Beggar on Horseback 1925

Famous Players-Lasky
Director: James Cruze
Cast: Edward Everett Horton, Esther Ralston, Erwin Connelly, Gertrude Short, Ethel Wales, Theodore Kosloff, James Mason, Frederick Sullivan.

Neil McRae is a poor composer who orchestrates jazz scores to get by. He loves Cynthia, a poor artist. Dr. Rice convinces Neil to propose to Gladys Cady, a rich music pupil of his. Distraught, Neil is sedated and he dreams of life with the vulgar and ostentatious Cady family. When he awakens, Neil reunites with his true love, Cynthia.

Bringin’ Home the Bacon 1924

Action Pictures
Director:Richard Thorpe
Cast: Buffalo Bill, Jr., Jean Arthur, Bert Lindley, Lafe McKee, George F. Marion, Wilbur McGaugh, Victor King, Laura Miskin, Frank Ellis.

A rancher, Bill Winton, tries to fix himself up to win the heart of a girl. Meanwhile his enemies plan to rob a stagecoach with one of the men dressed in the rancher’s clothes. Bill foils the plot and brings the gang to justice.

Found in Australia’s National Film and Sound Archive.

Bucking Broadway 1917

Universal Film Mfg. Co.
Director: John Ford
Cast: Harry Carey, Molly Malone, L.M. Wells, Vester Pegg, William Gettinger.

Ranch foreman Cheyenne Harry is in love with the owner’s daughter, Molly. Molly admits she loves Harry, too, but she is lured to the big city by Thornton, a sophisticated stockbroker. She discovers that Thornton’s intentions are far from honorable and sends for Harry. With the help of some big city crooks, Harry defeats Thornton and takes Molly back to the ranch.

Print discovered at France’s Centre National de la Cinematographie.

The Cradle Snatchers 1927

Fox Films
Director: Howard Hawks
Cast: Louise Fazenda, Dione Ellis, Joseph Striker, Arthur Lake, Sammy Cohen, Nick Stuart, Franklin Pangborn, Ethel Wales, J. Farrell McDonald, Virginia Bushman.

Three wives tire of their husbands keeping company with flappers. They conspire with three college boys to flirt with the young men at a party to make their husbands jealous. The husbands and flappers arrive during a rehearsal of the plot and eventually all is resolved.

The Devil’s Circus 1926

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures
Director: Benjamin Christensen
Cast: Norma Shearer, Charles Emmett Mack, Carmel Myers, John Miljan, Claire McDowell, Joyce Coad.

Pickpocket Richard takes Mary, a young and innocent girl, in off the streets. When Richard is thrown in jail, a desperate Mary finds work with a circus. She performs on the trapeze over an open lion cage. Lieberkind, the lion tamer, makes crude advances on Mary. His jealous mistress tampers with Mary’s trapeze, causing her to fall and suffer a serious injury. Seven years later, Richard is released from jail. He finds Mary and marries her. When he learns of Lieberkind’s actions, he goes after him only to learn that Lieberkind was wounded in the war and is now a blind beggar.

Doctor X 1932

First National Pictures
Director: Michael Curtiz
Cast: Lionel Atwill, Fay Wray, Lee Tracy, Preston Foster, John Wray, Harry Beresford, Arthur Edmund Carewe, Leila Bennett, Robert Warwick, George Rosener, Willard Robertson, Thomas Jackson, Harry Holman, Mae Busch, Tom Dugan.

Reporter Lee Taylor investigates a series of cannibalistic murders that occur under a full moon. Dr. Xavier examines the sixth victim and asks the police for permission to conduct his own investigation. All of the residents of Dr. Xavier’s medical academy appear to be suspects, except for Dr. Wells, who is missing an arm and thought incapable of committing the murders. During an experiment to find the murderer, all the men except Wells are chained to their chairs. Wells attaches synthetic flesh to his arm and attacks Joan. Taylor rescues her, setting Wells on fire and pushing him out the window.

Full-length print found in the collection of Merle Ray Harlin, a Columbia Pictures Television film-vault librarian.

The Enemy 1927

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures
Director: Fred Niblo
Cast: Lillian Gish, Ralph Forbes, Ralph Emerson, Frank Currier, George Fawcett, Fritzi Ridgeway, John S. Peters, Karl Dane, Polly Moran, Billy Kent Schaefer.

Pauli Arndt marries Carl Behrend in Vienna just as World War I breaks out. Carl is drafted and Pauli gives birth to their child. Pauli and her child live with her grandfather, who loses his job as a professor for protesting the war. Pauli becomes a prostitute to buy milk for the baby, but the baby dies. Carl returns from the war, Pauli’s grandfather gets his position back, and the family is able to start over.

Exquisite Sinner 1925

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures
Director: Josef von Sternberg, Phil Rosen (von Sternberg replaced by Rosen during filming)
Cast: Conrad Nagel, Renee Adoree, Paulette Duval, Frank Currier, George K. Arthur, Matthew Betz, Helen D’algy, Claire Du Brey, Myrna Loy.

Wounded soldier Dominique Prad is convalescing when he sees a band of gypsies and decides that he wants to break from the conventions of society. His family thinks he is an idle loafer when he spends his time painting instead of managing a silk mill. After a failed suicide attempt, Dominique’s family thinks he is insane. He flees and joins a group of gypsies. He and one of the gypsies, Silda, run away to Breton. As they are about to be married by the mayor of Breton, Silda’s lover finds them. Dominique denounces his family and with the blessing of their new friends in Breton, he and Silda embark on a new life.

Hell Bent 1918

Universal Film Mfg. Co.
Director: John Ford
Cast: Harry Carey, Duke Lee, Neva Garber, Vester Pegg, Joseph Harris.

When Cheyenne Harry arrives in Rawhide, he befriends Bess Thurston who works at the dance hall to support her sick mother. Beau Ross, the outlaw leader, loves Bess. He persuades her brother Jack to join his gang and kidnaps Bess. Attempting to rescue Bess, Cheyenne is captured, but he escapes by overpowering Jack and taking his clothes. Dressed as Jack, Cheyenne catches Beau. The two endure a long walk across the desert. Beau dies at a dry water hole and Cheyenne is rescued by Cimarron Bill.

The Life and Death of Richard III 1912

Sterling Camera and Film Co.
Director: James Keene
Starring: Frederick Warde, Mr. Gomp.

Richard, the power-hungry and bitter younger brother of King Edward IV, desperately wants to be king. He schemes, manipulates and murders his way to the throne. On the eve of his decisive battle with his rival Richmond, Richard has a dream in which he is haunted by all the people he has murdered, who tell him that he will die the next day. As foretold, Richard loses his horse in battle and is killed by Richmond, who becomes King Henry VII.

Found in collection of William Buffum, former projectionist at the Bluebird Theatre in Portland, Oregon between 1938 and 1947.

The Married Virgin 1919

Maxwell Productions
Director: Joe Maxwell
Cast: Vera Sisson, Rudolpho di Valentino, Frank Newbert, Kathleen Kirkham, Edward Jobson.

In a scheme to acquire her stepdaughter Mary’s dowry and protect her husband from a blackmail threat, Mrs. John McMillan arranges for Mary to marry her lover, the Count Roberto di San Francini. Mary agrees even though she loves Douglas, a young engineer. After Mrs. McMillan is killed in a car accident and Roberto runs away, Mary gets an annulment and marries Douglas.

Matinee Idol 1928

Columbia Pictures
Director: Frank Capra
Cast: Bessie Love, Johnnie Walker, Lionel Belmore, Ernest Hilliard, Sidney D’Albrook, David Mir.

When a New York theater company is stranded in upstate New York, one of the actors, Don Wilson, is accidentally hired to play a part in the local company’s Civil War melodrama. He plays a Confederate soldier who dies in the arms of the production’s star, Ginger Bolivar. Don’s friends find the play so amusing, they arrange for it to play in New York City. There Ginger thinks the audience’s laughter is ridicule and she goes back home. Realizing his true feelings, Don arrives to proclaim his love for Ginger.

Molly O’ 1921

Mack Sennett--Mabel Normand Productions
Director: F. Richard Jones
Cast: Mabel Normand, Geroge Nichols, Anna Hernandez, Albert Hackett, Eddie Gribbon, Jack Mulhall, Lowell Sherman, Jacqueline Logan, Ben Deely, Gloria Davenport, Carl Stockdale, Eugenie Besserer.

Molly O'Dair, whose mother is a washerwoman and whose father is a ditch-digger, sees the picture of Dr. John Bryant, an eligible young bachelor millionaire, in the newspaper and falls in love with him. Later she meets him at the country club where she goes to deliver washing, and attracted by her charms, he gives her a ride in his car. Bryant's fiancée, Miriam, understands, and at a masked ball, when he mistakes Molly for her, she returns his ring. Molly is thrown into a compromising situation with the doctor owing to the interference of Jim Smith, Mr. O'Dair's choice for her, and consequently she is turned into the street. Finding her in Bryant's bedroom the following morning, O'Dair is about to shoot him, but he learns that they are married. Later, Molly is abducted by a society crook in a dirigible, but she is rescued and reunited with her husband.

Of silent comic Mabel Normand's many unseen feature films (only seven of 23 remain), the most sought-after has been Molly O'. For nearly two decades, the only known surviving footage of Molly O' was a segment preserved by the UCLA Film and Television Archive. Several years ago, it was confirmed that Gosfilmofond of Russia held a negative made from a worn nitrate print that was missing one reel and had many of the slapstick sequences removed. These have been augmented with better-condition materials and some missing sections provided by the Douris Corporation and the Library of Congress. Original titles have been recreated, and the remaining missing sequences abridged through stills and synopses from the Mack Sennett collection at the Margaret Herrick Library of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The combined efforts of these institutions have resulted in a reconstruction that makes available once again an entertaining Mabel Normand feature lost for more than 75 years.

Polly of the Circus 1917

Goldwyn Pictures Corp.
Director: Charles T. Horan
Cast: Mae Marsh, Vernon Steele, Charles Eldridge, Wellington Playter, George Trimble, Lucille Laverne, Dick Lee, Charles Riegel, Lucille Satterthwaite, J.B. Hollis, Helen Salinger, Isabel Vernon, Viola Compton, John Carr, Stephen Carr, Mildred Call.

Raised by circus folk after her aerialist mother falls from the wires and dies, Polly grows up to be a bareback rider and is injured while performing a stunt. When the circus leaves town, Polly and her horse Bingo are left in the care of young minister John Douglas. The minister and Polly fall in love, but town gossips forces Douglas to choose between his church and Polly. Polly enters Bingo in a race and takes her winnings to the nearly bankrupt circus, sparing the minister further scandal. When the circus returns the next year, a fire under the big top reunites Polly and Douglas.

Purity 1916

American Film Co.
Director: Rea Berger
Cast: Audrey Munson, Nigel de Brullier, Alfred Hollingsworth, William A. Carroll, Eugenie Forde, Clarence Burton, Neta Drinkwitz, Molly Shafer, Marie Van Tassell, Ellen Howard, Mary Dunham, Alice Anrooney, Hazel West, Nell Franzen, Wallace MacDonald, Ashton Dearholt.

When Poet Thornton Darcy first meets Purity, she fits his image of Virtue, the female spirit of his allegorical poem. The two fall in love. A publisher wants $500 to publish Thornton’s poetry, so Purity secretly models for artist Claude Lamarque to raise the necessary amount. The poems are published but when Thornton learns that Purity posed in the nude, he breaks off the relationship. When Thornton sees Lamarque’s painting, titled Virtue, he realized that Purity was the inspiration for a great work of art, he and Purity reconcile.

The Rough Riders 1927

Paramount Famous Lasky Corp.
Director: Victor Fleming
Cast: Noah Beery, Charles Farrell, George Bancroft, Charles Emmett Mack, Mary Astor, Frank Hopper, Col. Fred Lindsay, Fred Kohler.

In 1898, the United States declares war on Spain and Theodore Roosevelt and Leonard Wood assemble the Rough Riders. Among this motley group of volunteers and recruits are Bert and Van, two rivals for the affections of Dolly. During battle in Cuba, the rivalry turns into friendship. Bert is wounded and Van carries him back to the base, where he dies a hero. Several years later, Van, Dolly and their two children attend President Roosevelt’s inauguration.

Snow White 1917
Famous Players Film Co.
Director: J. Searle Dawlyer
Cast: Marguerite Clark, Dorothy G. Cumming, Creighton Hale, Lionel Braham, Alice Washburn.

Queen Brangomar is jealous of the beautiful Snow White and forces the princess to work as a maid. When Prince Florimund falls in love with Snow White anyway, Brangomar hires Berthold to kill her. Berthold instead takes Snow White to the forest to live with the seven dwarfs. The Queen finds Snow White and gets her to eat the poisoned apple. Snow White recovers and marries Florimund. Queen Brangomar is turned into a peacock.

Walt Disney saw this film when he was 15 while living in Kansas City. It made such an impression on him that it became the inspiration for the first full-length animated feature—Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937).

When Bearcat Went Dry 1919

C.R. Macauley Photoplays, Inc.
Director: Ollie L. Sellers
Starring: Vangie Valentine, Walt Whitman, Bernard Durning, Winter Hall, Ed Brady, M.K. Wilson, Lon Chaney.

Turner “Bearcat” Stacy, the son of a moonshiner, loves Blossom Fulkerson, a missionary’s daughter. Blossom has tried unsuccessfully to get Bearcat to stop drinking. Blossom shelters Jerry Henderson from saloon owner Kindard Powers’ gang, and the two become engaged. Henderson is wounded by Powers’ men and Bearcat rescues him and takes him to marry Blossom. Bearcat destroys the stills and Bearcat’s father kills Powers. Blossom returns to the area to teach school, and she and Bearcat wed.

Bill Buffum, a mill worker who had moonlighted as a projectionist before and after WWII, donated this film to the American Film Institute.

Within Our Gates 1919

Micheaux Book and Film Co.
Director: Oscar Micheaux
Starring: Evelyn Preer, William Starks, Mattie Edwards, E.G. Tatum, S.T. Jacks, Grant Edwards, Jack Chenault, Charles D. Lucas, Flo Clements, Jimmie Cook.

Sharecropper Jasper Landry and his educated, adopted daughter Sylvia prepare a bill for Philip Girdlestone, the plantation owner. Eph stirs up trouble by telling Girdlestone that Landry educates his children and that he won’t accept the owner’s offer. The meeting between Girdlestone and Landry ends with Landry standing over the plantation owner’s dead body with a gun in his hand. A mob tries to lynch Landry and his family.

In 1989 Susan Dalton at the National Center for Film and Video Preservation at the American Film Institute acquired a Spanish-release print entitled La Negra.