Helene Costello

A day in the life of a family of circus performers.

When notorious pirate Henry Morgan is made governor of Jamaica, he enlists the help of some of his former partners in ridding the Caribbean of buccaneers. When one of them apparently abducts the previous governor's pretty daughter and joins up with the rebels, things are set for a fight.

Fisherman Dutch marries cannery worker Hattie. After he is kicked out of his union and fired from his job he leaves Hattie who steals money for him and goes to jail. He gets a new job, foils a plot to dynamite the ship, and promises to wait for Hattie.

G-Man Jeff Crane poses as a crook to infiltrate the notorious Purple Gang, a band of hoodlums which preys upon other hoodlums. Orchestrating the jailbreak of the gang's leader, Crane joins him in a Dillinger-like flight across the country.

This short features clips from silent films (mostly unidentified) of the 1910's, accompanied by humorous commentary. Highlighted are early appearances of stars still recognized today (e.g., Lionel Barrymore, Norma Shearer), as well as stars whose careers did not extend to the sound era (e.g., John Bunny, Edith Storey).

Now hear this. The studio that gave the cinema its voice offered 1929 audiences a chance to see and hear multiple silent-screen favorites for the first time in a gaudy, grandiose music-comedy-novelty revue that also included Talkie stars, Broadway luminaries and of course, Rin-Tin-Tin. Frank Fay hosts a jamboree that, among its 70+ stars, features bicyclers, boxing champ Georges Carpentier, chorines in terpsichore kickery, sister acts, Myrna Loy in two-strip Technicolor as an exotic Far East beauty, John Barrymore in a Shakespearean soliloquy (adding an on-screen voice to his legendary profile for the first time) and Winnie Lightner famously warbling the joys of Singing in the Bathtub. Watch, rinse, repeat!

After a misunderstanding between a well-to-do young man and the girl he wanted to marry, he decides to arbitrarily marry the first random girl that will accept him. This proves harder that he he thought, and late at night and groggy, he gets into his house after some trouble and help from the police, only to realize he's not in his house, but trapped in a strange one with a married woman.

If there was one thing that Don Juan de Marana learned from his father Don Jose, it was that women gave you three things - life, disillusionment and death. In his father's case it was his wife, Donna Isobel, and Donna Elvira who supplied the latter. Don Juan settled in Rome after attending the University of Pisa. Rome was run by the tyrannical Borgia family consisting of Caesar, Lucrezia and the Count Donati. Juan has his way with and was pursued by many women, but it is the one that he could not have that haunts him. It will be for her that he suffers the wrath of Borgia for ignoring Lucrezia and then killing Count Donati in a duel. For Adriana, they will both be condemned to death in the prison on the river Tigre.

At the outbreak of the War Between the States, Maryland Calvert is loved by Maj. Alan Kendrick, son of a Virginia general, and Capt. Fulton Thorpe. Nancy, whom Thorpe has loved unwisely, follows him to Washington and commits suicide when she learns he will not marry her; as a result, Alan is forced to request his resignation. When Fort Sumter is fired upon, Alan, who admires Lincoln's principles, joins the Union Army though his father is among the Secessionist leaders; as a result, he is estranged from Maryland. Thorpe, who has joined the Confederacy as a spy, is responsible for Alan's arrest, but Maryland victoriously comes to his aid by ringing the alarm bell.

Eddie is conned into fronting a speakeasy for a local gangster who intends to frame him for the murder of a cop.

Comrades is a 1928 American silent drama film directed by Cliff Wheeler.

A wealthy young man disguises himself as a gardener to be near the woman he secretly loves. He discovers that the butler is an enemy spy who plans to steal military secrets, and has to find a way to stop him.

Rinty is a police-dog assigned to a young Scotland Yard police-officer who covers the Limehouse district of London.

Mystery of bootleggers, hijackers, a girl with bobbed hair, and a talented bull terrier.

A newlywed couple, after six months of marriage, decides that they've made a mistake and plan to divorce. Her father, however, has other ideas and hatches a plot to make them realize that they really do love each other and should stay married.

Ben Shelby, a blacksmith, is in love with Caroline Swayne but her wealthy father rejects the marriage. When he is found murdered shortly afterwards, suspicion falls on Shelby.

Song-and-dance man Charles Edward Keene (Good Time Charley) is bereft when his wife, Elaine, dies as a result of a fall incurred trying to evade the advances of Hartwell, her manager. Years later, his daughter, Rosita, becomes an overnight sensation as a result of her cafe act under Hartwell's management, and Charley is given a bit part in the show at her request.

A gang of inept crooks and even more inept lawmen search for a cache of hidden money.

When a mayoral candidate finds out that he will be exposed in a newspaper article, he goes to the political boss who put him up for the job and says he wants to quit. Enraged, the boss pulls a gun on him, and the man promptly dies of a heart attack. The boss stages a fake car "accident" to make that look like his cause of death, but a suspicious newspaper reporter decides to look more deeply into the story.

Young Brierly struggles to save his father, Major Brierly, from the clutches of alcohol after the Great War. At the same time, he prepares Major Brierly's horse, which served bravely with the Major at the front, for the Kentucky Derby.

When a wealthy recluse apparently commits suicide, his trusted friend John Nichols (Rex Lease) is put in charge of the estate. Nichols is ordered to locate the dead man's long-lost son and daughter and inform them of their legacy. The two beneficiaries turn out to be the owners of a run-down racetrack. Falling in love with the daughter (Helene Costello), Nichols tries to rejuvenate the track with a high-stakes horse race.

Returning from the war, Tom Mason rides square into a raging feud between the his family and the neighboring Brady gang.

Left standing at the altar by his fiancée, Peter Remsen goes to seek consolation in the small Kingdom of Luzania, where he becomes valet to the king in order to be near the Princess Patricia. The queen of neighboring Belgradia visits Luzania and falls in love with Peter, who repulses her advances and thereby precipitates a war. As the king is busy with a dancer, Peter takes charge of the army. The queen's men kidnap Patricia, but Peter rescues her in a tank and makes her his bride. A lost film.

A Parisian junk dealer has to choose between love and fame after he rescues a boy.

A college graduate returns West after ten years in the East to her home in Sulfur Springs. Virginia's mother, the owner of a rooming house has turned hard and uncaring in her absence and the girl finds comfort in her friendship with Ross Cavanagh, a forest ranger. The latter runs afoul of cattle baron Sam Gregg, who resents a new tax on cattle grazing on government land.

Harry Wells, a New Yorker, takes his friend Bob Travers, a westerner visiting the city, to a cafe for an evening of pleasure. When Bob becomes interested in Floss, the chief chorus girl, he incurs the wrath of Spike, owner of the cafe, who is in love with her.

The Midnight Taxi is a 1928 early part-talkie thriller picture from Warner Bros. directed by John G. Adolfi and starring Antonio Moreno, Helen Costello, and Myrna Loy. It is unknown whether a sound copy survives, but a silent copy with no talking is in the care of the British Film Institute. The silent print runs just under 50 minutes. According to the Library of Congress, the film survives in British Film Institute's National Film and Television Archive.

The members of the Lambert household do not get along with each other, so Margaret and her youngest daughter Mary leave their home. Margaret becomes an interior director, resulting in her regaining her happiness. Margaret's son Lance becomes angry at his father, John, due to the people who are invited over to their home, and Lance starts a career with the help of his mother. Considered a lost film.

When a bank executive disappears, he is accused of stealing a fortune from the bank. But his daughter and her criminologist friend set out to find her father and clear his name.

Meyer Rubens and his wife, Esther, own a pressing-shop in New York's Lower East Side. Esther wants to move on up to the Upper West Side. She has a rich sister, Reba, who persuades Meyer to invest in the worthless oil stock sold by her husband. The stock proves to be not worthless and Meyer and Esther become overnight millionaires. But Reba thinks Meyer, who has no taste for high society, is holding her sister back socially, so she devises some schemes that involve catching Meyer in a compromising situation with other women, so her sister can file for a divorce.

Brought into contact with each other, Runa and Shep, a dog, become great chums. Their companionship is looked upon with evident interest and amusement by Runa's parents, who do not seem to be very greatly concerned for their daughter's childish affairs, leaving that entirely to her nurse.

Hunter Ross deserts his wife and child and she is driven to the extremes of poverty, being obliged in sell pencils to keep the spark of life in herself and little one. Fearing the worst, she writes a note, saying, "I am the wife of Hunter Ross, and this is our child," pinning the note on the child's dress in the hope that someone will find and care for the little girl, in case anything should happen to herself.

The fabled queen of Egypt's affair with Roman general Marc Antony is ultimately disastrous for both of them.

As childhood sweethearts, David Horton and Beatrice Elton are inseparable. Fifteen years later Beatrice goes abroad and while there is heartbroken to learn that David has married Margaret Forsythe, a social climber, Margaret starts to entertain on a lavish scale.

Virginia Jameson, a girl of lovely disposition, is wooed by a man much older than herself whom she very much dislikes, but who stands very high in the favor of her parents. She might have married another man had not fate decreed otherwise. She meets and accidentally escapes the man she could have loved and would have married; she stooped to tie her shoe-strings, diverting her attention from him. Had their eyes met, both their lives would have been different. Leroy Farley, the man favored by her parents, prevails and she marries him. Her life is unhappy, notwithstanding his great riches and social prominence.

Miss Marbury comes on deck and looks haughtily at Mrs. Cray, an attractive young widow, half suspecting that she has her steamer chair. When she finds that she is mistaken, she ties a large red ribbon upon her own chair, which is situated between Mrs. Gray on her left and Mr. Martin, on her right. Miss Marbury is quite annoyed when little Dolores and Helen, Mrs. Gray's two playful children, come to settle a dispute over the ownership of a tennis ball. Tom Blake stops to greet Mrs. Gray and plays with the children, making them forget their animosity.

Even though his widowed mother and sweetheart, Mary Putnam, disapprove, Worth Stuyvesant insists on going to West Point and becoming a soldier. Ultimately, Mary breaks off their engagement and Stuyvesant goes on a bender. His conduct is reported to the commander, who sends him to the sub post of Del Rio for 60 days of tour duty. There, Stuyvesant meets Lola Montez, an adventuress. With the help of a couple of her pals, Lola gets him drunk and marries him. But Stuyvesant lives up to his duties as a husband and surprisingly, Lola renounces her old ways and becomes a model wife.

Jack, a little orphan, is anxious to become a sailor, and although Captain Rhines refuses to take him aboard his ship, manages to sneak in as a stowaway. When out to sea a few days, he is discovered, and is about to be disciplined, when the captain's daughter, May, intercedes. A terrific storm strikes them, and the ship is dashed to pieces. The captain, with the assistance of Jack, builds a little raft, and with little May, they set out for an island which they can hardly discern, as it is so many miles away. After drifting for many hours, they at last reach the island, which is inhabited by a savage tribe.

The employees of Harrison's mine have been out on strike for a long time. The men wait for him until he is leaving his office in the evening. They try to state their case but he entirely ignores them. They attack him. In terror, he flees before them, escaping by entering the home of a poor widow with two children.

Harry Burton's sister and her husband are suddenly called away for a few days on business and telegraph him to come to their home and take care of their two little boys, "Toddie and Budge." He at once complies, and is soon with the children, assuming his duties as "governor." Helen Manton, stopping in the same town, thinks a great deal of Harry Burton, and naturally he of her.

A widower becomes infatuated with his daughter's governess, to the displeasure of the child and her nurse.

Etta Lang, a chorus girl, is the principal support of an invalid mother and her sister and brother, not only working at the theater, but looking after their small boarding house. Among their lodgers is Brutus Bellamy, an old actor. He becomes interested in the girl, and offers to teach her acting. She learns rapidly. She arrives at the theater late and is abused by the stage manager, Joseph Burton. Cecil Wentworth, one of the backers of the theater, takes her part and becomes interested in her.

In this Vitagraph short, anarchism threatens to ruin lives and families. Luigi and Rosa are a couple with an adorable child, but trouble is afoot – Luigi has become an anarchist!

Jovial and big-hearted, Jim Brice, of the Howard Detective Agency, is sent to trap bribetakers in a nearby city.

Mrs. Pearson is a little different from most mothers, at least in her general appearance, for she has that sweetness and calmness of disposition, which is characteristic of the Quakeress. Lois, her only child, does not inherit her mother's sedate and quiet temperament, apparently she is no different from other girls, quite natural, and does not object to the attentions paid her by John Harmon, who is very much in love with her.

In the early part of the Nineteenth Century, Beau Brummell was the most talked-of person in all the world, the extreme of fashion, the personification of elegance and the most pretentious individual imaginable.

Advised by his friends to seek a second wife so that his children, Helen and Dolores, may know a mother's care, Sir Edward Tilbury marries Phyllis, the daughter of Lady Olivia Gower, a leading social light in Calcutta.

Tommy and Jimmy are very much in love with Dolly. Their appetites however, very much overbalance their affections. Joe, who is not over blessed with this world's wealth, but who is bountifully blessed with chivalry, is favored by Dolly. Tom and Jim decide to get her a valentine.

Captain Barnacle receives a letter telling him that Mr. Markham, a South African whose life he saved some years ago, has died, leaving him a legacy in money and some property and jewels in South Africa. The will stipulates that he shall visit the property in person.

Though her father forbids her to marry Jack Harvey, a poor young artist, Molly Wilson becomes his wife and goes away with him to another town. Bessie, the eldest daughter, an attractive widow with two baby boys and a baby girl, pleads with her father in Molly's behalf, but he is obdurate.

A political crime film in which a militant, anarchist father allows his political ideals to prevail over human dignity. The father uses his young daughter to carry out an attack on Princess Louise. After his wife foils the attack and he is arrested by the police, he steps back from his fanaticism and repents.

Three part chronicle of how the rumor of war triggers greed in some men and the comeuppance they suffer because of hubris.

Among the green hills of Scotland dwelt two farmer lads, Tammas and Geordie, fast friends tried and loyal as members of the same clan. They are both very much in love with Jenny, a little Scottish lass, and Geordie dreams of what might be if he were successful in his wooing.

A widower with four grown daughters remarries and brings his new wife home to meet them. The girls set out to make life as difficult as possible for their new mother.

Tom and Dick are brothers and are being educated at the same college. Tom is a studious fellow and graduates with honors, while Dick is expelled from college through misbehavior. Dick is ashamed to go home, but before leaving Tom gives him a locket containing a picture of their mother. Ten years later Tom, who is a successful lawyer, is married and has two little children. Dick, who has now been reduced through personal neglect to a derelict, overhears a plan to rob his brother's house. Making up his mind to prevent it, Dick climbs through the nursery window, catches the burglars, but effects their escape. His two little nieces, who have been watching him, kiss and hug him before he makes his exit. When their parents return from the reception they attended, the children relate to them what had happened. Dick gets into a scrape with a gambler a month or two later, who laughs at the miniature of his mother that Dick puts up in lieu of cash.

During the French Revolution, the Duke and Duchess of Bérac are captured by a mob. The Duchess agrees to marry one of their leaders in order to save her husband’s life. But her husband finds out about this, and forbids the Duchess to do so. The girlfriend of this leader takes revenge when she learns the truth, and stabs him. The two Béracs then proceed to the guillotine with their heads held high.

Kitty Mallory, the young actress, finds herself in straightened circumstances. Looking for the immediate dollar, she sees an "ad" in the newspaper, for an elderly lady as companion to a little invalid boy. She answers it and receives a favorable reply. She makes herself up to fit the requirements and is selected for the position from a number of applicants.

Mrs. Brown, who is a widow, finds it a rather difficult matter to clothe and feed her large family of children, so when she becomes acquainted on the beach with Captain Jenks she is not slow in inviting him to her house. That evening the Captain calls with an engagement ring. He asks the widow to become his wife, but just as he is accepted Mrs. Brown's numerous offspring come running into the room. Upon being told that they are her children the Captain nearly faints and does not know how to break the engagement.

Magde leaves her fiancé Lewis in order to take care of Lulu, the child of her deceased sister, in New York. After some time, chance brings the two lovers together again.

An early film adaptation of the Bard's comic fantasy.