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.
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...
Frankenstein, a young medical student, trying to create the perfect human being, instead creates a misshapen monster. Made ill by what he has done, Frankenstein is comforted by his fiancée; but on his wedding night he is visited by the monster.
Annie Oakley was probably the most famous marksman/woman in the world when this short clip was produced in Edison's Black Maria studio in West Orange, New Jersey. Barely five feet tall, Annie was always associated with the wild west, although she was born in 1860 as Phoebe Ann Oakley Mozee (or...
The scene opens in an artist's studio, the artist asleep in his chair. A large old fashioned clock opens and a young lady comes out and awaking the artist, requests him to paint her picture. While the artist is executing the work a clown comes from the clock, takes in the situation and begins to...
An illegitimate child of the slums comes to faith. Later, she chooses to labor in a canning factory in order to investigate its poor conditions, not realizing she has a significant connection to the cold-hearted factory owner.
A short film depicting the execution of Mary, Queen of the Scots. Mary is brought to the execution block and made to kneel down with her neck over it. The executioner lifts his axe ready to bring it down. After that frame Mary has been replaced by a dummy. The axe comes down and severs the head of...
Resemblance of a society man to a notorious crook forms the basis of this dramatic, thrilling romance. the crook is after the other's jewels and a young girl is searching for an important paper. All three are involved in a Tango which reaches a sensational climax in the death of the other crook.
Papa is reading his newspaper and his little girl tickles his neck with a long straw. Thinking it is a fly papa "shoos" away the supposed fly with his hand…
The plot and setting is actually a bit like Keaton's The Three Ages will be in 1923. But less sophisticated: The Roman Emperor Mulius Caesar borrows more money than he should. The loan shark is all over him and exploits this to get near the emperor's daughter. A slave falls in love with the...
Porter's sequential continuity editing links several shots to form a narrative of the famous fairy tale story of Jack and his magic beanstalk. Borrowing on cinematographic methods reminiscent of 'Georges Melies' , Porter uses animation, double exposure, and trick photography to illustrate the...
A lady watering the garden with a hose, a mischievous boy stops the flow of water until she looks for the cause, when he permits the water to flow, resulting in the lady taking an unexpected bath. The father then appears and chastises the youthful culprit. One of the best films ever made.
"Nothing new, but an old thing done over again and done well. Some one has attempted to describe a kiss as "something made of nothing," but this is not one of that kind, but one of those old fashioned "home made" kind that sets the whole audience into merriment and motion, and has always proven a...
“This film is remarkable in several respects. In the first place, it is full life-size. Secondly, it is the only accurate recent portrait of the great inventor. The scene is an actual one, showing Mr. Edison in working dress engaged in an interesting chemical experiment in his great Laboratory....
Mr. Clayworth, a wealthy American and self-made man, has a daughter Bessie, who is determined to marry a foreign title much against her father's wishes. She has an American suitor, William Brooks, who is deeply in love with her but he is given little encouragement. Mr. Clayworth plans to discourage...
This film is difficult to classify. It opens on a scene showing a mourner with bowed head sitting in front of what appears to be a tombstone. Shortly afterwards, the face of Abraham Lincoln and then of two other presidents, Garfield and McKinley, can be seen on the monument and then they disappear....
