When the Civil War begins, young Billy runs away from home to enlist in the Northern Army as a drummer; he's wounded in battle and taken prisoner. He manages to escape and deliver an important message to his commanding officer, but loses his life in the process. Preserved by the Academy Film...
Mildred is staying with her grandfather, Civil War veteran Jabez Burr, when she receives a letter from her father. Her father has re-married, and will be bringing his new wife home soon. But when Mildred's stepmother finds out that Jabez drinks, she takes a dislike to him, and begins to resent his...
Tom Chatterton is called a coward because he will not enlist in the Home Guard during the Civil War -- his mother is dying and he does not wish to leave while she is still alive. When she dies and the Yankees attack, he seizes command of the Home Guard and leads them to victory, proving himself a...
Rev. Horace Brightray, pastor of a New England village church, is ordered by his physician to seek another climate. He goes to Agua Caliente, where he attempts to hold services in the hotel dining room, but nobody attends excepting the hotel clerk and maid, and a dance hall girl, Bubbles. The...
The sheriff lives with his sister, and is engaged in running down an unknown bandit who has been quite active in the district. It develops that Jim Brown, a poor miner, who has lost his wife and is in straitened circumstances, has become embittered at the world and is the bandit, living alone with...
In The Struggle (Broncho, 1913) a prospector and his son Bob depart from home in the morning, while the wife, at home, offers food to a passing stranger. His shifting eyes reveal his nature; he assaults her, and although her husband and son return in time to save her, the father is killed in the...
Dakota Dan, who runs the saloon and gambling hall, is refusing to take another drink with the boys, who commence to kid him, saying he's been scared to drink ever since he heard the new parson's daughter was going to convert him. Dakota flushes and replies half angrily that he has never seen the...
The setting is an early American village, where a young Quaker woman, Priscilla, is in love with the schoolmaster, John Hart. The local minister, Rev. Cole, who calls on her at her cabin with flowers, is an unwelcome suitor. In revenge, he has "blue laws" passed, among them is one requiring...
Pinto Ben is a pink-nosed cow-pony. A hundred head of cattle are rounded up for beef to be shipped alive to Chicago. Ben and his master, with Segundo Jim, are put in charge. In the Chicago stockyards, men who don't know range-bred cattle from a herd of mountain goats, calmly inform Jim and Ben's...
"Bat" Peters, reformed gunfighter turned prospector, travels to Chicago to collect on a business deal with a mine promoter who turns out to be crooked.
IN THE SWITCH TOWER stars Walter Edwards (who also directed) as Bill Wharton, a middle-aged alcoholic who was once a leading engineer with a railroad. Wharton is estranged from his son Joel (Frank Borzage), who now works as an executive with the railroad, but Frank does send him money through...
Jim Black, learning that his rival, David Durard, son of Colonel Durard, wealthy Southern wholesale grocers, has won the heart of Marion, plans to separate the lovers before war breaks out.
A story of Puritan village life. The son of a minister wins a girl away from her devoted fisherman. Orphaned, she is adopted by the minister, and when her child is born refuses to reveal the father's name. She is cast out by the minister and scorned by the people. When her child is dying the...
Juan Capella, the son of a poor Spanish tavern keeper, and his wife, learning of the discovery of gold on the American River near Sacramento, runs away from his parents and sweetheart to make his fortune. The tavern keeper is in debt and places a mortgage on the tavern in order to prevent it being...
Ruth Castle plans to surprise her husband on their fifth wedding anniversary with a very elaborate dinner and promises their two little children that they may eat at the big table that night. Rex, her husband, is infatuated with Yvette, a dancer, and, having forgotten all about the anniversary, has...