År 1908 - 9

Very early footage of the streets of Barcelona, filmed from a tram.

A laundry man parks his horse-drawn cart to make a delivery. While he is inside, his horse sees a bag of oats and starts to eat them. By the time the man comes back outside, the horse has eaten a whole bag of oats, and has so much energy that he begins to race out of control.

A young woman passing through a cemetery at night is suddenly startled by a voice coming from one of the graves. She wishes to rush away, but the ghost appearing compels her to remain. He explains to the terrified girl that she must go to the kingdom of Satan and get a bottle of the Water of Life, which she must bring back to him. The girl consents to do as he desires and starts forth on her expedition after the precious fluid. She summons a lot of soldiers and friends to her aid, and we follow the whole army down into the bowels of the earth. (Moving Picture World)

Leah, a Jewish woman fleeing persecution in Hungary, arrives in the town and captures the heart of Rudolf, the local magistrate's son. They plan to marry and escape to America for a better life, agreeing to meet at a cross in the forest. However, the schoolmaster, Nathan, an apostate Jew who harbors his own secrets, overhears their plan. He inflames the villagers' fears and tricks Rudolf into believing Leah will betray him for gold, leading Rudolf to renounce her. A heartbroken Leah, now forsaken, bestows a curse upon Rudolf and his future children before retreating into exile.

Jose, a handsome young Mexican, leaves his home in the Sierra Madre Mountains to seek his fortune in the States. On leaving, his dear old mother bestows upon him her blessing, presenting him with a pair of gauntlets, upon the dexter wrist of which she has embroidered a Latin Cross.

1908 French short silent film directed by Georges Méliès, which is currently presumed lost.

A small village in Aragón, Spain, at the end of the 19th century. After being caught by her father fooling around with Melchor, an unscrupulous womanizer, being disgraced and losing everything, young Dolores is forced to take to the roads in search of work.

This early D.W. Griffith short shows the director's interest in Jewish ghetto life, portrayed here with sympathy and sentimentality. The melodramatic plot involves the conflict between generations in an immigrant Jewish family.

One fine day at a barbershop that has stupid staff and very rude customers.

Kinemacolor

A courtly drama of a bridegroom arrested for being intimate with the queen. To secure his release, his future bride sleeps with his rival. The film is incomplete. Missing is the ending, where the bride obtains a forged letter of passage and murders the rival, but then has to watch as her betrothed is executed after the letter is found to be forged. The film includes a single rare hand-coloured scene. FRAGMENT. (stumfilm.dk)

A gang of outlaws are planning a bank robbery. After making preparations, they commit the robbery and make their escape amidst a sharp exchange of bullets. They return to their meeting place, and then hurriedly continue onwards, with lawmen close behind them.

Early slapstick short from Louis Feuillade involving runaways, except that, instead of it being a runaway horse (see Griffith's THE CURTAIN POLE for an example), it is a cartful of what appear to be hundred-pound pumpkins that get away, rushing hither and yon, down sewers, up chimneys, pursued by the drayer, a couple of other people and a very unwilling donkey.

Mack Sennett appears as a man in the bar in this film produced by the Biograph Company.

John and Tom Wilkins are brothers and most divergent in natures. John is a clergyman and a noble, upright fellow, while Tom is a scapegrace, wild, reckless and unscrupulous. Not having the parental guidance so essential in youth, his father being dead and his mother blind, he drifted into bad company, the contaminating influence deeply affecting his susceptible nature.

Not much of a plot. A couple is menaced by some sort of bizarre religious cult. Then they're saved.

The Merchant, the Farrier, and the Roman accompany a mysterious woman into a magical cave full of terrors and wonders.