(archive footage)
The careers of D.W. Griffith, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, and Charlie Chaplin are chronicled culminating in the formation of United Artists and 1919.
Various (archive footage)
Three Chaplin silent comedies "A Dog's Life", "Shoulder Arms", and "The Pilgrim" are strung together to form a single feature length film. Chaplin provides new music, narration, and a small amount of new connecting material. "Shoulder Arms" is now described as taking place in a time before "the atom bomb".
(archive footage)
A compilation of early-day silent films that serves as a glimpse back to the formative days of the movie industry as a salute to Hollywood's Golden Year, so proclaimed by the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce as 1953.
(archive footage)
This short film takes a nostalgic look at the Mack Sennett comedies of the silent cinema era.
Captain Wiggins - the Lighthouse Keeper
Two marines stationed in the Chinese port of Hang Chow decide to swear off women and join the lighthouse patrol.
A cub reporter rashly makes a promise to solve a murder mystery within 24 hours, then must make good on his boast.
Stout Hearts and Willing Hands is a 1931 short comedy film directed by Bryan Foy. It was nominated for an Academy Award in 1932 for Best Short Subject (Comedy), but was disqualified.
Le Bottin
The Haddocks are going on a European vacation and from their reception at the station, where the whole town goes to see them off, it is clear who wears the pants in the family - it's their daughter Mildred. Her parents often proclaim she is a genius - but she is just smarter than them, which wouldn't be too hard! On the train, Finn meets shyster Harry who sizes Finn up as a sucker and quickly wires his partner Bessie, aka "The Princess" to make Finn's acquaintance and take him for everything he has.
First Fat Diner (uncredited)
Mr. Schmidt's costume store is bankrupt because he spends his time on Rube Goldberg-style inventions; the creditors send a young manager who falls for Schmidt's niece Louise, but she'll have none of him. Schmidt's friends Ted, Queenie, and some goofy firemen try to help out; things come to a slapstick head when Louise needs rescuing from a fire.
Mack
Two street cleaners save the life of the police commissioner. In gratitude, he gives them jobs as policemen. Their first assignment? Capture the #1 criminal on the "Ten Most Wanted" list.
Dutchy
The sister of a sponge diver killed by a stingray loves an escaped convict posing as a priest.
Magistrate
Feyda is a man of wealth and has many fine qualities, but he is powerless to resist gambling and beautiful women. Feyda falls instantly in love with Lisa, who is engaged to his dear friend Victor.
Hotel Proprietor
On her first anniversary, Ann Reagan finds that her sister-in-law is involved with a shady character that she used to be intimate with, and determines to intervene.
Robert Bunce
A producer decides to reopen a theater, that had been closed five years previously when one of the actors was murdered during a performance, by staging a production of the same play with the remaining members of the original cast.
Detective Ryan
Wealthy Bob visits his mother's Florida houseboat in order to remove her jewelry and stumbles upon a bobbed-hair bandit and her male accomplice, who mistake him for another burglar. A fight is broken up by the arrival of an elderly couple (still more burglars) who are posing as guests. Bob keeps his identity secret and passes himself off as the butler; the girl and her partner pretend to be the maid and the cook. A couple of idiotic detectives, arrive on the scene, closely followed by a heavy fog that traps them all on board.
Wilbur Ashcraft
The Girl from Nowhere is a comedy short
Tillie's Father
The ring master is plotting to get the circus owner done away with in a lion cage so he can take over.
Sir Francis Beekman
Gold digging blonde Lorelei and her brunette friend Dorothy are searching for rich husbands. This film is believed lost.
Wilfred Ashcraft - Director
Mack Sennett comedy short subject spoofing filmmaking, with girls, lions, and limburger cheese.
Bragg
Laconic cowboy Maverick Brander just happens to be a very wealthy rancher, but the money doesn't really mean that much to him. The same can't be said for his social-climbing wife and his man-crazy daughter Bossy. His wife, with the help of some political bosses, helps Maverick get elected to Congress, where he manages to get in all sorts of trouble, including getting blackmailed by opponents of a bill he's trying to get passed.
Irving Spiegelberg
Becky (1927) film
Judge
Joe Merrill, son of the millionaire owner of a chain of 5 and 10 cent stores, poses as Joe Grant, and takes a job in the stockroom of one of his father's stores, to prove that he can be a success without his father's influence. There he meets stockroom girl Maggie Johnson, and they fall in love. This causes problems, because Mrs. Merrill had planned for her son to marry Millicent Rogers, a high society girl.
Vladimir Gaidaroff
There is hunger in Siberia during the Russian Civil War. One day while dim-witted peasant Sergei is searching corpses for food, he meets a young woman looking for the town of Novokursk. She asks Sergei to help her get there, and to tell anyone they might meet that he is her husband.
Mike Kelly
The neighborly "feud" between a Jewish and an Irish families escalates when two of their youngsters fall in love.
Nicholas
François Villon, in his lifetime the most renowned poet in France, is also a prankster, an occasional criminal, and an ardent patriot.
A woman hears of a murder plot through a whispered voice on the telephone.
Jerome Underwood
Henry Williams, out in Arizona looking for a cure for his imaginary ills, stops at the ranch of Jud Morgan, and decides to stay. Jud's daughter, Sally, attracts his attention, although she is engaged to be married to Sheriff Bob Wells. Henry rides with her to town, where she wants to go shopping for her wedding clothes, but they run out of gas. No, problem' Henry holds up a passing motorist, with a monkey-wrench, and takes gasoline out of his car. They stop at a ranch where the foreman makes them become the cook and dishwasher. Then Jerome Underwood and his daughter, Harriet, arrive and they recognize Henry and Sally as the ones who held them up for gas. The jealous sheriff adds to the complications.
Ludwig
Department-store models Flo and Marian set their sights on wealthy young soft-drink magnate J. A. Smith. Through a misunderstanding, they pick on the wrong J. A. Smith, a fortune hunter himself who assumes that Marian is a wealthy widow. Meanwhile, Marian falls for the real Smith, never dreaming that he's the millionaire.
Pastryman
Kiki, a poor young woman who sells newspapers on the street corners of Paris, is able to land a job singing and dancing at a nearby theater. While she is there, she invites herself into the life of the revue's manager, with whom she has fallen in love.
Bimbo-Bomba
Sea Horses is a 1926 American drama silent film directed by Allan Dwan and written by Becky Gardiner, James Shelley Hamilton and Francis Brett Young. The film stars Jack Holt, Florence Vidor, William Powell, George Bancroft, Mack Swain, Frank Campeau and Allan Simpson. The film was released on February 22, 1926, by Paramount Pictures. It is considered a lost film.
Don Matías
A young girl and her father are kicked out of their house by a cruel noblewoman, and the girl's heart is broken when her sweetheart, the noblewoman's son, won't go to Paris with them. After becoming an opera star in Paris, the girl returns to her homeland and finds her romance with the nobleman rekindled.
Innkeeper (uncredited)
Vladimir Dubrouvsky, a lieutenant in the Russian army, catches the eye of Czarina Catherine II. He spurns her advances and flees, and she puts out a warrant for his arrest, dead or alive. Vladimir learns that his father's lands have been taken by the evil Kyrilla Troekouroff, and his father dies. He dons a black mask, and becomes the outlaw The Black Eagle. He enters the Troekouroff household disguised as a French instructor for Kyrilla's daughter Mascha. He is after vengeance, but instead falls in love with Mascha.
Big Jim McKay
A gold prospector in Alaska struggles to survive the elements and win the heart of a dance hall girl.
The Vamp's Husband
Pitfalls of a Big City is a 1923 short comedy
The Girl's Father
A rival courtships in a variety of absurd situations.
Deacon
The Tramp is an escaped convict who is mistaken as a pastor in a small town church.
Foreman
A bricklayer and his wife clash over his end-of-the-week partying.
Edna's Father (uncredited)
At an upper class golf resort, a tramp discovers he's the lookalike of a rich man with a beautiful, unhappy wife.
Ambrose Schnitz
Mack "Ambrose" Swain, the ladies man, finds himself in all kinds of lady trouble.
Director
Mack "Ambrose" Swain, the ladies man, finds himself in all kinds of lady trouble.
The Sheriff
A slapstick comedy featuring Mack Swain.
Boarder (unconfirmed)
The Late Lamented is a 1917 Comedy short.
Ambrose
A woman has moved to a small town boarding house to seek peace and quiet. All too soon she finds herself in a Keystone movie, where there's everything but.
Walter Ambrose
Café ownder Mack Swain goes gaga over a gal.
Rover Peabody - the Chosen One
The Pullman Bride is a 1917 American silent comedy film directed by Clarence G. Badger and starring Gloria Swanson.
Ambrose
Ambrose likes his mother's assistant, but when she inherits a fortune, the obstacles to their relationship keep mounting.
Jim - a Big Hearted Sheriff
Jim, the apple of his mother's eyes, is the big-hearted galoot of a man and is sheriff of his small town. He is sweet on Nell, who he has known all his life. Just as he is about to propose to her, he finds out that he has missed his opportunity as Diamond Dan, a big city slicker, has already proposed to her, to which she's accepted.
Handsome Jack
The star of a film attends a public showing.
The Spy
Swain and Conklin, two international secret service men of questionable reputation, have taken up headquarters in an underground refuge from which they direct their operations. They are engaged in an effort to steal a valuable code book from Prime Minister Cogley.
Ambrose
Walrus and his wife run the Walrus Hotel, which acrobats Mr. & Mrs. Ambrose are staying at. Walrus gets a letter from his insurance broker Mr. Cinder demanding a payment. Short on cash, Walrus decides to get his tenants' money now. Ambrose and his wife are in the middle of a domestic squabble when Walrus pays a visit, and his presence only makes things worse. Mr. Cinder visits Walrus himself, and he carelessly throws his cigarette into a trash can. After he leaves, the hotel catches on fire and the rest of the film is a thrilling five-minute race to pay off the insurance!
Mabel's Rival's Husband
Mabel has just gotten engaged during a housewarming party of which her mother is the hostess. When an annoying party guest persuades Mabel to dance with him, Mabel hurries through the dance and then goes to look for her fiancé, only to discover him caressing another woman. Her fiancé finds not only Mabel, but also her mother, very displeased, and not inclined to believe his explanation.
Ambrose
Ambrose's nasty temper gets him in trouble when he accidentally puts his boss's attractive daughter in danger.
Ambrose
King Ambrose chooses a queen from among the maidens of his kingdom. After they are married, Robin, a young man the queen had known earlier, attempts to steal her from her royal husband. Robin shoots arrows with notes attached and the queen initially runs away with him. The queen, however, rejects her former suitor in favor of the king after Ambrose saves her from a snake. Her rejected suitor plots with the jester to bomb the palace but their plot backfires.
Ambrose
A couple of roving husbands are caught at the seashore by their wives.
Ambrose
Mack Swain is making a dress for Louise Fazenda. He discovers his dressmaker's dummy requires his adjustment, so he pulls out his hatchet for the job. Through the window shade, onlookers -- including her husband -- see him as killing a woman.
Audience Member (uncredited)
A happy young couple become engaged, and soon afterwards they are married. But after their marriage, the husband begins to stay out carousing with his friends, leaving his wife at home with her mother. Then, when the three of them go to the opera together, the husband spots one of his friends in another box. Soon the domestic difficulties reach their peak.
Ambrose
Ambrose loses his girl-friend to Harry Gribbon in the park. When Ambrose's "girl-friend"'s twin sister and husband arrive everybody gets mixed-up between the two twins.
Pa Ambrose
Marksman Ambrose accidentally shoots a beer stein his wife has bought for him as a gift, so he tries to replace it.
The Grafter
Largely a typical Keystone flirting-in-the-park one-reeler, this one is differentiated slightly by dressing the players in early nineteenth century garb and having them adopt antiquated manners.
Fight Spectator
Charles Murray out romancing in the park.
The Bartender
Featuring Charlie Chaplin's half-brother as The Husband, Phyllis Allen as The Wife, Slim Summerville as The Boy Friend, Cecile Arnold as The Girl Friend, and Mack Swain as The Bartender.
Ambrose
Bankers Mack Swain & Chester Conklin courting each other's wives.
Ambrose Schnitz
Fatty gets kicked out of a bar, and then the place gets a bomb threat.
Ambrose
After Walrus has been shot, Ambrose takes him into his house. When Ambrose sees Walrus flirting with his wife he leaves. When Walrus runs away with Mrs. Ambrose, Ambrose gets on a horse to save her. The Keystone Kops are also after Walrus.
Ambrose
The ever-disreputable Reggie Gussle, mistreating his caddy and generally making an ass of himself on the golf course, receives a well-deserved golf ball to the noggin, temporarily rendering him disoriented. The offending golfer, Ambrose, and his wife feel terrible about the erring ball; but if they knew what Gussle was capable of, they'd have left him lying on the green. Later, at his social club, Gussle gets thrown out of a card game for cheating. Ambrose, ignorant of the exiting Gussle's dishonesty, greets him warmly before joining the game himself. Gussle suddenly has an idea that will give him revenge on the card players and get rid of Ambrose so that Gussle can make his moves on his gullible friend's beautiful wife.
Ambrose
After running into a friend and two ladies, a married man sends his wife a note saying that he's taken a train for business, but then his wife reads that the train crashed.
Other People's Business
King Lowbrow
Set mostly in the Stone Age, a prehistoric king, with a harem of wives, rules a beach. Charlie arrives and falls for the king's favorite wife. In the end, it turns out to have been a dream; Charlie was asleep in the park.
Ambrose
Charlie and his wife are walking in the park when they encounter Ambrose and his wife where they become attracted to each other's wife and start chasing them around the park. A policeman out looking for a masher also becomes involved.
Cafe Patron - In from the Mines
A city slicker tries to woo a country girl while her boyfriend fixes his tire.
Ambrose
Fatty, his wife and mother-in-law are on a ferry to Catalina Island for an outing. So are Mabel and her father. Mabel and Fatty flirt with each other, and Fatty tosses her father overboard, thinking he is another suitor. The boat docks and the two go their separate ways. Mack Swain tries to pick Mabel up, too. All go to rent bathing suits, Fatty locks Mack in a dressing room with mother-in-law. Fatty and Mabel feed a large fish to a seal at the water's edge, and then engage in some graceful and comic diving. Swain, Avery, Durfee and Davenport see them diving and corner them...everyone's relationship to each other is revealed. —Ben Model, ben@silentclowns.com
Restaurant Proprietor
Fatty's Wine Party is a 1914 American short comedy film directed by and starring Fatty Arbuckle.
Tillie's father
A womanizing city man meets Tillie in the country, after a fight with his girlfriend. When he sees that Tillie's father has a very large bankroll for his workers, he persuades her to elope with him.
Ambrose
Charlie and his friend Ambrose meet in a restaurant and accidentally leave with each other's coats. Charlie was going to pick up a baby bottle and Ambrose was going to mail a love letter that was in his coat pocket. Charlie's wife finds the letter and thinks he has a secret lover and Ambrose's wife believes he has an illegitimate child. Controversy arises in the park between Charlie and his wife and Ambrose and his wife. It is resolved at the end, but Charlie sparks another fight between the other couple by showing his friend's wife the love letter that was in his pocket.
Mike, Charlie's Partner
Charlie and his partner are to deliver a piano to 666 Prospect St. and repossess one from 999 Prospect St.
Mr. Walrus
Mabel and her beau go to an auto race and are joined by Charlie and his friend. As Charlie's friend is attempting to enter the raceway through a hole, the friend gets stuck and a policeman shows up.
The Married Flirt
Hello, Mabel (also known as On a Busy Wire) is a 1914 American short silent comedy film directed by Mack Sennett.
Patient
Although only a dental assistant, Charlie pretends to be the dentist. After receiving too much anesthesia, a patient can't stop laughing, so Charlie knocks him out with a club.
(unconfirmed)
A Rowboat Romance is a 1914 Comedy short.
Wellington, a Ladykiller
Mabel goes home after being humiliated by a masher whom her husband won't fight. The husband goes off to a bar and gets drunk.
(unconfirmed)
A comedy short that revolves around a poker game, both above and underneath the table. This is considered to be a lost film.
Gambler (uncredited)
To show his girl how brave he is, Pug challenges the champion to a fight. Charlie referees, trying to avoid contact with the two monsters.
Another rival
Three men will fight for the love of a charming girl. Charlie will play dirty, throwing bricks and using a huge hammer.
A silent comedy short directed by Mabel Normand.
Husband
A jealous wife is chasing her unfaithful husband during a parade, after he starts to flirt with a pretty woman.
Husband
When a married couple become separated in the park, Charlie takes up with the lady and is beat up when her husband rejoins her. He takes a room in their hotel, and she sleepwalks into his room so that when her husband returns from his walk he must go out again to look for her. Charlie returns the lady to her room but must climb out onto the window ledge in a downpour.
Tough Patron / Party Guest / Boy's Father (uncredited)
Charlie is a clumsy waiter in a cheap cabaret, suffering the strict orders from his boss. He meets a pretty girl in the park and tries to impress her by pretending to be an ambassador. Unfortunately she has a jealous fiancé.
Spectator at Races
Charlie, competing with his rival's race car, offers Mabel a ride on his motorcycle but drops her in a puddle. He also kidnaps his rival before the race. But Mabel decides to take the wheels in his place, thus causing a threat to Charlie. As the race progresses, despite a very late start, Mabel manages to gain a lead of three laps. Charlie with his henchmen, tries to sabotage the race by using oil and bombs on the track. They seem to succeed for a while, but their dirty tricks were not enough to stop the high-spirited Mabel from winning the race.
A short comedy directed by Mabel Normand and Mack Sennett. believed to be a lost film.
Crook (uncredited)
Two criminals chase a plainclothes policeman who, while taking out his dog, witnesses their crime.
A Robust Romeo is a 1914 movie starring Roscoe Arbuckle and Emma Bell Clifton.
The Belle's Boyfriend
Ford Sterling and Mack Swain are a couple of neighborhood toughs who fight over Emma Clifton and get involved in burglary in this Keystone from 1914.
Villager
The Under-Sheriff is a 1914 movie starring Roscoe Arbuckle and George Nichols.
Villager / Cop
Mabel has two suitors - an oily con man, whom she mocks in a very funny scene where she is shown twiddling a fake moustache and making her feelings very clearly felt. Even in this early comedy her natural fun comes through. The one she really loves is clumsy yokel Ford Sterling, who is determined to buy an oil well that the con man has for sale. The conman gets a local fellow to pour oil over the property. Ford falls for it and buys it - Mabel and he are to be married. Then the fellow confesses that it was just a scam - there was no oil.
Cop at Station House
Fatty rescues the daughter of the police commisioner and is given a job as an officer as a reward, but its not all its cracked up to be!
Desk Sergeant / Park Attendant
Two rivals for Mabel's hand play a series of dirty tricks on each other. Finally, one of them gets Mabel alone and is about to marry her, but his rival comes up with a strange scheme to stop them. Soon the Keystone Kops arrive on the scene, and chaos quickly ensues.
