Videoteca

The Magic of Spring 1917
A spring idyll released via Edison's short-lived Conquest Pictures sometime in 1917.

Friends, Romans and Leo 1917 star_border 3.8
The plot and setting is actually a bit like Keaton's The Three Ages will be in 1923. But less sophisticated: The Roman Emperor Mulius Caesar borrows more money than he should. The loan shark is all over him and exploits this to get near the emperor's daughter. A slave falls in love with the daughter and sends the loan shark in a rage – unless the slave is sent to Colosseum he will foreclose the emperor's mortgage.

The Luck of Roaring Camp 1917
The story takes place in a small struggling mining town located in the foothills of the California mountains at the time of the gold rush. The camp is suffering from a long string of bad luck. With only one woman in their midst, it seems as though the miners have no future. However, the tide turns when a small boy is born. "Thomas Luck" is the first newborn the camp has seen in ages; things are looking up.

Chris and His Wonderful Lamp 1917
A young man buys an Aladdin’s lamp at an auction and employs the genie to help him see his love.

Kidnapped 1917 star_border 6
In Scotland in 1751, young David Balfour is shanghaied aboard a ship where he meets Jacobite rebel Alan Breck Stewart with whom he escapes to the Scottish Highlands, dodging the redcoats.

Down the Old Potomac 1917 star_border 6
This fascinating 12-minute documentary from Edison's Conquest Pictures features a man in a small boat being pulled (from a horse on shore) down the Potomac river. From Cumberland, MD, through Washington, DC, this short charts the Waterway and its locks.

R.F.D., 10,000 B.C. 1917 star_border 5.8
Set in prehistoric times, this short film was created for the Edison Company by Willis H. O'Brien, a pioneer of American stop-motion animation.

Prehistoric Poultry 1916
A caveman falls victim to a prehistoric prankster, but he is avenged by his pet chicken.

The Dinosaur and the Missing Link: A Prehistoric Tragedy 1915 star_border 6.1
Two cavemen, The Duke and Stonejaw Steve, call on Miss Araminta Rockface. The hated rivals fight, and Steve wins when he throws The Duke into a pot of boiling water. A title card introduces a third rival, "our unassuming hero, Theophilus Ivoryhead." Miss Rockface invites the three men into her father's drawing room/cave, apologizing for not offering tea, since it has not been discovered yet. The Duke and Steve fight again, and everyone rushes out of the cave. Mr. Rockface notices his pot of food is empty; earlier, Wild Willie the Missing Link had eaten it. Mr. Rockface tells the three suitors they will have to procure their own dinner. Steve locates a desert quail and shoots an arrow at it, but the arrow misses the quail and happily (for Steve) hits The Duke's behind. Meanwhile, Wild Willie is still hungry and goes hunting for snakes. He finds a dinosaur's tail instead...