Lubin (production)
Intense drama unfolds when wife must choose between the two greatest joys in her life: dancing on stage, and whacking her hubby upside the head. What will she choose: the glamour of stage life, or the fulfillment of pummeling Papa?
Arthur Berthelet (director)
William Postance (director/lead)
H.S. Sheldon (writer)
William Gillette (author/lead)
Arthur Conan Doyle (author)
Ernest Maupain (lead)
Marjorie Kay (lead)
Edward Fielding (lead)
Stewart Robbins (lead)
Grace Reals (lead)
Mario Majeroni (lead)
Essanay (production)
This film exists as supporting evidence for three well-established postulates in film theory:
Arthur Marvin (cinematographer/director)
Arthur Conan Doyle (author)
American Mutoscope and Biograph (production)
1 trick, 1 minute, 0 interest
Lois Weber (director/producer/writer)
Stephen S. Norton (cinematographer)
Allen G. Siegler (cinematographer)
Stella Wynne Herron (author)
Jane Addams (author)
Mary MacLaren (lead)
Harry Griffith (lead)
Mattie Witting (lead)
Jessie Arnold (lead)
William V. Mong (lead)
Lina Basquette (lead)
Phillips Smalley (producer)
Eva is a young woman who works in a variety store for a meager salary, solely supporting her two parents and three sisters - while her father lies in bed reading dime novels, smoking his pipe, and drinking pails of beer. As her only pair of shoes disintegrates from long use, so does her hopes, her respect for her father, and her resistance against a leering cabaret singer.
Pathé (production)
A newsreel of the state response to the challenge of a couple of anarchists in 1911 London that fought off the combined force of police and military. Was the inspiration for the shootout in the final scene of Hitchcock's 1934 "The Man Who Knew Too Much".
James Williamson (director)
Williamson (production)
Thief steals, boy and dogs chase. All end up in a barrel. Ends abruptly, as if ending was lost. One of the earliest known surviving chase films, it's a good film to show critics that claim that movies have degenerated into gratuitous violence: this shows violence was there from the beginning. Strips the dude's clothes off, and then goes down to the mud to wrestle with him - kinda kinky...
Phillips Smalley (director)
Lois Weber (director/lead)
Val Paul (lead)
Sam Kaufman (lead)
Rex (production)
Even though D.W. Griffith led the pack in quantity of invasion-call-rescue films, the pinnacle of development of the form during that period came from this lesser-known crew. With its stark title and startling visuals, more realistic characters, less reliance on explicit narrative and instead favoring more subtle story-telling, this bears less resemblance to its contemporaries than to the films that would later be created by Hitchcock (known as 'The Master Of Suspense').
Lumière (production)
Considered the earliest known instance of film comedy, and the first use of film to portray a fictional story. Also a seminal work in the field of Internet porn, as the first work in the older-male-spanks-twink genre.
D.W. Griffith (director)
G.W. Bitzer (cinematographer)
Emmett C. Hall (writer)
Anthony O'Sullivan (lead)
Dell Henderson (lead)
Biograph (production)
Who could pass up a title like that? After all, over a century later ESPN was still relying on chink power to grab eyeballs with its “Chink in the Armor” headline for a Jeremy Lin story. Here, reknown Massa of ethnology D.W. Griffith spins a tale of a Noble Pagan who “though a saffron-skinned Pagan, his soul is white and real red blood pulsates his heart” the Moving Picture World synopsis tells us. The Moving Picture World review however was a bit less sentimental: “Perhaps if everyone could see such heroic self-sacrifice in a Chinaman as this one displayed, the aversion which most men feel toward them would disappear. It is doubtful, however, if such unselfishness and generosity abide in more than an occasional individual. The picture is not up to the Biograph standard...” - which already sets the bar quite low.
Lewin Fitzhamon (director)
Thurston Harris (lead)
Gertie Potter (lead)
Hepworth (production)
Boy's revenge on old man for a practical joke brings disaster to town - to the boy's devilish delight - until that fatal sneeze.
Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle (director/lead)
Mabel Normand (lead)
Alice Davenport (lead)
Ford Sterling (lead)
May Emory (lead)
Frank Hayes (lead)
Helen Carlyle (lead)
Slim Summerville (lead)
Keystone (production)
Keystone attempts a more fleshed out story, less reliant on gags and falls. Though not a screamer, Ford Sterling's masterful comic mugging keeps it from being a snoozer.
Mack Sennett (director/producer)
Mabel Normand (lead)
Ford Sterling (lead)
Alice Davenport (lead)
Edgar Kennedy (lead)
Nick Cogley (lead)
Charles Avery (lead)
Echo Park (location)
Keystone (production)
Dissonance erupts when Mabel's attention divides the band. Highlight: performers using the amateur show to market their...um...business...
Walter R. Booth (director)
Robert W. Paul (cinematographer)
R.W. Paul's (production)
Neither the law of society nor the law of gravity can obstruct this motorist's journey.
Yevgeny Bauer (director)
Khanzhonkov (production)
This seems to want to be seen in a comic light, but every opportunity for humor is replaced by a mere suggestion of a possible humorous situation - “insert gag here” - leaving the impression of viewing an incomplete work..or a total flop.
William S. Hart (director/lead)
Reginald Barker (director)
Joseph August (cinematographer)
C. Gardner Sullivan (writer)
Bessie Love (lead)
Louise Glaum (lead)
Herschel Mayall (lead)
The title raised the excited hope of going beyond the usual stereotyping and slurs, instead delivering an explicit exposition of racial ideology - taking Birth Of A Nation out west. Unfortunately, this is just an incomplete reconstruction of a film considered lost until 2008. The introduction states that this version comes from an Argentine mid-1920s rerelease (dates within the film are given as 1923), with titles that “differ quite a bit from the original”. Most segments have not been digitally restored, and lost segments are replaced by photographs.
The original may have been more directly concerned with racial ideology, but here Cowboy's main conflict is with women: Cowboy is massively Madonna–whore complexed. This is immediately suggested in the very first scene, where Cowboy's sacred love for his distant mother is juxtaposed with images of him petting and kissing his bestial companion. Then after he deludes himself that a sleazy mining camp on the border is his ideal “town inhabited by men of iron heart”, and that his mother would love a girl he met in a bar there, he is of course vamped. But instead of dumping her, he takes her as his whore he loves to hate, as he does a No-More-Mister-Nice-Guy. Finally, he meets The Virgin Mary Jane and he again falls to his delusions as she cons him into believing his White Man's Duty is to give away his riches. He leaves behind his whore to return to his Brotherhood and replay the Heroic Defender role that first got him vamped, before riding off in the sunset to seek his next imagined Madonna to transform into an imagined whore. So goes the life of an iron-hearted Aryan.
Henry Lehrman (director)
Mabel Normand (lead)
Fred Mace (lead)
Charles Avery (lead)
Nick Cogley (lead)
Keystone Cops (lead)
Mack Sennett (producer)
Keystone (production)
Debut (or semi-debut according to some) of The Keystone Cops in a parody of the invasion-call-rescue plot formula, popularized by D.W. Griffith films.
Alice Guy-Blaché (director)
Gaumont (production)
A pre-Chaplin tale of tramp troubles. Tramp rescues wealthy couple from robbery and is rewarded with a bank note, but when he tries to use it he just gets the old bum's rush. Reasoning that 'clothes make the man', he attempts to solve the problem by...robbery.
Reginald Barker (director)
Robert Newhard (cinematographer)
Thomas H. Ince (writer)
William H. Clifford (writer)
Richard V. Spencer (author)
William S. Hart (lead)
Clara Williams (lead)
J. Frank Burke (lead)
J. Barney Sherry (lead)
Joseph J. Dowling (lead)
Solid performances, plausible backdrops, and gratuitous greaser-bashing overcome lack of action and implausible story. Bargain for a square deal from a crooked cop? That's as believable as a woman who never speaks. Even though her lips move, and others talk and respond to her, none of her dialogue was deemed worthy of a title card. Was she mute or censored?
Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle (director/lead/writer)
Joseph Anthony Roach (writer)
George Peters (cinematographer)
Elgin Lessley (cinematographer)
Al St. John (lead)
Buster Keaton (lead)
Alice Lake (lead)
Joe Keaton (lead)
Comique (production)
The title could have been plural, as the first half features Roscoe and Buster as a pair of bellboys, mostly pulling off gags as a duo. Al has his share of fun time, but usually not sharing the screen with the other two. But in the second half, the three Rough Boys ditch their uniforms and roles to come together as a team for some serious wrecking. Highlights:
Georges Méliès (director/lead)
Star (production)
Traveler enters an inn to rest, but magically mutinous objects refuse to remain inanimate. [Star Film 122-123]
Alice Guy-Blaché (director)
Gaumont (production)
The birth, life and death of Christ, in 25 scenes. This is what an epic looked like in 1906. Intertitles only provide the name of the scene. And the story is dramatized with minimal pantomime, that is recorded by a static and distant camera, thus giving the effect of paintings come to life. So those of us not already familiar with the story probably will be left clueless during most scenes.
Wallace McCutcheon (director)
G.W. Bitzer (cinematographer)
American Mutoscope and Biograph (production)
Kidnapping and rescue, billed as “True Story of a Recent Occurrence in the Italian Quarter of New York”. Real street scene, with gawking bystanders blocking the shot. Was the attempted rescue on the street also real? Street filming can be a dangerous business...
Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle (director/lead/writer)
Frank D. Williams (cinematographer)
Al St. John (lead)
Buster Keaton (lead)
Josephine Stevens (lead)
Luke the Dog (lead)
Comique (production)
Featuring:
Alice Guy-Blaché (director)
Yvonne Mugnier-Serand (lead)
Gaumont (production)
A staging of the fairy tale of children born from a cabbage patch and a rose garden.
Georges Méliès (director/lead)
Star (production)
The Hollywood musical from Hell. [Star Film 453-457]
Wladyslaw Starewicz (animator/cinematographer/director/writer)
Not on the Disney Channel! Is there a performance in any Griffith film as engaging and entertaining as given here by dead bugs?
Cecil B. DeMille (director/producer)
Alvin Wyckoff (cinematographer)
Hector Turnbull (author/writer)
Jeanie Macpherson (writer)
Fannie Ward (lead)
Sessue Hayakawa (lead)
Jack Dean (lead)
James Neill (lead)
Jesse L. Lasky Feature Play (production)
Stone-cold yellow man burns hot for white flesh of loose lady. Interracial dating, theft, lies, flesh-peddling, brutal sadism, revenge, blood splatter, lynch mob, and the slickest eyebrow in showbiz - welcome to Pulp Paradise.
William Barker (director)
Warwick (production)
Some kids are snatched, one is rescued, the rest - who knows, who cares?
Alice Guy-Blaché (director)
Gaumont (production)
Fans of Rik Mayall/Ade Edmondson's brand of 'full-on destruction' comedy will bow down in homage to this pioneering work of riotous excess.
Max Linder (director/lead/writer)
Armand Massard (writer)
Lucy d'Orbel (lead)
Pathé (production)
To wed a rich American, Max must beat competing suitors in sports.
Alice Guy-Blaché (director)
Gaumont (production)
A tale of gender role reversal.
Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle (director/lead/writer)
George Peters (cinematographer)
Al St. John (lead)
Buster Keaton (lead)
Alice Lake (lead)
Luke the Dog (lead)
Comique (production)
Fatty's back in the kitchen, juggling utensils again, this time with help from Buster as a waiter - until Buster is overcome with exotic dance fever, that spreads to Fatty and results in exotic apparel created from kitchenware. Wonderfully destructive and wacky fun to watch, even without being aware that it's a parody of a popular 1918 film (now lost), Salomé - complete with the dancer being brought a head on a plate. Al The Bad Guy breaks it up, and has to be put in his place by Luke the ladder-climbing dog (revisting the 1915 Fatty's Faithful Fido). When things settle down we are reminded that, despite its current ubiquity, spaghetti is relatively new to the US - just another case of a country's debt to its immigrants.
Georges Méliès (director)
Star (production)
The lighter side of beheadings. [Star Film 243]
Lubin (production)
Arrest, imprisonment, escape, chase...but ending is lost.
Robert W. Paul (director)
Paul's Animatograph Works (production)
Considered one of the earliest known examples of a film within a film, the surviving footage is incomplete, missing both beginning and ending. Was remade by Edwin S. Porter for Edison, as Uncle Josh at the Moving Picture Show.
Alice Guy-Blaché (director)
Gaumont (production)
Relax - it's not an attack on motherhood. It's just another shot at the traditional whipping post: the stepmother. No new ground covered here, as everyone who's been subjected to fairy tales learned that stepmothers are evil (usually long before learning what the word 'stepmother' means). But be warned that the child beating scenes are not for the squeamish.
Marian E. Wong (director/lead/writer)
Featuring rich costumes and the conflict between tradition and modernism (a theme that, 10-20 years later, would become a staple of the Shanghai film industry), it's a pity so little remains of this.
André Deed (lead)
Valentina Frascaroli (lead)
Not clear what's going on, but it appears that Cretinetti goes on a hunting trip with his lover and her husband. Then the two lovers conspire several ways to dump on hubby, so they can do the hanky panky. Fast-moving slapstick, but no laughs.
Georges Méliès (director/lead)
Jeanne d'Alcy (lead)
Jules-Eugène Legris (lead)
Star (production)
The Devil plays tricks, some (bats, shifting furniture) later used in the 1902 'The Farmer's Troubles in a Hotel'. [Star Film 78-80]
Lubin (production)
Geezer Alert! Next time you old farts are out cruising for young hotties, carry along this flick to show her why a boring bourgeois baldy's better than a hot young hunk. Guaranteed to thwart her evil thoughts - and let you put yours in action. Or at least give you both a good laugh.
Ernst Lubitsch (director/lead/writer)
Kurt Richter (art-director/costume-designer)
Theodor Sparkuhl (cinematographer)
Hanns Kräly (writer)
E.T.A. Hoffmann (author)
A.E. Willner (author)
Ossi Oswalda (lead)
Hermann Thimig (lead)
Victor Janson (lead)
Gerhard Ritterband (lead)
Jakob Tiedtke (lead)
Max Kronert (lead)
PAGU (production)
This is how a fairy tale should be told: lots of laughs, spiced with a few caustic truths, encompassing no moral at all, if you wish. Or, perhaps, a simple moral that is as easy to discard as it is to swallow (Another tale of gender role rejection: is this the sequel to I Dont Want To Be A Man? ). Multiple viewings are rewarding, as nothing is truly background - the gags are everywhere. It's a musical without sound that's an ensemble showcase, where everyone puts in a first-rate comic performance no matter how small the part - even the horses.
Alice Guy-Blaché (director)
Romeo Bosetti (lead/director)
Gaumont (production)
Woman battles a mattress that's stuffed with a drunk. That's the film's only gag, yet it is stretched to 9 long minutes. During the rough and tumble, watch for the moments the 'woman' (Romeo Bosetti) struggles to keep on first his fake boobs, then his wig.
Edwin S. Porter (director)
Robert Hilliard (author)
Edwin Holland (author)
Edison (production)
Message: Social problems of the working class can only be resolved for certain individuals - and only when that serves the interest of some middle-class individual.
Romeo Bosetti (director/lead/writer)
Jules Vial (lead)
Max Linder (lead)
Tries, but fails, to be an imitation Max. Samples "Max Pedicure". Ironic movie posters (for actual movies) suggest a possible subtext of the film. One is titled "Le duel de Max (Max and His Rival)" from 1913. When the imposter takes off the current poster, a poster is revealed for another Pathé Frères film: "La rançon de Rigadin (1914)" starring Charles Prince, whose "Rigadin" character was the only film comic that rivalled Max in popularity (and sometimes both used the same scenario: e.g., The Lady Doctor, and Courting Two Lovers). Was this film a sly putdown in a 1914 hiphop-style battle?
Lubin (production)
Farmer's sleep interrupted by pests.
Charles Chaplin (director/lead/writer)
William C. Foster (cinematographer)
Roland Totheroh (cinematographer)
Vincent Bryan (writer)
Maverick Terrell (writer)
Eric Campbell (lead)
Edna Purviance (lead)
Lloyd Bacon (lead)
Albert Austin (lead)
Charlotte Mineau (lead)
Leo White (lead)
James T. Kelley (lead)
Mutual (production)
Trying to avoid capture by a store detective, The Tramp switches identities with a floorwalker - unaware he is a double-crossing embezzler on the lam.
Alice Guy-Blaché (director)
Gaumont (production)
The game-keeper's son witnesses his father's death while chasing a poacher, then picks up the pursuit himself. Interestingly, it's not clear whether the father is murdered, or dies accidentally after failing to stop in time - and then the same ambiguity occurs again at the end.
Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle (director/lead)
Elgin Lessley (cinematographer)
Jean Havez (writer)
Buster Keaton (lead)
Harry McCoy (lead)
Molly Malone (lead)
Luke the Dog (lead)
Comique (production)
Sight gags and synchonized acrobatic gags from the comedy duo of Arbuckle and Keaton - lacking the wildness and zaniness that Al St. John contributed, but still funny. Dark comedy creeps in when Keaton's character is pleased with the effect of adding toxic wood alcohol (methanol) to his drink - a not uncommon practice in those days of Prohibition when industrial alcohol was all that was available. The practice results in blindness, respiratory paralysis, or death. And in 1927, the government increased the toxicity of such industrial alcohol “to root out a bad habit”, according to a Prohibition proponent - by “legalized murder.”, as it was described by a Prohibition opponent.
D.W. Griffith (director)
G.W. Bitzer (cinematographer)
Dorothy Bernard (lead)
Wilfred Lucas (lead)
Charles Hill Mailes (lead)
Biograph (production)
A dull rerun of Griffith`s earlier invasion-call-rescue thriller "The Lonedale Operator". But Lonedale`s smart tough cookie is replaced by a different type of girl: she doesn`t hesitate to accept a gift from a man who sees it as a prelude to romance, then scoffs at his plea for a date (without returning the gift), and then offers his gift to another man, who she then slaps when he presumes the gift offer is a prelude to romance. After thus establishing the character, in what is known in cinematic terms as, "a scan`lous cock-teasing bitch", the film then shows her pointlessly risking her life to save the company`s money, thus further expanding the character to be a "brain-dead bootlicker", and leaving no doubt that, with these two traits, a bright future awaits her in the corporate world.
Alice Guy-Blaché (director)
Gaumont (production)
Just another romantic tale of boy meets glue.
Wu Yong-Gang/吳永剛 (director/writer)
Hong Wei-Lie/洪偉烈 (cinematographer)
Ruan Ling-Yu/阮玲玉 (lead)
Zhang Zhi-Zhi/章志直 (lead)
Li Keng/黎鏗 (lead)
Lianhua (production)
Noir formula: a flawed hero, trapped in shadowy troubled nights, unable to escape. But here the hero(ine) is a prostitute, the setting is not America's night streets but Shanghai's, and the story is told as a silent melodrama, with few titles (until the social commentary kicks in). With a small cast and minimal sets, this work is proof that sometimes less is more.
Victorin Jasset (director/writer)
Emile Zola (author)
Charles Krauss (lead)
Marcel Vibert (lead)
André Liabel (lead)
Cécile Guyon (lead)
Éclair (production)
Inspired by Emile Zola's novel "Germinal", with the socio-political themes of exploitation and protest replaced by melodrama and the thrill of disaster.
Edwin S. Porter (director/producer/writer)
Justus D. Barnes (lead)
Broncho Billy Anderson (lead)
Edison (production)
Considered a milestone in film making
Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle (director/lead/writer)
Elgin Lessley (cinematographer)
Buster Keaton (lead)
Jack Coogan Sr. (lead)
Luke the Dog (lead)
Comique (production)
A few goofy gags got me giggling (including the signs in the background) but, overall, this is considerably below the standard Comique had achieved up to this point. Could the much lower energy level be due to the absence of Al. St. John?
Of note, however, is the scene that subtly slips in a bit of political/social satire: the “death” of alcohol - presumably a reference to the ratification of the 18th Constitutional amendment earlier that year, paving the way for Prohibition. Just two days after the film was released, the Volstead Act enforcing Prohibition became law, thus threatening one of comics' most enduring characters - the drunkard - with extinction in the US.
G.W. Bitzer (cinematographer)
American Mutoscope and Biograph (production)
Boring film sparks an interesting mystery: where are the gooks?
Georges Méliès (director/lead)
Star (production)
Drunk gags + 'Bewitched Inn' + 'Going to Bed Under Difficulties' + chase, all rolled into one. [Star Film 465-469]
Alice Guy-Blaché (director)
Gaumont (production)
Dance fever - the musical version of the incremental chase. Max Linder films used a scaled-down version of this gag at least twice. Like other Alice Guy comedies, mostly it's the unrestrained comic flair of the anonymous (uncredited) performers that elevates this from a simple gag to delightful madness.
Reginald Barker (director)
Joseph August (cinematographer)
Thomas H. Ince (writer)
C. Gardner Sullivan (writer)
George Beban (lead)
Clara Williams (lead)
Leo Willis (lead)
When a film opens with someone reading a book titled the same as the film, slowly reading while puffing pipe...you know this film is in no big hurry. But if time is valued, skip to 17:26, where the story actually begins, and nothing will be missed. But it still doesn't move any faster, because this is D..R..A..M..A, where ultra-slow movements are the hallmark of reknown stage professionals. So if time is valued, skip this film entirely and nothing will be missed.
Georges Méliès (director/lead)
Bleuette Bernon (lead)
Nicolas Brazier (author)
Pierre Carmouche (author)
Star (production)
Méliès masterpiece, accompanied by an original composition [Star Film 483-498]
Edwin S. Porter (director)
Aline Boyd (lead)
Ann Eggleston (lead)
William S. Rising (lead)
Edison (production)
Two women, one wealthy and one poor, are arrested for theft.
Georges Monca (director)
Paul Ferrier (writer)
Charles Prince (lead)
Mistinguett (lead)
Pâquerette (lead)
Pathé (production)
After his numerous amorous attempts during office hours are rebuffed by the lady doctor, her husband 'seeks amusement elsewhere' - leading to the inevitable submission of the wife, the end of her professional career, and better business for other doctors.
Arturo Ambrosio (director)
Luigi Maggi (director)
Roberto Omegna (cinematographer/writer)
Giovanni Vitrotti (cinematographer)
Edward George Bulwer-Lytton (author)
Lydia De Roberti (lead)
Umberto Mozzato (lead)
Società Anonima Ambrosio (production)
Also known as "The Last Days of Pomposity", thanks to the hilariously hammy acting.
Eleuterio Rodolfi (director)
Mario Caserini (writer)
Edward George Bulwer-Lytton (author)
Fernanda Negri Pouget (lead)
Eugenia Tettoni Fior (lead)
Ubaldo Stefani (lead)
Antonio Grisanti (lead)
Società Anonima Ambrosio (production)
This version puts more focus on the dark deeds of the evil Egyptian high priest.
Mack Sennett (director/lead/producer)
Mabel Normand (lead)
Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle (lead)
Joe Bordeaux (lead)
Keystone (production)
Please don't watch this - it's too long and painfully stupid, nothing more.
Camille de Morlhon (director/writer)
Max Linder (lead)
Arlette d'Umès (lead)
Pathé (production)
Max must learn to juggle three balls to win a mischievous maid. Includes one of the craziest of the Crazy Max dances. The title of this print "Max Jongleur par Amour (Juggling for Love)" is probably a re-release title, for there is no film with that title in the Pathe catalog. The description of the plot, down to the wording of the intertitles, identifies it as "Petite rosse". The film was originally also released in Pathecolor.
D.W. Griffith (director)
G.W. Bitzer (cinematographer)
Mack Sennett (writer)
Blanche Sweet (lead)
Francis J. Grandon (lead)
Edward Dillon (lead)
Biograph (production)
Variation on the invasion-call-rescue formula of Griffith`s earlier "The Lonely Villa". Most importantly, the melodramatic fat is trimmed by replacing Mother Purity and Her Three Snow White Virgins with one smart tough cookie - a working girl who even stays cool enough to take a quick mid-crisis nap - thus avoiding the worst of the dated hokey trappings that plague too many Griffith films.
D.W. Griffith (director)
G.W. Bitzer (cinematographer)
Mack Sennett (lead/writer)
André de Lorde (author)
Charles Foley (author)
David Miles (lead)
Marion Leonard (lead)
Mary Pickford (lead)
Charles Avery (lead)
Biograph (production)
To con The Master, a diabolical mulatto dons a whiteface then pulls a Stepin Fetchit to sneak his gang into the inner sanctum of Pure White Virgins, intent on stealing hair ribbons to add to their arsenal of kinky chicken chokers. When The Master learns his monopoly on hair ribbons is threatened, he immediately summons The Klan, but they were busy with their own chicken-choking, so instead he grabs a gypsy cab and arrives in time to restore the Confederate South, in this D.W. Griffith parody of "The Bitch Of A Nation" (which he hadn`t filmed yet), where the rescue ride won`t start, the rescue gun won`t shoot, and the rescue phone goes dead.
Alfred Hitchcock (director)
Curt Courant (cinematographer)
Edwin Greenwood (writer)
A.R. Rawlinson (writer)
Charles Bennett (author)
D.B. Wyndham-Lewis (author)
Peter Lorre (lead)
Leslie Banks (lead)
Edna Best (lead)
Gaumont (production)
More accrurately titled, "The Man Who Knew Too Much And Told His Wife - Who Then Also Knew Too Much - And Also A Family Friend, Who Nonetheless Didn't Seem To Know Too Much Because No One Took Him Seriously". Even with the abbreviated title, it's still a rather silly movie, like a self-parody: kidnapping and repeated threats of child murder played for laughs. Each possibility for tension or suspense is lost to wisecracks or quips. Of course Peter Lorre's performance rises above the trite banter: his smile sends shivers down the spine, hinting at sadistic delight - and even madness.
Baldassarre Negroni (director)
Giorgio Ricci (cinematographer)
Arrigo Frusta (writer)
Francesca Bertini (lead)
Alberto Collo (lead)
Emilio Ghione (lead)
Celio (production)
So like, Franca de Roberti's fop hubby was chilling at the crib, just styling and profiling in his shiny military uniform while getting his beloved coif greased down, when orders came from the general. Unlike other soldiers, when he was given an “important and urgent assignment” the fop just faced the general with a goofy grin that screamed “LOSER!” - which proved to be true. So Franca had to rescue the dolt from his mess with an utterly ridiculous but mercifully brief scheme - and lots of woe-is-me melodramatics in your face along the way. Like totally Dullsville, man.
Charles Chaplin (director/lead/writer)
Frank D. Williams (cinematographer)
Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle (lead)
Chester Conklin (lead)
Minta Durfee (lead)
Cecile Arnold (lead)
Vivian Edwards (lead)
Harry McCoy (lead)
Mabel Normand (cameo)
Keystone (production)
Featuring:
Georges Méliès (director/lead)
Star (production)
A music lesson, using telegraph wires - and the teacher's head. Must be a French thing... [Star Film 479-480]
Wallace McCutcheon (director)
G.W. Bitzer (cinematographer)
Gayne Whitman (lead)
American Mutoscope and Biograph (production)
Remember the last time you saw a movie in tribute to a heroic family man (and his gun-totin' wife) who made a clean living producing and selling illegal recreational drugs, until killed in a police raid? Well, if you missed that one, just turn your clock back to pre-Hollywood, and dig this sympathetic look at one of America's outlaw folk heroes (featuring an MMA-style fight scene!)
D.W. Griffith (director/writer)
G.W. Bitzer (cinematographer)
Anita Loos (writer)
Elmer Booth (lead)
Lillian Gish (lead)
Walter Miller (lead)
Alfred Paget (lead)
Robert Harron (lead)
Harry Carey (lead)
Dorothy Gish (lead)
Biograph (production)
Rival gangs exchange mean mugs and bullets, leading to an enigmatic ending. Free of the more aggressively manipulative Griffith conventions (e.g., damsel in distress, race to rescue), instead focusing on atmosphere and character (Elmer Booth's wonderful portrayal), makes this seem less dated than other Griffith works.
A.E. Coleby (director/writer)
Frank Wilson (lead/writer)
Sax Rohmer (author)
Fred Paul (lead)
H. Agar Lyons (lead)
Harry Worth (lead)
Humberston Wright (lead)
Joan Clarkson (lead)
Julie Suedo (lead)
Stoll (production)
This serial seems to be the earliest surviving film appearance of Dr. Fu Manchu. Unlike subsequent Fu Manchu films, these 13 episodes are essentially faithful (though abridged) adaptations of the events in Sax Rohmer's original stories, which are posted here for comparison. Each episode is a self-contained story, with no cliffhangers.
The protagonist duo of Nayland Smith and Dr. Petrie is, superficially at least, an obvious imitation of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, with Dr. Fu Manchu taking the archvillain role of Prof. Moriarty. But in Fu Manchu stories, it is the genius of the archvillain that is the focus - not the cleverness of the detective. Nayland Smith admits: “I am a child striving to cope with a mental giant”.
Thankfully, the film adaptation ditched the repetitive narration of Dr. Petrie, with its endless vitriol against the so-called “Eastern race”. Of course, as faithful adaptations, these episodes maintain the Yellow Peril theme that is central to the story, but less explicitly.
John Emerson (director)
Christy Cabanne (director)
Tod Browning (writer)
Douglas Fairbanks (lead)
Bessie Love (lead)
Alma Rubens (lead)
Tom Wilson (lead)
Triangle (production)
Likely the first, and certainly one of only a few, film references to Sherlock Holmes' cocaine injecting, as described in the original stories. Even though cocaine and opium had only recently became illegal, there was nonetheless a rising tide of moral opposition against them at the time of this film (just six months later, in Chaplin's Easy Street, the self-injector is portrayed as a depraved degenerate) - which makes this film's light-hearted depiction all the more surprising. And while busy coking up, Holmes is tracking down smugglers of that evil menance - opium (which used to be known as “hop”, the name providing the source for the film's puns, gags, and title). Fifteen years later, Alma Rubens died at just 33 - after a long battle with addiction. A film that's somewhat funny, quite silly, and totally bizarre (after all, it's a Tod Browning joint), reportedly “Everybody's Hero” Fairbanks hated it (after all, it has none of his heroics or acrobatics). That's a good enough reason to wholeheartedly embrace it.
D.W. Griffith (director)
G.W. Bitzer (cinematographer)
Frank E. Woods (writer)
Guy de Maupassant (author)
Rose King (lead)
Herbert Prior (lead)
Mack Sennett (lead)
Biograph (production)
Lots of laughs in the beginning, as the leads binge on theatric hugs and kisses. But after the party's over, it's just another lifeless morality tale adapted from the 1888 short story “The Necklace” by Guy de Maupassant, warning of the perils of vanity (sans titles, so if you're not familiar with the story you'll have to hire your own narrator).
Wallace McCutcheon (director/writer)
Frank Marion (writer)
American Mutoscope and Biograph (production)
From acinemahistory.com:
“The most interesting aspect is the subject chosen: a woman joining the Nihilist movement as a reaction to police repression in Tsarist Russia. The film shows a clear empathy for terrorist action, which is an unusual theme in early cinema and shows the freedom which existed in American cinema at the time.”
In the previous year, the same director and production company released a film that shows a clear empathy for armed resistance against a police attack, committed by producers/dealers of illegal recreational drugs: The Moonshiner. In both films, the title cards refer to the government undercover agent as a “spy” - thus making it clear where the viewer's sympathy should be directed.
Ernst Lubitsch (director/writer)
Kurt Richter (production-designer)
Theodor Sparkuhl (cinematographer)
Hanns Kräly (writer)
Ossi Oswalda (lead)
Victor Janson (lead)
Julius Falkenstein (lead)
Max Kronert (lead)
PAGU (production)
A grotesque view of the excesses of early 20th century American aristocracy, aptly in accord with the comedic axiom, “A lot is funny, more is funnier, too much is riotously absurd”. The dialogue is not nearly as witty as it seems to want to be, but with visuals like this, who needs words? Parental advisory: includes scenes of gratuitous foxtrot.
Bu Wan-Cang/蔔萬蒼 (director/writer)
Huang Shao-Fen/黃紹芬 (cinematographer)
Ruan Ling-Yu/阮玲玉 (lead)
Jin Yan/金焰 (lead)
Wang Gui-Lin/王桂林 (lead)
Li S.Y./李時苑 (lead)
Lily Chow Lee-Lee/周麗麗 (lead)
Liu Ji-Qun/劉繼群 (lead)
Lianhua (production)
Naive but willing farm girl falls for rich but dysfunctional adult crack baby who calls her 'chaste' but treats her like a slut. But the affair is opposed by his strictly orthodox but stoned-out junkie mom in this clichéd but engaging hyper-tragicum that proves that contradictions are the spice of life.
C. Y. Lee/李澤源 (director)
Hou Yao/侯曜 (writer)
Guy de Maupassant (author)
P. L. Chan/程沛霖 (cinematographer)
Harding Louie/雷夏電 (lead)
H. June Liu/劉漢鈞 (lead)
Liu Ji-Qun/劉繼群 (lead)
E. E. Dick/翟綺綺 (lead)
Great Wall Film/上海長城畫片 (production)
A rather lifeless morality tale adapted from the 1888 short story “The Necklace” by Guy de Maupassant, warning of the perils of vanity, that is brightened only by its lavish set designs.
Alf Collins (director)
Gaumont (production)
Man picks pocket, cops chase: a simple premise, developed to become a pioneering work in the genre of hilarious 'so-bad-it's-good' cinema.
Ferdinand Zecca (director)
André Heuzé (writer)
Pathé (production)
Dog goes for sausage, police go after dog.
Alice Guy-Blaché (director)
Louis Feuillade (director)
Gaumont (production)
Dog goes for sausage, town goes after dog. Similar to Pathé's 'The Policemen's Little Run' (released the same year), but towers over the competition in scoring for PPM (Pratfalls Per Minute).
William S. Hart (director/lead)
Joseph H. August (cinematographer)
C. Gardner Sullivan (writer)
Margery Wilson (lead)
Robert McKim (lead)
Louise Glaum (lead)
J.P. Lockney (lead)
Well, if yer a-hankerin' to see some good ol' boys havin' theyselves a heap a gunfightin' fun, I reckon thars 'nuff bad-ass shootouts, standoffs, stare-downs, trash-talkin', and greaser-bashin' here to tickle your fancy. But dang it, reading all them titles written in this hokey dime novel hick cowboy lingo leaves a soul plum tuckered out!
Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle (director/lead/writer)
Frank D. Williams (cinematographer)
Al St. John (lead)
Buster Keaton (lead)
Alice Lake (lead)
Josephine Stevens (lead)
Comique (production)
Highlights:
Charles Chaplin (director/lead/writer)
Frank D. Williams (cinematographer)
Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle (lead)
Minta Durfee (lead)
Al St. John (lead)
Cecile Arnold (lead)
Echo Park Lake (location)
Keystone (production)
Chappy Charbuckle again, this time in cahoots instead of in conflict. Essentially just a showcase for Chaplin's drunk act, it can be viewed as a spinoff from Mabel's Strange Predicament where the drunk act, though just a sideshow to the main story of Mabel's predicament, got the biggest laughs. But the side show drunk act was more extended (and much funnier) than here, where it is the main attraction: yet another case of spinoff failure.
William S. Hart (director/lead)
Robert Doran (cinematographer)
Thomas H. Ince (writer)
J.G. Hawks (writer)
C. Gardner Sullivan (writer)
Clara Williams (lead)
John Davidson (lead)
When Hart's character rides up he's introduced as “reformed gunfighter” so we can relax: this ain't yet another one of Hart's No-More-Mister-Bad-Guy yarns. In its place, zoophilic fantasizers are treated to a stunningly explicit shot of big horse booty, center screen. Then, in a scene reminiscent of Broncho Billy And The Greaser (1914), he immediately gets in a rumble - even before he's flirted with the Big Butt that hangs out at the post offices of the cinematic Old West. All this has nothing to do with the story. Maybe it's just to let you know that the reformed gunfighter still can duke it out. But after the first four minutes of testosterone flow, he gets suited up and goes pussyfooting around Chicago, so you'll have to wait another 15 minutes before he gets a-rootin' and a-tootin'. But he's no Yosemite Sam: doesn't say a word until the last minute of the film!
D.W. Griffith (director/writer)
G.W. Bitzer (cinematographer)
Edward Sheldon (author)
Florence Lawrence (lead)
Harry Solter (lead)
Charles Avery (lead)
Biograph (production)
Despite being burdened with the stale saved-from-sin storyline that was already cliche in 1909, this film holds interest with performances that skillfully evoke viewer empathy without going over the top in the usual melodramatic style. In addition, background characters also come across strong:
Robert S. Baker (cinematographer/director)
Monty Berman (cinematographer/director)
Jimmy Sangster (author/writer)
Alexander Baron (writer)
Donald Sinden (lead)
Nicole Berger (lead)
Kieron Moore (lead)
Peter Wyngarde (lead)
Godfrey Quigley (lead)
Tutte Lemkow (lead)
George Pastell (lead)
The fascinating true story of a couple of anarchists in 1911 London that fought off the combined force of police and military is trampled by this monstrous mishmash of movie cliches, replacing it with "Siege of Sidney Street: The Musical" - an outrageously unbelievable tale of near total fiction, that's an excruciating bore to boot. For a better fictionalized Sidney Street Siege, check out the shootout in the final scene of Hitchcock's 1934 "The Man Who Knew Too Much"
William S. Hart (director/lead)
Joseph H. August (cinematographer)
Charles Kenyon (writer)
Vola Vale (lead)
Robert McKim (lead)
J.P. Lockney (lead)
Dorcas Matthews (lead)
George Nichols (lead)
Harold Goodwin (lead)
Surprise: this drops Hart's standard cowboy-changed-by-a-woman formula. Bigger surprise: it's a total mess...
Wilfred Lucas (director)
Mabel Normand (lead)
Ford Sterling (lead)
Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle (lead)
Echo Park Lake Bridge (location)
Keystone 3-step Porch (location)
Keystone (production)
The main attraction: Sterling vs Arbuckle fight
Fritz Lang (director/writer)
Karl Freund (cinematographer)
Carl de Vogt (lead)
Georg John (lead)
Lil Dagover (lead)
Ressel Orla (lead)
Erich Pommer (producer)
While in hot pursuit of conspicuous leisure, a delusional elite spots a bottle trashed in the sea. For no apparent reason, he takes it home and struggles to get to the urgent message he has convinced himself is inside (not wanting to simply break the valuable trashy bottle). He claims the bottle contained an urgent message (although its pedantry seems quite incongruent with the circumstances under which it was purportedly written). The message tells of “unbelievable treasures” and a gold mine “which appears to be inexhaustible” (claims that modern viewers will be familiar with from their encounters with the bottle's cyber-twin: scam spam). When he spins this tale to his fellow elites at Club Inbreeders, it gets picked up by an agent of a diabolical gullible mastermind, and leads to an intensely silly spectacle of competing blundering murderous international thieves - with one posing as White Savior - that modern viewers will be familiar with from their encounters with its political-twin: the new “Cold War”.
Edwin S. Porter (director)
Edison (production)
A satirical answer to President Teddy Roosevelt's call for Anglo-Saxon women to keep up with the birth rate of ethnic minorities, or risk 'race suicide'. Mike Judge's 2006 'Idiocracy' essentially makes the same call, and is considered a 'cult classic'. Maybe Teddy's call was ridiculed just because it was ahead of its time.
Paul Wegener (director/lead)
Guido Seeber (cinematographer)
Hanns Heinz Ewers (writer)
John Gottowt (lead)
Broke-ass jock goes schizo for a sleazo two-timing upper-class dame, gets stalked by a bitch who's a wall-creeping snitch so he ends up in a ditch - yeah, don't it suck to be a jock.
American Mutoscope and Biograph (production)
Funny slapstick spoof of suburban life, using titles dripping in irony. Doesn't feel outdated, because films on this topic haven't changed much.
Max Linder (lead)
Pathé (production)
A father and two sons pursue the same dame. Even though this release date is not in Linder's early period, this is not Max, the dapper and loveable upper-class twit.
William S. Hart (director/lead)
Thomas H. Ince (writer)
Richard V. Spencer (author/writer)
Clifford Smith (lead/writer)
Enid Markey (lead)
Luke McVane is some geek that moves so slow you wonder what kind of “horse” this cowboy is really on. Wearing his virginity on his sleeve, he goes starry-eyed over the town floozy when she hoochie coochies for a saloon full of drunken cowboys. When Garcia takes her as private property, Luke remembers Broncho Billy And The Greaser and jumps at his chance to score nookie points. But, unlike Broncho Billy, this square flips his roscoe once too often, so the town figures the strange mad dog needs to be put down, and he ends up a lamster. Suddenly the nerd's looking less hero, more antihero - and this sleepy little flick turns out to be better than expected.
Note:
D.W. Griffith (director/writer)
G.W. Bitzer (cinematographer)
William Shakespeare (author)
Harry Solter (lead/writer)
Florence Lawrence (lead)
Arthur Johnson (lead)
Charles Avery (lead)
Biograph (production)
Brief rendition of the Shakespeare play, that's unlikely to make much sense to viewers not already familiar with the story. The shrew's initial rampage is hot fun but, as in real life, after the wedding it's all downhill.
Edwin S. Porter (director)
Wallace McCutcheon (director)
Edison (production)
Porter still has not discovered the value of a closeup shot, and once again demonstrates his talent for transforming a 5-minute yarn into a 14-minute yawn. Here, The Three Bears meet Teddy Roosevelt and discover not only that he doesn't bother to speak, but he's also traded in his big stick for a big gun. Naive to standard imperialist tactics, they realize only too late that Goldilocks was merely a pretext for wholesale slaughter and plunder. A fun watch for the kids.
D.W. Griffith (director)
G.W. Bitzer (cinematographer)
Anita Loos (writer)
Edward Acker (author)
Mae Marsh (lead)
Claire McDowell (lead)
Alfred Paget (lead)
Charles Hill Mailes (lead)
Harry Carey (lead)
Lionel Barrymore (lead)
Biograph (production)
Yet another riff on the invasion-call-rescue theme, but made more interesting because the distress call goes not to a male Master Of The Home, but to the girl in the telephone office who, like The Lonedale Operator, thinks quick to save the day (without even fainting!). Plus 11 more points of interest...
Max Linder (director/lead/writer)
Bull Montana (lead)
Frank Cooke (lead)
Caroline Rankin (lead)
Jobyna Ralston (lead)
Max Linder Productions (production)
Parody of Douglas Fairbanks' 1921 film The Three Musketeers. Of course, this is not Max, the dapper and loveable upper-class twit, who (like the less lovable twit, Basil Fawlty) usually sees his grand schemes crash and burn. Instead, here we get American-style comic hero, in the tradition of Keaton and Lloyd, Bugs Bunny, and Eddie Murphy: the wise guy that usually ends up winning, while making the opposition look foolish. And it is a different type of humor, relying less on Linder's comedic skills, more on anachronisms, goofy swordplay, and quirky supporting characters.
André Heuzé (director/writer)
Max Linder (lead)
Pathé (production)
Max uses finesse to try to hide a rip in his trousers during a dance. This is quintessential Max: the dapper and loveable upper-class twit whose efforts to impress ladies crash and burn while he tries to keep face, in the modern man's dilemma of maintaining the delusion of stability as his world falls apart.
Charles Chaplin (director/lead/writer)
Harry Ensign (cinematographer)
Edna Purviance (lead)
Essanay (production)
Seemingly endless loop of the same type of slapstick that was done with much more enthusiasm in Chaplin's earlier Keystone reels with Mabel Normand.
Selig Polyscope (production)
One tramp, one dog, one minute: decide for yourself the cinematic possibilities...
Alice Guy-Blaché (director)
Armand Dranem (lead)
Gaumont (production)
The Phonoscène was an antecedent of music video and is regarded as a forerunner of sound film. It combined a sound recording with a film shot with actors lip-synching to the sound recording. The recording and film were synchronized by a mechanism ('Chronophone') patented by Léon Gaumont in 1902.
Alice Guy-Blaché (director)
Gaumont (production)
Notable for an early use of inter-cutting for comic effect (in a running gag), and the manic performance of the uncredited lead as ape-man (shades of Harpo). Also impressed by how efffective the wordless storytelling was. Or maybe not: almost all the online reviews I read were either baffled or off the mark. But if you're feeling the need for clues, there's a detailed breakdown at: https://centuryfilmproject.org/2016/06/13/the-truth-behind-the-ape-man-1906/
R.W. Paul's (production)
1 cop + 1 flirt + 1 kiss = 1 incremental chase.
Louis J. Gasnier (director/writer)
Max Linder (lead)
Pathé (production)
Max causes havoc when he joins other skaters on a frozen lake.
Evelyn Nesbit (lead)
Lubin (production)
A fictionalized account of the debauchery and insanity of the elite - America's favorite type of scandal - the original 'Dementia Americana' (not to be confused with school mass murders).
Cheung Wai-Man/Whitman Chant/張惠民 (director)
Wu Su-Xin/White Rose Woo/吳素馨 (director/lead)
Tong Kim-Ding/湯劍廷 (cinematographer)
C.C. Koo/谷劍塵 (writer)
Sun Ven-Chin/俊文沈 (lead/writer)
W.S. Ting/丁華氏 (lead)
Shi Jue-Fei/時覺非 (lead)
When a girl learns that some of her family's property has been bogarted, she bids farewell to Phys Ed, paints a mustache over her powder and rouge, and promptly kills a dozen or so men, thus giving her the confidence to tell her Pops that she will avenge for him. But Pops mistakes her for his son - the one with makeup and a cute smile - so he has his doubts. But that cute smile wins him over and she leads a crew of men to success, but works up a bit of an oh-dear oh-dear, so Pops suggested the men give his cute son a bath. Getting interesting? Too bad the clip ends there. Fairbanks never looked this cute.
D.W. Griffith (director/writer)
G.W. Bitzer (cinematographer)
Arthur Johnson (lead)
Marion Leonard (lead)
David Miles (lead)
Biograph (production)
Hooded men in sheets plot to murder people but, surprisingly, in this Griffith film they'e not the heroes - probably because they annoyingly keep repeating "No high, No low, All equal!", which turns out to be an accurate description of this lengthy monotonous mess that once again shows that Griffith was burdened with too much film stock.
Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle (director/lead)
Elgin Lessley (cinematographer)
Al St. John (lead)
Kate Price (lead)
Alice Lake (lead)
Corinne Parquet (lead)
Joe Bordeaux (lead)
Keystone (production)
The premise of 1914's Fatty's Magic Pants/Fatty's Suitless Day is ported to a hash house, where the cook and the waiter are in fierce rivalry for the fickle affections of the cashier, both trying to be the one chosen to go with her to The Waiters Ball. Along the way, the restaurant is used as a stage to showcase Roscoe's kitchen acrobatics and a variety of fast-paced comic skits.
This gem feels like a milestone in Arbuckle's growth from the often limited and flimsy material of Keystone to the wild and unhinged inventiveness of Comique. Most of the best elements of Comique-style comedy are here - even though Buster hasn't arrived yet. There's more craziness than the eye can keep up with, so the more this is viewed, the better it gets.
Metatheatrics rating (Number of smiles, winks, and other asides to the audience): 13 (Roscoe 6, Al, 6, Kate Price 1)
NOTE: Restoration posted on Internet Archive is visually better, but reconstruction posted on YouTube has additional scenes.
Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle (director/lead)
Minta Durfee (lead)
Alice Davenport (lead)
Keystone Cops (lead)
Keystone (production)
A fast-moving, mercifully brief slapstick version of Rescued By Rover
Mack Sennett (director/lead/producer)
Mabel Normand (lead)
Ford Sterling (lead)
Keystone (production)
Seems like some footage may be missing because in the first scene Sennett gives Mabel a ring and a kiss, in the next scene he's crying with suitcase in hand, surrounded by his parents - but the reason is never revealed. In the next scene he tells Mabel to vamp the father - again, no reason given. Seems possible that this is a story of forbidden love, with the vamp used as blackmail. But this is never even hinted at - and Keystone did not build its comedic reputation on subtlety. So this ends up as mainly a showcase for Mabel's diving stunts, with help from Ford Sterling's tits-up-butt-out shtick.
Max Linder (director/lead/writer)
Pathé (production)
Max's romance is derailed by a challenge to his fear of water. Only two comic moments: this first one at 9 minutes. The final comic moment (at 13 minutes) is Max in his best manic form. It's even more impressive because it is preceded by a chillingly grim portrayal of broken-hearted depression: like a cinematic display of manic-depression.
Edwin S. Porter (cinematographer/director)
Wallace McCutcheon (cinematographer/director)
Edison (production)
As usual with Edison, the length far exceeds the interest. But don't chuck this one: skip the long boring chase and fast-forward to the uncredited cake-walking babies strutting their stuff and rocking the house.
Wallace McCutcheon (director)
Edwin S. Porter (director/cinematographer)
Edison (production)
The two men renown as pioneers of early US cinema, Edwin S. Porter and D.W. Griffith, shared another claim to fame/infamy: each created a work inspired by Thomas Dixon Jr.'s 1905 The Clansman. Griffith's 1915 film The Birth of a Nation was adapted from the stage version of the novel. Edwin S. Porter was inspired by the novel to create this film. According to Before the Nickelodeon: Edwin S. Porter and the Edison Manufacturing Company, Edison advertisements held a pro-vigilante view, proclaiming: A lawless and criminal element almost invariably accompanied the advance guard of civilization and to keep this element in check the law abiding citizens were compelled to secretly organize themselves for their own protection...We have portrayed in Motion Pictures, in a most vivid and realistic manner, the method employed by the “White Caps” to rid the community of undesirable citizens.
While the White Caps role here as Morality Police may seem relatively benign compared to the lynch justice in The Birth of a Nation, the book also points out: This film narrative exactly parallels an earlier account of “White Cap” activity in a turn-of-the-century newspaper. In the newspaper account, the tar clogged up the man's pores and he eventually died.
August Blom (director)
Axel Graatkjær (cinematographer)
Louis Schmidt (writer)
Ellen Diedrich (lead)
Lauritz Olsen (lead)
Ella La Cour (lead)
Nordisk (production)
A fast-moving 30 minutes, that delivers the cheap thrills promised by the title - with minimum melodrama. And like The Lonedale Operator (1911), it features a tough cookie that takes care of business - then chills out for a quick mid-crisis nap.
Tod Browning (director)
Harvey Gates (writer)
Waldemar Young (writer)
Evelyn Campbell (author)
Priscilla Dean (lead)
Lon Chaney (lead)
Wellington A. Playter (lead)
Spottiswoode Aitken (lead)
Kalla Pasha (lead)
Talent of Priscilla Dean wasted in this cornball Bad-Girl-Gone-Good tale of 1-dimensional characters more suited to early Griffith fluff.
D.W. Griffith (director/writer)
G.W. Bitzer (cinematographer)
Florence Lawrence (lead)
Gladys Egan (lead)
Biograph (production)
The 1906 Bambatha Rebellion, a Zulu revolt against British rule and taxation in South Africa, put "Zulu" in the headlines and, consequently, in the minds of filmmakers scrounging for new conflicts to exploit. This one is less overtly political and certainly more polished than "How A British Bulldog Saved The Union Jack" - so it is not as funny, other than the standard comic relief of the helpless damsel flailing about.
Max Linder (director/lead/writer)
Jane Renouardt (lead)
Henry Collen (lead)
Gabrielle Lange (lead)
René Leprince (director)
Pathé (production)
Max prefers an acting career over marriage, so he tries to put off a prospective spouse - who is also doing the same. Jane Renouardt goes toe to toe with Max in manic antics.
Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle (director/lead)
Mabel Normand (lead)
Al St. John (lead)
Alice Davenport (lead)
Frank Hayes (lead)
Keystone (production)
Like an old country mule, this just plods along (obscured by poor print), until Al St. John enters. But he soon exits and story degenerates to a generic chase, with no laughs. Mere months later, this is remade as Fatty and Mabel's Simple Life. And five years later, in the Comique era, the fetch-the-fallen-from-the-well gag gets developed into grand absurdity in Love.
Vincenzo Denizot (director)
Natale Chiusano (cinematographer)
Segundo de Chomón (cinematographer)
Edoardo Davesnes (lead)
Alex Bernard (lead)
Lidia Quaranta (lead)
Itala (production)
The monotonous story of repeated disguises doesn't provide enough incentive to suffer through the eyestrain of viewing this poor quality print. Maybe all the creativity was spent on the hallucination sequence.
But there is one claim to fame here: in 7 years of Voidsville Follies, here is the first instance seen of someone tied to train tracks (actually, tied up and then dumped on the tracks) that seems to be done for drama, not laughs.
Mack Sennett (director)
Frank D. Williams (cinematographer)
Marie Dressler (lead)
Charles Chaplin (lead)
Mabel Normand (lead)
Mack Swain (lead)
Charles Bennett (lead)
Chester Conklin (lead)
Keystone Cops (lead)
Echo Park (location)
Keystone 6-step Porch (location)
Keystone (production)
Aside from the claims of historical significance and Mabel's masterful mugging, there's not much here other than an unusually long version of the usual Keystone formula of slapstick gags strung together to loosely coincide with a threadbare story. Nice ending though.
André Deed (director/lead)
Itala (production)
When Cretinetti is invited to a wedding, he heads out in his most dapper looks - thus making him irresistable to every woman who sees him (including the bride!). A setup for yet another remake of 1904's 'Personal' - with a twist ending that reflects Deed's roots with Georges Méliès.
George Loane Tucker (author/director)
Walter MacNamara (writer)
H. Alderson Leach (cinematographer)
Jane Gail (lead)
Ethel Grandin (lead)
Matt Moore (lead)
A country girl, just into the big city, is misled from the train station to a 'den of iniquity' where she is held captive. Two immigrant girls, literally fresh off the boat, are promised 'good positions and salary' but instead are trapped in that same den. A naive city girl falls for a smooth operator who drugs her drink then carries her off to another den. All the work of one mob, and a high society elite who is, literally, 'the man higher up' - his office is upstairs from the mob's. This mob doesn't look tough, but they go out like gangsters - almost 20 years before "Little Caesar" and "Scarface". And although we're supposed to believe the man higher up had no connections with police, a member of the upper class rolling in cash by enslaving some of the most vulnerable members of the lower classes - in a way that's despised by general society - is nontheless an unusually provocative plot line for early American film.
Max Linder (director/lead)
Pathé (production)
Max has a wife who tires of his annoying behavior and returns to her mother. At first, Max is quite pleased to have the house all to himself. But he quickly discovers that even the most basic domestic chores can be fraught with difficulty. Introduces the Crazy Max dance
Ralph Ince (director/lead)
John Bunny (lead)
Mabel Normand (lead)
Alec B. Francis (lead)
Vitagraph (production)
The second earliest surviving Mabel Normand film, and the earliest that she has a substantial role in.
Edwin S. Porter (cinematographer/director)
Edison (production)
A remake of The Countryman And The Cinematograph (1901).
Edwin S. Porter (director)
Edison (production)
Looks like an early version of Abbott and Costello's 'Hold That Ghost'.
Walter R. Booth (director)
R.W. Paul's (production)
Man finds it impossible to undress for bed, because new clothes magically keep appearing on him. Remake of 'Going to Bed Under Difficulties (Le Déshabillage impossible)'.
Max Linder (director/lead/writer)
Stacia Napierkowska (lead)
Jane Renouardt (lead)
Pathé (production)
On his wedding night, Max excites his bride. A refinement of the gag in the 1896 Méliès film "A Terrible Night (Une nuit terrible)".
D.W. Griffith (director/writer)
G.W. Bitzer (cinematographer)
David Miles (lead)
Florence Lawrence (lead)
Charles Avery (lead)
Biograph (production)
Yet another moralizing tale of intemperance, this one a 12-minute 1909 rework of the much better 1902 "Les Victimes De L`Alcoolisme" that was less than half the length.
Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle (director/lead)
Helen Carlyle (lead)
Al St. John (lead)
Joe Bordeaux (lead)
Frank Hayes (lead)
Keystone 6-step Porch (location)
Keystone (production)
Little-known Helen Carlyle gives an animated Mabel-style performance in this aptly-titled fast-paced fun April Fool's Day flick, that also features a chase that looks like the inspiration for It's A Mad Mad Mad Mad World (1963).
Phillips Smalley (director/writer)
Lois Weber (director/writer)
Allen G. Siegler (cinematographer)
Lucy Payton (author)
Franklyn Hall (author)
Tyrone Power Sr. (lead)
Helen Riaume (lead)
Alva D. Blake (lead)
Juan de la Cruz (lead)
Mary MacLaren (lead)
“All intelligent people know that birth control is a subject of serious public interest. Newspapers, magazines and books have treated different phases of this question. Can a subject thus dealt with on the printed page be denied careful dramatization on the motion picture screen?...In producing this picture the intention is to place a serious drama before adult audiences...”
This somber introduction is immediately followed by:
“Behind the great portals of Eternity, the souls of little children waited to be born.”
And on it goes like this, shifting between pretense of weighty social drama and wallowing in cabbage-patch airy-fairy fantasy, linked by hackneyed melodrama and annoying overuse of cross-cutting, while hammering its messages - abortion is murder, humanity's salvation is birth control (for the poor), becoming a submissive baby factory is the duty of every woman (if she's wealthy) - only approaching realism in its wonderfully dark and depressing ending. Movie in a nutshell: Living with a pompous, self-righteous, hypocritical Dickless Attorney leaves wife with no desire to breed more of his kind. There - 65 minutes saved.
D.W. Griffith (director)
G.W. Bitzer (cinematographer)
Frank E. Woods (writer)
Mary Pickford (lead)
Henry B. Walthall (lead)
Claire McDowell (lead)
Biograph (production)
Prissy voyeur lord of the manor gets the hots watching peasant gal kicking ass and dressing up as a man to flirt with the ladies. Could've been kinky, but instead it's just a freeze-dried Taming of the Shrew.
Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle (director/lead)
Mabel Normand (lead)
Alice Davenport (lead)
Edgar Kennedy (lead)
Joe Bordeaux (lead)
Glen Cavender (lead)
Golden Gate Park (location)
Keystone (production)
If you've been wondering how many funny gags could be improvised around local park benches, this one's for you (Spoiler: Apparently, none). And where else can you view the funny side of wanton police brutality?
William S. Hart (director/lead)
Joseph H. August (cinematographer)
Lambert Hillyer (writer)
Margery Wilson (lead)
Yes, once again Hart plays a cowboy who is changed when he falls for a woman. But, from that point, this story rides off on a different trail. For starters, he's the big boss instead of an outlaw - a meanspirited bully. And, even though the cowboy sees only goodness in the woman, viewers may wonder what is really behind her amused looks and questionable judgment. In short, this stretches away from the predictable film fables, offering more of the depth and ambiguity encountered in everyday life.
Mabel Normand (director/lead)
Charles Inslee (lead)
Alice Davenport (lead)
Charles Avery (lead)
Hank Mann (lead)
Al St. John (lead)
Keystone (production)
Starts slow, but builds: from the comic pairing of Mabel the farm beauty and her geeky Alfred E. Newman-clone “ideal” in the first third, to a symphony of quirky Keystone chaos in the final third. Second half is mostly a rework of The Bangville Police (1913).
head city
has waived all rights to all work here that's not stolen from somewhere else.