Edwin S. Porter

A documentary overview of the career of silent cinema pioneer Edwin S. Porter.

Porter's sequential continuity editing links several shots to form a narrative of firemen responding to a house fire. They leave the station with their horse drawn pumper, arrive on the scene, and effect the safe rescue of a woman from the burning house. But wait, she tells them of her child yet asleep in the burning bedroom...

After the train station clerk is assaulted and left bound and gagged, then the departing train and its passengers robbed, a posse goes in hot pursuit of the fleeing bandits.

After the train station clerk is assaulted and left bound and gagged, then the departing train and its passengers robbed, a posse goes in hot pursuit of the fleeing bandits.

After the train station clerk is assaulted and left bound and gagged, then the departing train and its passengers robbed, a posse goes in hot pursuit of the fleeing bandits.

On Christmas Eve, Santa feeds his reindeer and loads his sleigh, before going on his journey to deliver toys to the children of the world.

The statue of Niobe comes to life through the dream of a hen-pecked old man.

Gilbert Saroni impersonates an exceedingly ugly woman who coyly flirts with her fan.

A lost film. A man and a woman are shipwrecked on a desert island. It doesn't take long before they fall in love and, figuring that they would never see civilization again, declare themselves married and eventually have a child. One day, however...

While in a park, a young woman sees her fiancé being quite affectionate with another woman. When she calls him on the telephone to demand an explanation, he tells her that it was his sister. She is not satisfied, and insists on coming over to meet his 'sister'. As the young man broods over how to get out of trouble, an old college friend comes over, and he offers to pretend to be the sister. At first this works, but soon it has created even more complications.

Bella Donna ( Pauline Frederick ) a seductive woman snares Nigel Armine ( Thomas Holding ) into marriage and he takes her to Egypt to live. Tired of her simple husband, Bella becomes involved with brutish Baroudi. To get rid of Nigel, she begins slowly poisoning him. However, Nigel's friend Dr. Isaacson arrives in time to save him. Now Baroudi wants nothing to do with Bella, and neither does her husband. Totally alone now, the distraught Bella wanders off into the desert.

A successful artist and a struggling one both love the same woman; she chooses the poor one but as the years roll on and other choices she makes and her husband’s misunderstanding lead to a near breaking point for the couple.

A poor boy named Tom Canty and Edward, the Prince of Wales exchange identities but events force the pair to experience each other's lives as well.

This holiday-themed melodrama released by Edison Studios in 1910 concerns Robert, a young man who leaves his mother’s home in New England to forge a career in the big city. When he achieves “fame and fortune” six years later, his proud mother can’t wait to welcome him home for Thanksgiving. Robert, however, intends to stay in the city to enjoy a holiday feast with his society friends and beautiful fiancée. When Mom decides to pay a surprise visit on Thanksgiving Day, she is saddened to find that her son is so ashamed of her that he relegates her to an upstairs room, out of sight and out of mind.

A woman goes to the dentist for a toothache and is given gas. On her way home on the subway she can't stop laughing, and every other passenger catches the laughter from her.

Made by the Edison Manufacturing Company and directed by Edwin S. Porter, the film starred Gladys Hulette as Alice. Being a silent film, naturally all of Lewis Carroll's nonsensical prose could not be used, and, being only a one-reel picture, most of Carroll's memorable characters in his original 1865 novel similarly could not be included. What was used in the film was faithful in spirit to Carroll, and in design to the original John Tenniel illustrations. Variety complimented the picture by comparing it favorably to the "foreign" film fantasies then flooding American cinemas.

A jealous husband arrives in the office of Hawkshaw, a private detective. The husband is certain that his wife is being unfaithful, and he wants the detective to produce photographic evidence. The detective tails the wife, and thinks he has caught her, but a sudden mishap prevents him from getting a photo. Despite this and further setbacks, the dedicated detective presses on, determined to fulfill his assignment.

Two members of a vigilante group known as 'The White Caps' post a warning sign on a man's home. When the man comes home, he tears down the sign, and then proceeds to abuse his wife both verbally and physically. As soon as she can get away from him, the wife leaves home with her child to find a place of refuge. When the vigilantes find out about this, they arm themselves with rifles and immediately go to confront the abusive husband.

A combination of the story of Goldlocks and the Three Bears with the true story of how Teddy Roosevelt spared a bear cub after killing its mother while hunting, an event which led to the popularization of the teddy bear. Goldilocks goes to sleep in the bears' home after watching six teddy bears dance and do acrobatics, viewing them through a knothole in the wall. When she is awoken by the returning bear family, they give chase through the woods, but she runs to the aid of the Old Rough Rider, who saves her.

Chollie and George compete for a young woman's affection, using trickery and sabotage.

A generous boy tries to help a girl who does not believe in Santa Claus because of her family's poverty.

A comic picture that defies description. It depicts the Twentieth Century up-to-date tramp flying over the chimney tops of New York City in the latest improved flying machine. Weary Willie has the indispensible tin can hanging from his waist and he waves his hands to his friends as he flies along. He passes over the top of the Equitable Life building and other New York sky scrapers. He flies over the East River and clears the top of the Brooklyn Bridge, and appears to be making his way toward Staten Island. When he is about in the centre of the river, his flying machine explodes, and like the unfortunate McGinty, down goes Weary William.

Richard "The Imp" Audaine is a clever but dissolute orphan whose guardian and friends are trying to lead him from the path of ruin and back to his senses.

A young girl, squatting on a wealthy man's land fights for her fellow squatters' right to stay.

A partially lost film, with only one surviving reel. A movie released in 1914 directed by Edwin S. Porter.

A silent romantic drama film directed by Hugh Ford and Edwin S. Porter