William S. Hart

Hollywood hopeful Peggy Pepper arrives at a major studio, from Georgia, to become a great dramatic star. Things don't go entirely according to plan.

A collection of film clips profiling animal actors.

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...

A documentary of Hollywood's first great Latin Lover, the contradictions in his personal life, and his premature death.

A promotional documentary short celebrating the 20th anniversary of Paramount Pictures, complete with a studio history, interviews with stars, and clips from upcoming films–some of which never came to fruition.

"Bowie" Blake is a gambler in a mining camp. One day, an artist, Van Dyke Tarleton comes to town with his wife, Naomi. He sees Bowie and decides he is perfect as a model for Lucifer in his latest painting. At first he refuses to pose, but Naomi talks him into it. Tarleton sees that Bowie is attracted to his wife, and purposely insults her just to get the right evil look in his eyes. But finally Bowie, whose feelings have become too much for him, quits.

A rollicking compendium of the greatest hits of silent-cinema chase sequences

A parade highlights the Screen Actors Guild's Film Stars Frolic, hosted by Walter Winchell as Master of Ceremonies.

Ice Harding, outlaw, tames a wild horse and names it King. Ice and his gang hold up a stagecoach and encounter San Francisco vice king Bates and his innocent niece Betty Werdin. Ice is taken with the young woman, but at first she sees nothing in him. But she begins to come around when her uncle tries to swindle Ice, and the outlaw himself undergoes a change of course under the influence of the girl.

In this 1918 film, newly restored by MoMA, Hart is a ship's captain in the Pacific Northwest who abandons his post to pursue a woman who does not love him (MacDonald) across the Klondike, eventually rescuing her from the grip of a white slaver.

When Reverend Robert Henley and his sister Faith arrive in the town of Hell's Hinges, saloon owner Silk Miller and his cohorts sense danger to their evil ways. They hire gunman Blaze Tracy to run the minister out of town. But Blaze finds something in Faith Henley that turns him around, and soon Silk Miller and his compadres have Blaze to deal with.

In Snake River, Buck Farley breaks up a fight staged by crooked Chicago Saloon owner Johnson, who set-up alcoholic Jake Frazer as the town's sheriff as a joke. Johnson pretends to have saved Buck's life (when in reality he was planning on shooting him), which indentures Buck to Johnson, and Buck becoming his deputy. Buck also starts to have feelings for Jake's daughter, Emma, who has also rebuffed the advances of Johnson. Johnson uses a ruse to get Buck searching for some allegedly stolen horses in the desert, but Buck forces Johnson to accompany him (after he realizes that Johnson is not on the up and up, and also has designs on Emma)...

Rev. Horace Brightray, pastor of a New England village church, is ordered by his physician to seek another climate. He goes to Agua Caliente, where he attempts to hold services in the hotel dining room, but nobody attends excepting the hotel clerk and maid, and a dance hall girl, Bubbles. The proprietor of the Legal Tender saloon is very bitter toward Horace and commands them not to attend services. Horace is soon out of funds and is ejected from the hotel. Sick and hopeless, he goes to the Legal Tender and slaps Frosty across the face with his hat, feeling sure it will mean death to him.

When Gawne finds his brother dying and hears that the killer has run off with his brother's wife, he swears revenge.

Sergeant O'Malley of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police gets himself into a gang of outlaws in order to detect and capture a wanted murderer. He finds the killer, but falls in love with the man's sister. In the meantime, one of the outlaws uncovers O'Malley's true identity.

A meditation on the human quest to transcend physicality, constructed from decaying archival footage and set to an original symphonic score.

Cowhand Lem Beason wins a shooting contest at a Western rodeo, and as a result is hired by railroad president Gregory Collins to return to Chicago with Collins to take charge of security for Collins' vaults. Lem is reluctant to go, but Collins' pretty niece Rose changes his mind. In Chicago, Lem finds a great deal of criminal activity, but none of it can get the best of him.

A Spanish boy is shipwrecked and cast ashore in Mexico in the sixteenth century. He is raised as a god by the Tehuan tribe, who have never before seen a white man, and is named Chiapa. Then at manhood he rules the Tehuans. Chiapa loves the priestess Tecolote but she is kidnapped by the Aztec warrior Mexitli, so he follows in the hopes of rescuing her.

Jim McKee and his friend Buck rob a stagecoach to get money to support Buck's daughter. Buck is killed, but Jim and the daughter escape. Fifteen years later, Jim finds that he must turn robber again to continue to provide for Buck's daughter.

Family relationships of a New Mexico family are just one part of this silent cowboy western about a war veteran who finds a goldmine. He wants to earn enough money to take care of his young son, but crooked officials swindle him out of the mine, and then his son is killed. He swears vengeance and joins up with Mexican bandit, "Pancho Zapilla", who intends to destroy his whole town.

Smoky Gap Railroad president Murray Lemantier is fed up with a bandit gang led by Buck Andrade constantly holding up his train and getting away with it. He hires ace detective David Cassidy to track down and get Buck, dead or alive. However, when Buck goes to see his dying mother she makes him promise to reform, and he does. Cassidy, though, doesn't care about that and tries to arrest him. Buck decides to do something that will once and for all show everyone that he has indeed reformed--especially Faith Lawson, a pretty station agent he's in love with.

Short film with Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford & W.S. Hart promoting war bonds.

Jim and Molly are set to get married when Molly finds out about her fiancé's criminal past. Bill Carey weasels his way into Molly's heart in the interim, eager to relieve her of her savings.

A small town marshal’s secret past as an outlaw comes back to haunt him when an old associate shows up and threatens to expose his former dark deeds.

An outlaw on the run comes upon a widow and her small child. When the child is bitten by a snake, the outlaw risks his life by riding into town to get a doctor.

Former crook 'Square' Kelly serves in the First World War. When he returns from the war, one of his comrades-in-arms convinces him to join the police force. But Kelly finds himself confronting the very criminals who made up his old gang.

A gambler decides to play one last game before he turns over a new leaf. However, during the game one of the players accuses him of cheating. Suddenly the lights go out, shots are fired and when the lights come back on, one of the players is dead. The gambler is accused of the killing. He didn't do it, but has to find out who did, and why he was framed for it.

A compilation of early-day silent films that serves as a glimpse back to the formative days of the movie industry as a salute to Hollywood's Golden Year, so proclaimed by the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce as 1953.

Hedda Hopper guides us through some of Hollywood's sights; the home of William S. Hart and a Kay Kyser recording-session being among them.

Gambler "On-the Level" Leigh (William S. Hart) is forced to leave his high rolling lifestyle to move his ailing sister Alice (Mildred Harris) to the healing climate the mountains. Financial strain compels him to resume his favored vocation. Unfortunately for Level, the dance hall girl Coralie (Alma Rubens) doesn't take rejection well and convinces the dealer to clean him out with a "cold deck". A desperate robbery ensues, leading to Level wanted for murder!

Robert must avenge his son who was killed in a workplace accident.

Tom "Wolf" Lowry confronts new settlers in his valley but has a change of heart when he sees Mary Davis.

A silent romantic love triangle crime melodrama about a man who gets out of prison after ten years and discovers that his wife has divorced him and married the man who sent him to prison. Worse yet, she fears he will want to exact revenge, so she sets up her new husband to frame her first husband, so he will be sent back to prison!

Boss rider "Careless" Carmody is made sheriff of an Arizona frontier town by Chicago swindler Prentice. The naive Carmody actually believes Prentice to be on the up and up and vouches for him in a land deal with Ruth Fellowes. Taken to the cleaners, so to speak, Ruth blames Carmody, who, in love with the girl, follows Prentice back to Chicago.

1916 American silent drama film directed by Clifford Smith and starring William S. Hart, Nona Thomas and John Gilbert. A Kentucky-born preacher returns home from Vermont in order to settle a feud between two warring families.

A stagecoach robber falls in love with a saloon girl. However, she falls for a pastor, who converts her and she marries him. The robber is so impressed by this that he decides to turn over a new leaf. However, a shady gambler sets his sights on the former saloon girl, and the robber has to protect her from his advances.

Luke McVane (William S. Hart) shoots a card-cheat in self-defense and has to make a run for it before the town lynch him.

William S. Hart directs and stars in a film that is a typical Western of the era. He plays Jim, a prospector who lands in the town of Broken Hope, and the name pretty much describes its inhabitants. Jim meets and falls in love with Jennie (Margery Wilson), whose father (Walt Whitman) is gravely ill. Jim rounds up a reluctant doctor from another town to tend to the old man, but he dies anyway. The doctor, however, gains Jennie's trust and she runs off with him. Only then does he tell her he's already married. She leaves immediately, but is too proud to go home so she finds work as a dance hall girl at Tacoma Jake's saloon. Jim, meanwhile, finds gold near Broken Hope, which raises its inhabitants' attitudes considerably. But the bad element is still there, and Jim is chasing after a group of kidnappers when he enters Tacoma Jake's saloon and sees Jennie. Jim not only overcomes the bad guys, he gets the girl, too.

Cash Parrish, a bandit, is betrayed to the sheriff by his pal, Jud Ross, who covets Parrish's treasure and his wife, Rose.

Outlaw Hawk Parsons, notoriously successful in his pursuits, has been caught by the local sherif of a New Mexico town in the 1850s. The overly prideful sherif and his lawmen are outsmarted and Parsons escapes. In the desert, he falls in with a reverend, his wife, and their group of missionaries, who hope to establish a church. After coming under attack by a tribe of Native Americans, Parsons strikes a deal: in exchange for the safe keeping of the missionaries, he takes the reverend's wife for himself. Ultimately a parable of Christian values, the film's narrative establishes and overcomes obstacles that test the virtue of men in the American West.

Square Deal Sanderson is in pursuit of a horse thief, but someone else shoots the varmint before Sanderson can offer him a "square deal."

In what scenarist C. Gardner Sullivan misleadingly called “The Romantic Adventures of a Woman of the ’50s,” this story has Hart play Jim Brandon, who has just robbed the Wolf Creek stage of a payroll meant for Frank Wilding’s Lost Hope Mine. Fearing another holdup, Wilding reluctantly entrusts his daughter Edith with the next payroll. Confident of his concealed identity, Brandon comes to town, orders drinks at the local saloon, and hears that this is “payday” for the mine. Outside, he realizes Edith will be carrying the payroll and follows her onto the stage. When it stops at the Mountain House Restaurant, Brandon protects Edith from a man forcing his attention on her, which forges an unacknowledged bond between them. strangely leaves her to barricade the door.

Cliff Hudspeth, the leader of a band of outlaws in Arizona, has won his place by the killing of notorious gun-bullies. At their headquarters, in the Gila Mountains, in consultation with "Ace High," his lieutenant, he plans depredations on the neighboring settlements. Although Hudspeth is powerful, their rule is disputed by El Salvador, a half-breed, and his following of desperadoes. Desert Pass is the scene of many conflicts between the contending bands. Rumors of the arrival of miners with gold causes El Salvador to send "Cactus" Fuller, his henchman, to levy tribute by a hold-up, which is successful. Flushed with triumph, he boasts in the "Golden Fleece" saloon of the ignominies to which he would treat Cliff Hudspeth if he ever met him.

Rawden, a lumberjack in the North woods, fights with crooked dance hall owner 'Ladyfingers' Hilgard over the affections of Babette DuFresne. Hilgard is killed. When Hilgard's mother and younger brother arrive in the remote logging town, Rawden attempts to ease their suffering by creating the fiction that Hilgard had been a well-loved man who died naturally. But when young Eric Hilgard learns the truth of his brother's death, he comes gunning for Rawden.

Truthful Tulliver, a Westerner and a journeying newspaperman, followed by Silver Lode Thompson, printer and compositor, arrives in Glory Hole to start a newspaper.

One of the earliest westerns directed by William S. Hart. In this film Sferiff Hale (Hart) lets a villain escape to pay his 'debt' to him, at the risk of designation.

The former gambler turned upholder of law and order after a run-in with a gang of stage robbers.

Buckskin Hamilton guides a wagon train across the wasteland, caring well for the pioneers he escorts, but hoping to solve the murder of his brother by one of the travellers.

Ben Trego dies defending his twin sons from Indian attack. Separated, the two boys grow up very differently, one as Paul Marsden, the other as a cowboy named Three Word Brand. Paul becomes governor of Utah while Brand partners with George Barton in a ranch. The owner of the adjacent ranch plots to get Barton and Brand out of the way in order to control water rights. When Governor Marsden comes to the area to investigate, Brand sees the resemblance between them, though neither knows about his twin. Brand waylays Paul and takes his place as governor in an attempt to thwart the crooked rancher in the water rights scheme.

A 1916 silent Western

A hard-working prospector enters the town of Bakeoven to stake his claim, only to have his rights stolen and his face on "Wanted" posters. He plans reprisal.

William S. Hart stars in this 1925 silent film as a cowboy intent on claiming land during the 1889 land rush in the Oklahoma Territory. Though hardened from years of taming the new frontier, he falls in love with a beautiful woman. Before he settles down, however, he must contend with men who wish to bring him harm. In the prologue of the 1939 Astor Pictures revival of this film, Hart gives a moving eight-minute introduction-- the first and only time he appeared in a film accompanied by his striking voice.

The first adaptation of Lew Wallace's novel, Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ.

Jim Maitland loses his last cent gambling the Double Stamp saloon and gambling hall, and shortly after it closes, he robs the proprietors "Keno" Bates and "Wind River"are robbed, at gunpoint. After the surprise, they track Maitland down, and Keno shoots him dead on self defense. Keno goes through his belongings and finds a letter and a locket; the letter announces the arrival of the deceased's sister, and the locket has a cameo picture of Doris Maitland. Thus, Keno tells Wind River they must do a heap of lying. Meeting the girl at the stagecoach's arrival, Keeno feels responsible for the innocent and attractive Ms. Maitland; he tells her a white lie, that her brother was a good man, "killed in a mine accident," who had left her a cabin and money - and Keno turns his own cabin over to Doris. Keno and Doris began to fall in love. Anita, a dance-hall girl, aggressively tries to seduce Keno.

Steve Denton, rich from years of prospecting, is fleeced by the citizens of Yellow Ridge. In his rage, he kidnaps the woman most responsible and makes her his slave in a desert hideaway.

After the bandit known as the Two-Gun Man Jim Stokes robs the stage, he is wounded in his flight from the scene. Recuperating at a ranch, he falls in love with a local settler's daughter. Now wishing to go straight, Stokes encounters trouble when the Sheriff-- not entirely incorruptible-- Catches wind of his location.

The Lion of the Hills is a Western film.

Jack Parr hosts a variety program of comedic sketches.

"Bat" Peters, reformed gunfighter turned prospector, travels to Chicago to collect on a business deal with a mine promoter who turns out to be crooked.

Jim Houston, the "Shootin' Iron" Parson, comes to Barren Gulch to reform the morals of the frontier community.

The story is set in Arizona, where the aptly nicknamed Yates is the proprietor of the local saloon. Unable to find any other work, pretty Mary Adams is forced to scrub floors in Yates' establishment. At first treating her with the same disdain that he extends to the rest of the townsfolk, Yates slowly but surely falls in love with Mary.

John Haynes is known as "Hardwood" in the Northwoods town where he is the boss lumberjack. But his uncle bequeaths him a store in Louisiana, which he discovers to his dismay is the modiste shop. When Judge Meredith needs a graduation dress for his granddaughter Caroline, but can't afford it, John comes to the rescue by offering to board at the judge's residence.

Outlaw Black Deering leads a band of desperadoes, but decides to give up the bandit life. Agreeing to go on one last job with his gang, he is captured when his henchman Jordan betrays the gang for the reward. Deering escapes and determines to avenge himself on Jordan.

Stars of Yesterday documentary film.

Gambler Oak Miller seeks revenge on the man who misused his sister Rose, who is ill and under the care of the woman Oak loves, Barbara. The man Oak seeks, Granger, is planning to rob a wagon train with the collusion of the Indians under Chief Long Knife. When Barbara is suspected of killing her lascivious stepfather, Oak takes the blame and is arrested just before he is needed to save the threatened wagon train.

Avis and Franklin Hilliard are the spoiled, overbearing children of a wealthy father who has just died. Lord Cecil Oakleigh, a fortune hunter, is Avis's fiancée, although there is no love between them, he marrying her for her fortune and she marrying him for his title. Mr. Hilliard has left the superintendent of his mine in full charge of his fortune.

A Western involving William S Hart as an outlaw who comes to the aid of a preacher in a small town through his infatuation with the preacher's wife. Rarely screened but considered one of his best; the version at the Library of Congress is missing one of the middle reels.

Half-breed Joe Elk wavers between the "civilized" nature of his white father and the passion of his Indian mother. He falls in love with Alice McRae, but Alice is in love with Bruce Smithson, who is an officer at the Hudson Bay Trading Company.

Bandit Rio Ed (played by William S. Hart) is insulted by a "sick youth" calling him a "cheap bully". In a unique display of honor, the bandit proposes to restore the youth to health so they can fight a fair duel to settle the insult. The narrative is further complicated by the arrival of the youth's sister and a "Mexican lover". The film features several dramatically staged fight scenes, including a final struggle where the bandit kills the Mexican rival.

The tough outlaw 'Sierra' Bill falls in love with the traveling girl violinist Nelly Gray. Sierra forces her into marrying him. They have a child, but family life is interrupted by the gambler Ringe, who not only persuades Nelly to leave her husband but ruins Sierra at the gaming table. With thoughts of vengeance, the angry Sierra breaks out of jail and goes after Ringe.

Railroad station agent Dan Kurrie is fired from his job by his rival in love, Joseph Garber. Believed false by the girl he loves, Margaret , Kurrie must prove himself by unmasking a gang of bandits preying on the trains.

When Ashley Hampdon becomes the target of a scheme to ruin him by his daughter's suitor, Hampdon sends for his old friend Bob White. Bob discovers that the suitor, Gregg Lewiston, cannot hope to win Lina Hampdon while her father's wealth remains intact. Lewiston hopes that if her family becomes destitute, she will turn to him. But Bob White is there to upset the scheme.

Dakota Dan, who runs the saloon and gambling hall, is refusing to take another drink with the boys, who commence to kid him, saying he's been scared to drink ever since he heard the new parson's daughter was going to convert him. Dakota flushes and replies half angrily that he has never seen the parson's girl and don't ever want to. That afternoon Daisy goes to the saloon and invites Dakota to attend church. Dakota refuses her invitation; Daisy tells him she will make a bargain with him to tend his bar for five minutes if he will go to church the next day. Dakota is slightly startled, but he admires her grit and accepts the challenge. Daisy goes behind the bar. The men line up and she is about to serve a fresh guy when he suddenly reaches over and kisses her. Dakota immediately knocks him "cold, and, ashamed of his bargain with Daisy, grimly escorts her to the door. The next day he tells the men that if they don't accompany him to church he will close.

Cowhand Steve Ransom discovers that German spies are operating along Mexican border, relaying their radio messages into Mexico and thus on to Germany. The spies learn that Steve is a fugitive from American justice.

Legendary gunslinger Two-Gun Hicks arrives in Moose Gulch, quickly dispatching a local bully, Bad Ike, then sets his sights on winning the heart of May Jenks, the wife of a town drunk, ultimately taking her from her husband in a classic tale of frontier justice and romance.

Yukon Ed has asked saloon owner Ruby McGraw to marry him several times, and has been turned down each time. However, she falls for Jack Sturgess, a no-account who has seduced and abandoned a poor young girl and is escaping from his father's anger. She takes up with Jack to Ed's dismay, and soon the thing that Ed feared would happen does happen.

Lon 'Silent' Haskins competes for the affection of a woman who recently inherited ownership of the local watering hole.

Drunk and disorderly cowpoke Robert Sands is banished from an Arizona frontier town and hops on a freight train heading for New York. Arriving in Manhattan, the rough-and-tumble cowboy obtains a position as "physical guardian" to a spoiled member of the social register.