Chester Withey

Pretty Polly Marsden is ardently pursued by three different Romeos, but she coyly refuses to choose between them. When they insist that she give them her answer, she arranges an impromptu automobile race: whichever one of the three can overtake her speeding roadster will be the man whom she will marry.

The theft of a sacred diamond band from a Hindoo shrine starts the action.

Though Judge Benton unhesitatingly sentences laborer Joe Martin to a year in prison for beating his wife, he thoughtlessly abandons his own faithful wife to the attentions of an artist and demands a divorce when he suspects her of wrongdoing. Through coincidence Barbara Benton and Mrs. Martin become friends, and Barbara learns of Joe's desire for revenge.

A down-on-her luck streetwalker is ultimately redeemed by the love of a decent man.

A young man planning to marry receives a cautionary tale from his bishop based on the sad tale of the bishop's own early romance.

The only son of Gov. Adele Fenway, Bob, is engaged to Marian Lee, and at a dinner Adele announces her intention of giving them a wedding house. Having refused to support a water power bill endorsed by Jim Dornton, the political boss of the state, the governor is threatened.

A 1917 film directed by Chester Withey.

Senator John Coburn's son Steve, who associates more with gamblers, criminals and drug addicts than with his father's congressional cronies, impulsively murders his mistress' new lover. The senator tries to use his influence to have Steve acquitted, but all of the evidence firmly and correctly implicates him, and so the jury prepares to find Steve guilty without much deliberation. Before the verdict can be announced, however, Steve's mother rises in court to make an impassioned plea for her son. As a result, moved by the mother's grief, the jurors choose to ignore all of the evidence, and declare that Steve is not guilty.

Genevieve arrives at the Hubbard farm in New York State in a chauffeur-driven limousine, bringing along her maid, her pet dog, and custom-made silk overalls modeled after Russian ballet attire. She eventually adapts to the labor and falls in love with Bob Hubbard, the farmer's youngest son. However, when Bob enters an army training camp, he finds military life distasteful and goes AWOL to return home. Genevieve successfully persuades Bob to return to his post and fulfill his duty. Though their initial secret meeting leads to Genevieve being sent away by the elder Hubbard, Bob eventually obtains a leave of absence to clear her name. He becomes a resolute soldier, and the two resolve to marry once the war is over.

Wallace Beery repeats his role of King Richard, a role he played so sucessfully in Robin Hood the previous year.

Living quietly under the assumed name Paul Sernine, reformed gentleman crook Arsene Lupin is summoned to protect his invalid, wealthy friend Henry Forbes.

A German-American father, loyal to his new U.S. home, finds himself on opposite sides with his son in the wartime conflict between Germany and America. The son becomes involved with German agents plotting against U.S., and the father must decide between his son and his adopted homeland.

When Marie Callender is left a fortune by a wealthy old admirer on the condition that she marry the man she loves, Marie targets Ernest Lismore but is too shy to ask him to marry her. Instead, Marie disguises herself as an elderly woman of considerable wealth and offers to bail Ernest out of his impending bankruptcy in exchange for marriage, with the understanding that if Ernest ever falls in love with another woman she will grant him a divorce. Then Marie disguises herself as June Dayne in order to make her husband fall in love with her. She succeeds, and when Ernest confesses his love for another woman, Marie discards her disguise and Ernest discovers that the woman with whom he is in love is his own wife.

Gordon Emery hopes to marry the wealthy Estelle Summers but is ashamed of his own lack of money. He then hears that he is the sole heir of a fortune of two million dollars from his uncle. Estelle refuses to marry him, however, unless he loses all of it. Convinced that the best way to do this will be to get arrested and compel his uncle to disinherit him, he tries a to get arrested in a variety of ways but keeps failing to do so and is even commended for preventing a bank robbery.

Antone Tojetti and his pretty daughter, Maria, are street musicians in Venice. John Strom, an American millionaire, makes love to Maria, and finally persuades her to leave for America with him. Her father sees them just as they are leaving, but she will not return to him. Two years later, Maria, abandoned by John, returns to her father, who has now become a guide in the mountains. She dies and Antone vows vengeance. Some time after this, John Strom, now married, is touring Europe and he and his party seek a guide to visit Vesuvius. Antone takes the position. John not recognizing in him the father of Maria.

Renee is a French artist's model who uses morphine as an escape from the dull reality of her life. She recommends it to a neurotic artist because "it kindles the fires of genius." The artist quickly becomes addicted to the drug and the quality of his work begins to disintegrate. He takes on a new model, marries her, and starts her on the same path of moral degradation, until a guilt-ridden Renee decides to intervene in order to save them both. According to silent film historian Kevin Brownlow, THE DEVIL'S NEEDLE was banned by the state of Ohio, but the censor board reversed its decision after recognizing the positive message beneath the film's scandalous surface. This special edition was mastered from a 35mm preservation print of the 1923 re-release version. The only known surviving copy, the element suffers significant nitrate decomposition during some scenes.

Small town youth Jimmie Bates is a well-intentioned, but troubled youth. Jimmie is a rowdy boy who is always getting into trouble and playing pranks on his friends and neighbors. Although deeply in love with young Mary, he eventually spurns Mary's affection for the more outgoing and worldly young Ruth.

Joan Wiswell, Ted Workman, and wholesome Helen Ripley are among the half-dozen or more suspects, all for good reasons of their own, murdered a high-society crook called Genne Cassenas.

Silent comedy, based on a 1913 stage play of the same title.

A 1917 film directed by Chester Withey.

Francois Villon, vagabond, poet and philosopher, and his friend Colin, leave the vagabond camp and start for Paris. En route to that city, Villon's heart is touched at sight of the eviction of an elderly couple from their poor home. Whereupon he empties his own and Colin's purse, pays the Beadle, and then resume their journey. Overcome with the pangs of hunger, they "lift " the purses of a couple of corpulent monks. For this breach of law both Villon and Colin are arrested and thrown into prison. This film and By the Sun's Rays are two of Chaney's earliest surviving films.

When anarchist bombs disrupt the engagement ball of Princess Marie Pavlovna, her fiancé, Prince Michail Koloyar, helps her to escape in a carriage. Then Theo Kameneff, secretly in the pay of a foreign government, becomes dictator and, desiring the princess, issues an edict that all women between the ages of seventeen and thirty-two must register and become state property.

Susanne Danbury and Walter Gaylord, the man she loves, are among the weekend guests of her publisher, Hugh Bemis, and his wife Agatha, who also loves Walter. Lost film.