The Mysterious Princess

Return to Reason: Four Films by Man Ray

An immersion into the surreal and dreamlike world of painter, photographer and filmmaker Man Ray (1890-1976), one of the most prolific American visual artists, through four of his short films, brought to life by the atmospheric music of SQÜRL.

The Isle of Conquest

A 1919 film directed by Edward José.

The Probation Wife

A 1919 film directed by Sidney Franklin.

Colomba

Not So Long Ago

Against the backdrop of New York City of the early 1850s, a young woman -- naively seeking to win the love she reads about in the romance novels she devours -- finds one prospect in an earnest denizen of the Bowery, and another in an elegant young aristocrat. Focusing on the bygone era's fashions, the novelty of the bicycle-built-for-two, and an inventor's quest for the horseless carriage, the film gently stirs the audiences' nostalgia for simpler times.

The Newer Woman

There is, at once, quite a change in Dot and her sweetheart Robert plainly doesn't like it. After a tussle with a burglar and a cop the couple come to an understanding.

Her Mother's Necklace

Bessie's father is a widower contemplating remarriage to widow Irene Hunt but Bessie jealously objects, fearing Irene will intrude on her relationship with her father.

The Woman Gives

A 1920 film directed by Roy William Neill.

The Ragged Edge

Howard Spurlock, wrongfully accused of theft, believes police are seeking his arrest. On "the ragged edge," he takes refuge in China, where he meets and is nursed back to health by Ruth Endicott, daughter of a missionary. They marry and go to an island in the South Seas where, later, his innocence is proved.

The Availing Prayer

William Rock, assistant cashier in a business concern, has a sick daughter. The doctor urges that she be taken immediately to another climate, and Rock, unable to get an advance on his pay, is desperate. He has been in the habit of taking the deposits to the bank every Saturday, and then going direct from the bank home. He determines that week to steal the money. On Saturday Rock is followed on the street by a couple of crooks. He goes into a telephone booth to phone his daughter May and her fiancé, a young physician, that they can start south with the younger sister at once. Taking the money out of the bank satchel, he stuffs it in his inside vest pocket and leaves with the empty bag in his hand. He goes down an alleyway to get rid of the satchel, but is assaulted by the gunmen and the bag taken from him.

Mystic Faces

Yano is a small delivery boy for his uncle, who keeps a curio shop in Chinatown. His loves are Tama, his sweetheart, and Bengi, his dog. Bengi is seized by dog catchers, but is rescued by Letty Stanford, for which Yano promises his fealty. Later Letty is kidnapped by Germans because of her war activities, and it is Yano who goes to her rescue and gets her free in spite of his diminutive size. The Little Japanese has paid his debt.

Kreutzer Sonata

Based -- loosely -- on Leo Tolstoy, this film starred feted stage star Nance O'Neil but is rather better remembered as Theda Bara's follow-up to the sensational A Fool There Was (1914).

Betty in Search of a Thrill

After graduating from a convent school, Betty travels to New York to visit her relatives, the Hastings. She quickly catches the eye of Jim Denning, a wealthy neighbor who proposes to her, but Betty decides to experience city life before settling down and finds work as a salesclerk. When the floorwalker becomes too familiar, Betty quits and her showgirl friend Maizie Follette helps her get a job as a cabaret dancer, but Betty finds that’s a tough racket too and decides city life on the loose isn’t for her.

Nearly a Lady

Young Frederica Calhoun, naïve to the ways of the world, having grown up on her father’s Montana ranch, is swept off her feet by the arrival of Lord Cecil Grosvenor, a prospective buyer. He opens her eyes to a hitherto undreamed-of world of refinement and he by her unfailing sweet disposition and sunny bubbling good spirits. They are soon engaged, but during a trip to New York to visit his sister Frederica begins to let her doubts get the better of her and disguising herself as a man follows him to the French Ball, but all turns out well in the end.

The Magpie

Dorothy Gerard, visiting a Washington D.C. suburb, receives a letter from her father announcing his return from California. He also mentions a series of robberies that have been plaguing Washington.

Carmen

A Spanish soldier falls under the spell of a fiery gypsy girl named Carmen. His obsession with her leads to his ruin.

Big Timber

Walter Sandry, holder of a mortgage on timber lands in the Pacific Northwest, arrives to claim his property. He comes into conflict with a rival company and with lumberjacks influenced by their foreman, Hampden, whom he later beats in a fight.

Three Mirrors Creature's Flashes of Flesh

In the aftermath of an emotional shock, a ruthless high-class manager faces her own abyss, becomes pervaded by a sensory spirit and undertakes a purifying voyage.

Divorce Coupons

Linda Catherton, a poor small town girl in search of a wealthy suitor, meets Roland Bland, a man of notorious reputation, at the wedding of her friend Teddy Beaudine. Although she does not love him, Linda accepts his marriage proposal, believing that alimony will compensate her eventually for the unhappy experiment; but following their honeymoon she acknowledges their mutual love and affection. Fontaine, Teddy's husband, who is in debt, discovers a letter from Linda indicating her real intentions in marriage and sends it to Roland, who then gives his wife grounds for a divorce but threatens to kill the informer. When Fontaine is killed, Linda and Roland suspect each other, but it develops that Ishtar Lane, who formerly loved Roland, committed the murder, hoping thus to assure his own happiness. Ishtar dies, and the couple are reconciled.

A Question of Honor

Wealthy Anne Wilmot vacationing along with her aunt Katherine at her fiancé Leon Morse's (Hull) Arizona mountain lodge discovers his plot to destroy a nearby hydroelectric engineering project in order to obtain the land for his railway. She thwarts the sabotage but find herself in a life and death struggle.