This is one in a series of entertaining cinematic compilations by Robert Youngson that reviews aspects of the history of film...
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1961
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The best thing that can be said about Abbott and Costello Meet the Keystone Kops is that it's better than the team's previous...
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Himself
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1955
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Down Memory Lane is a pastiche film comprised of old comedy footage from the Mack Sennett studios. The vintage clips are tied...
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1949
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Hollywood Cavalcade was a fictionalized history of silent films and the growth of the movie industry. Don Ameche portrays a...
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1939
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Producer/director Mack Sennett and actor Buster Keaton, two masters of silent-film comedy, teamed up for the first time with...
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Director, Producer
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1935
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Producer
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1933
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The short comedy The Fatal Glass of Beer stars the legendary W.C. Fields as Mr. Snavely, a prospector who is awaiting the...
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Producer
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1933
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Director, Screenwriter
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1933
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Producer
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1933
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This is a musical comedy which starred Bing Crosby and included the song "Auf Wiedesehn". ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi...
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Producer
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1933
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Producer
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1932
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This comedy shows a day in the life of a hapless pharmacist (W.C. Fields). Browbeaten at home by a domineering wife and a...
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Producer
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1932
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W.C. Fields stars as the subject of this classic comedy short, which he also wrote the screenplay for. The dentist is a...
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Producer
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1932
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Director
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1931
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Bing Crosby stars as himself in this Mack Sennett-directed two reeler. The film opens with Crosby singing the title song in...
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Director, Producer
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1931
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Director
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1931
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Director
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1931
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Producer
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1929
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Director, Producer
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1929
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The plot of this Essanay comedy hinges on a practical joke. The prankish friends of the hero decide to "set him up" with the...
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Producer
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1928
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Director
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1928
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At 9 reels, The Good-Bye Kiss was comedy producer Mack Sennett's most ambitious feature to date. Eschewing the usual Sennett...
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Director, Screenwriter
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1928
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Producer
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1927
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Producer
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1927
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Producer
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1927
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Screenwriter
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1927
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Baby-faced comedian Harry Langdon plays a timorous fireman in His First Flame. Much of the action involves Langdon's efforts...
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Producer
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1926
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Screenwriter
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1926
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Producer
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1926
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Producer
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1926
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Screenwriter
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1926
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Producer
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1926
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Screenwriter
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1926
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Producer
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1926
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Screenwriter
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1925
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Screenwriter
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1925
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Screenwriter
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1925
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Producer
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1925
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Producer
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1925
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Although Harry Langdon was nearing his peak as a two-reel comedian (in just a few months he would graduate to features), not...
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Producer
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1925
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Producer
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1924
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Producer
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1924
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Producer
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1924
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1924
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Producer
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1924
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Producer
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1924
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Producer
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1924
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Producer
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1924
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Comedy producer Mack Sennett certainly couldn't let Rudolph Valentino's hit The Sheik come and go without spoofing it with...
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Producer, Screenwriter
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1923
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Mabel Normand's last feature-length film is also one of her most entertaining. Sue Graham (Normand) lives in the tiny hamlet...
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Presented by, Screen Story
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1923
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This feature-length comedy-melodrama was not one of the best from Mack Sennett, or his talented director, F. Richard Jones....
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Producer, Screenwriter
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1922
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Comedienne Mabel Normand was in the middle of production for this comedy-drama when William Desmond Taylor was murdered. She...
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Screenwriter, Supervisor/Manager
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1922
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This comedy-drama marked Mabel Normand's return to producer Mack Sennett after making a number of mediocre films for Samuel...
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Producer, Supervisor/Manager
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1921
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Producer, Screenwriter
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1921
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This hilarious slapstick comedy from Mack Sennett finds Sam Smith (Ben Turpin), the resident of a small town, accused of...
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Screenwriter, Supervisor/Manager
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1921
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Producer, Screenwriter
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1921
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This anthology is comprised of several short chucklers from the King of Slapstick comedy Mack Sennett. These shorts feature...
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Director
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1921
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"Campus Carmen," "As Luck Would Have It" and "Her Bridal Nightmare" are the silent short stories featured in this series from...
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Director
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1920
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Producer
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1920
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Producer
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1920
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Producer
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1920
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Producer, Screenwriter
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1919
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Screenwriter
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1919
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Producer, Screenwriter
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1919
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Producer, Screenwriter
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1919
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Screenwriter
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1918
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Producer
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1918
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Screenwriter
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1918
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Producer
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1917
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Having recently severed his ties with Triangle Films, comedy producer Mack Sennett served up his first two-reeler for...
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Producer
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1917
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Producer
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1916
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This anthology is comprised of several short chucklers from the King of Slapstick comedy Mack Sennett. These shorts feature...
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Director
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1916
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This fast-moving Keystone comedy was directed by the talented F. Richard Jones. A flirtatious manicurist (Louise Fazenda)...
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Producer
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1916
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Director
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1916
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Producer
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1915
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Love, Speed and Thrills is about a loving husband and a wife-stealing wolf, both after the same woman. ~ Rovi...
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Director, Producer
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1915
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Producer
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1915
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Producer
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1915
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Director
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1915
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Director, Producer
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1915
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Producer
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1915
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Keystone's Stolen Magic was the two-reel follow-up to Raymond Hitchcock's four-reel starrer My Valet. The beloved "Hitchy"...
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Director
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1915
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Director
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1915
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Director
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1915
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Having inaugurated his association with Triangle Films with the 4-reel My Valet, comedy producer Mack Sennett quickly...
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Producer
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1915
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Producer
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1915
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Producer
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1915
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Producer
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1915
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Vaudeville monologist Hale Hamilton starred in the Keystone two-reel comedy Her Painted Hero. Hamilton plays a ham actor in a...
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Producer
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1915
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Hoping to cash in on the popularity of his former employee Charlie Chaplin, producer Mack Sennett hired Charlie's...
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Screenwriter, Supervisor/Manager
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1915
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Director, Producer
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1915
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Producer
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1915
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Running four reels, My Valet was comedy producer Mack Sennett's contribution to the first Triangle Films program, which...
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Director, Producer
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1915
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Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle doubled as star and director of this 2-reel Keystone romp. Fatty plays a star-struck janitor at a big...
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1915
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In Charlie Chaplin's 27th comedy for Keystone, and arguably his best, he plays not a homeless Tramp, but an inept janitor in...
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Producer
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1914
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Director, Producer
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1914
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Charlie Chaplin's 25th Keystone comedy is a park farce on the same order as many of his earlier shorts. It opens with a...
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Producer
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1914
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Producer
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1914
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Director, Producer
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1914
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Producer
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1914
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In Charlie Chaplin's 21st Keystone film, Chaplin is the prop man and general factotum at a vaudeville house. The artists...
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Producer
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1914
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Director, Producer, Screenwriter, Rube/Newsman
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1914
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Producer
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1914
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In his 19th film for Keystone, Charlie Chaplin plays a somewhat more sympathetic role as the husband of comedienne...
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Producer
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1914
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Charlie Chaplin's 24th short for the Keystone company is a film about making films at Keystone. It is unusual in that we see...
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Producer
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1914
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Chaplin's 16th film for Keystone is the only Chaplin film thought to be lost. What we know of its plot comes from the movie...
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Producer
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1914
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Charlie Chaplin once said, "All I need to make a comedy is a park, a policeman and a pretty girl." In this, his 11th film for...
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Producer
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1914
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Charlie Chaplin's penultimate Keystone comedy takes us back to the scene of so many of his Keystones, Westlake Park. It is...
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Producer
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1914
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Producer
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1914
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This typical Keystone slapstick comedy was Charlie Chaplin's first appearance on film. An Englishman (Chaplin) cons a...
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Producer
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1914
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For this half-reel quickie, Charlie Chaplin's 23rd Keystone comedy, Chaplin took cast and crew back to Westlake Park, scene...
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Producer
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1914
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Tango Tangles is an impromptu Keystone comedy which exploited the current "tango craze." A tango contest and exhibition...
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Director, Producer, Screenwriter
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1914
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Producer
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1914
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Producer
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1914
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In Charlie Chaplin's fifth Keystone comedy we get a look inside the famous laugh factory. Charlie is a movie fan and we first...
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Producer
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1914
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Producer
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1914
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Producer
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1914
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Charlie Chaplin's 29th comedy for Keystone was one of his most popular, grossing $130,000 in its initial year of release. It...
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Director, Producer, Screenwriter
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1914
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The Face on the Bar-Room Floor, Charlie Chaplin's 22nd Keystone comedy, was based on a well-known poem by Hugh Antoine...
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Producer
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1914
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Producer
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1914
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Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle directed himself in this Keystone short. In it, he wants to take a girl (Arbuckle's real-life wife,...
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Producer
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1914
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Charlie Chaplin's 13th film for Keystone marked his first solo effort as writer and director. It follows the well-trodden...
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Producer
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1914
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In his eighth film for Keystone Charlie Chaplin, in frock coat and bushy mustache, is cast in the role of a melodramatic...
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Director, Producer
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1914
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Charlie Chaplin's 15th comedy for Keystone is another violent park farce. It is the only teaming of this quartet of Keystone...
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Director, Producer, Screenwriter
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1914
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Producer
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1914
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This Keystone comedy, Charlie Chaplin's 33rd, is the first feature-length comedy ever made and contributed to making Chaplin...
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Director
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1914
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Charlie Chaplin's 20th film for Keystone marks a turning point in his career. From this point on, with one exception, he was...
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Producer
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1914
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Producer
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1914
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Director, Producer
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1914
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Charlie Chaplin's musical career is as a piano mover for a music store in this, his 31st comedy for Keystone. The film was a...
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Producer
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1914
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In Charles Chaplin's seventh film for the Keystone Company, the Little Fellow's favorite pastime is drinking and chasing...
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Producer
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1914
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Charlie Chaplin's 12th film for the Keystone company was also his directorial debut, receiving co-directing credit with...
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Producer
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1914
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Charlie Chaplin's 30th Keystone comedy is again set at the auto races, as were his earlier films, Kid's Auto Race,...
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Producer
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1914
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Producer
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1914
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In his 32nd film for Keystone, Charlie Chaplin is a married man, an unusual state for his film character. His wife, played by...
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Producer
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1914
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Notable as Charlie Chaplin's first female impersonation film, the half-reel A Busy Day is another of the Keystone shorts in...
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Producer
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1914
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Director
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1913
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Producer
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1913
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After saving a little girl from drowning, Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle receives an offer to join the police force, or rather, the...
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Producer
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1913
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The Rube and the Baron makes ample use of the talents of Keystone stock-company players Mack Sennett, Fred Mace,...
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Director
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1913
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Director
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1913
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Running about half a reel, A Game of Poker was released back-to-back with another Keystone comedy, Father's Choice. A...
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Director
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1913
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Director
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1913
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Director
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1913
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As was often the case in the Keystone comedies, "love" and "pain" are virtually interchangeable in this half-reel farce....
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Director
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1913
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Director
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1913
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Director
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1913
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Director, Producer
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1913
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Director, Producer
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1913
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Director, Producer
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1913
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Barney Oldfield's Race for a Life is an early example of a sports celebrity trying to use his fame in motion pictures. In the...
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Director, Producer
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1913
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Director, Producer
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1913
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Director
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1913
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Director
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1913
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Too busy with administrational matters to direct all the Keystone releases of 1913, Mack Sennett assigned the direction of...
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Director, Producer
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1913
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Director
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1913
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Director
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1913
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Director
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1913
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Director
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1913
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Director, Producer
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1913
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Director
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1913
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This Keystone half-reel comedy is "distinguished" by some of the most outrageous racial stereotypes ever preserved on...
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Director
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1913
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Director
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1913
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Director
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1913
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Director
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1913
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Director, Producer
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1913
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Director
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1913
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Director
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1913
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Director
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1913
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Director
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1913
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Director
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1912
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1912
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Director
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1912
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Director, Producer
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1912
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Director
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1912
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Director
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1912
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1912
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Director
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1912
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Director
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1912
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Director
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1912
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Director
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1912
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Director
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1912
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Director
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1912
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Director, Producer
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1912
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Director
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1912
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Director, Producer
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1912
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Director
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1912
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Director, Producer
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1912
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Director
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1912
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Director, Producer
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1912
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1911
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1911
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1911
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1911
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Director
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1911
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1911
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1911
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1911
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Director
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1911
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This simple and very effective melodramatic short film was a landmark in its day; in fact, today it is still a fine example...
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Screenwriter
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1911
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Director
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1911
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Director
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1911
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1911
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Mary Pickford was popular enough in early 1911 to be identified by name in the trade magazine Variety's review of...
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1911
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1910
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1910
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1910
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1910
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This Biograph "monastic drama" was set during Feudal Times. Kidnapping the wife of one of his vassals, a despotic Duke forces...
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1910
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Director
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1910
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1910
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A widower (George O. Nicholls) must raise his young daughter by himself. He gets a job at a pigeon farm. He falls in love...
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1910
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1910
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1910
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The New Jersey communities of Paterson and Westfield were used as exterior "backdrops" in this Biograph comedy....
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1910
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1910
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1910
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1910
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1910
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1910
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No relation to the 1910 D.W.Griffith production of the same name, the 1913 release The Iconoclast was a three-reeler from the...
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1910
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By 1910, D.W. Griffith was far too busy to personally direct all of Biograph's films, thus he legislated authority to such...
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1910
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Described by its parent studio Biograph as a "western comedy," The Dancing Girl of Butte was filmed in the wide open spaces...
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1910
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Described by the Biograph publicity department as a "circus romance," D.W. Griffith's The Call was partially filmed on...
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1910
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Having moved to the California facilities of Biograph studios in late January of 1910, D.W.Griffith wasted no time getting to...
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1910
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1910
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D.W. Griffith dashed off the one-reel Little Angels of Luck entirely within the confines of the Bronx Biograph studios. Since...
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1910
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The Bronx studios of Biograph pictures were transformed to the drawing rooms of 18th-century Europe in this rare comedy from...
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1910
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1910
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1910
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Running just shy of a full 1000-foot reel, Biograph's One Night -- and Then was what was known at the time as a "bohemian"...
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1910
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Mary Pickford is a young woman who convinces a farmer's wife to hire her as a maid. When a travelling salesman comes by the...
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1910
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1910
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1910
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When an Indian is found cruelly murdered, the tribe begins to plan for a revenge attack against the nearby white settlement...
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1910
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1910
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1910
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1910
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1910
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1910
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1910
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1910
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Despite its title, this Biograph half-reeler is a comedy. The plot is the old one about two poverty-stricken souls pretending...
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1910
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1910
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1910
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1910
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Always fascinated with Native American mythology and folklore, director D.W. Griffith turned out no fewer than six "Indian"...
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1910
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1910
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The undeveloped terrain of Fishkill, New York and Westfield, New Jersey stood in for the "Wild West" in the Biograph...
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1910
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1910
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1910
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1909
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Advertised by Biograph studios as a "Contemporary Temperance Melodrama," D. W. Griffith's The Broken Locket was filmed in...
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1909
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1909
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1909
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1909
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1909
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1909
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1909
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1909
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1909
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1909
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1909
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1909
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1909
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Completed in late 1909, Biograph's Choosing a Husband was a rare comedy effort from D.W.Griffith. The heroine is ardently...
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1909
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1909
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1909
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1909
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1909
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1909
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1909
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1909
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1909
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1909
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1909
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1909
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1909
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1909
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1909
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1909
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1909
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1909
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1909
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1909
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1909
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1909
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1909
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1909
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1909
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1909
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1909
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This D.W. Griffith-directed "contemporary comedy" was filmed at the Bronx headquarters of Biograph studios, with location...
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1909
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1909
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1909
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1909
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1909
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1909
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1909
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Screenwriter
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1909
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1909
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1909
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1909
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1909
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1909
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1909
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1909
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Running 211 feet (approximately 4 minutes), Little Darling was filmed right after the more ambitious D. W. Griffith...
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1909
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D.W. Griffith's The Lure of the Gown was advertised by Biograph Films as "An Italian Contemporary Romance" -- with Fort Lee,...
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1909
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1909
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Biograph's The Convict's Sacrifice was lensed by D. W. Griffith on location at Fort Lee, New Jersey. Released from prison, a...
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1909
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1909
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1909
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Described by its parent studio Biograph as a "French Revolution melodrama," Nursing a Viper runs a thrill-packed 920 feet (or...
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1908
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In this four hanky early silent melodrama, Ruth tries to survive amidst tragedy and toil on New York's Lower East Side. It...
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1908
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1908
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The French-based Gaumont company churned out quite a few brief comedies in their New York headquarters. One of these was...
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1908
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1908
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Not a wartime drama in itself, this routine story of intrigue and betrayal is set fifteen years after the fact. During the...
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1908
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Most film historians agree that D. W. Griffith was sole director at Biograph Studios during the fall and winter of 1908. No...
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1908
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Screenwriter
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1908
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1908
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1908
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This touching story is about a little girls who attempts to pawn her doll for food money for her sick and starving mother....
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1908
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