Cinematic Era: 1929 Vintage

A mountie pursues a man wanted for murder.

Charley intervenes in a fight between Eddie and Thelma inside her small car. Cop Kennedy misinterprets things, and Charley hides in the theatre Thelma is rehearsing in. Charley replaces Eddie as Thelma's partner in an artistic dance act, and makes a fiasco of it.

At the conclusion of World War I, a French girl is romanced by an American doughboy even though she is promised to a French soldier who was sent to the front.

Captain Black and his motley crew of pirates are shipwrecked on a South Sea island, where they hold several shanghaied sailors captive. Black observes the ship commanded by Hurricane Martin approaching and conspires to get his men aboard the vessel and seize the cargo.

The Chinese Secret Service sends an undercover agent to investigate reports of an island ruled by a Chinese criminal named The Cobra who holds the residents in virtual slavery while running his illegal narcotics and white-slavery empire.

In this melodrama set during WWI, a gangster joins the army and is promoted to major. He then returns from war torn Europe to tell a family that their beloved son had died in his arms during a battle. The major then falls in love with the late soldier's sister and decides to accept a position in town as the new police commissioner.

From his early silent works, the great Russian film director, Herr Yakov Protazanov, made literary adaptations from equally great Russian writers, as is the case with "Chiny I Lyudi" ( Ranks And People ) (1929) in which three short stories by Chekhov, "Anna On The Neck", "Death Of A Petty Official" and "Chameleon" were assembled for the silent screen.

A young bareback rider in a circus is in love with a trapeze artist, but he has two problems: he drinks too much and he's fallen under the spell of a "vamp" who's nothing but trouble for him.

The English adventurer Tom Lingard gets involved with islanders on a South Seas island, and he also gets involved with Lady Edith and Mr. Travers, a sailing English couple. Tom has an unexpected love affair with Edith and while they are having this affair, Lady Edith husband's boat is destroyed and he is killed.

Phil and Pete compete for Mary's love and also in a contest for best song written by a college student.

With unpaid actors and staff, the stage show Phantom Sweetheart seems doomed. To complicate matters, the box office takings have been robbed and the leading lady refuses to appear. Can the show be saved?

Charming Sinners was a stilted adaptation of Somerset Maugham's play The Constant Wife. Robert Miles (Clive Brook) starts the ball rolling when he falls in love with Anne-Marie Whitley (Mary Nolan), the best friend of his own wife Kathryn (Ruth Chatterton). In retaliation, Kathryn begins a flirtation with her former boyfriend Karl Kraley (William Powell). After reels and reels of verbal fencing, the status quo is re-established, and Robert and Kathryn are reunited.

This first cinematic version of the classic book is a part-talkie, although the only surviving print is silent (housed in the George Eastman House, Rochester, NY). It is a straight-forward telling of the intermingled lives of a group of strangers doomed to die in a collapsing bridge accident. The Art Direction, paltry and unremarkable, surprisingly won an Oscar over the far more remarkable work nominated in THE IRON MASK. The special effect scene of the lovers plummeting with the bridge into the chasm is unforgettable and remarkably done.

Based on George Ade's story about a wealthy young man whose life is changed by his love for a gardener's daughter, transforming him into a more compassionate person.

There is a big charity function at the house of Mrs. Cheyney and a lot of society is present. With her rich husband, deceased, rich old Lord Elton and playboy Lord Arthur Dilling are both very interested in the mysterious Fay. Invited to the house of Mrs. Webley, Fay is again the center of attention for Arthur and Elton with her leaning towards stuffy old Elton. When Arthur sees Charles, Fay's Butler, lurking in the gardens, he remembers that Charles was a thief caught in Monte Carlo and he figures that Fay may be more interested in the pearls of Mrs. Webley, which she is. After Fay takes the pearls, but before she can toss them out the window, she is caught by Arthur who is very disappointed in how things are turning out.

A zany musical about an amateur musician in search of work who impersonates a big band leader.

This relatively straightforward dramatic biography was one of two films commissioned to honor Joan of Arc on the 500th anniversary of her death, but it was soon undeservedly relegated to obscurity in favor of Carl Dreyer's triumphant 'La Passion de Jeanne d'Arc'. The comparison is unfair: Dreyer was an artist, but director Marco de Gastyne certainly proved himself a distinguished craftsman, and his emphasis on the Maid of Orléans early life in Domrémy serves as a picturesque, matching bookend to Dreyer's impassioned courtroom drama.

Being engaged against her will with a wealthy man, Princess Orsolini (Catherine Dale Owen) is in love with Captain Kovacs (John Gilbert), a cavalry officer she is secretly meeting. Her mother Eugenie (Nance O'Neil), who has found out about the affair forces her to dump Kovacs and take part in the arranged marriage. Though not believing her own words, Orsolini reluctantly tells Kovacs she cannot ever fall in love with a man with his social position. Feeling deeply hurt, Kovacs decides to take revenge by indulging in blackmail, spreading a rumor that he is an imposter and a swindler.

Oklahoma mechanic Pike Peters finds himself part owner of an oil field. His wife Idy, hitherto content, decides the family must go to Paris to get "culture" and meet "the right kind of people." Pike and his grown son and daughter soon have flirtatious French admirers; Idy rents a chateau from an impoverished aristocrat; while Pike responds to each new development with homespun wit. In the inevitable clash, will pretentiousness and sophistication or common sense triumph?

Having spent several wasted months in a Shanghai opium dem, former prostitute Cassie Cook yearns to start her life afresh. Likewise, ex-convict Badlands McKinney also wants to clean up his act.

A phonograph recorder provides incriminating evidence in this mystery that centers upon a widower and his 10-year old child who receives it as a birthday present.

A train conductor goes about his duty. All the characters are animals in human form. Hippo ladies in dresses try to jam into cars and other passengers pull jokes and cause havoc.

Sonny Boy's parents are in the midst of a bitter divorce when the boy's mother talks her sister into kidnapping him because she is terrified that her husband will take the boy out of the country after the divorce.

Two sisters battle for the love of a man.

Sailors Pike and Shorty are on leave when a street woman swindles them out of some money by telling them she is looking for her long-lost brother, a sailor.

Stable hands Stan and Ollie are tending a thoroughbred named "Blue Boy." But when they overhear two men talking about a $5000 reward for the return of the stolen "Blue Boy," they miss the part about it being the painting, not the horse. They take the horse to the owner's house to claim the reward. The owner instructs them to put "Blue Boy" on the piano and Ollie explains, "these millionaires are peculiar."

Connie Hayden (Constance Bennett) faces a dilemma; will she choose the rich guy or the ordinary Joe? Naturally, Connie has the answer in time for the final credits.

Explorers to the South Pole in an airship Zeppelin crash in the frozen Antarctic and must struggle for survival in the land of eternal snow and ice.

An early example of the merging of silent and sound film, known as a "part-talkie", at a time when film-going audiences couldn't get enough of the new talking pictures. FLYING HIGH is part of the fourth series in a continuing film serial about The Collegians, college students who find their way in and out of adventures on campus. This short features a mishap during a flying contest in which an inexperienced pilot assumes the roll of his professional friend.

Hawk of the Hills (1927), a ten episode serial, re-edited into a five-reel feature length version released in 1929. Newhall, California. A band of Indians led by the half-breed 'The Hawk' terrorizes prospectors in a valley. When the old prospector Clyde Selby hits the mother lode, The Hawk plans to kidnap his pretty blond daughter Mary Selby. This kidnapping actually proves one of the lesser of the perils faced by the poor Mary. Laramie, a government agent, wants with the help of his friendly Shoshone Indian friends to extricate the damsel-in-distress.

Although his murdered friend was by all accounts a scoundrel, Edward Wales is determined to trap his killer by staging a seance using a famous medium. Many of the 13 seance participants had a reason and a means to kill, and one of them uses the cover of darkness to kill again. When someone close to the medium is suspected she turns detective, in the hope of uncovering the true murderer.

On the day of her wedding to Paul, Mary Wheeler is given the deed to a mysterious old house that is occupied by a strange housekeeper named Nancy Crowl. Sometime later, Marc Reed, one of Mary's former suitors, arrives at the house and refuses to leave. When Marc is murdered, Mary is arrested for the crime.

A melodrama about an orphan and her mother who are separated and lose contact, but are later reunited.

After a vaudeville performer is murdered backstage, framed-up evidence lead the police to arrest a troupe member. At his trial, Hermann, a Scandinavian clown known as Beppo, is the lone juror holding out against conviction and pleading for his innocence and acquittal.

On shore leave, a young sailor meets and falls in love with a pretty young blonde. He goes home with her to meet her parents, but they don't approve of him at all. Their daughter takes offense at this, and in the ensuing argument she storms out of the house determined to live on her own.

Six friends, all hoping to become aviators, are to graduate the next day from the United States Naval Academy. When the officer of the day becomes sick, Tommy Winslow has to take his place, while the others go out and celebrate.

A little girl denounce her evil step-father who plotted against the communist movement. The film, under the influence of Russian formalism, has some interesting experimental compositions.

Charley is caught in a compromising situation involving "ruby lips" finding himself in a series of increasingly awkward social misunderstandings. Charley must frantically try to clear his name, only to make things worse!

The Morning Sun Shines is a fiction-documentary film by Kenji Mizoguchi and Seiichi Ina. The film is a combination of a drama about a reporter, and documentary footage about newspaper production. Only 25 minutes of footage has survived.

A middle-aged magician is in love with his beautiful young assistant. She, on the other hand, is in love with the magician's young protege, who turns out to be a bum and a thief.

A British-German silent drama film directed by Henrik Galeen

A man condemned to execution tries to convince two women that he is not their son and brother, and that they must get on with their lives.

Following a successful experimental operation to reverse age, a wealthy businessman stages his own death and assumes the identity of his nephew. His spurious pursuit of a very young woman eventually catches up with him, as does his age.

A romance runs into difficulties because the girl has seen a great deal of the turbulence in her sister's household, and has no illusions about married bliss.

One of John Waters' two Tim McCoy westerns made with MGM in the last years of the silent era. A print is preserved at the George Eastman House in New York but it hasn't been made available to the public and there don't seem to be any plans for it.

A neglected Baroness falls in love with her oldest son's military officer friend, their adulterous romance leading the two to flee to Algeria.

A chorus girl loses her job and thus the room she owes back rent on, and ends up being rescued from the street by a dashing rich man. But his family isn't over-accepting of chorus girls joining their family.

Harry must pose as a woman to help the women he works for get a marriage proposal.

Paris, France, 1784. After living many tribulations, Joseph Balsamo, known as Count Cagliostro, an infamous adventurer, enigmatic magician and necromancer, experienced physician and ruthless swordsman, triumphs among the members of the decadent French aristocracy. But a bold foretelling about a very prominent noblewoman causes his fall in disgrace… (Partially lost film.)

On board a yacht sailing from India to Britain, the owner of the vessel is murdered by one of the passengers. (This film was produced both in full sound and silent versions, the latter for theaters that had not yet been wired for sound.)

The 1929 Japanese film "Mother" which helped child actress Hideko Takamine become a star.

Haver, a newspaper reporter persuades a judge to release the suspected killer of a wealthy racetrack owner.

The Cohen and Kelly families try to modernize a swimsuit business in Atlantic City, but face challenges and mishaps along the way.

A couple of roving vagabonds hitch a freight to the railroad town of Linda, and between bouts with the freight-yard bulls and other drifters, find romance in the persons of two waitresses at the camp restaurant. Meanwhile, two crooks are at-large, and the boys fall under suspicion.

Colonel Maurice Taylor of the Royal Flying Corps is hopelessly injured in an airplane crash immediately following his marriage to Stella. Maurice is non-functional in most of the physical areas of marriage that count, but Stella attends to his other needs faithfully for three years. Then his brother, Colin, shows up from South America, and he and Stella fall passionately in love and are making plans to run away together. Mother Taylor is aware of the romance, as is Nurse Weyland, who is secretly in love with Maurice, and now hates Stella for her careless attitude toward Maurice's patiently-borne sufferings. Maurice is also aware of the affair. He has a talk with his wife and brother. Complications arise.

A very topical early talkie from low-budget company Columbia Pictures, Wall Street starred Ralph Ince, brother of producer Thomas H. Ince, as Roller McCray, a steelworker turned ruthless tycoon whose tough business methods leads a rival (Philip Strange) to commit suicide. The widow (Aileen Pringle), believing she can ruin Ince by using his own methods, conspires with her husband's former partner (Sam De Grasse), but a strong friendship between Ince and Pringle's young son (Freddie Burke Frederick) changes things dramatically. According to future Three Stooges director Edward Bernds, who worked as a sound mixer on Wall Street, Ince's reaction to his rival's suicidal jump from a window ledge was changed from a sneering "I didn't think he had the guts" to the more respectful "I didn't think he'd do it" due to derisive laughter from the film's crew.

In 1840, Sam Lash heads west for adventure. He meets up with some Mountain Men, and they head for the Rockies to trap beavers and cats. In Taos he meets Lola, a beautiful Mexican girl from a proud and rich family. They fall in love and he persuades her to elope with him. After they get married, Sam is torn between his love for Lola and his yearn for traveling.

Molly and Bee, sweet young 'working girls,' live in a cheap room over a New York grocery store. Molly's idol, wealthy Jack Cromwell, lives in a Long Island mansion but is markedly less happy, since his fiancée Jane won't discourage her other admirers. Fleeing in his car, Jack ends up in an urban block party where he meets you-know-who.

Stanley and Oliver are adopted by a runaway goat, whose noise and aroma in turn get the goat of their suspicious landlord.

Mary, a high society girl, wants to see how the other half lives, so she becomes a cabaret dancer in a New York nightclub. The owner of the nightclub, Pop Hanson, and his criminal friends, Harry and Cassie, scheme to rip off a Montana millionaire. Finding herself interested in Harry, Mary goes along with their plan and decides to pose as his wife. The gang moves into Mary's aunt's deserted mansion as their base of operations. A silent film with sound sequences.