Thanhouser Company three-reel silent film based on Charles Dickens’s story of an English lad's tribulation-filled journey to adulthood, Thanhouser released the three films over the course of three weeks beginning on October 17, 1911, one 1,000 foot reel per week.
A young artist, in love with a society girl, finally induces her to consent to pose for him. In a picture which he believes will be his masterpiece, and his confidence is increased when he finds just the child he wants for Cupid, to be in the painting with his lady fair.
Her parents were humble peasants, and were fond of her when she was a baby, for they believed she would grow up to be a beautiful woman and make a good match. The trouble was that she didn't grow up. When she was nineteen she was no bigger than a child of six. Naturally they were overjoyed when an...
The simple story of a heroic dog that saves the day appealed to audiences (especially with a well-trained animal as attractive and energetic as Shep), and became a movie staple for generations.
In "The World and the Woman", Jeanne Eagels plays Mary, a prostitute (which is implied by her walking the streets and being hassled by policemen) who reluctantly takes a better position at a country lodge as a maid. In this woodland community, she attends church and the path to Salvation becomes...
Zudora, not knowing she's an heiress to a $20 million fortune, lives with her uncle, a mystic and detective, who covets her inheritance. She wants to marry John Storm but her uncle is against it. However, the uncle makes a bargain; if Zudora can solve the next twenty mysteries brought to him, she...
Southern California locations vividly suggest both elemental pre-Roman Britain and classical Rome. An energetic cinematic pacing and intimacy show rapidly improving narrative technique and realism well beyond the limitations of the stage. Especially cinematic are the bedchamber scene in the first...
The lead Florence La Badie plays dual roles. Clever editing is used for the scene where her two characters meet. La Badie, however, does appear twice within a scene via superimposition, but that's in a flashback-within-a-mirror scene. There are a couple such scenes where La Badie's reflection in...
One little girl lived in the country. She was a model child, everybody admitted it, but it cannot be denied that she was more or less of a cry-baby and a coward.
Convicted in a revolutionary conspiracy, a man rashly states that he wishes never again to hear the name of the United States of America. The judge grants him his wish, sentencing him to life aboard a ship always at sea, aboard with sailors under orders never to let him hear of his homeland in any...
The Thanhouser Company's two-reel adaptation of Oscar Wilde's eponymous novel. “The plot is unusual, and even though none of the familiar epigrams of the author find their way into the subtitles there is an artistic flavor to the production. Dorian's picture shows evidence in the passing years of...
When May receives a letter from another girl telling her that Jack, her lover, is untrue, she dismisses him. Shep, Jack's beautiful collie, however, is suspicious of Jim Hallet, who, some way, he feels is responsible for his master's unhappiness. He trails Jim and steals another letter, written by...
The Thanhouser Co. has reissued a number of its surviving films on video. FIRES OF YOUTH existed at around 52 minutes in its original release. A shortened version running just over 31 minutes has survived at the George Eastman House and has now been released by Thanhouser. Jeanne Eagels does well...
A chorus girl in a theatrical show is being pursued by a "Stage Door Johnny" while her somewhat prudish boyfriend tries to "rescue" her from a life in the theater. Old Jane, the show's wardrobe mistress, takes the girl under her wing and gives her advice on how to handle her situation.
An indictment of the evils of child labor, the film was controversial in its time for its use of actual footage of children employed in a working mill.
Elaborately produced version of the well known George O. Nichols fairy tale interrupted by just a few summarizing intertitles, with Florence LaBadie and Harry Benham.
During World War I, a countess and her young son volunteer to don disguises and take an important secret message through enemy lines.The fluid editing and vastly more dramatic cinematography (especially the use of close shots for expressiveness and intimacy) are part of the extremely rapid advances...