Foolish Wives 1922
A con artist masquerades as Russian nobility and attempts to seduce the wife of an American diplomat.
A con artist masquerades as Russian nobility and attempts to seduce the wife of an American diplomat.
Winsor McCay recreates the sinking of the ocean liner Lusitania by a German U-boat in this propaganda piece designed to stir up anti-German sentiment during World War I.
Cattleman Flint cuts off farmer Sims' water supply. When Sims' son Ted goes for water, one of Flint's men kills him. Cheyenne is sent to finish off Sims, but finding the family at the newly dug grave, he changes sides.
On a ranch in Wyoming, one of the cowboys, Cheyenne Harry (Harry Carey), falls in love with his boss's daughter. But she decides to elope to the city with Captain Thornton, a wealthy visitor to the ranch. She quickly discovers that life in the city is not what she expected. Cheyenne, devastated by the loss of his fiancée, decides to go to the city to find her, and in the end rescues her from the grips of Captain Thornton and from the extravagant and decadent way of life in the city.
John Gregg and his daughter Mary, on their way to Burro Springs, a boom mining town, lose their way and stumble into "Jawbone," a dilapidated town. Here they meet Mike Hernandez, a good-looking bad man. Mary, thinking Mike a gentleman, takes a liking to him. "Cheyenne" Harry, a homely looking good man, comes to Jawbone and Mary believes him to be a weak character. He becomes fascinated with her. Gregg hires Mike Hernandez to guide him to Burro Springs, displaying his small store of gold when paying Hernandez. Later, Gregg and his party become lost in the desert, and run out of water.
An Austrian military officer and rogue attempts to seduce the wife of a surgeon. The two men confront each other in a test of abilities that ends surprisingly.
A young working girl, struggling to support her family on her meager salary, desperately wishes for a new pair of shoes.
Upon receiving an inheritance from her late uncle, a woman starts a fortune-telling business designed to make her dreams come true.
A cowboy must save his girlfriend from captivity and then cross the desert on foot with a single waterhole on the way.
Frivolous young Marie de Severac is frightened into following a more virtuous path, when her father relates a story in which an equally frivolous woman is entombed alive. The movie was Rex Ingram’s directorial debut, and he later remade the film as Trifling Women in 1922. Black Orchids is considered to be a lost film.
Three outlaws fleeing a posse through the desert come upon a dying woman and her baby in a wagon. Before she passes away, she makes the men promise to take care of her baby and get it safely through the desert.
M'liss, raised in the mountains as an unruly tomboy, is orphaned and is offered "protection" by Calaveras John and Johnny Cake, friends of her father's murderer. She shows no interest in anything until the new schoolmaster persuades her to tidy herself and get some education. Believing the schoolmaster to be in love with some other girl, M'liss decides to run off with another man.
Amos Kerran and his wife live a traditional, old-fashioned life on a Connecticut farm, while their son and daughter, Arthur and Maybelle, are successes in New York society. The children want to invite their parents to the city at Christmastime but are ashamed of their unrefined appearance.
The Man Who Woke Up is a 1921 silent Western.
Posing as relatives, Ralph and Helen Gordon visit Col. Moncrief Gordon's Kentucky mansion, hoping to marry Helen to the colonel's son, Donald. The colonel agrees, but Donald balks at the suggestion, then reveals his secret marriage to Alice Brown. The colonel turns them out, and Ralph conspires with Bob Thurston to frame Donald for theft of Colonel Gordon's wager money and to shanghai him. After 3 years Donald discovers the source of his misfortune, returns, finds his wife, hears of a plot against his father's best racehorse, wrings a complete confession from Thurston, and saves the Derby for his repentant father.
During the Civil War, a young man joins the Union army. His sweetheart's brother, on the other hand, joins the Confederate forces. During a battle the Confederate is captured and brought to the young Union officer, who recognizes him, and later allows him to escape. For that action he is tried for treason, convicted and sentenced to hang. All that remains now is for President Abraham Lincoln to sign his death warrant.
Achmet Bey, a Turkish chieftain, catches one of his many wives in adultery and murders her lover. Throwing aside the cuckolding wife, he abducts his harem an innocent girl. However, a brave American who loves her comes to her rescue.
ELEANOR'S CATCH is a delightful short, directed by and starring Cleo Madison. A successful actress, Madison was one of many women who directed films at Universal, particularly in the mid 1910s. In this two-reeler, she stars as a young city girl dragged into a life of crime by a ne’er-do-well suitor. A terrific surprise ending gives Eleanor and Cleo an early claim to promoting women’s equality in the workforce.
Betty Yarnell lives with her drunkard father in the North Woods mountains. Betty is shunned by the villagers whenever she ventures out to pick up her father from Abner Grimp's saloon, and her only friend is a little lamb. In debt to Abner, John Yarnell signs a note turning over his daughter to Abner in return for unlimited drinks. When Abner goes to the cabin to claim Betty, revenue officer Ralph McGibbon arrives from the city and rescues her. Abner sends his Indian partner Dark Cloud, but Ralph rescues Betty again, although he is badly beaten up.
Leila Hughes is the sole support of her aged grandmother. Tom Duane, a young contractor, has become acquainted with Leila and finds much to admire in her. Aggressive with his men, Tom becomes timid and embarrassed in the presence of a woman.