All Films

Thou Art the Man

1920 • 50 min • United States of America

Suspicious that his employers are diamond smugglers, soldier-of-fortune Myles Calthrope quits his job in the African mines and heads south, where he meets and falls in love with Joan Farrant. Joan, unaware that her brother Henry is in the diamond smuggling business, obtains Myles a position in the family firm. Myles is given an envelope of legal documents to deliver, but when he is searched aboard ship, diamonds are discovered in the pouch and Myles is imprisoned. After completing his sentence, Myles secures a job on the Prescott sugar plantation, where he once again meets Joan, who denounces him as a smuggler. Mr. Prescott, Myles's employer, determines to prove Myles's innocence.

All Aboard for the Moon

1920 • 8 min • United States of America

An animated interpretation of a rocket voyage to the moon demonstrates the scientific principles at play in theoretical space travel (such as gravity).

The Adventures of Daredevil Jack

1920 • 20 min • United States of America

Heavyweight boxing champion Jack Dempsey stars in this 15 chapter action serial, of which portions of reels 1, 2, and 4 survive. In the serial he plays the star fullback of his college's football team who gets drawn into an adventure when he stops to rescue a young woman from some thugs on a country road. It includes a gag featuring an exploding football. The rest of the cast includes Lon Chaney, Edgar Kennedy, Bull Montana, Josie Sedgwick and Herschel Mayall.

The Unknown Ranger

1920 • 45 min • United States of America

A man named Chandler, claiming to be a novelist in search of local color, arrives at a town near the Mexican border, where he makes advances toward Jo, a girl living a solitary life on a desert ranch. Manning, a cowboy, suspects Chandler's motives, and his suspicions are strengthened when Chandler is caught cheating at cards. Following a gang of Mexicans to their mountain retreat, Manning learns that Chandler and the Mexicans are smuggling opium across the border. Two gang members are killed in the ensuing fight, but Chandler, wounded by Manning after a chase on the cliffs, escapes to Jo's home, where he denounces Manning as a smuggler. Manning arrives and dispels Jo's misgivings about him by revealing that he is a Texas Ranger, sworn to secrecy.

Wings of Pride

1920 • 50 min • United States of America

Olive Muir, a haughty society girl, objects when Alice Prentice, a girl of lower station, comes to visit her family. After Alice's drunken father comes to visit the Muir home, Olive learns to her horror that she is adopted and that Prentice is her real father.

Satan

1920 • 54 min • Germany

A three-part historical film: the first episode takes place in ancient Egypt, the second is based on the Hugo novel La Fin de Satan, and the third takes place during the 1917 Russian revolution. Lost film, minor fragments survive

The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come

1920 • 60 min • United States of America

An orphan boy from the Kentucky hills joins the Union Army and rescues his adopted family from Morgan's raiders. He learns his real identity when he returns after the war.

The Sheriff's Oath

1920 • 20 min • United States of America

The Sheriff's Oath is a 1920 silent western.

The Land of Jazz

1920 • 50 min • United States of America

Nina, engaged to a French captain, and Nancy, engaged to a doctor who runs an insane asylum on an island, are friends. When the doctor catches Nancy kissing the captain, known for kisses with a "heavenly kick," he breaks the engagement. In an effort to win back the doctor for Nancy, Nina pretends to be a bit "off" and becomes an inmate of the sanitarium.

A Double-Dyed Deceiver

1920 • 50 min

Most of the scenes are laid in a parrot-and-monkey country in South America, a land where "it is always after dinner." The Llano Kid, a Texas bad man, flees there from justice. The consul persuades him to play the long-lost son of a Castilian family, and tattoos a coat of arms on the back of the Kid's hand to make the deception complete. The Kid is taken into the household, trusted and loved by the gladdened mother. For the first time he has a home. The romance develops. And when the time comes to rob and flee he has too much manhood to break the loving mother's heart. The surprise comes when it is revealed that the man the Kid killed in Texas was the real son.

Heroes All

1920 • 16 min • United States of America

Examination of returning wounded WWI veterans and their treatment at Walter Reed Hospital, along with visits to iconic landmarks in Washington, D.C.

A Flivver Wedding

1920 • 23 min • United States of America

The misadventures of a young man who sets out in his flivver to stop the girl he loves from being forcibly married to a rival.

Little Miss Rebellion

1920 • 50 min • United States of America

The Grand Duchess Marie Louise is the beautiful young ruler of Molvania. She is a fun-loving girl who secretly hopes that the revolutionaries who threaten to take over her country are able to do so, as that will free her to go to America to be with the soldier friends she met during the Great War.

Something New

1920 • 57 min • United States of America

A young woman visiting in Mexico is kidnapped by a gang of bandits, who drag her through the rugged wilderness to their hideout. She manages to leave word for her friend Bill, who knows the country well. But when Bill cannot find a horse, his only available form of transportation is his roadster. Nevertheless, he is determined to come to her rescue, even though it means trying to drive the car across miles of rocky, broken terrain.

The Galloping Devil

1920 • 60 min • United States of America

Andy Green, a colorful cowboy, finds work at the Flying U cattle ranch, owned by Chip. Chip's foreman Dunk, who is Elsie Gray's guardian, attempts to force her to sign papers releasing him, but she refuses because he has stolen some of her money. Chip fires Dunk, who buys an adjoining sheep ranch, cutting off Chip's water supply and endangering his cattle.

The Broken Gate

1920 • 60 min • United States of America

Aurora Lane (Bessie Barriscale) lives in a small town loaded with small-minded residents. She had an illegitimate child and with the earnings from her millinery shop, she has sent him away to be educated. When Don, her son (Arnold Gregg), returns from college, he finds he has to defend his mother constantly. He is accused of murdering a man who made a snide remark about Aurora and is put on trial.

Judy of Rogues' Harbor

1920 • 60 min • United States of America

Judy, an orphaned waif, lives with Grandpap Ketchel, a cruel and often brutal man. The sole protector of little Denny, Ketchel's grandson, Judy is forced to accept the attentions of Jim Shuckles, whom she abhors and who has compromised her sister Olive.

Eyes of the Heart

1920 • 50 min • United States of America

Laura, a blind girl, has been cared for since infancy by Mike, Whitey, and Sal, three crooks who have kept her ignorant of her true surroundings. After an operation restores her sight, Laura is disillusioned and embittered by the sordidness of her environment. She falls under the evil influence of the gang's leader, Dennis Sullivan, who teaches her the art of safecracking. Just as Laura is about to perform her first job, her three benefactors are released from jail because of insufficient evidence and rush to the scene of the robbery to prevent Laura's corruption. The owner of the safe gives the four a ranch in reward for thwarting the robbery, and they all start a new life in the West.

Along the Moonbeam Trail

1920 • 10 min • United States of America

A magic aeroplane takes two children to the Moon, where they encounter prehistoric monsters and witness a battle between them. As far as is known this was the first film to combine realistic stop-motion dinosaurs and live-action actors in the same shot. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2008.

The Triflers

1920 • 50 min

Janet Randall, a department store clerk who longs for a fling at high society, ignores the love of the poor but honest Dan Cassidy. When vacation time comes, Janet goes to a fashionable hotel and there meets her idol, society favorite Monte Moreville. Upon requesting the bill at the end of four days, Janet discovers that the tariff is more than she can afford, and Monte comes to her rescue by offering to bail her out. In exchange, Janet must pose as his wife to fend off a woman who is threatening a breach of promise suit.

How Babe Ruth Knocks a Home Run

1920 • 10 min

The mighty swing of Babe Ruth is shown in all its grace, power and swatness through the use of slow motion. The batting skills of Cleveland Indians star Tris Speaker and New York Yankees Wallie Pipp, Yankee Robert William Meusel, the underhand pitching style of Yankee Carl Mays and the overhand pitching delivery of the Yankee Jack Quinn are also displayed through slow motion. 1920 season.

The Garage

1920 • 22 min • United States of America

Roscoe and Buster operate a combination garage and fire station. In the first half they destroy a car left for them to clean. In the second half they go off on a false alarm and return to find their own building on fire.

Charlie Butts In

1920 • 11 min • United States of America

A tramp heads home drunk on a Saturday night, finding it hard to make it to his room. When he finally does, he cannot make it to his bed.

Miss Hobbs

1920 • 60 min • United States of America

She was a very modern young woman, was Miss Hobbs. Her ideas were about fifty years ahead of time. For one thing she hated men, thought them all brutes. But love has a way of smashing such an idea. Then she went in for barefoot dancing, futurist art and other advanced notions. Well, the upshot of it was the young man took upon himself to tame her, to make her a regular girl.