Silent shorts up to 1909

A man, objecting to being filmed, comes closer and closer to the camera lens until his mouth is all we see. Then he opens wide and swallows camera and cinematographer. He steps back, chews, and grins.

A group of astronomers go on an expedition to the Moon.

A man rents an apartment and furnishes it in remarkable fashion.

A chemist carries out a bizarre experiment with his own head.

A well-grown boy sees a box of his father's cigars, and pockets one. He goes downstairs, and no sooner is he out of the building when he joyously sticks the cheroot into his mouth. Feeling like a man, he goes to a nearby café, orders a drink, and then lights the weed. A close range view of his face is now given. He is flirting with a girl sitting near him. In a little while the cigar begins to act, and between the smiles towards the damsel there is interspersed a sickly expression. The sick feeling gains, but the young man keeps on smoking until he feels very ill; still unwilling to admit defeat. he loosens his collar and coat in an endeavor to be comfortable, but the waiter finally sees him and starts him home. Very ill and groggy, he finds the keyhole after much groping, and enters the wrong room. Here an indignant lodger seizes him and fires him downstairs. This seems to revive him somewhat, and the poor, sick boy makes his way to his own home where his fond mother is seen administering to the would-be man.

The story, while not biographical, is founded on incidents in his life, showing his devotion for his sick wife, Virginia. Desperate from his utter helplessness to ameliorate his dying wife's suffering, owing to extreme destitution, he is in a frenzy of grief, when a raven is seen to perch on a bust of Pallas above the door of their cold, cheerless apartment. An inspiration! He sets to work, and that masterpiece. "The Raven," is the fruit. During his work he has divested himself of his coat, putting it over his wife to protect her from the cold. The poem finished, he rushes coatless and hatless to the publisher, where he meets with scant attention. One editor, however, thinks the work possesses some merit and offers ten dollars for it. Ten dollars for the greatest jewel in the diadem of fame - think of it! Poe thinks of the comforts, meager though they needs must be, for his poor wife and accepts the offer. Hastening to the store, he procures food, a heavy comfortable for the cot, and medicine, and with much lighter heart returns home. Spreading the quilt tenderly over Virginia, he takes her hand and gazes fondly into her sightless eyes, but the cold, unresponsive hand tells him the awful truth. "My God, she is dead!" and he falls prostrate across the cot.

Set in an early cinema house, this comic short illustrates the problems with the gals' hats obscuring the movie patron's line of vision.

A divinely inspired peasant woman becomes an army captain for France and then is martyred after she is captured.

While caring for his sick daughter, a doctor is called away to the sickbed of a neighbor. He finds the neighbor gravely ill, and ignores his wife's pleas to come home and care for his own daughter, who has taken a turn for the worse.

A group of passengers are enjoying their ride on a trolley when a cheese-seller climbs aboard. The odor of her wares are so strong it disturbs the passengers, and when they find the source of the smell they have the cheese-seller arrested. She pleads her case; all is failing until the her cheeses show up. They stench the room with their odor, making the officers faint. The cheese-seller then leaves the police station.

A fairy appears on screen in the middle of a vegetable garden, giving birth to a baby dug out from the cabbage patch. A burlesque variation on the myth that, in France, babies are born from cabbages.

A young couple go shopping for a baby.

In a society in which gender roles are switched, will men tolerate being unequal?

This is the story of a pot of glue and the over interfering boy. Finding a pot of glue, the lad immediately proceeds to apply it to everything in sight. Accordingly, the stairway, lawn seat and a bicycle seat and handles are liberally daubed, so that those coming in contact experience much inconvenience in liberating themselves. "He who laughs last laughs best," can also be applied in this instance, as, in giving vent to his amusement, the lad falls back on to the pot and is unable to liberate himself.

Comedy is benefited by originality. In this Alice Guy short, an alcoholic is inadvertently sewn in to a mattress. With that unique premise, havoc ensues.

The library of a modern home is shown, husband, wife and child each occupied in their particular diversions. The maid is called in, who dresses the child in street garments, and the two leave the house for a stroll. Entering the park, they walk through the lanes and avenues, the little girl running ahead and skipping the rope. Finding a vacant bench, the maid takes possession and presently dozes off. The little girl playfully runs away and accidentally comes upon the scene of a "holdup," whereupon, unobserved by the footpads, she ties her rope across the passageway through which the robbers must of necessity flee. As anticipated, the robbers, in attempting to escape, trip over the rope and become entangled. In the meantime, our young heroine runs out on the public thoroughfare and gives the alarm, to which two officers respond, whom she leads to the spot, where they capture the "hold-up" men. Our little girl runs farther on, and coming to the brink of the river, observes a blind man who is about to attempt to cross an open draw of a bridge. Through herculean efforts she manipulates the mechanism of the bridge just in the nick of time, thereby saving the life of a poor blind man. The next scene shows three intoxicated men staggering down a street, oblivious to all danger. A train of cars is about to cross the street Our heroine, noticing the deathtrap into which the intoxicated men are about to stagger, runs ahead and closes the gate, thereby impeding their progress and consequently saving them, from injury and possible death. The nurse, upon waking, discovers that her charge is gone, and scurries away in search of the little girl; not finding her, she returns home and reports to the frantic parents that their child is lost. The little girl now rambles on aimlessly, and discovering her plight, tells a passing police officer that she is lost, whereupon she is brought to the headquarters, where she gives her name and address, with which information they soon notify her parents by telephone and dispatch an officer home with her. Arriving home, she is received joyously, and the scene closes, showing the little girl comically scolding the maid for her carelessness, then followed by forgiveness and embraces.

For any good comedy, you generally need at least two things to set the story in motion. In this case, you have a dog and you have a sausage. The dog wants the sausage. Others want to keep the dog from the sausage. There are any number of ways this could go. However, since the dog gets the sausage at the very beginning, it means that we have a chase. THE RACE FOR THE SAUSAGE, then, is a race against the dog. Guess who wins?

A heavily pregnant woman has a series of irrepressible cravings while walking with her family.

An unscrupulous and greedy speculator decides to corner the wheat market for his own profit, establishing complete control over the markets.

Alice Guy (later known as Alice Guy-Blaché) tackles the subject of bad parenting in this dramatic, tear-jerking short.

A barmaid plies a swell with smiles and with cherries from a box that's just been delivered. When she refuses a cherry to a roughly-dressed tradesman who runs a tab at the bar, he pays off his debt in a huff, using all his week's pay. He then storms penniless and without provisions into his ill-furnished house where his wife and two children, ill-clad and ill-fed, cower. Is there any hope for him and for his family? If he does realize how low he's sunk, what help is there to lift him up? Will the family ever know the taste of cherries?

A poor young girl tries to sell matches in a snowstorm. After being robbed by bullies, she lights matches which illuminate visions of a far happier Christmas than the one she faces.

A man starts playing a piano. Neighbors hearing the music begin dancing, and are drawn to the music, dropping what they are doing to join the impromptu dance party.

In the little Italian city of Cremona there dwelt Taddeo Ferrari, a violin maker and student of Andrea Amati, the most famous of the craft. Ferrari's pretty daughter, Giannina, was beloved by one of his apprentices, Sandro. Filippo, a crippled youth and the best violin maker in Cremona, also loved the girl with a pure, holy affection that is more spiritual than material, but realizing his unattractiveness through his deformity, suffers his hopelessness with resignation. Yearly there is a prize of a precious chain of gold awarded to the maker of the best violin, and all the apprentices strive to win it. On this occasion, however, the hand of Giannina is to be bestowed upon the most proficient craftsman, and this induces the young men to make extra efforts to win. Sandro fully appreciates the rare talent of Filippo and feels sure his wonderful skill will win his sweetheart from him. Crushed and despairing he seeks out Giannina and tells her his fears, she tearfully acknowledging the strength of his reasoning. While thus occupied they are overheard by Filippo, who sees what woe his success would mean for her, and thinking only of her happiness, through his great love for her he makes a great sacrifice. Going to his room he takes his instrument and goes and places it in Sandro's box, taking Sandro's violin and putting it in his own. Sandro, however, thwarts the good intention of Filippo by exchanging the instruments, not knowing what Filippo had done, thereby upsetting the planned munificence of the cripple. When the instruments are placed in competition, and the prizes are about to be awarded, Sandro's conscience pricks him, and calling the cripple aside, confesses his deed. Filippo bursts into taunting laughter, telling him what he, himself, had done, and now he spoiled it all. Judgment is passed and Filippo is, of course, the victor. The chain is placed about his neck, and the hand of Giannina placed in his. But also, he feels she recoils, and thinking only of her happiness he crashes his violin over his knee, thereby putting himself out of the contest and making Sandro the winner. He then places the chain about Sandro's neck, and handing the girl over to him he rushes from the hall. We finally leave him alone in his room, crushed and dejected, yet contented in the thought that he had made her happy.

In this brief, hand-tinted short featuring the titular Malagueña (a woman from Málaga) and a bullfighter, the couple perform a little dance for your viewing pleasure.