Author Archive: Retro

This independently made lumber camp melodrama hinges on the fact that the leading man receives a transfusion of wolf blood — a medical treatment that would be considered grounds for a malpractice suit nowadays. Dick Bannister (George Chesbro, who also co-directed) is the boss of the Ford Logging Company. When many of his men receive injuries from their constant fights with the employees of a rival company, Bannister sends for medical help. Company owner Edith Ford (Marguerite Clayton) arrives with Dr. Eugene Horton (Ray Hanford). Although Dr. Horton is interested in her, Edith falls in love with Bannister. The lumber boss suffers a severe injury, and Dr. Horton gives him a transfusion of wolf blood. While in a fever, Bannister believes he has become half-man and half-beast and he gets up from his sick bed to answer the call of a wolf pack. Edith chases after him and saves him from falling over a cliff. [...]

Spooky ghost is on the loose, tearing around in a racecar stealing important documents. Dir. Charles Hines.

Italian silent epic based on Flaubert’s novel.

A widely respected deep-sea diver is approached by a ring of con artists who want him to be the front man for a phony scheme to recover gold from sunken ships. When he refuses, they send a sexy young woman to seduce his son, and then blackmail the father into going along with their scheme.

A cowboy seeks revenge against the man who shot him in a bar-room brawl. While searching for him, he comes across a wild stallion that he is determined to capture and break, and unknowingly falls in love with the daughter of the man who shot him.

Family’s unhappy ties are changed when a young woman enters the household. Dir. Lois Weber.

Small town litigator wins a big case and is lured to the big city by a presitgious law firm. Unfortunately, the move wreaks havok on his faithful wife, as her rural ways clash with the movers and shakers of her husbands new social world.

A classic melodrama is featured in this film that is listed as a romantic adventure.

In August of 1914, dogged Australian photographer Frank Hurley joined Ernest Shackleton’s ill-fated Trans-Antarctic expedition. Shackleton had hoped to make an historic first crossing of the icy continent while recording valuable scientific data, but when the men reached the bottom of the world, things didn’t go exactly according to plan. The ship Endurance, which had been slated to explore the treacherous coastline after ferrying Shackleton and company to the Weddell Sea, became frozen in place between two gigantic ice floes. This silent film, first released in 1919 and then restored in 2000, is the stunning photographic record of the long months these men spent fighting for survival — learning to ski, hunting seals and penguins, and warding off madness and despair. Hurley filmed everything, right up to the moment when their beloved ship disappeared beneath the ice — he even photographed wildlife on the island of South Georgia, where the explorers were eventually taken to [...]