Marc McDermott

A meditation on the human quest to transcend physicality, constructed from decaying archival footage and set to an original symphonic score.

After a baron steals his scientific discoveries, runs away with his wife, and slaps him in public, a man joins a Parisian circus sideshow as a clown whose act consists of being slapped repeatedly and becomes infatuated with a showgirl colleague whose father intends to marry her off to the baron.

When lifelong best friends Leo and Ulrich return home after completing their military training, Leo meets the stunning Felicitas at a railway station and is mesmerized by her beauty. A scandal follows, for which Leo is sent away. Returning home three years later, he discovers that much has changed.

A young woman marries the wastrel son of a British aristocrat. Her husband, who has been disinherited by his father, loses what little money he has left gambling in casinos and then dies, leaving her penniless and with an infant son. When her former father-in-law tries to get custody of the child, she leaves him with a couple she trusts, but when she later goes to reclaim her son, she can't find the people she left him with.

A young man takes a succession of odd jobs in order to save enough money to buy himself and his mother a house. He lands a position in a newspaper office and falls in love with the beautiful society editor, who is secretly having an affair with the married managing editor. She returns the young man's affections in order to make her lover jealous, but finds herself falling for him.

In the year 1550, Sir George Vernon agrees to have his young daughter Dorothy betrothed to John Manners, the son of the Earl of Rutland. Sir George signs a contract, promising that the marriage will take place on Dorothy's 18th birthday, or else he will have to pay a large penalty to Rutland. But when the two children have grown older, rumors of John's wild behavior in France provoke Sir George to call off the engagement, and to pledge his daughter instead to her cousin Malcolm. Rutland now claims the forfeit from Sir George, and meanwhile, John has befriended Mary Stuart, the sworn enemy of Elizabeth, who is now Queen of England.

Facing poverty, Carol Drayton is prevented from suicide by Rose, a woman of the streets, who buys Carol a meal in a cafe of questionable reputation. The cafe is raided, and Carol is arrested and jailed on the false testimony of wealthy Gordon Duane. When she is released, Carol is again penniless until intoxicated Bobby Bleeker pays her to sing beneath the window of his sweetheart, Aline Sturdevant, where she is discovered by Stratini, a famous impresario. While studying with Stratini, Carol is blackmailed by the butler. Whitney Duane (Gordon's brother) falls in love with her but doubts her because of the gossip, and Carol incurs Aline's wrath by borrowing money from Bobby for Rose. Carol finally realizes her love for Stratini, who has remained loyal to her, and they are married.

John Linden, a victim of wanderlust, jumbles up his life and that of his two daughters. One is a daughter by marriage, the other an offspring of Jessie Walton, a young woman of the village. Noting the resemblance of the two, unscrupulous Mark Lezzard, the sea town's only lawyer, arouses the jealousy of the first daughter's husband Jack Yeulette, the skipper of a fishing smack, hoping to gain her for himself and thereby obtain control over the money John provides for her on a regular basis. After much havoc, happiness is the lot of everyone except Lezzard, whom the crowd "fixes" when they learn of what a wretch he is. A lost film.

"The war with Mexico serves to bring together American officer and Mexican senorita, the former all ardent and the latter defiant because of the fact that their countries are at war. Coincident with the American victory is the successful conquest by the 'gringo' of the girl's heart."

Exotic Russian actress Lisa Parsinova tires of her glamorous life on the New York stage and returns, under her actual identity as Lizzie Parsons, to her small New England hometown. But she is pursued by a young man who is in love with the famed Russian alter ego.

Sara Langford, an American girl in Paris, is courted by Count Desanges, who loves her but is considerably older; Thomas Carlton, who is married but is out for conquest; and Julian Greer, her true love. In rescuing Greer from the sea, the count is permanently paralyzed but manages to shoot Carlton when he attacks Sara. Ultimately, the true lovers are reunited.

Kiki, a poor young woman who sells newspapers on the street corners of Paris, is able to land a job singing and dancing at a nearby theater. While she is there, she invites herself into the life of the revue's manager, with whom she has fallen in love.

A seductive woman forsakes her husband and lover to pursue a young engineer.

Silent drama with two different New York stories. One tells of a good man led astray until a dream causes him to change his ways. The other is about a man whose despair over his love marrying another is lifted through increasingly unlikely events.

The beautiful Serafina is captured by Balthasar's pirates on an island near Cuba, but the redoubtable José Armando arrives from Spain to effect her rescue.

A famous opera singer lost her voice when her son was born, and has drowned her sorrows in drink. When a murder is committed near her house, she invents a story in order to get herself back in front of the public again. However, the story she comes up with results in her son being arrested for the murder.

An American falls for the princess of the Kingdom of Graustark, and decides to her marriage to a dastardly prince.

Katusha, a country girl, is seduced and abandoned by Prince Nekludov. Nekludov finds himself, years later, on a jury trying the same Katusha for a crime he now realizes his actions drove her to. He follows her to imprisonment in Siberia, intent on redeeming her and himself as well.

Convent-bred to assume her position of nobility when the time comes, Princess Antoinette plays hooky from school one day to attend a theatrical performance. Here she meets a handsome young American, and it's love at first sight. Meanwhile, in the Princess' home country, the Prime Minister plots to quell a rebellion by arranging a marriage between Antoinette and the Grand Duke.

A southern girl tries her luck as a dancer in New York City.

The adventures of Oliver Tressilian, who goes from English gentry to galley slave to captain of a Moorish fighting ship.

An anthology of three dramas over the course of one evening in New York, with separate characters in each story played in all three by Marc MacDermott and Estelle Taylor. In one, a woman who has married believing her first and wrothless husband has been killed finds him returning to her for blackmail. The second part is the life of a cabaret vamp and a detective tricking each other, while the third story recalls a man who realizes his son's wife is cheating upon him with the man who lives in the apartment above him.

France is being swamped by counterfeit bills that are being made by a ring in the US. A beautiful female member of the French gang circulating the bills negotiates a deal with the counterfeiters' ringleader in the US, and in so doing falls in love with a returning US soldier who has his own reasons for trying to destroy the gang.

Vitaphone production reels #2471-2478; third Warner Bros. feature film - the first being The Jazz Singer and the second Tenderloin - to include talking sequences, along with the by now usual Vitaphone musical score and sound effects. A copy of this film survives at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., but the sound disks are lost.

Lucretia Morgan has been married to an old man for the past seven years. The marriage is loveless but the whole time Lucretia has been a devoted wife. Her husband Allen has been sick for some time. Lucretia thinks Allen is upset with her because she is going out to a charity ball and he has to stay. Allen understands she is young and she needs to socialize he is not upset with her for wanting to go out.

Eileen O'Hara lives as a member of a cult in a remote retreat in the Adirondacks with her father, an embittered man since his wife's infidelity years earlier. Because his wife was untrue, O'Hara is determined that his daughter, Eileen, shall never marry. Peyster Sproul was the man who had the affair Mrs. O'Hara's infidelity, and when he shows up as president of the Sagamore Club and attempts to buy O'Hara's land, the two men come to blows.

Archduke Alexander (Clive Brook) is better known for his sexual conquests than his diplomatic triumphs. After a lifetime of loving 'em and leaving 'em, the Archduke finally meets a girl he can't leave, Hungarian lass Judith Peredy (Billie Dove). She resists his advances but can't hide the fact that she's in love with him. The Yellow Lily was the second of four cinematic collaborations between star Billie Dove and director Alexander Korda.

Molly Townsend is on the eve of her marriage to Luis Riccardi, a steamship man who secretly is a bootlegger. She follows John Locke, the man she really loves, on a steamship bound for Rio. He is thrown overboard, leaving her at the mercy of a crew full of bad men. She is nearly their victim when she is rescued by John and her mother. When the police come aboard, the leader of the band reveals the true character of Riccardi, leaving Molly and John happy together.

Lord Brancaster, a decent and upright British nobleman, loses his memory in an accident. While in this amnesiac condition, he becomes involved with the training of a horse, the Whip, for racing at Ascot.

Miser Ebenezer Scrooge is awakened on Christmas Eve by spirits who reveal to him his own miserable existence, what opportunities he wasted in his youth, his current cruelties, and the dire fate that awaits him if he does not change his ways. Scrooge is faced with his own story of growing bitterness and meanness, and must decide what his own future will hold: death or redemption.

It's a busy day at the office, and the stenographer is exhausted from trying to keep up with the demands on her skills. Even when she stays late, she cannot catch up with all of the work. But then a man comes into the office to demonstrate the many advantages of the Edison System, his company's new business phonograph.

After wandering the world for fifteen years, Hiram Perkins returns home to find his wife running a small town newspaper to support their two daughters. With pity in her heart, Mrs. Perkins allows her husband to stay in the house providing that he not disclose his identity. Mrs. Perkins is waging a battle against the re-election of Joel Skinner for a seat in the assembly, and when she learns that Skinner has mistreated old Mrs. Miller, she is determined to expose his actions. Rome Preston, running in opposition to Skinner, requests that she stop the story, but Mrs. Perkins refuses and so Preston disables the press. With Hiram's help, Mrs. Perkins prints the story and Skinner is defeated. In revenge, Skinner's men burn the press and demand that Hiram be tarred and feathered. At this moment, Mrs. Perkins acknowledges that Hiram is her husband and all is forgiven as the Perkins family is reunited.

A Lord weds a Lady despite knowledge of her lowly birth.

The forerunner of all serials, What Happened to Mary was a series of twelve monthly one reel episodes, each a complete entity in itself, revolving its immediate dramatic and melodramatic problems within the framework of a single episode and designed more for story and suspense situations than action.

A romantic comedy about two lovers; the parents of the girl forbid them from being together.

The first of six installments in Paula Blackton's Country Life Stories series.

William Thompson slips away to New York, leaving his wife and daughter to shift for themselves. He obtains a station and finally becomes head waiter in one of the gay restaurants of the Great White Way. As years slip by his daughter becomes star-struck. Harry Valentine, the manager, notices her pretty face and tries to take her from town with him, although he has no position in the company to offer her. This she declines, but when he later writes her that he will marry her if she will come to New York and will also place her on the stage, she decides to leave her mother and accept the offer. Of course, Valentine has no intention of marrying her and when he meets her in New York he takes her for a little supper at the restaurant before the supposititious wedding ceremony and thus Thompson is brought face to face with his daughter.

A tale set during the 1916 Irish Easter Rebellion against the British.

No synopsis available yet.

First, the eye is introduced to the old mill itself, with a gay betrothal party in progress, and laughter and merriment on all sides. Suddenly the laughter is hushed by the martial tread of feet, and the smile of joy fades from the two young lovers' faces as the French soldiers march into the courtyard and prepare to defend the mill against the oncoming attack of the German army. The mild summer afternoon has but half way run its course towards its western home when a wounded outpost comes staggering into the courtyard with the news of the advancing German army stamped upon his blood-stained forehead. Suddenly the courtyard is filled with the smoke of battle, and we know that the long-expected attack is on.

Kathleen, the daughter of a poor tenant farmer, dreams of her wedding with her beloved Terrence. The dream is interrupted when the Squire of the estate takes an interest in Kathleen and forces her father to allow him to marry her to forgive the father's debt.

Billie is the "little mother" of the family and cares for the two smaller children. Her father has fallen under the spell of drink. Billie has become hardened by her struggle against the drink demon in her father and treats him with scant consideration.

During World War I, the beautiful and patriotic Leslie Selden is courted by two ardent admirers: Jack Wynn, a young man not yet taken by the draft, and Dr. Wolff, a Danish scientist who, in reality, is a German agent. When Jack learns that Wolff is masterminding a plot to bomb several munitions factories and destroy the water system in New York City, he goes to the spy's home and confronts him.

Film serial directed by Charles Brabin.

The friends of the story are John Drene, a sculptor, and Jack Graylock, a painter. Both men swear eternal friendship on the night before Drene's marriage.

Not "as in a looking glass" but "as in his own portrait" in a dream does Paul Le Grand, the famous artist, see the lines of dissipation come, one by one, after each successive debauch.

Aida, daughter of the King of Ethiopia, having fallen a prisoner into the hands of the Egyptians, is given as a slave by their king to his daughter Amneris who, captivated by the grace and beauty of the unknown maid, takes her into favor. Radames, a young captain of the king's guards, loved by Amneris, suspecting a rival in her slave, swears to be avenged. Meanwhile war is again declared between Egypt and Ethiopia and Radames, appointed leader of the army by the High Priest of Isis, is invested with the sacred arms and departs to fight the Ethiopians who, headed by their king, have invaded Egypt. Radames defeats them and returns victorious, followed by the prisoners, among whom is the king himself, disguised as an officer.

Ruthless stockbroker John McLane has ruined James Horton through reckless money management. McLane is extremely hard in business matters. When Horton’s son, Walter, confronts McLane they have a stormy altercation in which McLane is accidentally killed with a paper knife. McLane’s blind daughter Nora has been upstairs during the incident but runs down to find Horton sitting in a chair feigning sleep. Nora touches him lightly on the face thus impressing his features in her mind and when she turns to her father he flees. In time Nora’s blindness is cured and at a house party she meets Walter Horton. He recognizes her but she does not know him, and they fall in love but when she touches his face, she realizes the truth.

In the first scene we see a group of children at a window waiting for the arrival of their father. Following this we learn that the little family lacks a mother. The next scene brings us to a theater-box party. The father of the little family meets another woman. It soon becomes evident that he intends to marry again and at last he brings this other woman to the house. While he is present, she seems to be fond of the children, but once he is out of the room we see that her fondness is hardly skin-deep. Soon the mother's picture is removed from over the fireplace and evidently the new wedding will take place. Little Margaret, taking care of the children, finds them hard to amuse one day, and going up into the garret, finds some old clothes, in which they all dress. By chance she puts on the very costume which was used when her mother posed for the big portrait, now absent from its place over the mantel, and so it happens that when the father comes home at night.

A tale of English political intrigue. A certain member of Parliament, whose voice and vote would have passed an objectionable measure, is prevented from reaching the house in time by the opposition's subterfuge of a girl calling for assistance just as he passed her house. The young lady being an actress merely re-enacts a scene from the amateur theatricals she appeared in. The plan works holding him until it is too late to take part in the debate or vote upon the question and the bill did not pass.

Second of six installments in Paula Blackton's Country Life Stories series.

Six part adventure serial starring Mary Fuller as the sought after heroine. Episodes: 1) A Proposal From The Duke; 2) A Proposal From The Spanish Don; 3) A Proposal From The Sculptor; 4) A Proposal From Nobody; 5) A Proposal Deferred; 6) A Proposal From Mary

When anarchist bombs disrupt the engagement ball of Princess Marie Pavlovna, her fiancé, Prince Michail Koloyar, helps her to escape in a carriage. Then Theo Kameneff, secretly in the pay of a foreign government, becomes dictator and, desiring the princess, issues an edict that all women between the ages of seventeen and thirty-two must register and become state property.

Monsieur is a prosperous man in Paris, and is just sending his young daughter to complete her education at one of the nearby convents. From the affection shown between father and daughter it is evident that her mother no longer survives. News reaches him of the disaster which sweeps away his entire fortune and leaves him penniless. He writes to his daughter and tells her of the great change in their affairs, and that America seems the only hope of retrieving his fortunes. In New York, we find that he has taken a very modest little apartment, to which he, months later, brings the daughter, who takes up her share of the work and does the cooking. She receives an invitation from a girl chum to attend a party, where she meets the girl's brother, with whom she falls in love. When he and his sister come to call at the little apartment they are welcomed by Monsieur, but as the old man has an engagement at the club, departs.

A gentleman who's opposed to and mocks women's suffrage goes for a walk and unknowingly becomes an advertisement for it.

A young boy aspires to knowledge and higher education but his father, a plain man with narrow goals, is content with an ordinary school education for him and puts him to work despite the principal's protests. The principal even offers the father an opening by which his son could work during the day and attend school at night throughout a season, but the father declines. Disheartened by the life of drudgery, his father’s decision has wrought he travels the wrong road and goes from hopelessness to recklessness, trapped in an unhappy marriage and a life of hopelessness.

They were twins, and the passing years had in the sifting melting-pot of life. William looms brilliantly, a success, while John is deep in the discouraging shadows, a failure. Another span of fleeting years, and William attains the summit of a meteoric career; he is a candidate for the United States Senate.

Sixth and final episode in the series of short films titled Paula Blackton's Country Life Stories.

Mrs. Philip Mason commits suicide after she has an affair with Stephen Lee, a disreputable stockbroker, and sells her husband's securities so that Lee can buy stocks. When Lee goes bankrupt, he blackmails Helen Trent by threatening to reveal silly love letters she wrote to him before she married. Her brother, Willy Grosby, and his fiancée, Helen O'Neil, who lives with the Grosbys, go to retrieve the letters. While Willy waits outside, Lee is knifed to death as he attacks Helen. Lee's friend, Edward Wales, attempts to pin the murder on Helen by having Madame LaFarge, a clairvoyant, conduct a séance. In the darkened room, Wales, through whom Lee's spirit supposedly speaks, is about to name Helen as the murderer, but Wales, who sits in the thirteenth chair, is himself murdered. After Helen confesses to Inspector Donohue that Madame LaFarge is her mother, LaFarge, while conducting another séance, tricks Philip Mason into confessing to the murders.

The rancher whom Tom works for has entrusted Tom with a bag of gold to take to the bank. But on arriving at the bank, Tom finds that it is closed for the day. It is not long before Tom is lured into a game of cards, and loses the rancher's money. Soon there is a warrant out for Tom's arrest on a charge of embezzlement, and his situation becomes increasingly desperate.