The Center of the Web

The Center of the Web 1914

5.00

The police set out to take down a gang of counterfeiters, using every tool they have including police dogs.

1914

The Marble Heart

The Marble Heart 1913

5.00

Outside the door of the home of a sculptor and his mother, fell a poor, friendless young girl. They took the girl in and cared for her, and as time went on the mother began to regard her as her daughter. The son regarded the affectionate advances of the girl with only brotherly love. But there came a time when the misgivings of the son changed, for he began to pay scant attentions to a young beauty he met at a reception and who was characterized as a woman with a heart "cold as marble." This piqued the beauty, who was accustomed to abject adulation. She determined to bring him to her feet and in this she succeeded. She offered to pose for him, and, spurred on by such a splendid model and her praises, he produced a figure which was acclaimed by all the critics as a masterpiece.

1913

The Coffin Ship

The Coffin Ship 1911

5.00

A love story filmed in Long Island Sound with a stowaway and a shipwreck.

1911

The Pillory

The Pillory 1916

1

A young girl is kept ignorant of her mother by her aunt. After her aunt dies, the girl is used by crooks and arrested. In prison she meets a kindly woman, who is married to a judge. The woman, unbeknownst to the girl, is her mother, and adopts her. The companion of the deceased aunt, in the midst of a ball, denounces the mother and reveals her secret to the judge and guests. The judge will not forgive his wife, so the mother and daughter leave and work among the slums to benefit humanity. Eventually, the judge relents, and seeks his wife for forgiveness, but he is too late.

1916

The Million Dollar Mystery

The Million Dollar Mystery 1914

1

This twenty-three episode serial told the story of a secret society called The Black Hundred and its attempts to gain control of a lost million dollars.

1914

Under False Colors

Under False Colors 1917

1

A young Russian woman escapes persecution in her country and makes her way to the United States. Shortly after her arrival she meets an American millionaire, John Colton.

1917

The Actor's Children

The Actor's Children 1910

4.00

When his play closes down, an actor returns home to find that his children are gone. He's then notified that a wealthy relative has died and left him a substantial amount of money. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2007.

1910

The Pied Piper of Hamelin

The Pied Piper of Hamelin 1911

1

According to the tale found in the ancient annals, the little town of Hamelin, in Hanover, found itself, five hundred years ago overrun with rats. The citizens tried every way to abate the plague, but without result. Finally a mysterious stranger appeared in the town and offered for the sum of 1000 guilders to clear the place of vermin.

1911

Prudence the Pirate

Prudence the Pirate 1916

1

To her aunt's dismay, Prudence isn't interested in society life. She'd rather listen to the butler's tall tales of being a pirate. Nixed from a boat trip, she rents a schooner, recruits a crew and raises the jolly roger.

1916

The Winter's Tale

The Winter's Tale 1910

5.00

Sicilian king Leontes jealously accuses his wife Hermione of infidelity with his best friend, and while imprisoned, she delivers a child. Sent away, the child is raised by Bohemian shepherds. The Winter's Tale was the first of six Shakespeare adaptations from Thanhouser, and was the 13th or 14th title from the studio in its first nine weeks of releases.

1910

The World and the Woman

The World and the Woman 1916

3.50

In "The World and the Woman", Jeanne Eagels plays Mary, a prostitute (which is implied by her walking the streets and being hassled by policemen) who reluctantly takes a better position at a country lodge as a maid. In this woodland community, she attends church and the path to Salvation becomes clear to her. Through Mary's faith, the injured folk of the countryside are healed. However, her old employer, whose lustful advances she'd previously spurned, still has designs on her.

1916

She

She 1911

4.00

She was the first attempt in film to depict the story of H. Rider Haggard's 1886 novel She: A History of Adventure.

1911

Crossed Wires

Crossed Wires 1915

5.00

An innocent man is accused of murdering his aunt.

1915

The Cry of the Children

The Cry of the Children 1912

5.29

An indictment of the evils of child labor, the film was controversial in its time for its use of actual footage of children employed in a working mill.

1912

The Colonel and the King

The Colonel and the King 1911

1

Upon the death of his grandfather, little George IV of Saxony ascend the throne at the age of seven. His reign, however, is a short one, as a usurper, backed by a number of native soldiers, attacks the palace, imprisons the boy king and seizes the reins of government.

1911

Hidden Valley

Hidden Valley 1916

1

"In Hidden Valley," Valkyrien is a white goddess who has been captured by savage blacks in South Africa. She is found by a young missionary, played by Boyd Marshall, and rescued from a sacrificial altar. Valkyrien was selected as the most perfectly formed girl in Denmark in a competition conducted by the government. The dance of the white goddess before the natives is one of the most beautiful scenes in the production. The Moving Picture World, August 5, 1916

1916

David Copperfield

David Copperfield 1911

1

Thanhouser Company three-reel silent film based on Charles Dickens’s story of an English lad's tribulation-filled journey to adulthood, Thanhouser released the three films over the course of three weeks beginning on October 17, 1911, one 1,000 foot reel per week.

1911

King Lear

King Lear 1916

4.40

Silent adaptation of Shakespeare's King Lear

1916

Nicholas Nickleby

Nicholas Nickleby 1912

5.80

With The Old Curiosity Shop and David Copperfield, both released in 1911, and Nicholas Nickleby in 1912, Thanhouser established itself as producer of the best Dickens adaptations in American film.

1912

The Woman in White

The Woman in White 1917

5.50

The lead Florence La Badie plays dual roles. Clever editing is used for the scene where her two characters meet. La Badie, however, does appear twice within a scene via superimposition, but that's in a flashback-within-a-mirror scene. There are a couple such scenes where La Badie's reflection in the mirror reflects her reflective melancholy mood.

1917