Advanced search
- TITLES
- NAMES
- COLLABORATIONS
Search filters
Enter full date
to
or just enter yyyy, or yyyy-mm below
to
to
to
Exclude
Only includes titles with the selected topics
to
In minutes
to
1-50 of 479
- Prevented from dating his sweetheart by his uncle, a young man turns his thoughts to murder.
- Helen and Manders are in love and wish to marry. Her parents object to his poverty and want her to marry Alving, a notorious rake, who is wealthy and powerful. Manders protests. The family physician also objects because of the result such a match would mean on the children, but Helen's parents laugh at these new-fangled notions. The doctor then appeals to Alving, who laughs him to scorn. Urged on by her parents, ambitious Helen, disregarding all warnings, marries Alving. Later Helen discovers a liaison between her husband and a young married woman. She contemplates leaving her husband and seeks her physicians advice, but he declines to give it. She then sees her pastor, who advises her to adhere to convention and her husband. Meanwhile, the young married woman gives birth to a child by Alving, and the physician agrees to bring the father to see it and keep the real parentage secret. Helen also bears a boy named Oswald. When Oswald is nine, Alving dies, a victim of his excesses. Oswald lives a clean life and studies art, but at times his mind seems affected. The mother remembers the doctor's warnings, but rejects them as silly. Knowing the boy has lived a clean life, however, she soon comes to accept the physician's predictions as fact, and schemes to save her son by marrying him to a sweet young girl. She picks out the daughter of her husband's paramour, and, totally unaware of the girl's parentage, draws the two young people together. They fall deeply in love and are to be wed. When the physician receives the wedding invitation, he realizes he must stop the wedding. He feels duty-bound to tell the truth, and does so to Oswald, his mother, his bride-to-be and her father. Realizing that he must protect the girl he loves and embittered by his inheritance, Oswald plunges into mad excesses. He grows to hate his father and then his mother for the past they have embedded in his nature, and his mother slowly realizes the truth of the physician's predictions. Horror stricken, she watches the gradual rotting of her son's brain. The girl, meanwhile, has retired to a convent. Against the oncoming insanity, Oswald fortifies himself with poison, but one day his mother finds him sitting on the floor, paralyzed, playing with the sunbeams, and runs for the pastor. During her absence, he succeeds in reaching the poison and mother and pastor find him dead. As her only hope of consolation, the mother turns to the pastor.
- John Howard Payne at his most miserable point in life, writes a song which becomes popular and inspires other people at some point in their lives.
- 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. In the meantime, May and George have been living in another town. May is about to become a mother. George brings her to her own home for the interesting event and her child is soon born, but is still born. Crying for her baby, the physicians fear to tell her and are forced to try and find a baby to take its place until the wife is strong enough to bear being told the truth. Carol is approached and at first refuses but finally, for her sister's sake, consents and May is made happy. Carol misses her baby and May refuses to let her bother with "her" child and Carol is frantic but dare not tell the truth. Finally May overhears the truth from the doctor and nurses' conversation and takes the baby back to her real mother, and the sisters are reconciled.
- During the Civil War, young Lieutenant Graham from the North is housed with his men in the Southern home of Virginia Fairmont. She hates him as she does all Yankees, despite his consideration and courtesy. One day a peddler comes to her home. He is her brother Randolph, a Confederate spy. He manages to give her a note which must be conveyed to General Lee before sunrise. Virginia, who has been permitted to ride wherever she pleases, starts off. At the turn in the road she manages to slip the message into her boot. Graham sees this, follows and demands to know what it is. She holds out the wrong foot and as he pulls off the hoot she rides away. She delivers her message to General Lee safely and the Confederate Army is thus enabled to make an advantageous move. After the war, young Graham calls upon Virginia Fairmont to return her boot, and takes her heart in exchange.
- Frank Andrews is a successful businessman. He has always found pride and joy in the company of his wife, son and daughter. He suddenly finds himself enthralled by the advances of a gay young woman siren, who lives in the same apartment house as he does. So marked an influence does she have over him as time progresses that at last he quite forgets his home ties, neglects his family, and goes the way of many other men who have forgotten the meaning of paternity and blood ties. The story is advanced through many scenes enacted with the accompanying notes of New York's night life, and the denouement comes when the faithful wife discovers her husband's infidelity. At this time the mother's mind nearly loses balance, while Jane, the beautiful daughter, crazed by the grief of her mother, determines to take part in the tragedy. With revolver in hand she steals up to the apartment of the woman, but her frail nature is overcome by the temperamental anger of the woman and her mission fails. However, the errand is not fraught with failure for the father, coming in at this moment, finds his daughter being made love to by the sweetheart of the young woman, and realizes the road upon which he has traveled. When he confronts his daughter and says, "You, my daughter, what are you doing here?" The daughter answers, "My father, what are you doing here?" The realization is brought home to the father's mind that the law of moral ethics that governs a woman's life necessarily governs that of wan as well. Reformation comes in his character. He takes his daughter away with him and together they go back to their home of happiness and content.
- The will of old Dr. Andrews left the bulk of his property to his niece, Mary, who was an orphan living in a distant mining town. The small balance of his wealth went to a married nephew, John, who had been practicing medicine with him and was now made the executor of his estate, but who felt that he should have been made the sole heir. It fell to John to seek out Mary and bring her to her inheritance. John and his wife went to the mining town and found Mary working in the hotel, where she had been employed since her father's death. The three started back to the city, accompanied by the Indian guide. On the way they came to a stop for rest near a high cliff overlooking the desert. Mary was attracted by the beauty of the view and stood on the cliff with John's wife nearby. John came behind them unperceived except by his wife. He could reach out his hand and touch Mary. A slight shove would send her over. A look of intelligence passed between husband and wife and a moment after Mary fell to the rocks far below. They went down and picked her up. and she was apparently dead. They wrapped her body in a blanket and buried her in a shallow grave in the sand. Then they went on to the next settlement and taking the affidavit of the guide to the effect that the death of Mary had been accidental, they returned to the city, where John claimed the entire inheritance. Meanwhile, Bob Turner, a young miner living alone with his mother in a cabin, passing the grave noticed a strange movement of the earth. He investigated and found that Mary was just recovering consciousness. He carried her to his mother's cabin and they nursed her back to health, but her memory was gone. Bob was college bred and his mother was with him for her health. The two decided that Mary must be taken to a doctor. So they set out across the desert for the city with Mary, who had now come to love Bob. In the city they stopped at a cheap hotel and sought a doctor, who agreed to operate, but he must have assistance. He called in Dr. John. When John saw Mary his terror was complete, but when he found that she did not know him he regained his composure. He proposed the next day for the operation at his own office. It was agreed and he left the office, hastening home to his wife, to whom he told the news. They agreed that he must risk anything to render the operation abortive. His sudden terror had been noticed by Bob, who inquired of the first doctor who John was. The doctor told him, relating the matter of the inheritance from old Dr. Andrews. The truth dawned on Bob and he told of his finding Mary buried alive. The doctor agreed to help him trap John. The next day found a third doctor present to assist in the operation and a detective posing as a waiting patient. The patient was placed in the chair and John was about to operate when the first doctor interposed and the third doctor proceeded to operate. John was forced to watch the result with his wife, while the detective watched both of them that they should not escape. The operation successful, Mary's memory slowly came back. She recognized John, and her first words were, "He shoved me over the cliff." The arrest of John and wife followed as they were escaping, and as an aftermath we see Bob and Mary happily married.
- Nell and her old grandmother are poor and alone in the world and finally leave their old home and wander into the country in search of work. They reach a little country town and apply at a boarding house for work. Nell agreeing to work for nothing but board and lodging for herself and "Granny." This Sears, the proprietor, agrees to, but Nell is worked to death at waiting on table and other chores, and Sears is very unkind to her and "Granny." Graham Wilkes, a wealthy young man from the city, on the outs with his father, comes to the boarding house and becomes interested in little Nell, much to Sears' disgust, the latter redoubling his harsh treatment of Nell. Finally they can stand it no longer and leave. But en route Nell overhears a plan to rob Sears and Wilkes by a couple of tramps, and in spite of her being badly treated by the former, she decides to warn them and prevent the robbery, which she does. Sears now repents of his treatment of her but Wilkes has become interested and Nell turns to him for care and comfort for herself and Granny.
- Elmer Kent is a clerk in a large establishment, and earns fifteen dollars a week. He supports his sickly mother, and every cent of his salary is required to make both ends meet. The heaviest expense is the payments on the cottage which his father, before his death, partially paid for. Recently more money than usual has gone for necessities for his mother who has had an ill turn, and the real estate agent sends him word that payments overdue must be remitted the following day or the cottage will be seized. The next day is Saturday and pay day. Elmer hurries with the money to the agent's office only to learn he has gone to the beach. He follows, him but at the summer resort is waylaid by a fellow clerk. Wirt Hadley, who introduces him to two pretty girls. They have a good time, Hadley footing the bills until the girls begin to pass remarks about Elmer's being a "tightwad." Discouraged, irritated by their ridicule, and despairing of finding the agent, he treats everybody to a sumptuous meal at the café. There Carr, the agent, sees Elmer, forms his own opinion of the spendthrift, and when the young man applies on Monday for an extension, sternly refuses. Elmer and his mother are evicted. Meanwhile the girls enjoy life at the beach, where they are summering, all unconscious of the misfortunes their careless twitting of a sensitive youth have caused.
- A poor little waif visits the Christmas window of a large department store every day and, with the aid of her child's imagination, plays with the toys as if they were in her actual possession. One day she discovers that her favorite "Jack in the Box" and chocolate soldier, along with several of their toy companions, have disappeared from the window. Heartbroken, she wanders up Fifth Avenue and looks in the window of a large mansion. There she sees her toys grouped around the Christmas tree of a wealthy little girl. She falls asleep on the steps and the little rich child, unknown to her parents, finds her and takes her to bed in her own room. The children fall asleep in each other's arms and have a wonderful dream. The toys, led by "Jack in the Box," take the little girls to Toyland and introduce them to Santa Claus. They watch Santa make his pretty toys. The dollies and tin soldiers dance for them, and they are very much shocked when the mother of the rich child wakes them up and asks who the little waif is. The daughter announces that she is a little girl whom she has adopted and insists upon her sharing all her Christmas presents. The children have a happy time playing with the toys, but cannot quite understand why "Jack in the Box" refuses to talk to them as he did in their marvelous journey to Toyland.
- Meg and her father are mining in the desert and suddenly the old man discovers gold. Jimson, a prospector, and his pal see this and decide to jump the claim. This they do. leaving the old man dazed by the roadside while Meg is off after water, and drive away to record the claim in their own names. But Meg has returned unobserved and seen the whole affair. Climbing into the back of their wagon, she hides and is carted off with Jimson and the gold. Later she is discovered, is pursued and falls over a cliff, being rescued by an old Indian and his squaw. Recovering she tells the Indian of the claim jumpers and he follows and recovers the gold and kills one of the thieves and wounds the other. Restoring the gold to Meg, he helps her find her father again and the latter in gratitude repays the old Indian with a share in the rich mine discovered.
- Manfredi, an habitual user of opium, is a piano player in a Chinese café. A wealthy tourist becomes interested in the young musician and sends him abroad to study. He promises Zuletta, his common law wife, that on his return he will marry her. Five years later he comes back, still addicted to the drug. Under its spell he is proclaimed a genius. Failing to make good his promise to Zuletta, he becomes infatuated with Margery Rhodes, a society girl, who comes to study music with him. So strongly is Margery influenced by her teacher, that she also acquires a taste for opium. John Hale, her lover, is in the secret service. Through the revengeful Zuletta, he learns that Manfredi conducts an opium joint. Hale has the place raided, just in time to save Mergery from a fate worse than death.
- Three college boys graduate. One is in love with a girl whose mother and father have domestic difficulties. They go to court and are divorced; when the father is refused his request for his daughter, he kidnaps her and takes her to another state, where he becomes a great political factor. Bill, who is in love with the girl, traces her with his two companions' help. They steal her away, but in the process his hand is burned with a poker, and the father uses that as a means of identification in tracing him. He goes to the house where Bill is hiding and one of Bill's pals, to avoid his arrest, burns his own hand with a poker. Father comes in, cannot identify Bill's pal, and leaves, realizing that he cannot have his daughter.
- Seamen Enoch Arden returns home after a long absence marooned on a desert island. At home he finds his wife married to another, and though he loves her, he cannot bear to disrupt her current happiness.
- An author with talent has trouble in disposing of it; another author prostitutes his gifts by writing and selling books that show a wrong, distorted viewpoint of life. The poor author refuses to write such bad books and severely reprimands his daughter, whom he finds just starting to read one. Times become very hard and he is tempted to sacrifice his ideals. He writes such a morbid novel and is ashamed. He falls asleep, exhausted, across his desk. He dreams his book is in covers and that a little girl, tired of poverty and lack of good times, has read it. Out of its pages step the little girl and man, characters of the story, and take the poor girl, May, along with them to show her life (according to the author), as it should be lived. The author sees in his dream. May ruined and disgraced by the man in his book. She is denied refuge by her mother. Passing a photographer's, sees there a photo of the author. She destroys this in a rage and tells the owner that he (the author) has betrayed and ruined her. She then goes to her room and turns on the gas. The dream is over, the author still asleep. His daughter tiptoes in and takes his manuscript from the desk and starts to read. The author wakes, his dream still vivid, and sees his daughter starting to read his manuscript. He snatches it from her, telling her that it was not finished. After she has gone, "That is the best ending," he says as he watches it burn. Then he sits down at his desk again and starts to write a better and sweeter and truer story.
- The brothers, John and Charles Burton, have a quarrel over a stenographer, to whom Charles makes advances, not knowing that his brother and the stenographer are engaged. Charles terminates the quarrel by leaving the office. Later we find John visiting Charles at his bachelor apartments to explain to him that he and the stenographer are to be married. Charles is very much surprised and makes known to John that he had no intention of insulting the girl and did not know that John was interested in her. They fix up their differences and drink a toast to John's future wife. The last we see of the brothers they are drinking together. The next morning they are discovered by the butler. Charles has been murdered and John is unconscious. The room is in a disordered condition. The butler calls the police and the family physician. The police suspect John of the murder, and finding a picture of the stenographer with a knife through it, come to the conclusion that the brothers quarreled over her. They send for her and question John and her and arrest them both, against the advice of the family physician. The police leave with their prisoners, leaving the physician to make his report to the coroner. The physician searches the room and discovers in a secret drawer an Oriental jewel, which brings back the memory of his younger days in India, where he remembers having once seen a native render another unconscious by the use of a poisoned blow-pipe. He recognizes the odor which he has discovered in the room. He decides that the crime was committed by an outside party in search of the jewel, which he has discovered. He consults with his friend, the editor of the newspaper, who publishes in scare headlines the fact that the doctor has in his possession this wonderful jewel. The doctor, in the meantime, prepares his trap for the suspected criminal, whom he thinks will endeavor to regain possession of the jewel. Later we find a young Oriental woman coming to the doctor's office and trying to overcome him with the poisonous fumes of the blow-pipe. The doctor, prepared in advance, overpowers her and obtains from her the story of the loss of the jewel, which Charles had stolen from her years before, and she, in trying to obtain it the night before, entered his apartments, and after searching through the drawers of the desks in the room, murdered him in the heat of passion. After hearing her story the doctor conducts her to the police station, where John and the stenographer have been undergoing the third degree. Here the Oriental woman, after her confession to the police judge, poisons herself with a needle and the prisoners are released.
- Royal Macklin, a cadet at WEst Point, is discharged for a misdemeanor, and the father of Beatrice, Macklin's sweetheart, order her to break the engagement. Macklin goes to Honduras, in the midst of a revolution, and joins the Patriot army of General LaGuerre in the fight against Alvarez and his rebels. Macklin proves his valor in battle and saves the life of General Laguerre. But Beatrice and her father, having found that Macklin was innocent of the charge that caused his dismissal, are in Honduras and have been captured by Alvarez.
- At the invitation of an ambitious aunt, impoverished nobleman Lord Dunster comes to the "Lazy L Ranch," whose owner Agnes Crosby, welcoming him as her aunt's friend, does not suspect the underlying mercenary motive of his visit. Jim Murray, the range boss, who has long loved Agnes, grows decidedly unhappy because Agnes, as hostess, spends so many hours riding with Lord Dunster. Aunt Mary, fearing that the distinguished Englishman has not made sufficient inroads into her niece's affections, summons Jim and tells him that she knows that Agnes loves His Lordship and would accept his offer of marriage, did she not feel tacitly bound to Jim. She begs him, for Agnes's happiness, to leave. Jim bitterly tells himself that he is only fit to be a cowpuncher and that Lord Dunster is the fit mate for Agnes. He leaves. The Englishman, who has come to love Agnes unselfishly, determines to make a clean breast of his earlier motives. He does so, throwing himself on her mercy and begging her to marry him. She is greatly impressed with his manly spirit, but confesses that there is someone else. Dunster guesses who his rival is. He sends for Jim, knowing the foreman to be "the better man."
- Laura Bell runs away from her country home to the city, where she becomes a clerk in a department store. Her brother, Frank, follows her to New York, but is unable to place her. He becomes interested in a settlement house and obtains a position in social service work. Mary Ashton, daughter of the proprietor of the store where Laura works, is shocked to find that her father pays his clerks starvation wages. Matters are brought to a head when Mary rescues Laura, who drops to the street with exhaustion due to ill nourishment. Taking her home in her motor car, Mary sees for herself how the girl is forced to live. She pleads with her father to better his employees' condition. But he stubbornly refuses. Mary leaves her luxurious home to become a working girl herself, and weeks later, her father discovers her in a shirtwaist factory. Meanwhile, she has met Frank Bell at the settlement house. Their interests are identical. One day Laura's landlady comes to the settlement with word that Laura is dying. Mary and Bell both go to see her, and thus the latter discovers that she is his own sister. Bell compels Ashton, at the point of a gun, to go to Laura's bedside. The doctor says that blood infusion alone will save the girl's life. Her brother's heart so weak, but Mary to recompense for her father's sins, volunteers, unknown to him. After the operation, he learns that she is in a critical state and may die. The criminality of his methods is now brought home to Ashton. In gratitude for his daughter's recovery, he changes his policy toward his employees.
- The Prologue shows man as 'Power,' garbed in Greek-classic costume, standing at the parting of life's highway. One road leads to 'Success' - the other to ''Failure'. He (Power) is confronted by a figure emblematic of 'Pleasure,' who points to out to him "the easiest way," then 'Ignorance' leads him to the end of the road. where 'Destruction' stands. The classic figures disappear and the story begins: 'Power-The Absentee' leaves his factory in charge of his manager 'Might." who wrecks the property in order that his wife, 'Extravagance," and his daughter, 'Vanity,' may devote themselves to lives of selfish pleasure. It is only when 'Justice,' the office stenographer. forces 'Power' to right the harm done to his employees that he sees the error in believing that 'Might' is right. Then comes the realization that 'Justice' should go hand-in-hand with 'Power," and so they are wed, and 'Ambition,''Opportunity' and 'Success' array themselves on his side.
- Billy Milford, Harvard graduate, goes west to seek his fortune. In .Addertown he secures a position as stationmaster of the L. & R. Railroad, but is forced out because of his drinking habits. He accidentally meets Gunhild, an emigrant Norwegian girl, as she arrives in Addertown to take up her home with Jan Hagsberg, the town's saloonkeeper. Seeking revenge on the railroad, Milford joins Jim Dorsey in a scheme to hold up the road's paymaster on his way to pay the employees of the company's mine. The holdup is carried out successfully and the loot hidden under the floor of Milford's cabin. Dorsey later returns and steals it. Then he flees the town. Milford is accused of the theft, but a search of his cabin does not reveal the money and he is freed. Gunhild, confident of his innocence, pledges her love as Milford goes east to live down the past. Two years later, Gunhild, employed as companion by a wealthy woman, arrives to spend the summer at a farm house adjoining the one operated by Milford. They meet by accident and their love is renewed. Dorsey, the strong man of a traveling show, reaches the town and insists upon forcing his attentions on Gunhild. Milford and Dorsey engage in a fistic encounter during which the latter is badly worsted. He leaves town that night. Having saved a large sum of money, Milford, accompanied by Gunhild, goes to the superintendent of the railroad and confesses his share in the holdup. Then he hands him the amount of money he had stolen from the paymaster. The superintendent, struck by Milford's honesty and the struggle he has made to make amends, gives the entire amount to Gunhild, now Milford's wife, as a wedding present. The two happy young persons then leave for parts unknown to begin life all over.
- Sally Smith, a poor girl, hires out to the rich Widow Smith who is no relation of hers. Sally is forced to work very hard while Dora Smith, the widow's daughter, is always having a good time. Dora is invited to a party where Henry, the idol of the village, is to be present. Her mother orders that a beautiful frock which has just arrived in town, be sent to the house, as she intends to buy it for Dora to wear to the party, The package is delivered at the kitchen door. It is directed simply to Miss Smith. Sally receives it, thinking that some unknown fairy godmother has made it possible for her to go to the party. She is overcome with happiness. Because the dress does not arrive, Dora gives up attending the function. But Sally goes in the beautiful gown, and Henry immediately falls in love with her. The widow and daughter discover what has become of the dress. They go to the party to arrest Sally for stealing it. But Mr. Crocker, the storekeeper, tells them that as the frock was not paid for, it is not their property, and that this makes the arrest illegal. He then gives the frock to Sally. Later, Henry marries his Cinderella.
- Dottie gets a job in a small show as "sidekick" 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.
- As John Ford left his dying sister and little girl in their stranded emigrant wagon to scout for help, he placed a little girl, the last survivor of the neighboring wagon, by his sister's side. His sister, separating her watch and fob from the chain, gives it to John to carry. She places the chain about the neck of her own little girl, who later dies. Outlaws ransack the wagon. Pedro, the chief, takes the chain from the neck of the dead child and places it about that of the living one. She becomes his foster daughter. Twelve years later, this child, Anita, a lovely girl, is the accomplice of the outlaw in his thieving career. She meets and loves the now wealthy "Gringo," John Ford. He is beloved by the aristocratic Senorita Ynez, who discovers his infatuation for the street dancer, Anita. Anita refuses to accept Ford's love, as she is so far beneath him, but he persists and goes to her hut. Pedro, the outlaw, warned by Ynez, follows and is about to kill the "Gringo." Anita saves Ford's life, gets the stiletto, and denouncing Pedro for degrading her to his level, making her unfit for the love of Ford, is about to stab Pedro, when the Angelus bell strikes. She drops the stiletto, draws her crucifix and kisses it. The crucifix is fastened on a chain, which Ford recognizes as the one his dying sister put around her child's neck. Ford and Anita, in love with each other, now believing they are relatives, part. Pedro, loath to lose Anita as a money-earner, makes an attempt to retain possession of her, but as he is wanted for petty thieving, he hides in the Mission Church. Here, after an attempt to rob the altar, his conscience makes a coward of him. Dying, he confesses of the changing of the neck chains on the children years before, which proves Anita not to be the niece of Ford, but the little girl belonging to the neighboring emigrant wagon, whose life he saved. Free to love and marry, the last scene is laid in the Mission Garden, with Anita and Ford receiving the blessings of the Padre.
- A dramatic comparison between the mating habits of animals and the way humans choose their own partners.