Cinematic Era: 1912 Vintage

Documentation of different types, costumes and habits from Portugal.

In this Vitagraph short, anarchism threatens to ruin lives and families. Luigi and Rosa are a couple with an adorable child, but trouble is afoot – Luigi has become an anarchist!

King Christian X's proclamation.

Lost film. Details unknown. Not to be confused with Secrets of a Soul (1926).

Jack Dudley, an English farmer, is married to Lilian, who is desired by the evil Robert Stilwood. While Jack and Lilian are honeymooning in Paris, Stilwood frames Dudley for murder and he is sentenced to imprisonment in a French penal colony in New Caledonia. He escapes and is rescued by a British man-o-war.

Two hicks take a trip to Atlantic City.

Bart McGrew, a rascally schemer, endeavors to secure an old Indian chief's signature to a deed that will give him thousands of acres of valuable land owned by the tribe. Laughing Fawn, the chief's beautiful daughter, suspects Bart of treachery and takes her father away before he signs.

The farmer Matula leaves to sell cattle at the annual market. He bids farewell to his wife and daughter. That evening after the market he plays a game of cards and takes a room for the night at an inn. After he falls asleep, the innkeeper sneaks into his room and robs him.

Kupferberg ad by Pinschewer.

Filmed using Vivaphone sound system. This was invented by Cecil M. Hepworth, and performers mimed to a 10" record.

Tom and his friends play pranks on each other with fireworks.

Italian short drama starring Ida Carloni Talli.

Silent one-reel melodrama

Commonly confused with Max ne se mariera pas

A trip to Kabilye.

In Algiers, brigands throw the lieutenant over a cliff and sailors save him from a flooding cave.

The period is 1876; trains of settlers are moving westward. It is the time of pioneers and prairie schooners. Dan is leading one wagon train and his party fall in with another led by a stalwart Indian, Mahomena. They proceed together. Amongst the latter party is a young girl, Eunice, and she and Dan are immediately attracted to each other

From With Our King and Queen Through India

A discouraged prospector is about to give up his search when he hears his two little children praying, "Please, God, help papa find gold." Their faith gives him new hope and their prayer is efficacious, for he does find it and so stakes the claim, intending to register it at his earliest opportunity. Meanwhile "Faro Kate" and her gambler husband ride by the claim and jump it, the husband urging Kate to go to the Claim Office and register it. When the prospector returns to his "diggings" he finds the gambler in possession and in a struggle the prospector falls and is hurt. The prospector's wife, arriving at the claim, realizes she must win the race to the Claim Office.

A silent romantic film about the battle between two fur trappers for the hand of a lovely girl.

Black and white silent film. A Buffalo Bill & Pawnee Bill Film Company production. This film was a different production from the Paul Panzer vehicle, The Life of Buffalo Bill (also 1912).

De Chomon short from 1912

Willy wasnt very proud when he arrived home, for once again he was at the bottom of his class. As punishment his parents informed him that he would not be allowed to see the Conjuror...

A silent footage of a funeral.

It contains: exotic dances in the interior of Bolivia; picturesque costumes and strange insignia; the Sicuri and Pusi-huscu dances.

A short comedy about a dog and children chasing a farmer's chickens.

Her Ladyship, the Countess, had a faithful little page, whom she chose as her constant companion. The Lady was wooed by a wicked Baron, whom she loathed, and seldom permitted to enter her presence. The Baron retreated to his castle by the sea, and there plotted revenge on the fair lady who spurned him.

The two daughters of the fisherman find husbands.

Lost Film Dora production possibly featuring Elvira Notari herself

Based on the 1906 play by Walter Howard.

For centuries Tunisia was the leading producer of Mediterranean commercial sponge, which was one of the country’s most important export goods. When, in 1911, Albert Samama Chikli travelled to Libya to film the Italian-Turkish war from behind the Ottoman front, he shot on his way footage for several films that he later sold to Gaumont. In Zarzis, a peninsula south of Djerba in the Gulf of Gabès he documented the traditional sponge industry, from the diving to the sales negotiations on the market. Sponges! Where have you gone? You were the divinities of our childhood bathrooms, you were in every house. We were washed with sponges and played endlessly with them, marvelling at their marvelous capacity to hold so much water and to release it when pressed. –Mariann Lewinsky

Spanish short documentary film by Antonio de Padua Tramullas.

Laurent, a painter, observes the performance of the dancer Marguerite and immediately feels drawn to her beauty and being. He invites her to his studio and the two fall in love. Unfortunately, Marguerite is already married to Stelio, who soon finds out about the affair. Stelio seeks out the hypnotist Pizarro for revenge, and the story takes a deadly turn. (Stumfilm.dk)

Japanese horror movie from 1912.

Rigadin has to take part in a duel and so enlists the help of a fencing instructor.

One of two carnival films recorded in 1912 by Frans Lundberg's company on behalf of the Lunda students' carnival committee.

Every day is life and death for the circus performers of the big city. Tightrope dancer Ulla lives and works in a circus with her family. Tragically, her husband plunges to his death after a wrong step during the eternal acrobatic ‘dance macabre’. In the midst of Ulla’s grief, the lion tamer proves to be a true predator, eyeing up an easy prey. Ulla quickly faces bigger worries, as the circus director forces her to walk on a tightrope directly over the lion tamer’s ferocious lions. (Stumfilm.dk)

Ernest Bourbon is introduced to a young lady, object matrimony. Unfortunately for him, he slips the ring on the other girl.

"Le Saboteur" is the second episode of the collection "Les batailles de la vie"

A house filled with spirits.

Two Merry Jokers get "caught with the goods." Leah and Lizette receive notes from their respective admirers, who wish to arrange a holiday party. Leah suggests that the three come to her house and have a jolly time. The two sweethearts, Tony and Fritz, are married men, Tony being Fritz's father-in-law. Each leaves home in the morning, claiming to have an important engagement for the day. Fritz arrives first, with parcels of good things to eat, and Lizette and her friend Tony arrive soon after. The scene which follows may be better imagined than described. However the two men pledge secrecy, and the party proves a huge success. An unexpected sequel follows the next day, for the wives happen to make purchases at the millinery shop in which the girls are employed. On delivering the hats, Leah and Lizette meet their sweethearts and learn that they are married men. Accusations, excuses and a general scrimmage follow. In which the husbands certainly "get theirs." —Moving Picture World

The Lieutenant saves a spy's daughter from a fire and she saves him from the sewer.

The Lieutenant is saved from kidnappers in time to win a boxing match and the colonel's daughter

A gamekeeper's daughter is shot while warning a poacher.

While driving home the cows one evening, a boy decides to go to war. He falls to win his parents' consent as they have already given the lives of two sons to the great cause. The boy, therefore, steals away in the night, stopping to say good-bye to his young sweetheart. In a hotly contested battle, the boy is wounded and taken prisoner.

Jim Boulder, a ranchman, receives a letter one morning, from his old friend and chum, George Stapleton, a New Yorker, saying his son Elliott, is coming out to the ranch to pull himself together and to take good care of the boy, above all to keep liquor from him. Next day Elliott arrives and immediately falls in love with Boulder's pretty daughter, Sue. She returns his love and thus arouses the insane jealousy of Bill Dunham, the ranch foreman. A month passes and Bill, discovering that Elliott's weakness is drink, manages to smuggle a bottle of liquor into his room, thinking the young fellow will disgrace himself.

Vedah Morley is drawing a pail of water at the well one morning, when Broncho Billy approaches, lifts his sombrero respectfully, and asks for a drink. Struck by the simple charm of the girl, Broncho watches until she enters her shack nearby, then goes on down the trail, unconscious of the fact that Vedab is gazing after him from the window.

Con Ology and Hi Flyer, two henpecked husbands, hit upon a plan whereby they can escape from their domineering spouses for a day in order to enjoy the company of two chorus girl affinities.

Tontolini makes a mistake