William V. Ranous Movies

To start a little in advance of our story, Lord Rintoul, of the English nobility, finds a little Gypsy girl three years old, who had been deserted by...

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

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

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

Vitagraph production of Shakespeare's Richard III.

Biographical drama, adaptation of Shakespeare's play.

Francesca, surrounded by ladies-in-waiting at the palace. Her father enters, and together they read a letter from Lanciotto, asking for the hand of...

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

Emphatically opposed to Jack Moss, old Mr. McGillicuddy puts the ban on his marriage to his daughter Dolly. The old gentleman is adamant to the...

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...

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...

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

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...

Macbeth usurps the Scottish throne by murdering his predecessor.

Advised by his friends to seek a second wife so that his children, Helen and Dolores, may know a mother's care, Sir Edward Tilbury marries Phyllis,...

Just as the bead clerk and his assistants are closing up the jewelry store for the day, a package containing a very costly necklace arrives by...