Author Archive: Retro

Prospero and his daughter Miranda must take refuge on an enchanted island. There Prospero, who himself has magical powers, releases the spirit Ariel from a spell, and also meets the savage Caliban. Then Prospero uses his powers to create a tempest that shipwrecks some of the persons who caused his exile.

This is another one of our famous scenic films which is a revelation of the beauties of the historic Russian city, showing it clad in a blanket of snow and giving us a good view of the many points of interest in and about the place. We get a good view of the famous old Kremlin from different angles, then a view of the city taken from one of the high towers. Next we see Petrovsky Park and some of the main thoroughfares during a heavy blizzard in which the inhabitants go about well muffled up and seemingly undaunted by the severe cold atmosphere.

A young secretary is locked in an airtight vault by a robber. Only her boss knows the combination, and he is off on a journey. Can the boss’s son locate his absent-minded father before it is too late for the girl?

Inventor Ignatius Pollard develops a new “Pavement Polisher” to clean the streets, but a demonstration of the device does not go as planned.

“Music Forward!” is the order given by a lady in Colonial costume, and in march a group of five musicians, working industriously at their instruments. The directress stands them in a row, and taking the head off each, throws it onto a huge music staff and each becomes a note of the scale. The whole bodies appear again, after which the manipulator seems to wrap them up in a large sheet of music, which is then shown to contain nothing. The paper is rolled up again, and a cane is held, perpendicularly, in a horizontal position to the sheet, when the musicians, each about one-twentieth of the natural stature, issue from the paper and parade up and down the narrow stick. This done, a pretty effect in human notes, which are the players’ heads, is shown, after which the little band and their directress march out again.

Hazel, the miller’s daughter, is courted by a country boy and a sophisticated city boy. Her father favors the country boy, but she elopes with the city boy. Before they can marry, his wife shows up and stops the ceremony. Hazel tries to return to her father, but he has disowned her. She jumps into the river, but is rescued by the country boy, who later marries her.