Faust (1910)

Faust

Faust is a silent short film in 1910, directed by Henri Andréani, David Barnett and Henry Guazzoni.

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Dr. Faust is constantly obsessed with his quest for knowledge and the absolute pleasure. One day, in his study, the demon Mephistopheles appears in human form he proposes a deal: a lifetime of total pleasure in exchange for the life of his girlfriend Margherita. Faust agrees but is soon forced to realize the impossibility of crossing the boundaries of knowledge and the limits imposed by God.

Manhattan Trade School for Girls (1911)

Manhattan Trade School for Girls

A documentary film was made about the school in 1911.

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Documentary on The Manhattan Trade School for Girls, which was a NYC public high school founded in 1902. At the time, it was the only vocational school in the city for female students. It was originally established by philanthropic reformers whose intent was to find a means of providing training for young women to work in trades such as garment factory work.

An Unseen Enemy (1912)

An Unseen Enemy

An Unseen Enemy is a 1912 Biograph Company short silent film directed by D. W. Griffith, and was the first film to be made starring the actresses Lillian Gish and Dorothy Gish.

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A physician's death orphans his two adolescent daughters. Their older brother is able to convert some of the doctor's small estate to cash. It is late in the day, and with the banks closed he stores the money in his father's household safe. The slatternly housekeeper, aware of the money, enlists a criminal acquaintance to help crack the safe. They lock the daughters in an adjacent room, and the drunken housekeeper menaces them by brandishing a gun through a hole in the wall. The resourceful girls use the telephone to call their brother who has returned to town. He gets the message and organizes a rescue party.*Wikipedia*

Traffic in Souls (1913)

Traffic in Souls

A Powerful Photo-Drama of Today

Traffic in Souls (also released as While New York Sleeps) is a 1913 American silent crime drama film focusing on forced prostitution (white slavery) in the United States.

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A woman, with the aid of her police officer sweetheart, endeavors to uncover the prostitution ring that has kidnapped her sister, and the philanthropist who secretly runs it.

Neptune's Daughter (1914)

Neptune's Daughter

Neptune's Daughter is a 1914 American silent fantasy film featuring the first collaboration between actress Annette Kellerman and director Herbert Brenon.

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The daughter of King Neptune determines to avenge the death of her sister, who was caught in a fishing net laid by the king of a country above the waves. However, she soon falls in love with the king upon whom she planned to take her revenge. Neptune's Daughter was based on Annette Kellerman's idea of "a water fantasy movie with beautiful mermaids in King Neptune's garden together with a good love story."

The Champion (1915)

The Champion

The Champion is a comedy film released in 1915 by Essanay Studios, starring Charles Chaplin alongside Edna Purviance and Leo White.

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Walking along with his bulldog, Charlie finds a "good luck" horseshoe just as he passes a training camp advertising for a boxing partner "who can take a beating." After watching others lose, Charlie puts the horseshoe in his glove and wins. The trainer prepares Charlie to fight the world champion. A gambler wants Charlie to throw the fight. He and the trainer's daughter fall in love.

*Wikipedia*

Flirting with Fate (1916)

Flirting with Fate

Flirting with Fate is a 1916 American film directed by Christy Cabanne and starring Douglas Fairbanks. 

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In the midst of an emotional depression, a man hires a murderer to kill him. But the despair soon passes, and the man must now escape the killer he's hired to end his life.

The Scarlet Car (1917)

The Scarlet Car

The Scarlet Car is a 1917 American silent drama film directed by Joe De Grasse and featuring Lon Chaney.

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A bank clerk is accused of stealing a large amount of funds. While he hides out, he goes a bit mad thinking he is his famous ancestor, due to a bump on the head. Will the real theives get away with it.

The Whispering Chorus (1918)

The Whispering Chorus

The Whispering Chorus is a 1918 American silent drama film directed by Cecil B. DeMille.

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Movie Review

The Master Mystery (1919)

The Master Mystery

The Master Mystery is a 1919 American mystery silent serial film told in 15 installments. The film was directed by Harry Grossman and Burton L. King and written by Arthur B. Reeve and Charles Logue.

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Justice Department agent Quentin Locke (Harry Houdini) must investigate a powerful cartel protected by a robot.

Making a Living (1914)

Making a Living

The film debut of Charles "Charlie" Chaplin, who plays a swindler and not his lovable tramp character.

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An out-of-work swindler takes a job as a reporter. After witnessing a car go over cliff, he grabs a rival reporter's camera and races to the newspaper office to enter the photo as his own. His rival is delayed when he gets caught in a woman's bedroom by her jealous husband. The swindler follows the distribution of the paper containing his 'scoop' around town where he is once again chased by the rival reporter. Both end up on the cow-catcher of a streetcar. Written by Ed Stephan <stephan@cc.wwu.edu>

The Mystery of a Hansom Cab (1911) Clip

The Mystery of a Hansom Cab

The Mystery of the Hansom Cab is an Australian feature length film directed by W.J. Lincoln based on the popular novel, which had also been adapted into a play.

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A Melbourne playboy, Oliver White, is murdered as he is driven home one night in a hansom cab. Investigating the crime encompasses all aspects of Melbourne society.

Cleopatra (1912)

Cleopatra

Cleopatra is a 1912 American silent historical drama starring Helen Gardner in the title role and directed by Charles L. Gaskill.

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When she discovers that a slave named Pharon professes his love for her, Cleopatra makes a bargain with him: she will give him ten days of "love," at the end of which he is to commit suicide. He agrees, although the queen's handmaiden Iras, in love with the slave, isn't happy with the arrangement. Later when Cleopatra is seducing Marc Antony, her relationship with Pharon is used against her, but with little effect. She allies herself with Antony against Octavius, participates in a brief war, then meets her end rather than be subjected to Roman rule. Written by Ron Kerrigan <mvg@whidbey.com>

As it is in Life (1910)

As it is in Life

As It Is In Life is a 1910 silent short film directed by D. W. Griffith and produced and distributed by the Biograph Company.

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The story is basically of a father not able to marry another woman after his first wife's death because he can't afford to do so. He has a daughter to care for from his first marriage (when she grows up in the film she is played by Mary Pickford).

New York of Today (1910)

New York of Today

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A couple visiting New York City leave their hotel, and take a sight-seeing car to tour the city. They start with Grant's Tomb, and then go to Central Park and Times Square. At Luna Park, they feed the pigeons and enjoy some of the rides. They then continue to visit other sections of town, and they see some of the city's most prominent buildings.Written by Snow Leopard

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1910)

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is a 1910 American silent fantasy film and the earliest surviving film version of L. Frank Baum's 1900 novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, made by the Selig Polyscope Company without Baum's direct input. It was created to fulfill a contractual obligation associated with Baum's personal bankruptcy caused by The Fairylogue and Radio-Plays, from which it was once thought to have been derived.

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Chased off by the antics of Hank the Mule, Dorothy ends up in her cornfield, where she realizes her family's Scarecrow is alive. She helps him down and he takes a tumble on the turnstyle. A cyclone soon arrives and leaves Dorothy, Scarecrow, Toto and Hank spinning around on a haystack, with Imogene the Cow flying soon after. Soon after their arrival, the Wizard of Oz issues a public decree that he is a humbug, to make sure no one ever finds out. Glinda pops up out of the background and transforms Toto into a man in a bulldog suit to serve as a better protector for Dorothy. Then they encounter the Tin Woodman, the Cowardly Lion, and Eureka. Nevertheless, she is captured by Momba, the Wicked Witch of the West (suggesting Baum thought the other witches were Mombe, Mombo, and Mombu, in keeping with the council in _Queen Zixi of Ix_) and her flying lizards and soldiers. Dorothy defeats Momba, and they arrive at the Emerald City just in time for the Wizard's going away party.

 Written by Scott Andrew Hutchins <scottandrewh@home.com>

Fighting Blood (1911)

Fighting Blood

Fighting Blood is a 1911 short silent Western film directed by D. W. Griffith, starring George Nichols and featuring Lionel Barrymore and Blanche Sweet. 

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After the Civil War, an ex-soldier and his family settle in the Dakota Territory. The son quarrels with the father and leaves home. Riding in the hills, he spots a band of Indians attacking a neighboring homestead, and he races back to warn his family as the Indians chase him. Written by frankfob2@yahoo.com

Lady Godiva (1911)

Lady Godiva

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Based upon the Tennyson poem which itself is based upon the story of the Countess Godiva, an Anglo-Saxon lady who, according to legend, rode naked through the streets of Coventry after her husband promised that he would remit oppressive taxes on his tenants if she agreed to do so nude. The name "Peeping Tom" for a voyeur originates from later versions of this legend in which a man named Tom had watched the woman ride and was struck blind or dead.

The Invaders (1912)

The Invaders

The Invaders is a 1912 American silent Western film directed by Francis Ford and Thomas H. Ince.

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"The Invaders" is a 1912 American silent Western film directed by Francis Ford and Thomas H. Ince. Ince was an American silent film actor, director, screenwriter and producer of more than 100 films and pioneering studio mogul. Known as the "Father of the Western", he invented many mechanisms of professional movie production, introducing early Hollywood to the "assembly line" system of film making. He wrote the screenplay for The Italian (1915), and directed Civilization (1916), both films selected for preservation by the United States National Film Registry. He was a partner with D.W. Griffith and Mack Sennett in the Triangle Motion Picture Company, and built his own studios in Culver City, which later became the legendary home of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Ince is also known for his death aboard the yacht of William Randolph Hearst; officially he died of heart trouble, but Hollywood rumor of the time suggested he had been shot by Hearst in a dispute over actress Marion Davies.

Falling Leaves (1912)

Falling Leaves

Falling Leaves is a 1912 American film by Alice Guy Blaché. 

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This autumn, Dr. Earl Headley is eagerly demonstrating what seems to be a miraculous cure for tuberculosis. Yet not far from where he is working, the disease seems ready to claim yet another life, a young woman named Winifred, who is already seriously ill. Winifred's mother and younger sister Trixie are devastated by the news. When Trixie hears the family doctor say of Winifred that "when the last leaf falls, she will have passed away", she interprets the doctor's words literally. Thinking over what she has heard, she determines to do everything possible to save her sister. Written by Snow Leopard