Gladys Egan

In a quaint fishing village Bill and Mary are childhood sweethearts. Ten years roll by, and the boy, now a young man, gives the girl a ring and they now renew their vows. They are both very happy until fate interferes. Bill, while strolling on the shore, espies a raft with an object on it that looks like a human being, far out at sea. He swims to the raft and finds an exhausted fisherman lying prone upon it. Pushing the raft to the shore, he, with the aid of others, revives the stranger. Joe is the stranger's name and he and Bill become staunch friends. Mary becomes smitten with Joe and cruelly casts Bill aside.

The Parson and his friend Pete, a worthless inebriate of the village, in a drunken sleep by the roadside. His cure has been tried often, but in vain. The Parson's friend suggests a novel scheme, that of taking him to his home, waking him there and make him believe he is in paradise; then feeding him wine until he is asleep again, placing him back in the same place in the road. The scheme worked to perfection and it looks as if the village saloon will get no more of Pete's money for drink.

As they have breakfast in their hunting lodge Howard jokingly tells his wife to improve her coffee or he'll shoot her. Later she meets him as he's out hunting and is accidentally shot and killed by another hunter. Because the maid overheard his joke at breakfast Howard is arrested for her murder.

After her mother's death, Ruth struggles to support herself as a seamstress. While Ruth delivers shirts to the factory owner, the owner's son steals some money and Ruth is accused of the crime. She flees the ghetto of New York's Lower East Side and hides in the country where she meets a young farmer.

Mrs. Thurston, a socially ambitious widow, is holding one of her famous Bohemian parties. To these functions are invited the leading lights of the several professions, actors, artists, musicians, etc. Surrounded by these men and women of art and letters, she was at first entertained, but they soon palled and bored. On this evening in particular, she is especially possessed of ennui, until the appearance of Raymond Hartley, a wealthy young bachelor, who is introduced into the circle by a newspaper man. An attachment immediately springs up between the widow and Raymond.

A wealthy, callous moneylender finds a terrifying way to learn about money's limitations.

A blind princess is informed that her sight can be restored by the first kiss of unselfish love she receives. She remains blind until a humble poet steals a kiss.

After the Civil War, an ex-soldier and his family settle in the Dakota Territory. The son quarrels with the father and leaves home. Riding in the hills, he spots a band of Indians attacking a neighboring homestead, and he races back to warn his family as the Indians chase him.

Eva and Blanche are inseparable sisters living with a maiden aunt. But Eva marries a suitor named John, to Blanche’s great dismay, and starts married life in a nearby apartment. Blanche lives with the newlyweds for a while, but her constant presence soon irritates the bridegroom. Feeling unwanted, Blanche returns to her aunt’s home despite Eva’s entreaties. Later, when Eva gives birth to a child, the sisters are reconciled.

During the Civil War a young soldier loses his nerve in battle and runs away to his home to hide; his sister puts on his uniform, takes her brother's place in the battle, and is killed. Their mother, not wanting the shameful truth to become known, closes all the shutters (hence the film's title) and keeps her son's presence a secret for many years, though two boyhood chums stumble upon the truth...

A young woman becomes infatuated with the leading man of a traveling theatrical troupe. She sneaks away to join him in the next town, but her father forces her to return home...

During the Civil War, a father living in a border state leaves to join the Union Army. After he leaves, Confederate troops forage on his property, where a soldier encounters one of his daughters. The father himself is wounded on a hazardous mission and must run for his life, pursued by Confederate soldiers.

In this story set at a seaside fishing village and inspired by a Charles Kingsley poem, a young couple's happy life is turned about by an accident. The husband, although saved from drowning, loses his memory. A child is on the way, and soon a daughter is born to his wife. We watch the passage of time, as his daughter matures and his wife ages. The daughter becomes a lovely young woman, herself ready for marriage. One day on the beach, the familiarity of the sea and the surroundings triggers a return of her father's memory, and we are reminded that although people age and change, the sea and the ways of the fisherfolk remain eternal.

A young girl living in Salem attracts the attentions of The Puritan. After he's brushed off by the girl, he becomes furious and desiring revenge, declares to a council of elders that the girl and her mother are witches.

Mabel, a young woman living in a large mansion, is courted by Tom Darrell, a neighbour of the same class. Meanwhile, Ruth, Mabel’s laundress, is courted by the equally lowly Steve. Ruth and Steve watch the wealthy couple’s courtship enviously. Both couples marry; the Darrells have a daughter, and Ruth and Steve a son and daughter. Tom tires of Mabel and his daughter, and runs away with another woman. Later, Mabel’s little girl is stricken with diphtheria and dies, despite her mother’s offering the doctor all her wealth if he can cure her. Meanwhile, Ruth and Steve’s children remain healthy, and their domestic happiness prevents their persisting envy of Mabel’s wealth from embittering them.

Mrs. Walton wilfully and mistakenly presumes that her husband is unfaithful, and demands a divorce. Devastated by the impending breakup of her home, the Waltons’ little daughter plots to reunite her parents by pretending to be a kidnapping victim. Her absence causes such consternation in the household that her parents do indeed reconcile when she returns home after some misadventures.

The evils of drink cause a man to separate from his family. In time he becomes sober and prosperous. Then he meets and falls in love with a young woman, and they become engaged. Unbeknownst to him this young woman is his own daughter.

A man sacrifices a new marriage for the happiness of his daughter.

A loving father favors a prosperous young man as his daughter’s suitor but disowns her when she chooses a working-class man. Years later, the husband struggles against the ravages of tuberculosis to support his wife and daughter. The heroine’s father has become a miser, and around the time of the husband’s death he unwittingly moves into a cheap flat directly above that of his widowed daughter and her child. As the child prays for help, the miser’s stash of money falls down the chimney and lands beside her. Her faith touchs the father, and he reconciles with his daughter.

Named by historian Kevin Brownlow as “the first important suffrage film”, this melodrama follows suffragist May Fillmore in her fight to sway Senator Herman, whose vote could pass a key reform bill. After exposing him and his fiancée Jane Wadsworth to the dire living conditions of a motherless tenement family—unsanitary housing, child labor, and workplace exploitation—Jane turns against her negligent fiancé and joins the suffrage cause. Ultimately, both Herman and Jane’s father are persuaded to support reform, and the film ends with the characters proudly taking part in a suffrage parade. (Note: This silent narrative film is distinct from Edison’s Votes for Women (1913), a Kinetophone short that recorded real suffragist leaders delivering speeches.)

A young man and a young woman, each unlucky in love, determine never to marry. But Cupid (and two separate bands of misinformed revelers) has other ideas.

An American Indian child, maltreated by her mother and other tribespeople, accompanies her family to a nearby town to buy supplies. There, local white settlers — a couple and their young daughter — befriend the child and give her a doll, her first and only toy. Meanwhile, another tribesman is wantonly killed by a settler. Enraged, the Indians plan revenge and organize a war-party to attack the town. The Indians also take from the child the doll she was given and smash it. The child mourns her broken doll, and buries it with traditional tribal rites. Alarmed that her new friends will be harmed when the town is attacked, the child rushes ahead of the war-party to give warning of the imminent attack. In the raid the child is struck by a bullet, and makes her painful way to her doll’s burial site. Alone, she dies.

William promises to marry his sweetheart, Mary, after completing medical school. William's father has saved enough money to set up William's medical practice. However, Mary's alcoholic father discovers the savings and steals it.

Bobby's girlfriend thinks he's a coward when he refuses to fight a gang of toughs after they insult him. But when the gang breaks into his apartment, he fights them off, and wins his girlfriend's respect again.

Sim Sloane and his beloved son were the reprobates of the village, not what would be called lovers of peace and kindness. But granddad dwelt in a house filled more with love, and when Sim came in for his brutal sport, he soon went out assisted by granddad. Incited by ridicule and drink, Sim swore to get even. That was where granddad's new supply of powder came in. Sim appropriated it and although he wrecked the house of love, he destroyed through his venom the only thing he cherished in life.

A Confederate officer is called off to war. He leaves his wife and daughter in the care of George, his faithful Negro servant. After the officer is killed in battle, George continues in his caring duties, faithful to his trust.

Grace Wallace was the only child of a widow of decidedly meager means. Mr. Rupert Howland, a widower of considerable wealth, the father of a girl child, and an old friend of the family, often surreptitiously helped them. He dearly loved the young girl, but it was only at the death-bed of Mrs. Wallace that he really showed it. The poor woman at the point of death realized the helplessness of those she was leaving behind, her own aged parents and her daughter Grace. To assure their future she begged Grace to marry their dear friend, and Grace, touched by the man's goodness and her mother's condition, consented. Not content with the promise, she asked that the marriage take place at once by her bedside, and the wish was granted. Poor Grace struggled hard to love the dear old man, but while she admired and respected him, and was profoundly grateful for his kindness, she could not love him.

"Wild Bill" Gray is a renegade and a wife-beater. He is about to start on some expedition of crime and his wife implores him to stay at home. She receives a beating for her trouble. Jim, a cowboy, rides past the shack, hears Mrs. Gray's screams and interferes, and takes Mrs. Gray over to his friend, the postmaster, so that she may have a good home. "Wild Bill" plans vengeance. Paxton, the postmaster, starts for the station with money and gold, and is accompanied a short way by Jim. Gray sneaks after them. After going with Paxton a short distance, Jim takes a turn in the road and Paxton rides on alone. Gray closes up on the postmaster, gets the drop on him, but Paxton is quick and there's a hand-to-hand struggle. Bill, however, worsts Paxton, and finally sends him over a precipice. But in falling, Paxton falls into a tree and thus is saved from sure death.

Set in a tenement, a lonely confirmed bachelor occupies a room across the hall from a dour spinster. Children run amok in the hallways playing pranks on the two. A little girl from the floor above, now alone in the world, brings the pair together and brightens their lives.

Martin is hurriedly called to High Beach to close a big deal with the president of a construction company stopping there.

Continuing where His Trust (1911) leaves off, George takes care of his deceased master's daughter after her mother's death. He sacrifices his own meager savings to give the girl a good life, until the money runs out and he tries to steal money from the girl's rich cousin.

A gang of thieves lure a man out of his home so that they can rob it and threaten his wife and children. The family barricade themselves in an interior room, but the criminals are well-equipped for breaking in. When the father finds out what is happening, he must race against time to get back home.

On a warm and sunny summer's day, a mother and father take their young daughter Dollie on a riverside outing.

On a whim, a greedy tycoon decides to corner the world market in wheat. This doubles the price of bread, forcing grain producers into charity lines and others further into poverty. The film contrasts the differences between the lives of those who work to grow the wheat and the life of the man who dabbles in its sale for profit.

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.

A disfigured violinist mistakes a token of appreciation for a love bouquet. When he realizes his mistake, he loses his mind.

A mother punishes her son for eating a plate of cream puffs, unaware that the daughter really did it. As the daughter watches the punishment, she feels guilty, and confesses her misdeed.

An honest worker, John Whitney, finds himself unemployed and unable to provide for his family. Desperate, he robs a rich man's home and is arrested. One of the police officers is an old friend and accompanies Whitney home to allow a farewell with his wife. Humiliated, Whitney decides to kill himself and his family. The rich man learns of his desperate situation and arrives in time to save the family and drops the charges.

A man leaves his wife and two daughters for work in a carpentry shop. At work, he initially refuses a beer with lunch, then gives in. After work, two friends take a little while to convince him to go for a refreshing malt beverage, then to have another and another....

A man gets revenge on his cheating wife by killing her and her lover. He thinks he has killed his daughter as well, but she survives and is adopted by the sheriff. A few years later the man, now an outlaw, ambushes the sheriff and plans to kidnap and murder the sheriff's daughter.

Sisters guarding their house from a burglar set upon stealing their daddy's money.

Two lovers elope and expect to be pursued by her father. But the clever father has tricked them into running off, and celebrates their wedding when they return home.

A music teacher is in love with Helen, one of his students, but she rejects him. In his hurt he joins an anarchist group who plan to blow up a rich capitalist's house. When he realizes it's Helen's house, he tries to stop the plan.

A woman is scarred in an accident and refuses to stand in the way of her lover's marriage to another.

Papa is proud of his new birthday present, a shotgun. Mary's boyfriend arrives for a visit and she is anxious to introduce him to Papa. When Harry sees Papa walk in with a shotgun he misunderstands and departs in terror. Harry continues to encounter Papa everywhere and runs away, baffling the old man. At last Papa hauls Harry back home for an explanation and a reunion with Mary.

Mons. Flamant, a typical roué of the French nobility, is surrounded by all the pleasures and pastimes his fabulous wealth can procure. In a quest of diversion he visits the art rooms, just as a young girl enters with a magnificent piece of sculpture and places it on sale. The roué is so impressed with the work and the girl that he purchases it at once and follows her to the atelier, where he learns that she is the maid of the sculptress, whom he sees and at once falls passionately in love with her, but when he learns that she is totally blind, his feelings change to one of deepest pity.

A mother works as a dancer to support her ill daughter. One night while performing, the mother has a vision of her child dying. She rushes home, but it is too late.

Mary marries James, after jilting his brother Luke. Mary's sister arrives and soon James is professing his love to her. The shock of this kills Mary and leaves her newborn daughter motherless. Luke offers to raise the daughter. Years later James returns and tries to convince his daughter to leave Luke, the only father she's ever known, and come with him.

A neglectful woman wants custody of her children in her divorce. The judge rules that he will give her the children only if she can demonstrate her children's love for her within a week.

A Boer woman and her daughter are captured by Zulu warriors.

House painter Jim Brooks thinks his wife is cheating on him with his best friend John West. The intrigue is in fact a birthday surprise.

The children of a household attempt to capture Santa, but they catch something else entirely.

A castaway returns home after years lost at sea, to the wife and child he left behind. Has she waited faithfully or has she moved on?

While caring for his sick daughter, a doctor is called away to the sickbed of a neighbor. He finds the neighbor gravely ill, and ignores his wife's pleas to come home and care for his own daughter, who has taken a turn for the worse.

This early D.W. Griffith short shows the director's interest in Jewish ghetto life, portrayed here with sympathy and sentimentality. The melodramatic plot involves the conflict between generations in an immigrant Jewish family.

Three little girls fall into a sand pit and can't get out. One of them ties a note around her pet pigeon's neck and releases it. The pigeon flies home, alerting the parents to where the girls are trapped.

"A pathetic story of mother's grief. No more intense emotion can be imagined than a mother's grief for her dead child. and this Biograph subject beautifully portrays a story of maternal bereavement. It also shows the seemingly cruel workings of fate in taking from the earth the happy, well-cared for child while leaving the poor, ragged orphan to be starved and beaten by a couple of merciless wretches, into whose hands she has fallen." --Moving Picture World, Vol. 4, No. 1 (January 2nd, 1909).

A Greek woman marries a struggling sculptor. When he can't support her and their baby, she offers to sell herself as a slave to allow them to buy food.

After a judge (Harry Solter) does his job and sentences a man, a gypsy woman (Marion Leonard) erupts in vehement protests and has to be taken forcefully out of the courtroom. Later the gypsy follows the judge to his home and plots a vicious revenge on his wife (Florence Lawrence).

A poor, elderly couple with many children is tempted when the husband's brother offers to pay to adopt one of the children himself. However, when forced to choose, the parents realize they can't part with any of their children.