Author Archive: Retro

It would be an impossibility even in three reels to give the complete history of this most wonderful man. In presenting this picture we have selected a few only of the best-known and most famous scenes in his life. Commencing the story with a summer evening at Malmaison we see in progress one of the most magnificent fetes of the kind that took place only in France, during the height of Bonaparte’s power, and at which are present Napoleon and Josephine. Following this is the well-known scene when Napoleon on his rounds discovers a sentry asleep behind a haystack, takes up the latter’s gun and continues his duties to the astonishment of the soldier when he awakes. We next come to the Battle of Austerlitz and the incident of the guard who was decorated by Napoleon for refusing to allow him to pass without the watchword. The battle itself is shown very vividly in all [...]

Madeline Hurlock is tired of her husband (Ben Turpin) ignoring her to go hunting so she runs off with one of his friends.

When a bottle of hair tonic renders him bald, Jimmie is mistaken for a famous French beautician and is called upon to demonstrate his skills.

A disfigured young woman with two beautiful sisters is courted by a blind man. Will he still love her when his sight is restored?

Bess True’s father wants her to marry a real man, but Bess prefers Bobby Ray, who must fight boxer Glen Cavender in this standard but funny short comedy.It’s a common enough type of story for short comedy in this era, but Ray, who had become a screen comic in 1915 as “Alkilai Ike, Jr.” and who would later become a second unit director, is more than up to the challenge. While fans of silent comedy will recognize a lot of gags and locales that many other comedies used (I must have seen a hundred comedies in which some one gets tossed over that cliff by the ocean), Bobby Ray’s mild but game character and Cavender’s tough handle the gags very well. In addition, fans will be pleased to see Pete the Pup in an early role.