Public Domain Movies
Running Time: 12 mins Black & White
Starring: Harry Solter, Linda Arvidson, Charles Inslee
A young couple are enjoying a romantic interlude in the young woman's home, when her father discovers them and angrily chases the young man out of the house. They thus decide to elope, and they make plans accordingly. But as they are leaving, a thief discovers their plans, and he decides to turn the situation to his own advantage.
Running Time: 1 min Black & White
A stationary camera looks on as two dapper gents play a game of chess. One drinks and smokes, and when he looks away, his opponent moves two pieces. A fight ensues, first with the squirting of a seltzer bottle, then with fisticuffs. The combatants wrestle each other to the floor and continue the fight out of the camera's view, hidden by the table. The waiter arrives to haul both of them out.
Running Time: 14 mins Black & White
Starring: Frank Powell, Grace Henderson, James Kirkwood
An unscrupulous and greedy capitalist speculator decides to corner the wheat market for his own profit, establishing complete control over the markets.
Black & White
Running Time: 3 mins Black & White
Starring: Georges Méliès
A scientist pours water into a tub. Flames rise up, then the scientist takes out some dresses, which are draped upon statues. The statues change into a bevy of dancing girls who perform a dance routine.
Running Time: 2 mins Black & White
Running Time: 13 mins Black & White
Starring: Georges Méliès, Victor André, Bleuette Bernon
A group of astronomers go on an expedition to the Moon.
Running Time: 8 mins Black & White
Starring: May Clark, Cecil M. Hepworth, Blair
Alice dozes in a garden, awakened by a dithering white rabbit in waistcoat with pocket watch. She follows him down a hole and finds herself in a hall of many doors. A key opens a small door: eventually, she's through into a garden where a dog awaits. Later, in the rabbit's home, her size is again a problem. She tries to help a nanny with a howling baby, then a Cheshire cat directs her to a tea party where the Mad Hatter and March Hare dunk a dormouse. Expelled from the party, Alice happens on a royal processional: all the cards in the deck precede the Queen of Hearts, who welcomes then turns on Alice and calls on the royal executioner. Alice must run for her life.
Running Time: 7 mins Color
Georges Melies' best-known film, A Trip to the Moon, is inspired by Jules Verne's "From the Earth to the Moon" and H.G. Wells' "First Men on the Moon". In 1908, Segundo de Chomon made An Excursion to the Moon, an imitation of Melies' work, which is preserved with the original Pathe Freres stencil color.
Black & White
Running Time: 1 min Black & White
A man runs out the stage door of a burlesque theater, followed by billowing smoke. Firefighters run up. One places a ladder up to a second-story window beside the door, and he helps several women wearing burlesque costumes to climb down. On the other side of the door, a firefighter coaxes a woman out of a window. Two fire fighters enter the building and emerge soon after carrying a woman who has collapsed, overcome by smoke.
Running Time: 2 mins Color
Starring: Loie Fuller, Max Linder
In this beautifully colored picture we see a dancing master in his studio playing the violin and giving instructions to a number of beautiful maidens. They go through a minuet, and suddenly their costumes change before our very eyes, seemingly without the aid of human hands. A fellow enters, and is very much interested in the dancing lesson, but casts a spell over the group, and instantly we see them disappear into space. The visitor is then transformed into Mephistopheles and takes the dancing teacher into a large laboratory, where stands a large caldron and into which he pours some sort of fluid from a number of bottles. Stirring up the mixture, flames soon begin to shoot out, and with them a long piece of marvelously colored silk. When the cloth is shaken out a beautiful girl in flowing silk robes steps forth and dances the serpentine. As she trips around, other girls appear, and all group in a magnificent ensemble. The light effects are wonderful as they swing their draperies and gracefully go through many different figures. Finally they all disappear into a burst of flame.
Black & White
Running Time: 7 mins Black & White
Starring: Jack Brawn
The fiend faces the spectacular mind-bending consequences of his free-wheeling rarebit binge.
Running Time: 81 mins Color (Eastmancolor)
Starring: Maria Perschy, Sancho Gracia, Betsabé Ruiz
A twisted sleazebag stalks and strangles gorgeous women in this Spanish terror classic.
Running Time: 8 mins Black & White
Starring: Segundo de Chomón, Julienne Mathieu
An enthusiastic young couple is astounded with modern technology's giant leaps in the fascinating field of electricity.
Running Time: 2 mins Black & White
Starring: Unknown aspiring immigrants
Shows a large open barge loaded with people of every nationality, disembarking at Ellis Island, N. Y. A most interesting and typical scene.
Running Time: 3 mins Black & White
Starring: Julienne Mathieu
"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.
Running Time: 2 mins Black & White
The first all-animated film in history, a series of scenes without much narrative structure, but morphing into each other.
Black & White
Black & White
Running Time: 15 mins Black & White
Starring: David Miles, Florence Lawrence, Dorothy West
Portrays two teenage girls who are safeguarding money for their father and their reaction to a burglar's attempt to steal it.
Running Time: 2 mins Black & White
Starring: Harold Smith
A boy looks through glasses at various objects, seen magnified.
Running Time: 11 mins Black & White
Starring: Gilbert M. 'Broncho Billy' Anderson, A.C. Abadie, George Barnes
A group of bandits stage a brazen train hold-up, only to find a determined posse hot on their heels..
Running Time: 10 mins Black & White
Starring: Owen Moore, Linda Arvidson, Kate Bruce
The incident here depicted shows a young American dispatch bearer, who, surprised by a band of Hessian foragers, seeks shelter in his father's house. The old man has just time to hide the boy in the fireplace when the Hessians enter. After a fruitless search they express their intention of putting up at the house. As a subterfuge, the daughter takes them upstairs to show them their quarters, while the father hides the boy in a clothes hamper. The Captain, on his return downstairs, sees the basket, and suspicious, asks what it contains; not satisfied with the old man's answer, sends a bullet crashing through into the boy's body, killing him. The poor old man is frantic with grief and vows to avenge his boy's brutal murder, so stealing outside with his daughter, they surprise the sentry and carry him off. The daughter, dressing in the sentry's uniform, takes the post, while the father scurries off in search of help. Knocking at the doors of his neighbors, each is opened by a sympathetic friend, but the young men all away fighting their country's cause, only the old folks and women remain. However, they are ready to aid him, and as all their arms and ammunition have been confiscated they must take up anything at hand. What a motley army they are, old men and young and old women, armed with clubs, axes, scythes, etc., eagerly anxious for the fray. The little band of patriots reach the house just as the identity of the daughter is discovered by the relieving sentry, who is silenced, and the invaders stealthily enter the house by windows and door, taking the Hessians entirely unawares. A brief struggle lays most of them low, while the old man singles out the Captain, who had killed the boy, keeping his vow of vengeance.
Running Time: 8 mins Black & White
Starring: Fernande Albany, Manuel
An obese cooks' lover succeeds in escaping the police after an incident involving her masters.
Running Time: 3 mins Black & White
Starring: J. Stuart Blackton
A cartoonist draws faces and figures on a blackboard - and they come to life.
Running Time: 10 mins Black & White
Starring: Thomas White
Porter's sequential continuity editing links several shots to form a narrative of the famous fairy tale story of Jack and his magic beanstalk. Borrowing on cinematographic methods reminiscent of 'Georges Melies', Porter uses animation, double exposure, and trick photography to illustrate the fairy's apparitions, Jack's dream, and the fast growing beanstalk.
Black & White
Running Time: 4 mins Black & White
Starring: Segundo de Chomón
Out of a spin-around door on a cylinder-shaped box comes a magician, who proceeds to conjure dancing girls out of the box. At one point he also lights 5 cigars from the box, which magically transform into more dancing girls. Tinted remarkably.
Running Time: 7 mins Black & White
Starring: Max Linder
Ponchinella the servant [called "Harlequin" in the English language version] rescues his girlfriend from a gang of decadent aristocrats, who have transformed her into a mechanical doll.
Running Time: 9 mins Black & White
Starring: Bertha Regustus, Edward Boulden, Mr. La Montte
A woman goes to the dentist for a toothache and is given gas. On her way home on the subway she can't stop laughing, and every other passenger catches the laughter from her.
Running Time: 2 mins Black & White
The nightmare of Émile Cohl's chalk animation is one of unreliable appearances. Fishermen catch fish which eat them whole. Ladders transform into coils which just as suddenly take the form of angry mustachioed soldiers. The human figure at the receiving end of these transmogrifications is subject to all manner of degradations. Genuinely unsettling, THE PUPPET'S NIGHTMARE anticipates Don Hertzfeldt's stick-figure fantasias by a century.
Running Time: 5 mins Black & White
This subject will give rise to unrestrained laughter and will infect your entire audience with the jovial microbe. A learned man is seen in his laboratory studying microbes. His friend enters and after exchanging salutations the visitor is proclaimed to be full of microbes. Through a microscope the victim is permitted to view the many microbes with which he is infected and as each microbe is displayed to the view of the audience its exhibition creates wild applause. The microbes shown are as follows: Political Microbe, Functionary Microbe, Mother-in-Law Microbe, Chauffeur's Microbe. The poor man faints and the doctor of science laughs at his terrified friend.
Running Time: 3 mins Black & White
A family troupe of acrobats, made up to appear Japanese, perform various unbelievable stunts in front of the camera, achieved through a trick of the camera.
Running Time: 4 mins Black & White
Starring: Julienne Mathieu
A woman appears on a stage and conjures up several large eggs. When each egg is opened a dancing midget or midgets is revealed to be inside, and in turn each midget does a brief dance. To end the act the woman turns the eggs into babies.
Running Time: 5 mins Black & White
Two Japanese artists having drawn a silk worm on a screen, the animal takes life and starts spinning its cocoon and is soon hidden in its silken prison. The cocoon being now fully in view, it suddenly splits open and a beautiful butterfly takes its flight. After having fluttered for a while the magnificent insect comes back to earth and then undergoes a number of changes, presenting to the astonished eye of the spectator the most glorious display of colors, which blend from the darkest shades into the most delicate hues. This marvelous color dream over the butterfly transforms itself once more and a charming young woman makes one soon forget the beauties of the previous wonder by eclipsing it with a most graceful and fascinating Loie Fuller dance. This feat at an end the woman disappears as by enchantment, and the last scene shows a thousand butterflies rising towards heaven.
Running Time: 6 mins Black & White
Starring: Fernande Albany, Georges Méliès
An eccentric photographer demonstrates the wonders of technology to a couple who want to be photographed by his innovative wireless procedure that accents one's inner personality. Are they prepared for the harsh truth of the camera's eye?
Running Time: 3 mins Black & White
A magician performs a magic show involving women turning into bouquets of roses. Later the roses are festooned together in a fancy way to decorate the stage.
Running Time: 4 mins Black & White
Starring: Laura Bayley
Smith casts his wife as a sluttish housewife who is mutilated by lighting her oven with paraffin.
Running Time: 12 mins Black & White
Starring: Max Linder, Lucy d'Orbel, Georges Gorby
Max discovers that in the same apartment house with him lives a most charming woman doctor. To meet her he fakes a sickness and calls upon her for professional advice. She thumps him, puts her little ear down to his chest, diagnoses his case and prescribes for him. Max departs so full of happiness that he finds difficulty in walking as a sober man should. The days pass and, winning the lady's love, Max becomes married to her. On the wedding night just as they have reached the seclusion of their own room and Max has started to pour out his rapture into her willing ear, the servant hammers at their door. They find that the bride is called out upon a case, so in wedding gown and orange blossoms she leaves the despondent Max to await her return. The time passes and finally she returns, but only for a moment. The servant raps at the door again, and again she must go out to see a patient. The unhappy bridegroom protests in vain. He is sleeping uneasily in his chair when she finally comes back. As they are embracing, the servant raps at the door again, announcing another call for the doctor. The now infuriated Max rushes upon the disturber of his happiness, throws him out of the room and locks the door. A year later the happy husband, bearing a baby in his arms, wanders into the reception room of his wife's office. He finds it filled with waiting patients, all men. He steps into the office and sees the wife of his bosom, with her head at a man's chest listening to his heart. Filled with rage he deposits the baby in the arms of the man nearest him and proceeds to drive every patient out of the house. Thus he is convinced that from henceforth his wife must cease to be an "M.D." and become more of a wife and mother.
Running Time: 7 mins Black & White
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.
Running Time: 15 mins Black & White
Starring: Max Charlier
It would be an impossibility even in three reels to give the complete history of this most wonderful man. In presenting this picture we have selected a few only of the best-known and most famous scenes in his life. Commencing the story with a summer evening at Malmaison we see in progress one of the most magnificent fetes of the kind that took place only in France, during the height of Bonaparte's power, and at which are present Napoleon and Josephine. Following this is the well-known scene when Napoleon on his rounds discovers a sentry asleep behind a haystack, takes up the latter's gun and continues his duties to the astonishment of the soldier when he awakes. We next come to the Battle of Austerlitz and the incident of the guard who was decorated by Napoleon for refusing to allow him to pass without the watchword. The battle itself is shown very vividly in all its varying phases. The following scenes show the little King of Rome; Napoleon endeavoring to compel the Pope to sign an agreement annulling the latter's temporal power; the abdication of Napoleon and his subsequent farewell to his guards. Then follow scenes in connection with his imprisonment in St. Helena and finally his death in May, 1821. The film is staged with the greatest accuracy as to detail in costume and setting. The magnificence of some of the scenes is marvelous, and where practicable the pictures have been taken on the spot. For instance, Napoleon bids farewell to his guards at Fontainebleu Castle, where the event actually happened.
Running Time: 14 mins Black & White
Starring: Alberto Capozzi, Lydia De Roberti, Mirra Principi
Roman emperor Nero is used to getting what he wants. He has grown tired of his wife Octavia, and has become infatuated with Poppea. He succeeds in making Poppea the new empress, but soon he faces opposition from an outraged populace.
Running Time: 10 mins Black & White
Starring: Arthur V. Johnson, Marion Leonard, Frank Powell
A story of the French Revolution. Our story shows a party of the nobility endeavoring to evade the insurrectionists, but only one succeeds in outdistancing them. He rushes into the house of an aristocrat who is immune from trouble on account of his professed republicanism. Here he begs succor, which is granted, and he manages to elude his pursuers in the role of the aristocrat's servant. However, the riotous mob ransacks the house and grounds in a predatory manner, taking up quarters on the outside from which point to work deeds of lawlessness. It is not assumed that the hunted man adhered to his principles through loyalty or honor. No, he was rather the cowardly cur, as we shall see. Hardly ensconced in the house, he at once shows his despicable nature by questionable advances toward the wife of his savior. She, at first, does not realize the meaning of his attentions, assuming them to be an exaggerated show of gratitude, but it is not long before she awakens to the truth, and the timely arrival of her husband saves her from the viper's clutches. The husband would at first shoot him down like a dog, but no: on second thought a better plan occurs to him. Making him, at the point of a pistol, resume his original attire, he forces him out among the mob where he meets his just fate. In conclusion, we must add that the above but vaguely describes one of the most thrilling moving picture subjects ever attempted.
Running Time: 1 min Black & White
Starring: Georges Méliès
Clowns ride in on a wagon drawn by a skeletal horse. The clowns proceed to transform from blackface performers to white costumed clowns, and back again, as they perform zany antics.
Black & White
Running Time: 5 min Black & White
Starring: Agnes Baden-Powell, Robert Baden-Powell
An amazing visual record of everyday life in Britain at the beginning of the twentieth century.
Running Time: 6 mins Black & White
A woman is working hard at her sewing machine while her daughter plays with a doll. The child, bored, looks out the window and tumbles to her death. A year later, her mother, driven mad, dies.
Running Time: 1 min Black & White
Starring: André Deed, Georges Méliès
Robinson Crusoe and Friday fight with hostile natives, and eventually retire to their jungle cottage to relax.
Running Time: 6 mins Color (Pathécolor)
Starring: Max Linder
Based on characters from Shakespeare's play: When Juliet's father refuses to let Romeo see her, Romeo resorts to extreme measures.
Black & White
Black & White
Running Time: 1 min Black & White
Starring: Edwin S. Porter
Shows a bedroom and a man asleep in bed. A burglar cautiously raises the window, climbs in, and proceeds to go through the man's clothes. The man awakes, pulls a lever, which closes him up in a folding bed, the bottom of which is iron-clad and fitted with guns and portholes. The burglar is dumbfounded and cannot move. Subbubs turns his battery loose, blowing the burglar to pieces. He then raises an American flag on a staff on top of the bed as a signal of victory. The bed opens up again and Subbubs goes to sleep.
Running Time: 3 mins Black & White
Starring: Georges Méliès
As we are treated with a rare appearance from a true master of the miraculous Asian thaumaturgy, a fine display of multiplication commences, and a serene young geisha completes the enchantment. What does the Chinese conjurer have in mind?
Running Time: 13 mins Black & White
Seven toy teddy bears of varying sizes suddenly come to life, getting in all sorts of merry misadventures.
Running Time: 12 mins Black & White
Starring: Arthur V. Johnson, Linda Arvidson, Gladys Egan
On a warm and sunny summer's day, a mother and father take their young daughter Dollie on a riverside outing. A gypsy basket peddler happens along, and is angered when the mother refuses to buy his wares. He attacks mother and daughter but is driven off by the father. Later the gypsy sneaks back and kidnaps the girl. A rescue party is organized but the gypsy conceals the child in a 30 gallon barrel which he precariously places on the tail of the wagon. He and his gypsy-wife make their getaway by fording the river with the wagon. The barrel, with Dollie still inside, breaks free, tumbling into into the river; it starts floating toward the peril of a nearby waterfall .
Running Time: 19 mins Black & White
Starring: Al J. Jennings, Frank Canton, Quanah Parker
A gang of outlaws are planning a bank robbery. After making preparations, they commit the robbery and make their escape amidst a sharp exchange of bullets. They return to their meeting place, and then hurriedly continue onwards, with lawmen close behind them.
Running Time: 11 mins Black & White
Starring: Anthony O'Sullivan, Robert G. Vignola
Two members of a gang write a threatening letter to a butcher, demanding that he give them money, or else they will harm his family and his shop. The butcher is afraid and upset, but he is unable to meet their demands. The gang then kidnaps his daughter, leading to a series of tense and dangerous confrontations.
Running Time: 4 mins Black & White
Starring: Georges Méliès
A traveler at an inn is harassed by a mischievous devil in his room.
Black & White
Black & White
Black & White
Running Time: 4 mins Black & White
Starring: Georges Méliès
A cook has his hands full with three mischievous devils, who pop in and out of his kitchen.
Running Time: 6 mins Black & White
Starring: Pitje Ambreville, Berryer, Mademoiselle Saunières
Dutch girl Johanna loves poor Joachim, but marries the weathy Miller. When the miller finds out, he takes revenge.
Running Time: 6 mins Black & White
Dr. Fletcher, while on a professional visit, finds a young girl homeless and penniless. Her father, a poor laborer, had just died. He offers her home and protection which she thankfully accepts. A year has passed. The new ward has found her way to the heart of the doctor. He finds that she is more to him than a child. He proposes marriage and is accepted. The doctor's busy life keeps him much away from his young wife which time she uses for a little innocent flirtation. Some evening one of her admirers hands her a note and asks her to see him after her husband has retired. She reads the note and laughingly hides it in her bosom, never intending of taking the flirtation serious. The company has gone. The doctor decides to work before retiring while his young wife stays in his office until he had finished his work. She lays down upon the couch and is soon fast asleep. She dreams that she met her admirer outside of the gate. He induces her to run away with him. He is soon tired of her and drives her from his home. Reverses come, her lover loses everything. He becomes a drunkard and drives her and her child from shelter. Weak from lack of food, she breaks down on the road where she is found by Dr. Fletcher and revived. At this point of the dream the doctor has finished his work. He goes over to his young wife lovingly awakening her. She relates the dream and wants to show him the note but he smilingly tears it up; he does not want to read it. He has full confidence in his young wife which confidence is never betrayed.
Running Time: 3 mins Black & White
Starring: Georges Méliès
A fine magician of the Royal Court materialises an elegant attire from a transparent glass container, and then, a refined dandy appears, as an ornate palanquin is summoned. Now, what does the illusionist have in mind?
Running Time: 17 mins Black & White
An American tourist has a terrible ordeal on his European vacation.
Running Time: 8 mins Black & White
A recently released prisoner struggles to support his family.
Running Time: 6 mins Black & White
Starring: Marion Leonard, Kate Bruce, Frank Evans
Nanette Renfrae, after an arduous season of society's whirl, decides to spend a quiet summer at a secluded seaside resort. The place selected is one frequented by the middle class, where she feels she will be free from the tormenting attentions of the male sex that her beauty has induced in the past. She arrives without ostentation accompanied only by her maid, but her extreme pulchritude and graceful bearing soon enraptured the male contingent of the place to the jealous rage of the other women folks who find themselves deserted. She cannot stir but what there is a score of admirers present. A walk on the beach, a stroll through the park is invariably attended by a regiment of gallants, until to her they become positive pests. One would have been acceptable, but twenty, well, it seems as if she is destined to pass time in the seclusion of her room. The maid, however, is ingenious and suggests a new way to get rid of the troublesome pests. She attires her mistress in a bathing suit and puts on her a hideous pair of stockings lined with raw cotton, which gives her a Gargantuan appearance, at least as to her nethers. Of course, the persistent tormentors flee in a panic when they behold; but, you know "none but the brave deserve the fair," and Commodore Fitzmorris sticks, thereby making a decided impression upon Nanette. You may imagine the chagrin of the others when they learn of the hoax. Fitzie is now the favored one. As for the others, they are a disgruntled bunch, for the other girls, slighted before, turn cold shoulders on them.
Running Time: 11 mins Black & White
Starring: Gilbert M. 'Broncho Billy' Anderson, A.C. Abadie, George Barnes
A group of bandits stage a brazen train hold-up, only to find a determined posse hot on their heels.
Running Time: 24 mins Black & White
Starring: Georges Méliès, Fernande Albany, Jehanne d'Alcy
Using every known means of transportation, several savants from the Geographic Society undertake a journey through the Alps to the Sun which finishes under the sea.
Running Time: 3 mins Black & White
Starring: Georges Méliès
An inventor dreams that his newly designed airship takes flight.
Running Time: 5 mins Black & White
Starring: Georges Méliès
The scene opens with the jester being spurned by the king, who has evidently partaken of food which disagrees with him, and instead of being amused by the frolics of his jester he casts him away. All the wiles of the jester fail to raise a smile. The king petulantly throws himself into his chair of state. The jester, finding his jokes falling flat, performs acrobatic feats to no effect; juggling with balls, no result; the king won't be pleased. The jester then gathers chairs and builds them up and outward. Ah! The king is at last interested, wondering why they don't fall over, and gets down to see. The jester, taking a pair of bellows, blows the chairs and they fall in a heap at the king's feet. The jester next puts the chairs away and tickles the king, who kicks him for his frivolity; then, getting down from his chair to again kick the jester, kicks air, for the jester has vanished, quickly appearing again out of a large box and laughing at his master, who again seats himself with a frown. Finding all his efforts to please are not appreciated, the jester summons a lady to his aid. Now the king is all attention. Then taking three stools, the jester places them before the king, helps the lady to stand on the center one, pulls her dress, which falls to the ground, displaying her as a Grecian model. The king now forgets his indigestion and watches, the figure. The jester produces two staves, which he places under the outstretched hands of the model, then with a few passes hypnotizes his subject; he now takes the center stool from beneath the sleeping beauty, leaving her suspended on the two staves. After one or two more passes, he removes one of the staves, leaving the subject with only the support of the other, to the astonishment of the king, who is still more surprised when the beautiful model throws him a kiss. The jester now replaces the stool under the feet of the model, awakens her and helps her down. The king sits on the stool, takes the model in his arms and is about to kiss her, when to his intense disgust he finds himself embracing his jester, who, linking his arm in that of the king, leads him off.
Running Time: 8 mins Black & White
Starring: Aline Boyd, Phineas Nairs, Jane Stewart
A well-dressed woman leaves her home and takes a carriage to a department store. While she is in the store, she steals several items, and is caught by store employees. Meanwhile, a poor woman with two small children steals a loaf of bread out of desperation, and she is quickly caught and arrested. Both women are taken to the police station and then into court, to see what penalty each of them must face.
Running Time: 11 mins Black & White
Starring: Ruth Hart, Kate Bruce, Frank Evans
A disfigured young woman with two beautiful sisters is courted by a blind man. Will he still love her when his sight is restored?
Running Time: 3 mins Black & White
Starring: Georges Méliès
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.
Running Time: 6 mins Black & White
Starring: Marion Leonard, Harry Solter, Florence Lawrence
Enrico, a poor street singer, forsakes his sweetheart, Veronica, when he meets a fashionably-dressed young woman. A rich couple takes pity on the shabbily-dressed Veronica, and buys her a new gown. At a dance, Enrico sees Veronica in her new dress and tries to win her back.
Running Time: 11 mins Black & White
Starring: Florence Lawrence, Frank Powell, Owen Moore
Rising Moon loves Little Bear, but her father prefers Standing Rock, a richer suitor. Standing Rock takes her to his teepee under guard, but she escapes and joins Little Bear as they attempt to escape.
Running Time: 4 mins Black & White
Starring: Georges Méliès
A magician conjures up a mermaid while fishing.
Running Time: 13 mins Black & White
Starring: Wallace McCutcheon, Edwin S. Porter
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.
Running Time: 4 mins Black & White
Starring: Georges Méliès
Running Time: 3 mins Black & White
Starring: Georges Méliès
Sound asleep in his comfortable armchair next to a high-pressure retort, a mystic silver-haired alchemist can't even notice the strange manifestations emerging from the vessel's bottom. Is this a dream, or a cornucopia of secreted desires?
Running Time: 2 mins Black & White
Starring: Georges Méliès
A juggler enters upon the scene, picks up a skull, throws it into the air, catches it in his hands, where it is transformed into a handkerchief. The handkerchief, after being twirled about a wand, is changed to a napkin, and afterward to a tablecloth. Out of the table cloth comes a servant. The servant brings a low table upon which the juggler throws some magic powder. The powder takes fire and blazes up into a large flame, in the midst of which appears a beautiful female. The flame dies away, the lady descends to show that she is alive. She mounts the table again. The juggler leaves the room. The servant falls in love with the lady and proposes marriage, but she fades from view. The juggler reenters and head over heals disappears from the top of the chair. The servant rushes toward the chair, juggler reappears coming out from under the table, seizes the servant and, throwing him to the floor, reduces him to smoke. He disposes of the chair in like manner and dances off.
Running Time: 6 mins Black & White
Starring: Unknown French Actors
A policeman spots a dog stealing a piece of meat from a butcher's shop, and gives chase. Soon several more policemen have joined the pursuit. But the chase does not turn out as the policemen expect.
Running Time: 2 mins Black & White
Starring: Georges Méliès
A human skeleton is placed upon a table by an attendant. When the attendant leaves the room the skeleton begins kicking his legs and throwing his arms about and suddenly turns into a magician. The magician produces an egg, performing several sleight-of-hand tricks, and places it upon the table with the small end downward. He then crudely draws a human face upon the shell, and the egg immediately begins growing larger and larger until it reaches the size of a normal head. The form of the egg fades away and there immediately appears the head of a very pretty girl. Then two or more of the same type appear on either side of the original. The heads of the girls are merged into one head and from this appears the hideous head of a hobgoblin. The hobgoblin fades away into the original egg. The egg is reduced to its normal size and is removed from the table by the magician, who swallows it. He then takes his place on the table, reverting back to the skeleton, which is removed by the attendant, thus closing the picture.
Running Time: 9 mins Black & White
Starring: Julienne Mathieu
A demonic magician attempts to perform his act in a strange grotto, but is confronted by a Good Spirit who opposes him.
Running Time: 11 mins Black & White
Starring: Mary Pickford, Anthony O'Sullivan, James Kirkwood
Two miners are fighting over a woman, and one is about to murder the other in his sleep. At the critical moment, the woman introduces her fiancé from the city.
Running Time: 4 mins Black & White
An impecunious chap is unable to pay his rent, whereupon he is ejected, but all his furniture is retained and he is allowed to remove only his rolling bed. Pulling this a few blocks, he is exhausted and lies down on the bed to rest. He is soon the center of attraction, and the crowd continues to gather, when the police order him away, and as he refuses to move he is started off by the officers, who guide him for a time, but are forcibly deterred by indignant citizens from further interference. The impecunious man and his bed, which gains momentum as it runs down the inclines, cause much excitement en route, and finally arrive at the business center, where it comes to a stop alongside the walk. Our friend has purloined a fur coat and an auto horn on his tour, and now presents a modern chauffeur.
Running Time: 3 mins Black & White
Starring: Georges Méliès
Despite all methods of instantaneously masking a clandestine gambling den's shady activities, the risk of getting caught is high, especially when the police thirsts for success. But, sometimes, indulging in pure fun is just too tempting.
Running Time: 11 mins Black & White
Starring: Arthur V. Johnson, Marion Leonard, Henry B. Walthall
A king exacts vengeance upon his faithless mistress and her lover.
Running Time: 2 mins Black & White
Starring: Georges Méliès
A magician creates a butterfly woman and then a spider woman.
Running Time: 9 mins Black & White
Starring: John Troiano
A family moves out to the 'peaceful' suburbs where everything goes wrong, including the mother-in-law moving in.
Running Time: 12 mins Black & White
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.
Running Time: 5 mins Black & White
Starring: Paul Panzer
A one-armed man obtains an artificial limb which he cannot control.
Running Time: 3 mins Black & White
Starring: Georges Méliès
Through a rapid succession of drawings, ingenious disguises and soft dissolves, the director portrays a quick-sketch artist who transforms to various characters according to the static outlines on his chalkboard.
Running Time: 10 mins Black & White
Starring: Herbert Prior, Mary Pickford, Owen Moore
In the little Italian city of Cremona there dwelt Taddeo Ferrari, a violin maker and student of Andrea Amati, the most famous of the craft. Ferrari's pretty daughter, Giannina, was beloved by one of his apprentices, Sandro. Filippo, a crippled youth and the best violin maker in Cremona, also loved the girl with a pure, holy affection that is more spiritual than material, but realizing his unattractiveness through his deformity, suffers his hopelessness with resignation. Yearly there is a prize of a precious chain of gold awarded to the maker of the best violin, and all the apprentices strive to win it. On this occasion, however, the hand of Giannina is to be bestowed upon the most proficient craftsman, and this induces the young men to make extra efforts to win. Sandro fully appreciates the rare talent of Filippo and feels sure his wonderful skill will win his sweetheart from him. Crushed and despairing he seeks out Giannina and tells her his fears, she tearfully acknowledging the strength of his reasoning. While thus occupied they are overheard by Filippo, who sees what woe his success would mean for her, and thinking only of her happiness, through his great love for her he makes a great sacrifice. Going to his room he takes his instrument and goes and places it in Sandro's box, taking Sandro's violin and putting it in his own. Sandro, however, thwarts the good intention of Filippo by exchanging the instruments, not knowing what Filippo had done, thereby upsetting the planned munificence of the cripple. When the instruments are placed in competition, and the prizes are about to be awarded, Sandro's conscience pricks him, and calling the cripple aside, confesses his deed. Filippo bursts into taunting laughter, telling him what he, himself, had done, and now he spoiled it all. Judgment is passed and Filippo is, of course, the victor. The chain is placed about his neck, and the hand of Giannina placed in his. But also, he feels she recoils, and thinking only of her happiness he crashes his violin over his knee, thereby putting himself out of the contest and making Sandro the winner. He then places the chain about Sandro's neck, and handing the girl over to him he rushes from the hall. We finally leave him alone in his room, crushed and dejected, yet contented in the thought that he had made her happy.
Running Time: 3 mins Black & White
Starring: Georges Méliès
Based on an early 13th century myth, this short film tells the story of a Jew who is forced to walk throughout eternity having refused water to Christ on his way to Calvary. He falls asleep and sees a vision of himself as a youth, when he refused the water Christ asked of him; he plods on and runs into Satan who beats him with his staff; he makes his way through a frightful storm. On and on he goes, forced to walk through time until the Second Coming.
Running Time: 12 mins Black & White
Starring: Kate Toncray, John R. Cumpson, Arthur V. Johnson
Two members of a vigilante group known as 'The White Caps' post a warning sign on a man's home. When the man comes home, he tears down the sign, and then proceeds to abuse his wife both verbally and physically. As soon as she can get away from him, the wife leaves home with her child to find a place of refuge. When the vigilantes find out about this, they arm themselves with rifles and immediately go to confront the abusive husband.
Black & White
Starring: John Abernathy
Running Time: 2 mins Black & White
Starring: Georges Méliès
The king of France receives a marvelous fan. The fan opens to reveal plain lace. This lace becomes pictures of women which then come to life an move in unison as their clothing changes.
Running Time: 2 mins Black & White
Starring: Linda Arvidson, John R. Cumpson, Flora Finch
Set in an early cinema house, this comic short illustrates the problems with the gals' hats obscuring the movie patron's line of vision.
Running Time: 8 mins Black & White
Based loosely on the nursery rhyme: A fair is in progress, with refreshments, entertainment, and other activities. As the rest of the crowd is watching one of the acts, Tom steals a pig and runs off. He tries to hide, but he is chased by the crowd, and the pig also proves difficult to control. But Tom has some tricks up his sleeve that might give him a chance to escape.
Running Time: 13 mins Black & White
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.
Running Time: 10 mins Black & White
Starring: Manuel, Georges Méliès
Undersea adventures in a submarine by a dreaming fisherman who encounters mystical underwater creatures at odds with him. A parody on Jules Verne's novel.
Black & White
Running Time: 12 mins Black & White
A short documentary about the everyday life of Norwegian and Irish whalers. After a successful day of work, as it should - dancing!
Running Time: 1 min Black & White
Starring: A.C. Abadie, Florence Georgie
A winner and sure to please. In front of one of the largest newspaper offices is a hot air shaft through which immense volumes of air are forced by a blower. Ladies in crossing this shaft often have their clothes slightly disarranged. A young man is escorting a young lady and talking very earnestly. They walk slowly along until they stand directly over the air shaft. The young lady's skirts are suddenly raised to an almost unreasonable height, greatly to her horror and much to the amusement of the newsboys, bootblacks, and passersby.
Running Time: 3 mins Black & White
A fine picture of the celebrated "White Wings" or street-cleaning department of one district of Greater New York, showing over 350 men in line, and over 100 carts that are used to carry the refuse away to the dumping-wharf, marching through the streets of New York.
Running Time: 4 mins Black & White
Several chairs rest against a blank wall; three men, then a fourth and soon seven in all, divide into various pairs and wrestle for the camera. No more than two pairs wrestle at any one time. Some have robes and remove them to wrestle, shirtless. One keeps on a singlet. An older, beefy man seems to be the leader, offering instruction once, and out wrestling a younger, smaller man near the end of the reel. Everyone keeps their good humor.