Lois Weber

The Women Who Run Hollywood

The first talkie was directed by Alice Guy, the first color film was produced by Lois Weber, who directed more than 300 films over 10 years. Frances Marion wrote screenplays for the Hollywood Star Mary Pickford and won two Oscars, Dorothy Arzner was the most powerful film director in Hollywood. And what do all of them have in common? They are all women and they have all been forgotten. Incredibly, it also took until 2010 for the first woman, Kathryn Bigelow, to win the Oscar for Best Director. Even if underrepresented women have always played a big part in Hollywood and it is this part of the film history left untold that this documentary sets out to uncover.

Early Directors on Directing

There were more women directors before 1920 than at any other time in history. The first director to put a narrative story on celluloid was, Alice Guy Blaché in 1896. Few people know that Lillian Gish became a director in her own right in 1920. Ida Lupino directed over a hundred episodes of "Have Gun, Will Travel," "Thriller," "Gunsmoke," and many independent features.

The Hand That Rocks the Cradle

A doctor's wife is arrested for educating impoverished women about birth control.

Alone in the World

Bobby's mother dies and leaves him to care for the baby.

Idle Wives

Characters in the film attend a movie titled 'Life’s Mirror', where they see parallel, cautionary versions of their own lives. Only the first two of the original seven reels survive.

The Eye of God

Olaf writes his memoirs, before his execution. He tells of his life as a struggling farmer when Renie, stranded in the village, stays one night in his home and Olaf falls in love with her.

Hop - The Devil's Brew

Lydia Jansen is happily married to a young customs inspector, but she harbors a dark secret. She is addicted to smoking opium or in slang parlance “hop.” To keep her secret, she willingly pays the blackmail her maid extorts from her having learned of Lydia’s habit through her own fiancée who is part of the ring importing the devil’s brew. Something unknown to all is that the operation is run by Lydia’s father an important politician in the city where this all occurs. As her husband’s investigation tightens the noose on the organization Lydia faces a crisis.

Scandal

The lives of a stenographer and her boss are thrown into turmoil by reckless gossip.

Sunshine Molly

A woman known as Sunshine Molly gets a job in an oil field, and clashes with a belligerent employee named "Bull" Forrest. (Note: multiple reels of this film were damaged beyond repair. Only three reels remain, two of which are also heavily damaged.)

False Colors

Famed actor Lloyd Phillips blames his infant daughter Dixie for her mother’s death in childbirth, leaving her in the care of his housekeeper, Mrs. Hughes and departs. Eighteen years later having squandered the money entrusted to her by Phillips Mrs. Hughes and her worthless son concoct a swindle to refill the coffers but are ultimately thwarted.

Lost by a Hair

A group of jealous men conspire to defeat a romantic rival who has captured the attention of all of the ladies at a summer hotel. (Note: The majority of this film is considered lost. Only a fragment survives.)

The Pursuit of Hate

Diana Grave's husband has left her, preferring any life to that of living with a woman who is not congenial to him. Howbeit, her husband gone is a different matter than her husband present. She commissioned a detective to locate him.

The Spider and Her Web

The story concerns the reformation of a fast woman who runs a gambling establishment. Her one fear is of death and her regeneration is brought about.

The Merchant of Venice

A rich merchant, Antonio is depressed for no good reason, until his good friend Bassanio comes to tell him how he's in love with Portia. Portia's father has died and left a very strange will: only the man that picks the correct casket out of three (silver, gold, and lead) can marry her. Bassanio, unfortunately, is strapped for cash with which to go wooing, and Antonio wants to help, so Antonio borrows the money from Shylock, the money-lender. But Shylock has been nursing a grudge against Antonio's insults, and makes unusual terms to the loan. And when Antonio's business fails, those terms threaten his life, and it's up to Bassanio and Portia to save him.

The Jew's Christmas

Early Lois Weber film. Isaac and his faithful wife, Rachel, deplore that in America their children are forced to work on the Jewish Sabbath. Leah and Sam are not so strict as their parents and the old customs pall about their more American spirits. Sam is employed in a cloak house and secretly loves his employer's daughter, but she refuses to recognize him. Leah is loved by the handsome gentile floorwalker, and despite her father's objections, she marries him. Isaac orders Leah from the house. Later, the daughter of the cloak manufacturer marries an admirer and Sam is invited to the wedding. He drinks and disgraces himself, and returning home, is turned out by the heartbroken rabbi. He leaves, telling the old man that he will return when the father celebrated the Christian Christmas.

How Men Propose

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.

Suspense.

An isolated house is too remote for a lone servant, who leaves a note, quietly exits the back door, and puts the key under the mat. Left alone in the house is a mother and her infant. A tramp has watched the servant leave and begins to skulk. When the lady of the house sees him outside as he discovers the key, she's terrified and desperately phones her husband, who's at work in town. He jumps into a car that's idling in front of his office and races toward home, the car's owner, and police, in hot pursuit.

The Rosary

Haunting and hypnotic, this artistic gem recounts the lyrics from a popular 1898 song of the same name. Weber’s stylistics, including circular matte shots, foregrounding of the cross and the rosary, and placement of the characters within each shot bring to the film an enormous emotional and spiritual range.

The Picture of Dorian Gray

Alleged silent short adaptation of Oscar Wilde's novel, first mentioned in a 1966 copy of Films In Review. Recent scholarship argues this film never existed and is erroneously included in the publication.

A Japanese Idyll

A Japanese Idyll is a 1912 silent short drama film directed by and starring Lois Weber. The film was produced by the Rex Motion Picture Company for release by Universal Film Manufacturing Company.

Eyes That See Not

A self-centred wealthy woman is transformed after she is confronted with the harsh reality of the living conditions endured by the employees of her husband's mill.

Fine Feathers

The Fine Feathers is a 1912 silent film dramatic short directed by and starring Lois Weber.

The Price

Pretty Ann, and Joe, the hostler, one day chance to meet. Strong is Joe, and simple, and Ann is shy and sweet. As man and maid have done before, they love, and marry, too. And live happy ever after? Ah, this tale is new to you! Yes, the tale is drear, prosaic; and so poetry won't do. A baby boy comes to bless the union. Joe is working in the stables when they tell him of his joy: his heart is gay and happy, and he tells the horses so. Then, it might be the angels were jealous of such mortal happiness; it might be the devil, seeing the stage so set, entered to play the leading role.

Lost Illusions

A marital romance in which a married artist woos the wife of another man.

Sherlock Holmes, Jr.

Little Sherlock Holmes, Jr., reads the doughty doings of his hero-god, and at once determines to become a detective himself.

Fate

Jack Norton had traveled the downgrade, had transgressed the laws of man, had trespassed the forbidden, and paid the penalty.

On the Brink

A 1911 silent drama film written and directed by Edwin S. Porter and Lois Weber. Starring Lois Weber, Phillips Smalley, and Charles De Forrest.

The Twins

The baby daughter of Mrs. Norton, a widowed seamstress, dies. The sorrow-stricken mother gazes at the empty cradle and decides to replace the departed soul with an orphan child upon whom she can lavish the love, the rightful object of which the Great Giver and Taker has taken from her. She goes to the orphanage and asks to be given a baby girl, and is given one of the twin baby sisters. Richard Golden, a wealthy shirtwaist manufacturer, has an only son, a little boy, who yearns for a sister and continually begs his father to bring him a little sister to be a playmate to him, and the father, to satisfy the child's persistent pleading, goes to the orphan home and brings home the other little twin sister. Years roll by and both girls have grown to young womanhood in their different stations in life. Jack Golden, now grown to manhood, and knowing that the girl is only a foster sister, asks her to become his wife.

From Death to Life

A chemist named Aratus invents a concoction that will turn creatures to stone, but only realizes the dangers of his creation when his wife falls victim to it.

A Heroine of '76

During the American Revolution, an innkeeper's daughter learns of a plot to assassinate George Washington while he will be staying at her father's inn.