The daring convict no. 23, known as The Eel, escapes from prison and, after mocking his inept persecutors, saves the lives of three people in peril: a beautiful girl, her mother and an annoying suitor, only to get exhausted and almost drowned. Once he regains his strength at Judge Brown's home, he participates on an upper-class social party where he competes with the suitor for the favors of the charming Miss Brown. But prison guards are still after him…
A fortuneteller informs Monte that he will marry the first girl he meets. After several false starts, he meets what he is sure is "the" girl. She takes him to jail, hits him with a book, and affects her brother's escape, leaving Monte inside. He finally gets out, a chase occurs and he swears off girls forever, only to be snared again.
Mary Davis, alone and destitute in New York City, pilfers a meal from a restaurant and eludes the police by ducking into the Cafe Royale, where she is shuffled along a line of aspiring chorines awaiting job interviews. In desperation, Mary agrees to impersonate Mademoiselle Fanchon, formerly of the Folies-Bergère, who has walked out on her contract. Reporter Kenneth Ward interviews Mary, believing her to be the notorious Frenchwoman, and due to a misunderstanding, she rushes wildly into his arms. When Robert Ryan, a bachelor friend of the real Fanchon, investigates Mary’s deception, she violently repels his advances and believes she has killed him. Later, the real Fanchon threatens to kill Robert. Following a series of amusing complications, Mary finds love with Kenneth.
One of the two earliest horror films ever made. This film is presumed lost. In this black comedy scene, the bottom falls out of a coffin, the corpse tumble out, and is jolted back to life. Short sequences like this, as well as street scenes and dancing geisha girls were the main subjects of early Nippon cinema, pioneered by Shiro Asano and Shibata Tsunekichi from 1897 onwards. In creating dramatic, scenes, film-makers naturally chose the most striking or bizarre. Another undocumented film, recalled by cameraman Shiro Asano.
Judas is the hero and Jesus is the villain in this lewd retelling of the classic Bible story. Depicted through anthropomorphic animals, we see a unique alternative perspective. Judas (an unscrupulous black goat) has been at odds with Jesus (a self-righteous white sheep) ever since childhood. However, when an opportunity arises to sell Jesus out for the 30 Euros he needs to get into Maria Magdalena's sex show, things finally seem to start going Judas' way. But what will Jesus' adoring fans have to say about it?
Charlie is a clumsy waiter in a cheap cabaret, suffering the strict orders from his boss. He meets a pretty girl in the park and tries to impress her by pretending to be an ambassador. Unfortunately she has a jealous fiancé.
At Thanksgiving, a tramp arrives in a homeless-hostile town.
An opportunistic umbrella salesman attempts to save a musician and his daughter from blackmail.
Harry and Willie are scammed into buying the Thomas Edison studio lot by a man named Gorman. They decide to follow Gorman's trail to Hollywood where, unbeknownst to them, he has taken the identity of a foreign film director. The lads wind up as stunt doubles in film the which Gorman is now shooting, while the conman tries to have the bungling pair done away with before they realize who he really is.
As a practical joke, an actor impersonates the screen monster he made famous. A lost film.
In Don Hertzfeldt's second student film, a hapless cartoon character is dragged through a spectrum of cinematic situations by his frustrated animator.
Struggling stockbroker Jimmie Shannon learns that, if he gets married by 7 p.m. on his 27th birthday -- which is today -- he'll inherit $7 million from an eccentric relative.
The rituals of courtship, romantic rivalry, and love play out three times as a man vies with a villain for the girl. In the Stone Age, the rivalry is set off by dinosaurs, a turtle used as a ouija board, and a round of golf with stones. In ancient Rome, the men display their brawn through a chariot race, using dogs instead of horses. In contemporary times, the man finds himself overcome by modernity, including a very fragile car.
A lost film - Mary Gray, whose father manufactures cold cream, is engaged to sappy Horace Niles, the son of Hugo Niles, the elder Gray's most competitive rival in the cosmetics business. Chip Armstrong, a hot-shot public relations man, quits the employ of Hugo Niles and goes to work for Gray, persuading Mary to enter the Miss America contest at Atlantic City, with the intention of using her to endorse her father's cold cream should she win. Mary breaks her engagement with Horace. When it appears that she will win the contest, Hugo lures her home on the pretext that her father is ill, and she misses the contest. Chip and Mary return to Atlantic City, discovering that the new Miss America has told the world that she owes all her success to Gray's cold cream. On this note, Chip and Mary decide to get married.
The wealthy and impulsive Rollo Treadway decides to propose to his beautiful socialite neighbor, Betsy O'Brien. Although Betsy turns Rollo down, he still opts to go on the cruise that he intended as their honeymoon. When circumstances find both Rollo and Betsy on the wrong ship, they end up having adventures on the high seas.
After literally swimming across the Atlantic Ocean, an Englishman takes a country trip across Canada on a railcar.
On a dark and stormy night, four bored ghosts decide to have some fun by calling the Ajax Ghost Exterminators.
In this clever satire of toxic men, a cartoon pickup artist is violently torn apart by the women he targets, seen only through his own one-sided, ridiculously misogynistic point of view. Don Hertzfeldt's first student film, he plays the part of a mentally unwell animator who's losing his grip within his own movie; an idea he'd later revisit in other early "meta" shorts "Genre" and "Rejected". Despite being produced at the age of 18 and not intended for exhibition, HBO named it "The World's Funniest Cartoon" in 1998.
Hollywood hopeful Peggy Pepper arrives at a major studio, from Georgia, to become a great dramatic star. Things don't go entirely according to plan.
A photographer takes up newsreel shooting to impress a secretary.