Cinematic Era: 1911 Vintage

Maurice Schwartz is a hurdy-gurdy man, a player of what is essentially a giant music box who sets up in public places, plays his tune, and is rewarded with small change. In this case, he approaches a man who gives him a large bill to essentially go away. However, Schwartz figures he is paid to play music, and he's going to play his music for the man, pursuing him through a number of increasingly bizarre situations to give him his money's worth.

Hiram Hughes, foreman on "Pop" Lynd's ranch in Bingo Gulch, has quit his job. He has had enough of "Wild Jim," who is the pest of the ranch. In despair, Pop goes to Bingo, where he places a sign on the post office, advertising for a new foreman. "Easy" Thompson, the star performer of the "Circle Bar Ranch" show, has had enough of circus life and resigns his job.

After falling in with labor radicals, a young man has second thoughts about carrying out a terrorist bombing.

A Nordisk crime short film.

The first production by Athini Film introduces Spyridion, modeled on the heroes of modern French and American comedies.

A young governess catches the eye of an aristocrat and romance blossoms.

A mother and child live alone except for a big St. Bernard dog. One day the little girl dies and both mother and the little girl's playfellow, Don, seem grief-stricken. Later, in order to pay the rent, Don is sold, but is not happy in his new home, and day by day carries flowers in his mouth to the grave of his former little mistress, where he is finally found by his former owner's mother and they are never parted again.

This collection contains all the preserved films by Jan Krizenecky, the first films in the history of Czech cinema. Thanks to the digitisation, we can present these pioneering works in a form that brings their diversity and materiality to the fore. The presented films are accompanied by original music by Jan Burian.

Bill is wandering along the street vainly endeavoring to attract the attention of a lady, when he is brought to a halt by a large notice, "Bal Masque." The lady enters and Bill follows, but he is rudely ejected, as only persons in fancy dress costume are admitted. So Bill hies to a second hand costumer, who fits him up.

Snuders, an avaricious boat-owner, insures his boat The Joanna against accident very much above its value, and then conspires with Verhoff, a notorious drunkard and unprincipled scoundrel, to lose it at sea. The latter agrees to carry out the plan for a consideration of 300 florins, and the bargain is concluded. To lend colour to the affair, Snuders also engages young Tijen as crew, and, despite the entreaties of his sweetheart, Trunski, the latter signs on. Out at sea Tijen discovers a paper which warns him of the villainy which is on foot. But Verhoff acts quickly, and, whilst the young sailor is sleeping in the cabin, the drunkard locks him in, fires the boat, and himself makes good his escape.

Tweedledum gets chased by police on bicycles.

A series of test footage using Kinemacolour.

Bunny purchases a Vapor Bath, guaranteed to make the fat thin and do the trick with neatness. In his anxiety to make a trial of the bath he forgets to lock the library door....

The player and adventurer John Robert seduces Mary, a girl from the country, and takes her to the big city of Copenhagen. There, Mary realizes that John Robert is addicted to morphine and has large debts.

Part of the series La Vie telle qu'elle est

Paul Berthos' doctor tells him he needs to get some exercise, and hands him some of those rubbery strings with handles. We had them around the house when I was a kid, sold by Jack Lalane and other exercise gurus. You could pull them apart, or attach them to a wall and get your whole body involved. As you might expect, Bertho attaches them to things that he should not.

A young couple is trying to get together while the girl's father is trying to break them up.

Early Balkan footage.

Italian comedy short from 1911.

A short Calino film.

Pirates attack the town of Martinique and capture the governor. But the townspeople rally back in a battle between ships.

No overview.

Bill and his little bear are employed to track burglars. They succeed in tracking them to a river where bruin spends a lively quarter of an hour fishing them out one by one. The bear quite enjoys his unexpected bath, and succeeds in obtaining free board and lodging tor several little burglars.

The Count of Beaulieu wants to give his daughter Gabriella to the Viscount of Armagnac as a wife.

Early short film.

Tomboys play tricks on their uncle when he flirts with a maid.

This is a non-fiction film about the Manhattan Trade School for Girls. In 1911, few women got education beyond primary school (especially in the big cities that were full of immigrants). Because of this, women were very limited in their employment options and received very low wages. The idea of this one year trade school was to help these young ladies get a leg up on a variety of trades. Oddly, much of what you see in the film does not seem that related to job skills--such as physical education

A husband steps out at night, and the wife decides to leave him.

Belle Meade is in the secret service of the Confederate army, and is assigned the task of recovering some battle plans. She penetrates the Union lines, but comes under suspicion of Col. Cuthbert's plantation, who is a loyal southerner. The colonel conceals her in the house. The Union general takes possession of Cuthbert's house, and a courier enters with the plans. She slays the courier and hides in the stables. Col. Cuthbert is accused of the act, and is sentenced to death.

Carl Wagner's good wife was dying. His heart bled at the thought of losing her, his life-long loyal helpmate. And his opera was almost completed, after spending months of weary hours to make it perfect. A pretty daughter tried in vain to brighten the overhanging gloom. Finally the composer, after a superhuman effort, and with a soul filled with sorrow, finished the last act of his score and hurried away to the impresario for a hearing. Here he was assured of an immediate reading and the return to his humble tenement was made with a much lighter heart. The doctor paid another visit to his patient and left a prescription to be filled. Carl reached home and realized how much depended upon the medicine ordered to possibly save a life most dear. Taking his cherished violin, the only article of value remaining, he rushed off to the pawnbroker and negotiated a loan.

A woman flirts with a man who intends to steal from her.

French comedy short.

Papa's Letter is a 1911 silent drama.

A woman's sweetheart is prevented from killing himself by two burglars who are afraid they will be accused of murder if he pulls the trigger.

A story of an only daughter of a farmer; her mother is dead and she is her father's consolation. She grows up and falls in love with the young man in her father's employ, but when they tell the father of their love affair, he orders the lover off the place. He goes, but later returns and takes the girl with him, followed by a father's curse.

This documentary travelogue of New York City was made by a team of cameramen with the Swedish company Svenska Biografteatern, who were sent around the world to make pictures of well-known places.

A French comedy short with Zigoto.

Another adventure of master detective Nick Carter.

Anarchists build a super aircraft and bomb a railway, a fort and St. Paul's.

Little more than a minute of this travelogue survives. What does seems to be rural spots, including bridges, a bit of forest and a hot spring.

In 1908-1909, Albert Samama Chikli sold his negatives mostly if not exclusively to the short-lived Le Lion company. Shot in 1910 and released in January 1911, Industrie agricole arabe was possibly the first negative he sold to Gaumont, marking the beginning of a long collaboration. Hidden in a longer compilation edited in the 1920s by Gaumont for educational purposes, negative material of the film has recently been rediscovered and identified with the help of frame enlargements and contact prints of film frames in the Albert Samama Chikli Archives. La Figue de Barbarie, the opening part of the four parts of Industrie agricole arabe, is a perfect example of Samama’s filmmaking: informal, lively, direct, human and devoid of orientalism or pictorialism. –Mariann Lewinsky

INCOMPLETE | Anna, the beautiful daughter of a general, and the young lieutenant Cernieff are in love. However, the general refuses to give his only daughter to a man without fortune. Heartbroken, Anna confides in the duchess, who agrees to deliver a letter to Cernieff. The duke sees this, and when he intercepts the unsigned love declaration, he mistakenly believes that his wife is having an affair with the young lieutenant. Cernieff is thrown into a dungeon and sentenced to death. The beginning of the film is missing. The first scene of the preserved fragment is the one in which Anna confides in the duchess. (Stumfilm.dk)

Fouinard is Happy.

Andre Deed was a leading player in short Italian comedies in this period under the character name of Cretinetti, and Italian slapstick was much rougher and far more bone-breaking than anything Americans would regularly view. In this one, he is sewing his pants until his fiancée appears with his prospective father-in-law, so he puts his pants on, only to discover that the needle is still in the pants and takes every chance to stick him painfully.

Cowboy Borneo Bill is in love with Gracie Jackson, the daughter of a miner with whom he had the bad idea of getting into a fight.

German silent film

"I do hate learnin', but oh! you schoolmarm!" is what the boys at the gulch said when Mary came to town; and, from "Big Bill" down to Hop Lee, the Chink, they all took to study, and to courtship. The rivalry is friendly until the new foreman blows in and takes the inside track, then "Big Bill" gets jealous. At the swell (?) reception the foreman cuts Bill out and Bill decides to "lay for him." The foreman soon discharged a greaser who later robs the paymaster and contrives to fix the blame on the foreman.

Anarchic physical destruction

Upon the death of her father, Ann Newton is made the heiress of an extensive and valuable ranch in Arizona, when she is visited by the officials of the S.W. Railroad Company, who, seeking to extend the tracks of their company, find it necessary to buy a portion of the ranch. Ann refuses to part with the ranch at any price

Tweedledum tries out his roller skates down a slope. As he picks up speed he grabs a long pole, which causes him to destroy everything in sight. The townspeople chase after him as he crashes into everything.

Kinemacolor

Earliest japanese horror film.

Comedy short starring Ernesto Vaser and Eleuterio Rodolfi

On March 18, 1911, TR spoke at the dedication of the Roosevelt Dam. Providing irrigation for the Salt River Valley area of the territory of Arizona, the dam is largely the result of TR's reclamation efforts while President. On driveway along top of dam, TR, officials, and crowd look intently over the side of the dam. TR has probably just pushed the electric switch opening the sluice gates on the dam's northern slope. Long shot of TR addressing crowd, with the following officials identified behind him on platform: territorial Governor of Arizona, Richard E. Sloan; Louis C. Hill, engineer in charge of dam construction; and Benjamin A. Fowler, president of the National Irrigation Congress.

A man is rejected by a woman, and then decides to have her dog stolen. The dog is very approachable, and although he at first wants nothing to do with the man, they ultimately become good friends. Finally, he gives the dog back to the woman.

Another version of the Kasamori legend.