Harry L. Rattenberry

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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Eve Underhill quits her job in the "want ad" department of a San Francisco newspaper and heads for Eden, Arizona, to answer its advertisement for a lady mayor. Upon her arrival, the womanless town hails her as boss, and she initiates a cleanup campaign. A romance develops between her and Catamount Carson, mayor of the rival town of Catamount. Complications revolve about the efforts of Catamount Carson's evil cousin, Ambrose Carson, to inflame a dispute between the two towns over water rights.

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Wide Open Spaces is a 1924 Western silent film starring Stan Laurel.

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Stan Laurel as a harness racing jockey who must win a big race.

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Brick Hubbard, a "printer's devil", convinces his friend Sid Fletcher to invest in "The Gazette", a local newspaper. Sid pens an editorial that infuriates Ira Gates, a local banker and a power in the town--and who also happens to be the father of Vivian Gates, whom Sidney is in love with. To complicate matters, the bank is robbed and Sidney is suspected of the crime.

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This northwoods comedy-drama, by way of a circus drama, was directed by John Griffith Wray for Thomas H. Ince, and stars Madge Bellamy.

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A riotous comedy of social errors, as absurd as a butler's whiskers.

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Elmer Slocum has just served a jail sentence for speeding. On his first day of liberty he encounters a physician whose car has broken down and offers to take him to his patient; he is pursued by motorcops for speeding, wrecks his car in a closed street, and knocks down and believes he has killed a policeman. Elmer boards a freight train and makes his way to a small town in Iowa, where he meets Margaret Andrews.....

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Silas Warner, Jr., is the playboy son of a wealthy New York financier. When Silas’s brother, Archie, commits a near-theft, Silas nobly takes the blame. Disinherited by his father, Silas travels West to start a new life in a mining town. Once there, he is inducted into a local fraternity of fortune seekers known as the "Ornery and Worthless Men of the World". A series of events leads to a compromising situation that forces Silas to marry Sally. The film blends Western themes with comedic and dramatic elements as Silas navigates his new life and marriage.

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Engineer Joe Dayton faces sabotage while constructing a railroad through the Canadian Northwest. Local bandit leader Jacques Durand attempts to stop the project, fearing it will bring law and order. Complicating matters, Dayton and Durand are look-alike doppelgangers.

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Melville Carruthers finally decides to propose to his girlfriend Grace and sets out for her house, but gets a sudden attack of shyness and stops in at a café to calm himself. A fight erupts and Melville is knocked out. He wakes up in his room the following day with a young "cabaret girl" taking care of him. Just at that time Grace and her father stop by, and Melville is unable to explain who the girl is and why she's there. Complications ensue.

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Planning to fleece wealthy Henry Dodd, Blackie Blaisdell and his band of crooks convince the millionaire that they have located the deposed president of San Salvador, a country in which Dodd holds mining interests.

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Huckleberry Finn, a rambuctious boy adventurer chafing under the bonds of civilization, escapes his humdrum world and his selfish, plotting father by sailing a raft down the Mississippi River. Accompanying him is Jim, a slave running away from being sold. Together the two strike a bond of friendship that takes them through harrowing events and thrilling adventures.

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After George bests a rival suitor for the fire chief's daughter, the rival tries revenge by attempting to burning down their house. Meanwhile, the fire department has been taken over by a gang of bathing beauty chorines.

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Wealthy young American Carrington O'Connell is traveling Europe with a "social advisor" to become more polished and sophisticated. While stopping at an inn in Switzerland, he is entranced by pretty young Adrienne Le Blanc, whose parents own the inn and in which she entertains travelers. Adrienne falls for him, but his "advisor" warns him against such a socially "unacceptable" relationship, and he reluctantly leaves. Adrienne soon gets a contract with a theatrical agent for appearances at a musical hall in America, where she happens to meet Carrington's wealthy father Michael. Complications ensue.

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A poor hat-check girl loses her job and is forced to get a job as a dancer at a roadhouse. There she falls in love with the son of a rich businessman. The boy's father, believing her to be after the family's money, determines to embarrass her and show his son what she really is.

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Silent Italy immigrant family relationship romantic melodrama about a poor Italian flower seller whose mother gets sick. The doctor tells him to take his mother to Arizona, which he does with his wife and child. The railroad men in Arizona think he is the start of a wave of Italian immigrants coming to take away their jobs, but they meet his darling son, Beppo, who wins them over. But then, his wife dies, and he gets involved with an immigrant Italian woman who takes Beppo back to Italy, but the railroad men help him get Beppo back. It turns out his land has oil on it, so he's fabulously rich, and he shares the fortune with the railroad men!

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Rather than telling his parents, who have another girl picked out for him, Bob brings home his new wife disguised as his friend "Steve."

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A Billie Rhodes comedy produced by Strand. Billy Bevan plays the farmer's son.

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M'liss, a feisty young girl in a mining camp, falls for Charles Gray, the school teacher. Charles is implicated in a murder of which he is innocent, and the two must fight to save him from a lynching.

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Millionaire Larry Prentiss inherits a ranch. He decides to visit his new property incognito and gets a job as a ranch-hand. He falls in love with the ranch foreman's daughter and complications ensue.

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After leaving her sweetheart Jed Bronson, and small country town life, Minnie Wills (Olive Thomas) obtains a job as a model in a stylish Chicago shop and soon attracts the attention of Moncure Kelts, a wealthy playboy. Enchanted by her beauty and innocence, Moncure proposes, but once she has accepted, he loses interest in her and soon becomes desperate to get rid of her. With her emotions very much under control, Minnie agrees to break off the engagement in exchange for a limousine, a large wardrobe, and a large check, and then returns to Three Oaks. Overjoyed to see her, Jed proposes, and after their marriage, Minnie convinces him to establish a business in Chicago. The plan proves highly successful, and later, when the couple encounters Moncure on the street, Minnie thanks him for giving them their start in life.

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Bandit Cheyenne Harry reforms because of the faith placed in him by Molly Young and her father. Soon, however, Harry is lured from the straight and narrow when he meets his old friend Ben Kent and consents to participate in Kent's plan of robbing a stagecoach.

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A judge who had taken part in the gold rush of 1849 hires an acting troupe to recreate the experience in this rather fanciful silent Western. The make-believe turns serious when a real gold mine is discovered nearby and a local girl is kidnapped by a nasty gambler.

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Police headquarters has been plagued by a series of robberies, culminating in the theft of a priceless necklace smuggled from Europe. The detectives are on the track of a gang led by master thief Ramon Mordant and his accomplice known as "the Face" because of his twisted and hideous countenance.

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“Speed” Cannon, an ambitious young businessman is determined to win the affections of a boarding-school girl whose father made millions in the pork industry. He must use his wit and "speedy" business acumen to navigate the social demands of the girl's father, ultimately trying to win her hand in marriage.

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An orphan endures a harsh life in a workhouse before fleeing to London, where he falls in with a gang of juvenile pickpockets led by the criminal Fagin, and eventually finds a better life, exposing the cruelties of poverty and child labor in Victorian England.

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That Doggone Baby (1916) is about a small puppy who is supposed to be a baby.

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Neal, while sitting in his room, notices an accident in the street and kindly goes to the man's rescue with his car and takes him to the hospital. The nurse assigned to the case, Billie, makes a great hit with Neal.

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A father's plan to arrange a marriage for his son goes awry when the son marries another woman, then brings her back to meet the family disguised as a man. What could go wrong?

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Eddie leaves on the train for his uncle's place to meet the girl who has been picked out for him to marry, much to his displeasure. Victoria sets out for her aunt's for the same purpose and takes the same train. Neither knows the other and has no idea in what the other looks like. The fat man and his wife and three children board the train. Finding that they have left the baby's nursing bottle behind, the wife gets off to buy another and misses the train. At the next stop the fat man gets off to telegraph to his wife, leaving the children in charge of Eddie, who is his friend.

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Colonel Bunk, after seeing his first movie, appoints himself “supreme censor of the movies” and he and his Board of Censors set to the task of “pruning” a movie (in more ways than one).

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The boys are fagged with the long summer's work and are undecided where to spend their vacation. One day Eddie is idly looking over the paper when he sees that a young man has met and married a wealthy heiress at the beach; suddenly, nothing but the beach will suit them. Eddie sees the boss and they are given permission to take a vacation.

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