What the Butler Saw

The Ringtailed Rhinoceros

1915

John Carter is a good fellow. In fact, his good fellowship is Carter's one great fault, for the highballs and cocktails which go with it too frequently make him forget his more serious obligations and are cause for anxiety on the part of his charming fiancée Marybelle. Marybelle's little brother, Billie asks Carter what is making Marybelle so sad. Carter replies evasively, "It's a Ringtailed Rhinoceros." Billie vows to kill the rhino. When Carter fails to appear on time at a dinner which was planned to announce his engagement to Marybelle, and finally arrives intoxicated, her parents in anger force her to break the engagement and forbid Carter the house. Marybelle's rejection of Carter hits him hard.

Subway Sadie

1926

A New York fur saleswoman falls for a man she meets on the subway and must decide if she wants to accept a much dreamed for work transfer to Paris, or stay and get married.

The Family Upstairs

1926

Moonlight Follies

1921

Vivacious Marie Prevost starred in this pleasant little Universal comedy about a flirt who stages moonlight dances at her father's country estate in order to provoke eligible men to fall in love with her.

A Juvenile Love Affair

1912

Two little children, who think themselves very much in love with each other, imbued with the ideas of their elders, plan a romantic marriage. Alvin Strong, the boy, confides his intentions to the family's servant, Jaspar. Alvin arranges with Jane, his sweetheart, to elope in the usual way, through a window, with the assistance of a ladder.

The Strategy of Ann

1911

A Short comedy starring Mabel Normand. The film is considered lost.

Bonnie, Bonnie Lassie

1919

Alisa Graeme journeys from Scotland to the U.S. to visit Jeremiah Wishart, an old wealthy friend of her grandfather. The invalid Jeremiah is charmed by Alisa and decides she would make a good wife for his favorite nephew, David. Without meeting Alisa, David refuses the arrangement and runs away. Later, Alisa also runs away rather than wed another of Jeremiah's nephews and meets a young billboard painter in the country.

Hats Off

1927

Stan and Ollie are salesmen attempting to sell a washing machine; they fail constantly after several near misses. One would-be sale has them carrying the machine up a large flight of steps, only to find out that a young lady wants them to post a letter for her. The boys later get into an argument knocking off each other's hats, which eventually involves scores of others. A police van eventually carts all those involved away except Stan and Ollie, who afterwards try to find their own headgear amongst the hundreds of others lying on the street.

A Motion to Adjourn

1921

Silas Warner, Jr., is the playboy son of a wealthy New York financier. When Silas’s brother, Archie, commits a near-theft, Silas nobly takes the blame. Disinherited by his father, Silas travels West to start a new life in a mining town. Once there, he is inducted into a local fraternity of fortune seekers known as the "Ornery and Worthless Men of the World". A series of events leads to a compromising situation that forces Silas to marry Sally. The film blends Western themes with comedic and dramatic elements as Silas navigates his new life and marriage.

Brown’s Séance

1912

Brown and his friends take an afternoon off, spending their time with some pretty chorus girls. Their wives persuade them to go to a spiritualist meeting and the medium makes the startling announcement that a man present is not true to his wife. The women demand the name of the man, and she refuses to answer questions in the meeting but promises to do so at a private séance next morning. At the appointed hour the wives arrive, and Brown and his friends try to hush up the medium, but she makes them pay dearly for her statement to their wives that their husbands are true to them.

Lady Be Good

1928

Two engaged vaudeville magicians quarrel and go their separate ways.

How Betty Won the School

1911

Betty Carlton, a pretty girl, is sent to a girls' seminary. She is welcomed by all, and everything goes along merrily until one day, when they try to initiate Betty into one of their societies by blindfolding her and dropping cold, wet macaroni through her fingers. It feels so much like snakes that she dashes from the room. From now on she is ostracized. She decides to leave. While packing her trunk. She discovers a burglar climbing into a room where the other girls are having a "feed," to which she has not been invited. All the girls scream and run away. Betty, trusting to her lariat, enters the room, captures the burglar, and is thereby made a friend of all.