The Private Life of Helen of Troy

The Private Life of Helen of Troy 1927

3.50

Setting the standard for his later light-hearted biopics The Private Life of Henry VIII and Rembrandt, producer-director Alexander Korda steadfastly refuses to take any of The Private Life of Helen of Troy seriously. Maria Corda, wife of the director, plays the title character as a fetchingly underdressed coquette, oblivious to all the political turmoil she's causing when she allows the handsome Paris (Ricardo Cortez) to kidnap her. Meanwhile, poor King Menelaus (Lewis Stone), Helen's husband, stands by in stoic silence, just as he's done on previous occasions when his wife succumbed to the charms of various sexy suitors (one of whom is played by future cowboy star "Wild Bill" Elliot). Finally galvanized into action, Menelaus reclaims his bride, who seems none the worse for wear for her experiences.

1927

In Self Defence

In Self Defence 1921

1

A wealthy Russian family faces change and challenges as events unfold during the First World War.

1921

The Woman on Trial

The Woman on Trial 1927

1

A story of a woman who committed a murder. In a French court room her life is retold by long flashbacks of her testimony and life.

1927

The Film Prima Donna

The Film Prima Donna 1913

5.50

Film star Ruth Breton has a habit of falling in love. When dating Walter she meets Von Zornhorst. When Zornhorst discards her, she pines away. As a last token of his love for Ruth, Walter writes a play for her, but during the final act of "Pierrot's Death", Ruth expires.

1913

Cleopatra

Cleopatra 1917

4.20

The story of Cleopatra, the fabulous queen of Egypt, and the epic romances between her and the greatest men of Rome, Julius Caesar and Antony. Only a small fragment of this film survives.

1917

The House Built Upon Sand

The House Built Upon Sand 1916

1

Evelyn Dare is a butterfly of fashion. David Westebrooke, her fiancé, is an altruist interested in sociology. He has made his home in the factory town of Oreville, where he works as factory manager. He takes her to their home in the factory town and there orders his housekeeper to take away her useless clothes and to supply those befitting the wife of a factory manager. Trouble lies ahead.....

1916

Fragments of an Alms-Film

Fragments of an Alms-Film 1972

6.20

Maria works in a German umbrella factory as the foreman of the production sector. João Lucas has given up on living a normal life and practically lives in bed, in the midst of green plants. His father expressly desired that his son film this eccentric daily life in 8 mm format. Maria’s wages are dilapidated to the last penny by this amateur, monstrous, family movie production.

1972

The Seekers

The Seekers 1916

1

The quiet life style of Ruth Heck and her brother Lem, who belong to a religious sect called the Seekers, is disrupted when a judge imprisons Lem for a crime he did not commit.

1916

Tropic Madness

Tropic Madness 1928

1

Herbert Pomeroy's wife Juanita spends his money extravagantly and irresponsibly, finally driving him to bankruptcy. Desperate, he sends his son Frankie to live with his friend Henderson, a South Seas trader, then commits suicide. Although Juanita spends years searching for her son, she finally gives up and takes a world cruise on the yacht of wealthy Jules Lennox. One day the yacht docks on Henderson's island and Juanita, meeting Henderson, persuades him to let her be Frankie's governess. Complications ensue, involving a poor physician, a jealous island woman and a witch doctor.

1928

Kalle Utter

Kalle Utter 1925

1

Kalle Utter is theologian student at Uppsala University sometime during the latter half of the 19th century.

1925

Divorce and the Daughter

Divorce and the Daughter 1916

1.00

A married man suddenly inherits a fortune and finally has enough money to live his dream of becoming an artist. He moves his wife and daughter to a big expensive house and starts living the life of a "bohemian" artist. When he begins an affair with another woman, his wife leaves him and his daughter Alicia breaks off her engagement to a wealthy doctor and becomes involved in the "free love" movement espoused by one Herbert Rawlins. Rawlins, however, has his own plans for Alicia, and they don't involve "sharing" her with anyone else. Complications ensue.

1916

The Passionate Quest

The Passionate Quest 1926

1

The Passionate Quest is a 1926 American drama film directed by J. Stuart Blackton and written by Marian Constance Blackton. It is based on the 1924 novel The Passionate Quest by E. Phillips Oppenheim. The film stars May McAvoy, Willard Louis, Louise Fazenda, Gardner James, Jane Winton, and Holmes Herbert.

1926

The Man Who Came Back

The Man Who Came Back 1924

1

Henry Potter is the irresponsible playboy son of a New York millionaire. Fearing he will disgrace the family name if he stays in New York, the father sends him to San Francisco to work in the family shipyards and, to make a man out of him, he is told he will have to start at the bottom and work his way up. Henry decides this is not a good idea and resents it to the point he will indeed start at the bottom but will work his way down from there, and disgrace the family name in San Francisco.

1924

Flaming Youth

Flaming Youth 1923

2.70

When Mona Frentiss dies, she has her confidante "Doctor Bobs" watch over her family, especially her youngest daughter Patricia. The family has been raised in a most unconventional manner, with Mona having a much younger lover and the father Ralph keeping his own lover on the side. As Patricia grows older, she attracts the attention of her mother's former lover, the much older (than Patricia, who in the book is in her early to mid teens) Carey Scott. Patricia tempts fate with her wild ways, nearly loses her virtue to a musician aboard an ocean-going boat, and is saved in time by Carey. Realizing that he is the man for her, she settles down into an experimental marriage.

1923

The Risky Road

The Risky Road 1918

3.50

Ida May Park started in the film business as a scriptwriter, but in 1917 Universal announced that Park would direct films with actress and producer Dorothy Phillips for the company’s Bluebird brand. Park’s films often had a strong female perspective and The Risky Road is no exception. The story of a country girl who comes to the city to work, but falls for a rich man and undeservedly gets a bad reputation, the film was marketed as “the drama every woman should see”. The surviving fragment, showing the despair of Phillips’s character, is a real cinematic gem that leaves one yearning for more material of the film to be discovered. In 2008, a tinted nitrate fragment, with Swedish intertitles at the opening of the second reel, was deposited at the Archival Film Collections of the Svenska Filminstitutet. From the fragment, a 35mm B&W duplicate negative was made, from which this print was struck using the tinting of the nitrate as color reference.

1918