The Definitive Watchlist Seeking the Same Brilliance as Weak Hearts...

Dir: Fred Hibbard

In Youthville, a specialist in everything is seeking patients by running around on the street with a huge sign under his arm with the legend "Doctor" in large letters. A millionaire's daughter is leaving home with her father to attend the fashion domestic science school conducted by Prof. P. Soop. She is forced to leave her beau, a tiddley-winks champion, behind but drops a note out of the train window giving him much courage. He drives behind the train on the track all the way. The ingenue is given her assignment to a bed in the girls dormitory and takes a fit on it at once. There is a chance for the doctor. He arrives and proceeds to look her over when several lions happen to escape from a wharf upon their arrival from Africa and they infest the dormitory. A terrible scramble takes place and there is more excitement than ever when the lions begin to attack the girls. They roll the bed together and save themselves temporarily by making cages of the bed springs. The doctor finds refuge in an ice box and the colored errand boy in a red hot oven. The doctor is overcome by the heat and the colored boy catches a cold in the oven. A wild chase winds up with general happiness and the love sick maiden'-marries the tiddle-winks' champion.

Dir: Fred Hibbard

Merta and Bud were two great big grown up kinds, claiming as their parents, a four-foot Daddy, and a three-foot Ma. However, they do not escape spankings, etc., from their Dad, who was a near relative of Simon Legree. Buddy catches Dad making love to the nurses and then the fun begins! The nurse had a better half, like all nurses. The better half invites Dad and Bud to come to his beauty parlor to be improved upon. They go there, are given some nice gentle massages by the chief bully, Blue, the colored heavyweight champion of the town. When they get through with the treatments, they don't know whether they are on the head or feet. Like all country towns there was a circus, and while Mert and Bud are chasing each other in and out of the tents, they accidentally chase through the lion's cage and leave the door open. The lions escape and some of them find their way into the Beauty Parlor, where several damsels are indulging in the Fountain of Youth, etc. A little colored boy, the mascot of the Parlors, tries to escape the lions and hides in a filing cabinet, but Mr. Lion manages to open the drawer. Picky escapes through the transom of the door, but not before another lion has discovered him. He is chased for miles and miles by the wicked lions. He gives them the slip and is calmly eating pumpkin pie when his Dad, Blue, arrives. All ends in a happy peaceful way; the lions fall into the tank in the beauty parlor and sink to the regions below.

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of A Lion's Alliance perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

Dir: Fred Hibbard

Brownie spends a good part of his time avoiding the dog-catcher. Later he make friends with the detective and they start after a burglar.

Dir: Fred Hibbard

Betty leaves the child at the County Orphan Asylum while she delivers the weekly laundry to the bachelor's home. But the kid escapes and slides down a chute from the second story landing in the basket which Betty is dragging along behind her. At the bachelor's the baby is turned over to Brownie, the valet, who gives the baby a bath, filling the small tub with water and placing a screen around the outdoor bathroom. Later the baby roams out into the street where she is picked up by an officer. Brownie saves his little playmate as the baby is about to be placed in the wagon and taken to the Children's Society Home, by substituting another baby who looks like his pal. Betty and the bachelor find Brownie coming down the street with the baby. The child says that she wants the man for a a daddy, and with Brownie tugging at his trousers' leg and the baby 'pulling "at his coat lapel, he could hardly resist, and the baby's wish is granted.

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of Around Corners perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

Dir: Fred Hibbard

A burglar constantly gets the "papers" when he is after the pearls, and a spy endlessly gets the pearls while he is after the "papers," and the jealous husband of a flighty wife lives in what he calls a "house full of lovers," consisting of the spy, the burglar, and some detectives, all in hiding, all trying to avoid him and one another.

Dir: Fred Hibbard

A fascinating piece of cinema that shares thematic elements.

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of Playmates perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

Dir: Fred Hibbard

It is Teddy's duty to awaken his master in time to deliver milk; he must pull the little milk wagon over its route, and to round out a complete life for the day - he must take care of the goat that gives up forty quarts of "milk without a prescription." Teddy is constantly on the job. He frustrates the villain's plan to sour the milk with a lemon and changes the bottles before any harm can come to the master. Teddy, furthermore, saves the goat from being kidnapped - and he is finally commissioned to pull the wagon in which his master and his sweetheart are seated.

Dir: Fred Hibbard

Jimmie the hotel clerk was original in the manner of his morning ablutions. His bed was built over a well into which he dumped himself when he felt that it was going to be hard to wake up. But after he was well awake he thought of nothing much but the hotel milkmaid, Esther. So engrossed was he with this fair one that the intrusion of Count Zeeplotinxophsky was regarded as a personal affront and a decided danger to his peace of mind. Esther's equanimity was also somewhat ruffled. She fell in love with the Count's mustache and decided to elope with him. But before he went the Count wanted to be sure of a dowry. The only one in sight, or rather in prospect was in the hotel safe. The clerk, the bellboy and the hotel detective were in the way. The latter was inside the safe holding the receipts in his hands. But he was asleep and even the explosion which wrenched off the safe door did not wake him up. Having secured the booty, and the girl, the Count ran around the block in his racing car and took a room in the same hotel. But the bell boy and the clerk shadowed him and at last drove him out. Jimmie followed him and the bellboy brought up reinforcements in the shape of the female fire department. The Chiefess discovered that the Count was her ex-husband, and all the comedy dropped out of his existence.

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of Beware of Boarders perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

Dir: Fred Hibbard

The heroine promises to marry the bravest hunter among her men acquaintances.

Dir: Fred Hibbard

Weazel Tail Bend was so crooked it couldn't see straight. The sheriff and his deputy had the habits of Jesse James, and he also robbed the country by teaching school. The weekly train was the town's only sport. The engineer knew Weazel Bend- so he didn't even hesitated. They had a nice soft mattress on the station platform to catch the passengers that chanced that way. But one day the town was brightened considerably by the arrival of Miss Betsy Beautiful, whom the School Trustee sent to relieve the sheriff of one of his duties-teaching school. Her sweetheart Hiram Biff, had followed her, how ever, riding on his nerve and the engine rod. "Big Kick Kitchen," was the place where society mixed soft drinks with hard fists. Even the bad guy, Pineapple Pete, didn't look so hard, sipping a soft drink. However, looks are not everything. Pineapple decided to pay the bank an unofficial visit to draw out some cash he had never deposited, but he was interrupted by our friend the Sheriff, who demanded half of the loot. Everything was going lovely, when who should appear but Hiram. He rounded up the crooks in fine shape, grabbed the money with one hand, his girl with the other and they both grabbed the first train going the other way.