The earliest surviving film featuring Lon Chaney in a major role, By the Sun's Ray's was but one of several 2-reel westerns starring the florid Murdock MacQuarrie. MacQuarrie plays a detective investigating a series of gold shipment robberies. Along the way, he falls for a mine superintendent's pretty daughter (Agnes Vernon), much to the dismay of a sullen mine office clerk (Chaney), who is also smitten with the girl...
A young mountaineer loves Dorothy, daughter of a backwoodsman. An artist comes into the district to paint and falls in love with Lucille, Dorothy's sister. Dorothy is interested in the artist on account of her sister's love for him, and she poses.
Alice receives an invitation from her grandfather, who is the minister of a small country church, to pay him a visit, which invitation she accepts. Mandy is loved by Jed, but her affections are with the deacon.
The boys are fagged with the long summer's work and are undecided where to spend their vacation. One day Eddie is idly looking over the paper when he sees that a young man has met and married a wealthy heiress at the beach; suddenly, nothing but the beach will suit them. Eddie sees the boss and they are given permission to take a vacation.
The wife takes with her their small daughter, leaving the son to the care of the father. The forlorn woman wanders into a fishing village, and is taken into a kindly fisherman's family. To more surely separate herself from the world that knows her. She assumes her maiden name. Many years afterward the father and the son, now grown, pass through the village. The son becomes acquainted with his own sister, knowing nothing of the relationship, and falls in love with her. He persuades his father to spend his season at a summer resort nearby. Later, the son and the daughter are secretly married. The girl leaves a note for her mother, telling her of the act. The mother follows to the parsonage, and then the summer resort, where she overtakes the couple.
The Trombone family is very musically inclined, but their neighbours, the painter Pierre van Hall and his wife, are being driven crazy. This turns into a fight between the neighbours that gets way out of hand, because their reactions to each other become increasingly extreme; at one point a brass band is even used. The police ultimately force the quarrelling neighbours to make peace, by threatening them with jail.
Jane Carston was to return tomorrow from Ohio, where she had been for the past three years in school, and the ranch was all agog with expectancy and cleanliness. Bob Evans, head cowboy, was most eager and most anxious of the lot. Tomorrow finally became today and Pa had gone to the station in his best linen duster and the buckboard to meet Jane. Finally, in a cloud of dust. Bob discerns them on the brow of the hill. Arriving at the house Jane greets mother with a rousing smack.
The Chief's son, Silver Water, returns from college and is met at the station by the tribe. The Indians make merry to celebrate his homecoming. Hal Benton, an easterner, rides on to ask his way to the hotel, where he is stopping with some friends, among them his fiancée, Veda Mead, and her father. Knowing that the Indian ceremonies will interest his friends, Hal obtains permission to come the next day and bring his friends. The Chief calls Morning Star, an Indian maiden, telling his son that she is to be his squaw. Silver Water is pleased with her. The next day Hal Benton and his friends arrive. While the others inspect the camp, Veda Mead amuses herself with Silver Water and ere long is thoroughly infatuated with him, while the Indian's vanity is touched by the attentions of the society coquette, and he promises to meet her the next day. Their little tete-a-tete is cut short by the entrance of Morning Star.
A man is a fugitive from the law. A reward of $2,000 is offered for his capture. A large posse is on his trail. Weary, hungry and haunted, the refugee is slowly but surely being hemmed in.
Randall is a rich mine owner whose business affairs cause him to neglect his somewhat frivolous wife. There is a mutual friend whom Randall carelessly allows to entertain his wife. As a result, the friend pays more than natural attentions to the woman. The three visit one of Randall's mines. The wife and friend go down the mining shaft in a bucket. While they are yet underground, a quantity of dynamite explodes. The mine is filled with poisonous fumes.
Joe Mayfield and Sue Jarvis are the children of two families in the Blue Ridge Mountains, which have been at variance for years. Brady, Dorothy's brother, has had an affair with a simple mountain maid. She, unable to care for the child, lays it with a note, at what she thinks is Brady's door. In reality, she has taken it to Mayfield's cabin. He finds it, but out of love for Sue, and to spare her the reflected disgrace, he cares for it himself, keeping silent as to its parentage. The love between himself and Sue ripens. Sue is ready to forget the feud and marry him. In order to prevent this, Brady, not knowing whence the child came, accuses Mayfield of being its parent. The accused is silent and Sue turns away. Mayfield, in the meantime, is unable to stand the fruits of injustice and the taunts of Brady. He tells Brady the true parentage of the child. Brady is softened. He tells Mayfield he is going to find its mother and "Make it right."
A look behind the scenes at Universal Studios in 1915.
Lillian is an unfortunate woman. After leaving her baby at the door of a hospital she meets David, the author of her misfortune. It is a case of starvation or the "easiest way." She chooses the "easiest way." After eighteen years she again shows up, a social outcast and a tool for David's black profession.
Lieut. Wallace leaves his fiancée, Dorothy West, to cross the border with his troops into Mexico. Later he is wounded, captured and taken to the hacienda of the Mexican officer, Senor Paranze, where his wounds are dressed by Senora Paranze. The latter falls in love with the American when he defends her from her brutal husband.
On her deathbed, Renee's mother confides to her daughter the troubled history of her life. She was wealthy and she was loved alone for her riches. She was to be married; on her wedding day the bridegroom married another woman he really loved. She married her second choice of men and after two years, he left her.
Almost a Rescue is a 1913 movie starring Donald MacDonald and Roscoe Arbuckle.
The husband and his wife live alone in the mountains, where he is working out a claim. A stranger from a distant mine is injured in the vicinity. The husband nurses him back to health. During his convalescence the stranger persuades the wife to elope with him.
Daniel Lyttell is very ill, but Doctor Bozel assures Clara that the crisis is over and that her husband will eventually get well. In the dead of the night, a burglar enters the Lyttell home. His silent footsteps reach the ear of the sick man. Clara, too, hears mysterious noises. She pacifies Daniel and tells him to rest and sleep. Softly she steals out of the room to investigate and soon discovers the burglar. Quickly rushes to the telephone, but finds that the wires have been cut. For a moment she hesitates and fears, fears for her husband. Goes to his bedside and rejoices to find him asleep. Hastily dons a wrap and envelops her head in a black veil, leaves the room and busies herself rummaging in the drawers of a desk. The burglar comes upon her but is unable to intimidate the brave little woman. Clara tells him she, too, is a thief; only she came to steal very important letters. When the man attempts to go into the bedroom for his "haul," she commands him to stay where he is.
Lee rejoices, for has he not a holiday to-morrow? He meets Eddie, who is employed in a large dry goods emporium. He hears of Lee's luck and wants to join him. They plan.
Dr. Frank Rosslyn, known to the world as a prominent physician, is in reality the head of a quack medical concern which dispenses patent medicines and advertises extensively.
