The Social Secretary (1916)

The story of a Japanese woman and the tragedy that ensues when she loves an American naval officer.

The story of David Harum, a small-town banker, and how what he does and who he is affects the lives of everyone in his town, whether they--or he--realize it.

Baroness Troixmonde, aka Filibus, the mysterious air pirate, commits her thefts then retreats to the safety of her zeppelin. Filibus' airship is manned by a staff of mask-wearing lackeys who instantly obey her every command. An esteemed detective sets out on her trail, and Filibus attempts to frame him as the daring villain-- all the while slipping in between male and female disguises to romance the detective's sister!

Cortez sends Alvarado to Montezuma who throws him into a dungeon from which he is rescued by Tecza who loves him. He is recaptured when her lover Guatemoco finds Alvarado hiding in her chambers. Tecza next leads Cortez into the city, thus causing the destruction of her nation and securing the love of Alvarado.

In the midst of an emotional depression, a man hires a murderer to kill him. But the despair soon passes, and the man must now escape the killer he's hired to end his life.

Despite of (or perhaps because of ) its sparse production values and unpretentiousness, the Italian Gli Innamorati was feted at the 1956 Cannes Film Festival. The bulk of the story takes place in a single Roman neighborhood. In the manner of the 1925 German classic A Joyless Street, director Mauro Bolognini studies the hopes, dreams, successes and failures of the neighborhood's various and sundry denizens. No one subplot dominates the proceedings, though a bit of extra time is afforded the story of a fickle seamstress and her seemingly meek-and-mild boyfriend. The cast is dotted with such reassuringly familiar faces as Nino Manfredi and Gino Cervi. Released in the US as Wild Love, Gli Innamorati was instrumental in bringing international fame to director Bolognini, whose career soon shifted into high drive.

A young woman discovers a seed that can make women act like men and men act like women. She decides to take one, then slips one to her maid and another to her fiancé. The fun begins.

The story of the defense of the mission-turned-fortress by 185 Texans against an overwhelming Mexican army in 1836.

Unlike most Italian films of the 1940s, Augusto Genina's Cielo Sulla Palude opened in Venice rather than Rome. The film's American title was Heaven Over the Marshes, and indeed most of the story is set in the disease-ridden Pontine Marshes on the outskirts of Rome. This was the home of Maria Goretti, a pious young girl who was murdered by her would-be seducer. For reasons elucidated in the course of the film, Maria's short time on earth made her worthy of Sainthood, which was actually bestowed upon her shortly after the release of this film. Maria Goretti is well-played by Ines Orsini. Cielo Sulla Palude served as the comeback feature for director Augusto Genina, whose previous pro-fascist films had caused him to be blacklisted after WW II.

Produced at the Reliance studio in Yonkers, New York, HIS PICTURE IN THE PAPERS solidly established Fairbanks as the American ideal of pop, vim, and vigor. Furthermore, the film brought him together with the two collaborators who were to play a profound role in the evolution of his screen persona: writer Anita Loos and her future husband, director John Emerson. The theme was, according to Emerson and Loos, "the great American love of publicity."

In 64 A.D., Marcus Superbus is Prefect of Rome. When the Emperor Nero decides to renew persecution of the Christians, Marcus opposes him, fearing for the safety of Mercia, the Christian woman whom he loves. Through the machinations of the Empress Poppaea and other women at court, Tigellinus, Nero's agent in the war against the Christians, convinces Nero to have Mercia arrested. Marcus appeals to the emperor for mercy, but is told that she can be saved only by renouncing Christianity. Waiting to enter the arena to be killed, Mercia steadfastly refuses to reject her religion, despite Marcus' pleas. Finally, Marcus is converted by her and they enter the arena to face death together.

La Pampa, Argentina. Don Genaro Gran hires gaucho Juan to capture horses and tame them. In his quest, Juan rescues a girl in trouble whose beauty unleashes Don Genaro's worst impulses.

A drifter helps a ranch couple fend off the approaches of a ruthless landowner.

During World War I, a professional thief known as The Lone Wolf is assigned to steal a cylinder with important information from behind the German lines and bring it to Allied intelligence headquarters. However, German agents set out to stop him, headed by the man who was responsible for the death of the thief's sister.

Immediately after the war, bandits attack a truck that is transporting newlyweds Michele and Giovanna and the accountant of an agricultural cooperative charged with bringing four million lire into office.

An immigrant leaves his sweetheart in Italy to find a better life across the sea in the grimy slums of New York.

An Italian sex worker falls in love with a black American soldier during World War II.

Young Nellie Jarvis, daughter of a wandering couple, witnesses the murder of a woman by a man and his wife. Years later, "Little Miss Yes'm", as Nellie is known, returns to the area as an orphan. Locals Mr. and Mrs. Hilton, though poverty stricken, take her into their family. Fully integrated with the loving Hiltons, she wishes to relieve them of their financial strain. Nellie travels to a nearby farmhouse to gain employment from depraved Martin Cain and his paranoid wife.

In 19th century southern Italy (near Melfi, Basilicata), a small force of soldiers fight in the hills against the bandits who are holding their country to ransom.

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.