An appreciative, uncritical look at silent film comedies and thrillers from early in the century through the 1920s.

Father O'Malley is sent to St. Mary's, a run-down parochial school on the verge of condemnation. He and Sister Benedict work together in an attempt to save the school, though their differing methods often lead to good-natured disagreements.

Jeanne Dante stars as precocious 13-year-old Judy Widdell, a devoted fan of dime-novel detective stories. When a real murder occurs in the vicinity, Judy insists upon playing sleuth, dragging teenaged astronomer Tom Fenton (Kenneth Howell) into her Sherlock shenanigans.

Cowboy Jeff Larabee returns from the east and meets Doris Halloway, a young girl, that he regards as a vagabond, till he learns that she's the owner of the farm where he works. He tries to win her heart, but without success, until she is endangered by gangsters

An ex-convict gets released after shooting a fellow who made a play for his wife. When he meets Sleeper, his life takes a change for the better, but along with her comes the boisterous little Collins, for whom she is a governess.

A ruthless, cynical, hated publisher is killed in a plane crash, doomed to be a "restless" spirit for being unloved. A heavenly power gives him a month on Earth to find one person to shed a tear for him before his fate is sealed.

Greed, ambition and hunger-for-power drive John Hart, a New-York-City stock-market broker, into crooked dealings and deception, but he doesn't realize that those he ruined will seek vengeance. He meets his match and downfall when his path crosses with a reporter, Phil Stuart; a girl, Marcia Harper, and a man-with-a-gun from a family he ruined.

Richard Dix stars as Pecos Smith, a strong, silent Westerner suspected of cattle rustling.

A look at how his parents' divorce affects the life of a young boy.

Jimmy Durante is jungle movie star Schnarzan the Conqueror, but the public is tiring of his fake lions. When Baron Munchausen comes to town with real man-eating lions, Durante throws him a big Hollywood star-studded party so that he might use the lions in his next movie. But, his film rival sneaks into the party to buy the lions before Durante.

Dirt-poor mountain girl Trigger Hicks is a loner. Her faith-healing is mistaken for witchcraft by the community. She falls for an engineer building a dam, who protects her.

Medical intern Robert Morley is distraught after his wife dies in childbirth. He's resentful of his new son and wants nothing to do with him. He leaves the child with his aunt and uncle and heads off to Europe to pursue his medical studies. Morley returns to his hometown six years later, now a successful doctor and engaged to be married to a beautiful socialite. He also feels differently about the boy and attempts to gain custody from his aunt and uncle.

A glamorous film star rebels against the studio, her pushy press agent and a family of hangers-on.

Gertie Waxted knows how notorious gangster Jim Crelliman runs his rackets, because she's long been under the hoodlum's thumb. She's secretly helping lawyer Jackson Durant in a snoop job aimed at pinning a murder on the thug. Her life will be in peril when that secret gets out.

A young woman is on trial for murder. In flashback, we learn of her struggles to overcome poverty as a teenager -- a mistaken arrest and prison term for shoplifting and lack of employment lead to involvement with gangsters. In a brothel, she meets a young lawyer, scion of a wealthy and prestigious family, who falls for her and helps her turn around her life. But her past catches up with her, and she must face the music rather than cause him scandal.

A murder trial reunites a former chorus girl and her son, a grandson of an English aristocrat.

The story of corrupt, power-hungry, manipulative Grigori Rasputin's influence on members of the Russian Imperial family and others, and what resulted.

Tony, the son of Italian immigrants, works in a smoky steel mill in Gary, Indiana. He wins a company scholarship which will enable him to attend Yale college. Over the four years of his college career he learns about football, love, and class prejudice.

A young college student gets pregnant by the man she loves, but circumstances prevent their marrying, so she marries a classmate she doesn't love. Soon, however, her lover returns, and she finds herself in a dilemma as to who to choose.

John Paul Bart is just a pants-presser in a tailor's shop, but he has big ambitions. One night, he borrows the clothes of a wealthy client and bluffs his way into a high society party. After meeting wealthy businessman Abraham Nathan, John Paul quickly rises to the top of Nathan's company. Suffering during The Depression, John Paul helps Nathan save his company with a radical program of cooperative ownership between workers and management. Meanwhile, John Paul makes an enemy of Gustav, who is engaged to Tanya - the daughter of Mr. Huber, owner of the tailor shop. John Paul maintains a friendship with Tanya, provoking jealousy in Gustav. Gustav threatens to reveal John Paul's plain origins to Nathan, and John Paul briefly resigns from Nathan's company. However, John Paul's plan is a success, and Nathan hires him back immediately. Tanya leaves Gustav and ends up with John Paul.

Peter Brooks is a hard-working, hard-up college student whose dislike of women attending college weakens under the amorous advances of spoiled socialite coed Joan Madison.

A taxi dancer with a jealous husband finds herself falling for a wealthy client.

Untrained, volunteer Nurses from America treat Allied soldiers behind and on the lines in France. They face the horrors of war, fight off the attentions of soldiers and face their own loneliness.

A socialite masquerades as a notorious femme fatale to win back her straying husband during a costume party aboard a doomed dirigible.

Three department store girls--Connie, Franky, and Gerry--share an apartment on West 91st Street in New York City. Each earns little more than 20 dollars per week. Gerry is the sensible one, but the others throw themselves at amoral rich men in an attempt to hook one and better themselves. They end up being hurt and disappointed despite Gerry's attempts to warn them.

A crime caper featuring the 'first family of Hollywood' - the Watsons.

Danger Street (1928)

This western comedy is about rancher Finlayson's beautiful daughter, Martha Sleeper, who refuses to marry the bad guy and how Jimmy and dimwitted cowhand Stan bumble their way into a successful defense of her and the ranch.

Schultz raises prize chickens and roosters that are always getting into neighbor Max Davidson's garden and eating the seeds, leading to constant feuding between the two men. When their children announce their engagement the two men decide to bury the hatchet and Davidson suggests a dinner at his house. He gives his young son, Ignatz, two dollars to buy a chicken but the boy pockets the money and kills Schultz' first place rooster instead. Once seated at the table all but Schultz discover what they are eating and desperately try to hide the bad news from Schultz who is sure to kill Davidson if he knows the truth.

Papa Gimplewart chaperones his daughter and her "steady" during a beach adventure.

A pair of gold prospectors (Max Davidson, Oliver Hardy) try to make their way in the big city. *Only reconstructed fragments exists.

Defying her father's wishes, a young woman runs off to a sale at store. She's pursued by a policeman, but wins him over with the help of a friendly millionaire. In the mean time, her father tries to retrieve a compromising letter.

Papa Gimplewart, father to three children is unimpressed by the young lawyer who wants to marry his daughter.

Mr. Buggs is an insect collector. A beautiful and mysterious Asian woman (the lovely Anna May Wong) brings him a rare specimen, but she is actually a wanted thief who has stolen a valuable brooch.

A young man puts on the play "Romeo and Juliet" as a fundraiser, but has to keep a close eye on his dad, who's had several drinks too many, and a pesky cab driver who's determined to collect his fare.

Two rich capitalists want to marry their children, but they don't like the idea at all. She tries to run away, and meets him at the station. They fall in love, unbeknownst to their real identities, and decide each on their own that they have to wreck their parents plan. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive.

A divorced couple try to pretend they are still happily married in order to get $100,000 from the woman's divorce-disapproving aunt.

The kids from Our Gang have to attend a wedding, and they bring along their flea collection--which gets loose.

This offbeat comedy from future Hollywood screwball director McCarey is about a princess who must find a husband in 24 hours or forfeit her throne. She quickly marries a condemned man--but the man is pardoned.

Casper is the baby-expert at a large department store and his life is less than peaceful as he provides much amusement for the babies at his own expense. On Sunday, he and his wife go on a picnic with the neighbors and hoe comes home on his day of rest with three traffic tickets and numerous stings from the hornets he failed to amuse.

A widow has married rich, but didn't tell her husband about her son. And he's coming for a surprise visit. To hide his identity he is introduced as the husband's new valet, but still the husband has some doubts about a few strange scenes. And during the night, when the son tries to visit his mother, the husband always starts interfering, but the new maid also behaves strangely, trying to sneak into the husband's room...

A female secret agent has gotten ahold of a new type of explosive gas. She has to avoid the efforts of two men who are trying to steal it. They succeed in doing so, but the gas turns out to be not quite what they expected.

Short comedy which posits that in a hundred years men's styles will revert to Regency garb, and that there will be a complete gender role reversal, with husband Clyde Cook staying home alone while wife Katherine Grant goes tomcatting around town.

The gang decided to go into the movie-making business, using all kinds of sets and props. There were problems as those not involved are trying to ruin their business by playing pranks and even insisting the police to close them down.

Despite his faithfulness, Melvin is always under suspicion by wife Mame. Complications erupt when a woman from a party across the hall passes out in Melvin's bedroom just before Mame returns.

Vermuda, a saleswoman in a department store, is very late for work. She relies on a ruse to fool the floorwalker, and when that doesn't work, she relies on her friendship with the store manager. But she is soon disillusioned as to where she really stands with the manager.

Jimmy Jump is asked by the Swedish Government to translate for educational purposes "Little Red Riding Hood", but he can't afford to buy the book, so he tries reading it at the book shop, something the owner doesn't like. But with a little help by the owner's wife it is not impossible, even when the book is bought by somebody else, put in a car and the car is stolen...

In this two-reeler, Jimmy Jump wants to please both of his parents, but they disagree about everything. His father wants him to act more manly, although Jimmy gets his sensitivity from his mother. He wants to wed his girlfriend, and so accepts a job at his father's iron foundry, but does not excel there. Next, Jimmy goes to a tough dance-hall to impress his girl. A highlight is his parody of an Isadora Duncan dance.

Jimmy Jump has a "plain" girlfriend, and becomes intrigued by a "fancy" girl he spots in a park. Eventually he realizes he is better off with his no-frills girl.

Charley Chase is a hapless inventor with a better mouse trap in this silent comedy from 1925.

A doting father who plays Santa Claus for Christmas annoys a trolley full of people when he lugs a giant Christmas tree home.

Charley is called upon to go out with his boss on a date with the boss' mistress, to act as a beard.

This funny Hal Roach comedy has Jimmy Jump (Charley Chase) waking up late for his wedding so in the mad rush he ends up leaving his house only dressed in his pajamas. As he makes his way to the church he finds one disaster after another.

Jimmy Jump's boss asks him to meet his small niece and her dog and entertain them between trains. Jimmy buys a balloon or two and looks over the station for a little girl. He takes one by mistake, narrowly escapes being arrested as a kidnapper and finally meets the niece, who is an over-dressed, ultra-modern young woman. The time between trains is spent in trying to hide the dog from the policeman, and when Jimmy puts his charge on the train, he feels that he has done a week's work in a day.

The situation is typically embarrassing and unlikely-but-possible for Charley, but it is at the same time such a simple idea -- Charley shows off by taking a pretty girl back home, wreaks havoc trying to get her in, then discovers that she's married.

The main premise for the comedy is the Jimmy discovers he can convince people he is a tough figure to be reckoned with merely by giving them a business card identifying him as the bouncer of the "Bucket of Blood Cafe."