Although not the first feature-length animated film, as is sometimes thought, it was the first cartoon to feature a character with an appealing personality. The appearance of a true character distinguished it from earlier animated "trick films", such as those of Blackton and Cohl, and makes it the predecessor to later popular cartoons such as those by Walt Disney. The film was also the first to be created using keyframe animation.
Cartoon figures announce, via comic strip balloons, that they will move - and move they do, in a wildly exaggerated style. Also known as "Winsor McCay, the Famous Cartoonist of the N.Y. Herald and His Moving Comics".
A widower becomes infatuated with his daughter's governess, to the displeasure of the child and her nurse.
Lillian Travers, a New York heiress, pops down to Florida to surprise her fiancé, Fred Cassadene, the house doctor at a prominent Saint Augustine hotel. The surprise, however, is Lillian's when she finds Fred in a series of compromising situations with a certain wealthy widow staying there. When she can take no more, Lillian discovers a box forgotten at an old curiosity shop in which lies a hundred-year-old secret: a vial of four rare and exotic African seeds that promises to transform whoever swallows one from a woman to a man or vice versa.
A cartoonist draws faces and figures on a blackboard - and they come to life.
Marion, the telephone switch operator in a large factory, sticks to her post, notifying the different departments during the burning of the building. The fire department, of which Jack Watson, to whom Marion is engaged, is a member, received the alarm. Hastily the fire laddies get into their clothes and rush to the scene of conflagration. Everyone has escaped except Marion. Jack hears this, and tears himself away from his comrades, at the peril of his life, he dashes into the building and rescues his sweetheart. He drops with his precious and unconscious burden, exhausted, to the ground. They are each taken to their homes. When both are conscious, they are allowed to telephone each other, and their wedding day is set.
A traveler stays the night at a rural inn, but gets no rest as he is tormented by various spectres and mysterious happenings.
A smoker falls asleep, and two mischievious fairies play with his pipe. He discovers this, and imprisons them in a cigar box. He removes a flower from the box, which contains a fairy smoking a cigarette. Next, he leaves briefly while his smoking paraphenalia clears itself from the table and the flower reassembles itself into a cigar. He lights the cigar, then breaks a bottle containing the fairy, who interacts with him in various ways reeling from his cigar smoke, building a bonfire that he extinguishes, etc.
Larry in school and always gets in trouble until he falls asleep and dreams of when he's all grown up.
Released in five parts (The Persecution of the Children of Israel by the Egyptians, Forty Years in the Land of Midian, The Plagues of Egypt and the Deliverance of the Hebrews, The Victory of Israel, The Promised Land), 4 December 1909 to 19 February 1910. A Vitagraph advertisement in the Moving Picture World (31 Dec. 1909) refers to The Life of Moses as a "Biblical Film-de-Luxe". It is preserved in the Library of Congress collection.
A hungry mosquito spots and follows a man on his way home. The mosquito slips into the room where the man is sleeping, and gets ready for a meal. His first attempts startle the man and wake him up, but the mosquito is very persistent.
Tom Evans, the fearless range boss of the Double X Ranch, falls in love with a romantic schoolteacher from the East named Clara. They marry and for a time are happy, but in Tom's absence, his partner Blackie persuades the restless young wife to run away with him. Blackie soon deserts Clara, and she is forced to earn her keep at a disreputable dance hall. After robbing a stage, Blackie returns, and Tom, who has been waiting for his former friend, goes after him. In a gun battle with Tom and his posse, Blackie kills Clara and escapes, but Tom follows him into the desert and takes his horse, leaving him to die of thirst.
Left destitute by the death of her young husband, Ethel Wynne lives with her old nurse, Hester O'Brien, a laundress. During the day Ethel works as a clerk in a toy store, leaving her babies in the care of Hester, and in the evenings, helps out by doing ironing and housework. One day, while she is at the store, Harley Clarke, a wealthy bachelor, comes in with a group of boys and lets them select whatever toys they fancy. It is his birthday, and. seeing the children hungrily eyeing the window display, he has decided to celebrate the day by treating them. Ethel is very much impressed by Mr. Clarke's evident kindliness, and after he has left the shop, she gets his name and address from Mayme, the girl who waits on him. When she arrives home, she finds Hester very sick and is obliged to call a doctor, who has her taken to the hospital. Ethel is now in a sorry plight. She has no one to take care of the baby while she is away at work, and no means of supporting herself at home.
Elizabeth Browne is the daughter of nouveau riche parents, who became wealthy when they struck oil. While she attends finishing school, her folks travel to England in search of a family tree so that they can enter society. They encounter Lady Dysart, an adventuress who married Lord Dysart shortly before his death. Lady Dysart tries to convince the Brownes that Cecil, her son from a previous marriage, is the new Lord Dysart.
Robert Ware takes it upon himself to tame wild girl, Mag, to prove to his doubting friend Arnold, he can turn her into a graceful young lady. Later, when Arnold is in the war, he meets a pretty nurse who greatly impresses him. Back home he recalls the pleasant encounter to Robert, telling him of the gentle beauty he never forgot. Mag, now Margaret, overhears the story and reveals to Arnold, she was the nurse. The surprised Arnold now has to admit that Robert was right about gentling the little wild cat.
Newly married Thomas and Mary MacGregor attend the village fair on their honeymoon. The balloon ascension is advertised for the afternoon. Everything is in readiness and Mary induces Thomas to enter the basket of the balloon. Some mischievous boys cut the ropes holding the balloon and it rises, taking the pair on a honeymoon trip entirely unexpected. They travel fast and long until the balloon collapses upon a desert island, among a tribe of cannibals, who think the couple are gods descended from the skies. Thomas deposes the king and runs things with a high hand. The natives, however, as they become better acquainted with Thomas and Mary, realize that they are only human beings like themselves. They decide to put an end to their reign and begin preparations for their execution and cooking. The night before the day they are to be put to death, Thomas and Mary escape to the seashore, where they hail a passing vessel, which lands a boat loaded with men, who rescue the terrified couple.
Larry falls afoul of wanted criminal Gentleman Joe, who runs a saloon full of tough guys and gunslingers.
This is basically a two practical-joke comedy. Bunny is a businessman father and Mabel plays Betty, his lovable daughter. The first practical joke is Betty getting her girlfriend to be daddy's secretary. The secretary sprays perfume on all his papers and tries to make out with him. The second practical joke has Betty getting her boyfriend to put on a wig and old man's outfit and apply for the job of daddy's secretary.
Young Irish physician Peter Blood is exiled as a slave to Barbados, where he and his friend Jeremy are purchased by Colonel Bishop at the behest of his niece Arabella. With other slaves he captures a Spanish galleon and becomes the terror of the Caribbean privateers until offered a commission in the English Navy. He defeats the French at Port Royal, and as a reward he is named governor of Jamaica and marries Arabella.
The Rent Collector is a 1921 American silent comedy film featuring Larry Semon & Oliver Hardy.
