Tefft Johnson

The Victoria Cross

Ellen Carson volunteers to serve with Florence Nightingale in the Crimean war and witnesses the charge of the Light Brigade.

A Tale of Two Cities

An early film version of the Charles Dickens classic about the French Revolution and its subsequent Reign of Terror.

His Official Appointment

This touching short film lasts only 10 minutes, 34 seconds, but is rather engaging. Charles Kent is an old man, who has spent all he owns on influencing a government appointment. His faithful black servant, Amber (Hal Wilson), cares for him as he waits to hear from the Capitol. No one there intends to do anything but make fun of him, even sending a false appointment, to his shame.

His Sister's Children

Harry Burton's sister and her husband are suddenly called away for a few days on business and telegraph him to come to their home and take care of their two little boys, "Toddie and Budge." He at once complies, and is soon with the children, assuming his duties as "governor." Helen Manton, stopping in the same town, thinks a great deal of Harry Burton, and naturally he of her.

The Battle Cry of Peace

Enemy agents under the leadership of "Emanon" conspire with pacifists to keep the American defense appropriations down at a time when forces of the enemy are preparing to invade. The invasion comes, and New York, Washington, and other American cities are devastated.

An Easter Lily

The third in the series, An Easter "Lily" takes on upstairs/downstairs race relations with childhood candor. Following his family’s African American maid to the laundry, Sonny Jim befriends her daughter Lily and shares his teddy bear. With Easter approaching, Mother Dear buys her boy a new outfit and readies her home for relatives. Sonny Jim talks about the coming festivities with his playmate. When he learns that she does not have holiday clothes, he appropriates the white frock of his visiting cousin and invites Lily to join his family for Sunday worship.

Dixie Madcaps

As the name suggests, this two-reeler contains racial stereotypes common in its day (the Teens) but which are offensive to modern sensibilities. With vaudevillians Jane and Catherine Lee and a large African-American cast.

Jean the Match-Maker

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.

Love Net

Little Patty Barnes lives with her grandfather, Captain Amos Barnes, in a rickety shack on the New England coast. The wealthy Mrs. Gaythorne, who wishes to adopt Patty, instructs James Henley to secure the mortgage on the shack, and when Amos, now homeless and penniless, departs for the poor farm, Patty is forced to live with the cruel old woman.

Home Wanted

Every night, Madge Dow of the Middleport Orphanage, imagines herself in the lighted room in the house across the way, being tucked into bed by a beautiful mother. After Madge and her friend Spotty escape to visit settlement worker Letty Thompson, and Letty encourages them to investigate the house, they find a grumpy, gout-ridden old Major there, still irritated over his daughter's marriage years ago without his consent.

Love Finds the Way

Ethel is in love with Jack, one of her father's employees. Jack is fired by Ethel's father, because he wants Ethel to marry a rich banker. Ethel and Jack run away together and on the way they get married with the help of a preacher.

A Christmas Story

Though her father forbids her to marry Jack Harvey, a poor young artist, Molly Wilson becomes his wife and goes away with him to another town. Bessie, the eldest daughter, an attractive widow with two baby boys and a baby girl, pleads with her father in Molly's behalf, but he is obdurate.

Twelfth Night

When Viola and her twin brother Sebastian are shipwrecked and separated, Viola dresses in her brother's clothes and becomes a page in the palace of the Duke of Orsino. Thinking Viola is a boy, the Duke sends her with a message to Olivia, whom he loves. A series of complications begins when Olivia falls in love with the page 'boy'

As You Like It

After the overthrowing of Duke Senior by his tyrannical brother, Senior's daughter Rosalind disguises herself as a man and sets out to find her banished father while also counseling her clumsy suitor Orlando in the art of wooing.

Auld Lang Syne

Among the green hills of Scotland dwelt two farmer lads, Tammas and Geordie, fast friends tried and loyal as members of the same clan. They are both very much in love with Jenny, a little Scottish lass, and Geordie dreams of what might be if he were successful in his wooing.

Vanity Fair

In early 19th century England, ambitious and ruthless orphan Rebecca Sharp advances from the position of governess to the heights of British society.

The Little Minister

To start a little in advance of our story, Lord Rintoul, of the English nobility, finds a little Gypsy girl three years old, who had been deserted by her parents. Fifteen years later, Gavin Dishart, the Little Minister, receives an appointment, his first, at Thrums, Scotland. This was made possible through the self-sacrifices of his widowed mother, to educate him for the ministry. The community of Thrums is made up of weavers, who work hard, have little and accomplish much. They are ultra-religious and look upon their pastor with such reverence that he is a little lower than the angels. While naturally intelligent, they are grounded in dogma and intolerance. Just after the Little Minister takes charge of the "Auld Licht Kirk" and the Manse, the weavers resent a reduction, by the manufacturers, in their pay and a strike is declared.

The Mills of the Gods

A silent crime film in which the wealthy landowner Lorenzo, who has been taunting poor Miguel and his family for years, eventually gets his comeuppance.

The Strength of Men

Two men, rescued from the elements at different times by a father and daughter who live in a remote spot in the forest, become bitter rivals for the girl's love and eventually agree to a river-race to decide the issue between them.

The New Klondike

Tom Kelly, a small-town baseball pitcher, is sent to a minor-league team in Florida, and fails to make the team. He starts dabbling in real estate, in the midst of the Florida land boom (in which a lot of the land sold was under water), makes a fortune and buys into the team that cut him from its roster.

Vampire of the Desert

Ishmael, the son of Hagar, an old hag, living on the edge of the desert, falls completely under the charms of Lispeth, a vampire. One day there passes the miserable hut in which these three strange people live, a wealthy banker, named William Corday, his wife and son. Derrick. Lispeth wields her magic power over the husband and soon has him in her power. When he attempts to kiss her, she repulses him. So clever is she that the wife has no idea of her husband's unfaithfulness.

Coronets and Hearts

Leaving England, in search of an American wife, young Cyril, son of the Earl of Creston, on reaching America meets Lilly Penn, and immediately lays siege to her heart and her fortune when he learns that she is an heiress.

A Marriage of Convenience

Billy Emerson and Mildred Girard are secretly engaged to be married after Billy graduates from West Point and becomes a lieutenant. A very serious setback to their tentative understanding occurs when Mr. Girard loses heavily in a stock transaction that places himself under obligations to his friend Morley, whose son Paul, is anxious to marry Mildred.

C.O.D.

The story follows three men—C.O. Darlington, C.O. Drudge, and C.O. Dusenberry (whose shared initials give the film its title)—who deceive their wives by faking illnesses to go on a secret vacation together.