Thanhouser Company

A rich man who finds that there is nothing in life worth living for, is worse off than is a poor man in similar circumstances, for the poor man may he stricken with ambition, and in a last effort to attain fame and fortune, redeems himself. But what is a man to do if he has wealth, health, all the fame he desires, and yet looks at life through blue spectacles?

In the days long ago when knights were brave and venturesome, enchanted forests grew and mythical creatures lived among us.

The son of a poor widow fell in love with a heartless showgirl who spurned the simple gifts he gave her. In a moment of desperation he tried to rob the box office of the theater in which he was employed as a stage hand, but was detected by the night watchman who shot and wounded him mortally. Before he expired he wrote a letter to his mother saying, "Many a man is tempted to sin for the woman he loves." The widow in order to maintain herself, obtained work as a scrub woman in an office building where she became acquainted with a prepossessing young clerk who wife she learned was dangerously ill and was told by the physician to go to Arizona.

Zudora, not knowing she's an heiress to a $20 million fortune, lives with her uncle, a mystic and detective, who covets her inheritance. She wants to marry John Storm but her uncle is against it. However, the uncle makes a bargain; if Zudora can solve the next twenty mysteries brought to him, she can marry as she chooses. Episodes 1,2 and 8, plus another unidentified chapter, survive. The rest is believed to be lost.

Dottie was very proud of her great big beautiful doll but sometimes they are in danger of getting broke. And that was what happened to "Beautiful Bess" and it nearly broke her mother's tiny heart.

Age old tale of a couple marooned.

With The Old Curiosity Shop and David Copperfield, both released in 1911, and Nicholas Nickleby in 1912, Thanhouser established itself as producer of the best Dickens adaptations in American film.

Dramatic three-reel film based on Wagner's opera of chivalry and spiritual struggle. Wandering minstrel Tannhauser wins the heart of Elizabeth, niece of the powerful Landgrave. Later, under the spell of Venus and her nymphs, Tannhauser passes into Venusberg, a netherworld of earthly pleasures. Returning to the Landgrave's court, he praises Venus in song and sparks the righteous anger of all present. His own prayers and those of Elizabeth free him from enchantment and he takes up the habit of a monk, devoting himself to God. He sets off to seek absolution in Rome while Elizabeth waits at court, ever weakening in his absence.

Over the years, an old gardener observes a romance develop between a young boy and girl. 20 years after they break up over a misunderstanding, the old man is instrumental in bringing them back together again.

A love story filmed in Long Island Sound with a stowaway and a shipwreck.

Henry Dennys, a wealthy Englishman, has two sons who are frequently brought into the company of Edith Danvers, whose father, a retired general, lives on the adjoining property. As the youths approach manhood each one unknown to the other is secretly in love with the girl.

An aging King invites disaster, when he abdicates to his corrupt, toadying daughters, and rejects his loving and honest one.

After having been wrongly accused of murder and robbery, a heretofore kindly and gregarious weaver becomes a nasty, bitter, lonely old miser. Originally a seven-reel picture, a three-reel re-release survives.

In "The World and the Woman", Jeanne Eagels plays Mary, a prostitute (which is implied by her walking the streets and being hassled by policemen) who reluctantly takes a better position at a country lodge as a maid. In this woodland community, she attends church and the path to Salvation becomes clear to her. Through Mary's faith, the injured folk of the countryside are healed. However, her old employer, whose lustful advances she'd previously spurned, still has designs on her.

Happy in the love of his devoted wife and their child, a young businessman found life's pathway pleasant. Then the greatest of sorrows came; his wife died and he was plunged into gloom.

This elaborate and well-staged silent version of Hertz' play is exceedingly well produced for 1913: it starts off by introducing the actors by name and role, then showing them in double exposure in street clothes and in costumes. The production values are also elaborate and the look of the set designs reminds one of the elaborate backdrops that Melies used in his shots.

Audrey Munson (a real-life 'perfect' model for numerous Beaux-Arts sculptors) first appeared artistically nude as a sculptor's model, recreating classic artistic (nude) paintings in George Foster Platt's controversial film from the Mutual Film Corporation. In fact, the film told the story of her own life. This film has generally been regarded as the first non-pornographic American film to feature nudity. This was the first known film in which a leading actress stripped down to be naked, making her the first nude film star. (filmsite.org)

A young mechanic, temporarily residing in a southern city, found that business was slack in his trade, and decided to send his wife to her relations in the north until happier days dawned. He did not dream that he was putting her in peril, and when later he received word that the ship upon which she sailed had been lost with all on board, he was frantic with grief and self-reproach. Life in this city became hateful to him, and having no ties that bound him there, he abruptly departed into the country, deciding to wander wherever fate might lead him.

A one-reel crime drama with crooks, ruses, kidnapping, escape, and a twist, all wrapped in a coherent narrative.

The young farmer's wife had one trial, her husband's father. He was old and peevish, and so racked and crippled by illness that he could not walk a step. The woman declared that something must be done and on numerous occasions pleaded with her husband to send the old man to the poor house. The farmer long, resisted, but at last he yielded and the woman drove away triumphantly, to make her arrangements at the alms house. The old man knew what was contemplated. Helpless and friendless he sat in his chair, and prayed for death. Who could blame him? The wife, as has been stated, was on her way to the alms house.