Author Archive: Retro

A very pretty girl, is always surrounded by many male admirers, much to the dismay of one very shy fellow, who never can get a chance to speak with her. One day the girl visits a friend in another town and by coincidence the shy fellow is staying at the same house. Next morning the girl’s friend must leave her to run an errand. The girl hears a strange noise coming from one of the rooms. Not knowing the shy fellow is there, she locks the door of his room. Meanwhile, two burglars have broken in and seize the screaming girl. Hearing her scream and unable to break down the locked door, the young fellow climbs out of the window. He races into the room and scares the burglars, who make their escape. The girl, now being in such an hysterical state, does not recognize the shy fellow. She runs screaming from the house with [...]

This early D.W. Griffith short shows the director’s interest in Jewish ghetto life, portrayed here with sympathy and sentimentality. The melodramatic plot involves the conflict between generations in an immigrant Jewish family.

A young couple struggle to get ahead, the wife always assuaging the troubles of her melancholy husband. As he climbs the ladder of success, he abandons the homely values and takes up with another woman. His wife leaves him, returning to her mother’s home where she bears a child. When the husband is abandoned by his concubine, remorse drives him to find his wife…

Dir. D.W. Griffith. Humble fisherman Enoch marries sweet Annie Lee. He becomes a sailor to earn more for his growing family. After a stormy shipwreck, Enoch swims to the shore of a deserted island. Annie awaits in vain for his return. 

George Peabody is a young man who has been giving free rein to his inclinations, the principal one being drink. One might have concluded he was lost, but there was the chance which the hand of Providence always bestows in the person of pretty little Ruth King, who had secretly loved George since their childhood days. She succeeds in persuading him from his reckless life, and he determines to cut off from his old loose companions by going out West and making a man of himself. Bidding Ruth and her mother good-bye, he realizes that he loves his little preserver and promises to return worthy of her love and confidence. They plight their troth with their first kiss and a heart shaped locket, which Ruth wears, she breaking it in two, giving George one side while she retains the other, which symbolized the reunion of their hearts with his return. George is fortunate to strike [...]

George Forrester has suffered the loss of his beloved wife, the mother of his little ten-year-old child. The child is forced to become his little housekeeper, while Forrester secures work at the pigeon farm. While thus employed, he meets a former sweetheart and renews his attentions, feeling that she might prove a second mother to his child; but no, on serious consideration he realizes that he could not meet the wants of a second wife, as he finds that her tastes are extravagant, and do his duty to his child, hence he determines to sacrifice his own happiness for the sake of his child, sending her off to school that she may rise above her present environment, while he toils to make ends meet. Several years later we find the girl returning from school, having grown to young womanhood. She is surprised and grieved to see such a change in her father. As she views [...]

A primitive tribe are attacked by apemen and menaced by various prehistoric monsters.

Billy witnesses two tramps accidentally kill someone during a robbery. The tramps lock him up and decide that he must be killed, too.

A poor girl is secretly in love with a wealthy young planter. During the Civil War she helps him escape capture by Union soldiers. After the war, with his fortune gone, she confesses that she loves him.