(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.
Gus
Gil Kyle finds himself caught up in the politics and unrest of the American Civil War and soon gets himself framed for a murder. His only alibi is Candace Bronson, who is aiding the Confederate cause and has left the territory to deliver a vital message about a Yankee gold shipment. So he sets off in pursuit, running into desperados, government agents, and guerrilla fighters, who are more interested in profit than ideals. Written by Alfred Jingle
Bit Role (uncredited)
This short film focuses on the job of the Hollywood screenwriter.
Man (uncredited)
In a small town in Kansas, a county attorney in an unhappy marriage falls in love with another woman.
Self
A short in the WB Hollywood Novelty series (production number 7301) about the training of polo ponies. Buddy Rogers buys one of the ponies in training, and later uses him in a match where Jack Holt and Joe E. Brown are among the players. Edward G. Robinson and Jack Oakie are among the spectators who see Joe. E. Brown knock in the winning score.
Mr. Corbett, Norma's Father
Larry Evans, champion race car driver, is envied by his chief rival, Eddie DeSylva, who has more ambitions than merely winning the races; he has designs on the motor patent held by Corbett (Tom Moore), Larry's employer. Eddie also has a yen for Corbett's daughter, Norma, who prefers Larry. Eddie intentionally causes a race wreck that injures Larry and sends him to the hospital.
Brace
The heiress to a powerful newspaper owner gets a job at the paper under an assumed name and helps break up a blackmail racket.
Sheriff Hannan
In the 1840's Mexico has ceded California to the United States, making life nearly impossible for the Mexican population due to the influx of land and gold-crazy Americans. Farmer Joaquin Murrieta revenges the death of his wife against the four Americans who killed her and is branded an outlaw. The reward for his capture is increased as he subsequently kills the men who brutally murder his brother. Joining with bandit Three Fingered Jack, Murrieta raises an army of disaffected Mexicans and goes on a rampage against the Americans, finally forcing his erstwhile friend, Bill Warren, to lead a posse against him.
Civil Surgeon
In India, a police inspector investigates a murder that took place on a train between Calcutta and Bombay.
2nd Suitor (archive footage)
Ed Sullivan shows night spots all over New York in this movie, joking and listening to stories the patrons tell.
Tom Hyland
An immigrant and his wife arrive in America hoping to make it big in the world of music. Shortly thereafter, though, the husband finds out his wife is having an affair with a local lowlife; when he turns up dead, the husband is jailed for his murder, even though he protests his innocence.
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.
Mike O'Dowd
During the war two friends love the same nurse. After the war one becomes a detective, the other a racketeer.
Mahoney
An Irish policeman handles gangsters, a mystery woman and a wise-guy reporter.
Tom
During a raid, a cop lets a pretty speakeasy employee escape and later begins dating her. Although she loves him, his salary and dull life leave her wanting.
Jimmy O'Farrell
Three New York Irish brothers cross paths as policeman, doctor and bootlegger.
Pat Kelly
Anybody Here Seen Kelly? is a 1928 American silent comedy film directed by William Wyler. This was the first non-Western film to be directed by Wyler and is now considered to be a lost film. This is Bessie Love's final silent film.
John Blaisdell
John Blaisdell, a stolid businessman married for 10 years, concludes that romantic love is a thing of the past for him. His wife, Helen, a very domestic and conservative woman, invites Jenny Lou, a young southern girl, as her houseguest, and the girl flirts with John; she is conspicuously unsuccessful until she pretends to faint on the golf course and the unsuspecting victim finds her in his arms.
Eddie Murphy
Susan Adams, who works as a pianist in a Broadway music store, has ambitions for a stage career. Arthur Bennett, famous theater producer and successful star-maker, calls her into his office to complain about her loud piano under him, and she haughty replies that if he gives her a chance on stage, she will do it.
Jimmie Bancroft
When a hardened businesswoman who goes by the initials A.B. overhears someone calling her an “Amazon” because of her butch ways, she agrees to a more “feminine” makeover. In the end she learns that no matter how she looks she’s still the smartest person in any room.
Gerald Gray
Four middle-aged actors jointly adopt an orphaned baby girl, raising her in a backstage milieu.
Happy Farrell
Song and Dance Man was based on the play of the same name by George M. Cohan. Tom Moore plays vaudevillian Happy Farrell, who gives up show biz to take a "civilian" job. Finding success in the business world, Happy tries to go back on stage, only to find that it isn't quite so easy the second time around. Meanwhile, our hero's former vaude partner Leola Lane (Bessie Love), now a headliner at the Palace, gives it all up to become the bride of artist Joseph Murdock
Policeman
An adaption of a novel by Peter Pan author J.M. Barrie.
William Hyatt
William Hyatt (Tom Moore) runs an exclusive shoe store, and his happy marriage to Grace (Florence Vidor) is nearly derailed by his well-meaning, but hopelessly gauche pal, Al Hennessy (Sterling). Dagmar, a Parisian shoe designer (Esther Ralston) has come to town to meet with Hyatt and Hennessy, and Hennessy describes the situation to Grace in the worst possible manner, convincing her that her husband is having an affair.
Al Cassidy
Maggie, a headlining comedienne with the Follies, takes a fall off the stage into the orchestra pit and lands on the drum of musician Al Cassidy. One thing leads to another, they fall in love and get married. Al becomes a famous songwriter and Maggie stays home and has children. One day Al is hired to write a big number for Selma Larson, one of the Follies' most beautiful stars, and falls for her.
David Sheldon
David Sheldon owns a plantation in the Solomon Islands. Many of his field hands die of blackwater fever, and then he becomes sick himself. Joan Lackland, a female soldier of fortune, arrives by schooner in the islands. With the help of her Kanaka crew, she protects David from an attack by the natives who are led by Googomy. Joan nurses David back to health and becomes his business partner, protecting his mortgaged property from two avaricious moneylenders. Seeking vengeance, the moneylenders incite the natives to revolt.
Tom Sullivan
Boardinghouse servant Adele Clark is unexpectedly awarded the ownership of a certain piece of New York City property known as Clark's Field. The trustees send her to a finishing school, whose headmistress, Signorina Vitale, persuades Adele and her sweetheart, Tim Sullivan, that she should travel in Europe. Adele's new riches cause her to lose her sense of proportion, and she soon is involved with a fast set indulging in the jazz life. Even Tim cannot curb Adele's extravagance, and he returns to America while Adele marries Italian fortune-hunter Prince Arnolfo Da Pescia. When a will is discovered naming Tim as the rightful heir to Clark's Field, Adele and Arnolfo hurry to New York, and Arnolfo tries to steal the will, then dies in a hotel fire.
Richard Oak
The story of a great Italian Duchess and of the baffling mystic, L Enigma
Jim Hogan
Comedy which concerns the struggles of an ambitious department store sales clerk who is caught up in New York high society.
Jimmy Donovan
When gangster Jimmy Donovan is made guardian of Midge, the 7-year-old brother of his friend Big Ben Murray, he decides to reform and rear Midge properly. The court takes custody of Midge, but Donovan proves himself by recovering a payroll stolen by some of his ex-colleagues, thereby winning Midge and Kitty, his girl.
James Patterson III
Thrifty orphan Norah MacPherson meets wealthy young James Patterson, who gets her a job as a chorus girl. They fall in love. To put up a good front, she spends all her money on clothes. Patterson doubts her when he sees her wearing a string of fake pearls; he then finds that she hasn't been unfaithful, and they are reconciled.
Tom Moore (uncredited)
Mary's kid brother needs an operation and, in order to pay for it, Mary goes to a Hollywood studio and applies for a job as an actress. Mary is given a job as a waitress in the commissary, and gets to meet 40 actors, actresses and directors, none of whom tip big enough to enable Mary to earn enough money to pay for an operation. Will Mary become an actress and make some big money?
Himself
Documentary short film depicting the filmmaking activity at the Paramount Studios in Hollywood, featuring dozens of stars captured candidly and at work.
Sgt. Flaherty
Jen Galbraith is in love with Sgt. Tom Flaherty of the Royal Mounted. She is the daughter of Peter Galbraith, who is engaged in smuggling moonshine whiskey across the Canadian border. When she tries to warn her father and brother of the approaching police, she is arrested with the entire gang.
Mr. Barnes
An English naval officer and a Corsican youth have a duel, and the Corsican is killed. The young man's sister, Marina Paoli, swears vengeance on the killer. Mr. Barnes of New York, who happened to see the duel, finds the name Gerard Anstruther engraved on the pistols.....
'Fancy Charlie'
Professional safecracker Fancy Charlie breaks into the apartment of G.B. Lawson, a criminologist, and mistakenly believes that he has robbed a fellow safecracker. Out of "professional courtesy" he informs Lawson of what he has done. Instead of calling the police, Lawson--who believes in the philosophy of "honor among thieves"--makes a deal with Charlie: to show Charlie that it's actually more profitable to be a legitimate businessman then a crook, he'll give Charlie some money if Charlie will use it to establish a legitimate business in the small town of Plumfield, and at the end of a year they will divide up whatever profits Charlie is able to make honestly. Charlie agrees, but soon discovers that things aren't going to be quite as easy as he thought.
William Lowry
William Lowry rescues Claudia Royce from a burning building, and upon hearing that her parents are trying to force her to accept millionaire Leland, whom she does not love, he proposes a marriage of convenience to himself. She accepts, and Bill arranges a fake ceremony; but when she falls in love with Davidge, Bill refuses her a "divorce." Later, Bill gets rich in the manufacture of a patented fireman's pole, and when he buys a house for Claudia she realizes her love for him and they are legally married.
Travers Gladwyn
Upon learning that notorious art thief Alf Wilson plans to steal his valuable paintings, idle millionaire Travers Gladwyn decides to amuse himself by guarding his own home. After bribing Policeman Phelan, Officer 666, with a $500 bill, Travers dons the officer's uniform and identity. When Wilson appears at his mansion, Travers questions him and discovers that Wilson is posing as Travers, claiming that he is packing up his paintings for safe keeping. ...
Jack Dougan
When Jack Dougan and Snatcher Nell, partners in crime as well as love, decide to purloin the gifts at the wedding of Madge Carr to James Cluney, Nell poses as a maid to gain entrance to the household. Soon after, articles begin to disappear and Madge's father, a kleptomaniac, begins to feel guilty, while the groom almost suspects himself.
The Marquis of Quex
Having followed the road of romance through many countries, Lord Quex finally falls in love with Muriel Eden. After resisting Lord Quex because of his reputation, Muriel finally capitulates to his charms and agrees to marry him. In her heart, however, Muriel still treasures an affection for Caption Bastling, a fortune hunting womanizer, and when Muriel is told of Lord Quex's continuing contact with the Duchess of Dowager, a situation brought about through the scheming of the Duchess, Muriel turns to Bastling and agrees to meet him at her friend Sophie Fullgarney's manicurist shop.
Lord Algy
Lord and Lady Algy separate amicably after he breaks his promise not to gamble again on the horses. When the wife of soap magnate Brabazon Tudway, is courted by Algy's philandering elder brother, Algy tries to help his brother escape Tudway's wrath by hiding Mrs. Tudway in his apartments. Tudway discovers her there ....
Larry Hayes
Traffic cop Larry Hayes takes care of four-year-old Mary Jane, the daughter of Gus Andrews, a criminal sent to prison because of Larry, and Nellie, a shop girl who visits often.
Harry Lathrop
Inheriting a fortune allows Harry Lathrop to indulge in extravagant spending and wild wine parties with chorus girls, decides to change his ways after his childhood sweetheart, Betty Dalrymple, gives back her engagement ring because he arrives drunk for dinner.
Dan Murray
Although she is engaged to the wealthy Freddy Ruyter, Barbara Wright prefers her father's handsome Irish chauffeur, Dan Murray, and marries him. The newlyweds struggle to survive on Dan's meager income, but Barbara's father, furious with them both, nearly destroys their happiness by securing Dan's dismissal from several jobs. ...
Soldier Boy
The Kaiser is playing cards with King Albert of Italy, who loses, but is rescued by Miss Liberty Loan.
Theodore Whitney Jr.
Don Meredith
Madge Kennedy stars as a young woman of modest means, posing as a millionairess in order to attend a hoity-toity society ball, where she hopes to snare a rich husband. Here she meets handsome young Tom Moore, who is likewise impersonating a man of wealth.
Chet Vernon
Bored by the slow pace of life in her little home town, Helen Drayton rebels when her friends and relatives assume that she will marry her friend and escort, Chet Vernon. Helen is so anxious to experience life in the big city that she falls in love with visiting New York architect John Galvin almost immediately after his arrival. Several weeks later, the two marry and move to New York, where, after a series of painful experiences, Helen finally realizes John's selfishness.
Jimmy Gilpin
Wealthy Clytie Rogers writes a novel in which a society girl commits a burglary, but it is "roasted" by critic Jimmy Gilpin, who writes that her story is completely implausible. To prove him wrong, Clytie decides to feign a robbery and enters an apartment through an open window. She is apprehended by a policeman, who mistakes her for local robber "Powder Nose Annie." Gilpin sees her in jail and, posing as crook Jimmy of the Dives, arranges to break her out and take her on a robbing spree. Finally, Jimmy returns her to her parents and then calls at her home as Gilpin, the critic. Clytie is suprised but forgives the deception and agrees to marry him.
Hunter Mason
Patricia O'Rourke, a good-natured prankster who works as a copy girl for the Sentinel , angers her co-worker Stubbs and is about to lose her job when the managing editor offers her one more chance. Her assignment is to explain the clue that links the Hope Mission, a derelict home run by millionaire Hunter Mason and his secretary, Monty Latham, with a series of local robberies. When Hunter discovers Patricia in his office, he assumes that she is a crook in need of reforming and takes her into his home to be cared for by his mother.....
Jack Forsythe
Mabel plays Arabella Flynn, a shop girl who mistakenly thinks she is an heiress. She gets in a jam on a spending spree only to discover that she actually is an heiress and can marry the heir of a corset manufacturer.
Tom Brown
Tom Brown shows up at Harvard, confident and a bit arrogant. He becomes a rival of Bob McAndrew, not only in football and rowing crew, but also for the affections of Mary Abbott, a professor's daughter.
Anthony Quintard
When Marjorie Caner returns from abroad, she is quite lonely in her millionaire father's big house. Learning that a young poet, Anthony Quintard, is living in poverty next door while working on the libretto of a great opera, she skips across the roofs and brings him a Christmas banquet. The poet sees Marjorie, and knowing that he detests wealth, she pretends to be the secretary of the Caner family.....
Donald MacDonald
A dying stranger abandons a baby girl in a gypsy camp, with a note explaining that on her eighteenth birthday, she is to inherit a Virginia estate. The gypsy chief, aware of the girl's value, instructs Sabia, the tribe's matron, to dress and rear her as a boy. Years later, while the tribe is traveling in Virginia, Vosho, the chief's son, discovers the true sex of the girl, now called Firefly, and demands to marry her.
Bob MacLean
Margaret MacLean, who has been saved from life in a wheelchair by the miracle of medicine, vows to devote her life to caring for crippled children. She becomes a nurse in the children's ward of Dr. MacLean's hospital, but after the beloved doctor's death, his son Bob returns home from abroad and decrees that he is closing the ward and that Margaret's little charges must leave the hospital. Furious, Margaret quits her job and storms out, with Bob in pursuit. As he rushes across the street, Bob is struck by a car and must be hospitalized. During his convalescence, he realizes that he is in love with Margaret and decides to have a home built for her and her patients. Unable to locate Margaret, Bob hires detectives, who find her and bring her to the home. There Margaret finds that all her dreams have come true as she sees her little charges happily living in their new home and gladly accepts Bob's proposal of marriage
Tom Carter
This picture tells of Leila Austen, a wealthy girl, who leaves Halsey Brent, a young suitor, to marry Tom Carter, a mining engineer.
Jack McCall - the Mill Owner's Son
Silent movie drama...
Dr. Wayne
A scientist tries to transfer the personality of a man into his mentally retarded son.
Director
A scientist tries to transfer the personality of a man into his mentally retarded son.
George Randall - a Millionaire
The Denton's marital happiness brings home to Randall the loneliness of his own existence. Shortly afterwards, the young man meets Pearl Eltinge, a cabaret singer. Ignorant of the fact that her beauty is a mask for a shallow mind, Randall makes her his wife.
Writer
The Denton's marital happiness brings home to Randall the loneliness of his own existence. Shortly afterwards, the young man meets Pearl Eltinge, a cabaret singer. Ignorant of the fact that her beauty is a mask for a shallow mind, Randall makes her his wife.
Director
The Denton's marital happiness brings home to Randall the loneliness of his own existence. Shortly afterwards, the young man meets Pearl Eltinge, a cabaret singer. Ignorant of the fact that her beauty is a mask for a shallow mind, Randall makes her his wife.
Dano / Guy Harrison
A mystery film in which two people fall into a mysterious sleep coma; an Oriental hypnotist then tries to reawaken them.
Rives - the Artist
Eleanor Warren is loved by Harold Rives, a struggling artist. Although fond of the young man, Eleanor longs for the comforts of wealth.
Burton Manning - a Young Millionaire
Mary's lot. always hard, becomes doubly so upon her father's death. Desiring to re-marry, the girl's stepmother conspires to get her out of the way.
Horace Payne - a Wealthy Broker
The second of three films featuring Alice Hollister as an evil vamp.
Don Packard - an Artist
Don Packard, an artist, forgets his country sweetheart, Martha, and falls in love with his model, Linee. The boy marries Linee and takes her to his home. Martha conceives a hatred for Linee when she discovers that the girl has robbed her of her lover. Don's father, a parson, is horrified when he learns of his son's worldly wife. When Linee realizes the trouble her marriage to Don has caused, she runs away, Martha does her utmost to stir up trouble. For two years Don searches in vain for Linee, who has become a cabaret dancer. Dupree, a Frenchman, falls in love with the girl, but she repels his advances, Don enters the restaurant just as Dupree, mad with jealousy, attempts to shoot Linee.
Ware - Sarah's Former Suitor
Driven to desperation by the enmity of Jane, her step-daughter, Sarah, Dean's second wife, turns to Ware, a friend of the family and a former suitor, for advice. Jane learns that her stepmother has gone to call upon Ware. Realizing the unhappiness her conduct has caused, the girl is stricken with remorse. Knowing that her father would misconstrue Sarah's visit to Ware, the girl hastens to the man's home to meet her stepmother. Sarah is fallen aback when Jane finds her with Ware, but is filled with happiness when the girl announces her desire for a reconciliation.
Charles Dane - the Friend
Believing her husband no longer loves her, Alice Lund consents to elope with Cater. She writes the man a note to this effect. Dane and the Lunds are warm friends. He decides to surprise them by taking them to the theater. Dane calls at the Lund home in time to see Alice preparing to run away with Cater. He sees the woman rifle her husband's safe of a large sum of money. She is just about to hand it to Cater, when Dane steps between and seizes the money.
Dan - a Mountaineer
Allan loves Betty, a mountain girl. Not sure that she loves the boy. Betty declines to marry him. Dan, a rough mountaineer, lives a secluded life, with only his dog as companion. The man sees Betty bathing in a mountain stream. He falls madly in love with her. Later, Dan woos her in his rough way.
Thaddeus Strong - the New Minister
Lem Ransom, the village drunkard, steals the Widow Huggins' bonds while under the influence of liquor, at the instigation of Hannibal Chapman, an unscrupulous lawyer. After taking the stolen bonds from his catspaw, Chapman treacherously arranges to have suspicion fall upon Lem.
Jack Halleck - the Son
On his wedding eve Henry Halleck opens a sealed envelope which has been handed down to each generation, and learns that the family is cursed with a lust for drink. He signs the pledge which bears the signatures of his fathers.
Jack Hollis
Little Elsie, scarcely two years of age, awakens one morning and crawls out of the house, dragging her doll. The little tot creeps to the nearby railroad station and resumes her nap in one of the flower beds. Mrs. Hastings, a wealthy widow, is taking an early morning train, after having spent several weeks at an eastern summer resort. She reaches the station before train time and while strolling about, she discovers little Elsie. While she is fondling the little one, the train arrives and Mrs. Hastings, who has no child of her own, cannot master the temptation to take this baby with her. Upon arriving in the west, Mrs. Hastings learns from a newspaper of the strange disappearance of Elsie Mason.
In the Audience
A man arrives home late and drunk as usual. His wife reminds him that he's supposed to take their daughter out to a play. While watching the play, he's faced with his own drinking evils and how his life would be without them.
Party Guest (unconfirmed)
Mack Sennett appears as a party guest in this film produced by the Biograph Company.
Man in Office / Wedding Guest
Mack Sennett appears as a wedding guest in this film produced by the Biograph Company.
Customer
Mack Sennett appears as one of character Mike McLaren's assistants in this film produced by the Biograph Company.
