Cinematic Era: 1919 Vintage

Ben Trimble, a country boy visiting the city, becomes involved with a safecracker and finds himself sliding into a life of crime. But chance provides him with an opportunity to redeem himself.

Helen's father, the sheriff, is murdered and she successfully undertakes the task of bringing his murderer to justice.

The relatives of dying Edward Woodruff, Nina Leffingwell, her brother Frederic, and her cousin Basil, whom she wants to marry, scheme to inherit Woodruff's wealth. Since Woodruff continually calls for an imagined granddaughter, the child of his daughter who died before they could patch up a quarrel which estranged them, Nina gets Doll, a Follies girl, to impersonate the granddaughter, try to endear herself to Woodruff, and thus inherit the money. Doll would then be paid off and the relatives would get the inheritance. When Doll's administrations cause Woodruff to recover, Nina sends for Woodruff's grandson Ned, whom he disowned for marrying beneath him, hoping that Ned will send Doll away. When Ned seems to fall in love with Doll, Nina tells Woodruff that Ned and Doll are secretly meeting in the estate lodge. Woodruff investigates and finds that Doll and Ned are married and have a baby boy. Delighted, Woodruff forgives Ned.

Paul Perry, the son of Perryville's wealthiest citizen, marries Reverend Matthew Barker's younger daughter Evelyn, while her sister June, who disputes her father's sermons preaching that it is God's will that sends affliction, hides her own love for Paul. When Evelyn dies in childbirth, Paul nearly goes insane.

The one-reel movie I saw appears to be a version of TAMING THE WEST (1919), cut down for the Pathe show-at-home market. Percy (Edward Flanagan) and Ferdie (Neely Edwards) buy themselves a couple of cowboy suits, then head out west. They flirt with the pretty bar maids, knock out the local banditos with golf balls and play some poker. It's slight, low-key and amusing.

Poor stenographer Gloria Graham believes that clothes make a woman successful in business and as a result she incurs great debts.

A woman writes about her sister's tragedy, vowing to help others in similar situations: Because Bettina longs to leave her country home, her loving mother sends her and her serious-minded elder sister to London, accepting their aunt's invitation to visit and allow Bettina to be introduced to society. The girls' dressmaker steals the aunt's photograph and sends it to a woman who, disguised as their aunt, leads the girls to a brothel. After the elder sister escapes, aided by her concerned male companion, she races in a cab to her aunt's home, but is frustrated in her attempt to rescue Bettina by her aunt's infirm state, the inefficiency of the police, and her own inability to remember the location of the house. She finds her cab driver, but he is drunk and soon dies in an accident. After falling ill, the sister, convinced by a dream that Bettina has died, resolves to devote her life to saving other women.

Forced to wear quaint short dresses and pigtails so that she will inspire her grandfather's sentimental poetry, nineteen-year-old Joy Havenith longs for companions of her own age.

Penniless aristocrat Yvonne Dupré ekes out a living selling her paintings to a crooked dealer, Leon Naisson, who passes them off as other more famous artists. Leon confides to his unscrupulous model Romildo, that he is attracted to Yvonne. Romildo drugs his lover, fiery Apache dancer Juliette who closely resembles Yvonne, then tries to extort money from Leon to have his way with her. Leon discovers the duplicity but convinces the artist's sweetheart, Dick Gray, that she has been unfaithful. As police close in on Leon, he frames Yvonne by planting forged paintings in her studio. Following Yvonne's arrest, Juliette is informed by her foster sister that she was stolen by gypsies as a child and is actually Yvonne's twin sister. Juliette exposes Leon's operation to the police, reuniting Yvonne and Dick.

Brash young Sgt. Gray makes a bet that he can have breakfast with his commanding general. But a couple of enemy spies, intent on infiltrating the training camp, get in the way of Sgt. Gray's plans.

Judge Robert Appleton (Winter Hall) has led an exemplary life. His four children, however, fell short once they grew up and had to fend for themselves. When Appleton dies, his widow (Lydia Knott) explains that his last request was that each child spend one hour of contemplation with his body. The first is the youngest daughter, Daisy (Rosemary Theby), an artist of note who was betrayed and left with a son to raise out of wedlock. Next is Luke (Milton Sills), a wild young man who ran away at 19, and even though he is now married and a father, he still can't quite settle down. The eldest son, Bob (Wilfred Lucas), is next -- he wed a wealthy woman, but the marriage has no love.

John Sark is the owner of a piece of land coveted by Henry Murden, leader of the band of "White Riders," who has purloined the information that a railroad wishes to buy the property. Sark is a naturalist and has for an assistant Rose Ember. He discovers one of the rider's masks which is made of one of Rose's handkerchiefs, and this introduces a mysterious element into the love affair. The mask belonged to her father. The riders try to force Sark's hand, but are obliged to capture him. Rose, seeing Sark lead away, dons a mask and riding close to his horse, cuts his bonds. Sark kills Murden, and, finding that his savior was Rose, is once more happy in his love.

The tumultuous life of Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna of Russia.

Larry helps a girl escape her wedding to a fat man.

The unscrupulous attempts by speculators Dr. West and Jim Prince to have a railroad pass through lower California are met with opposition by Spanish landowners led by Dona Maria Saltonstall, who tries flirting with West to restore their property. Pereo, a religious fanatic who works for Dona Maria, believes in the curse of the Gray Wolf's Ghost: if a member of Dona Maria's family mates with an alien, fortune and life will be lost. Meanwhile, West's son Harry, whom he deserted years before, comes to avenge the wrong done to his mother.

Robert Dunning commits suicide after being financially ruined by a cunning Wall Street stockbroker. Marcia Dunning vows revenge for her husband's death and becomes a roulette operator at a gambling house frequented by the stockbroker's son. She uses a magnetized ring on her finger to trick the son, who then steals from his father and causes the man's financial ruin.

Ranch foreman Kerry has boarded with Kitty Tynan and her mother for five years in western Canada, his past is a mystery to everyone. He is actually an English aristocrat who lost all his money gambling and left the country in search of work. Kerry and his friend Horan own an option on property which crooked lawyer Burlingame is trying to secure. Burlingame's cohort Logan murders Hogan, and is caught and arrested. In the trial, Burlingame forces Kerry to admit his past, and succeeds in preventing Kerry from receiving bank assistance. When Kerry is shot, Kitty opens a letter from Kerry's wife that he had been carrying for five years, and cables her. Kerry's wife arrives and informs him that his last bet in England had turned out to be a $20,000 winner. Kerry is able to use the money just in time to foil Burlingame and secure the property, thus winning prosperity and the affections of his wife.

Our hero's fiancée, who has broken off their engagement, agrees to make a trip around the world, starting absolutely naked, without money or help of any sort from others in order to prove his worth to her.

Genevieve Connors, a young woman from the slums who is given a chance at a better life through the help of a wealthy family, but faces class prejudice and is later involved in a criminal plot.

A young man's dreams are shaken by his father's insistence that he get a job and go to work. He becomes a waiter in a restaurant, and has some funny adventures.

Square Deal Sanderson is in pursuit of a horse thief, but someone else shoots the varmint before Sanderson can offer him a "square deal."

The widow Anna Eva Flod at Hemsö needs help on the farm and hire the new boy Carlsson.

A propagandistic melodrama recounting the dangers and horrors of venereal disease.

A beautiful young French girl falls in love with a handsome New Englander, but when they marry and return to his family home, she finds that she does not fit in at all.

While making a movie in the Alps, the female star falls in love with a nobleman.

In China, a boy reads a legend about a mysterious woman's power over a wealthy Mandarin prince. In New York, Betty Cardon, a social butterfly, disregards her husband Blair's order to stop gambling their money at bridge, and finds herself in debt to Geoffrey North, who, encouraged by her flirting, now wants sexual payment. Cherry Blossom, a Chinese girl who refuses to be sold by her father to the brutal Li Hsun, a wealthy Mandarin, hides in Betty's home after Betty's friend, Susan Pettigrew, a mission worker, introduces them.

Ruth Minchin is unhappily married to her father's former business partner, a drunken brute. She contracts a friendship for Severino, a pianist, who lives in the same apartment house, and Minchin, discovering them together, orders the pianist from the room and knocks his wife down. Severino kills Minchin in a delirium following pneumonia, and Ruth is suspected of the crime.

To recoup losses from the extravagant roadshow presentations of Intolerance (1916), Griffith would revisit his epic film three years later by releasing two of the film's previously interlocked stories as standalone features, with additional footage and new title cards. The second of these was 'The Mother and the Law', which demonstrates how crime, moral puritanism, and conflicts between ruthless capitalists and striking workers cause ruin to the lives of marginal Americans.

Jode MacWilliams, a cowboy working on the Circle O ranch, has a crush on the boss's daughter, Peg. After his friend writes a love letter for him, an Indian steals and delivers it to Peg. Meanwhile, word of Jode's affection reaches Peg's father, who has a decidedly less romantic view of this young couple.

A girl, suffering from amnesia, shows up in a logging-camp in the northwest. There are those who know more about who she is than she does, including why she is there, and the helpless girl is soon at the mercy of the lawlessness in this far-flung frontier. Will some gentleman come to her aid?

A ranch owner hires a young woman (Texas Guinan) to serve as foreman over a rambunctious group of cowboys.

Lonely young Lord Billy, who misses his dear departed mother, has nothing to do but lounge about the castle all day while his father, the Earl, attends to important affairs of state – until the noble lad joins the Army Cadets. Rising through the ranks to become the Lance Corporal of his squad, patrolling undefended points along the English coast, he's soon on the trail of German marauders.

When Drina Hilliard (Alice Brady) finishes college, she heads home to New York, where her mother Marie (Mrs. Gertrude Hillman) runs a millinery shop. On the way, she meets the handsome Blair Carson (Leslie Austen), but the budding love affair gets sidetracked as Drina begins working for her mother. Marie has been running a petty scam -- when a man buys a hat for his wife or sweetheart, she overcharges him and splits the difference with the woman. The Archives Du Film Du CNC holds a complete copy.

At the Killjoy Cafe, "everything is first class except the food and the service."

When oil magnate Thomas Waring receives a letter from his old friend, Mrs. Juliet Smith, suggesting that his beloved daughter Maida spend her vacation at Mrs. Smith's island home, Waring encourages Maida to accept as he has to go East on business. After Mrs. Smith supposedly gets Maida, Waring receives a call from the real Mrs. Smith, who says that Maida has left with an impostor.

A baby, found strapped to a donkey in the North Carolina mountains where her father drowned, is called Twilight and raised by the Anwells. At sixteen, Twilight, in love with her foster brother Jim, who runs the family's lumber business, grows jealous when Elise Charmant, vacationing with her father, a brain specialist, monopolizes Jim at the Fireman's Ball.

The skill of colorful Japanese artist Yamo Masata attracts the attention of a clever counterfeiter who seeks the artist's aid in the preparation of spurious bonds. At first deceived, the artist becomes indignant when he learns the truth of the enterprise.

Heiress Rhoda Canby is badgered by her eccentric relatives Uncle Silas, Aunt Elizabeth, and Cousin Hepzibah. She falls in love with writer Irving Mason, who believes Rhoda to be the heiress' secretary, and courts her as chauffeur "Henry Smith." Accompanied by her African-American nurse Aunt Chloe, Rhoda runs away from home. Irving, meanwhile, is abducted. Upon reading of the supposed suicide of Irving Mason, Rhoda assumes the role of widow and visits his hometown. There she is befriended by Irving's uncles and goes to work in the family's general store. Irving escapes his captors and surreptitiously returns home, but is surprised to find himself presumed dead and Rhoda his widow. When the family store catches fire and Irving saves Rhoda, their true identities are revealed, after which they are married.

The 35-year-old landowner Pavel Alexandrovich returns to his estate after a long absence. Having met his former university friend Priimkov, Pavel learns that he is married to Vera Yeletskaya, his former lover. Pavel is immersed in memories...

John Burkett Ryder, "the richest man in the world," determines to discredit a judicial decision which works against the interest of his millions by discrediting its author, Judge Rossmore, and causes impeachment charges to be laid against him in Congress. The judge's daughter Shirley Rossmore, learns of his trouble and returns home from Paris, where she has won success as a writer. She is loved by Jefferson Ryder, son of the magnate who is slowly killing her father.

Silent romantic cowboy western short was billed as "A story of an inheritance of hatred!"

In Corsica, Marianna Paoli's brother is killed by an Englishman whose identity is unknown to her. She swears vengeance and tracks the killer to Monte Carlo. There she falls in love with a handsome young officer, only to discover that he is the murderer she has sworn to punish.

Not one but two of Charlie Chaplin impersonators, Harry Mann and Monty Banks, a film directed by Charley Chase still under the name of Charles Parrott. They go driving around town experiencing various car theft problems.

After her father dies and a banker, to whom he owed $5,000, insults the family's honor, dancing instructor Mary Lee, the last of a long line of Southern aristocrats, goes to New York vowing to repay the debt. In Paris, Raoul Garson, an American theatrical manager, signs dancing sensation Anna Gerard, who resembles Mary, to appear on Broadway against the wishes of her Apache lover Pierre La Rouge.

Sailor 'Snub' Pollard on 'beach leave'.

The film tries to capture the "nervous epidemic" caused by war and misery which "drives people mad". This unique portrait of the life in 1919 Germany, filmed on location in Munich, describes the cases of different people from all levels of society: Factory owner Roloff, who loses his mind in view of catastrophies and social disturbances; teacher John, who is the hero of the masses; and Marja who turns into a radical revolutionary.

Lord Angus Cameron's marriage to a woman of his titled Scottish class is thwarted by his secret marriage years before to Marion Hume, the housekeeper of the castle. Cameron attempts to repudiate the marriage, the only record of which is a certificate in the sunken wreck of a yacht, The White Heather. Marion goes to court to prove her claim and secure the rights of her son by Cameron, but is defeated. Alec McClintock, who is in love with Marion, and Cameron both want to recover the record, so they don diving suits and descend to the wreck. An underwater struggle ensues and Cameron severs his own air tube and drowns while attempting to cut off his rival's air supply. Alec then recovers the marriage record and wins Marion. —AFI

A shop girl finds herself disgraced after being pressured into drinking too much at a party and getting arrested for public drunkenness.

Directed by Norimasa Kaeriyama.

Cheyenne Harry, owner of the biggest cattle ranch in his corner of the west, is having trouble with John Merritt, a land-grabbing Chicago meat-packer. By some artifice of shrewd legal aid, Merritt manages to seize Harry's ranch under a bogus writ of foreclosure. Failing to get justice by his many letters to Merritt, Cheyenne Harry goes east and calls at the millionaire's mansion. At first, Merritt refuses to see him. Then, to cause amusement for his daughter, Helen, and her guests, he invites the "uncouth" westerner into his dining hall. He is sure that he will make some grave error in table deportment and afford them all a laugh. To the amazement of Merrit and the guests Harry's table manners are faultless. Then, to trick him into an embarrassing position, Merritt eats with his knife. Harry, realizing that it is proper for the guest to follow the example of the host, does likewise. He leaves the house chagrined but more determined than ever to get justice from Merritt.

Romance between the playwright Harry Bryant and the homeless and illiterate Kate.

Posing as a nobleman, Allan Harrowby takes out a policy with Lloyd's to insure that his upcoming marriage will occur, Dick Minot, Lloyd's assistant manager in the U. S., travels to San Marcos, Florida to handle anything that threatens to disrupt the wedding. On the train, Dick falls in love with Cynthia Meyrick, then discovers she is Harrowby's bride-to-be, he subdues his feelings.

Gloria Swann becomes a dancer at the Palm Garden cabaret, trying to secure a better future and accepts Judge Malvin's offer of marriage despite the disparity of their ages and social stations. One day while Gloria and the judge are driving in the park, their car nearly runs over Larry Gibson, a soldier blinded in World War I. A remark by Gloria's friend, Teddy Safford, has aroused her maternal feelings, and the sight of the lonely soldier makes her even more sympathetic. Gloria takes Larry home and visits him daily. Larry plays banjo and writes songs about soldier life to cheer suffering servicemen.

Harold and Snub are self-proclaimed big-game hunters who stop at a remote outpost. They hire two native guides to lead them into the woods, but the guides run in terror when they see a rather tame bear in the distance. Harold is annoyed that he cannot find any bears to hunt--unaware that two timid bears are closely following him. Meanwhile Snub encounters an equally tame wildcat who eats his picnic lunch. Snub sprints away. Back at the outpost, Harold twice rescues Jeanne--once from the clutches of an unwanted suitor and once from one of the bears. The grateful, gun-toting Jeanne tells Harold she wants him to be her "sweetie."

A beetle is possessed by the soul of an ancient Egyptian princess, who is determined to get her revenge on a member of the British Parliament.