Author Archive: Retro

An elegant dandy – he of suit, vest, tie, and top hat – ignores his wife at dinner in favor of his newspaper, so she tearfully leaves him and returns home to mother. He is ecstatic, dancing a jig at the prospect of new-found freedom, but after a series of disasters as he washes up the dishes, shops and cooks, makes his bed and tries to get a night’s sleep, then looks unsuccessfully for his tie in the morning, he’s at his wit’s end and the place is in shambles. Will his better half return?

With a brand-new deck of playing cards in his hand, an elegantly-attired thaumaturge, by fire and the pure power of illusion, transforms a plain nine of spades card into a full-size Queen of Hearts.

Based on the novel by Harriet Beecher Stowe: Eliza, a slave who has a young child, pleads with Tom, another slave, to escape with her. Tom does not leave, but Eliza flees with her child. After getting some help to escape the slave traders who are looking for her, she then must try to cross the icy Ohio River if she wants to be free. Meanwhile, Tom is sold from one master to another, and his fortunes vary widely.

Under bombardment, five sailors load and fire a cannon on a naval ship, as their captain supervises.

During the Punic Wars in the third century B.C. the little girl Cabiria, and her nurse Croessa, are abducted during the confusion caused by an eruption of Mount Etna. Cabiria is sold in Carthage to be sacrificed in the temple of Moloch. Fulvio Axilla, a Roman spy, and his slave, Maciste, rescue her and she ends up in the care of Queen Sophonisba. Ten years later, after many wars and alliances, Carthage falls to the Romans and Cabiria returns home with Fulvio.

Big Boy’s mother takes in washing to make ends meet. An irate customer demands money for damaged clothing, but Mother has no money to give her. Big Boy decides to sell his beloved dog and sets out to find someone to buy him. A few different slapstick adventures follow, culminating in Big Boy and Mutt making a mess of a rich family’s home. In the scuffle the boy and the dog are separated, and Big Boy returns home in tears. His mother consoles him, and the door swings open, revealing Mutt.