(Archive footage)
Called "the first lady of the silent screen," Lillian Gish was the archetypal silent film heroine — the delicate damsel in distress, stranded on a swift-moving ice floe, cowering before a sadistic brute. The film showcases generous footage of her most memorable performances. In this Emmy-award winning documentary, the celebrated actress reflects on her life and work spanning the 20th century, particularly her years as D.W. Griffith's favorite leading lady and collaborator.
Celia Fermoyle
A young Catholic priest from Boston confronts bigotry, Nazism, and his own personal conflicts as he rises to the office of cardinal. Photochemical preservation by the Academy Film Archive in 2012.
Mrs Doubleday
A newly promoted plant supervisor finds himself in the position of having to announce a layoff of his fellow workers.
Mrs. Rogers
In 1876 Philadelphia, two sisters vie for the affections of a Frenchman who's come to town to prepare the French pavilion for the Centennial exposition.
Mrs. Skinner
In 1923, two young ladies depart unescorted for a tour of Europe, meeting two eligible men aboard ship. Their great naïvité and efforts to seem grown-up lead them into many comic misadventures.
Leila McDonald
An outlaw leader fakes a draw for a sick girl so he can help her escape
Madame Pompadour
The French king's mistress frees her jailed lover and makes him her bodyguard.
Mavis Hogan
A Lady adopts a runaway slum girl who resembles her own dead daughter.
Tiptoes Kaye
A silent film version of the Gershwin stage musical
Betsy Tidd
A disgruntled 18th century Bostonian who while wishing that he was a pirate, dons the clothes and play-acts the part. He is mistaken for the real pirate, Dixie Bull. More importantly, Errol "slays" the villain and puts his foot upon the pirate's head. This is more than enough and he heads back home to his unappreciated wife
Nell Gwyn
An actress becomes the king's mistress and persuades him to convert the palace to a serviceman's home.
Grace
A home movie version of the Dumas play. A young woman becomes a courtesan and tragedy befalls her. Appearances are made by many socialites of 1920s Paris and New York.
Chariot Race Spectator (uncredited)
Erstwhile childhood friends, Judah Ben-Hur and Messala meet again as adults, this time with Roman officer Messala as conqueror and Judah as a wealthy, though conquered, Israelite. A slip of a brick during a Roman parade causes Judah to be sent off as a galley slave, his property confiscated and his mother and sister imprisoned. Years later, as a result of his determination to stay alive and his willingness to aid his Roman master, Judah returns to his homeland an exalted and wealthy Roman athlete. Unable to find his mother and sister, and believing them dead, he can think of nothing else than revenge against Messala.
Mollie
For their mother's sake, a man takes the blame for a robbery committed by his brother and his brother's gangster boss.
Meg
John Bentley hates New York City, because of an unhappy romance as a young man, but his son, Ronald, tired of living in Iowa, is determined to take up residence in Manhattan. The elder Bentley therefore conspires with his New York manager, William Workman, to involve Ronald in so much trouble that he will gladly return to the sedate life of an Iowa burgher. Arriving in Manhattan, Ronald strikes up an acquaintance with Meg, a telephone operator, whose brother, Jimmy, has come under the evil influence of Jerry. Jerry and Jimmy rob a wealthy woman, and Ronald is charged with the crime on circumstantial evidence, keeping quiet in order to protect Jimmy.
Tessa
In Renaissance Florence, a Florentine trader meets a shipwrecked stranger, who introduces himself as Tito Melema, a young Italianate-Greek scholar. Tito becomes acquainted with several other Florentines, including Nello the barber and a young girl named Tessa. He is also introduced to a blind scholar named Bardo de' Bardi, and his daughter Romola. As Tito becomes settled in Florence, assisting Bardo with classical studies, he falls in love with Romola.
La Clavel
Charles Abbott is implicated in the death of his friend Escobar, brother to the woman he loves.
Minnie
Fury is a 1923 silent film
Jolanda Whiple - the Country Flapper
Country girl Jolanda has lost her boyfriend, Nathaniel Huggins, to a "flapper" from the city. Jolanda blackmails Nathaniel's father into giving his permission for he and Jolanda to be married--but circumstances arise that may make Jolanda rethink her position.
Louise Girard
France, on the eve of the French Revolution. Henriette and Louise have been raised together as sisters. When the plague that takes their parents' lives causes Louise's blindness, they decide to travel to Paris in search of a cure, but they separate when a lustful aristocrat crosses their path.
Delsie O'Dell
Framed for stealing some pearls while staying at the country home of her aunt and uncle, Mr. and Mrs. Dennison, Delsie O'Dell is banished from their house. Delsie along with her bulldog, Violet, follows Oscar, the actual thief, to an old haunted house, which is the hideout for a gang of thieves. A series of humorous escapades follows as she first hides from the thieves, then pretends to be a ghost, terrorizing them. Eventually she retrieves the pearls, clears her name, and is safe once again in the arms of Bill, Dennison's secretary.
Patricia Van Nuys
Wild flapper Patricia Van Nuys decides to become a pilot like her husband Robert, but with a difference--she wants to become the first woman to cross the Atlantic Ocean by airplane. Capt. Endicott, a friend of Robert's, offers to teach her how to fly. One day while aloft in the plane, the craft takes a sudden nosedive and crashes. The pair walk away uninjured and find shelter in a roadhouse. Robert, upon hearing of this, becomes jealous of Pat's spending so much time with Endicott, which angers Pat. She decides to leave Robert and slips out of the house to catch an evening train, but unfortunately, Endicott is also aboard the train. Robert finds out about that, too. Complications ensue.
Grand Duchess Marie Louise
The Grand Duchess Marie Louise is the beautiful young ruler of Molvania. She is a fun-loving girl who secretly hopes that the revolutionaries who threaten to take over her country are able to do so, as that will free her to go to America to be with the soldier friends she met during the Great War.
Janie Wakefield
After she marries Jack Valentine, Janie Wakefield discovers that her husband's reputation as a flirt is well deserved when she sees him riding in a taxi with a strange woman. Jaine sets out to remodel her husband into the man she wants.
Mary Ellen
A simple country girl comes to the big city and is taken advantage of by unscrupulous city-slickers.
Doris Pennington
Doris Pennington is committed to an insane asylum by her aunt, who hopes to take over Doris's fortune. Upon arrival at the asylum, however, Doris convinces the staff that the nurse who accompanies her is actually the patient and she the nurse.
Frances Wadsworth
A young woman is so superstitious that she cannot make a move or a decision without the approval of the cards or the stars. Pursued romantically by two men, one virtuous, the other villainous, the cards point her toward the villain. Which will she follow, her cards or her heart?
Nugget Nell
Big Hearted Jim, the sheriff, loves the tomboyish Nugget Nell ( Dorothy Gish ), who runs a hash house in the mining country, but although she has romantic feelings, they are not aroused by Jim. Nell agrees to an old miner friend's request to care for his "child," Nell is shocked to meet the six-foot girl, but she cares for her just the same. Nell falls in love with the City Chap, out West to look after his mining property, but he barely notices her, having become intrigued by the Ingenue, whom he met on the stagecoach. The jealous Nell steals stylish clothes to allure him, but she has trouble walking in French high-heels.
Susy Faraday Jones
A young woman is in love, but the man of her affections wants only her and no part of her vast wealth.
Polly
Polly has herself arrested and committed to a reformatory in order to investigate conditions at the institution, after the committee charged with the investigation whitewashes the facts.
Boots
Boots is a young servant girl who polishes shoes in an English inn. She is an incurable romantic, addicted to melodramatic stories of love and adventure. When she discovers a Bolshevik plot to blow up a government official, she takes it on herself to foil the plot.
Sheila Moore
Daughter of impoverished vaudeville actor Lew Moore, Sheila works as a waitress in a chocolate manufacturer's candy shop, where she delights the customers with her tomboyish antics. Tom Ballantyne, the proprietor's son realizes that Sheila is excessively fond of dancing, asks her out without the benefit of a proper introduction, and she indignantly refuses. Soon afterwards, however, the two fall in love and secretly marry.
Jane
Jane is a rootless young lady who finds an abandoned child and adopts it as her own. The decision, however, leads to great conflict with the child's vicious outlaw father.
Beth
A German-American father, loyal to his new U.S. home, finds himself on opposite sides with his son in the wartime conflict between Germany and America. The son becomes involved with German agents plotting against U.S., and the father must decide between his son and his adopted homeland.
The Little Disturber
A group of youngsters grow up and love in a peaceful French village. But war intrudes and peace is shattered. The German army invades and occupies village, bringing both destruction and torture. The young people of the village resist, some successfully, others tragically, until French troops retake the town.
Janice
A 1917 film directed by Elmer Clifton, Joseph Henabery, and Dorothy Gish.
Director
A 1917 film directed by Elmer Clifton, Joseph Henabery, and Dorothy Gish.
Ruth Colby
A 1917 film directed by Edward Morrissey.
Sallie Castleton
Sallie is a beautiful Kentucky girl who belongs to a family of Union sympathizers. Her brother is a lieutenant in the Union army, and on a visit home brings Major Rushton, his superior officer, who falls in love with Sallie, "the little Yank."
Lois Brandon
Young Lois Brandon is about to have her home foreclosed if she doesn't come up with some money. She enters her horse, Atta Boy, in a big-money race, hoping the win will enable her to pay off the mortgage and save her home.
Gretchen Van Houck
Gretchen Van Houck is just arriving in the USA, on a ship from Holland. She joins her father, who has already spent several years in America, where he owns an engraving business. In the tenement community where the Van Houcks live, there are residents of many nationalities. Gretchen soon becomes close friends with Pietro, a popular resident, and she also takes an interest in the widow Garrity and her children. Another resident, Rogers, is more mysterious. One day Rogers tells Mr. Van Houck that he could help him get a job printing money for the government. Van Houck eagerly agrees to try, but when he finds out what Rogers is really doing, he is placed in a painful dilemma.
Meena
Meena Bauer is the heroine of this romance of a Pennsylvania Dutch girl, who is loved by the son of a Mennonite family. Meena treats Jacob as a joke in spite of the arrangement their parents have made that they should wed. The Mennonite simplicity has no charms for Meena, who proceeds to fall in love with Count Fredrick von Ritz
Betty Lockwood
After the death of her father, Betty Lockwood goes to Graystone Gables, the estate where he had been the caretaker, to spend some time alone there. She meets David Chandler, Graystone's owner, who is attracted to her and tells her to come back whenever she wants to. Betty's mother soon remarries, but her new stepfather is not the same kind of man that her father was
Cora Findley
A bandit reforms himself and gives up his baby into better hands. Years later, he attempts to reunite with his daughter without revealing who he is.
Marie
Marie is a village girl, very religious. Her mother, fearing some man will make her unhappy (as she had been made by a man) made her promise on her deathbed that she would enter a nunnery. Marie considers that promise sacred and will allow nothing to interfere with her keeping that promise.
Katie Ruder
Karl Heinrich is the heir to the throne of the small European principality of Rutania, but he's a lonely child, not allowed to play with other children and knowing little about life outside the castle. When he reaches college age he is sent to attend the University of Heidelberg, and really starts to enjoy himself for the first time, even falling in love with Kathie, his only friend during childhood and the niece of an innkeeper. However, political turmoil in Rutania forces him to return. He finds that the only way out of declaring war on a neighboring country would be to marry the daughter of its king--but that would require giving up Kathie, the only woman he's ever loved.
Mercy, at Sixteen
Harvy, the heavy, and Bella, the ingenue, of a cheap theatrical company are encumbered with an infant girl. The husband, a worthless, dissipated character, annoyed by the presence of the child and the care the wife is compelled to give it. deserts them both. The show then "busts" and the mother and the infant are left stranded in a small California town.
Dottie
Dottie gets a job in a small show as "side kick" of a famous knife thrower. The "Angel" is a nice boy who is backing the show, and who is too modest to declare his love to Dottie. She can see no one save the great, handsome "Strong Man." The knife thrower gets drunk, and the "Angel" forbids Dottie to do her act. The "Strong Man," however, locks up the "Angel" and bids the knife thrower go on with the show. Dottie, terrified but helpless, has risked her life a half dozen times from the carelessly thrown knives, when the "Angel," bursting out of his prison, rushes into the ring and flings himself between her and the weapons. He is seriously injured. At the hospital, Dottie and the "Angel" pledge their troth.
Hattie - the Little Catamount
Hattie, a moonshiner's daughter, plays with her weird dog, Fanny, and rules her father with a rod of iron. To their mountain cabin comes Neighbor Dawson, another moonshiner, and arranges with Hattie's father to marry her. This does not agree with Hattie's ideas at all.
Nell - the Mountain Girl
In a primitive log cabin buried among the rugged pines deep in the California mountains lives the Mountain Girl with her grandfather, a man of hoary age.
Mary McRae
Jim McRae and his pal, Clancy, two crooks, perform many robberies and divide the loot equally. Clancy wants to marry McRae's daughter, Mary. She does not want to marry him, but is forced to do so by her father. After the marriage, Clancy and McRae have a quarrel over the division of some loot. Clancy refuses to give McRae his share.
Dorothy
Dorothy, the girl who presides over the notion counter of the Emporium, the general store in a country town, is the sole support of her aged grandparents, with whom she lives. Her sweetheart, Bob, is the boy-of-all-work in the same store. To the Emporium comes a flashy drummer from the city to sell the merchant a bill of goods.
Minerva
Minerva comes home from school filled with the idea that she has a great mission in life. All society needs reformation. She has her maiden aunt come to live with her as chaperon, and Minerva immediately starts in by reconstructing her. The trust company that has charge of her fortune is represented by young Mr. Grant, who looks on with dismay at the operations of Minerva and tries to dissuade her, but without success. She stops him from smoking and he compiles when she isn't looking. She discovers this and quarrels with him. A laborer making some repairs at the house attracts her attention when she finds him drinking a pail of beer with his lunch. She remonstrates with him and questions him about his home life. As a result she visits his mother's home and tries to educate the family, much against their will, lavishing money on them.
Molly - the Maid
Molly, a slavey in a New York boarding house, is in love with Herbert, the butler at the house next door. They are engaged to be married. Molly is a sort of Cinderella, whom everybody in the boarding house picks on, especially Beth, an actress in search of a rich husband. A mysterious man comes to the place, and both Molly and Beth, because of his resemblance to a picture they have seen in the paper of the lost Lord Lovell, believe him to be none other than this titled Englishman, whom the trustees of his estate are seeking. Beth gets the stranger a place in her company, and the manager makes money featuring "the lost Lord Lovell." Meanwhile, Molly and the butler have been married. To celebrate their honeymoon they go to the theater. Coming out, they read in the paper about the hit Lord Lovell is making on Broadway and the story of his disappearance from England.
Hazel
Hazel, a cashier in a restaurant, is engaged to Patsy, a bus driver. Patsy earns some extra money by going in on preliminary bouts at the Athletic Club pugilistic exhibitions, and gains a local reputation as a boxer. When a big fighter is suddenly taken ill on the eve of a public contest, Patsy substitutes, wins the match, and suddenly finds himself in line for a bout with the champion of the world. On receipt of an offer for a long tour, he gets a swelled head and repudiates Hazel, who is forced to go back to work in the restaurant. She plans to get even with Patsy.
Abigail - the Country Girl
Abigail, the pretty daughter of a village school teacher, and Jared Guild are lovers. Bertha comes from the city to visit in the little town. Her charms prove too strong for Jared, who neglects Abigail to dance attendance upon the new belle. The country girl is broken-hearted, though she hides her sorrow from her erstwhile sweetheart. A wealthy young planter, however, soon cuts out Jared with Bertha.
Participant in Mob Scene (uncredited)
This shows the regeneration of a gang leader, who remains true to his first sweetheart after his change of fortune.
Sunbeam
Sunbeam's father is sent to prison, and on his release promises to remain honest. He secures a job as a night watchman, but his prison record being discovered, he is fired, and finds it impossible to secure work. Sunbeam gets a job in a a family as a "slavey" in order to support the father and herself, but her father chafes at the idea of his daughter working, although he does not know what her job is nor where. In desperation, he decides to turn crook again, and breaks into the house where his daughter is working.
Carol (May's younger sister)
May and her younger sister, Carol, live in a small town. May is the more lovely of the two, but Carol is wooed by Frank, a country boy. George, a city man, comes to town on a visit, falls in love with Carol and wins her away from Frank. Carol is pleased with his attentions and poor Frank is brokenhearted. Calling one day to see Carol, George meets May and falls madly in love with her, and finally runs away with her and they are married. Carol, in despair, turns back to Frank and they are married, and a year later a baby is born.
May Rock
William Rock, assistant cashier in a business concern, has a sick daughter. The doctor urges that she be taken immediately to another climate, and Rock, unable to get an advance on his pay, is desperate. He has been in the habit of taking the deposits to the bank every Saturday, and then going direct from the bank home. He determines that week to steal the money. On Saturday Rock is followed on the street by a couple of crooks. He goes into a telephone booth to phone his daughter May and her fiancé, a young physician, that they can start south with the younger sister at once. Taking the money out of the bank satchel, he stuffs it in his inside vest pocket and leaves with the empty bag in his hand. He goes down an alleyway to get rid of the satchel, but is assaulted by the gunmen and the bag taken from him.
The Ranchman's Daughter
The ranchman's daughter is in love with Jack of the Rancho and becomes engaged to him, but Pa comes on their lovemaking and rudely separates them. Following an idea which he worked on during a visit to New York, Pa writes to a Frenchman, a lawyer there, and tells him he will marry his daughter to a count the lawyer will provide. The lawyer accordingly looks up an Italian cook, decks him out with a red sash, etc., and sends him west for the easy money.
Dorothy
Dorothy, flighty little country girl, dissatisfied with humdrum country life. longs for the gaiety of the cities. She meets a man from city on vacation; he makes cavalier love to her. She is interested and becomes infatuated. Mother warns her against him and begs her to be contented in country life. Dorothy is petulant. She lies in a hammock under the trees, and wishes the city man would come and take her away from the life she hates. Dorothy falls asleep in the hammock. The city man appears and finds her asleep. He kisses her awake and makes more violent love to her. He urges her to flee with him to the city by recounting the pleasures he can give her.
Helen Robinson
Society man Arthur Lee is in love with society belle Helen Robinson, who is also admired by James Holden, a wealthy mine owner from the West. At her father's country place, Lee is unhappy because of her popularity but is appeased when she finally accepts his proposal and ring. Holden interrupts and claims a moment's talk. Telling Lee to wait for her in a favorite nook of the veranda, she goes with Holden while Lee strolls in the garden to await her. After proposing, Holden leaves her and hastens to the nook, seating himself with his back to the French windows. Lee is nearby in the garden finishing his smoke. He sees Holden in his chair, by the light of the latter's cigarette, and then sees Helen come from the lighted ballroom, approach the chair and throw her arms about Holden, sit in his lap and kiss him. Lee turns away in despair and anger and leaves the grounds.
Mamie New
Marcus Down makes only $15 a week. He has always paid spot cash for everything, until he meets Mamie New and they are wed. Then Mamie shows him how simple it is to get things on the easy payment plan. At first everything is rosy and matters go very smoothly for the young couple. Then the collectors begin to get busy and finally Marcus has nothing left, not even his bride, for the parson comes to take her for his fee, which had been arranged for on a ten cents a day basis.
Nell
A country boarding house story
Ruth Wilson
Ruth Wilson, daughter of a wealthy landowner, receives a visit from her country sweetheart, Joe Merriam. who is a motorboat enthusiast. Unknown to anyone but her brother Frank, Ruth is an expert at fixing auto and motorboat engines as the estate is on the bay and Ruth has the use of two launches. With Joe she goes for a boat ride but the engine breaks down and he is unable to fix it, and afraid that it would lower his opinion of her if she should repair the engine, she lets him call another boat to tow them back to the wharf. Merriam, while in love with Ruth, cannot bring himself to propose, fearing that she would be too ornamental for a farmer's wife, and half of his visit passes while he attempts to make up his mind.
Bessie
A two-reel story of domestic life.
Dorothy Bell - the Innkeeper's Stepdaughter
Maximillo Corto, a Mexican crook, keeps a tavern on the Mexican border and has a daughter whom he abuses and who has to do all the hard work around the place. One day, Bob Jamison, really an American spy in the service, comes to the inn and stops overnight. He falls in love with the daughter of the innkeeper. She is infatuated with him, as he is the first human being who has ever been kind to her. He goes away but promises to return. While he is away a large reward is offered for his capture, dead or alive. The innkeeper tells the messenger of the news that if Bob ever comes back, he will put him into room seven and hold him. The daughter overhears this, and when Bob returns, unable to warn him, she changes the number on the door of room seven to that of six. When Bob is sent up to his room by Corto, he goes in what he thinks is seven but the daughter afterwards shifts the door numbers back to their original positions. Corto decides to kill Bob in his sleep and steals upstairs.
Jess - the Younger Sister
Jess, a country girl, leaves home when her sister tries to boss her. Later she secures employment in a department store in the city. There she meets Jake, a good-for-nothing, who promises to marry her. Jane, Jess's elder sister, follows her to the city and secures employment in the same store. Jane soon learns that Jake does not intend to marry her sister, and, pretending to be infatuated with him herself, decides to give her sister proof of her supposed sweetheart's true character. Jess hides in Jake's rooms and Jane enters with the ne'er-do-well. Jake attempts to force Jane to his will with a revolver. Jane promises to be his sweetheart, provided he signs a note, presumably to Jess, saying, "I am tired of this life," etc. Jake signs the note, and when Jane fails to keep her promise there is a struggle for possession of the weapon. In the confusion the revolver is accidentally discharged and Jake is killed.
The City Girl
The country boy, despite the advice of a fellow-townsman, goes to the city, where, after an encounter with a motion picture holdup man, is engaged as property boy in a studio. His fellow-townsman comes to the city when he learns that his wife, from whom he has become estranged, is dying.
A silent comedy farce.
ARCHIVE: George Eastman House
Miriam Talbot
Bob Taylor was a valuable man. Talbot, his employer, told Miriam as much, showing his daughter the good round sum which his new clerk had handed him that evening for a real estate deal he had made in Talbot's absence. It was after banking hours and Talbot slept with the money under his pillow. The next morning he went off in a tearing hurry and forgot the roll of bills.
Kitty, the pretty young wife of a Texas businessman, feels neglected and unwanted as her husband pays more attention to his business interests than he does to her and spends more and more time away from home. A handsome young neighbor notices her emotional state and decides to try to take advantage of it. In her confused and lonely condition, Kitty finds herself attracted to the man and begins to think about running away with him.
The Newer Woman is a 1914 silent film.
Mary Jones
Mary Jones, slavey, lonely and unloved, advertises in a matrimonial paper for a good man to marry her. Charlie Brown, village sport, answers the ad. He signs it with the name of "Silent Sandy," his bachelor friend, telling Mary to come at once and he will make her happy. Mary comes. Sandy, willing to meet her, she looks him up. The tender hearted bachelor, realizing from the grins of Charlie and his pal that this is a put up job of theirs, marries Mary out of pity. Mary discovers "the joke," and that Silent Sandy did not marry her for love. As she is very much in love with her husband, this nearly breaks her heart. Meanwhile, Charlie has become fascinated by Mary's beauty. He declares his feelings, begging her to elope with him. Mary, furiously unhappy, repulses him, and Sandy comes in just in time to finish up Charlie.
Kitty Ives - Debutante
A 1914 film drama
Joan Fitzhugh - the Adopted Sister
Steve Monteith and Ezra Mason, upper class men, and Bill Bronson, a plebe, are chums and roommates at West Point before the Civil War. Steve prepares to leave for his home in Virginia, and Mason and he exchange photographs before parting. General Abner Montieth, Steve's father, and his sister Clairette are overjoyed and surprised when Steve arrives. Aunt Margie and her adopted daughter, Joan Fitzhugh, who is very fond of Steve, join the family and give Steve a warm welcome. One year later the rumble of war is heard. Steve, now a major, and his father, General, leave at the head of separate companies with the Confederate troops.
Sister of Payne's Sweetheart
John Howard Payne leaves home and begins a career in the theater. Despite encouragement from his mother and his sweetheart, Payne begins to lead a life of dissolute habits, and this soon leads to ruin and misery. In deep despair, he thinks of better days, and writes a song that later provides inspiration to several others in their own times of need.
Dorothy Ketcham
Liberty Belles, silent comedy film from 1914 starring Dorothy Gish, Jack Pickford, and Gertrude Bambrick.
The Different Man is a silent Western from 1914
Nell - 'The Mountain Rat'
A 1914 silent Western short
Short film telling the story of diamond smuggling.
The Maid-of-All-Work
The Old Man is a 1914 film short
Marylee Price
A feud between the families of Gourd and Fork Ranches
Stella Ford
English sleuths Grace Burton and Stephen Pryde are in love, but when Stephen inherits wealth and a title, he does not tell Grace, fearing that she will stop loving him. Grace provides support for her sister Stella Ford, whose husband is frequently away on business trips, so Stephen, hoping to alleviate Grace's financial burden, pays all of Stella's debts and provides her with an allowance. When Grace learns of the arrangement, she is hurt that he did not confide in her. Stella lives in a building occupied by a wild crowd. In the flat above her lives Netta, who has numerous boyfriends, including Jerome, an older man, and Bartlett, a young fop. One evening, the rivals mistakenly enter Stella's apartment and in an ensuing fight, Jerome kills Bartlett.
Crippled Beggar
Griffith adapts the story of the Apocryphal Book of Judith to the screen. During the siege of the Jewish city of Bethulia by the Assyrian tyrant Holofernes, a widow named Judith forms a plan to stop the war as her people suffer in starvation, nearly ready to surrender.
After his daughter's return the jeweler attempted to break the partnership he had with the crook. His partner, however, won the girl's love, and threatened to expose the father if he attempted to break off the match. By a clever ruse the father set the gangsters against their leader. His plan did not prove altogether successful.
Marjorie
All her life the old teacher had been smoothing over the rough places, but when the great need came in her own life all forgot her except one; that was the little girl whom she had last befriended. What mattered then the dastardly plot of the scheming brokers?
A Duel for Love is a 1914 dramatic short.
The Daughter
In her youth the mother was saved from the fatal mistake by an accident, but it caused her years of separation from child and husband. It had occurred primarily through her self-righteous sister-in-law's domination and interference. A like fate and downfall threatened the daughter, now reaching maturity. The mother's insistence separated the child from her environment. Love and understanding did the rest.
It was Christmas Eve in the south, but the spirit of peace and love did not pervade the northern girl's heart. The gallantry of the young southern swains, however, was more than manifest, when a drunken band of Unionists entered the house, among them her sweetheart. From him was protection needed most. His rival, a Confederate soldier, showed her that character is far above political principle, and true love came into its own.
At League Meeting (uncredited)
An oil tycoon corners the market, then cuts jobs and causes much suffering. Because she's lost her job, a young girl almost falls into the hands of white slavers.
Suffragette
Caroline Spankhurst and her suffragette brigade conclude to stop at nothing, so in their dauntless enthusiasm they forget their babies peacefully reposing on the sidewalk. The babies fall into the hands of the traffic squad, ordered to keep clear streets. A small-sized riot is taking place, but every mother's a suffragette so why cry "Help?"
The Girl
Behold in this film the villain up to his dirty work again, but if you watch the persistent young hero carefully, you will see him gallantly rescue the lady in black about to be burned at the stake, while at the same time he saved the fair heroine from the mad ambition of her father about to marry her to the dastardly ex-governor of Utah.
The Daughter
A Western action film about two men who escape from prison to take revenge on the person who betrayed them. Harry’s actions ensure that William and his friend get sent to prison. They escape, and want to take revenge on Harry. Harry's wife warns the sheriff, and as William and his friend are chasing Harry on horseback, they are shot by the sheriff.
Among Suffragette Minstrels
Two wives of Jenksville at least did not intend their husbands should be corrupted by the arrival of these enticing ladies in town. That show should be investigated. It resulted in their becoming one of the sensations of the performance, while the husbands became an awful example.
Story
Two wives of Jenksville at least did not intend their husbands should be corrupted by the arrival of these enticing ladies in town. That show should be investigated. It resulted in their becoming one of the sensations of the performance, while the husbands became an awful example.
Young Mother
To be a fond and devoted parent, and to be unable to play with the heaven of your heart is indeed a cruel decree. That was the case of Papa Binks, but he outwitted Mrs. Binks and the nurse in a very effective, yet unostentatious manner, while he and the baby had the time of their lives.
One of the Kids
In spite of their oversupply of energy, their Pa-to-be just doted on the kids. The fascinating traveling salesman, who won away their fickle Ma, did not, but through the widow's deception, the kids won the parent of their hearts.
A Messenger
Quite harmless in themselves, but when Mrs. Ronald G. Saunders saw her faithless lord purchasing the innocent blossoms, she was for a divorce right away. Henceforth she would devote her life to charity. The fond one on whom the flowers were bestowed cast them forth. In her pursuit of uplifting the lowly, Mrs. Saunders found them, and the monster husband was at once transformed into a dear, kind, good one.
Dot
First Pa said Theodore was a lizzy-nizzy. He let that go, but when Pa said he was too sporty because he spent a nickel for a ticket for a voting contest for the fairest girl in town, Pa's daughter, of course, then Theodore decided to settle Pa. He played at being a lady. Then Pa said he might not be as young as he used to be, but Ma came along. So Pa said all on the sly, "Go to it, Theodore."
Dancer (uncredited)
Behold in this film the Uplifter, a peculiarity of the human species, quite convinced that all that is, is wrong. Forth to the uplift he minds everybody's business but his own, until that business is as clean, pure and spotless as himself. Verily in these later days is there no school of art named, "Minding One's Business."
The Daughter
The orthodox mother's indomitable will dwarfed the child's individuality, defeating the very purpose it would attain. The girl ran away with an actor and the fearful prayer, "If I ever speak to that man again, may God strike my mother blind," was fulfilled, but in the end the woman was saved from herself.
Miss Smart / Sideshow Patron
Rooly, Pooly and Dooly were "picture sandwiches," but hardly shining lights, even in that capacity. Consequently they were "canned" by the management. A brilliant idea; one would play the wild man in the village square, a real live show of their own. Rooly and Pooly then basked in the society of fair country belles, but Dooly at length was rescued by Miss Smart, looking for excitement. She was not disappointed.
Hicks' Sweetheart
Hard as nails and as strong winded as a gale in March, Red Hicks may have been a bit "chesty," but he was in perfect trim. The town depended on the champion, O'Shea, the fighting Irishman, to make soft putty of the world famous pugilist, but on the day of the fight there was no O'Shea. The supposition was he did not have the price: and other domestic difficulties interfered. O'Shea's trainer, however, solved the problem and Bed Hicks found his Waterloo.
Woman at Dock (uncredited)
The hardship of earning an existence for the family made it impossible for the mother to approve the little pretty things which her daughter liked. Lack of attention made her son dissolute, but later the sturdy stock of his mother showed in him and the cozy home he provided for dad and sister made them forget the past.
The Sweetheart's Sister
The brothers choose between love and gold. The three brothers sought the gold regions. The fourth chose to be a stay-at-home. He sought just love, and love was his reward: in the happiness of two old parents and the heart of a sweet girl. But those in the gold regions, each for himself, seeking just gold, found their ill rewards in the sordid earth of the Bad Lands.
The Second Sister
The question is, would the young tramp really have fallen in love with the groceryman's daughter if he had not caught her in the heart struggle? Be that as it may, she could not find it in her to drown the unwelcome visitor to the pantry, so she let it go and the silent little drama witnessed by the tramp greatly impressed him. Not so the strict aunt, she declared the whole thing to be in exact accordance with everything else in the family. Their hearts ran away with their heads. That was why they lost money on credit, could not pay off the mortgage and send the sick sister to a better climate. As for the tramp, they had no business to take him in. He could not pay for his keep. But the tramp surprised them all.
Rose
Rose and her cousin Mary dwell in the land of romance, but real Romeos are scarce in this prosaic age. Yet Rose, in spite of a gay young Lothario who steps in the way of her own true love, finds her way to love-land. That was where Mary's perfidy came in. It showed up Lothario's true character, while at the same time it brought Mary back to her own determined young lover.
In Telegraph Office (uncredited)
In this story the young wife concerned is called upon to solve a rather momentous question. After separating from her husband, whom she has discovered to be a brute and a criminal, she is about to give herself to another man, believing her husband dead, when he appears before her fleeing from justice. Shall she deliver him to the law or surrender to his claims? She yields in one instance, but not in the other. Then justice intervenes.
In First Audience (uncredited)
A stage dancer (Sweet) and a serious-type homebody (Walthall) discover, after marriage, that their individual styles don't mesh. The movie includes elaborate dance sequences.
Witness to Accident
Knocked down by an automobile, the intoxicated tramp is taken to the doctor's house, received and treated to a square meal. The husband of a patient has just died, calls on the doctor, intending to kill him. The grief-crazed man is foiled several times by the return of the tramp, whom the maid at last pushes out of the house. She hears the doctor struggling with his assailant and faints. The tramp hears the doctor's cry for help and enters by a rear window, despite the objections of a policeman, in time to save his benefactor.
Birthday Wellwisher
In this latter day Cain and Abel story, a jealous brother strikes down his sibling just as a young burglar is about to enter the house. The jealous brother summons police, who then charge the intruder with murder.
The Young Woman
Stern parents have ever been relentless obstacles in love's young dream, but it is perhaps quite doubtful if ever love could equal the accentuated bliss and anguish of these two. She refused to eat for her hero and for her he bore the marks of battle, an eye made black by a cruel parent's fist. Tired of such an unsympathetic world, they sought the wilderness, where, had it not been for Indian Charlie, these two "babes in the wood" would have ended their dream in a manner quite too disagreeable to think of.
To fulfill a dying mother's bequest for her daughter, the town pastor purchases the daughter a stylish hat, and gossip spreads through the town.
The Southern Girl
The young lover leaving home at the opening of the war to join the Confederate Army, tells his brother to take care of his fatherless sweetheart during the perilous times which are to follow. But the brother weakens and fails to be true to his trust. He permits her to believe that her lover is dead. Caught in the neighborhood, however, between the lines of the enemy, the brother appears before them at the crucial moment. In retaliation the false brother turns informer. Both forces are aroused to arms and during the attack upon the girl defending her wounded lover and family alone in the negro's cabin retribution comes in the form of a stray bullet.
Wedding Guest
When the double wedding takes two daughters away from the old man at once, the youngest, now the only one left, in outraged spirit promises never to leave her father, but soon she too is departing for a new home. Then comes a cold hard fact of life. The son-in-law claims his right to make a home alone for his wife. In his bitterness and anger, the father denies them both the house. Several years later the lonely old man meets at the gate a babe in arms. When he learns whose baby it is, heart hunger craves another sight, and sought, brings with it the only natural result.
Frizzy-Haired Woman in Street (uncredited)
A man recognizes the thief who had previously robbed him as one of the men involved in an unrelated mob shootout.
Belle at Ice Cream Festival
A lonely young woman lives with her strict father who forbids her to wear make-up. One day at an ice cream social, she meets a young man you seems interested in her. However, unknown to her, he is a burglar who is only interested in breaking into her father's house. One night she is awakened by a noise.
A Friend
It's love at first sight for the Boy, but obstacles-- namely shyness, and the temerity of other suitors-- place themselves in the way of his love. Unknowingly, the Boy and the young woman of his fancy both stay at the home of mutual friends-- But all is not well, as robbers lurk outside the house.
In Theatre Crowd
Calumny is one of the most despicable crimes against our neighbor, and while the wife in this story acted conventionally, she nevertheless maligned the other woman simply because of her profession, an actress. While out on a shopping tour, the wife and her husband enter a store, leaving their little child in the auto in the care of the chauffeur. This gentleman pays but scant attention to the child, so the little one wanders off and strolls into the stage door of a theater during the matinee. The parents upon their return to the auto discover the child's absence and trace him to the theater stage, where they find him in the arms of one of the show girls. The mother matches the child from the girl's arms, scornfully exclaiming, "How dare you contaminate my child with your touch?" For this remark, together with the derisive laughter it occasions, the girl vows to be avenged.
Youngest Sister
The physician's death orphans his two adolescent daughters. Their older brother is able to convert some of the doctor's small estate to cash. But it is late in the day, and with the banks closed he stores the money in his father's household safe. The slatternly housekeeper, aware of the money, enlists a criminal acquaintance to crack the safe. She attempts to get into the adjacent room where the sisters tremble in fear, but finds that the door is locked. The drunken housekeeper menaces them by brandishing a gun through a hole in the wall.
Mollie Kite - the Girl
Molly Kite, the neglected child of a drunken father, rouses the sympathy of the minister, Mr. Shipton, who also teaches the school at Dead Tree. The minister-school-master persuades some of his parishioners to give the girl decent clothes, and he coaxes her into attending school. At first unruly and sullen, she gradually comes to feel that the minister is her best friend. One day she happens to see him meet a strange girl on the street. Apparently overjoyed, he kisses the stranger. Molly rushes into the house, tears off her new clothes, and vows she will never go to school again.
