Silent and Early Sound Cinema
Updated March 2008

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A Selection of Early Sound Cinema

3 bad men. 1926. [2007]. (92 min.). When a trio of bandits discovers a young woman (Olive Borden) whose father was murdered by a ruthless gang, the "Three Bad Men" go from being partners in crime to comrades in chivalry. DVD 3474

49-17 AKA Forty-Nine Seventeen. 1917. (63 min.). Available on First Ladies, Early Women Filmmakers. A charming and suspenseful western parody about a millionaire who hires a wild west theatrical troupe to relive his past as a miner forty niner. VHS 6257

Aelita: Queen of Mars. 1924. 1 videocassette (113 min.). Los, an engineer living in Moscow, dreams of Aelita, the Queen of Mars, and builds a spaceship to take him to her. They fall in love, but Los soon finds himself embroiled in the planet's proletarian uprising. VHS 6024

America, or, love and sacrifice. 1924. 1 videodisc (140 min.). Torn between his revolutionary political beliefs and his love for the daughter of a Virginia Tory, Nathan Holden struggles with his fellow patriots for independence. But at the crossroads of this path to freedom stands Captain Walter Butler. A murderous redcoat, Butler ravages the fledgling colonies with a band of barbaric Mohawks. DVD 147

Anna Boleyn: a historical drama in six acts. 1920. [2007]. 1 videodisc (118 min.). Tragic drama of the second wife of England's Henry VIII, made in Berlin by Lubitsch before he moved to Hollywood to make comedies. DVD 2898

Arsenal. 1929. 1 videocassette (70 min.). Seen through the eyes of a humble Ukrainian soldier, director Dovzhenko presents an account of the Ukraine from World War I and the following social upheavals, through the Russian revolution, to the suppression of a worker's revolt in Kiev in 1918. Dovzhenko presents harsh, realistic scenes of Czarist brutality and war's destruction, but his juxtapositions of the Russian workers and peasants are considered both impressionistic and symbolic. VHS 4643

Asphalt. 1928. [2006]. 1 videodisc (93 min.). A femme fatale steals jewels, and seduces the cop sent to bring her in. DVD 2146

Avenging conscience, or thou shalt not kill. 1914. 1 videocassette (58 min.). A young writer who is a great fan of the stories of Edgar Allan Poe depends on the patronage of his uncle. When the uncle opposes his marriage to the girl he loves, the writer experiences a series of visions that end with him killing his uncle and sealing him up behind a brick wall. Then he must deal with the torment of his conscience and the beat of his dead uncle's heart. VHS 639

Backstairs = Hintertreppe. 1921. 1 videocassette (40 min.). German expressionist film about a postman consumed with jealousy over a maid's love affair with another man. The young woman's love is thwarted by the postman who intercepts her beloved's letters to her and who finally slays him. She, devastated, hurls herself from a building and kills herself. VHS 6020

Battleship Potemkin = Bronenosets Potyomkin. 1925. [2007]. 2 videodiscs (69 min.). Dramatization of actual events in Czarist Russia (1905). Shows the fierce mutiny aboard the battleship "Prince Potemkin" and the bloody aftermath in Odessa, where the Czar's troops ruthlessly massacred hundreds of innocent civilians who had sympathized with the mutineers. The film is notable for its use of non-actors in roles. DVD 43, VHS 17

Bed and Sofa = Tretya meshchanskaya & Chess Fever = Shakhmatnaya goryachka. 1927. [2004]. 2 videodiscs (115 min). Bed and sofa (87 min.) is the story of a love triangle between a woman and two men living together in a one-room basement apartment in 1927 Moscow. -- Chess fever (28 min.) is about an international chess tournament, in which a young man becomes completely obsessed with the game. His fiancée has no interest in it, and becomes frustrated and depressed by his neglect of her, but wherever she goes she finds that she cannot escape chess. On the brink of giving up, she meets the world champion, Capablanca himself, with interesting results. DVD 3754

Bed and Sofa = Tretya meshchanskaya. 1927. 1 videocassette (ca. 70 min.). Satirical film which points up the social consequences of the Soviet housing shortage. A husband and wife invite a friend to live with them and sleep on the sofa, but soon the husband winds up on the sofa. When the wife becomes pregnant she considers but rejects having an abortion. Instead, tired of both men, she leaves alone, seeking a new life. A landmark film because of humor, naturalism, and its sympathetic portrayal of the woman. VHS 4423

Berlin, symphony of a great city = Berlin, die symphonie der grossstadt. 1927. [1999]. 1 videodisc (62 min.). A cross section of life in Berlin from dawn to midnight on a late spring day. Uses montage, cutting, and editing to capture the pulse and tempo of this city. DVD 3437, VHS 2657

Big business. 1929. 1 videocassette (21 min.). Laurel and Hardy are selling Christmas trees door-to-door and encounter some sales resistance at one customer's house. A simple "no" evolves into the total destruction of the boys' car, their Christmas trees--and the customer's home. VHS 3981

Birth of a nation. (1915); and the Civil War films of D.W. Griffith. [2002]. 2 videodiscs (187 min.). A Civil War spectacular. Portrays life in the South during and after the Civil War as revealed in a story depicting the war itself, the conflict between the defeated Southerners and emancipated renegade Negroes, the despoiling of the South during the carpetbagger period, and the revival of the Southern white man's honor through the efforts of the Ku Klux Klan. DVD 640

Birth of a nation. 1915. [1998]. This epic story of the Civil War as seen through the lives of two families is a controversial classic of film history as it portrays life in the South during and after the Civil War. Made without a script under the personal direction of Griffith. The fictional plot line, a romance/melodrama, is interwoven with historical events (Civil War battles, Lincoln's assassination, et al.) that are documented by the filmmaker as "facsimiles." Portrays the Ku Klux Klan as a means of suppressing black anarchy. Intended to be an authentic depiction of the Civil War era, the film was strongly criticized for its racial stereotypes and its white Southern bias. DVD 639, DVD 2002

The Blot. 1921. 1 videodisc (79 min.). Scholarly and unpaid Professor Griggs and his family live in genteel poverty in a small college town. His beautiful daughter works at the library to help out and attracts attention from the minister and the laziest and naughtiest of her fathers students. DVD 3737

Broken Blossoms or The Yellow Man and the Girl. 1919. [2001]. A young Chinaman in London's squalid Limehouse district hopes to spread the peaceful philosophy of his Eastern religion. He befriends a pitiful street waif who is mistreated by her brutal father. Nursing her back to health, tragedy results when an unspoken romance flowers between them. DVD 642, VHS 5442

Burning soil = Der brennende acker. 1922. 1 videocassette (100 min.). An ambitious young man scorns his farming family background, becomes secretary to an aged Count. He first courts the Count's daughter but moves his affections to the young, second wife when he realizes that the latter will inherit the greater fortune from land likely to be rich in oil. VHS 5495

Cabiria AKA Cabiria: visione storica del terzo secolo A.C. 1914. [2000]. 1 videodisc (123 min.). This story tells the personal adventures of a Roman girl (Cabiria) and her two benefactors in the third century B.C. during the Second Punic War. Includes scenes of the eruption of Mt. Etna, sea battles, and Hannibal crossing the Alps. Opens with a brief written description of the Italian genre of historical spectacular films and a history of the film Cabiria. DVD 180

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari = Das cabinet des Dr. Caligari. 1919. [2002]. 1 videodisc (74 min.). In the film The cabinet of Dr. Caligari, a somnambulist commits murders under a hypnotist's influence. Also featured is a lengthy excerpt of Genuine. Both films are examples of the German Expressionist movement. DVD 496, VHS 989

Cameraman's revenge = Mest kinematograficheskogo operatora (1912) and other fantastic tales: the amazing puppet animation of Ladislaw Starewicz. As the world's first great puppet and stop-motion model animator, Starewicz was best known for his insect stories. These six early animated works feature grasshoppers, dogs, frogs, dolls, and other creatures created by Starewicz in Moscow and Paris between the years 1912 and 1958. VHS 5221

The Cat and the canary. 1927. 1 videodisc (80 min.). The potential heirs to a large fortune gather at their benefactor’s mansion twenty years after his death, but the reading of his will is interrupted by a series of disturbing events. DVD 3683

Champagne. 1928. 1 videocassette (ca. 85 min.). A millionaire tries to teach his daughter a lesson by telling her that he has been ruined, to save her from the man with whom she is planning to elope. VHS 6773

Chang: a drama of the wilderness. 1927. 1 videodisc (69 min.). Shot entirely in Siam, the film tells the story of a farmer and his family who have settled a small patch of land on the edge of the jungle. Their existence is a constant struggle against the many wild animals around. DVD 679

Chess Fever = Shakhmatnaya goryachka & Bed and Sofa = Tretya meshchanskaya. 1927. [2004]. 2 videodiscs (115 min). Bed and sofa (87 min.) is the story of a love triangle between a woman and two men living together in a one-room basement apartment in 1927 Moscow. -- Chess fever (28 min.) is about an international chess tournament, in which a young man becomes completely obsessed with the game. His fiancée has no interest in it, and becomes frustrated and depressed by his neglect of her, but wherever she goes she finds that she cannot escape chess. On the brink of giving up, she meets the world champion, Capablanca himself, with interesting results. DVD 3754

Un Chien andalou = An Andalusian Dog. 1929. 1 videodisc (55 min.). Filmed in the subjective language of the unconscious, this early avant-garde film appears as fresh today as when it first appeared. DVD 1083, VHS 64, VHS 7534

City girl. 1930. 1 videocassette (90 min.). A wheat farmer's son marries a waitress from the city, amidst depression, hailstorm and family problems in this 1930 film. VHS 4033

A Cottage on Dartmoor. 1929. 1 videodisc (87 min.). Flashback story of an escape from the lonely, high-security Dartmoor Prison. A jealous barber’s assistant is enraged by the attentions that his manicurist girlfriend pays to a customer. He threatens the customer with an open razor and lands in gaol. DVD 3748

Crainquebille. 1922. [1999]. 1 videocassette (45 min.). In this great satirical classic of the French cinema a Parisian street merchant is unjustly accused and jailed but afterwards finds happiness as a tramp. VHS 7240

The Crowd. 1928. 1 videocassette (104 min.). Shows the plight of workaday men and women in urban America. VHS 7256

Destiny = Der Müde Tod. 1921. 1 videodisc (99 min.). In a middle-European village a century ago, Death takes a young man just before he is to be married. His lover seeks out the Death figure and pleads with him for her fiance's life. Filled with pity for her, he promises to return her fiance if she can save even one of three lives about to flicker out. DVD 2913, VHS 3838

Diary of a lost girl = Das tagebuch einer Verlorenen. 1929. [2001]. 1 videodisc (116 min.). A pharmacist's daughter seduced by her father's assistant has a child and is banished to a repressive reform school. Escaping, she makes her way penniless to a brothel where she lives for the moment. DVD 2920

Different from the others = Anders als die andern. 1919. [2004]. 1 videodisc (50 min.). A prosperous man encounters a sleazy blackmailer who discovers that he is gay. Released in 1919, this film is an amazingly frank depiction of a homosexual relationship. Banned at the time of its release, later burned by the Nazis, the film was believed lost for more than forty years. DVD 2453

El Dorado. 1921. 1 videocassette (98 min.). The tale of a dancer rejected by her lover and forced to endure other indignities in order to support her child. VHS 7369

Down to the sea in ships. 1922. 1 videocassette (83 min.). Debut of Clara Bow. Film is set in New Bedford, Mass., the whaling capitol of America in the 1850s, and is a graphic look at the whaling industry. Shows an actual whale hunt - from the chasing down and killing of the whale to its butchering for blubber and heating oil. VHS 686

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. 1920. 1 videodisc (79 min.). Dr. Jekyll, an idealistic London doctor, has a weakness for experiments which take him to the boundaries of human consciousness and experience. When Sir George Carew, father of the girl Jekyll loves, accuses him of being afraid of temptation, he finds a drug which allows him to separate the evil side of his personality from the good; as Edward Hyde, he embarks upon a career of crime. DVD 3682

Dr. Mabuse, the gambler. 1922. [2006]. 2 videodiscs (270 min.). Sinister Dr. Mabuse maintains his wealth through counterfeiting, manipulating the stock exchange and bending weaker minds to his will. In part 1, Mabuse builds his empire and casually ruins Count Told while entrancing the thrill-seeking Countess. In part 2, Mabuse turns from criminal to villain, murdering the Count and kidnapping the Countess. DVD 2703, VHS 5250

Earth = Zemlia. 1930. 1 videocassette (69 min.). Inspired by a newspaper account, this Soviet film dramatizes the conflict between kulaks and peasants living on a collective farm in the Ukraine. Basil obtains a tractor for the village to share, and under his leadership the collective is successful, but he is assassinated by a landowner. His father asks for a "modern" funeral with songs by the young people of their new life. VHS 4310

Earth = Zemlya; Shakhmatnaya goryachka = Chess Fever; Konets Sankt-Peterburga = The End of St. Petersburg. 1 videodisc (186 min.). In Earth, workers on the Ukrainian farms struggle to use the land for what they think are the best purposes. Reflects the agricultural collectivization that was going on in the Soviet Union at the time this film was made; in Chess Fever, a young man’s passion for the game threatens to wreck his marriage; The End of St. Petersburg offers a view of changing conditions in Russia as interpreted by a young peasant who lived through the upheaval in St. Petersburg which culminated in revolution in 1917. Surveys the events of the war years, the overthrow of the Czarist regime, and the final establishment of the people’s government and the transition from St. Petersburg to Leningrad. DVD 3757

Eleanor's catch. 1916. b&w, 15 min. A delightful short, directed by and starring Cleo Madison. In this two-reeler, she plays a young city girl dragged into a life of crime by a ne'er-do-well suitor. A terrific surprise ending gives Cleo an early claim to promoting women's equality in the workforce. VHS 6258

Entr'acte (1924); The crazy ray (1924). [1991]. 1 videocassette (62 min.). Entr'acte: Early avant garde cinematography utilizing modern film techniques such as multiple images, slow motion, disappearances. Includes hilarious film funeral procession. The crazy ray: A mad scientist discovers an invisible ray which puts all Paris to sleep. Six people escape the effects, find out why and convince the scientist to awaken the people. VHS 6764
Entr'acte is also available on À nous la liberté. DVD 978

Fall of the Romanov dynasty = Padenie dinastii Romanovykh. 1927. 1 videocassette (90 min.). An innovative documentary portraying the fall of the Czarist regime and the rise of Communist rule, compiled from numerous films, including some from the Czar's family. VHS 7950

Farmer's wife. 1928. 1 videodisc (ca. 120 min.). A middle-aged widower sets out to choose a wife from the unattached women in the neighborhood. He and his housekeeper make a list of eligible females, whom he then pursues with interesting consequences. DVD 334

Faust: eine deutsche Volkssage. 1926. [2001]. 1 videodisc (116 min.). Classic tale of a man who sells his soul to the devil, based on Goethe's Faust and folk sagas. DVD 802, VHS 3856

Flesh and the devil. 1927. 1 videocassette (103 min.). Best friends love the same woman and resort to a duel. VHS 2839

Foolish wives. 1922. [2000]. 1 videodisc (141 min.). A fake Russian count, with the aid of two female accomplices, attempts to seduce and swindle unsuspecting women and citizens of Monte Carlo. DVD 182

Fool there was: a psychological drama. 1914. 1 videodisc (67 min.). Wealthy diplomat John Schuyler, a devoted husband and father, comes under the spell of a notorious femme fatale, while away from his family. After the resulting scandal brings about his dismissal, he returns home, with his seductress in tow, abandoning his wife and daughter. Completely mesmerized by this "vampire," his life deteriorates as all rehabilitation by his wife and friends fail. DVD 3741, VHS 2545

Four sons. 1928. [2007]. 1 videodisc (96 min.). The tale of the Bavarian Bernle family, and how their lives are affected by the outbreak of World War I. DVD 3475

Frankenstein. 1910. 1 videocassette (ca. 16 min.). Frankenstein is a young medical student who, having discovered the mystery of life and death, sets out to create the most perfect human being the world has ever known. He creates a monster instead. Frankenstein gets married only to be visited by the monster on his wedding night and a fight ensues. VHS 4780

Garbo silents collection. [2005]. 2 videodiscs (324 min.). Flesh and the devil: Best friends love the same woman and ultimately resort to a duel. The mysterious lady: Garbo plays an alluring Russian spy who falls in love with her "target." The temptress: An unhappy wife (Elena) falls in love with a Spanish engineer (Robledo). When it is revealed that Elena is not only married, but has also been the mistress of a banker (Fontenoy), Robledo returns to South America. Subsequently, Elena and her husband (the Marquis) also go to South America. Years later Robledo returns to Paris and runs into Elena who does not seem to recognize him. Elena has become a pathetic drunkard who is apparently beyond Robledo's help. DVD 3099

General line = Staroye i novoye. 1929. 1 videocassette (70 min.). Martha, a resident of a very poor Russian farming community, is converted to socialist agricultural principles and fights superstition and bureaucracy to create a cooperative in her community. VHS 267

Gently down the stream. 1981. 1 videocassette (20 min., 30 sec.). Uses material from a succession of dreams to exorcise the mysterious ritualistic power of repeating images. VHS 6804

The Golem: how he came into the world = Der golem: wie er in die Welt kam. 1920. [2002]. 1 videodisc (86 min.). Based on the legend of the golem, a popular figure in Jewish tradition. In medieval Prague, the Rabbi Loew gives life to the golem, a clay monster. The golem falls in love with the Rabbi's daughter and brings fear to the emperor's court, but is eventually destroyed by an innocent child. DVD 2883

The Great train robbery (1903) and other primary works. 1 videodisc (75 min.). The genesis of the motion picture medium is recreated in this collection of films from cinema's formative period. More than crucial historical artifacts, these films reveal the foundation from which the styles and stories of the contemporary cinema would later arise. DVD 551, VHS 2678
See Movies Begin: a treasury of early cinema, 1894-1914. DVD 551 - 555, VHS 2678 - 2682

Greed. 1925. 2 videodiscs (133 min.). Story of three WWI-era Californians whose friendship is destroyed by avarice after one wins a lottery jackpot. McTeague (Gowland), a dentist, marries Trina (Pitts), his best friend Marcus' (Hersholt) "girl." Trina wins a $5000 lottery prize and hoards it. Over the years, the couple descends to living in squalor. McTeague goes mad, kills Trina for the money, and escapes into Death Valley where Marcus finds him; they fight and McTeague end up alone in the desert without water, handcuffed to Marcus' corpse. (Available on laserdisc only). VDD 86

Hamlet: ein rachedrama. 1921. 1 videocassette (135 min.). This Hamlet remains one of the least known partly because the title role is played by a woman and the plot also borrows from Danish legends and a German play. For reasons of state the heiress to the throne has been brought up as a boy, and she has conceived a hopeless passion for Horatio. Dying she gets the longed-for kiss from him, as his wandering hand encounters a breast. "Death reveals thy tragic secret!" VHS 5764

Hangman's house. 1928. [2007]. (80 min.). Forced by her mean-spirited father, Lord Chief Justice James O'Brien (Hobart Bosworth), to marry a man she doesn't love. DVD 3474

Haunted Castle = Schloß Vogeloed. 1921. 1 videocassette (ca. 75 min.). One of Murnau's first films, and a vintage, if crusty, example of German expressionism. When the Count Oestsch steals his brother's sweetheart, a family row begins which has unnerving results. A gothic story of murder, innuendo, suspicion and hatred. VHS 4035

Häxan: witchcraft through the ages. 1922. 1 videodisc (104 min.). [2001]. In a series of dramatic vignettes to explore the scientific hypothesis that witches of the middle ages and turn-of-the-century psychiatric patients suffer from the same type of hysteria. Its a witches brew of the scary, the gross and the darkly humorous. DVD 323

Hell's hinges. 1916. 1 videocassette (65 min.). When young minister Robert Henley (Standing) arrives in Hell's Hinges, Blaze Tracey (Hart), the notorious outlaw, is transformed into goodness-- not by religion, but by the sight of the minister's sister, Faith (Williams). VHS 2999

The Holy mountain = Der heilige Berg. 1926. [2003]. 1 videodisc (105 min.). Set against a backdrop of the German Alps, a love triangle develops as two men vie for the affection of a dancer. One of Fanck's legendary “mountain films.” DVD 801, VHS 6012

The Hunchback of Notre Dame. 1923. 1 videocassette (99 min.). The tragic story of the grotesque hunchback bellringer in the Cathedral of Notre Dame, Quasimodo, and his devotion to the gypsy girl, Esmeralda, in 15th century France during the reign of Louis XI. Keystone of the American horror genre. VHS 3622

Hungry hearts. 1922. 1 videocassette (80 min.). Bittersweet classic that captures the hopes and hardships of Jewish immigrants in the New World. Focuses on the Levin family who emigrate from Eastern Europe to New York City. Abraham, the pious father, learned in religion but uninterested in business, has difficulty earning a living and adjusting to life in America. The daughter, Sara, scrubs floors in the tenement in order to earn money and "become a somebody." Hannah, the noble matriarch, scrimps and saves to paint her dingy kitchen white only to have her landlord raise the rent because of the improvement. VHS 2815

Hypocrites. 1915, col. tinted, 50 min. Available on First Ladies, Early Women Filmmakers. Follows parallel stories of an early Christian ascetic and a modern minister. Gabriel is a medieval monk who devotes himself to completing a statue of "Truth," only to be murdered by a mob when his work turns out to be an image of a naked woman. The contemporary Gabriel is pastor of a large urban congregation for whom religion is a matter of appearances, not beliefs. The hypocrisy of the congregation is exposed by a series of vignettes in which the Naked Truth is portrayed by a naked woman, revealing their appetites for money, sex and power. VHS 6258

In the street. 1948. 1 videocassette (16 min.). An extension of the filmmakers' work on the documentary film "The Quiet One" which was concerned with the urban environment. Film is a revelation of random behavior mostly filmed in a neighborhood in East Harlem New York during the 1940s. The images are selected to reveal the city street as "theater and battleground." VHS 5566

Intolerance. 1916. 1 videodisc (197 min.). Four separate stories are interwoven: the fall of Babylon, the death of Christ, the massacre of the Huguenots and a contemporary drama, all crosscut and building with enormous energy to a thrilling chase and finale. DVD 641, VHS 596

It. 1927. [1999]. 1 videodisc (72 min.). A saucy lingerie salesgirl sets her sights on the handsome owner of the department store where she works. DVD 3666

Italian. 1915. 1 videocassette (78 min.). Story of Italian immigrants living in the slums of New York. Beppo Donetti (Beban) goes to buy pasteurized milk for his sick child. He is set on by robbers and fights back. However when the policeman arrives Beppo is the one arrested. He appeals to his ward boss for help but the boss is indifferent to his plight. While Beppo is in jail his son dies. After his release, he finds himself in the position to cause the death of the politician's child. At the last minute he is unable to go through with it, however, because the little one reminds him of his own baby. VHS 5009

The Italian straw hat = Un chapeau de paille d'Italie. 1928. 1 videocassette (101 min.). Set in Paris, 1895, film is a satirical comedy of manners concerning a young man who, on the way to his wedding, becomes entangled with a married lady and her lover. The young man is so unfortunate as to have his horse eat the hat of the lady while she is embracing her lover, a fierce mustached officer. Since the lady cannot return home without her hat, the officer forces the apologetic bridegroom to search for its twin throughout his nuptial day. VHS 1871

Joyless street = Die Freudlose Gasse. 1925. 1 videocassette (96 min.). First international screen appearance by Greta Garbo. A drama about the hungers and passions of Germans and Austrians living under the distorted conditions of the inflation-ridden, post World War I Vienna. VHS 4362

Judex: a serial in twelve episodes. 1917. 2 videodiscs (315 min.). One of cinema's first 'superheroes,' the mysterious Judex is torn between an oath of justice against the wealthy banker Favraux, who had earlier wronged his family, and his secret love of Favraux's daughter, Jacqueline. This framework is the basis of a series of extraordinary and engaging incidents involving Judex's brother, the evil Diana Monti and her accomplices, the detective Cocatin, and the charming Licorice Kid. DVD 1438

Just pals. 1920. [2007]. 1 videodisc (50 min.). Bim (Buck Jones) seems to be his town's biggest loser, but when he takes a needy 13-year-old boy named Bill (George Stone) under his wing, it seems there may be some hope for Bim. After learning about Bill, a young teacher, Mary (Helen Ferguson), whom bim secretly adores, helps get the young boy into school. DVD 3471

Juve contre Fantômas = Juve Against Fantomas. 1913. 1 videocassette (72 min.). Film serial about the adventures of Fantômas, the mysterious bandit in a black hood who assumes various disguises and stops at nothing, not even murder, as he pursues his schemes. He is relentlessly tracked by Juve, the detective, and though capture often seems imminent, he always escapes at the last moment. Fantômas was an immense worldwide success and helped establish the advent of serials in the USA. VHS 4642

Kino-eye = Kinoglaz. 1924. 1 videocassette (74 min.). A collection of excerpts from newsreels and documentary films of Soviet life in the early 1920s made by Vertov and his "Kino-Eye" group. Highlighted are the activities of Soviet children and youth of the Young Pioneers and Young Leninists, meat production, inmates of a tuberculosis sanatorium and an insane asylum, appearances by a Chinese magician and an elephant, ambulance service, worker education. VHS 5893

Kino Pravda. 1922. 1 videocassette (ca. 80 min.). Two famous Russian documentaries by Vertov. The first, Enthusiasm, Dziga Vertov's first sound film, was created to stimulate production and presents the coal miners of the Don Basin after four years of the Five-Year Plan. Film is notable for its experimental use of sound montages, organized by Vertov with an attention equal to his complex segmented visuals, so that each element possesses both autonomy and a contrapuntal, denotational relation to the other. The second, Kino-Pravda, presents excerpts from the second newsreel series made by Vertov and his Kino Eye Group that pictures Soviet life from 1922-1925. Segments included are: Work on the reconstruction of the Moscow trolley system -- Tanks on the labor front -- Leveling the Khodinka Airport -- At the trial of the Social-Revolutionaries -- Organizing the peasants to join the communes -- Town of Celenzhik ; Children's sanitarium. VHS 4466

Kriemhild's revenge = Die Kriemhilds rache. 1924. 1 videocassette (95 min.). The conclusion of a two-part version of the Nibelungenlied. Kriemhilde avenges the murder of Siegfried by marrying Attila the Hun and causing mass slaughter. VHS 3962

The Last command. 1928. 1 videocassette (88 min.). A Czarist general displaced from his Russian homeland, finds himself in a Hollywood boarding house awaiting the degrading call to work as a movie extra. By intercutting between the "defeated" general and the action of the Russian Revolution, Von Sternberg shows how far the high and mighty can fall. VHS 4222

The Last days of Pompeii. 1913. [2000]. 1 videodisc (88 min.). An epic adaptation of Bulwer-Lytton's novel about the final hours of residents of Pompeii before the cataclysmic eruption of Mount Vesuvius. DVD 187

The Last laugh = Der letzte mann. 1924. [2001]. 1 videodisc (91 min.). The story of a hotel doorman who is demoted to washroom attendant because of his age. Humiliated, he considers suicide. Then, by a strange twist of fate, he becomes a millionaire. This silent film is told entirely by camera, without title cards. DVD 2880, VHS 431

The Last of the Mohicans. 1920. [1993]. 1 videocassette (74 min.). Cora and her younger sister Alice are on their way to Fort William Henry. Escorted by the treacherous Magua, they are unaware that the Fort, under the command of their father, is besieged by Indians in league with the French. The sisters are saved by Hawkeye and his Indian companions, Uncas and Chingachcook. Cora falls in love with the noble Uncas, the last of his tribe. But Magua still has evil plans. VHS 6270

The Lodger: a story of the London fog. 1926. 1 videocassette (91 min.). First film in which Hitchcock made his now traditional cameo appearance and also is the first film to display many of the characteristics which scholars today point to as representative of the Hitchcockian style. Based on a famous suspense novel, The Lodger presents the story of a family that rents a room to a mysterious stranger at the time when Jack the Ripper terrorized London. They begin to have the chilling suspicion that their boarder just might be the infamous mass murderer. VHS 411

The Lost world. 1925. 1 videocassette (102 min.). Professor Challenger (Beery) and a team of British explorers go deep into South America to verify his theory that prehistoric life still exists there. Finding a "lost world" inhabited by dinosaurs and apemen, they return to London with a brontosaurus who gets loose and wrecks havoc on the city. VHS 5469

The Man who laughs. 1928. 1 videodisc (110 min.). Gwynplaine is doomed to live life wearing a perpetual grin. Carved on his face because his father, Lord Clancharlie, had offended England’s king. Gwynplaine grows up alongside the beautiful but blind Dea and they fall in love. Queen Anne, meanwhile, has ascended the throne and when she learns that the femme fatale, Duchess Josiana is in possession of the Lord’s estates, she decrees that the Duchess must marry Gwynplaine, the rightful heir. Gwynplaine realizes that the duchess’ attraction has legitimized his right to love Dea, renounces his title and follows his heart to the new World. DVD 3681

Man with the Movie Camera = Chelovek s kino-apparatom. 1929. 1 videodisc (68 min.). An experimental film which uses numerous cinematic techniques (split screens, multiple superimpositions, variable speeds, et cetera) to present a dawn to dusk view of the Soviet Union to study the relation between cinema and reality. DVD 32, VHS 3433

The Manxman. 1929. 1 videodisc (ca. 85 min.). Alfred Hitchcock's last silent film about two friends, a lawyer and a fisherman who fall in love with the same woman. She marries one, but she loves the other. DVD 335

The Marriage circle. 1924. 1 videodisc (85 min.). "Professor Stock and his wife Mizzi are always bickering. Mizzi tries to seduce Dr. Franz Braun, the new husband of her good friend Charlotte. Dr. Braun’s colleague, Dr. Mueller, who has had his eye on Charlotte, sees this as his opportunity, even though the Braun’s are very happily married. Through a misunderstanding, Charlotte thinks that her husband is interested in Miss Hofer, and asks Mizzi to keep him occupied. Meanwhile Professor Stock becomes suspicious of his wife, and hires a detective to spy on her with the hope of obtaining a divorce." DVD 3740

The Merry Jail = Das fidele Gefangnis. 1917 on Trouble in Paradise. A neglected wife disguises herself in order to lure her wastrel husband into a compromising position. DVD 548

Metropolis. 1927. [2002]. 1 videodisc (124 min.). An expressionistic vision of a struggle between management and labor in a city of the future using science fiction and spectacular special effects to tell a story of biting social satire. In a futuristic time and place, an above ground city of lightness, culture and respectability is kept going only by the enslaved proletariat laboring beneath in the underground city: a nightmarish, cruel, and dark place. A banker's son rejects the upper world and joins the workers of the underworld. He meets Maria who urges a peaceful change and passive progress for the workers. The hero's father hires an evil scientist to make a violent robot who looks like Maria, who will incite the workers to riot, thereby giving the banker an excuse to enslave the workers. The workers riot and almost destroy society, until the real Maria appears to tranquilize them. The banker learns his lesson, and designates his son as mediator between society and workers. DVD 83, DVD 1283, VHS 7920, VHS 7921, VHS 7922

Michael. 1924. [2004]. 1 videodisc (86 min.). A great, aging artist succumbs to despair when the young model and pupil he adores leaves him for a woman. Although the story is discreetly played at a father/adopted son level on the surface, the homosexual subtext is quite clear in this early Dreyer film made in Germany. DVD 2451

Moana: a romance of the golden age. 1927. 1 videocassette (ca. 76 min.). Flaherty's famous travelogue. For two years he and his wife observed the lives, rites and customs of natives of Savai'i Island, Western Samoa. In particular his camera follows Moana, a young fisherman, as he goes about his day-to-day existence. VHS 5019

Mother = Mat. 1926. 1 videodisc (87 min.). A young revolutionary dies fighting against the misery and poverty of Tsarist Russia in the pre-war revolution of 1905, and, in doing so, brings about the political awareness of his mother. DVD 2076, VHS 4306

Mother Krause's Journey to Happiness = Mutter Krausens Fahrt ins Glück. 1929. 1 videocassette (105 min.). Mother Krause (Schmitt) lives in a dark Berlin tenement with her daughter Erna (Trautschold), her jobless son Paul (Zimmermann). Also in the house is a roomer, his girlfriend and child. Erna dates Max who is a communist. Paul takes the money he has collected from subscribers to the newspaper his mother delivers and squanders it in a pub. Mother Krause begs unsuccessfully to replace the money. Max leaves Erna after the roomer claims to have slept with her. Paul and the roomer commit a burglary but the roomer is caught. Paul confesses to his mother before he too is arrested. Mother Krause turns on the gas tap in the kitchen and kills herself and the roomer's child. Erna and Max reunite and discover the bodies. VHS 6025

My best girl. 1927. 1 videodisc (79 min.). Maggie, a shopgirl in a five-and-ten-cent store, falls in love with the owner’s son, who gives up his society sweetheart for her. Learning of their relationship, the boy’s father unsuccessfully tries to buy Maggie off, but is ultimately convinced of her worth and agrees to their marriage. DVD 3736

Nanook of the North: a story of life and love in the actual Arctic. 1922. [1998]. 1 videodisc (79 min.). Presents a documentary on the life of an Eskimo family pitting their strength against a vast and inhospitable Arctic. Juxtaposes their struggle for survival against the elements with the warmth of the little family as they go about their daily affairs. DVD 209, VHS 1856

Napoleon. 1927. [1989]. 2 videocassettes (235 min.). A biography of Napoleon featuring early use of split screens, moving camera and layered images. VHS 4312

Die Nibelungen. 1924. [2002]. 2 videodiscs (291 min.). In part one, Siegfried wins the hand of Kriemhilde by slaying the dragon and defeating Brunhilde. When Brunhilde learns that magic has been used to conquer her, she has Siegfried murdered. In part two, Kriemhilde seeks revenge for Siegfried's death and marries Attila, king of the Huns, in order to further her purpose. DVD 1282

Nosferatu. 1922. [2000]. The first film version of Bram Stoker's Dracula. Count Orlock (Nosferatu, the vampire), leaves his castle in the Carpathians and travels by ship to Bremen, bringing coffins filled with dirt and plague rats. DVD 393, VHS 4025

Ocean waif. 1916. 41 min. Available on First Ladies, Early Women Filmmakers. In this film parody of the Pygmalion love story an abused young woman finds safety and eventually love in the arms of a famous novelist. VHS 6257

October = Oktyabr AKA October: ten days that shook the world. 1927. 1 videodisc (104 min.). Extraordinary silent film by the Russian master, Sergei M. Eisenstein, detailing the events leading up to the Russian Revolution. The original version was heavily censored by Stalin, but in 1967 a full restoration was made, and a music score by Shostakovich and sound effects track were added. DVD 1653, VHS 430

Orphans of the storm. 1921. 1 videodisc (150 min.). Re-creating the aristocratic splendor and devastating poverty of 18th-century France, D.W. Griffith weaves an emotionally-charged tale of two delicate souls caught in the tempest of revolution. Lillian and Dorothy Gish play two sisters, one of whom is blind, that leave their countryside home and arrive in Paris on the eve of the French revolution only the be cruelly and tragically separated. DVD 643

Othello. 1922. 1 videodisc (80 min.). "Cavernous chambers and stony battlements cast shadows of impending doom upon Othello and Desdemona as the mephistophelian Iago dances about them, methodically destroying their happiness and steering them toward their bitter fate with impish delight." Also features four silent Shakespearean shorts: Duel scene from Macbeth (1905, American Mutoscope & Biograph Co.) ; The taming of the shrew (1908, Biograph, Directed by D.W. Griffith) ; Romeo turns bandit (1910, Pathé Frères, starring Max Linder) ; Desdemona (1911, Nordisk Film Co.). DVD 3709, VHS 6562

Outlaw: a story in pictures (7 parts) about the lives of two people. 1917. [1989]. 1 videocassette (73 min.). The story of a farmer, hunted by the police for a petty crime, who with his wife, must flee into the hills to escape detection. Eventually the couple, still united by their mutual love, succumb to the brutal force of nature. VHS 6503

The Oyster princess: a grotesque comedy in 4 acts = Die Austernprinzessin. 1919. [2007]. (60 min.). & I Don't Want to Be a Man = Ich möchte kein Mann sein. 1920. [2007]. (45 min.). The Oyster Princess: a comedy in which a pampered American oyster tycoon plans to find a prince to marry his much-indulged daughter, but things don't go his way. I don't wanna be a man: while her father is away, a teenage tomboy impersonates a man in this gender-bending absurdist comedy. DVD 2897, VHS 6014

Pandora's Box = Die Büchse der Pandora. 1929. [2006]. 1 videodisc (133 min.). Lulu, a chorus girl who uses her sexuality to destroy the lives of men and begins a downward spiral into prostitution. DVD 3144, VHS 440

Passion of Joan of Arc = Passion de Jeanne D'Arc. 1928. 1 videodisc (82 min.). The trial and execution of Joan of Arc, based on actual court records, but compressed into a single day. A classic film notable for its extensive use of close-ups, extreme close-ups, expressionistic camera angles, and historically accurate sets and costumes. DVD 23

The Penalty. 1920. 1 videodisc (93 min.). An incompetent doctor amputates the legs of a young boy who grows up to be the embittered Blizzard, a criminal mastermind who orchestrates a bizarre and heinous plot to avenge himself. DVD 3684

People on Sunday = Menschen am sonntag. 1930. 1 videocassette (58 min.). Follows the romantic misadventures of a taxi driver and his married salesman friend as they spend one Sunday trying to pick up a shopgirl and a model. Their flirtations take them from the bustling streets of Berlin to a beach on the Wannasee lake, where they spend a lyrical day swimming and playing with the girls, then return to their lives in the city at the end of the day. VHS 6065

Peter Pan. 1924. 1 videocassette (102 min.). The classic story of Peter Pan, the boy who never grew up. He charms Wendy and her brothers to fly with him to Never Never Land. On this island of dreams and magic, they struggle to rescue the Lost Boys from Captain Hook and his band of pirates, encountering along the way the delightful fairy Tinkerbell, a man-eating crocodile, and a band of valiant Indians. VHS 6232

Phantom. 1922. [2006]. 1 videodisc (120 min.). Alfred Abel plays Lorenz Lubota, a man obsessed with his own desires to achieve fame and wealth, who must confront the barriers of class keeping him from a woman with whom he has had a fateful encounter. DVD 2468

Phantom chariot. 1921. 1 videocassette (59 min.). Based on the legend that the coachman of Death must be replaced by the last man to die each year. Sjostrom's film is as famous for its realistic depictions of life in the slums as for its fantasy sequences which make use of double exposures. VHS 3690

Phantom of the opera. 1925. 2 videodiscs (268 min.). A disfigured man in a mask abducts the prima donna of the Paris Opera House to his lair in the sewers below. DVD 688

The Plastic age. 1925. (73 min.). 1 videodisc (155 min.). Hugh falls under the charms of Cynthia and must decide whether to sacrifice their love to save his collegiate future, or sabotage his athletic career for four years of fun-filled, jazz-fueled excitement. DVD 3664

Pool sharks. (1915; ca. 13 min.). Available on W.C. Fields: 6 short films. 1 videocassette (112 min.). Fields' first film, in which he plays a pool game with a rival to win a girl. VHS 5718

Prix de beauté = Beauty Prize. 1930. 1 videodisc (88 min.). While Andre indeed loves Lucienne, a Parisian typist, he has conventional expectations for their life together. When the Miss Europe beauty contest comes to town, he warns her to "not even dream" of entering it but she ignores his advice and tries out for the contest. DVD 3747

Queen Kelly. 1929. 1 videodisc (101 min.). A gothic romance in which a convent girl is seduced by a prince and inherits a brothel in Africa before he finds her again. DVD 1370

Red kimona. 1925. 1 videocassette (80 min.). Available on First Ladies, Early Women Filmmakers. A vulnerable young woman, whose blind trust in a man leads her into a New Orleans bordello, endures the hardships of that life, but is eventually driven to murdering her lover. A sympathetic jury acquits her and after a period of hardship she ultimately finds happiness. VHS 6256

The Ring. 1927. (72 min.). A silent film with musical soundtrack. A carnival fighter tries to make it as a professional to please his girlfriend. DVD 333

Romance of a Jewess. 1908. 1 videocassette (15 min.). Archival footage of a silent melodrama. Ruth, a young woman, lives on New York's Lower East Side and works with her father in his pawnshop. Her greatest treasure is a locket her dying mother gave her. She falls in love and marries in defiance of her father's wishes. He disowns her. She and her husband are happy and have a daughter but he dies in an accident. Impoverished, she must send her child to pawn the locket. VHS 4613

Safety last. 1923. 1 videocassette (ca. 74 min.). Harold, in the big city to make his fortune, writes his girl letters exaggerating his success. Believing he is wealthy, she goes to see him. Harold is shocked to see her and vows to win money in a publicity stunt so they can be married. He must contrive increasingly desperate (and dangerous) schemes to live up to the image he has created. Includes the famous "hanging from the clock" sequence. VHS 3063

Saga of Gosta Berling = Gösta Berlings saga. 1924. 1 videocassette (123 min.). The story centers around the defrocked priest, Gösta Berling, and his life and relationships with the people of Ekeby Manor and Värmland. VHS 6527

Secrets of a soul = Geheimnisse einer Seele. 1926. [1994]. 1 videocassette (58 min.). By deciphering dream symbols, a psychoanalyst is able to resolve his patient's unconscious conflicts, curing him. VHS 6504

Seven years bad luck. 1920. 1 videocassette (59 min.). When the servants of a rich playboy break a mirror, they go to rather extreme measures to hide the fact from their employer. VHS 7068

Sex in chains = Geschlecht in fesseln. 1928. [2004]. 1 videodisc (90 min.). When Sommer accidentally kills a nightclub patron harassing his wife Helene, he's sentenced to three years in prison. Denied the comforts promised in their marriage, the young newlyweds risk their future and find release where they can -- Sommer in the arms of a handsome fellow prisoner and Helene with the boss whose kindness becomes her only solace. DVD 2452

The Show off. 1926. (81 min.). 1 videodisc (155 min.). A clerk for the Pennsylvania Railroad poses as an important executive to his sweetheart, marries her, and eventually brings her family to the brink of financial disaster. DVD 3664

Siegfried. 1924. 1 videocassette (96 min.). Part one of The Nibelungen saga. Siegfried wins the hand of Kriemhilde by slaying the dragon and defeating Brunhilde. When Brunhilde learns that magic has been used to conquer her, she has Siegfried murdered. VHS 3855

The Smiling Madame Beudet = La souriante Madame Beudet; and, The seashell and the clergyman = La Coquille et le clergyman. La Souriante Madame Beudet (1922 ; ca. 60 min.); La Coquille et le clergyman (1927 ; ca. 30 min.). 1 videocassette (ca. 90 min.). La Souriante Madame Beudet: Film is a study in domestic conflicts that portrays the life and dreams of a housewife in a small town who is married to a repulsive businessman. La Coquille et le clergyman: A clergyman, committed by his calling to celibacy but in love with a romantic beauty, is afflicted by sexual torments he is unable to resolve. The surrealist film is composed of a series of episodes using Freudian imagery to express the clergyman's mental anguish. VHS 5465

South: Sir Ernest Shackleton's glorious epic of the Antarctic. 1919. [2000]. 1 videodisc (81 min.). Chronicles one of history's greatest epics of courage and leadership: the 1914 expedition of Sir Ernest Shackleton to cross Antarctica via the South Pole. DVD 638, VHS 5834

The Spiders = Die Spinnen. 1919. [1999]. 1 videodisc (137 min.). An adventure story about an organized band of criminals who scheme to dominate the world. Crime is an end in itself for The Spiders syndicate headed by a respectable man, Dr. Telphas, but energized by a woman, the fantastically resourceful Lio Sha. Follow the syndicate as they chase from Peru to England, India and the Falkland Islands in a mad chase for jewels and dominance of the world. DVD 2921

Spies = Spione. 1928. [2004]. 1 videodisc (143 min.). First true spy film. A power-hungry banker with many disguises marshals his forces to steal the secrets of an important treaty. DVD 1284, VHS 4009

A Story of Floating Weeds = Ukikusa monogatari. 1934. [2004]. 2 videodiscs (205 min.). This set includes the original 1934, black & white, silent classic 'A Story of Floating Weeds' and the 1959 color remake 'Floating Weeds' both directed by Yasujiro Ozu. In each film, Ozu captures the joy and sadness in everyday life. DVD 817

Strike = Stachka. 1 videodisc (94 min.). Set in pre-World War I Tsarist Russia, the story depicts a strike by factory workers and its brutal suppression by the authorities. DVD 170, VHS 3873

Student of Prague = Der Student von Prag. 1913. 1 videodisc (41 min.). Presents an old German legend about a poor student in Prague who falls in love with a wealthy countess. He sells his reflection to an agent of the devil in order to become rich, then buys it back at the expense of his life. DVD 2911, DVD 2912, VHS 4422

Sumurun: an oriental play in six acts. 1920. [2007]. 1 videodisc (103 min.). In this blending of melodrama and comedy, the story of a rebellious harem member who rejects the sheikh and falls in love with a merchant is interwoven with several other related stories. DVD 2899

Sunrise: a song of two humans. 1927. [2003]. 1 videodisc (95 min.). A villager in love with a city woman tries to kill his wife; later he repents and spends a happy day with her. DVD 3084, VHS 3787

Tabu: a story of the South Seas. 1931. 1 videodisc (81 min.). Two lovers are doomed by a tribal edict decreeing that the girl is "tabu" to all men. DVD 2914, VHS 1820

Tartuffe. 1925. [2003]. 1 videodisc (63 min.). A religious hypocrite insinuates himself into a wealthy Parisian family. DVD 2881, VHS 5496

La Terre = The earth. 1921. 1 videodisc (98 min.). As Jean is walking across the countryside in search of work, he helps and befriends a young woman, Françoise, who is having trouble controlling the cow that she is leading. Jean finds work at a local farm, but he soon finds himself caught in the middle of the conflicts in Françoise’s family. Her uncle Fouan has just decided to divide everything that he has amongst his two sons and his daughter, hoping that he can then spend the rest of his life at ease. But the details of the division only create bitterness, rivalry, and intrigue. DVD 3746

Tess of the storm country. 1922. 1 videocassette (118 min.). When a rich man, Elias Graves, buys a waterfront stretch of land, the squatters who have always fished there fight back. Tess persuades the rich man's son, Frederick, that his father is wrong to evict the poor folk. After much conflict and comedy, they wind up engaged. VHS 7886

Thief of Bagdad: an Arabian night's fantasy. 1924. 1 videodisc (139 min.). Ahmed The Thief is happy to be a vagabond rogue until he falls in love with the beautiful Princess. He must prove himself worthier of her hand than his rival, the evil Prince of the Mongols, who has come to seize the Princess, and Bagdad, for his own. DVD 402

Three Must-Get-Theres AKA Max Linder in the three must-get-theirs. 1921. [1994]. 1 videocassette (47 min.). Max Linder's delightful spoof of Douglas Fairbanks' The Three Musketeers.,which was made the same year, is a delight to watch. Presented with the original French subtitles. VHS 6741

Uncle Tom's cabin. 1927. 1 videodisc (112 min.). Film version of Harriet Beecher Stowe's influential 19th century story of the pre-Civil war South was considered groundbreaking for its purely sympathetic treatment of African-Americans caught in the nightmare of slavery. Peace-loving slave Tom is forced to submit to his sadistic master, the evil Simon Legree. Helpless slaves -- raped, tortured and humiliated -- are eventually driven to rebel against their wicked oppressors. DVD 104, VHS 6233

Uncle Tom's cabin, or Slavery days. Uncle Tom's cabin, or Slavery days. 1903. (21 min.) -- Uncle Tom's Cabin. 1914. (ca. 38 min.). Two early versions of Harriet Stowe's novel. Both versions show the evils of slavery, attempts of slaves to escape, and melodramatic death scenes. In the 1903 version the dying Uncle Tom sees future visions of the Civil War and Lincoln emancipating the slaves. VHS 2963

Vampires = Les vampires. 1 videodisc (399 min.). Les Vampires are a secret society of criminals led by Irma Vep (Musidora) who use kidnapping, poisonous gas, heavy artillery, sexual domination and murder to gain power over the elite of Paris. They are opposed by the fearless reporter Phillippe Guerande (Edouard Mathe) who seeks to unmask their leaders. DVD 414, VHS 5431

Vampyr. 1932. 1 videodisc (72 min.). A subtle, disturbing version of the vampire legend. A young man attempts to find and kill a vampire that has assumed the form of an old woman. DVD 3734

Vanishing American. 1925. 1 videodisc (109 min.). Indian warrior Nophate strives to maintain ancient and honorable customs among his people in the face of abuse and exploitation by whites in the early 20th century. DVD 249

Variety = Varieté. 1925. 1 videocassette (72 min.). A drama, using flashback technique, telling how a prisoner left his wife and child for a young dancer. He returned to his life as a trapeze artist with the dancer as his partner, and ultimately killed her new lover, a third partner in the trapeze act. DVD 414, VHS 5431

Warning shadows = Schatten. 1922. 1 videocassette (85 min.). Expressionist film in which a count is jealous of the attentions his wife pays to “the lover” and various other suitors. The situation comes to a head when a showman/mesmerist puts on a “shadow play” for them all, in which their emotion and passions are mirrored. DVD 2159, VHS 6021

Waxworks. 1924. [2002]. 1 videodisc (83 min.). A poet imagines scenarios in a wax museum fairground that involve Jack the Ripper, Ivan the Terrible, and Haroun al-Raschid. DVD 729, VHS 6003

Way down East. 1920. 1 videodisc (146 min.). Melodrama about a young woman who goes to the city and is lured into a fake marriage, becomes pregnant, is abandoned and has a baby which dies. She moves to a small town where she finds work on a farm and falls in love with the farmer's son. When her scandalous past is revealed, the farmer throws her out into a blizzard but his son rescues her from an ice floe and marries her. DVD 62

West of Zanzibar. 1928. 1 videocassette (ca 70 min.). A clown-magician seeks revenge against the man who stole his wife and left him paralyzed. Assuming that his daughter is the daughter of the other man, he has her raised in a brothel. Twenty years pass and all three are in Africa. The clown-magician is now the strongman in an African country where he incites the tribal members to torture the young girl in the presence of her assumed father only to learn that she is actually his own daughter. VHS 3196

The Wheel = La Roue AKA Wheels of fate. 1923. 1 videocassette (130 min.). A tragic story of the wheel of fate, told with the romantic energy of Victor Hugo and the impact of Euripides. VHS 6512

The Wildcat: a grotesque in four acts = Die Bergkatze. 1921. [2007]. 1 videodisc (82 min.). The commander of a remote fort (and his lovely daughter) eagerly awaits a new lieutenant. En route, he is captured by outlaws who roam the snow-covered mountains and the daughter of their leader quickly falls for the young officer, setting in motion an outrageous farce. DVD 2900

Wings. 1927. 1 videocassette (139 min.). The story of two young men who join the Air Service during World War I and the girls they must leave behind. Jack Powell (Rogers) and David Armstrong (Arlen) are both in love with Sylvia Lewis (Ralston) who really loves David while Mary Preston (Bow) loves Jack. Jack and David enlist together in the World War I Army Air Corps, become friends and are sent to France as pilots. In Paris Jack encounters Mary Preston (Bow) who has joined the Woman's Army Motor Corps. Later, David, shot down, is believed dead. Jack vows revenge, but mistakenly shoots down David piloting a stolen German plane. A reluctant hero, Jack returns home to faithful Mary Preston. VHS 5480

Woman in the moon = Frau im Mond. 1929. [2004]. 1 videodisc (169 min.). An early silent film describing a journey by rocket ship to the moon. Rather than a flight of pure fantasy, director Fritz Lang conceived a modernized “trip to the Moon” grounded in state-of-the-art astrophysics & spiced with romance and espionage. One of the most influential science fiction films of its era, in many respects technically accurate. DVD 1285, VHS 4034

Charles Chaplin:
Charlie Chaplin collection. [2005]. 5 videodiscs (911 min.). Disc 1: Tillie's punctured romance -- Behind the screen -- Vagabond -- Fireman -- Easy street -- The immigrant -- The cure. Disc 2: Adventurer -- The count -- Mabel's married life -- One A.M. -- Pawn shop -- Floor walker -- The rink. Disc 3: Days pleasure -- Sunnyside -- The kid -- Busy day -- Caught in a cabaret -- Fatal mallet -- The knockout -- Landlady's pet -- Twenty minutes of love. Disc 4: Face on the barroom floor -- Musical tramp -- Recreation -- Good for nothing -- Masquerader -- New janitor -- Rounders -- Rival mashers -- Fair exchange -- Night out -- His new job -- Dough and dynamite -- The tramp. Disc 5: In the park -- Chamion -- By the sea -- Shanghaied -- The blank -- Work -- A woman -- Burlesque on carmen -- Night in the snow -- Police. Charlie Chaplin shines in this expansive five-disc set featuring 46 of his most beloved shorts. DVD 2112

Charlie Chaplin: the early years. Volume two. [1990]. 1 videocassette (61 min.). The pawnshop (ca. 22 min. ; 1916) / Lone Star Mutual -- The adventurer (ca. 21 min. ; 1917) / Mutual Film Corp. -- One a.m. (ca. 18 min. ; 1916) / Mutual Film Corp. Three of Chaplin's "Little Tramp" silent film shorts. In "The pawnshop," Charlie's just doing his job as he creates absolute mayhem. His maddening antics leave his co-workers and customers up in arms and a would-be thief out cold. In "The adventurer," Charlie is an escaped convict on the run who borrows a tuxedo and mingles with the rich at a posh party. In "One a.m." all Charlie wants to do is go to bed. But he's had one too many to drink, so getting in the door, dealing with the furniture and tackling a stubborn wall-bed is almost more than the weary bon vivant can handle. VHS 4528

Chaplin Mutual comedies. 4 videodiscs (450 min.). A group of silent comedies produced within an 18 month period, many featuring his signature Little Tramp character. DVD 3791 - 3794

Chaplin's Essanay comedies. Volume one. [1999]. 1 videocassette (110 min.). His new job (February 1, 1915 ; 26 min.) -- A night out (February 15, 1915 ; 17 min.) -- The champion (March 11, 1915 ; 30 min.) -- In the park (March 18, 1915 ; 15 min.). A collection of Chaplin's films at Essanay Studios. His new job: Charlie applies for a job as an actor at a film studio. -- A night out: Charlie and Turpin are drunks about town, starting at a cafe and ending in a risque hotel room mix-up with a pretty girl. -- The Champion: Pint-sized Charlie defeats the bone-crushing champion prizefighter with the able assistance of his bulldog. -- In the park: Charlie interferes in the lives of two star-crossed lovers. VHS 6311

Chaplin's Essanay comedies. Volume two. [1999]. 1 videocassette (96 min.). A jitney elopement (April 1, 1915 ; 33 min.) -- The tramp (April 11, 1915 ; 25 min.) -- By the sea (April 29, 1915 ; 17 min.) -- Work (June 21, 1915 ; 30 min.). A collection of Chaplin's films at Essanay Studios. A jitney elopement: Charlie must rescue his sweetheart from an arranged marriage by posing as the man whom she is betrothed but whom she has never seen. -- The tramp: Charlie saves a farmer's daughter from some thieving toughs, but soon learns that her heart belongs to another. -- By the sea: Charlie's stroll by the sea finds him making enemies with a drunk, a husband and the police. -- Work: Charlie plays a paper hanger's assistant who is hired to paper a home where peace is replaced with anarchy, culminating with a massive explosion. VHS 6312

Chaplin's Essanay comedies. Volume three. [1999]. 1 videocassette (95 min.). A woman (July 12, 1915 ; 19 min.) -- The bank (August 9, 1915 ; 29 min.) -- Shanghaied (October 4, 1915 ; 25 min.) -- His regeneration (April 29, 1915 ; 10 min.). A collection of Chaplin's films at Essanay Studios. A woman: Charlie has to disguise himself as a lady in order to be near his sweetheart after her father has forbidden her to see him. -- The bank: Charlie the janitor loves Edna, the pretty secretary, but her sweetheart is another, Charles the cashier. -- Shanghaied: Charlie is hired to shanghai a crew, only to be shanghaied himself as well. He has to save himself and his sweetheart before the boat is sabotaged for the insurance. -- His regeneration: Charlie makes a guest appearance in this Broncho Billy drama in the dance hall sequence. VHS 6313

Chaplin's Essanay comedies. Volume four. [1999]. 1 videocassette (105 min.). A night in the show (November 20, 1915 ; 23 min.) -- Burlesque on 'Carmen' (December 9, 1915 ; ca. 20 min.) -- Police (October 4, 1915 ; 20 min.) -- Triple trouble (April 29, 1918 ; 25 min.). A collection of Chaplin's films at Essanay Studios. A night in the show: Charlie plays a duel role of Mr. Pest and Mr. Rowdy both of whom are attending a vaudeville performance. -- Burlesque on 'Carmen': Parody of the popular Cecil B. DeMille film Carmen. Upon release Essanay had inserted discarded scenes to lengthen the film. This version restores the film to its intended length. -- Police: The tramp is released from prison into "the cruel cruel world" where he meets a former cell-mate and sets about to rob the home of a young woman. -- Triple trouble: This film was released three years after Charlie's departure from Essanay. It was assembled from discarded portions of the films Police, Work, and an abandoned project called Life. VHS 6314

Chaplin & Co. [1998]. 1 videocassette (134 min.). A night in the show (Essanay Film Manufacturing Co.) (1915 ; ca. 19 min.) -- Rare Chaplin snippet (1916) -- The Rink (Mutual Films) (1916; ca. 18 min.) -- Live wires and love sparks (Lehrman's L-KO Comedy Co.) (1916) -- He's in again (Bull's Eye Film Corp.) (1918) -- Pie-eyed (Joe Rock/FBO) (1925) -- Only me (Educational) (1929). The most celebrated figure of slapstick, Charles Chaplin has risen to become one of popular culture's most recognizable icons. This film salutes Chaplin with a pair of vintage, remastered Chaplin comedies, a rediscovered piece of footage in which he conducts an orchestra and a collection of comedies that explore the music hall roots of the British-born American master. A night in the show: Chaplin appears in a dual role as a playboy seated in the orchestra at a vaudeville show and as an obnoxious workman on a night out seated in the balcony. The latter closes the theater down by turning a fire hose on the fire-eating act -- The rink: Charlie is a haphazard waiter in a restaurant where the laws of sanitation and gravity are given only lip service. He spends his spare time at the roller rink where he must defend the honor of Edna from the lecherous Mr. Swain. Live wires and love sparks: Billie is a telephone worker with a big family and a small income. Everyone ends up dangling on the wires -- He's in again: Billy West seeks a free beer while trying to avoid the owner who is determined to keep him out. Then he gets hired to tend bar. Meanwhile the floor show must go on -- Pie-eyed: Stan is a drunk in a music hall. When he get thrown out his troubles really begin -- Only me: A show-within-a-show. A drunk goes to the theater and ends up in the act. VHS 5215

The Chaplin revue. Includes: A Dog’s life. Shoulder arms. The Pilgrim. A day’s pleasure. Sunnyside. The idle class. Pay day. [2004]. 2 videodiscs (214 min.). Features Charlie in seven of his best short films. DVD 3805

Circus; A day's pleasure. [1989]. 1 videocassette (90 min.). The Circus (1928) / United Artists; A Day's pleasure (1919) / First National Exhibitors Circuit. The Circus: Set in a small traveling circus. Charlie sneaks into the main circus tent after being mistaken for a pickpocket. He makes a shambles of the show but the audience loves it. He falls in love with the owner's daughter who loves an aerialist. To prove his worth he takes to the high-wire joined by a bunch of escaped monkeys. -- A Day's Pleasure: a man and his family set out for a pleasurable outing but encounter only mishaps in their unpredictable Model-T Ford and on a sea-sickening boat ride. VHS 2669

City lights: a comedy romance in pantomime. 1931. (82 min.). 2 videodiscs (186 min.). A tramp wins the love of a blind flower girl and attempts to obtain money from a millionaire to help her regain her sight. DVD 3801, VHS 282

The Kid. 1921. (50 min.). 2 videodiscs (196 min.). The Tramp rescues an abandoned baby and raises him to become his inseparable sidekick. DVD 3800

The Kid; The idle class. 1921. [1992]. 1 videocassette (86 min.). The Kid: Charlie's Little Tramp takes in an abandoned baby who grows into an impish but lovable urchin. Sentiment blends with slapstick when the child's real mother returns to take the kid away. -- The Idle Class: The Little Tramp wreaks havoc on polite society when he runs wild on a golf course and is later mistaken for an aristocrat at a costume party. VHS 5752

The Tramp; and, A woman. 1915. [1980]. 1 videocassette (57 min.). The tramp (ca. 28 min.) -- A woman (ca. 27 min.). The Tramp: Charlie portrays a fastidious hobo who falls in love with a girl whom he has rescued from robbers. He returns to the road when he discovers that she loves another. A Woman: The ruse works too well when Charlie Chaplin shaves his moustache and impersonates a woman in order to escape the clutches of the angry father of the girl he is courting. VHS 690

Buster Keaton:
Arbuckle & Keaton. Volume 1. 1 videodisc (125 min.). The bell boy (1918, 33 min.) -- The butcher boy (1917, 30 min.) -- Out West (1918, 25 min.) -- Moonshine (1918, 23 min.) -- The hayseed (1919, 27 min.). Bell boy: Arbuckle and Keaton as bellboys at a small town hotel, which they eventually completely wreck. Features Arbuckle’s classic "shaving routine," where he progressively turns a Rasputin-like character into General Grant, Abraham Lincoln and then into the Kaiser. -- Butcher boy: Contains Arbuckle’s famous "knife juggling" bit, Keaton’s first film appearance in his classic "can of molasses" routine, and Arbuckle romping around in drag at an all girl private school. -- Out West: Arbuckle’s first attempt at movie parody, poking fun at the already cliched cowboy western. The film also contains some heavy racism. -- Moonshine: A parody of Arbuckle’s own freewheeling comedy style, filled with inside jokes. After defeating the hillbilly mountaineers, Arbuckle and Keaton conclude the film with a stinging parody of rival Charlie Chaplin’s "losing the girl" pathos-type endings. Moonshine: A parody of Arbuckle’s own freewheeling comedy style, filled with inside jokes. After defeating the hillbilly mountaineers, Arbuckle and Keaton conclude the film with a stinging parody of rival Charlie Chaplin’s "losing the girl" pathos-type endings. DVD 3789

College. [1999]. 1 videodisc (132 min.). Includes: College (1927, 66 min.) -- The electric house (1922, 23 min.) -- Hard luck (1921, 22 min.) -- The blacksmith (1922, 21 min.). College: Ronald is an idealistic freshman who attends Clayton College in pursuit of higher learning, but finds himself instead embroiled in a war of athletics as he fights for the heart of his beloved coed, Mary. -- The electric house: Buster turns an ordinary dwelling into an automated funhouse. -- Hard luck: A suicidal Buster makes a final effort at fitting in with society at a swank country club. -- The blacksmith: Mechanical mayhem is wrought in a blacksmith’s shop. DVD 3788

The Navigator (1924, 60 min.) -- The boat (1921, 22 min.) -- The love nest (1923, 22 min.).[2001]. 1 videodisc (104 min.). [The navigator] Keaton stars as Rollo Treadway, an inexperienced lad of extraordinary wealth, and surprisingly little common sense, who finds himself adrift on an immense 500 ft. yacht. [The boat] A slapstick comedy about the adventures of a land-lubber and his family in their homemade sailboat. [The love nest] Buster sets out to sea, forlorn about a lost love. DVD 562

Seven chances (1925, 56 min.) -- Neighbors (1920, 18 min.) -- The balloonatic (1923, 22 min.). [2001]. 1 videodisc (96 min.). [Seven chances] A romantically jinxed young man must marry by 7 PM to inherit seven million dollars. While fate seems to thwart his efforts to woo the object of his true affection, public announcement of his strange predicament provides him with a throng of would-be brides. [Neighbors] Buster tries to woo his tenement sweetheart in spite of the barriers that stand between them. [The balloonatic] Buster is carried by hot air from a cityside amusement park to the rustic country where he ineptly struggles for survival and again somehow manages to stumble into romance. DVD 1135

The General (75 min. ; 1926) -- The Playhouse (23 min. ; 1921) -- Cops (18 min. ; 1922). [1999]. 1 videodisc (116 min.). The General: A locomotive is beloved by its engineer, who sets out to win the Civil War singlehandedly. Cops: A comedy of errors in which Buster Keaton attempts to win his sweetheart's hand in marriage by becoming a successful businessman. His exploits climax in a chase with an entire police precinct. The Playhouse: A comedy in which Keaton plays a stage manager, an actor, a monkey and other parts. DVD 34

Our hospitality (1923, 75 min.) -- Sherlock Jr. (1924, 44 min.). [1999]. 1 videodisc (119 min.). [Our hospitality] A New York man returns to his southern antebellum home to find himself embroiled in a longstanding feud between his family and that of the woman he loves. [Sherlock Jr.] Dramatizes the uproarious exploits of a meek theater projectionist turned amateur sleuth. DVD 1050

Steamboat Bill, Jr. (69 min. ; 1928) -- Convict 13 (20 min. ; 1920) -- Daydreams (22 min. ; 1922). [1999]. 1 videodisc (111 min.). Steamboat Bill, Jr.: Follows the adventures of a spoiled young man forced by his father to learn the ropes of riverboating. -- Convict 13: Keaton struggles for survival inside prison walls. -- Daydreams: Keaton tries to find his niche by trying out various professions. DVD 33

Keaton, Arbuckle and St. John. The rounders (Keystone Film Co.) (1914 ; ca. 17 min.) -- Fatty and Mabel adrift (Triangle-Keystone) (1916 ; ca. 27 min.) -- Oh, doctor (Comique Film Corp.) (1917) -- The garage (Comique Film Corp) (1920 ; ca. 15 min.) -- The boat (First National) (1921 ; ca. 19 min.) -- The iron mule (Reel Comedies) (1925). [1998]. The rounders: A timeless tale of two buddies out on a glorious drunk who create mayhem in a posh restaurant -- Fatty and Mabel adrift: Newlyweds Fatty and Mabel awake to find their house has been set out to sea by one of Mabel's rejected suitors - a really sore loser -- Oh, doctor: Dr. Fatty takes his family to the horse races. The horse he bet all his money on loses and now he must recoup his losses. The garage: Hilarious misadventures result when Keaton and Arbuckle try to run a service station -- The boat: Slapstick comedy is the result when landlubber Keaton and family set sail aboard the homemade Damfino -- The iron mule: Misadventures aboard an early passenger train drawn by a steam engine. VHS 5214

Art of Buster Keaton: Volume 3. Our hospitality / Joseph M. Schenck Productions (74 min. ; 1923) -- Sherlock, Jr. / Buster Keaton Productions (44 min. ; 1924). [1995]. Our hospitality / Joseph M. Schenck Productions (74 min. ; 1923) -- Sherlock, Jr. / Buster Keaton Productions (44 min. ; 1924). Sherlock, Jr.: Buster Keaton plays a boy employed as a moving picture operator in a small town theater who is at the same time studying to become a detective. The events that follow show that you can't do two things at the same time. -- Our hospitality: Keaton stars as a New York man who returns to his southern antebellum homeland to find himself embroiled in a longstanding feud between his family and that of the woman he loves. VHS 4247

The Cameraman. 1928. [1991]. 1 videocassette (70 min.). Tintype photographer Buster falls in love with Sally, a secretary for M-G-M newsreels. To win Sally's attention and affection, he sells his camera, buys an old movie camera, and films news events in the streets of New York hoping to interest M-G-M into hiring him. He fails but his efforts take him into scrapes with the police, ticker tape parades and a Chinese tong war. He finally endears himself to Sally when he rescues her from drowning after she falls overboard during a regatta. VHS 5700

Three ages. 1923. [1985]. 1 videocassette (85 min.). Keaton's first feature film. Romantic misadventures from the dawn of man in the Stone Age, through the gladiatorial arenas of Ancient Rome to the city streets of the American Jazz Era. A clever parody of D.W. Griffith's Intolerance. VHS 5464

Rudolph Valentino:
Camille. 1921. [2005]. Life in 1847 Paris is as spirited as champagne and as unforgiving as the gray morning after. In gambling dens and lavish soirees, men of means exert their wills and women turned courtesans exult in pleasure. DVD 3094

The Eagle. 1925. [2002]. Romance-adventure of Old Russia. A young Russian lieutenant spurns the advances of the Czarina Catherine the Great. His father dies after an evil neighbor steals his estate. The lieutenant becomes the Black Eagle and leads a band of outlaws to fight for the rights of the poor. DVD 1708

The Sheik. 1921. The son of the sheik. 1926. [2002]. 1 videodisc (155 min.). Lady Diana Mayo is carried into the desert by an Arab chieftain, who takes one look at her and wants her, right then and there. The son of a sheik is lured into a thieves' trap by a beautiful girl. When he escapes, he kidnaps the girl and they fall in love and ride off into the sunset together. DVD 1703

The Son of the sheik. 1926. [2000]. 1 videodisc (68 min.). Ahmed, son of the sheik, falls in love with Yasmin, a dancing girl mistreated by her father and his friends. Believing that she has betrayed him to her companions, Ahmed kidnaps Yasmin. After he learns that she is faithful, Ahmed and his father battle the renegades. A romantic drama full of rescues, fights, and love scenes, and known for the performance of Rudolph Valentino in a double role. DVD 103

Collections:
Attack of the Cohl pumpkins. 1 videocassette (23 min.). The pumpkin race -- Les joyeaux microbes -- Le peintre neo-impressioniste -- Bewitched matches. 4 short films by the father of stop-motion photography and animation, Émile Cohl. VHS 7070

Avant garde #2. [1998]. 1 videocassette (42 min.). Symphonie diagonale (ca. 9 min. ; 1924) / Viking Eggeling -- L'Etoile de mer (ca. 15 min. ; 1928) / Man Ray -- Entr'acte (ca. 15 min. ; 1924) / Rene Clair. Includes three silent experimental films that exemplify the cinematic Dada movement of 1921-1929 in France and Germany. Symphonie diagonale: Film explores the artistic visual qualities of lines and shapes set to movement. -- L'Etoile de mer: Separate, elusive images are juxtaposed to portray one man's difficulty in becoming committed to a woman. A starfish symbolizes his yearning for sincere beauty without hidden, destructive qualities. -- Entr'acte: Made as an intermission film for Jean Borlin & Erik Satie's Ballet Relache. Uses multiple images, slow motion, disappearances, in typical Dadaist style. VHS 5457

Before the nickelodeon: the early cinema of Edwin S. Porter. [1998]. 1 videocassette (60 min.). Includes sixteen complete Porter films including: The May Irwin Kiss (1896) -- The Sunken Battleship "Maine" (1898) -- Jack and the Beanstalk (1902) -- Life of an American Fireman (1902-3). A portrait of film producer Edwin S. Porter, the first great American filmmaker (The Great Train Robbery, etc.). Spotlights the years 1894 to 1908. Porter worked as an exhibitor in the 1890s, then moved into production as head of Thomas Edison's new indoor studio early in 1901. During 1901-1902 he was at the forefront of innovation, experimenting with new cinematic concepts. He was the first U.S. filmmaker to successfully explore the possibilities of making films with continuous action from shot to shot instead of single scene films that the showman arranged at the point of exhibition. By 1908 techniques of mass production made Porter a marginal figure, and in 1909 he was fired. Includes hand-tinted stills and segments from Porter's movies and those of other filmmakers. VHS 5833

Biograph shorts: 1909-1913. [2002]. 2 videodiscs (approx. 362 min.). Disc one: Those awful hats, 1909 (3 min.) -- The sealed room, 1909 (11 min.) -- Corner in wheat, 1909 (14 min.) -- The unchanging sea, 1910. (13 min.) -- His trust, 1911 (14 min.) -- The New York hat, 1912 (16 min.) -- An unseen enemy, 1912 (15 min.) -- The mothering heart, 1913 (23 min.) -- Bonus shorts: The adventures of Dollie, 1908 (12 min.) -- The usurer, 1910 (18 min.) -- Enoch Arden, 1911 (33 min.) -- The miser's heart, 1911 (16 min.). Disc two: The musketeers of Pig Alley, 1912 (18 min.) -- The burglar's dilemma, 1912 (15 min.) -- The sunbeam, 1912 (15 min.) -- The painted lady, 1912 (12 min.) -- One is business, the other crime, 1912 (15 min.) -- Death's marathon, 1913 (15 min.) -- The battle at Elderbush Gulch, 1913 (29 min.) -- Bonus shorts: The last drop of water, 1911 (13 min.) -- Friends, 1912 (13 min.) -- The lesser evil, 1912 (13 min.) -- The massacre, 1912 (30 min.). The two-disc set compiles one and two reel films directed by Griffith during his six-year position with the American Biograph Company, 1908-1913. Having made over 450 shorts before leaving Biograph to make feature films, these works showcase Griffith's early steps towards developing a cinematic language for narrative cinema. DVD 644

Cecil B. DeMille classics collection. Disc 1. [2007]. 1 videodisc (240 min.). Includes: The squaw man (74 min.) -- The Virginian (50 min.) -- Carmen (57 min.) -- The cheat (59 min.). The squaw man: A British captain comes to America and settles out West with an Indian girl. The Virginian: A cowboy must save his friend from the hangman’s noose by exposing the real bad guy before he can get the girl. Carmen: A poor cigarette girl falls for a bullfighter which drives her jealous guardian to murder. The cheat: A two-timing wife hooks up with a wealthy but sadistic Japanese ivory baron. DVD 3701

Cecil B. DeMille classics collection. Disc 2. [2007]. 1 videodisc (288 min.). Includes: Joan the woman (133 min.) -- The romance of the redwoods (90 min.) -- The little American (65 min.). Joan the woman: A soldier in World War I uncovers Joan of Arc’s sword, leading to her appearance in a vision and the telling of her life story. The romance of the redwoods: A naive New England girl moves out West and winds up falling for a stagecoach robber. The little American: A young girl finds herself pursued by a German-American and a French-American during World War I, leading to international intrigue. DVD 3702

Cecil B. DeMille classics collection. Disc 3. [2007]. 1 videodisc (347 min.). Includes: Old wives for new (ca. 72 min.) -- The whispering chorus (81 min.) -- Don’t change your husband (79 min.) -- Male and female (115 min.). Old wives for new: An unhappy husband leaves his lazy wife for a younger woman who turns out to be involved in a murder. The whispering chorus: An embezzler assumes the identity of a dead man-- but winds up being arrested for having murdered himself. Don’t change your husband: A frustrated housewife divorces her slob of a husband and marries another, only to find she’s gone from the frying pan into the fire. Male and female: A spoiled rich girl learns about the qualities that really matter when she’s shipwrecked with her resourceful butler. DVD 3703

Cecil B. DeMille classics collection. Disc 4. [2007]. 1 videodisc (308 min.). Includes: Why change your wife? (91 min.) -- The affairs of Anatol (117 min.) -- Manslaughter (100 min.). Why change your wife?: A wife is divorced by her frustrated husband after he meets a lovely woman. The affairs of Anatol: Both husband and wife are two-timing each other in this DeMille comedy. Manslaughter: A thrill-seeking society girl causes the death of a motorcycle cop and winds up sent to prison by her prosecutor-fiancée who later descends into alcoholism. DVD 3704

Cecil B. DeMille classics collection. Disc 5. [2007]. 1 videodisc (298 min.). Includes: The road to yesterday (107 min.) -- The Volga boatman (120 min.). The road to yesterday: A frustrated wife realizes the reason she’s sexually dysfunctional with her husband is that in an earlier life, during the reign of Elizabeth I, she was a gypsy who was burned at the stake. The Volga boatman: A Russian Revolution tale concerning a princess who is engaged to a prince, but falls in love with a peasant. DVD 3705

Edison: the invention of the movies. [2005]. 4 videodiscs (ca. 840 min.). DVD 1.; 1889-1903.; Monkeyshines, no. 1 --; Monkeyshines, no. 2 --; Dickson greeting --; Newark athlete (with Indian clubs) --; Men boxing --; Blacksmithing scene --; The barber shop --; Edison kinetoscopic record of a sneeze, January 7, 1894 --; Athlete with wand --; Sandow --; Carmencita --; The boxing cats (Prof. Welton's) --; Caicedo with pole --; Annabelle butterfly dance --; Cockfight, no. 2 --; Corbett and Courtney before the kinetograph --; Sioux ghost dance --; Buffalo dance --; Hadj Cheriff --; Glenroy bros., no. 2 --; Louis Martinetti --; Bucking broncho --; Annie Oakley --; Imperial Japanese dance --; Robetta and Doretto, no. 2 --; Band drill --; Fire rescue scene --; Billy Edwards and the unknown --; Dickson experimental sound film --; Princess Ali --; Annabelle serpentine dance --; The execution of Mary, Queen of Scots --; Amy Muller --; The John C. Rice-May Irwin kiss --; Shooting the chutes --; Fatima, muscle dancer --; Mess call --; Inventor Edison sketched by world artist --; Watermelon eating contest --; The lone fisherman --; Interrupted lovers --; Feeding the doves --; A morning bath --; The burning stable --; Mounted police charge --; Going to the fire --; A morning alarm --; Black Diamond Express, no. 1 --; American Falls from above, American side --; The first sleigh ride --; The morning alarm --; Fifth Avenue, New York --; Mr. Edison at work in his chemical laboratory --; Return of lifeboat --; Troop ships for the Philippines --; U.S. troops landing at Daiquiri, Cuba --; Shooting captured insurgents --; The burglar on the roof --; Firemen rescuing men and women --; A wringing good joke --; Gold rush scenes in the Klondike --; Searching on Broadway for dead bodies, Galveston --; The kiss --; Capture of Boer battery by British --; New Black Diamond Express --; Watermelon contest --; A storm at sea --; Old maid having her picture taken; (1 min.) --; Another job for the undertaker; (2 min.) --; High diving scene; (1 min.) --; Photographing a country couple; (1 min.) --; What happened on Twenty-Third Street, New York City; (1 min., 30 sec.) --; Pan-American Exposition by night; (1 min.) --; Trapeze disrobing act; (2 min.) --; The burning of Durland's Riding Academy; (3 min., 30 sec.) --; Burlesque suicide, no. 2; (2 min.) --; Jack and the beanstalk; (10 min.) --; Interrupted bathers; (1 min.) --; Electrocuting an elephant; (1 min., 30 sec.) --; The life of an American fireman; (7 min.) --; Egyptian fakir with dancing monkey; (1 min., 30 sec.) --; A scrap in black and white; (1 min.) --; Uncle Tom's cabin; (19 min.) --; The gay shoe clerk; (1 min.) --; Turning the tables; (1 min.) --; What happened in the tunnel; (1 min.) --; The great train robbery; (12 min.) --; Rector's to Claremont; (3 min.).; DVD 2.; 1904-1907.; European rest cure; (14 min.) --; How a French nobleman got a wife through the New York Herald personal columns; (9 min.) --; Nervy Nat kisses the bride; (2 min.) --; The scarecrow pump; (1 min.) --; The strenuous life, or, anti-race suicide; (5 min.) --; The ex-convict; (9 min.) --; The kleptomaniac; (10 min.) --; The seven ages; (5 min.) --; The whole Dam family and the Dam dog; (5 min.) --; Coney Island at night; (4 min.) --; The little train robbery; (10 min.) --; The white caps; (12 min.) --; The watermelon patch; (11 min.) --; The miller's daughter; (13 min.) --; The train wreckers; (11 min.) --; Life of an American policeman; (14 min.) --; Police chasing scorching auto; (3 min.) --; The dream of a rarebit fiend; (6 min.) --; Three American beauties; (1 min.) --; Films of the San Francisco earthquake; (2 min.) --; The terrible kids; (7 min.) --; Kathleen Mavourneen; (15 min.) --; Getting evidence; (14 min.) --; The "Teddy" bears; (14 min.).; DVD 3.; 1907-1913.; Cohen's fire sale; (13 min.) --; The rivals; (12 min.) --; College chums; (11 min.) --; The trainer's daughter or a race for love; (14 min.) --; Laughing gas; (9 min.) --; A little girl who did not believe in Santa Claus; (14 min.) --; A suburbanite's ingenious alarm; (7 min.) --; Rescued from an eagle's nest; (7 min.) --; Fireside reminiscences; (8 min.) --; Cupid's pranks; (10 min.) --; Tale the autumn leaves told (fragment); (1 min., 30 sec.) --; The House of Cards; (16 min.) --; New York of today (German exhibition print with optional English subtitles); (7 min.) --; How Bumptious papered the parlor; (4 min.) --; Thirty days of hard labor; (16 min.) --; The passer-by; (17 min.) --; The Totville Eye; (14 min.) --; The public and priv