United States (Sorted by Date of Your Rating Ascending)
1. Corbett and Courtney Before the Kinetograph (1894)
Not Rated | 1 min | Short, Sport
James J. Corbett and Peter Courtney meet in a boxing exhibition.
Directors: William K.L. Dickson, William Heise | Stars: James J. Corbett, Peter Courtney
Votes: 774
2. Awakening of Rip (1896)
Not Rated | | Drama, Short
A series of short black and white films from director William K.L. Dickson which chronicle the adventures of Rip Van Winkle.
Director: William K.L. Dickson | Star: Joseph Jefferson
Votes: 582
3. Exit of Rip and the Dwarf (1896)
Not Rated | 1 min | Drama, Short
A series of short black and white films from director William K.L. Dickson which chronicle the adventures of Rip Van Winkle.
Director: William K.L. Dickson | Star: Joseph Jefferson
Votes: 511
4. A Hard Wash (1896)
Comedy, Short
"A colored woman washing a little pickaninny. Very funny, and especially pleasing to children."
Director: William K.L. Dickson
Votes: 46
5. Rip Passing Over the Mountain (1896)
Not Rated | 1 min | Short, Fantasy
A series of short black and white films from director William K.L. Dickson which chronicle the adventures of Rip Van Winkle.
Director: William K.L. Dickson | Star: Joseph Jefferson
Votes: 509
6. Buffalo Bill and Escort (1897)
Short, News
McKinley Inaugural Parade.
Director: James H. White | Star: Buffalo Bill Cody
Votes: 28
8. The Burglar on the Roof (I) (1898)
Not Rated | 1 min | Short, Crime
There is a burglar on the rooftop of a Manhattan office building, and he is trying to break in. Two women spot him, and one of them begins beating him with a broom as they wait for help to ... See full summary »
Director: J. Stuart Blackton | Star: J. Stuart Blackton
Votes: 236
9. Casey at the Bat (1899)
TV-G | 1 min | Short, Sport
"The umpire makes a decision that Casey doesn't like, and an argument follows, during which Casey deftly trips him up, and continues the argument on the ground. The other players run from ... See full summary »
Votes: 106
10. Above the Limit (1900)
Short, Comedy
A man seems to be at the races, rooting for his favorite number.
Star: Charley Grapewin
Votes: 136
12. Faust and Marguerite (1900)
Not Rated | 1 min | Short, Fantasy, Horror
Marguerite is seated before the fireplace, Faust standing by her side. Mephistopheles enters and offers his sword to Faust, commanding him to behead the fair Marguerite. Faust refuses, ... See full summary »
Director: Edwin S. Porter
Votes: 396
13. Uncle Josh's Nightmare (1900)
2 min | Comedy, Short, Fantasy
Poor Uncle Josh is trying to get to sleep, but being constantly bedeviled by a fellow in red long underwear with horns. A short early trick editing film using a stationary camera.
Director: Edwin S. Porter | Star: Charles Manley
Votes: 352
14. Buffalo Bill's Wild West Parade (1901)
2 min | Documentary, Short, News
Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show parades down New York's Fifth Avenue. Filmed on 1 April 1901.
Star: Buffalo Bill Cody
Votes: 111
15. Day at the Circus (1901)
2 min | Documentary, Short
We present here a series of interesting pictures and show a number of scenes just as witnessed by a visitor to the Great Forepaugh and Sells Bros. combined four-ring circus. We begin by ... See full summary »
Director: Edwin S. Porter
Votes: 51
16. Execution of Czolgosz with Panorama of Auburn Prison (1901)
4 min | Short, Drama, History
This early docudrama shows Auburn Prison and recreates the electrocution of Leon Czolgosz, the assassin of President McKinley of the United States. Some versions offer additional footage at... See full summary »
Director: Edwin S. Porter
Votes: 346
17. Departure of Peary and the Roosevelt from New York (1905)
4 min | Short, News
The 16 July 1905 departure of polar explorer Robert Peary on one of his expeditions to the North Pole aboard the specially designed ship Roosevelt.
Votes: 57
18. The Night Before Christmas (1905)
9 min | Animation, Short, Family
It's December 24th, and 'Santa Claus' is busy feeding his reindeer and finishing up the toys that he will soon deliver. Meanwhile, the children in a large family hang their stockings over ... See full summary »
Director: Edwin S. Porter
Votes: 583
19. Yale Laundry (1907)
Short, Comedy
"When the cat's away the mice will play," may be aptly applied to the theme of this picture of Biograph. The Yale Laundry is owned and operated by a dashing widow with two vivacious ... See full synopsis »
Star: Anthony O'Sullivan
20. The Adventures of Dollie (1908)
Not Rated | 12 min | Action, Short
On a warm and sunny summer's day, a mother and father take their young daughter Dollie on a riverside outing. A gypsy basket peddler happens along, and is angered when the mother refuses to... See full summary »
Directors: D.W. Griffith, G.W. Bitzer | Stars: Arthur V. Johnson, Linda Arvidson, Gladys Egan, Charles Inslee
Votes: 819
21. Barbara Fritchie: The Story of a Patriotic American Woman (1908)
Short, Drama, History
Barbara Frietchie's defense of the American flag and the death of a Union soldier in battle bring a tribute from both sides.
Director: J. Stuart Blackton | Stars: Julia Arthur, Edith Storey, Earle Williams
22. Behind the Scenes (1908)
9 min | Short, Drama
A mother works as a dancer to support her ill daughter. One night while performing, the mother has a vision of her child dying. She rushes home, but it is too late.
Director: D.W. Griffith | Stars: Florence Lawrence, Gladys Egan, Kate Bruce, George Gebhardt
Votes: 63
23. The Boy Detective, or the Abductors Foiled (1908)
5 min | Short, Comedy, Drama
As a newsboy is playing a game on the sidewalk with a friend, two men come near to them, and then stand in a position where they cannot be seen from the sidewalk. When an attractive woman ... See full summary »
Director: Wallace McCutcheon | Stars: Robert Harron, Edward Dillon
Votes: 61
24. The Devil (I) (1908)
10 min | Short, Drama
Harold Thornton, a successful artist, is so deeply in love with his wife that apparently no power, natural or supernatural, could swerve him from the path of honor. But, alas! he is human, ... See full summary »
Director: D.W. Griffith | Stars: Harry Solter, Claire McDowell, George Gebhardt, Arthur V. Johnson
Votes: 45
25. The Fairylogue and Radio-Plays (1908)
120 min | Fantasy, Adventure
L. Frank Baum would appear in a white suit and present his live actors, slide shows and films as a live travelogue presentation of his popular fantasies. Highlights include Dorothy being ... See full summary »
Directors: Francis Boggs, Otis Turner | Stars: L. Frank Baum, Frank Burns, George E. Wilson, Wallace Illington
Votes: 66
26. Falsely Accused! (1908)
Short, Drama
A wealthy old alchemist and inventor has just perfected a motion picture camera with which he hopes to revolutionize the art of animated photography, and our story opens with the old man in... See full synopsis »
Director: Wallace McCutcheon | Stars: Edward Dillon, D.W. Griffith
Votes: 48
27. A Famous Escape (1908)
Short, Drama
The story is founded on an incident taken from the history of the United States during a time of strife. The opening scenes show the departure from their homes, mothers, wives and ... See full summary »
Director: Wallace McCutcheon | Stars: Harry Solter, D.W. Griffith, Anthony O'Sullivan
Votes: 41
28. A Florida Feud: or, Love in the Everglades (1909)
Short, Drama
Sue Guthrie and young Cordova are lovers, but the fathers of the two families are bitter enemies. The love affair finally triumphs after being entangled in the meshes of a cruel family warfare.
Director: Sidney Olcott
29. King of the Cannibal Islands (1908)
Short, Comedy
"Music hath charms to soothe a savage breast." Not always, but sometimes. Hence it was that the dulcet tones produced by Heinie Holtzmeyer, the fiddler, and Orpheus of the little Holland ... See full summary »
Director: Wallace McCutcheon | Stars: Harry Solter, D.W. Griffith, Linda Arvidson, Anthony O'Sullivan
30. The King's Messenger (1908)
Short, Drama
The action is laid in the seventeenth century, and the costumes, while historically accurate, are most lavishly elaborate. A bitter war is waging between two kingdoms, and as the King and ... See full summary »
Director: Wallace McCutcheon | Stars: D.W. Griffith, Linda Arvidson, Mack Sennett
Votes: 22
31. The Life of an American Cowboy (1908)
17 min | Short, Western
Director: Edwin S. Porter | Star: Gilbert M. 'Broncho Billy' Anderson
32. Lonesome Junction (1908)
Short, Comedy, Western
Lonesome Junction, though a howling wilderness, possessed one blessing, a train to somewhere else, but like all good things in this world, none are gained without a struggle. So the trains,... See full summary »
33. Mixed Babies (1908)
Short, Comedy
Reversing the proverb. "Tis a wise parent that knows its own child," especially in a bargain day rush at a New York department store. The Joneses had not been blessed with a child of their,... See full summary »
Director: Wallace McCutcheon | Stars: Edward Dillon, Robert Harron
34. Monday Morning in a Coney Island Police Court (1908)
7 min | Short, Comedy
The Hon. Patrick Henry McPheeney is Justice of the Police Court of the world's greatest playground. Sunday night is a most busy one for the coppers, and the cooler on Monday morning is ... See full summary »
Director: D.W. Griffith | Stars: John R. Cumpson, Harry Solter, Edward Dillon, George Gebhardt
Votes: 20
35. Mr. Jones at the Ball (1908)
8 min | Short, Comedy
Director: D.W. Griffith | Stars: John R. Cumpson, Florence Lawrence, Mack Sennett, George Gebhardt
Votes: 61
36. The Music Master (1908)
Short
What is more miserable than love-blighted life? For the heart that truly loves can never forget. Such is the sad fate of the hero of this Biograph story. Herr Von Mitzel, a disciple of ... See full summary »
Director: Wallace McCutcheon | Star: D.W. Griffith
38. The Red Girl (1908)
17 min | Action, Short
Kate Nelson, a girl miner who has been working a claim in the mountains, runs into the office of the frontier hotel with the tidings that she has at last struck paydirt, showing a bag of ... See full summary »
Director: D.W. Griffith | Stars: Florence Lawrence, Charles Inslee, Linda Arvidson, Clara T. Bracy
Votes: 21
39. Romance of a Jewess (1908)
10 min | Drama, Short
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.
Director: D.W. Griffith | Stars: Florence Lawrence, George Gebhardt, Gladys Egan, John R. Cumpson
Votes: 118
40. The Sculptor's Nightmare (1908)
11 min | Comedy, Short
At a political club, the members debate whose bust will replace that of Theodore Roosevelt. Unable to agree, each goes to a sculptor's studio and bribes him to sculpt a bust of the ... See full summary »
Director: Wallace McCutcheon | Stars: Florence Auer, Edward Dillon, D.W. Griffith, Anthony O'Sullivan
Votes: 117
41. The Tavern Keeper's Daughter (1908)
7 min | Action, Short
In the lonely wilds of Southern California there stands a rural tavern, kept by an old trapper, who had been widowed years ago; his wife leaving him a most precious legacy in the being of a... See full summary »
Director: D.W. Griffith | Stars: George Gebhardt, Edward Dillon, Florence Auer, Marion Leonard
Votes: 23
42. A Woman's Way (1908)
11 min | Action, Short
The pretty daughter of a French-Canadian backwoodsman incites the love of a trapper who is so smitten with the beauty of this wood nymph that he purchases her into marriage from her father.... See full summary »
Director: D.W. Griffith | Stars: George Gebhardt, Harry Solter, Linda Arvidson, Dorothy Bernard
Votes: 21
43. The Zulu's Heart (1908)
13 min | Action, Short
The Zulu chief of the Amatabele tribe has an only daughter who, at the age of four years, dies of fever, and in the opening scene of this Biograph story we find him burying her. Scarcely ... See full summary »
Director: D.W. Griffith | Stars: Charles Inslee, George Gebhardt, Harry Solter, Florence Lawrence
Votes: 56
44. At the Altar (1909)
11 min | Short, Drama
At the Italian boarding house the male boarders were all smitten with the charms of Minnie, the landlady's pretty daughter, but she was of a poetic turn of mind and her soul soared above ... See full summary »
Director: D.W. Griffith | Stars: Marion Leonard, Charles Inslee, Barry O'Moore, David Miles
Votes: 164
45. A Baby's Shoe (1909)
11 min | Short, Drama
The story tells of the young widowed mother of two children who is forced by extreme poverty to part with one of her children, a baby girl, by placing it in a basket on the door steps of a ... See full summary »
Director: D.W. Griffith | Stars: Florence Lawrence, Owen Moore, Linda Arvidson, George Nichols
Votes: 74
46. The Best Man Wins (1909)
Short, Western
Charles Shea, the handsome young foreman of the Bar Z ranch, has won the love of the winsome daughter of his employer, John Graham. Alice and he are engaged to be married when a telegram ... See full summary »
Director: Gilbert M. 'Broncho Billy' Anderson | Stars: Gilbert M. 'Broncho Billy' Anderson, John B. O'Brien, Fred Church, William A. Russell
47. The Country Doctor (1909)
Not Rated | 14 min | Short, Drama
While caring for his sick daughter, a doctor is called away to the sickbed of a neighbor. He finds the neighbor gravely ill, and ignores his wife's pleas to come home and care for his own daughter, who has taken a turn for the worse.
Director: D.W. Griffith | Stars: Frank Powell, Florence Lawrence, Gladys Egan, Kate Bruce
Votes: 670
48. The Death Disc: A Story of the Cromwellian Period (1909)
11 min | Short, Drama
During the reign of Oliver Cromwell, Catholic worship is forbidden on pain of death. Three soldiers are arrested as Catholics and condemned to die. Cromwell decides to spare two of them and... See full summary »
Director: D.W. Griffith | Stars: George Nichols, Marion Leonard, Edith Haldeman, Frank Powell
Votes: 41
49. A Drunkard's Reformation (1909)
13 min | Drama, Short
A drinking man arrives home, late and sozzled as usual. His wife reminds him that he promised to take their child to a play. The play proves to be a morality tale about the evils of drink; ... See full summary »
Director: D.W. Griffith | Stars: Arthur V. Johnson, Linda Arvidson, Adele DeGarde, Charles Avery
Votes: 230
50. Eradicating Aunty (1909)
6 min | Short, Comedy
A young couple must endure a tedious visit from their aunt until their friend offers to find a way to make her leave.
Director: D.W. Griffith | Stars: Florence Auer, Florence Lawrence, Owen Moore, Arthur V. Johnson
Votes: 38