The earliest surviving film featuring Lon Chaney in a major role, By the Sun's Ray's was but one of several 2-reel westerns starring the florid Murdock MacQuarrie. MacQuarrie plays a detective investigating a series of gold shipment robberies. Along the way, he falls for a mine superintendent's pretty daughter (Agnes Vernon), much to the dismay of a sullen mine office clerk (Chaney), who is also smitten with the girl...
The Chief's son, Silver Water, returns from college and is met at the station by the tribe. The Indians make merry to celebrate his homecoming. Hal Benton, an easterner, rides on to ask his way to the hotel, where he is stopping with some friends, among them his fiancée, Veda Mead, and her father. Knowing that the Indian ceremonies will interest his friends, Hal obtains permission to come the next day and bring his friends. The Chief calls Morning Star, an Indian maiden, telling his son that she is to be his squaw. Silver Water is pleased with her. The next day Hal Benton and his friends arrive. While the others inspect the camp, Veda Mead amuses herself with Silver Water and ere long is thoroughly infatuated with him, while the Indian's vanity is touched by the attentions of the society coquette, and he promises to meet her the next day. Their little tete-a-tete is cut short by the entrance of Morning Star.
A man is a fugitive from the law. A reward of $2,000 is offered for his capture. A large posse is on his trail. Weary, hungry and haunted, the refugee is slowly but surely being hemmed in.
Bess's pet donkey Sammy, has just died. Her three cowboy lovers call to propose, and as they all arrive about the same time, Bess is in a quandary. Her recent bereavement sharpens her wits. She tells them she would marry the first one that brings her a white donkey, just like her dead Sammy.
Professor De Risque, anxious to escape for a time the too solicitous attention of Madame De Risque, arrives at Roaring Gulch and, noting that the town numbers some very pretty girls amongst its population, he hangs out his shingle announcing the fact that he teaches the piano and violin. The professor is charming and the young ladies are impressionable, they readily desert the constant cowboys for the professor. The cowboys get their heads together and plan a counter-move.
The poor man, professing love for his family, drinks what he presumes to be poison in order to make a thousand dollars for them, but the drink proves to be harmless.
The husband and his wife live alone in the mountains, where he is working out a claim. A stranger from a distant mine is injured in the vicinity. The husband nurses him back to health. During his convalescence the stranger persuades the wife to elope with him.
Almost a Rescue is a 1913 movie starring Donald MacDonald and Roscoe Arbuckle.
The girl has three suitors: a young Mexican, who symbolizes love, a cripple, who symbolizes devotion, and a wealthy haciendiero, who symbolizes wealth. Despite the protests of Love and the pain of Devotion, the girl is given in marriage to Wealth by her father. A year lapses and the girl has suffered by her father's choosing. Wealth is faithless to her and heaps upon her head humiliation and indignity and finally brutality. Love returns to her and after listening to her story swears that he will kill Wealth, but Devotion restrains him with the advice that if he kills Wealth he can never have the girl. To insure the girl's happiness Devotion kills Wealth himself and then takes his own life.
Lillian is an unfortunate woman. After leaving her baby at the door of a hospital she meets David, the author of her misfortune. It is a case of starvation or the "easiest way." She chooses the "easiest way." After eighteen years she again shows up, a social outcast and a tool for David's black profession.
Randall is a rich mine owner whose business affairs cause him to neglect his somewhat frivolous wife. There is a mutual friend whom Randall carelessly allows to entertain his wife. As a result, the friend pays more than natural attentions to the woman. The three visit one of Randall's mines. The wife and friend go down the mining shaft in a bucket. While they are yet underground, a quantity of dynamite explodes. The mine is filled with poisonous fumes.
Jacques watched through an opening in the foliage and saw Gilbert of the mounted police and his own wife exchange pleasant greetings. From that moment he hated the police officer. Gilbert was too fine-looking.
A look behind the scenes at Universal Studios in 1915.
Swift Wind, a young chief, loves Dancing Fawn. In their ramblings, they too, see white wolves, which is an object of fear and veneration among the Indians, and return to the village. The two are betrothed by the old chief, but old Red Nose, the medicine man, demands her hand for himself. The chief, fearing his magic powers, considers. Dancing Fawn runs away to her lover. Swift Wind is taught a secret by an old trapper, "If a trap is baited with an animal's own hair the iron jaws will never fail to catch it." The Indian decides how he will overthrow his rival. At his instruction Dancing Fawn cuts off a lock of hair from the sleeping medicine man. With it Swift Wind baits the trap. The next day a wolf is caught and as the Indians approach the trap the beast turns into the medicine man. The hand of the great father has proven his love again and Swift Wind and his sweetheart are united.
Dorothy and her father have staked all their hopes on their mine. While they are awaiting the arrival of Mr. Reid, who is to report on the value of the mine, Pedro, a Mexican, makes familiar advances to Dorothy and is sternly repulsed. Reid arrives and a mutual attraction springs up between himself and Dorothy, to the chagrin of Pedro.
Alice receives an invitation from her grandfather, who is the minister of a small country church, to pay him a visit, which invitation she accepts. Mandy is loved by Jed, but her affections are with the deacon.
Two sisters inherit a ranch and choose to manage it without male help
A young mountaineer loves Dorothy, daughter of a backwoodsman. An artist comes into the district to paint and falls in love with Lucille, Dorothy's sister. Dorothy is interested in the artist on account of her sister's love for him, and she poses.
Two men meet in the desert. One is in search of gold and the other seeks solace and heartsease for an unrequited love. Although they are unknown to each other, each loves the same girl, Ray, the prospector, is the chosen suitor and around his neck he carries the girl's picture. They live together in the wilds and become friends, until one night Tom sees the picture in the locket around Ray's neck. Tom's jealousy prompts him to kill Ray, but gentle thoughts of Ethel restrain his hand.
An old arrowmaker's daughter, while at the stream, meets a brave from another tribe. They become enamored of each other in the sudden positive way of the savage, and agree to meet at sunset. The chief of the tribe to which the girl belongs, covets and demands her of her father. The father consents, but the girl rebels. At sunset, she meets her lover and tells him what her fate is to be. He tells her that when the moon shines, he will come for her and take her away.
