The Minister

A rich man's daughter has more suitors than she's interested in, and he's going to marry her off -- even if she doesn't know about it.
1918-03-03
5.8
5.9A clown performs various feats of magic based on his ability to detach and reattach different parts of his body.
5.2Avery DuPoys is a wealthy businessman, organising a race. He meets one of the competitors of the race, who is in love with DuPoys's daughter. Another competitor crashes into the action, who is also in love with DuPoys's daughter. DuPoys suggests that whoever wins the race will have the opportunity to visit his daughter every Wednesday night. An action-packed race commences, with one competitor doing more than usual to win the race.
5.7Stan travels to the small town of Hot Dog to collect an inheritance. He learns his late uncle left him everything - but in the event of Stan's death it all goes to his two outlaw cousins.
5.3After getting into a scuffle with his boss and some co-workers, an orange packer tries to help another co-worker, only to wind up in a conflict with him as well. Trying to elude his boss, he heads inside the packing house, and visits with the women who are packing fruit into cases. Then he heads to a storage area, and tries to use the machinery to escape his pursuers.
5.3Nanette sends a letter to her family telling of her new husband, Hillory. When Hillory arrives to meet the family, he gets insulted by each member, including the dog, and loses his wig. After having dinner with the family, Nanette's former lover returns, and Hillory must confront him
5.7A pregnant woman steals things from others on account of her cravings.
5.0A blind man begging for change tries to outsmart a cop. There is no known director for this film, although it is included in the filmography of Alice Guy-Blaché.
4.3Cops chase a pair of burglars on the rooftops of the city. Gaston Breteau filmed the original film in early 1898 for Lumiére, and also the remake in late 1898 for Gaumont.
4.8An illusionist makes a woman disappear in thin air. There is no credited director for this film, although three different persons get attributed, Gaston Breteau, Alice Guy or Georges Hatot.
4.5Gentlemen get into a misunderstanding over absinthe. There is no known credited director for this film, although the attribution usually goes for Alice Guy.
4.9George Mélies made a version of this a few years later, often titled Une Indigestion, but Guy-Blaché’s earlier film Chirurgie Fin de Siecle (1900) is more widely available. And it’s not one to watch the night before an operation. In this clinic, a sign pleads “On est prie de ne pas crier/Please do not cry”, and the doctors set about the patient with saws, cheerily hacking off limbs, and then slopping them into a bucket, all the while arguing ferociously with each other. They then reattach arms and legs from a bucket of “exchange pieces” (using glue) before re-animating their victim, I mean patient, with bellows. (from http://silentlondon.co.uk/2015/01/23/10-disgusting-moments-in-silent-cinema/)
4.8A pretty maid is out walking and encounters a series of military men, starting with a private, who lose her to higher ranks.
4.9A gentleman visits a hair consultant for his baldness problems. The latter recommends a new lotion. The gentleman lets himself be convinced and a bellboy is immediately dispatched for the delivery which arrives at the concierge's lodge. The concierge, curious, and believing it to be good wine drinks a good part of it. He then tops up the bottle with water from the carafe. His wife goes to take his package to the gentleman. The concierge who does not feel well goes to bed quickly. When he wakes up he is perked up. But dismay, he is completely covered in hair. At first frightened, his wife and he come up with an idea. They get hired by an impresario in a music hall number, to a big success.
6.1It's a society in which gender roles are switched. Will men stand to be unequal?
4.8A grenadier had come to see his lover, a servant in the homes of wealthy bourgeois people. Hearing a noise, he is afraid of the masters and allows himself to be locked in a cupboard so as not to be seen. This is a hiding place that will spark many adventures.
4.9An impecunious chap is unable to pay his rent, whereupon he is ejected, but all his furniture is retained and he is allowed to remove only his rolling bed. Pulling this a few blocks, he is exhausted and lies down on the bed to rest. He is soon the center of attraction, and the crowd continues to gather, when the police order him away, and as he refuses to move he is started off by the officers, who guide him for a time, but are forcibly deterred by indignant citizens from further interference. The impecunious man and his bed, which gains momentum as it runs down the inclines, cause much excitement en route, and finally arrive at the business center, where it comes to a stop alongside the walk. Our friend has purloined a fur coat and an auto horn on his tour, and now presents a modern chauffeur. (Gaumont catalogue)
5.2A magician transforms a tiny dinner table into a full meal for a homeless man.
4.7Cute one-trick doggie show. The backdrop is beautifully detailed, yet the illusion of depth is humorously broken by the balloon bouncing off the set.
5.8A machine churns out sausages on one side and spits out hats on the other. The director of this film is not credited in any contemporary catalogues or trade publications, or attributed to anyone by scholars or primary sources, however Alice Guy-Blaché is the most probable candidate.
6.3Roscoe and Buster give a bullying Strongman the what-for, but after the performance troupe quits it's up to Fatty and Buster to keep the show going.
7.1A four-time widow discusses her four marriages, in which all of her husbands became incredibly rich and died prematurely because of their drive to be rich.
6.5A hypochondriac vacations in the tropics for the fresh air - and finds himself in the middle of a revolution instead.
6.2Buster and a woman are mistakenly married and her initially unfriendly family begins to treat him nicely when they come to believe he has a large inheritance awaiting him.
6.8A young man schemes to drum up business for his girlfriend's employer but after seeing her being intimate with another man, he attempts to commit suicide.
6.5By accident, Cedric (Goofy), replaces his master, Sir Loinsteak, in the armor just before the joust with champion Sir Cumference.
6.1Roscoe and Buster operate a combination garage and fire station. In the first half they destroy a car left for them to clean. In the second half they go off on a false alarm and return to find their own building on fire.
6.5Aspiring filmmakers Mel Funn, Marty Eggs and Dom Bell go to a financially troubled studio with an idea for a silent movie. In an effort to make the movie more marketable, they attempt to recruit a number of big name stars to appear, while the studio's creditors attempt to thwart them.
6.8A modern retelling of Shakespeare's classic comedy about two pairs of lovers with different takes on romance and a way with words.
6.4When billionaire Jean-Marc Clement learns that he is to be satirized in an off-Broadway revue, he passes himself off as an actor playing him in order to get closer to the beautiful star of the show, Amanda Dell.
6.2Mr. Pest tries several theatre seats before winding up in front in a fight with the conductor. He is thrown out. In the lobby he pushes a fat lady into a fountain and returns to sit down by Edna. Mr. Rowdy, in the gallery, pours beer down on Mr. Pest and Edna. He attacks patrons, a harem dancer, the singers Dot and Dash, and a fire-eater.
6.6Stan and Ollie play door-to-door Christmas tree salesmen in California. They end up getting into an escalating feud with grumpy would-be customer James Finlayson, with his home and their car being destroyed in the melee.
6.5On Motunui, Maui tries to catch a fish with his magical fishhook, only to be comically foiled by the ocean.
6.0Schoolboy Donald is torn between his angel and devil sides, though in Donald's case, the devil side isn't hard to resist. But the smoking he's encouraged to do turns him green and gives him regrets, and when the good side shows up and kicks evil's butt, Donald cheers.
7.7When Day, a sunny fellow, encounters Night, a stranger of distinctly darker moods, sparks fly! Day and Night are frightened and suspicious of each other at first, and quickly get off on the wrong foot. But as they discover each other's unique qualities--and come to realize that each of them offers a different window onto the same world-the friendship helps both to gain a new perspective.
7.5Two farmhands compete for the love of the farmer's daughter.
6.2A fiercely independent pilot fighting to keep her family business afloat starts to fall for the man sent by corporate to ground her operation forever.
6.7Donald needs a log for his fire. Unfortunately, the one he picks is occupied by a couple of chipmunks and their stash of acorns. When he cuts it down, Chip and Dale fall out, but their acorns stay behind, so they work at putting out Donald's fire and retrieving their stash. Donald, of course, takes this as calmly and cheerfully as you would expect.
7.5Struggling stockbroker Jimmie Shannon learns that, if he gets married by 7 p.m. on his 27th birthday -- which is today -- he'll inherit $7 million from an eccentric relative.
6.2One year after their royal wedding, King Edvard and Queen Paige of Denmark receive an invitation to attend the wedding of Princess Myra of Sangyoon. Upon their arrival, Paige finds Myra is unhappy with her arranged marriage to the brooding and sinister Kah and is secretly in love with a young elephant handler named Alu.