Essential D.W. Griffith films

The Stoneman family finds its friendship with the Camerons affected by the Civil War, both fighting in opposite armies. The development of the war in their lives plays through to Lincoln's assassination and the birth of the Ku Klux Klan.

Four historical tales depict the ongoing human struggle against prejudice and inhumanity.

Young lovers in a French village are torn apart with the coming of the Great War.

A frail waif, abused by her brutal boxer father in London's seedy Limehouse District, is befriended by a sensitive Chinese immigrant with tragic consequences.

An orphan girl is given shelter by a farm family, but soon finds herself in the clutches of a murderous farmer and his wife.

A naive country girl is tricked into a sham marriage by a wealthy womanizer, then must rebuild her life despite the taint of having borne a child out of wedlock.

Two orphaned sisters are caught up in the turmoil of the French Revolution, encountering misery and love along the way.

Joseph, a wealthy young Southern aristocrat, graduates from a seminary; before he takes charge of his assigned parish, he decides to go out and see what "the real world" is all about. He winds up in New Orleans and becomes attracted to Bessie, a poor, unsophisticated orphan girl. One thing leads to another, and before long Bessie discovers that she is pregnant by Joseph.

The story of a family caught up in the American Revolutionary War.

A family of Polish refugees tries to survive in post-World War I Germany. For a while it seems that they are making it, but soon the economic and political deterioration in the country begins to take their toll.

Judge Foster throws his daughter out because she married a circus man. She leaves her baby girl with Prof. McGargle before she dies. Years later Sally is a dancer with whom Peyton, a son of Judge Foster's friend, falls in love. When Sally is arrested McGargle proves her real parentage.

Geoffrey, a young and impoverished writer, is desperately in love with Mavis, who lives at his boardinghouse and is also pursuing a writing career. Unable to marry her because of his poverty, in his anger he curses God for abandoning him. Soon Geoffrey meets Prince Lucio de Rimanez, a wealthy, urbane gentleman who informs Geoffrey that he has inherited a fortune, but that he must place himself in the Prince's hands in order to enjoy the fruits of his inheritance. What Geoffrey doesn't know is that Prince Lucio is actually Satan, who is using Geoffrey as an experiment to show God that he can corrupt anybody.

A young couple's marriage is jeopardized by the husband's descent into alcoholism.