Menu
© 2026 The Couch Critic
Browse 41 movies from Balboa Amusement Producing Company
Who Pays? was a series of twelve three-reel dramas, released between March and July 1915. Henry King and Ruth Roland starred in each episode, playing different roles each time, with a variety of supporting players who varied from one episode to another. Each episode told a complete and individual story, but they were all inter-related by a uniform theme. Although there were no cliff-hanger endings, each episode did, in fact, end with a challenge to the audience: Who was responsible for the misfortune of the principal characters? The titles of the twelve episodes were: #1: The Price of Fame; #2: The Pursuit of Pleasure; #3: When Justice Sleeps; #4: The Love Liar; #5: Unto Herself Alone; #6: Houses of Glass; #7: Blue Blood and Yellow; #8: Today and Tomorrow; #9: For the Commonwealth; #10: Pomp of Earth; #11: The Fruit of Folly; #12: Toil and Tyranny.
Mar 1915
Dorothy Madison, a secret service operative, is sent into the West Virginia mountains to locate a still, after male operatives failed. She carries a sketching outfit and a carrier pigeon into the moonshine country, and hides the pigeon in the woods near a mountain cabin, where she hopes to make headquarters. She walks along the road until she sees Dave Parks coming, falls, feigns a sprained ankle, and is taken home by Dave, who is a young, good-looking moonshiner. Dave's mother is a sour-faced, pipe-smoking, suspicious old mountain woman, and only tolerates Dorothy. Nell Oatsey, typical mountain girl of bold beauty, hears of Dorothy's plight and goes to see her. She carries her rifle.
Feb 1914
Rich young playboy Gregory Kirkland reads a newspaper story about a daring robbery, and bets his friends that he can steal a famous diamond tiara, The Sultana, from its designer and then secretly return it without being caught. Robert Sautrelle, who designed the tiara, visits Kirkland's home, and Gregory does indeed steal it. However, he gets cold feet before he returns it and convinces a woman he knows, Virginia Lowndes, to return it. Unfortunately, things don't work out exactly as Gregory had planned.
Oct 1916
Having served ten years at hard labor, Robert Richards, Convict No. 832, regains his freedom from prison. Resolved to start life anew, he seeks employment, but the world looks askance at him, and failure meets his persistent efforts.
May 1915
Jul 1914
Half-breed Nor is loved by French Canadian Jacques but when they quarrel, she meets Englishman Cedric Ralston who has been jilted by his fiancée Margaret for his elder brother, Lord Ralston. Later, Nor and Cedric are married, but on the day of their wedding, Cedric hears of his brother's death, and he goes to England, taking Nor. Unhappy she realizes Cedric’s heart belongs to Margaret and Nor returns to her mountains and to Jacques.
Jun 1916
After a lover's quarrel, writer Grace Hunt goes vacationing to a seaside resort where she decides to swap identities with a student.
Jul 1915
Just after Bob's fiancée breaks off their engagement, he meets young Mary, whose mother has just died, and the two of them comfort each other.
Mar 1916
After a love triangle results death, St. Elmo falls from grace and is eventually redeemed in this now lost silent film based on the best selling novel by Augusta Jane Wilson.
May 1914
Harry Larrabee, a young playwright, lives in the same studio apartment house with Carolyn Vaughn, a painter of miniatures, with whom he falls in love. "The Wolf," a famous criminal, supposed to be dead, returns and communicates with his wife, a friend of Carolyn's. He forces his wife and her brother to aid him in a plot to rob Carolyn of her valuable jewels. Harry, by one of his famous "inspirations," discovers that a crime is being committed, rescues Carolyn and bears her away in a taxicab. He is himself suspected of the crime, but, undisturbed by the web of circumstance by which he is entangled, his wonderful inspirations give him the key to the conspiracy which led up to the crime. In an unusual and powerful finale the guilty parties fight among themselves and justice triumphs in an exciting climax.
Mar 1917
On the rim of the desert The Brute runs a saloon with an iron hand which he also uses on The Woman. When The Man wanders in and wins at poker The Brute tries to fleece him of his winnings but loses everything when suddenly The Man catches sight of The Woman. He offers to stake his all on her and they play. The Man has four of a kind. The Brute has a gun. But The Man is a quicker draw and the pair escape across the desert. The Brute follows but when he is defeated in a showdown he wanders off into the desert to perish. The Man and The Woman embark on a new life.
Jun 1915
An English nobleman is banished from home because of his attachment to a girl "not of his class." He marries the girl, comes to America with her, and a child, John Burton, subsequently the hero of each chapter of this serial, is born to them. 14 chapters.
Jul 1916
Dec 1915
A chauffeur named Frank gets caught between his wealthy employer, Mr. Rogers, and Rogers' wife, who loves Frank, and his own love interest, Florence, the wealthy ward Rogers is abusive towards. After Frank is framed by Rogers for theft and a blackmail scheme involving the divorce, Frank and Florence fall in love, while Mrs. Rogers is driven to the brink of suicide. Frank protects Florence from Rogers and ultimately, the lovers unite while the abusive couple suffers.
Sep 1917
The Red Circle is a birthmark, on the hand of the heroine, noticeable only in times of stress and excitement, which forces her to steal, leading to no end of complications and intrigue. A lost film.
James Sterling, wealthy bachelor, is told by his doctor that he must go up into the mountains if he would recover the health lost in his midnight parties. He goes, leaving behind Clarice Driscoll, a society girl whom he loves. In the mountains he meets Lucy Bingham. Away from the city influences, he falls in love with this maid of the wilds
Sep 1915
Jul 1918
A former Annapolis cadet is thrown out of the Naval Academy for cheating on an exam. Of course he was framed, but he must enlist in the Navy to clear himself. Meanwhile he and his sweetheart search for a buried treasure on Lost Island, which everyone is after.
Through negotiations with the neighboring monarch, the King of Zollenstein arranges for his son to marry the Princess of Saxonia, but later discovers that the prince already has wed Lady Maulfrey Le Fay in secret.
Nov 1917