James Cruze

Chinese merchant Wing Lung and Elizabeth Mendall, an American, marry and have a son named Jang Lung. Because Elizabeth wants Jang Lung to be raised as a Christian, Wing Lung locks her in the cellar and she becomes insane. Jang meets Marcell Matthews at an Eastern university, and she returns with him to San Francisco to be married.

While Bill Burnham is jailed for drunkenly shooting up the town, he receives a letter saying that his father has died, his sister Janet is about to marry a worthless count, and the family fortune is in danger. Unable to leave, he convinces his friend, Johnny Wiggins, a motion picture cowboy, to go to his home in Palm Beach, which Bill left as a boy, and impersonate him.

After extracting the best that was in him in the course of twenty years' service, with them, the Peoples' Insurance Company discharges Joe Jackson, a faithful bookkeeper. So at middle life, Joe finds the sum-total of a "city career" a nervous wife, a drooping infant and a grown-up son and daughter, whom the city has converted into shallow, idle, selfish creatures. His own gains are a bank account that wouldn't stand the strain of city rent-paying and city living, while he was hunting for a job, so Joe concluded to get "back to nature." He bought a farm with his savings and transported himself there with his family, much against the wishes of two members thereof, the indolent son and daughter, of course.

Two young people marry in a Continental village and receive the congratulations of all save the rejected suitor. He bides his time while the couple live happily and are blessed twice with children. War is declared after the husband has suffered an injury for life and the rejected suitor enlists.

Nello was a little boy who lived with his aged grandfather near Antwerp. They were very poor, but because they loved each other so much were happier than many persons who enjoyed luxury. The child's only friend, outside of her grandfather, was an animal, who has gone down in history as "A Dog of Flanders."

The girl's father is Gunga Ras, a Hindu student of the occult. The girl's uncle is found dead and the lover blamed, but she personally investigates the crime. The father is suspected, but it develops that the death was really caused by use of liquid air in the hands of another

Everybody agrees that Billy Budd should settle down. But no one has the nerve to tell him so. Billy Budd, says everybody, is fast. He travels in fast company, and be drives a fast automobile. It really is a pity. But who will undertake to reform him? It does not occur to anybody that Billy's auto has constituted itself his guardian spirit. Yet, the car, apart from Billy's influence, really is a remarkably good sort. One evening its owner leads it into evil ways. Stopping at a roadside inn to get some wine for himself and some gasoline for the auto, he finds the supply of gasoline has run out. Billy has had a lively day. So he reasons that if champagne be good for him it will do also for the auto.

George MacFarland, a wealthy young man who loves adventure, bets his friends Thornton Brown and Arthur Sole $20,000 that he can commit a crime and elude the police for a year. After he forges a check, George heads West and does escape arrest for nearly a year, despite the proliferation of police circulars bearing his name and his favorite expression, "Believe me, Xantippe." In a Colorado hunting lodge, he meets Sheriff Kamman's pretty daughter Dolly, who recognizes and tries to arrest him. According to the terms of the bet, however, he must be captured by a genuine officer of the law, which Dolly is not.

A young man of social standing chooses instead to live as a hobo. He gets work in a lumber camp, and there uncovers intrigue by German agents.

Lewis Vickers accidentally kills a man and goes to Central America. Here he meets Robert Lee, who bears a remarkable resemblance to him. Lee is a worthless young chap whose father is anxious to have him return to the United States. On his death bed Lee turns his papers over to Vickers and begs him to assume his name. Arriving in New York, Vickers goes to the Lee home as Robert Lee, and discovers that the dead man has willed him a badly blotted past that includes a wife and two children and a large collection of debts. He also finds a beautiful adopted daughter in the Lee household and promptly falls in love with her. The only way he can stand any chance of winning the girl is by telling the truth about himself.

A nervous, fault-finding invalid decides that his health requires that he shall live in the South, and manages to exchange his place "Up North," for a shack and an orange grove in Florida.

A young mechanic, temporarily residing in a southern city, found that business was slack in his trade, and decided to send his wife to her relations in the north until happier days dawned. He did not dream that he was putting her in peril, and when later he received word that the ship upon which she sailed had been lost with all on board, he was frantic with grief and self-reproach. Life in this city became hateful to him, and having no ties that bound him there, he abruptly departed into the country, deciding to wander wherever fate might lead him.

Silas Croft was a kindly old Englishman who had a farm in South Africa. With him resided his two nieces, whom he had taken from their drunken, worthless father when they were of a tender age. Jess, the elder, was brilliant and educated; Bess, the younger was beautiful, but frankly admitted that she did not possess the mental attainments of Jess. The two were great friends, and Jess, although the senior by only three years, had almost a motherly affection for her pretty little sister. Croft, finding old age stealing upon him, advertised for a partner, stipulating that he must be a gentleman. Probably it was his secret idea that the right man might come along, and fall in love with his favorite, beautiful Bessie.

Willie West, a small boy, is very fond of his pet rabbit. He is unhappy because Hank (the rabbit) seems to be losing his former good health. When Willie tries to obtain assistance from his family, he quickly discovers that he has chosen the wrong time, for his father is feeling bad himself, and has no sympathy to waste on rabbits. A doctor is also hard-hearted. Willie is sent to the drug store to fill a prescription for his father, and he decided to see if the medicine will not cure the rabbit. To hide his wrongdoing from his parents, Willie fills the bottle with water. In the meantime the druggist has discovered that he has made an awful mistake, and put poison in the dose.

A romantic young girl, visiting St. Augustine, finds that she must make the choice which means happiness or misery for life. She has two suitors, one an everyday young American who has made his way in the world and is proud of it. He has money, will have more, and in every way would seem desirable. But the other man had ancestors!

Lucile is a 1912 drama film short.

The wealthy old bachelor returned to his home after a visit to his club, and found waiting him news that his time on earth was pitifully brief. He had money to pay for the best of medical attention, but doctors could not save him. For the first time it struck the old millionaire that no man or woman would care whether he lived or died. Essentially selfish, he had never made friends.

The rich little boy was seven years old and his kind Mama gave him a birthday party. A number of children were invited to wish him happy returns of the day, and it promised to be a wonderful event in the child's life. There was one unpleasant feature, however, the host's cousin, who was a boy of twelve, therefore almost venerable, was a guest, and the prettiest little girl of the party soon became this old man's darling. As the rich little boy had favored her with his attention it angered him to find that he had a rival in his elderly relative.

The banker's motto was "Everyone for himself, and me first." The girl believed in aiding the poor, and that wealth carried with it an obligation to be useful. The father admired his beautiful daughter, even though he did not understand her. She loved him and hoped some day to bring him to a realization of his duty toward the helpless and friendless. Before this happened, the clash came.

In the days long ago when knights were brave and venturesome, enchanted forests grew and mythical creatures lived among us.

A truncated version of Wilkie Collins' popular mystery story.

He was a hard-headed old business man and very mercenary, so when he received a letter from a debtor in a little country town asking for more time in which to pay the amount he owed, he decided to show no mercy. But on the way to the home of his debtors he had an accident. He slipped and fell from a cliff upon a projecting ledge below. He was thinking less of the money than of the chances of prolonging his life when he heard someone call him, and looking up he saw a girl standing on the cliff.

A young clubman, who prided himself upon his popularity, made a wager with a friend that he would marry a certain society girl. His wooing met with great success as far as the girl was concerned, but her father, a judge, did not look with favor upon the young man, so the latter induced the girl to elope. She wrote her husband-to-be, telling him to have a closed carriage at a certain corner near her home and she would fly with him.

The young artist had determined to devote her life "for art." She wasn't a great painter; she never would be one, yet she believed that she saw her mission clear and "mere man" had no part in her dreams. A number of her girlfriends encouraged her in the notion, and all had determined to live in single blessedness for the rest of their days.

The course of true love was running very smoothly until the girl became interested in the cause of votes for women. Her fiancé did not approve of it. There was a quarrel, and the engagement ring was haughtily returned. The young woman not only stubbornly refused to make up, but decided to become a really truly militant suffragette.

: Count Eberhard von Alderstein was one of the robber barons who flourished in Europe during the Middle Ages. He was cruel and lawless, plundered the merchants who passed his castle, and cared for no one, except his little sister, Ermyntrude.

Vincent, the lazy son of a wealthy father, travels to the country in an attempt to clean up his act. There he meets Kitty Trent, and he offers to marry her. His intention is to hold a fake ceremony, but Kitty's childhood sweetheart, Tom Wilson, finds out about this scheme and threatens Vincent at gunpoint to make the wedding a real one. Vincent does, but afterwards goes on seeing other women, neglecting his wife and, later, baby.

A girl, beautiful but heartless and ambitious, was the daughter of a poor miner and was devotedly loved by a man in her own station of life. She accepted his attentions willingly until a young engineer came along and paid court to her. She then dismissed her first suitor. Her father made a lucky strike, and they moved to the city to enjoy their wealth. This sealed the fate of the second suitor for a rich man became smitten with the girl and she accepted his advances. Perhaps she would have married him in time had it not been that she aroused the enmity of an old witch, deeply skilled in magic.

The son of a poor widow fell in love with a heartless showgirl who spurned the simple gifts he gave her. In a moment of desperation he tried to rob the box office of the theater in which he was employed as a stage hand, but was detected by the night watchman who shot and wounded him mortally. Before he expired he wrote a letter to his mother saying, "Many a man is tempted to sin for the woman he loves." The widow in order to maintain herself, obtained work as a scrub woman in an office building where she became acquainted with a prepossessing young clerk who wife she learned was dangerously ill and was told by the physician to go to Arizona.

The story concerns the love of Henry Little for Grace Carden and its reciprocal sentiment, with the time-honored interference of those who attempt to arrange the affairs of Cupid to suit social exigencies.

A little boy, inmate of an orphan asylum, ran away. He fell in with an itinerant knife grinder. The boy had had no home life and when his companion suggested that they steal some chickens, he did not object. The farmer was alert, however, and although the knife grinder escaped, the boy was made a prisoner.

Forester and Maywood, two wealthy neighbor planters, volunteered their services to defend their country when the war of the Revolution broke out. Forester was made colonel of his regiment, while Maywood became a captain. The men mortgaged their plantations and gave the benefits to the government, which was hard pressed for funds. Colonel Forester was mortally wounded at the battle of Cowpens, but before he passed away, Captain Maywood promised that he would care for Forester's motherless little girl.

A laborer, who lived with his family in a New York tenement, was in better financial condition than most of his associates. Misfortune came upon the man, however, and as the result of an accident, his arm was amputated. When he recovered and applied for his old position, he was turned down because he was physically unable to perform the work.

Napoleon's Luck Stone is a silent short

The young artist had searched Paris for a suitable model to pose as a shepherdess in a new picture which he hoped would win him fame. But none of the models pleased him, and at last, feeling that he could not do justice to the picture, he decided to postpone his work and take a walking trip through France.

If you were a studious man, accustomed to burning the midnight oil, wouldn't it annoy you if each night at 12 precisely, the ghost of a melancholy maiden appeared, weeping and lamenting? A certain professor was bothered this way. He was not afraid of ghosts and could have endured one whose specialty was silent haunting. He found, however, that the weeping maiden was a nuisance, and prevented him from concentrating. So he decided, ungallant though his conduct might be deemed, to get rid of her.

The actor and his wife suddenly found themselves "at liberty" because the manager of their attraction had flitted unexpectedly. They wanted to get back to New York, but even though they sold all their wardrobe they could only arrange sufficient funds to pay for one ticket. The woman, however, had an inspiration: the railroad company carried baggage free. The thespians had no baggage, therefore she decided to ship her husband in a Saratoga trunk in the baggage car ahead. He consented to the plan. The plan was marvelously successful, and the husband was trundled aboard the train, without arousing any suspicion. His wife found new troubles, however, for the heartless conductor refused to let her take her little pet dog into the passenger car.

A dapper sergeant in the army won the love of a pretty young stenographer, and they had planned that as soon as his term of enlistment was up he would enter private life and marry her. The girl was employed by a firm who had offices in one of the tallest of New York's skyscrapers, and her sweetheart saw her there. She took him to her favorite observatory, the roof of the building, where he obtained a magnificent and uninterrupted view of the greatest city in the world. He, on his part, took his sweetheart to the army maneuvers, where she witnessed with delight the well drilled troops, but would not confess that there was one man among them who could not compare with the one of her choice. She was particularly interested in the signal corps, however, and at odd times the sergeant instructed her in the code until she had become fairly proficient in it.

The beautiful young princess was weary of the formality and ceremony that encompassed her. She had read many books and from them had gained the idea that she would be far happier as a simple peasant than as the daughter of a king. Even when it came to her marriage, she sadly reflected, there was no romance, for her father had arbitrarily contracted an alliance for her with a neighboring prince. The princess was taking her drive one day and was sadder than ever. She saw a wedding procession issue from a neighboring cottage, and pityingly watched the mother of the bride, as she turned into her lonely house. In a field the princess noticed a young farmer, and she thought that the romance which had been denied her might come into her life. By the time she had returned to the castle she was pitying herself exceedingly, and had decided to be a caged bird no longer.

The Woman Pays is a 1914 silent film

An indictment of the evils of child labor, the film was controversial in its time for its use of actual footage of children employed in a working mill.

Dr. Henry Jekyll experiments with scientific means of revealing the hidden, dark side of man and releases a murderer from within himself.

Film realization of the Biblical story of Joseph, played here by future director James Cruze.

Zudora, not knowing she's an heiress to a $20 million fortune, lives with her uncle, a mystic and detective, who covets her inheritance. She wants to marry John Storm but her uncle is against it. However, the uncle makes a bargain; if Zudora can solve the next twenty mysteries brought to him, she can marry as she chooses. Episodes 1,2 and 8, plus another unidentified chapter, survive. The rest is believed to be lost.

This twenty-three episode serial told the story of a secret society called The Black Hundred and its attempts to gain control of a lost million dollars.

The Mohammedan's Conspiracy

Immigrants drama where a poor Italian girl almost falls into the hands of white slave traders when she goes to New York.

In this adventure the diplomatic free-lance and his brilliant aid in war, Nan Tremain, are again pitted against their relentless enemy, Pfaff.

Jimmie, a small-town boy, visits a traveling circus passing through town. he falls in love with Pansy, the daughter of the circus' tightrope walker, after he saves her from a gang of thugs...

Dramatic three-reel film based on Wagner's opera of chivalry and spiritual struggle. Wandering minstrel Tannhauser wins the heart of Elizabeth, niece of the powerful Landgrave. Later, under the spell of Venus and her nymphs, Tannhauser passes into Venusberg, a netherworld of earthly pleasures. Returning to the Landgrave's court, he praises Venus in song and sparks the righteous anger of all present. His own prayers and those of Elizabeth free him from enchantment and he takes up the habit of a monk, devoting himself to God. He sets off to seek absolution in Rome while Elizabeth waits at court, ever weakening in his absence.

Southern California locations vividly suggest both elemental pre-Roman Britain and classical Rome. An energetic cinematic pacing and intimacy show rapidly improving narrative technique and realism well beyond the limitations of the stage. Especially cinematic are the bedchamber scene in the first reel, with its intimate cinematography and acting and special lighting effect, and the battle scene of the second reel, considered very effective in its day.

She was the first attempt in film to depict the story of H. Rider Haggard's 1886 novel She: A History of Adventure.

A wealthy old man, who has been a semi-invalid for years, is informed by his physician that his case is hopeless. The invalid decides to put "his home in order." Therefore it is a matter of gratification to him when he sees that his only daughter and the young partner in whom he implicitly relies seems to be mutually attracted. The partner is called to Europe just before the doctor gives his verdict, hut the invalid makes "everything all right" in his will. He provides that the bulk of his estate shall go to the girl, if she marries the partner within one year from the hour of her father's death.

According to the tale found in the ancient annals, the little town of Hamelin, in Hanover, found itself, five hundred years ago overrun with rats. The citizens tried every way to abate the plague, but without result. Finally a mysterious stranger appeared in the town and offered for the sum of 1000 guilders to clear the place of vermin.

An American girl and her father were traveling in the Orient, and there they were joined by the young woman's fiancé. He knew the dangers of the country of old, but the girl laughed at his warnings and believed that the life and property were as safe as it is on Broadway, New York. The girl hired a dragoman, and took an excursion into the desert, despite her sweetheart's most emphatic warning. It does not pay to disregard the advice of the well informed, as the girl soon found to her cost, for the treacherous guide led her into the midst of a band of Arabs.

The girl was young, pretty, and also a good businesswoman; When her father died she took up the reins of management and ran an orange grove with successful results. Her capable hands were so busy that she had no time to think of love. One day, however, "the prince" appeared.

A rich man who finds that there is nothing in life worth living for, is worse off than is a poor man in similar circumstances, for the poor man may he stricken with ambition, and in a last effort to attain fame and fortune, redeems himself. But what is a man to do if he has wealth, health, all the fame he desires, and yet looks at life through blue spectacles?

Wealth does not always bring happiness. The girl was young, rich, but an invalid, and the noted physicians who eared for her shook their heads wisely, and gravely pronounced her cause as one of general ill health, a gradual wasting away. Her one trouble, although the physicians did not suspect it, was that the girl did not really care whether she lived or died.

A short adaption of the novel by Charles Dickens.

While visiting Alan, who works in Tokyo, she attends a festival with her Japanese maid while wearing a Japanese kimono. There she meets the wealthy Arai Takada, who is taken by the mysterious woman. Alan has dishonored and betrayed O'Mitsu, and her brother Arai plans a terrible revenge.

Outside the door of the home of a sculptor and his mother, fell a poor, friendless young girl. They took the girl in and cared for her, and as time went on the mother began to regard her as her daughter. The son regarded the affectionate advances of the girl with only brotherly love. But there came a time when the misgivings of the son changed, for he began to pay scant attentions to a young beauty he met at a reception and who was characterized as a woman with a heart "cold as marble." This piqued the beauty, who was accustomed to abject adulation. She determined to bring him to her feet and in this she succeeded. She offered to pose for him, and, spurred on by such a splendid model and her praises, he produced a figure which was acclaimed by all the critics as a masterpiece.

Family drama of a a brother and sister who take to the stage.

Over the years, an old gardener observes a romance develop between a young boy and girl. 20 years after they break up over a misunderstanding, the old man is instrumental in bringing them back together again.

A recreation of the Thanhouser Studio fire of 13 January 1913, it includes the rescue of a small child from the flaming building.

Following a bright wandering star, three magi from the East travel to Bethlehem of Judea to meet a very special newborn baby. Meanwhile, King Herod, driven by a hideous prophecy, orders him to be found and murdered.

With her week's wash only half done, Diana drops her work to peruse the Paris fashion magazines. Poring over the beautiful fashions delineated in the highly colored pages of the publications, Diana falls asleep. She dreams that she is wealthy and a society leader in Washington. A short film (273 meters) which marked James Cruze's debut as director.

Based on the novel of the same name by Mrs. Henry Wood (Ellen Wood).

A foundling is raised in a convent and becomes a nun there, until she falls in love with a wounded soldier under her care. When she leaves the convent, a statue of the Virgin Mary comes to life and assumes the girl's appearance to carry on her work.

John Wheeler (Warren Cook) gets himself in some financial hot water and needs to prove that he is half owner of some land in Canada. But the only person with a copy of the deed is Jean Corteau (Edwin Carewe, who also directed), and Corteau has gone up to the property and decided to claim all of it for himself.

Hawaiian prince Tom Garvin (Sessue Hayakawa) receives an American college education and falls in love with Enid Benton (Florence Vidor).

Thanhouser Company three-reel silent film based on Charles Dickens’s story of an English lad's tribulation-filled journey to adulthood, Thanhouser released the three films over the course of three weeks beginning on October 17, 1911, one 1,000 foot reel per week.

Shows brief glimpses into the lives of movie stars of the time. Included is shots of Elsie Janis in her garden in Tarrytown, where she gives an impersonation of Mary Pickford. The film also shows the parts of the marriage ceremony between James Cruze and Marquerite Snow on January 28, 1913. The film claims this to be the first marriage to be captured on film. The film then moves on to some shots of Louise Glaum and her mother. This in turn is followed with a behind the scenes filming of a stunt involving a bathtub. The film then ends with some shots of Clara Kimball Young, Teddy (Mack Sennett's dog) and finally Marie Prevost.

Henry de Spain is determined to find the man who murdered his father. He becomes sort of an outsider with Duke Morgan's gang, cattlemen, and outlaws. Nan, daughter of the head of the clan, secretly loves Henry and when he is wounded in a fight with the Morgan clan, she helps him escape. This angers her father and he declares that she shall marry her cousin. Nan dispatches a message to Henry for assistance and he brings her safely to his clan. Nan then learns that her father was the murder of Henry's father. She returns to her father to learn the truth and together they go to Henry and reveal the murder's name. After a thorough understanding and forgiving, Henry and Nan are married.