Kate Bruce

A nostalgic look at film clips from the Silent era.

France, on the eve of the French Revolution. Henriette and Louise have been raised together as sisters. When the plague that takes their parents' lives causes Louise's blindness, they decide to travel to Paris in search of a cure, but they separate when a lustful aristocrat crosses their path.

A naïve country girl is tricked into a sham marriage by a wealthy womanizer, then must rebuild her life despite the taint of having borne a child out of wedlock.

Gulian Eyre, an American soldier blinded in action during the World War, remains in France after the cessation of hostilities and marries his nurse, Vida. Gulian is later operated on by a skilled French surgeon and recovers his sight, only to find that Vida has left him and obtained a divorce. Gulian returns to his family in the United States and becomes engaged to Lael, a girl he had known before the war. During this time, Vida has also come to the United States and has become the companion of Gulian's mother. Gulian does not recognize Vida, whom he has never seen; in any event, she had told him that she was terribly disfigured in order to make him believe that she did not pity him. Gulian's wedding to Lael is halted when his brother-in-law kills himself after squandering the Eyre fortune. Lael soon breaks her engagement to the impoverished Gulian, who declares his love to Vida. Vida involuntarily reveals her identity, and Gulian's happiness is complete.

A man protective of his brother checks out the girl his brother is in love with, in order to see if she's the real thing or just trying to take advantage of him. Unfortunately, he winds up falling in love with her himself.

Club pianist Ted Mason writes a love song for Beth Barton. A rival named Goldie steals the song for her husband, Steve, to publish. Beth faces unfair blame from her friends and teacher because of the popular song. Ted proves he wrote it by creating an even better song, exposing the theft, and winning Beth back.

Charley impersonates his stunt double, a man named Bud Gordon, unaware that he's a wanted criminal.

An episode of the Screen Snapshots newsreels, showing seven segments of filmmakers behind the scenes. Featuring Oscar Micheaux,Colleen Moore, Ormer Locklear, and more.

The story of a poor young woman, separated by prejudice from her husband and baby, is interwoven with tales of intolerance from throughout history.

In the Kingdom of Never-Never Land there live a great Lord and Lady, each presiding over their own domain. This great Lord goes for a stroll through his estate and coming to the border of his own land he is struck by the entrancing beauty of the contiguous estate, so like his own, that the inclination to intrude is irresistible. His peregrination is halted by the appearance of the great Lady, who is indeed as fair as the flowers that clothe her land. He introduces himself and invites her to stroll with him in his gardens. She is in like manner entranced by the beauty of his possessions. How alike in beauty are they; a veritable fairyland. If they were only one, for it seems they should be. This thought is mutual, and the Lord proposes a way, a marriage, and so a betrothal of convenience ensues. They know nothing of love and so are content in the anticipation of being Lord and Lady of all Never-Never Land.

Two young girls are sent away to live with their uncle, which sets off a chain of events resulting in an Indian attack on the town.

Nora, the waif, is forced to attend school. She warms to her teacher for the way that he defends her against the taunts of some of the students, but when she's made to wear a dunce cap, she flees the schoolhouse in shame. Unsupervised by her alcoholic father, Nora becomes a determined truant, wandering the town during school hours. There she catches the attention of a huckster, who convinces her that they will run away and be married. The schoolmaster, meanwhile, preoccupied by Nora's absence, leaves his other students to go find her. He encounters her at a crossroads, being spirited away by the huckster, and calls the man's bluff by saying that he'll find them a minister.

Count Ferdinand, a submarine commander and secret pacifist refuses to torpedo a defenseless passenger ship during wartime. His submarine is sunk in the following fracas. In the spirit world, Christ commends the captain, and returns to earth in the commander's body to promote His message of peace.

The two brothers and their adopted daughter of the household grew up from childhood together. The girl and the younger brother were childhood sweethearts. His elder brother was considered the bad man and dead shot of the hills. The younger brother has been living in the valley for a long time and returns home to his family. He is now refined, educated, and, of course, a revelation to the little girl, who, though betrothed to the elder brother, is strongly attracted by him. Hence there is a renewal of childhood affection which the elder brother does not take kindly to.

Susan, a pretty society girl, bored with her lot in life, reads and decides to use her time and money to help the poor. She founds the Joan of Arc Mission and quickly becomes an easy mark for con men.

To fulfill a dying mother's bequest for her daughter, the town pastor purchases the daughter a stylish hat, and gossip spreads through the town.

A group of youth come of age in a peaceful French village. But war intrudes and peace is shattered. The German army invades and occupies, bringing both destruction and torture. The youngsters resist, some successfully, others tragically, until French troops retake the town.

Ralph Grey visits France with his shipbuilder father, and falls in love with Blossom, granddaughter of his father's friend, a Civil war veteran not reconciled with the Union. Blossom, however, is engaged to a French nobleman. When war breaks out, Ralph enlists, while his brother Jim, a heartbreaker, is drafted.

The young lover leaving home at the opening of the war to join the Confederate Army, tells his brother to take care of his fatherless sweetheart during the perilous times which are to follow. But the brother weakens and fails to be true to his trust. He permits her to believe that her lover is dead. Caught in the neighborhood, however, between the lines of the enemy, the brother appears before them at the crucial moment. In retaliation the false brother turns informer. Both forces are aroused to arms and during the attack upon the girl defending her wounded lover and family alone in the negro's cabin retribution comes in the form of a stray bullet.

A 1917 film directed by Chester Withey.

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.

Gray Cloud (Dark Cloud) successfully woos Dove Eyes (Mary Pickford). But after he brings his bride home to his tent, he is shadowed by a jealous rival (Dell Henderson) who leaves him for dead when he falls into a pit during a hunting trip. Despairing over Gray Cloud's inexplicable absence, Dove Eyes becomes so ill that the envious rival relents, rescues the trapped warrior, and makes possible the couple's reunion. Based on the story 'Legend of We-No-Nah' by Mrs. James H. Ryan.

Ramona, residing on her wealthy Spanish adoptive mother's rancho in California, falls in love with the Indian Alessandro. When Ramona is denied permission to marry Alessandro, the lovers elope, only to find a life of great hardship and unhappiness amidst the greed and injustice of the white landowners.

After the death of her father, Betty Lockwood goes to Graystone Gables, the estate where he had been the caretaker, to spend some time alone there. She meets David Chandler, Graystone's owner, who is attracted to her and tells her to come back whenever she wants to. Betty's mother soon remarries, but her new stepfather is not the same kind of man that her father was

Mary is the youngest of three sisters and of an impressionable nature. She and her sister Florence are living at home with their widowed mother, while Adele travels on the road with a theatrical company. Adele returns from the road at the end of her season, and is not home long before she realizes that her place is with her mother and sisters. She finds that they neglect their poor old mother, running off to dancing parties every night and associating with the wrong type of people. Adele, who is older and more experienced, decides to stay and watch over them.

Rose and her cousin Mary dwell in the land of romance, but real Romeos are scarce in this prosaic age. Yet Rose, in spite of a gay young Lothario who steps in the way of her own true love, finds her way to love-land. That was where Mary's perfidy came in. It showed up Lothario's true character, while at the same time it brought Mary back to her own determined young lover.

A tramp overhears a rancher's plans to go to town for the ranch's payroll. He tries to enlist another loafer (the Knight) to help with a robbery. Instead, the Knight helps thwart the robbery.

Two sisters want to know whether there is romance in their future. One sister pulls the petals off of a flower, while the other has her fortune told by a gypsy. When the gypsy tells the fortune so as to serve his own purposes, complications soon develop.

Kitty, the pretty young wife of a Texas businessman, feels neglected and unwanted as her husband pays more attention to his business interests than he does to her and spends more and more time away from home. A handsome young neighbor notices her emotional state and decides to try to take advantage of it. In her confused and lonely condition, Kitty finds herself attracted to the man and begins to think about running away with him.

The District Attorney came face to face with the man who he believed had murdered his father years before. This man was held for murder. The District Attorney made every effort to find his victim guilty. The night before the execution, however, a dying companion's confession placed the guilt where it belonged. Should he now, as District Attorney, destroy the confession or uphold the honor of the law?

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.

A first-born baby girl is sent away and placed in the care of Gretchen, a trusted peasant woman, who is the widowed mother of a child about the same age. The two children grow up as sisters. Later, upon her deathbed, the noble lady repents and sends for her child to reinstate her. Gretchen takes this opportunity to make a great lady of her own daughter Lena, the goose girl, by sending her to court instead of the real heiress. Hence Lena is taken before the noble lady, happy in the belief that she has made reparation. Lena is now a great lady, but the title does not fit well-- She longs to be back with Gretchen and her "geeses".

After the death of his wife the baby was all the sheriff had left, the promise of hope in the future, and the reflection of all that was dear in the past. But a sheriff has no time to tread a cradle rocker, so the baby started off on the long journey to relatives across the desert. Then the sheriff was called away to hunt the "bad men" of the desert, and found there a deserted prairie schooner, the occupants dead and his baby gone.

Leo Peret has a small quiet tobacco shop in Greenwich Village. Edward Livingston, a wealthy young clubman and man-about-town, occupies frequently ostensibly to buy cigarettes but in reality to talk to the daughter Jeannette, and he's soon in love with the shop girl.

After years on the international crime circuit, "Silver Jim" Farrel shares a comfortable and honest suburban life with Marjory, his sister, until word comes that an old friend from his thieving days is in desperate need of cash. To save his bankrupt friend from jail, Jim reluctantly executes a jewel heist, being careful not to involve Marjory or his sweetheart, who know nothing of his past, in the scheme.

Roy Norris, a young author, proposes to pretty Mary Ford and is accepted. The first year or more of their married life is one of bliss, made all the sweeter by the arrival of their first-born. The little trio, father, mother, baby, are bound together by love, until unreasonable jealousy possesses the young couple. While at work in his studio, the young author is visited by his wife just as he is complimenting his stenographer on her valuable aid, and from this the wife sees grounds tor suspicion. On the other hand, the young husband, seeing his wife talking to a stranger, becomes suspicious.

A stern father rules his family by what he thinks to be the Bible's precepts, but it is simply the influence of his own narrow mind. Hence when his boy suggests going to a barn dance, he flies into a rage and commands that the boy remain at home. The boy, however, becomes rebellious and goes, and for this act of disobedience the father drives him from the house and forces the rest of the family to swear never to mention his name again. It's soon revealed that father does have a soft spot and misses the boy. Mary's not-so-bright suitor, the local smith, asks for her hand. When her brother does return to the old home to reconcile, Mary's partner believes her to be unfaithful.

D.W. Griffith short intercuts two different stories before mixing them together at the end. The film focuses on a telephone girl who leaves work for her lunch break at the same time as "The Lady" goes to a jewelry store to pick up some priceless jewels. When the telephone girl returns to work she gets a phone call from the house of "The Lady" as a robber has broken in and is trying to steal the jewels.

Griffith intercuts between the lives of two couples married on the same day. One couple is rich, the other poor. Time passes, and in desperation over joblessness, the poor husband attempts to burgle a home, only to be captured at gunpoint by the mistress of the house. It is the home of the rich couple. While holding the poor intruder at gunpoint, the rich wife accidentally discovers evidence implicating her own husband in a bribery scheme.

Bobby is jealous of the new baby, so he takes it to the zoo and tries to return it to the stork.

Two tortured artists believe by committing suicide their souls will avail themselves on their ill friends and restore them to health. It appears to work but a harlot may prove the undoing of one until a steadfast doctor steps in.

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

John Logan leaves bucolic Happy Valley to make his fortune in the city. His parents and his sweetheart become miserable and beleaguered in his absence, but after several years he returns wealthy. However, his embittered father, not recognizing him for who he is, plans to murder the newly-arrived 'stranger' for his money.

Schoolteacher Edith breaks off her engagement after an argument with her fiancé. She writes him a note of reconciliation but throws it away. Without her knowledge, one of her students fishes it out of the trash and sends it to her fiancé. Later, Edith is alone grading papers when a man bursts in and threatens her.

A mountain girl is seduced by a traveler from the valley. Her brother tracks the seducer down and kills him. In retaliation, the sheriff captures the brother and prepares to lynch him. Mother intervenes and, to save her son the disgrace of hanging, shoots him.

Agnes, a singer in a country church, is practicing one day when a vaudeville manager hears her and offers her a job. Over the objections of the curate who loves her, she accepts the offer and goes to the city. Later the curate goes to hear Agnes perform and, fearing that her soul is being corrupted by show business, he asks her to return to the small town with him. When she refuses, he is prepared to kill her in order to protect the purity of her soul. This brings about her change of heart, and together they return to the little church.

During the American Revolution, a young soldier carrying a crucial message to General Washington is spotted and pursued by a group of enemy soldiers. He takes refuge with a civilian family, but is soon detected. The family and their neighbors must then make plans to see that the important message gets through after all.

Soon after their engagement, Bill goes to sea, and Emily vows to stay true until his return. Unknown to her, Bill marries another woman from a different port. Emily waits faithfully for six years, finally becoming dangerously ill. When Bill suddenly appears in town with his family, Joe, who has loved Emily all along, forces Bill to make Emily's final moments happy by pretending he has returned to marry her.

An anonymous donor drops a gold coin in the shoe of a homeless girl as she sleeps. A gambler with a 'sure thing' borrows the coin and wins a fortune, but he can't find her again to repay her.

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.

An Indian village is forced to leave its land by white settlers, and must make a long and weary journey to find a new home. The settlers make one young Indian woman stay behind. This woman is thus separated from her sweetheart, whose elderly father needs his help on the journey ahead

Mrs. Wharton, a dashing widow, gives a party at her beautiful villa in honor of the presentation to her of a handsome diamond necklace by her fiancé. During the evening bridge participated in by a number of the guests, among whom is Myrtle Vane. Miss Vane is playing in wretched luck, and is advised several times by Mrs. Wharton to desist, but she still plays on in the vain hopes of the tide of fortune turning, until at last, in the extreme of desperation, she stakes her all and loses. Shame and disgrace stare her in the face. What can she do to recoup her depleted fortune? As one of the guests there is Professor Francois Paracelsus, the eminent palmister, who of course, was called upon to read the palms of those present. Sheets of paper were prepared and each imprinted their hand on a sheet to be read by the erudite soothsayer at his leisure, and so were left on the drawing room table.

A royal woman rejects her arranged marriage. The cardinal hatches a plan: the suitor will shave and change clothes. He arranges with 4 clowns to stage an attack on the princess which he easily repels. It works; the princess falls for him, especially when the cardinal arranges his arrest.

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

At the Italian boarding house the male boarders were all smitten with the charms of Minnie, the landlady's pretty daughter, but she was of a poetic turn of mind and her soul soared above plebeianism and her aspirations were romantic. Most persistent among her suitors was Grigo, a coarse Sicilian, whose advances were odiously repulsive. The arrival at the boarding house from the old country of Giuseppe Cassella, the violinist, filled the void in her yearning heart. Romantic, poetic and a talented musician, Giuseppe was indeed a desirable husband for Minnie.

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 disfigured young woman with two beautiful sisters is courted by a blind man. Will he still love her when his sight is restored?

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.

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

In a saloon in a Mexican border town, a group of cowboys, including a Mexican named Pedro, play poker. One man is discovered cheating, and is shot dead by Pedro, who is wounded as he attempts to escape. Pedro is followed home by the local sheriff, who proves the next victim of Pedro's quick temper and pistol. Pedro's wife, Juanita, is thrown into jail, but he manages to break her out. They head for the border, unaware that a posse is waiting for them.