Ford Sterling

In Victorian England, a bored young girl dreams that she has entered a fantasy world called Wonderland, populated by even more fantastic characters.

After a baron steals his scientific discoveries, runs away with his wife, and slaps him in public, a man joins a Parisian circus sideshow as a clown whose act consists of being slapped repeatedly and becomes infatuated with a showgirl colleague whose father intends to marry her off to the baron.

Ben Turpin's rival marries his college sweetheart played by Phyllis Haver.

Angela comes to Hollywood with only two things: Her dream to become a movie star, and Grandpa. She leaves an Aunt, a brother, Grandma, and her longtime boyfriend back in Centerville. Despite seeing major movie stars around every corner, and knocking on every casting office door in town, at the end of her first day she is still unemployed. To her horror, when she arrives back at their hotel, she finds that Grandpa has been cast in a movie by William DeMille and quickly becomes a star during the ensuing weeks. Her family, worried that Angela and Grandpa are getting into trouble, come to Hollywood to drag them back home. In short order Aunt, Grandma, brother, boyfriend and even the parrot become superstars, but Angela is still unemployed...

May McAvoy is a woman who is blinded in an auto accident and relies on prayer to regain her sight.

As they are leaving the church following their wedding, Count Adrian Beltrami and Countess Anna-Marie are told that the Austrians are marching on the town to quell an Italian uprising. The bride and relatives induce the count to flee to his castle, but Tangy, a silhouette cutter, brings word from the revolutionary committee asking him to return; the count goes, asking Tangy to pose as the count and protect Anna-Marie.

A Mack Sennett comedy short starring Dell Henderson & Mabel Normand.

A police detective's (Norman Foster) lawyer girlfriend (Judith Allen) works for a crooked criminal lawyer (Sidney Blackmer).

In this one-hour special taped between March 9-17, 1981, Lily Tomlin and Dudley Moore join the Muppets in a tribute to film classics. Kermit the Frog hosts the program, which begins with an all-cast rendition of "Hey a Movie!" from The Great Muppet Caper.

Casey is a slovenly junk man in a turn of the twentieth century hick town who has a remarkable ability to play baseball. An unscrupulous New York scout signs him up, so Casey and his equally dishonest manager go to the big leagues. Eventually, the scout and manager conspire to get him drunk and bet against him for a crucial game with the pennant at stake.

Broadway actress leaves New York to become a star in Hollywood, and succeeds despite sleazy directors and her own ego.

The wealthy von Wellingens are shocked when the father of their son Fred's fiancée Lia juggles desserts at a formal dinner. They encourage Fred to break the engagement. Lia goes to Berlin to marry a Baron von Schwarzdorf, and Fred goes to stop the marriage.

A newspaper publisher finds out that his wild daughter has fallen in with a ring of gamblers. A reporter who has infiltrated the gang to get a story falls in love with the gang's female leader, and when the two are caught in a police raid, they find themselves in equal amounts of trouble.

A presumably lost film starring Mabel Normand and Roscoe Arbuckle.

In a dance hall, two members of the orchestra and a tipsy dancer fight over the hat check girl.

Charles Murray out romancing in the park.

Mr. Snookie steals an umbrella and then, while trying to help a woman to cross a puddle, the Tramp appears and intervenes.

Stationed in Switzerland after the Great War, soldiers Louis Hozenozzle and Rodney Ramsbottom both fall in love with local damsel Colette, much to the dismay of Colette's self-appointed boyfriend, General Lavoris. When Lavoris issues a fake order that all unmarried women must immediately take husbands, Hozenozzle weds Colette, at her request, to "save" her for the absent Ramsbottom. A lost film.

When some pranksters pour red pepper on a new groom's bouquet, the wedding becomes a hijinks factory.

John Curry is a friend of the Navajos who fails in his attempts to keep the white man from exploiting the tribe's secret altars. Realizing that there is oil to be found on the reservation, evil Will Newton gains entry to the area by posing as a trail guide for Elias Manton, an archeologist, and his daughter Mary.

Figures Don't Lie is a showcase for the physical charms of lovely Esther Ralston, who in one scene proves the accuracy of the title by donning a fetching one-piece bathing suit. The main story concerns wise-guy insurance salesman Richard Arlen, who through a combination of hard work and sheer gall lands a job as sales manager. But he can't land heroine Ralston, who has remained cool to his charms ever since he tried to make a play for her on the street. A lost film.

Ford arranged for lazy Brown to be kidnapped and dynamited by thugs, so that he can move in and marry Mrs. Brown. Locations include Rambo's Hotel, First Street in Coytesville, New Jersey, and Ford Lee, New Jersey area, probably in July or early August.

This short was a promo piece for Mack Sennett's Yankee Doodle in Berlin

The Keystone Hotel hosts a very prestigious beauty contest. When the cross-eyed judge presents the first prize to an elderly cleaning woman, angry members of the audience respond by hurling custard pies. The Keystone Kops are summoned, and arrive just in time to get plastered with pastry.

Julian (Percy Marmont) is a poor artist who lives with wife Edith (Alice Joyce) and their newborn baby in Harlem. Struggling to make ends meet, he foregoes his artistic calling and draws for magazines. Reaching his limits, Julian convinces his wife he could reach higher grounds if he were to go to Paris. He moves to Paris while his Edith works at a shop on Fifth Avenue. Each of their lives evolves differently—Edith is courted by a wealthy suitor whom she ignores while pining for her husband, while Julian fails to meet his goals in Paris, returning defeated three years later. The meeting highlight how different their routes have been.

A compilation featuring comedic stars of the silent era including Will Rogers, Laurel and Hardy, and the Keystone Cops.

An appreciative, uncritical look at silent film comedies and thrillers from early in the century through the 1920s.

Fatty and the Broadway Stars is a 1915 American short comedy film directed by and starring Fatty Arbuckle.

A young married couple appears before a judge to get a divorce. The wife shows the judge some pictures of her husband with his arms around another woman, as "proof" that he was cheating on her. The husband, for his part, claims that he was just innocently helping the woman and that he was being blackmailed by the photographer who took the picture.

On the eve of her wedding Lady Kay Rutfield runs off aboard her sloop. A storm carries her out to sea and she is rescued by a passing rumrunner bound for the Long Island Sound. Once they arrive in the States, Kay makes her escape and hides in the deserted mansion of Jimmy Winter. Jimmy is due to marry the following day. He comes home to the mansion unexpectedly, and finds Kay, who persuades him to let her pose for a night as his wife.

A young man falls in love with his mother's kitchen maid, Mabel. But his mother objects strongly, and arranges for him to meet another young woman whom she considers more suitable. Mabel confronts the young woman, and is dismissed from her position. Later, when the young man learns about the new career that Mabel has found, he begins to act in an agitated and unpredictable manner.

The Tramp, a film Johnnie (someone who loiters near theaters or studios to meet stars or get a job), attempts to meet his favorite movie actress at the Keystone Studio, but does not win friends there.

Behind enemy lines, Captain Bob White disguises himself as a woman in order to fool members of the German High Command, including the Kaiser himself.

Tom Ford, Jr., keeps secret his romance with his father's secretary, Eve Grant. Ford, Sr., enlists Eve to entertain out-of-town buyer Mr. Mack. When Mack's wife insists on joining the nightclub party, Eve is introduced as Mrs. Ford. While listening to a radio broadcast from the nightclub, Mrs. Ford is alarmed by the announcement that a certain dance tune has been requested by "Mr. and Mrs. Tom Ford." Ford enlists his son to help extricate him from his difficulties with the boorish couple. Tom agrees to help if Ford, Sr., will consent to his marriage. After the party moves to the Ford home, the intoxicated Mr. Mack and his corpulent wife decide to stay the night. As they are about to retire, Mrs. Ford returns and calls the police, having seen an unfamiliar figure raiding her icebox. Tom explains the situation to everyone's satisfaction and introduces Eve as his bride.

To show his girl how brave he is, Pug challenges the champion to a fight. Charlie referees, trying to avoid contact with the two monsters.

A police officer attempts to steal a go-cart from a child.

Sally is an orphan who was named by the telephone exchange where she was abandoned as a baby. In the orphanage, she discovered the joy of dancing. Working as a waitress, she serves Blair (Alexander Gray), and they both fall for each other, but Blair is engaged to socialite Marcia. Sally is hired to impersonate a famous Russian dancer named Noskerova, but at that engagement, she is found to be a phoney. Undaunted, she proceeds with her life and has a show on Broadway, but she still thinks of Blair.

A happy young couple become engaged, and soon afterwards they are married. But after their marriage, the husband begins to stay out carousing with his friends, leaving his wife at home with her mother. Then, when the three of them go to the opera together, the husband spots one of his friends in another box. Soon the domestic difficulties reach their peak.

This short film takes a nostalgic look at the Mack Sennett comedies of the silent cinema era.

Two criminals chase a plainclothes policeman who, while taking out his dog, witnesses their crime.

In this drama, a traveling troupe of actors find themselves in danger of becoming unemployed when their manager up and leaves. Two of the actors decide to marry and settle down. The lead actor helps set up the rest of the troupe with some performances. He then destroys the new marriage. Later the woman and the head actor fall in love. He then gives her the lead role in his newest show.

Daydreaming waitress Jennie Hagen fantasizes about becoming a famous actress, while in reality she and her cook boyfriend, Orme Wilson, hope to one day own their own diner. Although Orme loves Jennie, he also has a weakness for stage stars -- so when a riverboat theatrical crew comes to their town, he is smitten by lead actress Lillian Lyons. Desperate to keep Orme, Jennie insists on going onstage to best Lillian, but is soon out of her depth.

When the daughter of a newspaper publisher is falsely charged with murder, a reporter on her father's paper goes into hiding with her. At first hoping to get an exclusive story, the reporter eventually finds himself falling in love and trying to find the real killer.

Polly Brewster, a penniless Hollywood model/movie extra inherits one million dollars. But her new lawyer, Tom Hancock, informs her that she has to spend it all within 30 days to inherit $5 million more from her spiteful Uncle Ned Brewster who tries to prevent it from happening.

Jane Maynard opens a mission in memory of philanthropist Bland Hendricks. John Anstell, son of a powerful and selfish millionaire, Michael Anstell, falls in love with Jane, to the old man's disapproval. Anstell tries to undermine Jane's work by hiring reporter Tom Barnett to write an unfavorable story about the mission.

Gold digging blonde Lorelei and her brunette friend Dorothy are searching for rich husbands. This film is believed lost.

William Hyatt (Tom Moore) runs an exclusive shoe store, and his happy marriage to Grace (Florence Vidor) is nearly derailed by his well-meaning, but hopelessly gauche pal, Al Hennessy (Sterling). Dagmar, a Parisian shoe designer (Esther Ralston) has come to town to meet with Hyatt and Hennessy, and Hennessy describes the situation to Grace in the worst possible manner, convincing her that her husband is having an affair.

Hoffmeyer is harassed by creditors, but thinks his troubles are over when he receives a legacy of $500. He sneaks away from his wife to make a "flash" around town, and comes home at 2 A.M., feeling happy. His joy is short-lived, however, when he finds the door locked, and his spouse on the other side demands the money before she will permit him to enter. He takes half of it and hides it under a barrel, and his wife, peeping behind the curtain, sees him. After he has retired she goes out to get the rest of the money, and Hoffmeyer locks the door and refuses to let her in until she sends in the money. Clad in her nightgown, she is being thoroughly chilled, when she sees men approaching and runs away.

Three men join forces to raise an adopted son. A lost film.

The Fatal Taxicab is a 1913 movie starring Mabel Normand and Ford Sterling.

After second hand clothier Cohen receives $1000 from a rival firm (unaware that the amount was borrowed to force his bankruptcy), he must dodge a disguise-wearing bill collector. Filmed in the For Lee, New Jersey area, probably in July or early August, 1912.

A married tightwad learns to loosen up by living the life of a playboy.

This early Keystone has Pete spying on his neighbor's wife through one of those little knotholes in a fence. The neighbor (Sterling) notices and chases him all over town with sheriff and family close behind. Fatty Arbuckle plays the peeper's wife(!).

The story of a woman on trial for her life for shooting the man who had promised to love her but had deserted her...and of a woman on the jury who refused to condemn her when eleven men had voted guilty...a woman brave enough to defy public opinion, brave enough to lose the loss of the love of her husband by baring her soul to the world in order to save the girl on trial.

Ford Sterling is married to a very jealous wife, who has a hobby of collecting French dolls. In order to keep her appeased and unsuspecting. he buys her an expensive doll for her birthday. But before he can give it to her, he gets mixed up with the blonde at the cigar-store, the doll gets burned up, and his wife is also burned up about many things.

This is quite like "Helen's Marriage" which came out a few months earlier in 1912. Once again, Edward Dillon is trying to elope with Mabel Normand, but papa interferes. The big joke is when Ford Sterling and Elmer Booth kidnap the minister in order to marry Dillon and Normand. They mistakingly get Papa instead. It is the one strong gag in the film.

Hugh Whittaker believes he is terminally ill, and, as an act of mercy, weds a young woman named Mary, who has been deserted by her lover. He travels to Europe, recovers his health, and returns to New York City, where he meets and falls in love with musical star Sara Law, unaware that she is actually his wife. Sara is abducted by kidnappers and Hugh undertakes a harrowing rescue before discovering her true identity.

Louis, the chef and Oscar, the head waiter, are in love with Mabel the pretty cashier. The Waiters' picnic is held, and Mabel is the cause of much trouble between Louis and Oscar.

A lost film - Mary Gray, whose father manufactures cold cream, is engaged to sappy Horace Niles, the son of Hugo Niles, the elder Gray's most competitive rival in the cosmetics business. Chip Armstrong, a hot-shot public relations man, quits the employ of Hugo Niles and goes to work for Gray, persuading Mary to enter the Miss America contest at Atlantic City, with the intention of using her to endorse her father's cold cream should she win. Mary breaks her engagement with Horace. When it appears that she will win the contest, Hugo lures her home on the pretext that her father is ill, and she misses the contest. Chip and Mary return to Atlantic City, discovering that the new Miss America has told the world that she owes all her success to Gray's cold cream. On this note, Chip and Mary decide to get married.

Professor Smelts the band leader gets into a romantic rivalry with one of his musicians over the affections of a pretty girl.

After graduating from a fashionable finishing school and touring Europe with her father, Selina Peake returns to the United States, where her father is accidentally killed after losing his fortune in a gambling den. Selina is reduced to teaching in a high school in the Dutch community at High Prarie near Chicago. She boards in the farmhouse of Klass Poole, a dull-witted market gardener, and finally marries Pervus DeJong, a poor and backward farmer. She shares the drudgery of her husband's futile life and finds happiness only in their small son, Dirk, whom she calls "So-Big."

A Keystone Kops short about a landlord discovering three "anner-kist" tenants building a bomb.

Based on the novel The Spoilers by Rex Beach.

Cohen and his rival Goldberg enlist in the Union Army during the American Civil War. Goldberg receives a lieutenant’s commission while Cohen becomes a sergeant. During the Battle of Gettysburg, Cohen inadvertently becomes a hero when he tosses back an enemy hand grenade and raises a fallen flag in the midst of the conflict. Goldberg conspires to have Cohen shot by a firing squad, but Cohen’s girlfriend Rebecca rides to the rescue.

Race-car drivers pursue Mabel Normand, whose father has a clear favorite.

A blowhard who poses as a railroad executive (but is really just a $30-a-week clerk) catches a young bride and then drives her family's finances to the brink of ruin.

Freddy Wetherill and his bride, Hyla, quarrel at her mother's beach cottage, and Hyla sends her new husband home alone. Seeking distraction from his troubles, Freddy enters a vaudeville theater where Undine, "the diving Venus," and her trained seal, Bubbles, are performing. Outside the theater, Freddy meets Undine's fiancé, George Fitzgerald, and becomes involved in George's effort to hide Undine's seal from a bill collector armed with an order of attachment because of an unpaid hotel bill. Complications arise when Freddy Wetherill's dying rich uncle, Cato Dodd, notifies him that he wants Hyla to nurse him. To insure he stays in his uncle's will, Freddy substitutes Undine for Hyla and takes George along to act as his "valet." Naturally, Bubbles comes along, too. This movie is presumed to be lost.

A man plots to kill a friend and marry his wife in order to get hold of insurance money.

Mabel poses as "Cousin Jack" in a scheme to test her two quarreling suitors who decide to take young "Jack" to a cabaret.

American shop-girl Julie McFadden, wins a free passage to Paris; en route she meets Robert Van Wye, who has to kiss her when she loses a sack race. In Paris, Julie finds her proposed residence destroyed, and while waiting for Bob her purse is snatched; in the ensuing chase she gets lost and enters a dressmaker shop, where the two owners are in dire need of an English-speaking girl to deliver some gowns. Accidentally she is given free entry to the apartment of Countess Pasada and is shown to her rooms; the count is in his pajamas when she emerges from her bath, and she locks him in the bathroom.

The Snow Cure is a silent Comedy short.

Doris Poole, whose parents were theatrical people, was orphaned as a child, and four members of the troupe adopted and raised her. When grown, she has become the leading lady in a San Francisco stock-company. She meets and falls in love with Ted, the millionaire son of a rich widow, but she thinks he is only a tax-cab driver. His mother objects to the romance and looks into Doris' past. She learns that her father had murdered, in a fit of jealousy, her mother, and tells Doris what she has found out. The four actors who had raised her had never told her how she happened to become an orphan. They persuade Ted's mother to send him on a voyage to the Orient in order to get him away from Doris. But they neglected to tell the mother they had also booked passage for Doris on the same ship.

Musical about two sisters in love with the same man.

Four middle-aged actors jointly adopt an orphaned baby girl, raising her in a backstage milieu.

Cobbler Meyer puts Limburger cheese in the shoes of grocer Schnitz to sabotage his attendance with Mabel at a house party.

On an ocean liner crossing a professional gambler comes to the aid of a naive young man victimized by a jewel thief. The young man turns out to be his son he's not seen since infancy.

Safe in jail is a 1913 movie starring Ford Sterling and Edgar Kennedy.

Horace Ventimore, a young London architect, stumbles across an old brass bottle. When he picks it up a genie suddenly appears and promises Horace that he will grant every wish Horace wants in exchange for his freedom. Horace accepts the genie's offer but finds out that things aren't working out quite as well as he thought they would.

A former secret agent acquired a trunk at a police auction, and the same night his house is robbed. It becomes apparent that some criminals stashed their loot in the trunk a few years before.

Two groundskeepers compete for the attention of a pretty park visitor. When the woman’s daughter goes missing, the two set out to rescue her.

Hajj, a rascally beggar on the periphery of the court of Baghdad, schemes to marry his daughter to royalty and to win the heart of the queen of the castle himself. This film is believed lost.

When Mabel romantically rejects a villain, he ties her to the railroad tracks, leaving her bashful suitor to appeal to famous racecar driver Barney Oldfield for help.

In managing the shipyard inherited from her father, Derith Keogh has considerable labor problems and accedes to the unreasonable demands of John Trevelyan, an anarchist labor agitator. Derith's brother John is off in pursuit of an adventuress, and Angus Campbell, her superintendent, resigns in exasperation. Angus returns, however, to help Derith persuade Trevelyan to settle a strike, which Trevelyan accomplishes in spite of being shot by one of his own men.

A flirtatious hotel orchestra leader provokes conflict.

A dancing instructor gets involved with a newly rich family.

Mabel has two suitors - an oily con man, whom she mocks in a very funny scene where she is shown twiddling a fake moustache and making her feelings very clearly felt. Even in this early comedy her natural fun comes through. The one she really loves is clumsy yokel Ford Sterling, who is determined to buy an oil well that the con man has for sale. The conman gets a local fellow to pour oil over the property. Ford falls for it and buys it - Mabel and he are to be married. Then the fellow confesses that it was just a scam - there was no oil.

In the Clutches of the Gang is a 1914 movie starring Ford Sterling and George Nichols.

A constable and his sergeant are rivals for a girl, and to impress her they both attempt to apprehend an escaped convict. Probably the first Keystone film with comedic cops; Keystone trade ads upon its release heralded as, "An uproarious 'Cop' picture."

Millie Stope lives with her grandfather on a remote island. Man-child Nicholas, a fugitive from justice, also lives there and is terrorizing them - and he's interested in Millie. One day widower John Woolfolk, sailing on his yacht, happens upon the island. Soon he and Millie fall in love. Will jealous Nicholas stand for this?

When a new neighbor attempts to save a young wife from an intruder, her husband misunderstands; the jealous husband raises a ruckus and winds up in court, where the judge turns out to be the new neighbor.

A farce involving an esteemed judge, his young wife, and the District Attorney she's seeing on the side; Misplaced jewelry and a message written on a mirror lead to the DA's undoing.

Georgie Burns is a conceited, athletic individual, who has turned his home into a gymnasium. His pretty wife is exceedingly vexed but cannot cure him of his love for strenuous sports. A forlorn tramp comes to the floor begging for a meal, and George promptly knocks him down.

A wealthy invalid tries to add his hard-working cook to his will, but the conniving butler gets in the way.

Sports-loving inventor Richard Shelby develops an "Elasto-Tweed" golf suit then hits the road in hopes of making a few sales. Along the way, he meets Alice Elliott, who mistakes Shelby for millionaire sportsman Timothy Stanfield (Claude King). Forced to go through with the masquerade, Shelby ends up spending what little money he has, and then some.

The young granddaughter of a banker plays a game of hide-and-seek with her mother, Mabel. After Mabel walks away, the child disappears. A clerk, realizing the time, closes the vault she’d been hiding in. Mabel, unbeknownst to her child’s wandering, believes her daughter is locked in the now closed vault. Mabel frantically calls for help, resulting in a comedic rescue.

Two thieves burgle a necklace from a policeman, but then begin to quarrel between themselves, leading to a shootout.

Two rivals for Mabel's hand play a series of dirty tricks on each other. Finally, one of them gets Mabel alone and is about to marry her, but his rival comes up with a strange scheme to stop them. Soon the Keystone Kops arrive on the scene, and chaos quickly ensues.

During an uprising in Algeria in 1869, two Frenchmen--Anatole, the brother of Gabrielle, and Pierre, her sweetheart--join the colors and are later reported dead. Gabrielle is kidnaped and taken to Paris, and the soldiers return.

Squire Peachem (Ford Sterling) wants to marry the innkeeper's daughter (Normand). Since Peachem has a hefty mortgage on the inn, he thinks he can use it to effect a union, but the girl is not interested in him. She already has a sweetheart, handsome Randolph Roanoke (Owen Moore). Peachem and his dumb-as-dirt assistant, Blaa Blaa (Sennett), try to keep Roanoke and Mabel apart. Their feeble attempts are in vain, and Mabel easily manages to outwit them and win the man she loves. - Janiss Garza

Mabel and her sweetheart go to the beach and play a trick on the boyfriend's father.

Ford Sterling and Mack Swain are a couple of neighborhood toughs who fight over Emma Clifton and get involved in burglary in this Keystone from 1914.

Willy is a rather effeminate young man, and is abused by the town bully. He suspects that the bully is a coward at heart, so disguises himself as a bandit and shoots up the town.

Veteran Warner and old gardener Burns vie for the hand of Widow Simpson, and the gardener steals the former's uniform and joins in the ranks of a parade, pursued by his rival. Utilizes footage shot during a Thomas Ince battle production at Inceville, the Grand Army of the Republic parade in downtown Los Angeles which commenced at 9:30am PST on September 11, 1912 (including starting area at 5th and Los Angeles and viewing stands near finish by Courthouse at Broadway and Temple), and other G.A.R. festivities at the National Soldiers' Home at Sawtelle in Los Angeles.

A man goes fishing in the same pond where a burglar has thrown a sock of money stolen from the man's house.

At a summer resort, Mabel puts ugly bumps under her bathing suit to discourage fair-weather suitors; however, Black sees her doing it, and earns the inside track to her affections.

Some Nerve is a 1913 movie starring Ford Sterling and Dot Farley.

Mack takes Mabel to Coney Island, only to have her stolen by slick Ford, who is temporarily out of sight of a watchful wife and children.