Ralph Ince
Also Known As: Ralph W. Ince, Ralph Waldo Ince
Biography: From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Ralph Ince (January 16, 1887 – April 10, 1937) was an American pioneer film actor, director and screenwriter whose career began near the dawn of the silent film era. Ralph Ince was the brother of John Ince and Thomas H. Ince. Ralph Waldo Ince was born in Boston, Massachusetts, the younger of three sons and a daughter raised by English immigrants, John and Emma Ince. Sometime after his birth Ince moved to Manhattan where his entire family was engaged in theater work; his father as a musical agent and mother, sister Bertha and brothers, John and Thomas as actors. Ralph Ince studied art with cartoonist Dan McCarthy and for a while worked as a newspaper cartoonist for the New York World and later magazine illustrator for the New York Mirror and The Evening Telegram. At times over his acting and directing career Ince would continue to contribute cartoons to popular magazines of the day. Early on in his career Ince, who had done some stage acting as a child, was a member of Richard Mansfield's stock company playing parts in The College Widow and Ben Hur. Around 1906 Ince became an animator in the fledgling film industry working for Winsor McCay, but soon turned to acting and joined Vitagraph Studios where he became known for his portrayals of Abraham Lincoln in a series of one reel films. Ince began directing at Vitagraph around 1910 and was officially advanced to the director’s chair in 1912, though he still continued to act in many of his films and throughout his career. Ince would go on to direct some 171 films between 1910 and 1937 and appear in approximately 110 films over nearly the same time period.
Department: Acting
Place of Birth: Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Birthday: January 14, 1887
Deathday: April 10, 1937
Adult: No
Gender: Male
Popularity:
Known For:
A Regiment of Two
Overview: Ira and his son-in-law Harry pretend to enlist in the 13th regiment where they have "drills" every Friday night. When the 13th is called to the front, the two take a fishing trip, only to learn that "their" regiment has been wiped out.
Genres: Comedy War
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1913-06-11
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Little Caesar
Overview: A small-time hood shoots his way to the top, but how long can he stay there?
Genres: Drama Crime
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1931-01-25
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Out of the Snows
Overview: Robert Holliday, a member of the North West Mounted Police, is betrothed to Ruth Hardy, an orphaned seminary student. On the eve of her marriage, Ruth learns from John Blakeman that he and her father had been partners in the fur smuggling business until Hardy was killed by Robert during a shootout. Shaken by this revelation, Ruth sends Robert a goodbye note and leaves with Blakeman for a trading post at Sampson's Pass.
Genres: Drama Adventure
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1920-08-23
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The Big Gamble
Overview: A gambler, hopelessly in debt, agrees to pay off his debt by allowing his creditor to take out a life insurance policy on him and collecting once the one-year suicide clause has elapsed.
Genres: Thriller Crime
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1931-09-04
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Channing of the Northwest
Overview: A foppish Londoner joins the Royal Canadian Mounties and tries to break a smuggling ring.
Genres: Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1922-04-10
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Jean the Match-Maker
Overview: Bent on having a summer’s vacation, two working girls hire a tent and pitch their camp on the shore of a beautiful lake. As fate would have it, two farmer lads, living with their widowed mother and their pet border collie Jean, unexpectedly come onto the tent of the girls.
Genres: Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1910-09-19
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Extra! Extra!
Overview: Frank McHugh appears with Mae Busch, Jerry Mandy and others in this prohibition-time RKO Pathe short directed by Harry Sweet.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1932-04-04
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The Star Witness
Overview: A tough District Attorney goes after a murderous crime gang, only to find that his witnesses, an innocent family, have clammed up in fear of reprisals.
Genres: Crime Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1931-08-22
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The Seventh Son
Overview: At the outbreak of the Civil War in the United States, the six sons of widow Beecham enlist. The seventh son is very anxious to join the army and fight for his country, but his brothers insist upon his remaining home with his mother.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1912-04-03
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Song Bird of the North
Overview: Haywood, a suitor for the hand of Elida Rumsey, is severely reprimanded by her for not enlisting when President Lincoln calls for volunteers. Being deeply interested in the cause, Elida goes and helps Mrs. Pomeroy minister to sick and wounded soldiers. She becomes a favorite with the men, for she frequently sings to them. This attracts the attention of Lincoln
Genres: Drama Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1913-07-02
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Troublesome Secretaries, or How Betty Outwitted Her Father
Overview: This is basically a two practical-joke comedy. Bunny is a businessman father and Mabel plays Betty, his lovable daughter. The first practical joke is Betty getting her girlfriend to be daddy's secretary. The secretary sprays perfume on all his papers and tries to make out with him. The second practical joke has Betty getting her boyfriend to put on a wig and old man's outfit and apply for the job of daddy's secretary.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1911-08-20
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The Lure of Vanity
Overview: Miss Edna White is very much grieved when she has not a suitable gown to wear at a party. Mrs. Donald, a wealthy customer, calls and asks Edna to try the dress on she has bought for her inspection. It answers her purposes, and Edna is instructed to deliver the dress that night, on her way home.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1911-07-18
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The Freshet
Overview: Tom Ennis, a stalwart, sturdy fellow, is apprenticed to John Matthews, the village blacksmith, whose daughter is a likable girl. Tom falls in love with her, but her father opposes him and Meg marries one who is her father's choice.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1911-11-28
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The Serpents
Overview: Wending their way and locating in a land far from the contentions through which they passed a few weeks before, Eric and Chloe are located in a garden spot of primeval beauty, surrounded by all the imposing grandeur of nature. Chloe is pursued by the covetous desire of Haakon, a false friend, who strives by subtle charms to lure her from Eric, who in turn is tempted by Linda, her cunning and beauty, to desert Chloe and live with her.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1912-05-08
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The Heart of Esmeralda
Overview: Esmeralda Foster, an attractive girl, is very much impressed with Duncan Miller, a crafty country swain, who makes love to Esmeralda because of her father's wealth.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1912-08-13
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Yellow Bird
Overview: Disregarding the sanctity of "Song Bird's" feelings, John Strong, a young surveyor in the pioneer forests of the west, makes love to the Indian maiden whenever he chances to meet her, until she longs and looks for his coming and going, and finds that he has made himself part of her life.
Genres: Drama Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1912-06-12
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The Lost Squadron
Overview: When World War I comes to an end, three pilots find themselves on hard times. They wind up in Hollywood, where they work as stunt fliers for a sadistic director.
Genres: Drama Action War History
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1932-03-12
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Law and Order
Overview: A legendary lawman and his cohorts set out to restore order to the dangerous streets of Tombstone, Ariz.
Genres: Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1932-02-09
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The Mouthpiece
Overview: A prosecutor quits his job and becomes a defense attorney when he finds out that a man he got convicted and executed was actually innocent.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1932-03-21
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Men of Chance
Overview: A gambler falls for a fake countess.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1931-12-26
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Numbered Men
Overview: Prison drama from 1930. Mary Dane and falsely imprisoned Bud Leonard love each other, but Lou Rinaldo, who framed Bud to get Mary, and escape-minded King Callahan, set events in motion to prove that love and justice will prevail.
Genres: Drama Crime
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1930-06-07
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Gentleman's Fate
Overview: A bootlegger falls apart when his wife leaves him.
Genres: Drama Crime
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1931-03-07
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The Child Crusoes
Overview: Jack, a little orphan, is anxious to become a sailor, and although Captain Rhines refuses to take him aboard his ship, manages to sneak in as a stowaway. When out to sea a few days, he is discovered, and is about to be disciplined, when the captain's daughter, May, intercedes. A terrific storm strikes them, and the ship is dashed to pieces. The captain, with the assistance of Jack, builds a little raft, and with little May, they set out for an island which they can hardly discern, as it is so many miles away. After drifting for many hours, they at last reach the island, which is inhabited by a savage tribe.
Genres: Adventure
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1911-09-13
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The Geranium
Overview: One glance at the poor and disordered home of the Tunisons shows us there is something still lacking. Mrs. Tunison is obliged to provide for her crippled daughter Ethel, her son, who does what he can to help her and her older daughter, who aids in every way possible. Daniel Briton, a young peddler, notices Ethel as he passes by, and gives her one of his wares, a geranium, for which she is very thankful. On successive days as the young peddler passes she waves her hand to him. One day he brings with him a doctor, who takes her to the hospital where she will get good care and attention. After a few weeks, Ethel is carried home in the arms of her generous friend, entirely restored to health. Everybody is made happy, and more so with Daniel, who marries one of Ethel's sisters.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1911-07-15
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Malay Nights
Overview: The owner of a pearl bed falls in love with a bitter young girl who had been taken advantage of by an unscrupulous ex-boyfriend.
Genres: Adventure
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1932-11-03
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The Pride of the Legion
Overview: After suffering a traumatic injury, a policeman resigns from the force and, after he's saved from a suicide attempt, goes to work at a café frequented by gangsters.
Genres: Drama Crime
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1932-10-17
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The Money Kings
Overview: Three part chronicle of how the rumor of war triggers greed in some men and the comeuppance they suffer because of hubris.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1912-07-15
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A Tale of Two Cities
Overview: A condensed silent film version of the Charles Dickens classic about the French Revolution and its subsequent Reign of Terror.
Genres: Drama History
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1911-02-20
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The Higher Mercy
Overview: No matter how absorbed with affairs of state, Abraham Lincoln was always ready to give audience to his little son Tad. Little Tad, playing at the boat landing of the White House lake, falls into the water and is saved from drowning by a young fellow named Jasper Brinton. When young Brinton carries Tad into the White House, the president is very grateful to him and says if there is anything that he can do for him at any time he will be glad to do it. Young Brinton's mother is an enthusiastic supporter of the Federal cause, and when the war breaks out, she urges her son to join the Union army. He has an inherent dread of danger and naturally hesitates. He finally enlists. On the battlefield his natural fear takes possession of him.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1912-09-10
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Havana Widows
Overview: Two golddiggers go fishing for millionaires in Havana.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1933-11-18
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Love in the Ghetto
Overview: Everybody's ordered out on a strike when Benjamin Cohen, proprietor of a sweat-shop, reduces the employees' wages ten per cent. Rebecca Barish, a young Jewess, and her father, reluctantly go out with the rest. Unable to find other work, their circumstances become so reduced that Rebecca is obliged to go to the pawnshop with some of their belongings, and while there, Jacob Stattler, the pawnbroker, takes a fancy to her, and offers her father, through a schatehen, five hundred dollars to give her to him in manage.
Genres: Drama Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1912-05-13
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The Swan Girl
Overview: A wealthy young fellow during vacation becomes infatuated with a poor country girl.
Genres: Drama Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1913-12-04
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Girl of the Rio
Overview: A café dancer bluffs a Mexican landowner to save her lover.
Genres: Comedy Romance Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1932-01-15
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Running Hollywood
Overview: Running Hollywood is a comedy short.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1932-01-27
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Men Of America
Overview: Bank robbers and killers cause mayhem in a small western town.
Genres: Crime Western Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1932-11-25
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The Big Fight
Overview: Based on the David Belasco stage production of the Max Marcin play in which heavyweight-champion Jack Dempsey played the role of the fighter, Tiger: This "behind-the-scenes look of a heavyweight-championship fight" looks much like all of the other boxing films in which the Champ gets involved in a frame-up and is asked to take a dive.
Genres: Action Drama Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1930-05-11
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Guilty as Hell
Overview: Richard Arlen is the convicted murderer and Adrienne Ames his sister who believes in his innocence. We see the murder and the framing set-up at the beginning of the film, so there’s no mystery for the audience to solve. Just the pleasure of watching an intricate cat-and-mouse game, with the murderer one step ahead of his pursuers until the final, tense confrontation.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1932-08-05
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State's Attorney
Overview: Corrupt alcoholic attorney Tom Cardigan is one of the best lawyers around, commanding the courtroom like a stage and often winning his cases. Mobster Valentine Powers, who employs Cardigan and put him through school, asks him to represent a woman, June Perry, accused of prostitution. Cardigan agrees. But he never expected to fall for her, which is problematic since he's angling to become governor and will need the right kind of wife.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1932-05-20
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The Sea Wolf
Overview: Captain "Wolf" Larsen, the absolute master of a seal schooner, is a mystic and philosopher, though he rules his men with an iron hand. On a ferry going from San Francisco to Oakland, Van Weyden, a critic, and Maud Brewster, a novelist, meet in masquerade costumes and are forced overboard when their boat collides with a steamer. Humphrey, then Maud, are picked up by Larsen's crew. Because of her costume, Maud is taken for a boy and placed in the custody of Mugridge, the cook, who attempts to attack her upon discovering her identity. Larsen takes her under his protection and decides to marry her; but as the ceremony begins, the crew mutinies, and Larsen is stricken with blindness as he faces the rebels. The ship is set afire, and though Humphrey and Maud are rescued by another steamer, Larsen, deserted by his crew, refuses to quit his ship and is enveloped in flames.
Genres: Adventure Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1926-07-26
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Yellow Fingers
Overview: Ralph Ince stars as Brute Shane, a South Pacific trader who has adopted native girl Saina (Olive Broden). When Shane rescues English lass Nona Deering (Claire Adams) from white slavers, the jealous Saina begins plotting Nona's demise.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1926-03-21
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The Bond of Music
Overview: Short anti-war film in which a French musician turns out to be a German spy.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1912-08-30
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The Tenderfoot
Overview: Calvin Jones is a cowboy who wants to invest in a Broadway play. Joe Lehman's secretary Ruth learns that her boss is attempting to swindle Jones and pulls a successful coup d'etat producing a play that she stars in.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1932-05-23
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The Cave Man
Overview: After her father dies, Chloe, played by Edith Storey, is left alone in the world. She is discovered and taken home to their cave by brothers Dagban and Eric, who vie for her affection in an allegory about “brain vs. brawn.” When “Dagban threatens to do her bodily harm unless she accedes to his intentions” Eric beats up his brother to protect Chloe, and then subsequently leaves the cave he calls home to avoid further conflict. By this point, he has won Chloe’s affection with his kindness and love, and she decides to follow him and “together they continue their journey, seeking happiness in the land beyond the horizon, which joins earth with heaven.”
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1912-04-15
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Love at Second Sight
Overview: It is love at first sight between Juliet and Allan as they catch sight of each other on passing trains. Allan has his song-writing friend Bill to write a song of the incident and he has it broadcast. Juliet, through the hints provided in the song, responds and comes to Allan's home, where he is working on a safety-match invention.
Genres: Comedy Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1934-09-01
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Blue Smoke
Overview: British sports film directed by Ralph Ince.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1935-12-01
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No Escape
Overview: “Crime film set in Malaya concerning the pursuit of a planter framed for poisoning his partner and suspected of carrying plague.” - BFI.
Genres: Crime Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1934-11-26
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Gaol Break
Overview: “Jim Oakley hears in prison that his son is to be made a substitute by a gang for a rich American family's son who was kidnapped years back. He breaks jail to rescue his son but after seeing how happy his son will be with the family, he renounces his claim to boy and returns to finish his sentence in jail.” - BFI.
Genres: Crime
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1936-08-31
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The Land of Opportunity
Overview: Silent dramatic short that looks at how America can be a land of opportunity for even the lowest laborer by looking at Abraham Lincoln's life.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: en
Release Date:
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Rolling Home
Overview: A sacked engineer stows away on another vessel
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1935-12-09
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Wall Street
Overview: A very topical early talkie from low-budget company Columbia Pictures, Wall Street starred Ralph Ince, brother of producer Thomas H. Ince, as Roller McCray, a steelworker turned ruthless tycoon whose tough business methods leads a rival (Philip Strange) to commit suicide. The widow (Aileen Pringle), believing she can ruin Ince by using his own methods, conspires with her husband's former partner (Sam De Grasse), but a strong friendship between Ince and Pringle's young son (Freddie Burke Frederick) changes things dramatically. According to future Three Stooges director Edward Bernds, who worked as a sound mixer on Wall Street, Ince's reaction to his rival's suicidal jump from a window ledge was changed from a sneering "I didn't think he had the guts" to the more respectful "I didn't think he'd do it" due to derisive laughter from the film's crew.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1929-12-01
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So You Won't Talk
Overview: The owner of a small Italian restaurant in central London is left a million pound inheritance, the only stipulation to the will being that he cannot speak or write anything for a period of one month.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1935-03-01
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Chicago After Midnight
Overview: Gangster Jim Boyd serves a 15-year prison term when Hardy, a rival crook, doublecrosses him. On his release from prison, Boyd seeks out Hardy in Chicago, where he runs a cafe and bootleg operation. He makes the acquaintance of Mona Gale, a dancer in Hardy's cafe who is engaged to marry Jack Waring, the orchestra leader. Unaware that Mona is his daughter, Boyd shoots Hardy in a brawl and leaves behind evidence implicating Waring as the murderer. After Hardy's death, Mona joins Boyd's gang to gather evidence proving her fiancé's innocence. The gang members discover that Mona has dealings with the police, and they begin to torture her. Having learned of Mona's relationship to him at the last minute, Boyd arrives at the gang's hideout in time to save her. He confesses to killing Hardy before he dies from a wound inflicted by one of his own gang, thus freeing Waring to marry Mona.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1928-03-04
Popularity:
The Last Door
Overview: At a reception given at the Rogers mansion in his honor, Somerset Carroll surprises the guests by saying he would aid a female convict reported to have escaped. Later he does just that when he finds the girl in the library, taking her to his own house. There she reveals herself to be socialite Helen Rogers, playing a game with him on the advice of her guests. He then declares himself a crook, holding the real Carroll prisoner, with the intention of robbing the Rogers mansion. She follows and shields "The Magnet" from the police, the real Carroll having escaped and notified them, and through her interference he eludes his would-be captors.
Genres: Mystery
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1921-05-10
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The Big Shot
Overview: A young man runs into trouble when he buys an auto court, only to find out that its located next to a swamp that drives away all potential customers.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1931-12-31
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Law of the Sea
Overview: A sadistic, evil ship captain lusts after a beautiful young girl he spots in town. It turns out that she's the girlfriend of a young man whose father the captain had blinded and cast adrift on the ocean many years before.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1931-12-15
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The Battle Hymn of the Republic
Overview: This patriotic and historic picture portrays the writing of the famous national hymn by Mrs. Julia Ward Howe. In the early part of the Civil War President Lincoln was very much discouraged at the lack of enthusiasm and the tardiness with which the people answered the call for volunteers to join the army.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1911-06-30
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One Flag at Last
Overview: A Southern girl helps an escaped Union soldier in the midst of the Civil War.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1911-09-18
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The Highest Law
Overview:
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1921-02-05
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Gorilla Ship
Overview: Philip Wells and his wife Helen argue a lot about the attention that Philip thinks Helen and his best friend, Dave Burton, are giving each other, but they all sail off together on Philips yacht, until "Gorilla"Larsen and his motley crew show up, scuttle the yacht, and marital-strife is no longer the issue of the day.
Genres: Action Adventure
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1932-07-19
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Hell Bound
Overview: Lane and Diane are a young married couple living in a coastal town whose lives are about to be torn apart by an old book of magic.
Genres: Crime Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1931-05-01
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The County Fair
Overview: A Kentucky horse owner hires an ex-jockey, who is now working as a waiter, to train his thoroughbred race horse for an upcoming race. However, a gambling ring that doesn't want the horse entering the race has other plans.
Genres: Crime Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1932-03-31
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How Betty Won the School
Overview: Betty Carlton, a pretty girl, is sent to a girls' seminary. She is welcomed by all, and everything goes along merrily until one day, when they try to initiate Betty into one of their societies by blindfolding her and dropping cold, wet macaroni through her fingers. It feels so much like snakes that she dashes from the room. From now on she is ostracized. She decides to leave. While packing her trunk. She discovers a burglar climbing into a room where the other girls are having a "feed," to which she has not been invited. All the girls scream and run away. Betty, trusting to her lariat, enters the room, captures the burglar, and is thereby made a friend of all.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1911-08-22
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Bigger Than Barnum's
Overview: Melodrama of circus tightrope troupe.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1926-08-15
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