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© 2026 The Couch Critic
Browse 716 movies from The Essanay Film Manufacturing Company
Little Betty has a luxurious home, an army of servants and the costliest of toys. But she hasn't what a child wants most of all, other children to play with. The result is that she runs away and joins a group of children from the ghetto district on the beach. In play she exchanges clothing with a little boy. That evening Betty doesn't return home. Her maiden aunt, an over-zealous guardian, is frantic. She notifies the police. The same evening the father of the boy, who has lost his position and is facing starvation, decides to turn burglar. He steals into the home of Betty's father. The household is awakened and the intruder captured.
Sep 1917
The Little Fellow finds the girl of his dreams and work on a family farm. He helps defend the farm against criminals, and all seems well, until he discovers the girl of his dreams already has someone in her life. Unwilling to be a problem in their lives, he takes to the road, though he is seen skipping and swinging his cane as if happy to be back on the road where he knows he belongs.
Apr 1915
A gypsy seductress is sent to sway a goofy officer to allow a smuggling run.
Dec 1915
Walking along with his bulldog, Charlie finds a "good luck" horseshoe just as he passes a training camp advertising for a boxing partner "who can take a beating." After watching others lose, Charlie puts the horseshoe in his glove and wins. The trainer prepares Charlie to fight the world champion. A gambler wants Charlie to throw the fight. He and the trainer's daughter fall in love.
Mar 1915
A shipowner intends to scuttle his ship on its last voyage to get the insurance money. Charlie, a tramp in love with the owner's daughter, is grabbed by the captain and promises to help him shanghai some seamen. The daughter stows away to follow Charlie. Charlie assists in the galley and attempts to serve food during a gale.
Oct 1915
After a visit to a pub, Charlie and Ben cause a ruckus at a posh restaurant. Charlie later finds himself in a compromising position at a hotel with the head waiter's wife.
Feb 1915
A stirring Western drama presenting as its principal character a man who is at once ranchman and bandit
Oct 1910
Helen Steele, who has theatrical aspirations, has been told by Sidney Parker that, owing to her lack of stage experience he cannot entertain her proposition of giving her the leading part in his new production, "The Siren." Believing that she can get Parker to consent if she is persuasive enough, Helen has her fiancé, Henry Tracey, invite the theatrical manager to the party to be given by John W. Cannell so that she may work upon him. At the affair Helen manages to obtain Parker's consent to give her a trial it she is successful in having Jack Craigen, a friend of Cannell, who has been living in Patagonia for a long time and who is a woman hater, propose to her.
Jan 1916
Olga, a writer, at a loss to bring her book to a fitting climax, goes for celestial inspiration into church, where she kneels and listens to the wonderful music of Gustave, the organist. She meets him as he leaves the church, and they are instinctively drawn to each other.
Nov 1913
Mother, father and daughter go to the park. The women doze off on a bench while the father plays a hide-and-seek game with a girl, blindfolded. Charlie leads him into a lake. Both dozing ladies on the bench fall for Charlie and invite him for dinner. The father returns home with a friend. Charlie rushes upstairs and dresses like a woman, shaving his mustache. Both men fall for Charlie.
Jul 1915
Charlie is released from prison and immediately swindled by a fake parson. A fellow ex-convict convinces Charlie to help burglarize a house.
May 1916
Wanah-to-mah, a son of the forest, is in love with Mah-to-mee. George Bradford, a stranger and prospector, sets camp in the forest and, by his carelessness, sets the forest afire. Mah-to-mee makes a great impression on the stranger and he tries to work his eastern tactics on her. He is rebuked.
Dec 1913
Aug 1913
Ralph Murray and his wife are devoted to each other, yet they have their usual lovers' quarrels. One afternoon, Murray calls to see a friend, Jack Carson by name, who insists that Murray take his wife to luncheon. It so happens that Mrs. Murray sees her husband with "the other woman." The gossips spread the news fast, which develops into a suicide and a death by a broken heart. Speak no evil and the world is a song; speak thou evil and the world goes wrong.
Feb 1914
When a couple of scammers hold young Alice Faulkner against her will to discover the whereabouts of letters whose dissemination could cause a scandal affecting the royal family, Sherlock Holmes decides to take over the case. (Considered lost, a copy was found in 2014, in the vaults of the Cinémathèque Française.)
Jun 1916
William Skinner is very pleased with the news his wife Honey is expecting their first child. He eagerly prepares for the new arrival, as he is sure it will be the next William Skinner Jr. When the bundle of joy finally arrives, much to his surprise, it's a girl. However, Honey and William are just as happy as if she were a he.
Aug 1917
George Maxwell, a young cowboy, rescues a fever-stricken Mexican prospector and carrying him to an inn in the vicinity like a good Samaritan, pays the innkeeper a sum of money to care for the stricken man until he recovers.
May 1911
Snake, a notorious outlaw, robs the general store. True Boardman, the sheriff, and a posse starts out after him. Snake riddles the sheriff's hat with bullets and the sheriff and posse run under cover. Boardman resigns. The village trustees appoint a new sheriff. Snake writes a note saying he will be in Kelly's saloon that night.
The bandit leader is lying wounded in his cabin on the mountain when his confederates bring in a girl whom they have kidnapped while she was on her way to join her father after a trip east.
Trail to the West is a silent Western.
Jan 1910