Ben Hur 1907
The first adaptation of Lew Wallace's novel, Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ.
The first adaptation of Lew Wallace's novel, Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ.
A short smugglers’ drama in which a new employee of the harbour police starts working for an export trader, so as to keep an eye on the smugglers. After a wild chase, the smugglers are captured, and it turns out that harbour police agent and the daughter of the export trader get along very well.
Alice Durand, after weeks of discouragement, reads the following advertisement in the New York Herald: "Governess wanted. Young American woman, well educated and speaking French and German, may obtain lucrative position with prominent Egyptian. Fare and expenses will be advanced. Write, enclosing photograph, to Mahmoud Pasha, Sphinx Club, Cairo, Egypt." Answering the advertisement, Alice seven weeks later, secures the position and leaves her New York boarding-house for Egypt.
The Humpty Dumpty Circus is the first animated short film created in stop-motion technique. It features a circus with acrobats and animals in motion.
"Sidewinder Steve" returns to civilization to find that his ore specimens show he has discovered a turquoise mine. He wires his friend, Ace Brent, the capitalist, who has a half-interest in his discoveries, to furnish him with money to make the trip back across the desert to officially stake his claim. But "Lonney" Smith, telegraph operator at the town and secret spy for The Syndicate, Brent's rivals, informs his employers of the new "strike," and they dispatch their agent Meyers to thwart Brent. The latter, recovering from injuries received in a previous encounter with sheep herders, consents to allow Barbara to handle the affair. Her admirer, John Wallace, follows her to the desert town, fearing for her safety. The action then develops into a thrilling three-cornered race across the desert between Barbara and John, Lonney and Meyers, and a gang of local adventurers headed by "Dry Wash" Sexton, proprietor of the "saloon and hotel."
Jud Hendricks, foreman of the construction camp, is being blackmailed by Gypsy Joe, who knows of a dark page in the Hendricks' past. Hendricks and Tom Rasom are rivals for the favor of Helen, with Tom in the lead. The latter, an engineer, is about to take his train out when he finds Gypsy Joe hiding in a boxcar.
Steve Nelson, a clever crook, arrives at the little station where Helen is operator. He lives quietly at the village's little boarding house preparing for a coup when Helen receives instructions that lead her to suspect Steve.
Uncle Tom and Eliza's child are sold to Haley, a slave dealer. When Eliza learns that her son is to be taken from her, she steals the boy and runs away.
Mary's lot. always hard, becomes doubly so upon her father's death. Desiring to re-marry, the girl's stepmother conspires to get her out of the way.
Wealthy Irving Randolph is falsely denounced as a deliberate murderer by his greedy younger brother when Randolph, during a rifle shooting contest, accidentally kills a man with whom he has had an altercation. Fleeing to Australia, Randolph becomes known as the bandit Stingaree and is aided in his Robin Hood like adventures by his friend Howie and his sweetheart Ethel.
Discharged for drinking, Coleman attempts to get even by releasing the brakes on an empty boxcar, to which is coupled a flatcar, allowing them to run wild down the main line on which he knows the president's special is coming. Coleman does not know that his children, Helen and Paul, are playing on the flat car.
Montjoy Jones, a disgraced baseball player after losing a game due to a dropped flyball, begins to dream of a scenario where he makes the catch, and becomes a hero.
King attempts to tighten the brake of a freight car standing near the summit of a steep grade at Lone Point. Suddenly, the brake chain snaps and the train commences to roll down hill. Helen sees King's peril, rides to a point just before a curve, crawls hand over hand across a rope which she has stretched across the track, and snatches King from the car moments before the car is dashed to pieces as it leaves the rails of the curve.
Tony, a half-breed Mexican is kicked from pillar to post, but he grasps a chance for revenge on society when he peers through the station window and sees Helen, the operator at Lone Point, opening the express company bag containing a valuable shipment to a local rancher.
The life of Jesus is played out in tableaux shot in the Holy Land.
Impending trouble with the sheep herders, who are encroaching on his range, causes Ace Brent, owner of vast California interests, to warn his daughter Barbara to postpone her visit to the ranch. But Barbara is made of sterner stuff, and, following a heated discussion with her admirer, John Wallace, over woman's equality with man in the business world, she declares she will disregard the warning telegram and be at her father's side should trouble come.
"The Devil's Dansant" is the nickname given to a dansant of which Dominique, a Frenchman, is the proprietor. District Attorney Farrar, while searching for evidence on which to raid the place, is astounded to find that his wife Valerie, is a frequent visitor at Dominique's. The willful woman disobeys her husband's orders and continues to visit Dominique's.
In the second entry of the popular Hazards of Helen series, Helen, is temporarily assigned as a telegraph operator at Quarry Depot; bad blood springs up between two men who are seeking Helen's favor, but to whom she has remained impartial.
Learning that the driver of the Comet car has been disabled on the eve of the big race, Sinton, a gambler, bets heavily on its rival. But his plans go awry when Gordon, the owner of the Comet car, meets Naroche, a celebrated French driver, and engages him to pilot the racer.
Tony Vallenci, just over from Italy, is offered a job by Pietro Valli, an unscrupulous padrone. Ignorant of American money, Tony signs a contract calling for a wage of sixty cents a day. He goes to work in a quarry owned by Dodge. The following day Tony is knocked down by an auto containing Mrs. Dodge. He is uninjured, but the kind lady takes him to his home.