The Island of Surprise

Fightin' Mad

November 1921 •English

Returning to his father's cattle ranch after the excitement of serving in combat overseas, Bud McGraw becomes restless, and his father decides to send him to an old friend who commands the Border Police in Texas. On the way he meets Peggy Hughes, accompanying her Uncle Graham, a customs inspector, and he retrieves her hat from the rails of a train. At the headquarters, numerous scrapes and fights win him the admiration of, and friendship with, the men. Lazaro, a Secret Service agent, invites Mrs. Graham and Peggy, who are staying at the border station, for an automobile ride, and they are captured by bandits and held for ransom. Bud and his pals deliver the ransom and discover that Lazaro is the bandit chief. Lazaro refuses to release Peggy, but a jealous rival, Nita de Garma, causes his downfall and shoots him as the Border Police arrive to rescue the party.

The Bartered Bride

October 1913 •Czech

Directed by Max Urban.

Resurrection of a Corpse

January 1898 •Japanese

One of the two earliest horror films ever made. This film is presumed lost. In this black comedy scene, the bottom falls out of a coffin, the corpse tumble out, and is jolted back to life. Short sequences like this, as well as street scenes and dancing geisha girls were the main subjects of early Nippon cinema, pioneered by Shiro Asano and Shibata Tsunekichi from 1897 onwards. In creating dramatic, scenes, film-makers naturally chose the most striking or bizarre. Another undocumented film, recalled by cameraman Shiro Asano.

The Good Provider

April 1922 •English

A prosperous small-town peddler accedes to his family's wish to move from their secure existence to the uncertainty of New York City. It proves fruitless and eventually his kin sees the error of their ways and return to their true home.

A Love Sublime

March 1917 •English

A Greek man falls for an injured French woman. When he is informed of her death, he continues to sing under her hospital window every night.

The Spotlight

November 1927 •English

Lizzie Stokes, an obscure and colorless actress, is elevated to stardom through publicity and better coaching from Daniel Hoffman, a theatrical producer. As Olga Rostova, an exotic Russian, she meets Norman Brooke, whose infatuation turns to love. Hoffman suggests that Norman could never care for Lizzie and proves his point. Heartbroken, Lizzie decides to see no more of him. On closing night, when he proposes to her in her dressing room and she refuses, Norman declares he must believe all the lurid details of her past; in desperation, she bares her true identity, only to find it is not her glamorous image but rather her real self that he loves.

The Isle of Conquest

October 1919 •English

A 1919 film directed by Edward José.

Dangerous Business

November 1920 •English

A 1920 film directed by Roy William Neill.

A Double-Dyed Deceiver

June 1920 •English

Most of the scenes are laid in a parrot-and-monkey country in South America, a land where "it is always after dinner." The Llano Kid, a Texas bad man, flees there from justice. The consul persuades him to play the long-lost son of a Castilian family, and tattoos a coat of arms on the back of the Kid's hand to make the deception complete. The Kid is taken into the household, trusted and loved by the gladdened mother. For the first time he has a home. The romance develops. And when the time comes to rob and flee he has too much manhood to break the loving mother's heart. The surprise comes when it is revealed that the man the Kid killed in Texas was the real son.

The Tiger

September 1913 •English

Robert Bardon has searched for years for animal trainer Gamo who seduced and abandoned Brandon's daughter Gladys. Finding him at last he corners him in a room and exacts his revenge.

The Probation Wife

May 1919 •English

A 1919 film directed by Sidney Franklin.

Edgar and the Teacher's Pet

March 1920 •

The story of Edgar Pomeroy, the first in a series, in which the boy Edgar imagines himself the triumphant master of his fate, revenging himself on a scornful young female classmate. But then the real events are seen in contrast with the ones Edgar has created in his mind.

The Pillory

October 1916 •English

A young girl is kept ignorant of her mother by her aunt. After her aunt dies, the girl is used by crooks and arrested. In prison she meets a kindly woman, who is married to a judge. The woman, unbeknownst to the girl, is her mother, and adopts her. The companion of the deceased aunt, in the midst of a ball, denounces the mother and reveals her secret to the judge and guests. The judge will not forgive his wife, so the mother and daughter leave and work among the slums to benefit humanity. Eventually, the judge relents, and seeks his wife for forgiveness, but he is too late.

The Rescue

July 1917 •English

After divorcing her husband Kent, actress Anne Wetherall returns to the stage. Upon receiving a plea for help from childhood chum Nell Jerrold begging Anne to save Nell's daughter Betty from marrying Kent, the ex-Mrs. Wetherall decides to journey to the Jerrold's home in the town of Wheaton to investigate.

Life is a Moment, Art is Forever

May 1916 •Russian

After a man's wife leaves him for a sculptor, his only comfort is a statue of his wife.

The Devil's Scherzo

July 1918 •Russian

Anything Once

October 1917 •English

A Playboy inherits a Western ranch on the condition that he shall run it properly for 6 months. A villain makes an attempt to distract him from reaching the goal, but he, no longer the wastrel of yore, persists and becomes full owner of the property.

The Arm of the Law

April 1932 •English

A reporter and a detective team up to solve the murder of a nightclub singer who had been involved in a divorce scandal.

Sonny Boy

April 1929 •English

Sonny Boy's parents are in the midst of a bitter divorce when the boy's mother talks her sister into kidnapping him because she is terrified that her husband will take the boy out of the country after the divorce.

Christopher Bean

November 1933 •English

When the painter Christopher Bean dies, some unscrupulous art dealers try to get several of his paintings cheaply from a family who have no idea of their value.