Author Archive: Retro

This silent melodrama is set against the 1840s westward migration of the Mormons. Dora, a young woman, and her family are saved from an Indian attack by a Mormon community traveling to Utah. They join the wagon train. Dora is pursued by two men, one a recent convert, the other a scheming elder with a stable of wives. The Mormon elder wants her in his harem. When the mother kills herself from revulsion toward polygamy, the daughter must consider her own future and the man she loves. One of Mae Murray’s few surviving films, this was intended by Robert Leonard to be a thoughtful drama about the goods and evils of Mormonism, but today it is generally considered pure anti-Mormon propaganda.

A top race-car driver leaves the sport to get married and settle down, because his new wife doesn’t want him to race anymore. However, not long afterwards his wife takes their infant son and leaves him to go to San Francisco. The husband gets word that his son is seriously ill in San Francisco, but he has no way to get there. Just in the nick of time, however, the racer’s father-in-law just happens to have developed a new car for a cross-country race–to San Francisco!

Louise gets hired as a maid for a swank society party, but the it’s really a set up for a bunch of tough jewel robbers. She gets hold of the swag and a big slapstick chase along a highway and beach ensues.

Two brothers, Dick and Jim Marsden, become involved with the bushranger, Captain Starlight. They romance two girls, work on the goldfields, and are captured by the police after Starlight is shot dead.

Was Judas willing to betray the Master because he believed that Christ could and would deliver Himself from His captors? There are many students of the Bible who contend so and who say that Judas was not wholly bad at heart. The important point is that Jesus of Nazareth would not and did not save Himself from death by a violation of natural laws. For months Christ had been preaching to the multitudes, healing their afflictions and gaining converts to His cause. One after another, His disciples had been chosen until there were twelve, including the traitor, Judas Iscariot. Barabbas was arrested for the murder of Gabrias, who sneered at Judith whom Barabbaa loved. He was imprisoned by Pilate at the command of Caiaphas, who also loved Judith. Later Judith, to satisfy her lover Caiaphas, persuaded Judas to betray the Master. Pilate washed his hands of the affair and Christ was crucified. The people cried [...]

In this fantastic scene, a man who is eager to retire has a difficult time finding peace, as his nocturnal illusions come to life out of thin air.

A series of disappearing acts as performed by a magician and his Spanish-garbed assistant.