Edna Purviance

Disguised as a priest, an escaped convict makes his way to Texas. He ends up in a small rural town where the townsfolk mistake him for their new church minister. When Charlie escapes from prison he dons preacher's clothes. By mistake he becomes the new minister for the town of Devil's Gulch. Later, the sheriff discovers that he is the convict and takes him to the Mexican border, where he can choose to return as a convict or face Mexican bandits at war with each other. —Ed Stephan <stephan@cc.wwu.edu> Disguised as a priest, an escaped convict makes his way to Texas. He ends up in a small rural town where the townsfolk mistake him for their new church minister, whom they're expecting to arrive that day. He settles into his new identity--and its perks--but there is always the chance that his true identity will be discovered. —grantss

A kept woman runs into her former fiancé and finds herself torn between love and comfort. Believing that she has been jilted by her artist fiance' Jean when he fails to meet her at the railway station, Marie St. Clair goes off to Paris alone. A year later, mistress of wealthy Pierre Revel, she meets Jean again. Misinterpreting events, she bounces back and forth between apparent security and true love. —Ed Stephan <stephan@cc.wwu.edu> Jean and Marie are madly in love and want to get married but their parents are opposed to it. They plan to elope to Paris but Jean backs out at the last moment. Marie leaves without him and heads to Paris. Within a year she has become quite the socialite, complete with wealthy boyfriend. Then she runs into Jean again and must decide between love and money. —grantss

This classic is not to be missed. Charlie Chaplin 's little tramp finds an abandoned baby and decides to take him home. When he first brings the child to his tenement house, neighbors ask what the baby's name is, so the tramp ducks inside briefly to check the gender, and returns and responds: 'John'. Chaplin's portrayal is especially poignant because he had lost his own infant son shortly before starting work on this film. Chaplin's son had multiple congenital anomalies that were fatal at the time. Chaplin was so despondent over the child's death that he put 'The Little Mouse' on the child's grave marker, rather than his name. You see what paternal grief looks like when you view the scene in which child protective services take the child away. The film does have a happy ending, though.

The Tramp cares for an abandoned child, but events put their relationship in jeopardy. A woman decides to abandon her baby in the backseat of an automobile with a handwritten note attached, beseeching the finder to care for and love the child. The baby is discovered by the initially-reluctant Tramp, who eventually softens and comes to love him as his own. As the boy grows up, both he and The Tramp must learn to navigate through a life that spawns one adventure after another. —Kyle Perez Faced with raising her fatherless son alone, an unmarried single mother abandons her baby. As one thing leads to another, The Tramp (1915) crosses paths with the child on a street corner, and just like that, the carefree vagabond reluctantly becomes his surrogate father. However, so much can change in five years. Now, the tight-knit pair runs a glazing business, utterly unaware that their already fragile happiness is at stake. But who knows what the future has in store for the bright-eyed kid? —Nick Riganas In this silent film, a tramp discovers and raises an abandoned child, forming a deep paternal bond despite poverty and societal pressures. Together, they navigate hardship, misfortune, and the threat of separation. The film blends comedy, pathos, and social commentary, exploring family, compassion, and the transformative power of love and care amid adversity. —chera_khalid