The Recoil

A Hollywood biographical film about a survivor's experience of the Armenian Genocide. Arshaluys (Aurora) Mardiganian plays herself in the film which is based on her published memoirs. It is thought to be the first film about made about genocide. All known complete copies of the film have been lost. A restored and edited 24-minute segment of the historic motion picture was released in 2009 by the Armenian Genocide Resource Center of Northern California. It is based on a rare surviving reel of film edited in Soviet Armenia.

In this partially lost silent film, a man working as a motion picture extra in Hollywood westerns impresses a visiting sheikh with his boxing skills and is engaged to go to Arabia, where he becomes involved in warring and falls in love with a beautiful princess.

Eddie Haskins, a wisecracking young man, teams up with two ham-acrobats known as 'Bugs & Sunny', and ,when they are all kicked out of a vaudeville theater in California, they enlist in the U. S. Cavalry. Eddie falls in love with Dorothy Clark, the daughter of a sergeant and, following a moonlight tryst, they are discovered by Sergeant Hank Darby who himself is in love with Dorothy. They have a fist-fight in which Eddie comes out second best. When Darby is reprimanded for fighting with an enlisted man, the troopers incorrectly think that Eddie squealed on him, and they punish him with a conspiracy of silence. Dorothy also rejects him. Eddie has a problem. Maybe a fire will break out in the stables and he can rescue Sergeant Darby.

Laura Bell runs away from her country home to the city, where she becomes a clerk in a department store. Her brother, Frank, follows her to New York, but is unable to place her. He becomes interested in a settlement house and obtains a position in social service work. Mary Ashton, daughter of the proprietor of the store where Laura works, is shocked to find that her father pays his clerks starvation wages.

Two sets of young marrieds, Day & Fanny Illington and Ferd & Ida Jackson take a weekend trip together. Avid golfer Day ignores Fanny as Ida does Ferd. At his suggestion he and Fanny attend an island "affinity" party for people neglected by their spouses. Accidentally left on an island they struggle back to the mainland only to discover Day and Ida have been having an affinity party of their own! Everyone realizes the error of their ways and resolves that they were already married to the ones with whom they had the most affinity.

Vantyne Carter is a playboy living in luxury off his father. Vantyne's cousin Teddy, meanwhile, leads a fine upstanding life - or at least he appears to, so he can curry favor with his wealthy uncle, Vantyne's father. One day, the senior Carter, fed up with his son's antics, decides to play a trick on both Vantyne and Teddy. The old man and his lawyer go off on a hunting trip, and then the lawyer returns with news that Carter was killed in an accident.

Two young women fight over the love of a hunter.

A ruthless stockbroker sells short in the copper business and ruins the life of his friends by ruining their finances.

A lottery win of $5,000 forever changes the lives of a miner turned dentist and his wife.

When a wealthy hypochondriac is dissatisfied by the care of the town doctor (Doc Arnold), he consults with a new physician in town who swindles him out of a large sum of money. When his daughter tries to retrieve the check, the quack (Dr. Bell) turns up dead with a gun shot wound to the chest. Doc Arnold lends his expertise to the investigation and solves the case by finding microscopic evidence on the murder weapon left at the scene.

The story of a poor young woman, separated by prejudice from her husband and baby, is interwoven with tales of intolerance from throughout history.