress who's bored with the high life and decides to enjoy a bit of the low life.

Snow White, a beautiful girl, is despised by a wicked queen who tries to destroy her. With the aid of dwarves in the woods, Snow White overcomes the queen.

6.2/10

Hope has an act in a traveling circus where she is "the rainbow princess" and performs a Hula dance. The owner of the circus pawns the girl off on Judge Daingerfield as his long-lost granddaughter. Hope goes to live with the judge, and to the horror of his upstanding family, insists on having the circus performers over as her guests. But the whole ruse, unbeknownst to her, is so that the circus owner's sons can rob the judge.

A partially lost film, with only one surviving reel. A movie released in 1914 directed by Edwin S. Porter.

6/10

Sebastien, a landowner, shelters the orphan Marta in exchange for sexual favors. When, years later, Sebastien's fortunes ebb, he marries Muri, the daughter of a rich man, and arranges for Marta to marry the shepherd Manelich. Sebastien assures Marta that Manelich knows of their relationship and will not interfere, but she discovers that her husband is ignorant of the affair and, in fact, loves her. Because she comes to return her husband's love, she confesses her past, after which Manelich kills Sebastien. With Marta at his side, the shepherd then returns to the hills. -From TCM.com Database, powered by the AFI.

Unknown to Reuben Warren, the foreman of an ironworks, his invention, the volta-dynamo, was stolen years earlier by his employer, Knowlton, and is the foundation for the iron magnate's financial empire. Reuben is in love with Knowlton's daughter Margaret, who is engaged to Ralph Standish, the son of Reuben's deceased mentor. A strike against inhumane working conditions at the mill coincides with the discovery of Knowlton's theft by Reuben, who confronts the employer with proof of his treachery. Margaret later breaks her engagement to Ralph and proclaims her love for Reuben. As Margaret's husband, Reuben now owns half of the mill and gladly meets the strikers' demands. -From TCM.com Database, powered by the AFI.

A peasant girl sent to make a claim on her family's ancestral home in England's Wessex is seduced and left with child by its current owner.

6/10

Bill, who is with a bunch of cowboys on their way to town, picks up from the wreckage of a prairie schooner a little baby girl. Five years later the little girl, while running after butterflies, gets lost. Bill, waking up from his siesta, goes in search of her, but she cannot be found. The little girl, in the meantime, has climbed into a freighter's wagon. For twelve years she lives with him. One evening, while gambling with Mexican Pete, the freighter loses his money, and the girl, whom he had staked against the Mexican's winnings. But before the Mexican can take the girl away, Bill wins her from the Mexican, places her in the care of a woman neighbor and eventually marries her.

Looking for love in the tea garden

A Dutch romance. Hulda and Heintz are bashful, giggling lovers, hut their spooning opportunities are few, as well as being forbidden. One day they get a chance to spoon, but the village gossip sees them and hastens to Hulda's mother, exaggerating what she saw.

A lost film. A wealthy young man's marriage to a mountain girl he meets while hunting is disastrous until she abandons him and later reappears incognito as a tutored and sophisticated woman.

5.9/10

A lost film. A successful stage actress with a hidden past as a criminal is kept on the path of righteousness by a benefactor.

6.2/10

News is received by Sir Jeoffrey, a dissolute roué, whose contempt for the other sex extends even to his own daughters, of the arrival of another female child in the family. The mother dies shortly after, and the child, Clorinda, is brought up among the servants without a guiding hand. True to his vow to ignore his offspring, Sir Jeoffrey does not come in contact with Clo, until her sixth year, when he finds her playing with his powder horn in the great hall of his castle, Wildair, and sternly upbraids her.

A monk tells a tale about a woman who can only surrender her heart to a man who can offer her jewels. A poor man falls in love with her and steals jewels off a statue of the Madonna to give to her.

5.6/10

We see Jack and his mother very poor and the project of selling the cow discussed. Jack meets the familiar figure of the butcher who bargains with him for the cow and finally Jack consents to part with the animal for the wonderful beans which will grow up overnight until they reach the sky. He takes them to his mother, and, of course, she is heart-broken and throws the beans out of the window. The next morning the vine not only covers the window, but reaches far above the top of the house out of sight in the clouds, and we see Jack start to climb upward. Upon arriving at the giant's castle Jack meets the ogre's wife, who towers majestically above him, and after some parley is invited in, on his plea of hunger. Before he can be served the giant is heard and Jack is hidden in the kettle. The giant comes on and then follows the familiar scenes in which the ogre calls for his bags of gold, his magic harp and the wonderful hen that lays the golden eggs.

7.3/10

The story of the siege and eventual relief of British soldiers garrisoned at Lucknow during the 1857 Indian Rebellion. Only a fragment of the original film remains.

4/10

Silent film drama of the famous incident..

6.5/10

In a peasant's cot we find a fair, young maiden who is loved by an honest, true-hearted peasant lad, while yonder stands the manor of Glenwood with its noble lord, who chanced to pass by one fair day and there noble eyes met peasant meekness and love found work a-plenty to do. But maiden thought naught of my lord o' the manor, nor so much as gave him cause to hope that all his castles and lands could win her heart from the true peasant lad who had gone forth in the world to win humble living for his bride to be. It was then that Dame Poverty came knocking at the peasant's door and upon her heels crept a fever which held the young sister close within her breast only waiting for death to knock gently at the humble cot. And still no word from the loved one in a foreign land! Had he deserted his fond-hearted lassie? Weeks passed by and still no word nor sign of the one held most dear, and then my lord of Glenwood Keep came suing for her hand.

3.7/10

Rival salesmen use every means of transportation to be the first to land that big order.

Aida, daughter of the King of Ethiopia, having fallen a prisoner into the hands of the Egyptians, is given as a slave by their king to his daughter Amneris who, captivated by the grace and beauty of the unknown maid, takes her into favor. Radames, a young captain of the king's guards, loved by Amneris, suspecting a rival in her slave, swears to be avenged. Meanwhile war is again declared between Egypt and Ethiopia and Radames, appointed leader of the army by the High Priest of Isis, is invested with the sacred arms and departs to fight the Ethiopians who, headed by their king, have invaded Egypt. Radames defeats them and returns victorious, followed by the prisoners, among whom is the king himself, disguised as an officer.

After reading a newspaper article regarding old Tightwad's rise in the world, Bill and Jim hit upon a plan to get some of Tightwad's easy money by holding young Tightwad for ransom. They accordingly hire a rig, take the boy and conceal him in a cave. The boy, instead of weeping and wailing for home and mother, proclaims himself "Red Chief" and makes it uncomfortable for his captors. (Moving Picture World)

7/10

This 20th-century retelling of the classic fairy tale keeps all the familiar elements — a selfish step-sister, a put-upon beauty, a Prince Charming, and, of course, a lost slipper — but shifts the action to a contemporary boarding house. Cinderella, played by Mary Fuller, befriends an elderly resident, who buys a party outfit for her favorite when Cinderella’s elder sister preens for a dance. The new clothes transform the unassuming maiden into the toast of the ball. Finding Cinderella’s missing shoe, a dashing young man follows the clue to his grandmother, Cinderella’s friend at the boarding house, who works her magic to reunite the couple.

A Romeo and Juliet story of the rivalry between two miners, one rich and one poor, whose son and daughter overcome their respective fathers' opposition.

A Story of the Lumber Regions of Western Canada: a lumberjack remember his past while he listens to a record of the song his fiancée used to sing him.

5.5/10

Frankenstein, a young medical student, trying to create the perfect human being, instead creates a misshapen monster. Made ill by what he has done, Frankenstein is comforted by his fiancée; but on his wedding night he is visited by the monster.

6.4/10

The day before the Christmas holiday, Ebenezer Scrooge, a hard-fisted miser, refuses to contribute to the Charity Relief Committee, and then rudely rejects his nephew Fred when he visits Scrooge in his office. When Scrooge returns home, he sees the ghost of his former business partner Jacob Marley, who warns him of the punishment he will suffer in the next life if he does not change his ways. That night, Scrooge is visited by three more spirits, who show him his past, the present, and the future that awaits him.

6.1/10

Unsuccessful in his suit for Mabel, John goes to farm in western Canada. Mabel's father convinces her that John has found another sweetheart, so Mabel accepts an old suitor. A spinster who cares for John discovers he still loves Mabel and brings her out west where she and John are reunited.

One of the first, of not the first, film adaptation of Grimm's fairytale.

4.5/10

Directed by J. Searle Dawley.

5.2/10

An office worker takes desperate measures in an attempt to get up on time in the morning.

5.4/10

A handful of short tales of love, framed by leaf masks.

4.6/10

A broken-hearted husband thinks about the past as he sits by the fireplace.

4.5/10

A woodsman leaves a hut followed by a woman with their baby. Nearby some men chop down a tree. The baby is left outside the hut, but an eagle flies away with it.

5.7/10

After receiving a scolding for falling asleep on the job, Cupid is sent out in search of potential lovers to unite. While flying over a city, he finds a ballroom dance and identifies a likely couple. He is successful in getting them to meet, but many obstacles still stand in the way of Cupid achieving his goal for them. (IMDb)

4.9/10

A generous boy tries to help a girl who does not believe in Santa Claus because of her family's poverty.

6/10

Chollie and George compete for a young woman's affection, using trickery and sabotage.

5.4/10

While in a park, a young woman sees her fiancé being quite affectionate with another woman. When she calls him on the telephone to demand an explanation, he tells her that it was his sister. She is not satisfied, and insists on coming over to meet his 'sister'. As the young man broods over how to get out of trouble, an old college friend comes over, and he offers to pretend to be the sister. At first this works, but soon it has created even more complications.

5.3/10

Jack and the daughter of a horse trainer are in love with each other, but when the trainer discovers them together, he makes it clear that Jack is unwelcome. Later, at the stables, another suitor for the daughter's hand appears. An unusual agreement is reached, under which the result of a race will determine which of the two the daughter will marry. But Jack's rival proves to be unscrupulous, and he will stop at nothing to be successful.

4.5/10