William V. Ranous Movies

A traveler stays the night at a rural inn, but gets no rest as he is tormented by various spectres and mysterious happenings.

An early film adaptation of the Bard's comic fantasy-- and perhaps the first screen adaptation of a Shakespeare play.

An impressively tactile, if slightly over-ambitious, adaptation of King Lear from Vitagraph Studios.

Biographical drama, adaptation of Shakespeare's play.

Macbeth usurps the Scottish throne by murdering his predecessor.

A short romantic drama in which a captain and his wife are separated by a shipwreck. The woman ends up on a desert island with another man, and they...

A young American millionaire in Venice falls in love with the beautiful princess Ione.

It is sometimes decidedly difficult to get a little privacy on shipboard. Several times Jack Hardy almost reaches the proposal point with Marion Van...

Vitagraph production of Shakespeare's Richard III.

In this Vitagraph short, anarchism threatens to ruin lives and families. Luigi and Rosa are a couple with an adorable child, but trouble is afoot...

A silent short film telling the classic story of Becky Sharp.

Drama Short

The story of Canto V of the Inferno is briefly summarized. The film is the first edition of the better known The Two Brothers directed by James...

Much ado about a necklace - short film based on the story "The String of Pearls"

Agnes Vernon is the daughter of an old prospector whose hard luck leads him to turn holdup. The father is hanged and the girl, unknowing the real...

The Proposal: The gentleman burglar walking with his lady love. They admire the grandeur and beauty of nature. He proposes and she accepts. She does...

Becoming impatient waiting for patients, young Doctor Bob Lyons is about discouraged. To add to his misery, his sweetheart's father, Mr. Irving,...

No matter how absorbed with affairs of state, Abraham Lincoln was always ready to give audience to his little son Tad. Little Tad, playing at the...