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Browse 88 movies from Reliance Film Company
John Howard Payne leaves home and begins a career in the theater. Despite encouragement from his mother and his sweetheart, Payne begins leading a life of dissolute habits, which soon leads to ruin and misery. In deep despair, he recalls better days, and writes a song that later provides inspiration to several others in their own times of need.
May 1914
Wealthy and charitable-minded manufacturer Mr. Merwin fearing his death, decides to donate a large sum of money to the church to atone for his past lack of charity.
Mar 1915
George Cantor and Tom Johnson love the same girl; one wins the girl from the other and the loser leaves swearing revenge on his successful rival. A few years later, the two marry. George is a successful doctor; Tom is an unemployed laborer with a wife, a sick baby, and little food at home.
Sep 1914
Billy is playing in his backyard with his dog and baby sister, Mary. A ball from the neighboring yard hits him on the head, leading to a fight with the ball's six-year-old owner, Jack. Billy loses the fight and sends his dog to avenge him, which scares Jack. Later on the beach, Jack leaves his four-year-old sweetheart, Olive, to buy ice cream. Billy approaches Olive and she leaves with him, his dog, and baby Mary. When Jack returns, Olive tells him she prefers Billy, making Jack angry and eager to get Billy "in wrong at home". Jack finds an opportunity when baby Mary crawls away near some rocks, and he hides her.
May 1915
When a stack of valuable bonds go missing from the Grant household, suspicion falls on little Carmen Grant's playmate Georgie, whose father is a poor ex-convict trying to go straight.
Sep 1915
Our Mutual Girl was unique. Not quite a serial, not quite a newsreel and not strictly an advertisement, it combined elements of all three. In 52 weekly one-reel episodes, running from January 19, 1914 to January 11, 1915, the Mutual Girl outwitted villains, saw the sights of New York, met with theatrical and political celebrities (who frequently helped her out of trouble) and tried on fashionable outfits in chic stores. The fashions were an early example of product placement, although apparently not paid placement.
Jan 1914
The "Cannon Ball" express train is running late, so the station agent has the opportunity to play seven up with a waiting passenger who turns out to be not only his old pal but his enemy too!
Oct 1914
Apr 1915
Mollie Owens, engaged to sheriff’s deputy Dick Calvert, is taken captive by outlaw Monk Turgis and imprisoned in the "death cabin” so called because everyone shunned it after of two mysterious murders were committed there. Turgis and his friend try to scare money out of Mollie's mother, but Dick sets out on their trail. He sees one of them enter the cabin and immediately investigates.
Feb 1915
Mildred Harrison lives a quiet life and her two main loves are her rose bushes and her fiancé, Harrison. The story primarily revolves around Mildred's devotion to Harrison and her garden and the challenges their relationship faces.
Jim Miller lives in a cheap tenement with his wife and his sister. They had been in a better position in other days, but Jim has developed into a morose half-drunken character, suspicious and high-tempered. The sister leaves her own husband and comes to live with Jim. However, she is jealous of her sister-in-law and goes out of her way to be mean to her, and to poison Jim's mind against the weak, pretty thing who is his wife. One day Jim gets out of a job and while he is out looking for work and the sister is away at her work in the factory, Mary, the wife, steals out determined to add to the common share, while her husband is in hard luck. She finds work painting clay figures, an art for which she shows some talent. But she is afraid of Jim's wildness and as soon as she collects money she secrets it for a rainy day. One day after she has worked hard and hoarded some money, the sister comes in unexpectedly upon her, and when Mary goes out of the room finds the money in an old vase.
Feb 1914
When Runa's big sister marries, she takes the little girl with her to the new home. Things go on smoothly for a time, but later, big sister and her husband are entertaining a great deal, and give a great many parties, and so, in consequence, haven't much time for Runa, who, left to the maid's care, feels rather neglected. One day she runs away and is lost in the woods. Shep, her faithful pet, follows and finds her unable to get up, as she has sprained her ankle. He hurries home, and although he barks loudly, no one heeds him, for all are out searching for the lost child. He manages to get into the harness of his little cart and drags it out to the child. She lifts herself into it and Shep takes her home.
Jun 1913
Biff Dugan, the eldest son of a poor family living in a tenement on the squalid East Side of New York, leads a gang of hoodlums, among whose members is his brother Porky. Their sister Jess is a consumptive whose health was ruined in a sweatshop. During a melee in a mission run by reformer Henry Davis, the Dugan gang encounters Billy Drew and his sister Cora, newcomers to the city. Porky saves Cora from the unwelcome attentions of Biff's rival, Spike Golden, and the two fall in love. Later, when Spike is killed in a gang war, Biff is wrongfully convicted of the murder and executed in the electric chair. Porky, who served a short term in prison for his part in the crime, comes back to the city to find that Jess has died and Cora has returned to the country.
Shakespeare's tragedy of the Scots nobleman whose ambition leads him to betrayal, murder, and damnation.
Jun 1916
A poor widow dies, leaving her two young children, Bob and Mabel, in the care of a poor neighbor, who later is forced by circumstances to give them to an asylum. Twenty years pass and Jack, who has been adopted by a good family, has now gone into business for himself and is a rising young broker. He has been searching the detective agencies for his sister, without success, for some years. Mabel ran away from the asylum and has been brought up by a poor family, is without education and is now employed as a servant, and on a certain day is hanging clothes on a roof nearby a large office building, in which Bob has his office, and a small boy is flying his kite from the same rooftop.
Dec 1914
This picture tells how a boy is cared for all his life by his mother, when he is well and when he is ill.
May 1913
A young society swain is stolen away from the young blind girl he loves by a rapacious queen of the demi-monde who is only out for his wealth…at first. Soon enough, she falls for him and is purified by her feelings. Realizing she will ruin his life if they stay together, she commits suicide in the gray of the dawn, and he returns to his true love.
Oct 1910
Wealthy, bored socialite named Mary Lang disguises herself and runs away to seek adventure, but is recognized by reporter Hugh Grey, who tricks her into falling in love with him. On the eve of their planned wedding, she discovers he is a fortune hunter who stole her photograph and manipulated her for the reward money. After she denounces him, Grey locks her in her room, collects the reward from her father, and is thrashed by John Barrick, Mary's father's business partner, for his treachery. Her eyes are opened to Barrick's sincerity, and she ultimately marries him.
A 1910 short directed by D.W. Griffith and starring Marion Leonard.
Nov 1910
Miner Jim Mann is indifferent to the new baby and sees him as nothing more than an additional burden. His wife Lucy looks after the baby and is unable to help much with the work, and Jim's dinner is often late. He grows to dislike the child and refuses to hold or pet him. Dawson, another miner, and his wife and their small baby occupy the cabin on the adjacent claim.