Best Movies of 1913

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

Short silent feature filmed on location in New Mexico.

An ant works to prepare for winter while a drunken grasshopper plays his violin and dances away his time. When the snow arrives, the grasshopper pleads with the ant for shelter and is turned away to die.

A comic one-act film featuring the character Bunny, which takes place in an office.

A woman, with the aid of her police officer sweetheart, endeavors to uncover the prostitution ring that has kidnapped her sister, and the philanthropist who secretly runs it.

A messenger boy is wrongfully accused of stealing bonds worth $20,000. Luckily, a film crew is shooting a moving picture on the same street. The boy's accuser has the police convinced, until...

A young couple struggle to get ahead, the wife always assuaging the troubles of her melancholy husband. As he climbs the ladder of success, he abandons the homely values and begins an affair with a beautiful woman. His wife leaves him, returning to her mother's home where she bears a child. When the husband is abandoned by his lady friend, remorse drives him to find his wife.

A married couple, suspecting one another of infidelity, decide to "live separately together."

Two young girls are sent away to live with their uncle, which sets off a chain of events resulting in an Indian attack on the town.

An amusing burlesque of gang fighters. The police go after them, one by one, and each guardian of the peace is caught and despoiled of his clothing and compelled to return to the station.

Two business partners pursue the same woman. She accepts the marriage proposal of the irresponsible partner, much to her later regret. He squanders money on gambling, as his interest in her gradually wanes. One day after losing the company money in a card game, he decides to commit suicide. He telephones his wife from the office, as he puts a revolver near his head. The wife tries to keep him talking while the reliable business partner races to the office in an attempt to save his old friend. Will he make it in time?

When Mabel Normand 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.

Mildred is staying with her grandfather, Civil War veteran Jabez Burr, when she receives a letter from her father. Her father has re-married, and will be bringing his new wife home soon. But when Mildred's stepmother finds out that Jabez drinks, she takes a dislike to him, and begins to resent his closeness with Mildred...

A comic sketch that features two players who think each one is deaf, causing them to shout. Part of the Edison Kinetophone Collection. The Kinetophone was a fairly complex mechanical means of creating talking pictures. Unlike previous systems, in which actors would be required to lip sync to preexisting recordings on camera, the Kinetophone was one of the earliest film technologies to record sound at the same time as the image.

A mentally deranged sanatorium patient imagines that he is the world's greatest actor.

Mabel and Roscoe love each other, but her father likes another boy. A rather sissified young man. Roscoe and Mabel stages an accident.

A man must marry by noon or lose his inheritance. It's 11:50 a.m. and he can't find his fiancée.

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

Harry Beaumont and Bessie Learn are in love, but their respective uncle and aunt, back fence neighbors, feud bitterly with each other and insist the youngsters have nothing to do with each other. The young leads come up with a plan in this pleasant Edison comedy. (IMDb)

An animated dachshund fools his live-action creator by eating the sausages he has drawn.

When the Civil War begins, young Billy runs away from home to enlist in the Northern Army as a drummer; he's wounded in battle and taken prisoner. He manages to escape and deliver an important message to his commanding officer, but loses his life in the process.

The photographer sends miss Ophelia a dozen photographs of her in different poses. Selecting the best one, she presents it to her favorite boarder, Billy, who does not think much of it and who gets very indignant when it is compared with the photo of his sweetheart. Miss Ophelia goes up to her room in tears and tells her faithful maid, Belinda, that her heart is broken. Belinda goes down and forcibly tells Billy what she thinks of him. Miss Ophelia resolves on suicide, because no one seems to love her. Belinda gets back in time to prevent this and, to divert her mistress, she suggests that they go together to a beauty specialist. Arriving there, both receive attention. Miss Ophelia gets a new complexion, while Belinda gets new teeth. Both invest in new gowns and dresses and the transformation is complete. At supper time, the boarders are all astounded.

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.

A potentially violent patient in an insane asylum is calmed when he hears a nurse playing the piano. But shortly afterwards he breaks free, eludes his pursuers, and acquires a gun. He soon comes to a house where a young wife is home alone, and there is a tense confrontation.

Using hypnosis and two agents, Jerry manages to get rid of his mother in law.

In The Struggle (Broncho, 1913) a prospector and his son Bob depart from home in the morning, while the wife, at home, offers food to a passing stranger. His shifting eyes reveal his nature; he assaults her, and although her husband and son return in time to save her, the father is killed in the ensuing fight. The stranger gets away, but five years later Bob, now a government scout, recognizes the stranger just as he is accused of cheating at cards.

A short Western in which a cowboy is rescued from a lynching in the nick of time.

Arrogant tramps, a railroad man , counterfeiters, detectives and a boy to the rescue.

Three men in succession propose marriage to Grace Darling; she accepts all! Since they are roommates, the three discover their problem in short order; when they return for an explanation, they're in for a surprise.

A French artist in love with his model, but is abandoned by her because he is addicted to absinthe. He dreams about how his life is going downhill as he continues to drink.

Each night, after the day's work at the factory, the three bachelor friends met and declared anew their attachment over a social glass. They bound themselves to remain thus as long as life might last, never to marry. But one was a traitor, while the other two were called away. A widened breach, a quarrel, fanned the resentment, but true friendship at last claimed its own.

This particular film uses real film footage to show a march by women demanding the right to vote. This coincided with the inauguration of Woodrow Wilson and some of the marchers walked all the way from Newark, New Jersey to Washington, DC.

D.W. Griffith short intercuts two different stories before mixing them together at the end. The film focuses on a telephone girl who leaves work for her lunch break at the same time as "The Lady" goes to a jewelry store to pick up some priceless jewels. When the telephone girl returns to work she gets a phone call from the house of "The Lady" as a robber has broken in and is trying to steal the jewels.

Sim Sloane and his beloved son were the reprobates of the village, not what would be called lovers of peace and kindness. But granddad dwelt in a house filled more with love, and when Sim came in for his brutal sport, he soon went out assisted by granddad. Incited by ridicule and drink, Sim swore to get even. That was where granddad's new supply of powder came in. Sim appropriated it and although he wrecked the house of love, he destroyed through his venom the only thing he cherished in life.

Fatty rescues the daughter of the police commisioner and is given a job as an officer as a reward, but its not all its cracked up to be!

A dramatization of the methods in which young women are abducted or otherwise procured for prostitution.

A farmer’s daughter helps a farmhand win the heart of a cook by convincing him to serenade her, with unexpected results.

A woman is kidnapped, but is resourceful enough to drop playing cards as she's carried along on horseback so the hero can follow her trail.

Mabel has a canary bird, a tiny pet dog and a cat. She goes out, and the cat goes after the canary. Doggie hears the racket and takes in the situation. Knowing he is no match for Tabbie he runs as fast as his little legs will carry him to a kennel where he tells his troubles to three big collies, who run back with him. They secure entrance to the house through a basement window, and arrive in time to save the bird's life. Tabby runs away, and an exciting chase follows. When Mabel comes home and sees the overturned bird cage and the canary's tall feathers palled out she thinks her little doggie has chased the cat away, and hugs her hero.

Fatty's Day Off is a 1913 movie starring Roscoe Arbuckle and Charles Avery.

A young farm maid overhears two cow-hands talking in the barn, and she becomes convinced they’re about to rob her. She barricades herself in a room and calls the police. Her call wakes the chief, who rallies the country justice constabulary and they set off toward the farm, in steam-car and on foot. Meanwhile, the maiden’s parents rush to save her. Everything points toward a showdown in the barn, where no one, including the police force, will be cowed.

A Émile Cohl animated short in The Newlyweds series.

Short Western in which an Indian saves a girl.

This western, with its simple story set in a gold mining camp, recycles many of the elements found in David Belasco's influential play, THE GIRL OF THE GOLDEN WEST, produced a decade earlier.

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

A spoof of Sherlock Holmes. Directed by Alice Guy-Blache for Solax Film Company.

When Onésime gets declared dead by drowning, the supposed-widow consults a private detective specialized in missing persons.

Dr. Henry Jekyll experiments with scientific means of revealing the hidden, dark side of man and releases a murderer from within himself.

Alice Guy's version of Edgar Allan Poe's The Pit and the Pendulum. This film is partially lost.