Lois Weber

Lois Weber

Born: June 12, 1879
Died: November 13, 1939
in Allegheny City [now Pittsburgh], Pennsylvania, USA
Lois Weber began film work as an actress, then soon began also writing and directing films. She has been referred to as "the most important female director the American film industry has known". Best known for her hard-hitting films that address social issues, she continued making films into the 1920s until she lost favor with motion picture audiences.

Movies for Lois Weber...

The Women Who Run Hollywood
Title: The Women Who Run Hollywood
Character: Herself (archive footage)
Released: May 16, 2016
Type: Movie
The first talkie was directed by Alice Guy, the first color film was produced by Lois Weber, who directed more than 300 films over 10 years. Frances Marion wrote screenplays for the Hollywood Star Mary Pickford and won two Oscars, Dorothy Arzner was the most powerful film director in Hollywood. And what do all of them have in common? They are all women and they have all been forgotten. Incredibly, it also took until 2010 for the first woman, Kathryn Bigelow, to win the Oscar for Best Director. Even if underrepresented women have always played a big part in Hollywood and it is this part of the film history left untold that this documentary sets out to uncover.
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The Hand That Rocks the Cradle
Title: The Hand That Rocks the Cradle
Character: Mrs. Broome
Released: May 13, 1917
Type: Movie
A doctor's wife is arrested for educating impoverished women about birth control.
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Alone in the World
Title: Alone in the World
Released: January 3, 1917
Type: Movie
Bobby's mother dies and leaves him to care for the baby.
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Idle Wives
Title: Idle Wives
Character: Anne
Released: September 16, 1916
Type: Movie
Characters in the film attend a movie titled 'Life’s Mirror', where they see parallel, cautionary versions of their own lives. Only the first two of the original seven reels survive.
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The Eye of God
Title: The Eye of God
Character: Renie
Released: June 5, 1916
Type: Movie
Olaf writes his memoirs, before his execution. He tells of his life as a struggling farmer when Renie, stranded in the village, stays one night in his home and Olaf falls in love with her.
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Hop - The Devil's Brew
Title: Hop - The Devil's Brew
Character: Lydia Jansen
Released: February 14, 1916
Type: Movie
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Scandal
Title: Scandal
Character: Daisy Dean
Released: July 10, 1915
Type: Movie
The lives of a stenographer and her boss are thrown into turmoil by reckless gossip.
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Sunshine Molly
Title: Sunshine Molly
Character: Sunshine Molly
Released: March 18, 1915
Type: Movie
A woman known as Sunshine Molly gets a job in an oil field, and clashes with a belligerent employee named "Bull" Forrest. (Note: multiple reels of this film were damaged beyond repair. Only three reels remain, two of which are also heavily damaged.)
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False Colors
Title: False Colors
Released: December 17, 1914
Type: Movie
Backstage drama
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Lost by a Hair
Title: Lost by a Hair
Character: Summer Girl
Released: June 28, 1914
Type: Movie
A group of jealous men conspire to defeat a romantic rival who has captured the attention of all of the ladies at a summer hotel. (Note: The majority of this film is considered lost. Only a fragment survives.)
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The Pursuit of Hate
Title: The Pursuit of Hate
Character: Diana Grave
Released: June 14, 1914
Type: Movie
Diana Grave's husband has left her, preferring any life to that of living with a woman who is not congenial to him. Howbeit, her husband gone is a different matter than her husband present. She commissioned a detective to locate him.
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The Spider and Her Web
Title: The Spider and Her Web
Character: Madame DuBarr
Released: March 26, 1914
Type: Movie
The Spider and Her Web is a 1914 silent film.
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The Merchant of Venice
Title: The Merchant of Venice
Character: Portia
Released: February 1, 1914
Type: Movie
A rich merchant, Antonio is depressed for no good reason, until his good friend Bassanio comes to tell him how he's in love with Portia. Portia's father has died and left a very strange will: only the man that picks the correct casket out of three (silver, gold, and lead) can marry her. Bassanio, unfortunately, is strapped for cash with which to go wooing, and Antonio wants to help, so Antonio borrows the money from Shylock, the money-lender. But Shylock has been nursing a grudge against Antonio's insults, and makes unusual terms to the loan. And when Antonio's business fails, those terms threaten his life, and it's up to Bassanio and Portia to save him.
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The Jew's Christmas
Title: The Jew's Christmas
Character: Leah - Isaac's Daughter
Released: December 18, 1913
Type: Movie
Early Lois Weber film. Isaac and his faithful wife, Rachel, deplore that in America their children are forced to work on the Jewish Sabbath. Leah and Sam are not so strict as their parents and the old customs pall about their more American spirits. Sam is employed in a cloak house and secretly loves his employer's daughter, but she refuses to recognize him. Leah is loved by the handsome gentile floorwalker, and despite her father's objections, she marries him. Isaac orders Leah from the house. Later, the daughter of the cloak manufacturer marries an admirer and Sam is invited to the wedding. He drinks and disgraces himself, and returning home, is turned out by the heartbroken rabbi. He leaves, telling the old man that he will return when the father celebrated the Christian Christmas.
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How Men Propose
Title: How Men Propose
Character: The Maid
Released: July 19, 1913
Type: Movie
Three men in succession propose marriage to Grace Darling; she accepts all! Since they are roommates, the three discover their problem in short order; when they return for an explanation, they're in for a surprise.
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Suspense.
Title: Suspense.
Character: The Wife
Released: July 6, 1913
Type: Movie
An isolated house is too remote for a lone servant, who leaves a note, quietly exits the back door, and puts the key under the mat. Left alone in the house is a mother and her infant. A tramp has watched the servant leave and begins to skulk. When the lady of the house sees him outside as he discovers the key, she's terrified and desperately phones her husband, who's at work in town. He jumps into a car that's idling in front of his office and races toward home, the car's owner, and police, in hot pursuit.
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The Rosary
Title: The Rosary
Character: The Soldier's Sweetheart
Released: May 3, 1913
Type: Movie
Haunting and hypnotic, this artistic gem recounts the lyrics from a popular 1898 song of the same name. Weber’s stylistics, including circular matte shots, foregrounding of the cross and the rosary, and placement of the characters within each shot bring to the film an enormous emotional and spiritual range.
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The Picture of Dorian Gray
Title: The Picture of Dorian Gray
Released: January 1, 1913
Type: Movie
Alleged silent short adaptation of Oscar Wilde's novel, first mentioned in a 1966 copy of Films In Review. Recent scholarship argues this film never existed and is erroneously included in the publication.
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A Japanese Idyll
Title: A Japanese Idyll
Released: August 28, 1912
Type: Movie
A Japanese Idyll is a 1912 silent short drama film directed by and starring Lois Weber. The film was produced by the Rex Motion Picture Company for release by Universal Film Manufacturing Company.
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Eyes That See Not
Title: Eyes That See Not
Character: The Millionaire's Wife
Released: March 14, 1912
Type: Movie
A self-centred wealthy woman is transformed after she is confronted with the harsh reality of the living conditions endured by the employees of her husband's mill.
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Fine Feathers
Title: Fine Feathers
Character: The Artist's Model
Released: February 2, 1912
Type: Movie
The Fine Feathers is a 1912 silent film dramatic short directed by and starring Lois Weber.
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The Price
Title: The Price
Character: Ann
Released: November 23, 1911
Type: Movie
Pretty Ann, and Joe, the hostler, one day chance to meet. Strong is Joe, and simple, and Ann is shy and sweet. As man and maid have done before, they love, and marry, too. And live happy ever after? Ah, this tale is new to you! Yes, the tale is drear, prosaic; and so poetry won't do. A baby boy comes to bless the union. Joe is working in the stables when they tell him of his joy: his heart is gay and happy, and he tells the horses so. Then, it might be the angels were jealous of such mortal happiness; it might be the devil, seeing the stage so set, entered to play the leading role.
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Lost Illusions
Title: Lost Illusions
Character: Grace - The Wife
Released: October 4, 1911
Type: Movie
A marital romance in which a married artist woos the wife of another man.
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Sherlock Holmes, Jr.
Title: Sherlock Holmes, Jr.
Character: Mrs. Brown
Released: July 20, 1911
Type: Movie
Little Sherlock Holmes, Jr., reads the doughty doings of his hero-god, and at once determines to become a detective himself.
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Fate
Title: Fate
Character: Flora Brown
Released: July 6, 1911
Type: Movie
Jack Norton had traveled the downgrade, had transgressed the laws of man, had trespassed the forbidden, and paid the penalty.
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On the Brink
Title: On the Brink
Character: Tess
Released: June 22, 1911
Type: Movie
A 1911 silent drama film written and directed by Edwin S. Porter and Lois Weber. Starring Lois Weber, Phillips Smalley, and Charles De Forrest.
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The Twins
Title: The Twins
Character: The Twin Sisters
Released: June 14, 1911
Type: Movie
The baby daughter of Mrs. Norton, a widowed seamstress, dies. The sorrow-stricken mother gazes at the empty cradle and decides to replace the departed soul with an orphan child upon whom she can lavish the love, the rightful object of which the Great Giver and Taker has taken from her. She goes to the orphanage and asks to be given a baby girl, and is given one of the twin baby sisters. Richard Golden, a wealthy shirtwaist manufacturer, has an only son, a little boy, who yearns for a sister and continually begs his father to bring him a little sister to be a playmate to him, and the father, to satisfy the child's persistent pleading, goes to the orphan home and brings home the other little twin sister. Years roll by and both girls have grown to young womanhood in their different stations in life. Jack Golden, now grown to manhood, and knowing that the girl is only a foster sister, asks her to become his wife.
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From Death to Life
Title: From Death to Life
Character: Aratus' Wife
Released: June 8, 1911
Type: Movie
A chemist named Aratus invents a concoction that will turn creatures to stone, but only realizes the dangers of his creation when his wife falls victim to it.
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A Heroine of '76
Title: A Heroine of '76
Character: The Tavern Keeper's Daughter
Released: February 16, 1911
Type: Movie
During the American Revolution, an innkeeper's daughter learns of a plot to assassinate George Washington while he will be staying at her father's inn.