Cinematic Era: 1920 Vintage

Swedish WW1 documentary.

In this two-reel silent short, Mack gets a letter telling him about a gift/inheritance from India, and it turns out to be two elephants.

A documentary commissioned by the Hudson's Bay Company for its 250th anniversary in 1920. The film depicts a journey to different Hudson's Bay outposts across Canada.

Jerry Flannigan and Mr. Givney encounter some bellicose mosquitoes.

Documentary about Kampen, one of the oldest Dutch Hanseatic cities, located along the river Gelderse IJssel. We see its most important buildings, including the Hoofdcursus, which is the training building for army officers. Officers from the Indische Leger also trained here.

All of the entries in this rare collection of blue movies from the 1920's silent age have one thing in common - the beautiful young girls of Hollywood baring all for the movie cameras.

A woman poses, in and out of her diaphanous shift.

Film about Ghost-Cat.

Even the story is pretty much a retread of something out of a lesser Keystone from 1915. They eat paste. They make a general mess and they get involved with a mad anarchist named D.E. Stroy (get it?) who was to blow up everything -- his motive seems to be to produce more gags for the movie.

A slapstick comedy starring Al St. John.

Movie star Georg Wilck has grown tired of the attention that comes with being a celebrity, and travels incognito to the seaside resort Viken to get some privacy. He assumes in the name of Fred Palmer, a name that belongs to a schoolmate whom he believes has died in America. However the good-for-nothing Palmer has just returned to Sweden and has hatched a plan to earn some easy money by hustle the Viken ladies.

Berlin W. is a 1920 German silent film directed by Manfred Noa.

An educational short

Sophy, a kitchen maid, has her fortune told by a gypsy, who sees something shiny over Sophy's head: a sword, or perhaps a crown. Sophy then sets out for Paris, where she gains employment with the Zerkovitches. As war breaks out, she returns with them to Kravonia. There, Sophy meets Crown Prince Sergius and saves him from assassins, who plot to overthrow the dynasty and place Alexis, the son of the ailing king's wife, on the throne.

Tenderfoot Chauncey Day arrives in the small Southwestern boom town of Rawhide where Jackson Grade, the recorder of deeds, is accumulating his own fortune through falsifying documents. Authorized to offer miner Joel Brand $100,000 for his claim, Grade attempts to pocket $95,000 by bidding only $5,000. When Brand refuses the offer, Grade attempts extortion by faking his own murder at Brand's hands. Then Grade's accomplice Marsh threatens to have Brand arrested until the White Rider appears with proof of Grade's infamy, thus exposing the crooks. Justice served, the Rider reveals himself to be Tenderfoot Chauncey Day and wins the heart of Brand's daughter Jewel.

Silent comedy short starring Chester Conklin and directed by Harry Edwards

South African Film

Mutt and Jeff go fishing and Mutt has adventures with some skunks. Later he meets a fair young bathing girl who intrigues his affections until a rival appears.

German silent film directed by Erich Schönfelder.

Three siblings, Tom, Jack and Mary escape poverty in the big city to find happiness in the wild west. They split up and soon find each other again on in the opposite side of the law.

Dangerous Trails is a silent Western

Footage of policemen running, climbing and crawling through an obstacle course.

A documentary created by the National Catholic War Council and Famous Players-Lasky Corp.

Turkmeni newsreel made in the 1920s.

A cat observes the wonders of the deep from inside a bottle. Eventually, he finds sunken treasure.

Hollandse Tulpen en Klompen – litterally Dutch Tulips and Clogs – consists of two short fragments each describing a traditional facet of post-war Netherlands. The first fragment shows men and women working on the tulip fields. The second fragment shows children playing at the Island of Marken, wearing the traditional costumes of their hometown.

It contains: the procession leaving the Lima Cathedral on September 19, 1920; the faithful occupying Santa Apolonia Street; the courts of honor preceding the platform; the Archbishop of Lima and the Metropolitan Chapter escorting the image; Our Lady of Victories; the procession entering the Plaza de Armas; distinguished ladies and young women surrounding the image of the Redeemer; aspects of the procession moments before the clash between those protesting the Divorce Law and its supporters; the procession completely covering the Plaza de Armas; the Archbishop of Lima. “The photograph is very clear, allowing the attendees to be perfectly identified.”

When Jessica Dale, a companion to wealthy Hortense Bates, is found dead and her valuable earrings missing at a masked ball being held at the Bates's home, the only clue is that of a crushed cigarette found beside her. Because the brand of cigarette matches that found in a similar crime being pursued by Tex, the famous criminologist is called in to investigate.

1920 travelogue.

Summer swimming fun on the Lahn River. Men in swimming trunks jump one after the other from a wooden jetty into the Lahn. From the second half onwards, the recording runs backwards. The film ends with a close-up of Günther Leitz (1914-1969), the youngest son of Ernst Leitz II, then sole shareholder of the optical company Leitz in Wetzlar.

San Remo is a silent travelogue of unknown production, dated circa 1920, preserved in a tinted 35mm nitrate print (3'25", 75 m at 20 fps) with French intertitles, held by CNC – Centre national du cinéma et de l’image animée in Bois d’Arcy. As noted by Renato Venturelli in the 44th Pordenone Silent Film Festival catalogue, the film offers a visual journey through Sanremo, led by a young woman in a headscarf. She ascends the narrow streets of the old town, gathers flowers among palm trees and prickly pears, and reaches the shrine of Nostra Signora della Costa. The tone then shifts from devotional to sensual, culminating in her playful gestures at the monument. An intertitle reads, “It’s never wrong to be flirtatious,” as she adorns herself and enjoys food and scenery. The final scenes depict her barefoot on a cliff and fishermen at sea. Though incomplete, the surviving footage is of good quality. The intertitles use the historical spelling “San Remo,” referencing Saint Romulus.

First romanian animation. Now lost

Short film from 1920 about a flower thief, restored by Eye.

An Out of the Inkwell short.

Found in the Library of Congress film archive in June 2017 and was screened at Dexter's Inn in Sunapee, New Hampshire on July 12, 2017.

A Paramount Magazine short.

A film star faces death.

German silent film

Documentary about the city of Delft.

Marcus Bloomer, a district attorney, receives a divine revelation the night before he is to sentence a young man to death. The herald of the revelation takes the form of Bloomer’s former sweetheart Reine, who shows him the greatest mistake of his life: twenty years ago, Bloomer chose his career over Reine, who birthed a fatherless child. In a cruel twist of fate, the child that Bloomer abandoned turns out to be the very same young man he must now sentence to death. (Stumfilm.dk)

This short botanical documentary uses timelapse and microscope photography to showcase various seeds and their modes of dispersal in all their splendor.

Mutt and Jeff give some of the elixir of life to a worn out nag and enter the races. Jeff heroically rides the animal to victory.

Adaptation of a Javanese puppet performance.

Reportage about the opening of the pumping station in Lemmer, Netherlands.

The Blaauwhoedenveem company is engaged in the storage, sorting, and treatment of goods. This corporate film shows e.g. the loading and unloading of ships. The footage was shot in Katendrecht, Netherlands.

Most shots are slow pans, with the camera moving from left to right. Some sequences are shot from a high vantage point, which leads to beautiful long-shots of the city. The images of Leidseplein with the news kiosk show the comings and goings of people and trams.

A small rural town in the Netherlands, with shots of its most important buildings, streets, squares, and waterways. A central focus of the film is Sneek's Waterpoort, the city's best-known and most prominent building.

Shots of life in Volendam and the bay of Zuiderzee.

"With the harmony of the work of nature and humans, a unique song emerged under the slopes of Trebević - white Sarajevo!"

A Popular Science Monthly film demonstrating how life on the moon would be different than life on Earth.