Menu
© 2026 The Couch Critic
Browse 346 movies from Selig Polyscope Company
The Spoilers is a 1914 film directed by Colin Campbell. It is set in Nome, Alaska during the 1898 Gold Rush, with William Farnum as Roy Glennister, Kathlyn Williams as Cherry Malotte, and Tom Santschi as Alex McNamara. The film culminates in a spectacular saloon fistfight between Glennister and McNamara. It was adapted to screen by Lanier Bartlett from the Rex Beach novel of the same name.
Apr 1914
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
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
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
Earliest known example of African American intimacy on screen. This version is shot with a wider view and shows more of the vaudeville stylings of Saint Suttle and Gertie Brown and their stage act.
Jan 1898
A scientist who is married to an amoral woman lives next door to a happily married couple. At first envying their happiness, the scientist eventually falls in love with his neighbor's wife. When her husband goes on a business trip to Africa, the scientist also goes abroad to avoid temptation but finds himself sailing from Cairo aboard the same ship as his neighbor's wife
Feb 1916
In this Western, the sergeant takes his commander’s daughter on a horseback ride along the Merced River (which actually might be Oregon's Clackamas River). When their horses are stolen by a renegade, they are forced to travel back to headquarters by foot and lose the trail. In the first clip, mounted troops search for the lost couple. The two are found the next day and the sergeant is disgraced. However, the sergeant proves his mettle when he escapes during an Indian attack and leads reinforcements to the rescue. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in partnership with National Film Preservation Foundation New Zealand Project in 2012.
Sep 1910
A young man transforms his uncle's palatial residence into a sanitarium only to end up paying back the money his patients gave him.
Oct 1910
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
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
According to Vachel Lindsay, "the best film fairy-tale the present writer remembers".
Dec 1912
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
A secret message is dispatched by the young daughter of a Southern family to Col. Morgan's camp.
Apr 1910
Prof. Jaquin Delano joins a circus to study practical zoology. Old man Cummings is the guardian of Anita, a beautiful girl. Cummings rages because the circus tents are pitched too near his palatial home. Anita visits the menagerie tent, sees Jaquin and is impressed with his kind treatment of the wild beasts.
Mar 1915
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
Kathlyn quickly recovers from the curious sensation of being forced to occupy an unwelcome throne in compliance with the scheming councilors of a fanatical people. The high priest prepares to go on with the ceremony of marrying her to Umballah, who is the mainspring of all her troubles
Jan 1914
Pirates attack the town of Martinique and capture the governor. But the townspeople rally back in a battle between ships.
Nov 1911
The boss of iron worker Roanoke Brooks (Power), is having an affair with his wife (Kathlyn Williams). Eventually she commits suicide and her lover dies in an accident. Roanoke lavishes all his love and attention on his daughter (Edith Johnson). As a young woman she goes to the West where she meets the son of the man who broke up her father's marriage.
Nov 1915
John Wilton cables his sister Helen in London to leave for South Africa via S.S. China and apprises her of the fact that Lord Thurlow sails on the same ship and is to act as her escort. At the same time telling her he will meet them at Cape Town. After a hurried preparation for the departure the long journey is begun. Lord Thurlow is attentive to his charge that he may fulfill the wishes of his friend and confidant, John Wilton. Will Carson, a fellow passenger aboard, much admires the young and handsome Helen and seeks an introduction through the ship officer. The admiration becomes mutual and they are seen on the promenade deck enjoying fresh sea air. Their action causes much uneasiness on the part of Lord Thurlow, who interferes in the discharge of his duty, and is in turn insulted by Will, much to the disgust of Helen, who regrets the publicity of the incident. The approaching storm rivets the attention of all on board and for a time the unfortunate affair is forgotten.
May 1911
James Hazen, one-time crook, now wealthy and reformed, is recognized on his wedding day, by a former pal, Florrie Cook, who follows the young couple to Hazen's new home in the country. Hazen has isolated himself here in the hope of finding security in complete loneliness.
Sep 1911