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Browse 346 movies from Selig Polyscope Company
The captain of the "Alden Bessie" was a drunken tyrant who manhandled his men upon the slightest provocation, despite the pleadings of his daughter and the first mate who loved her in his rough way, but for whom she could feel only friendship. One night the crew killed him, and marooned the mate and the captain's daughter by sending them adrift in a small boat. Days passed upon the vast expanse of ocean, and their food was all gone and death near, when land was sighted and their boat was cast up on a coral reef, and they with difficulty made the shore. Fear of death was soon supplanted in the heart of the captain's daughter by fear of a man loving her all too well. The mate, seeing this and realizing the strength of his passion, decided to live on the side of the island, but as the months passed away his loneliness overcame him and he made his way to where she sat reading. He looked over her shoulder, and saw that she read the marriage service.
Jan 1912
The serial detailed the experiences of Kathlyn Hare, the pretty daughter of an explorer. Kathlyn resided in a mythical India, fighting off unwanted advances from a handsome native, Umballah, when not battling an endless array of ferocious jungle fauna.
Dec 1913
James Morley, superintendent of the Crown Hill oil refinery, is unable to cope with the rough element in the works. Jack Hartway asks for a position, and Mr. Hastings discharges Morley. Hartway is duly installed as the new superintendent, and his first act is to put up a sign that Rooney, the bully, has formerly resented. Rooney tears the sign down, goes to the office to confront Hartway, is knocked down, and is made to nail the sign up again.
Nov 1911
Buck Minor was the most detested man in Wolf Hollow, partly because he was quarrelsome and treacherous, partly because he abused and neglected his little wife, Molly, whom all the camp adored, and for whose sake it tolerated Buck.
Jul 1909
A short silent film based on the poem "The Courtship of Miles Standish" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Jan 1910
John Sharon, a steel magnate is immensely successful from the worldly point of view, while Ed Young, his humble employee, views himself as a failure because his income shrinks as his family responsibilities increase. Sharon's only son is a drunken disappointment, his wife becomes alienated from him, and his daughter falls critically ill.
Jan 1913
Annie, left orphaned after the death of her mother, goes to live in an orphanage where she tells her fellow orphans stories of ghosts and goblins. The matron of the orphanage finds Annie's closest relative, the abusive Uncle Thomp. Her uncle who puts her to hard work doing hard labor on his farm, belittling her all the while. Big Dave, a neighbor and tough cow-poke sees this and comes to her aid. Dave becomes her protector. Eventually Annie goes to live with Squire Goode and his large family. There, she entertains the children of the household with her stories, but sees her abusive aunt and uncle as her chief tormentors. She tells stories of how the goblins will take away the children if they are not good. Each story she tells is illustrated. War breaks out and Dave, who Annie adores, enlists. Uncle Thomp, hearing that Dave has been killed in action, takes pleasure in telling Annie the news. Broken-hearted, Annie falls ill and dies in bed, surrounded by family.
Dec 1918
Pretty Patience Thompson, a "girl with a singing soul," lives with her cold-hearted and avaricious father, Jeff Thompson, on their Indiana farm. Her life of drudgery is brightened by John, the hired hand, but when he asks for her hand in marriage, the old man flies into a rage and discharges him. Soon an aged but wealthy widower courts Patience, and although she still loves John, "Old Jeff" orders her to marry the widower, claiming that a father's will is the law.
Aug 1918
A mentally deranged sanatorium patient imagines that he is the world's greatest actor.
Apr 1913
Nadia, a stenographer, must give her meager earnings to her drunken father. When he shoots his wife's lover, Nadia decides to move in with her flashy girl friend Mabel, who soon introduces her to the fast life.
Mar 1916
This 15-chapter serial was produced by Colonel William N. Selig, the former mogul whose large assortment of wild animals became the nucleus of today's Los Angeles Zoo. Selig's ferocious fauna added authenticity to a story about yet another white goddess, Princess Elyata of Tirzah (Juanita Hansen), who comes to the rescue of Stanley Morton (George Chesebro) and his sidekick Mike Donovan (Frank Clark), a couple of Americans who foolishly wander into a village ruled by slave trader Gagga (Hector Dion).
Jan 1920
An unauthorised adaptation of the novel by Alexandre Dumas. Produced by Selig with the intent of beating Adolph Zukor's adaptation to the screen, Zukor successfully sued and the prints were ordered to be destroyed. The film is now lost.
Oct 1912
The Mask 1921 film
Jun 1921
Stephen Brice, a young lawyer in Civil War-era St. Louis, falls in love with Virginia Carvel, the daughter of his benefactor. But she is loyal to the South and Brice is committed to Lincoln's cause. In the course of the war, their convictions separate them, and Virginia becomes engaged to her cousin Clarence Colfax, a Confederate officer. Brice becomes an officer under General Sherman, and eventually finds himself faced with the captured Colfax, facing execution for spying. Brice must decide whether or not to intercede in his rival's behalf.
Dec 1916
When the night call came, it found a young woman struggling with great emotions, the better impulses of her sex battling against the perverted sordid side of her nature. It was the culmination of the biggest game Nell Delaney and her gang had ever undertaken. The girl, in order to land an over-cautious victim, had actually married Karl Kreidt, an unsophisticated young man, who had just come into possession of a large amount of money. He was thoroughly infatuated with the woman, could do naught but plan for her comfort, and so fell into the trap she had devised.
Jun 1914
A serio-comic tale shows wherein the East and the West strangely mingle despite Kipling's declaration that: "Never the twain shall meet."
Mar 1914
Thomas Lattier is a well-to-do westerner in the cattle business. One fine day he sells a herd of cattle, receiving for it cash payment in bills of large denomination. He proceeds to town alone to deposit it in his bank. Two bad men, Bretall and Hayes, have learned of the deal and trail him with a view to securing the money.
Apr 1914
When her mother elopes with a lover and her father dies cursing the name of God, Domini Enfilden attempts to forget her pain in Beni Mora, an oasis in the Sahara. At the desert hotel, she meets and falls in love with Boris Androvsky, a tormented man of mystery. Abruptly announcing his departure one day, Boris bids farewell to Domini in the Garden of Allah
Horace Wadsworth (played by Guy Oliver), one of a gang of criminals also planning a bank robbery in New York, steals the titular prayer rug from its Baghdad mosque. He sells the carpet to antique dealer George Jones (Wheeler Oakman) to fund the robbery scheme. But the theft places both men and Fortune Chedsoye (Kathlyn Williams), the innocent daughter of another conspirator, in danger from the carpet's guardian.
May 1915
An early version of the classic, based more on the 1902 stage musical than on the original novel.
Mar 1910