Author Archive: Retro

THE NINETY AND NINE was one of the workhouse melodramas of the early 20th century, in which a plot involves a mysterious stranger, a beautiful and virtuous local maid and a village idiot, ending in a spectacular set-piece of high risk. In BEN HUR it is the chariot race. In BLUE JEANS its the girl tied to the railroad tracks. In this one, Mysterious Stranger Warner Baxter is hiding out to avoid family scandal as a murder suspect on the turkey farm owned by Colleen Moore’s mother. Things are falling apart, but eventually a neighboring hamlet is ablaze and it’s up to Mr. Baxter to drive a locomotive through the flames and rescue the innocent; after which all plot points are resolved instantly.

An intrepid reporter and his loyal friend battle a bizarre secret society of criminals known as The Vampires.

A cook has his hands full with three mischievous devils, who pop in and out of his kitchen.

John Howard Payne at his most miserable point in life, writes a song which becomes popular and inspires other people at some point in their lives.

Industrial film depicting the Elgin Watch Factory in Elgin, Illinois, and showing each step in the making of an Elgin watch.

Set in the late 1790s, a depiction of Irish villagers rebelling against British occupation (Red Coats) over the right to bear arms.

A demonic magician attempts to perform his act in a strange grotto, but is confronted by a Good Spirit who opposes him.

Workers in a pottery factory labor in unhealthy, unventilated and dangerous conditions, but the plant’s wealthy owner doesn’t see any need to change things. It’s not long before one of his workers falls ill to tuberculosis, and soon the owner learns the meaning of the old adage, “What goes around comes around”.