Best American Motion Picture of the Year 1916
*only among surviving films from the year 1916
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- DirectorD.W. GriffithStarsLillian GishRobert HarronMae MarshThe story of a poor young woman separated by prejudice from her husband and baby is interwoven with tales of intolerance from throughout history.
- DirectorLois WeberStarsMary MacLarenHarry GriffithMattie WittingA young woman grows tired of providing for her family.
- DirectorPhillips SmalleyLois WeberStarsAnna PavlovaRupert JulianLaura OakleyFenella, a poor Italian girl, falls in love with a Spanish nobleman, but their affair triggers a revolution and national catastrophe.
- DirectorPhillips SmalleyLois WeberStarsTyrone Power Sr.Mrs. Tyrone PowerMarie WalcampA District Attorney's outspoken stand on abortion lands him in trouble with the local community.
- DirectorGeorge Foster PlattStarsBert DelaneyMarian SwayneInda PalmerIn the home of the stalwart young son and his mother, the girl rescued from the sea grows strong again after her fearful exposure. Her attractiveness, so different from that of the fisher maidens, has a telling effect on the young man. He asks her, at length, to become his bride, and she accepts. But a few days before the wedding the affianced bride disappears, sailing away with a strange man from the city, who has suddenly appeared. Thinking that his sweetheart had deserted him for another, the fisherman is heartbroken for a time, but gradually the keen edge of his sorrow wears away, and he succumbs to the attractions of another girl, one who had recently come to the village with her father, and who had lived together and alone at the end of the town. In reality, the runaway girl had been a thief. In trying to escape with a large amount of money which she had taken from the store in which she was employed, she had sailed on a boat which was wrecked. She was the only surviving passenger. The stranger, for whom she left her stalwart fisherman lover, was a detective, who had hit upon her trail. She bribed him with the money which she had saved, and he did not turn her over to the authorities. The detective, learning that the young fisherman would someday inherit a vast fortune, insisted that the girl return and persuade the youth to marry her. Between them they would secure possession of his money. The girl returns to the village, and tells her former lover that it was her brother with whom she had left, that they had hurried away to the deathbed of her dying father. While she talks, the fisherman's real sweetheart and her father surprise the detective in the doorway. At first he stammers in embarrassment. Then he looks searchingly into the face of the older man, and claps a handcuff on his wrists. The father, it seems, is a fugitive from justice. Seeing a chance to accomplish his ends, the detective promises the daughter that if she will give up all claim to the fisher youth and allow him to marry his earlier love, her father will be set free. She sorrowfully agrees, and the youth, much against his wishes, consents to the sacrifice. But the wadding is again interfered with. As the bride, ready to start down the stairs looks over the rail, she sees her former employer, the man from whom she had stolen a fortune, talking earnestly with the fisherman. Thinking that her secret has been divulged, she flees down a back stair, jumps into an automobile, and starts off, heading straight for the quicksands. The unhappy girl who had given up her own happiness for the sake of her father, tries to warn her of her danger, but, thinking it is a plot to stop her escape, she rushes ahead, and is swallowed in the treacherous sands. A letter from headquarters verifies the honesty of the unjustly accused father, and the girl and the fisherman wed and are happy ever after.
- DirectorCecil B. DeMilleStarsGeraldine FarrarRaymond HattonHobart BosworthA WWI English officer is inspired the night before a dangerous mission by a vision of Joan of Arc, whose story he relives.
- DirectorLloyd IngrahamStarsMae MarshRobert HarronWilliam H. BrownAn orphan girl, believing herself cursed with the hoodoo until she gets married, is adopted by a childless couple after the orphanage burns down. Boy-next-door meets girl-next-door, and all looks great until she finds a loaded gun.
- DirectorChester WitheyStarsTully MarshallNorma TalmadgeMarguerite MarshWynne Mortimer, a pampered society girl and daughter of William Mortimer, a prominent business man, chances to meet David White, a young artist whose fame is already assured, at an art exhibit. Despite the fact that she is engaged to marry Hugh Gordon, the junior partner of her father, she falls in love with the artist. He invites the girl and her father to visit his studio and the invitation is accepted. Renee, a model, has been in love with David White for years and he has seemingly reciprocated her love. When Wynne Mortimer appears on the scene, however, he forgets all thoughts of love for Renee. The model is quick to realize the change in her lover. Secretly, she has been a user of cocaine. To forget the heartache the growing attachment between her lover and Wynne causes her, she turns to the cocaine. Wynne, led on by her interest in the artist and his insistence that she is the only one who can justly typify the spirit of a new picture at which he is at work, goes to the studio and poses for him. Hugh Gordon follows her and after a violent scene with the painter takes Wynne to her father, who upbraids her and forbids her to again see the painter. David is dejected at the loss of Wynne and finally takes to using cocaine. Before he has become a complete victim to the habit, however, Wynne dares her father's vengeance and returns to the studio. She and David finally run away and are married. In his anger Wynne's father turns her from home. David rapidly becomes an habitual user of cocaine and Wynne is forced to return to her home. Renee, heartbroken at the evil she has done by really being responsible for the drug habit acquired by David, tries to reform him. It is not until David hears his wife, however, declare that she will stick to him as long as he has need of someone to look after him, and he finally manages to throw off the habit he has acquired. He is determined to free his wife of whatever obligation she may feel binds her to him. Her loyalty to her husband leads Wynne to seek him. Her search takes her into an evil part of the city and she is attacked by a thug. David, who has returned to the city, however, learns that his wife is seeking him and goes to find her. He arrives just in time to rescue her from the den into which she has been carried. When husband and wife are reunited after the horrors through which they have passed the year past, they find that their love has grown stronger and eventually they find happiness.
- DirectorAllan DwanStarsDouglas FairbanksSam De GrassePomeroy CannonAn outlaw calling himself Passin' Through halts his "evil" ways long enough to help out some children in difficulty.
- DirectorColin CampbellStarsGeorge FawcettMatt SnyderBessie EytonStephen Brice, a young lawyer in Civil War-era St. Louis, falls in love with Virginia Carvel, the daughter of his benefactor. But she is loyal to the South and Brice is committed to Lincoln's cause. In the course of the war, their convictions separate them, and Virginia becomes engaged to her cousin Clarence Colfax, a Confederate officer. Brice becomes an officer under General Sherman, and eventually finds himself faced with the captured Colfax, facing execution for spying. Brice must decide whether or not to intercede in his rival's behalf.