The Old Tragedian

1912 French silent short drama directed by René Leprince.

An earlier version of the 18th century swashbuckling story later made as a vehicle for Gerard Philipe, this one is in serial format.

A baby is abandoned near the Neva in St. Petersburg 1890. A teacher picks it up and takes the little girl. 20 years pass, Masha (Claudia Victrix) flee Russia because her father conspired against the Tsarist regime and is in the attention of the dangerous General Bourgassoff (Jean Toulout) . She goes to study medicine in Paris....

The story is told through the eyes of Titi, a very young boy who recently lost his mother and was left stranded in the slums of Montmartre. He comes across a little girl who, later, turns to be an East European princess, chased by the killers hired by her own uncle...

Comedy short starring Max Linder

Max meets the Countess Duvienne in a very distressing moment, for she has just learned that her jockey will be unable to ride her horse, the favorite for the owner's stakes. In that irresistible way of his, Max volunteers to ride in the jockey's stead, the countess thanks him but cannot accept his offer, because of his excessive weight. The gallant Max, nothing daunted, decides to reduce. After running a mile with a forty-pound dumbbell, he looks like a wet rag, but goes gamely to a Turkish bath. This treatment brings Max down to weight, and mounted on the countess' horse. Max fights every stride of the tight race, hut wins, not only the race, but the countess as well.

Max proposes to a lady. Inexplicably, she insists she won’t marry him until he learns to juggle. At this news, Max goes home and tries to learn but is ultimately unsuccessful until he hatches an idea...

The aristocrat Macaire, out of jealousy, plans to ambush his comrade Montargis because the King favors him.

When Max, a newly married man, suspects that his wife may be cheating on him, he gives his faithful dog Dick orders to keep on eye on her when he's not at home.

Max, awakening on his wedding morning, discovers that it is close on the hour when he should be at the church. He dresses hastily, and in struggling with a refractory collar, allows his boots to be burnt by the fire. There is no time to change them, and he hastens off to the bride's house. On the way his soles part company with their uppers, and poor Max enters into negotiations with a passing labourer for the purchase of his footgear.

Max is a stage struck youth, and because of a deep-seated desire to go on the stage, refuses to consent to a marriage his father has planned for him. The girl, whom Max has never met, is also stage struck, and entertains no wish of marrying him, though her mother is anxious to see her make the alliance. The parents finally manage to bring the young people together, and they, in turn, exert all their skill in an attempt to disgust each other. An accidental meeting between the two when they are off guard causes them to change their minds.

Max Linder strays further from his usual haunts of situational comedy, far into straight slapstick as he gets into a dispute over the woman he is courting with a pantomime donkey -- although whether the donkey wants the girl or Max i something I can not quite make out.

In August 1803, Napoleon’s police uncovered a British-backed Bourbon restoration plot implicating the Prince of Condé. Although his son, the Duke of Enghien, seemed preoccupied with romance and hunting in Baden, a French spy’s report falsely suggested his guilt. Napoleon ordered the Duke abducted from Ettenheim. Transferred to Vincennes, the Duke was sentenced to death by Napoleon and executed under Colonel Savary’s command.

Anaïk, a lovely Breton girl, is engaged to Yvon, a sailor on the destroyer Amphititre. They plan to marry after his return. During his absence, Anaïk gets to know Bernard Grandval, a painter from Paris, and his daughter Simone. Enchanted by the young Breton's beauty, Bernard makes her his model and gradually falls in love with her.