William Conklin

A compilation of thirteen rare silent films digitized by the Library of Congress, selected for the 2022 Domitor conference theme “Copy/Rights and Early Cinema.” Drawn from nitrate and safety film, the program spans comedies, trick films, and dramas exploring censorship, invention, adaptation, and social rights. Titles include: Pruning the Movies (Nestor, 1914); Imperial Japanese Dance (Edison, 1894); Early Edison Camera Tests (Edison, c.1890s); Censorship and its Absurdities (Edison, 1915); In Wrong (Crystal, 1914, dir. Phillips Smalley); Tillie’s Tomato Surprise (Lubin, 1915, dir. Howell Hansell); Indian Land Grab (Champion, 1910); The Stolen Play (Falcon Features, 1917, dir. Harry Harvey); And the Villain Still Pursued Her (Vitagraph, 1906, dir. J. Stuart Blackton); The Doll’s Revenge (Hepworth, 1907, dir. Lewin Fitzhamon); The Disintegrated Convict (Vitagraph, 1907); The Mexican Joan of Arc (Kalem, 1911, dir. Kenean Buel); and Fads and Fashions of 1900 (U.S., 1940s).

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Shanghai Rose is the proprietress of a gin mill which doubles as a bordello. A murder occurs, and she is put on trial for her life. A series of flashbacks "reconstruct" the crime from several different points of view -- and as the story progresses, it becomes less and less obvious that Rich is the guilty party.

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Lady Hamilton's love affair with Admiral Horatio Nelson rocks the British Empire.

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Juan is about to elope with the convent-bred Elena, when he is chosen to assassinate the governor who is about to hand California over to the Russians. Since the governor also happens to be Elena's father, this puts him in quite a fix.

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Tom heroically saves rancher's daughter Dorothy Dwan from both a raging river and a gang of cattle rustlers led by popular western villain Wallace McDonald.

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As a boy, Tom Morley, was forced to watch the killings of his foster parents and the abduction of his foster sister. When he reaches manhood he joins the Texas Rangers and becomes very good at tracking down outlaws; whereby, he is given the nickname "The Falcon". He finally tracks down his long lost foster sister who has become a spy for the outlaws.

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An embellished account of the 1803 expedition by famed frigate U.S.S. Constitution--a.k.a. "Old Ironsides"--against the Barbary pirates then terrorizing American shipping, focusing on the crew and passengers of a fictional merchant ship, The Esther, who fall afoul of the same pirates and thus become involved with the Constitution's mission.

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The title tells it all. Faithful wives perhaps but can the same be said for their husbands?

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A baby girl is left at the door of Brady, an Irish-policeman in New York City. He and his friends bid for her, and she is won by Uncle Ben Shapiro, a pawnbroker, who raises her to young womanhood, and is known as Sweet Rosie O'Grady. One day she goes to the rescue of Victor MacQuade, a young man from the high society set, who has been attacked by some east-side gang kids. The next day Victor, dressed as the family chauffeur, calls for her to go on on a ride. He goes home to change clothes while she peeks through the door at a charity costume-bazaar, and is swept inside by some late-arriving guests. She wins first prize for best costume, although she is dressed in the best she has. She flees angry and mortified. Since he has a larger house, she moves to Brady's home, one of her other foster-parents. Victor, who has fallen in love with Rosie, goes to Uncle Ben's shop and asks his permission to marry Rosie.

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Typhus specialist Dr. David West has fought long and hard for the construction of the new municipal waterworks. Harrison Blake, the town's leading lawyer and banker, conspires to have the waterworks put into private hands and frames David for accepting a bribe. As none of the town's lawyers will take the case, Katherine, David's daughter and a recent law school graduate, accepts her first client in her father. However, the circumstantial evidence is too great and David is convicted. Harrison bribes a worker to sabotage the waterworks, causing a public clamor for their takeover by private interests. Katherine, with the aid of newspaper editor Arnold Bruce, uncovers the conspiracy after the outbreak of a typhus epidemic. David is freed, and Katherine weds Arnold.

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A model in an expensive clothing shop quarrels with another model, and an expensive gown is ruined. In order to pay for it, she asks her father, an artist, for the money. In order to get the money, the father gets mixed up with art thieves

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Peter kidnaps Patricia to prevent her from marrying the wrong man.

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Tim Kelly is an orphan who runs away after his orphanage burns down. Presumed to be killed in the fire, he is able to roam the streets of New York City freely. He meets Max Ginsberg, an old Jewish junk dealer with rheumatism, and the two strike a partnership and a close friendship.

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Also known as The Man Without a Country

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Rich club-man Kirk Rainsford, attends a charity bazaar at the home of Marjorie Vail, the society girl he hopes to marry. A fire breaks out among the booths and everyone is pulled to safety except little Peggy, Marjorie's kid sister. Marjorie pleads with Kirk to save the child, but he lacks the courage, and Randolph Sherman, Kirk's rival for Marjorie's affections, plays the hero part. For Kirk's public display of cowardice, he is disowned by his father and rejected by Marjorie, who soon marries Sherman. Kirk drifts to the South Seas, eventually landing in Manila, where he becomes a derelict. When Lillie, a fellow drifter, is roughly handled in a bar, Kirk goes to her assistance; she expresses appreciation for his bravery and soon effects his regeneration through her faith in him. Kirk and Lillie journey to the interior, and they obtain work on a plantation recently purchased by Randolph Sherman. During a native uprising, Sherman is killed, and Kirk saves Marjorie from certain death.

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A newly married husband and wife make an agreement that should either of them want to terminate their relationship then a bowl with goldfish would be presented to the other signalling the end of their marriage.

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Noted criminologist Miles Manning captures a gang of crooks by posing as a super-criminal--a mysterious man called "The Eel"--when the mayor's daughter, Cordelia, believing that he really is a crook, enlists his assistance in ridding the city of its criminals.

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Santussa, an orphan who becomes separated from her nurse en route to America to live with her grandfather, is cared for by gangsters who hide their stolen jewels in her ragdoll. In New York, Big Mike, finding Santussa a nuisance, dumps her and the doll in a trash can, where a newsboy finds her. After several adventures, Santussa finds her grandfather, the jewels are handed over to customs officials, and the gang of crooks is reformed.

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Richard Clark is a kind lawyer who decides to get tough after losing all his clients, but he discovers it's not that easy to be mean.

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An outlaw named Duane ( Tom Mix ), captured by the Texas Rangers, is promised a pardon if he rounds up a gang of cattle thieves. The man he suspects as the leader is revealed to be the father of Duane's sweetheart, Helen ( Billie Dove ). Duane captures the gang, gets a pardon for Helen's father, and marries Helen.

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Ruth Holt is the efficient private secretary to young architect Elwood Adams. Her polar opposite is Adams' indolent, spendthrift wife Francine, faults which Adams, blinded by his love for her, doesn’t see. Looking to cause trouble, a lounge lizard acquaintance of Francine’s spreads gossip to make her jealous of Ruth. In a business crisis Adams introduces Ruth as his wife to banker Amos Martin but when Francine finds out she flies into a rage and denounces Ruth. After a series of complicated events Ruth reunites the Adams couple and marries the banker.

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Three Who Paid is a 1923 American silent Western melodrama film directed by Colin Campbell, and starring Dustin Farnum, with Bessie Love and Frank Campeau. The film was based on the 1922 short story by George Owen Baxter,

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Viola Baxter is deceived into a hasty marriage with her guardian, Marshall Welch, who is after her money and has framed her fiancé, Dick Fletcher, for theft. She discovers and exposes her husband's perfidy. Humiliated, Welch decides to take his wife's life along with his own, but she is saved by her Great Dane.

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In Up and Going, based on Mix's own story, Arctic Trails, the star played a titled, polo playing Northwest Mounted Police officer. From an elderly woman, Tom learns that childhood girlfriend Jackie McNabb is being kept prisoner by evil Basil Du Bois.

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A rich man's son marries an artist's model, and is then disinherited by his father. Despite their circumstances, both the son and his model wife do well

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George Kirby steals a mining claim from Tom Curtis and forces him to become an outlaw. Years later, Curtis comes to the rescue when Anne Kirby is kidnapped by real outlaws, but when he finds out she is married to his enemy, he decides to hold her captive.

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Katherine Nevin and her brother Jack are given positions on the newspaper of James Osborne following their father's death. Osborne's city editor, Charles MacLaughlin, who is hated and feared by his business associates, is strongly attracted to Katherine, who accepts his mother's invitation to dinner. In spite of his ruthless manner Katherine tries to change the atheistic views of "Mac" and his embittered crippled brother, Angus.

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In 1898 friends John Thomas and Lars Larson travel to the Yukon with their wives to make their fortunes. While in Alaska Thomas' wife gives birth to a boy, and Larson's wife has a girl, Julia. However, Larson spots a birthmark on his daughter's shoulder that resembles one on Thomas' shoulder, and he begins to suspect that he may not actually be the girl's father. Over the next 20 years the two become millionaires, but Larson's wife dies. Julia and Thomas fall in love and wish to marry, but Larson is determined to oppose it.

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Lawrence Revel, celebrated in society circles for his success with women, is devoted to his son Dick and objects to his marrying Nellie, a cabaret dancer. To prove her unworthiness, Beau asks his son not to see her for 2 weeks. Unwittingly, Beau falls in love with the girl, but his attentions are refused.

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Florentine Fair, a famous actress who is satiated with theatrical life, falls in love with Roger Dent, an unsophisticated youth with a passion for writing plays. Taking him to New York as her protégé, she encourages him to write. Although her lover Mortimer is insanely jealous at first, he finds merit in Dent's new play and finances him on Broadway.

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Madeline Gray, a young San Francisco woman spending the winter in the tropics, is suddenly called home. Accompanied by her friend Walter Maxwell, she books passage on a schooner owned by Bucko McAllister--aka "The Brute Master" because of his brutal, tyrannical behavior. Once they're at sea a crew member mutinies, locks McAllister in his cabin and sets the ship on fire. Maxwell, Madeline and the remaining crew make it off the ship and to a nearby island, where they make a discovery that they weren't expecting at all.

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When respectable Lloyd Norwood becomes infatuated with moll Goldie Lewis, he falls into a life of debasement, which results in his being accused of the murder of gangland henchman Joe the Swell. Norwood's wife Mary, convinced of her husband's innocence, determines to clear his name. Disguising herself as a vamp and infiltrating the underworld, Mary extracts a confession from the real murderer, Pussyfoot Connor, who is duped by Mary into believing that he sees the ghost of the murdered man. Later, in order to have witnesses to the story, Mary takes a midnight dinner with gang leader Jack Frost, arousing the jealousy of Connor, who enters and accuses Frost of instigating the murder. The police, alerted to the scheme, rush in and arrest the criminals.

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A doctor serving the slums questions his faith after transitioning to a position with more prestige and wealth.

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A Broadway actress uses her sex appeal to ruin a marriage only to dump her lover for a richer prospect.

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Mary Moreland discovers the photograph of a woman not her mother in her father's suitcase and sets out to find her in hopes of returning her father to his rightful place in the family.

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A young man working in a steel mill falls in love with an old Scotsman's daughter. The young man saves the life of the steel-mill owner and is adopted by him. But then he learns that the Scotsman and the mill owner are mortal enemies.

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