Making Monkey Business

Case Dismissed

May 1924 •English

Slim appears as a police court judge and Bobby as one of the jurors who is later given a job as bailiff. The reel deals with three or four different cases that come up, one a female bootlegger, the other a diminutive man charged with beating his big wife; another raises the question of whether a mule is gentle, and Bobby is called on to ride him. The last charge is against a wild man who escapes, taking Bobby along as he is chained to him. A train runs over the chain and the two drop from the trestle into the police auto.

Wives and Other Wives

December 1918 •English

Assuming the worst Geoffrey Challoner impulsively storms out of the house when he sees his new wife Robin reading old love letters. In his absence, Norman Craig, planning with his wife to lease an upstairs apartment owned by Judge Corcoran, wanders into the Challoners' apartment. Robin, mistaking him for a burglar, shoots him and then runs for a doctor. Returning, Geoffrey again rashly makes assumptions and immediately files for divorce. Mrs. Craig and Norman, who had merely fainted, are invited to Judge Corcoran's weekend home along with the Challoners, whom the judge hopes to reunite. Following a bewildering series of misadventures, including an attempted robbery by the maid and the chauffeur, Geoffrey learns that the love letters were his own, and the young couple are reconciled.

Bringing Up Betty

July 1919 •English

During a lawn party at his New York home, steel magnate Theodore Morton claims he is bankrupt as a deterrent to Lord Dormer and the Duke of Medonia, two fortune hunters competing for his niece, Betty. After the suitors depart, unscrupulous Carl Gates is informed by his fiancée, banker's secretary Adele Shelby, that Theodore was lying. Carl pursues Betty, who accepts his proposal with the belief that the marriage will benefit her uncle. During a yachting expedition with Carl, Betty falls overboard and is rescued by architect Tom Waring, who is competing in a race. Tom wins with Betty on board, and a romance develops.

A Self-Made Widow

July 1917 •English

On the promise of marriage, Sylvia Smith, a simple girl from Lone Meadows, follows her lover to the city only to discover that he already has a wife.

Pants

September 1917 •English

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.

Meller Drammer

August 1914 •English

Goldie, the bright young daughter of Farmer Meadows, is engaged to marry Harold Montaine, a romantic young farm hand. Along comes Jim Bludsoe, a regular villain, whose polish and citified manners impress Goldie so that she is induced to elope with him.

To Be Called For

September 1914 •English

Silas Brown, a close-fisted country hotel-keeper in Hicksville, has a pretty daughter, Betty, who has a devoted suitor in Otis Perkins, a typical country town boy. The curiosity of Betty is excited by a package marked for Francis King, "to be called for." For three weeks the package remains without a claimant.

The Aviator

December 1929 •English

Brooks, a publisher and his publicist decide to boost the sales of a wartime book of flying experiences. They credit the book to popular author Robert Street, who is completely ignorant about aviation. Robert gets into all sorts of trouble in attempting to carry on the ruse, saving his friend's business but also attracting the attention of aviation-mad Grace Douglas. At first, he is able to carry out simple publicity events, but when he accidentally starts up an aircraft, his incredible aerobatics end with a landing in a haystack. When a race is staged between him and French ace Major Jules Gaillard, it ends with Robert confessing he is no pilot, but still winning Grace's heart. Considered a lost film.

Finders Keepers

January 1921 •English

Amy Lindel, a church choir singer, goes to the city to pursue a singing career, but finds herself only able to get cabaret gigs. She then becomes entangled in a situation involving stolen diamonds, and is saved by the "good guy" whom she later marries.

Some Steamer Scooping

February 1914 •English

The Baron Lafitte is in love with and proposes to Adelaide Burton, daughter of Andrew Burton, a wealthy manufacturer. Clara Lane, a newspaper reporter, has been assigned to watch the movements of the Baron. She is further instructed to make a scoop of their movements. Tom Drake is in love with Clara, and is her persistent follower throughout.

Too Much Burglar

November 1914 •English

An exceptionally capable girl, Trixie Joyce, proves a great help, to her mother, a widow with a large family of girls. They receive a proposition from Henrietta Joyce, Mrs. Joyce's wealthy sister-in-law, to take Trixie as a companion, feed and clothe her and in place of wages, send her mother an allowance sufficient to support the rest of the family. Both realize it is the solution of a hard problem, and Trixie accepts the offer. Henrietta is close-fisted and selfish in money matters, but she also has a strain of morbidly-romantic sentiment in her nature, so the largest part of Trixie's work is reading aloud to her mistress quantities of swashbuckling, mid-Victorian novels.

The Gallant Hussar

August 1928 •German

The daughter of an American millionaire falls in love with a Hungarian hussar officer during a visit to the Austrian Empire.

The Best Bad Man

November 1925 •English

Visiting his vast properties incognito, Hugh Nichols (Tom Mix) discovers that his land agent (Cyril Chadwick) is forcing Peggy Swain (Clara Bow) and her dad (Frank Beal) off their neighboring ranch. When decent-minded Nichols demands that the agent cease harassing the farmers, the nasty villain blows up the nearby dam, flooding the valley.

The Post-Impressionists

May 1913 •English

Dick Carew, the son of a soap-maker, and Dorothy Wilton, the daughter of a lawyer, meet in Paris, where they have gone from America to imbibe an atmosphere sicklied with artistic buncomb by the Cubists. The young man, visiting a cabaret, the meeting place of frowsy post-impressionists, is impressed with their windy theories, mainly denunciations of everything that common sense and decency understand. Dick is just ignorant enough about art to be impressed with this buncomb, and takes Dorothy to the Cubist.

Familie Schimek

March 1926 •German

The Misleading Widow

September 1919 •English

The Misleading Widow is a 1919 silent film comedy starring Billie Burke as Betty Taradine. It was based on the 1917 stage play Billeted by F. Tennyson Jesse and H.M. Harwood. The film was produced by Famous Players-Lasky and distributed through Paramount Pictures. It appears to be a lost film.

Bread on the Waters

March 1913 •English

A son, down and out on liquor, finds redemption.

Captain Barnacle's Legacy

September 1912 •English

Captain Barnacle receives a letter telling him that Mr. Markham, a South African whose life he saved some years ago, has died, leaving him a legacy in money and some property and jewels in South Africa. The will stipulates that he shall visit the property in person.

A Nine O'Clock Town

July 1918 •English

David Clary runs a sleepy little dry-goods store in a sleepy little town. A vamp from the big city shows up, intent on taking Clary for everything he's worth by a combination of seduction and blackmail. But the day is saved by the ingenuity of David's corset model.

Neighbors

July 1918 •English

Comedy of a school marm teaching a social climber some life lessons.