Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages

The story of a poor young woman, separated by prejudice from her husband and baby, is interwoven with tales of intolerance from throughout history.

The Hindoo Dagger

Jack Windom experiences a sensation of awe at the reception of the Hindoo dagger from his old chum, Tom, who was traveling in India. Hanging the dagger on the wall. Jack goes out. For some time Jack has discerned a coolness in his wife, and his jealous misgivings were verified when he returned and found her in company with a stranger. Seizing the dagger from the wall he chases the recreant lover from the house and then follows the wife to the bathroom, wither she has flown in terror. Mercilessly he plunges the dagger and flies the place. The...

The Burglar’s Dilemma

In this latter day Cain and Abel story, a jealous brother strikes down his sibling just as a young burglar is about to enter the house. The jealous brother summons police, who then charge the intruder with murder.

Mr. Jones Has a Card Party

Mr. Jones, since his last escapade, had made strenuous efforts to amend the reputation he had gained in the eyes of the ladies of the Temperance League. But Oh! the ordeal, for such it was, was telling on him, and his pent-up spirits were threatening ebullition, when at last the chance comes. The league arranges to attend a three-days' convention out of town, and when Mrs. Jones departs, Jones sends a note to Smith, telling him to bring the gang, and they would have a "Prayer Meeting," enjoining him not to forget the "fixings." Well, the gan...

The Battle at Elderbush Gulch

Two young girls are sent away to live with their uncle, which sets off a chain of events resulting in an Indian attack on the town.

Judith of Bethulia

Griffith adapts the story of the Apocryphal Book of Judith to the screen. During the siege of the Jewish city of Bethulia by the Assyrian tyrant Holofernes, a widow named Judith forms a plan to stop the war as her people suffer in starvation, nearly ready to surrender.

The Mother and the Law

After the relatively low box office takings of 'Intolerance', D. W. Griffith would revisit his epic film three years later by releasing two of the film's interlocking stories as standalone features, with some new additional footage. The second of these was 'The Mother and the Law', which demonstrates how crime, moral puritanism, and conflicts between ruthless capitalists and striking workers help ruin the lives of marginal Americans.

The Battle

Union soldiers march off to battle amid cheering crowds. After the battle turns against the Union Army, one soldier runs away, hiding in his girlfriend's house. Ashamed of his cowardice, he finds his courage and crosses enemy lines to bring help to his trapped comrades.

Those Awful Hats

A pair of young ladies cause trouble at the cinema with their lavish hats.

Man's Genesis

An old man tells his grandchildren about prehistoric man: Caveman Weakhands is unable to court a woman because of his physical weakness. Humiliated by Bruteforce, he bumps into Lillywhite, who has also been cowering in her cave in mourning. The two new lovers form a connection, but Bruteforce separates the couple and sends Weakhands scrambling. In his cave, Weakhands thinks up the design of a stone club. With this equalizer, he soon vanquishes Bruteforce and wins Lillywhite back again-- An early step in human progress.

The Miser's Heart

Thieves decide to steal the money an old miser has hidden away. He refuses to open the safe for them, so they threaten to kill a little girl who lives in his building.

Hoodoo Ann

A teenage orphan (who believes herself to be "hoodooed") is taken in by a childless couple and quickly falls for the boy next door; Her luck seems to have changed. But the idyll is broken up after a trip to the movies-- It seems the 'hoodoo' has returned after she tries to replicate what she'd seen on the screen.

So Near, Yet So Far

It's love at first sight for the Boy, but obstacles-- namely shyness, and the temerity of other suitors-- place themselves in the way of his love. Unknowingly, the Boy and the young woman of his fancy both stay at the home of mutual friends-- But all is not well, as robbers lurk outside the house.

A Romance of Happy Valley

John Logan leaves his parents and sweetheart in bucolic Happy Valley to make his fortune in the city. Those he left behind become miserable and beleaguered in his absence, but after several years he returns, a wealthy man. But his embittered father, not recognizing him for who he is, plans to murder the newly-arrived "stranger" for his money.

The Girl Who Stayed at Home

Ralph visits France with his father, a shipbuilder, and falls in love with Blossom, the granddaughter of his father's friend, a Civil war veteran not reconciled with the Union. Blossom, however, is engaged to a French nobleman. When the war breaks out, Ralph enlists, while his brother Jim, a heartbreaker, is drafted.

The Little Tease

The supposition was that she was born a tease, for from her first teeth to the time she was almost grown, she vented her witcheries on her unsuspecting parents and the wild things of her mountain home. But that was before the man from the valley lost his way and later found it back again, bearing away the little tease to the valley. While she suffered the qualms of broken faith, her father passed through a like struggle, for he felt the precepts of the "beloved book" had failed him. He closed the door of his cabin upon the world and the ligh...

A Misunderstood Boy

Everything he did seemed to be misconstrued, except by the little lady he loved. The town roisters made fun of her and his love. That made trouble and the chief vigilante believed him the cause of it all. So he was "in wrong" all around. The girl's father also sided with the opinion of the world, and sent both the boy and girl away. Mother was on a visit at the time, and therein the need of such a one at home was proved, for once back she sent the father out to bring them home again. The boy in the gold hills had been misunderstood again. Ma...

A Cry for Help

Knocked down by an automobile, the intoxicated tramp is taken to the doctor's house, received and treated to a square meal. The husband of a patient has just died, calls on the doctor, intending to kill him. The grief-crazed man is foiled several times by the return of the tramp, whom the maid at last pushes out of the house. She hears the doctor struggling with his assailant and faints. The tramp hears the doctor's cry for help and enters by a rear window, despite the objections of a policeman, in time to save his benefactor.

The New York Hat

To fulfill a dying mother's bequest for her daughter, the town pastor purchases the daughter a stylish hat, and gossip spreads through the town.

Friends

The orphan Dora is courted by two different gold miners.