Movies Similar to The Island of Surprise

The World's Applause(1923)

Corinne d'Alys (Daniels) achieves sudden success on the stage and among her many admirers is noted artist Robert Townsend (Menjou). Robert is married to Elsa (Williams), the sister of John Elliott (Stone), the producer responsible for Corinne's rise to fame. The young woman's head is turned by the praise she receives and, despite John's warning against Robert, she permits the latter to paint her portrait and pay her a good deal of attention. John himself loves Corinne and believes that wisdom will come to her with time.

The Small Bachelor(1927)

What must a man do in order to put an end to his bachelorhood? For George Finch, one of nature's white mice and probably the worst artist ever to put brush to canvas, there are many obstacles. Undoubtedly the greatest is his beloved Molly's fearsome stepmother, Mrs. Waddington, who has her eye on an eligible English lord for a son-in-law. Luckily, George has an ally in sharp-witted Hamilton Beamish, an old family friend of the Waddingtons, not to mention George's butler, Mullett, and his light-fingered girlfriend, Fanny, whose valuable skills are of particular interest to the would-be father-in-law.

The Silent Witness(1912)

The president of a state bank, guilty of malfeasance bribes the District Attorney to suppress the case. The DA’s secretary takes a photograph of the moment when a considerable sum of money changes hands extorting his employer. The dissolute secretary makes advances on a friend’s wife and as the husband rushes the roue a lamp is upset, plunging the place into darkness. A flash and a shot and the young blackmailer falls to the floor dead. The wife thinks the husband fired in anger, the husband believes the wife shot to protect herself. The District Attorney, the guilty man, is called upon to prosecute and accuses them both. An unexpected witness appears at the last moment and the pair are set free.

The Crystal Gazer(1917)

Rose Jorgenson, a poor tenement dweller who lives with her daughters Rose and Norma in a slum and whose husband is in prison, finds out that he is to be electrocuted. Distraught, she commits suicide. The children are adopted--Rose by the wealthy Judge Keith, who brings her up in the lap of luxury, and Norma by a poor neighbor, who raises her in the squalid tenement she was born in. After they reach adulthood Norma is hired as an assistant to the shady hypnotist Caistro, who also knows Rose and notices the strong resemblance between the two. Complications ensue.

A School for Husbands(1917)

Sensible Betty Manners is the wife of the frivolous John Manners. John fritters away his time playing the horses rather than paying attention to his job on Wall Street. He pays dearly for this when the market goes wrong, and he is wiped out. Coincidentally an old friend, Sir Harry, arrives bringing the news of a vast fortune left Betty and she is now Lady Betty. Betty keeps the news a secret from John, who has taken up with a Mrs. Airlie. But as John comes to believe Betty has become involved with Sir Harry, his jealousy is awoken, and he acts rashly until explanations all around straighten everything out.

Betty to the Rescue(1917)

Henry Sherwin is led to believe by mine expert James Fleming that the mine he invested all his money in is valueless, though Fleming has discovered a rich vein of gold that he keeps secret. When Sherwin dies shortly thereafter, he leaves his daughter Betty in the care of John Kenwood and his sister, Constance, who allows Betty to believe she has an income, sending her to boarding school while they surreptitiously go to work to support her. Upon her return home Fleming pursues her but she rejects him, and he tells her the mine is worthless. However, a dream leads her to believe otherwise and after much travail she discovers the truth as well as Fleming’s duplicity. John declares his long-hidden love for her, and they are wed.

A Gutter Magdalene(1916)

Maida Carrington goes to the city with gambler Jack Morgan but flees after witnessing him stealing money from Steve Boyce. Joining the Salvation Army, she meets a now destitute Steve in need of help. In time they fall in love and Steve proposes, but Maida feels guilt that her past association caused his downfall. She determines to find Morgan and reclaim Steve’s money, but when she does, he refuses, and a struggle follows resulting in Maida accidentally shooting Morgan with his own gun. The sheriff, aware of the gambler reputation, releases her and she and Steve marry.

It Sounded Like a Kiss(1916)

Priscilla’s husband Lee makes her life unhappy because of his unfounded jealousy. She warns her old college buddy Eddie not to pay any attention to her at the dance which they are to attend. Eddie loves the wealthy Estelle but is always getting mixed up in some scandal. Estelle finally declares that one more escapade on his part will finish everything. When Priscilla and Eddie greet each other at the dance as old friends, the other two become jealous. Estelle and Lee determine to make their partners jealous but make a mess of it until all is straightened out in the end.

His Secretary(1925)

When a secretary overhears her boss disparaging her looks, she decides to show him how wrong he is.

April Showers(1923)

Danny O'Rourke is the son of a police officer who was killed in the line of duty. Eager to join the police force, Danny fails his exams. The failure causes him to neglect his sweetheart Maggie, whose father is a police lieutenant. His attentions turn instead towards society girl Miriam Welton. When Danny’s sister, Shannon, is arrested for shoplifting, Danny turns to boxing to save her. He works his way towards the championship but discovers the final bought has been rigged. Danny fights anyhow and he is beaten, but it is discovered that a mistake had been made on his exams and he actually was eligible to join the police force after all. Considered a lost film.

The Boudoir Diplomat(1931)

The ambassador of the Kingdom of Luvaria orders Baron Belmar, his attaché, to win the interest of Mona, wife of the war minister, who opposes a treaty the ambassador very much wants signed. However, his mission is complicated by the fact that Helene, the ambassador's wife, is extremely jealous of every woman he meets, for she was responsible for getting him his appointment as attaché. Belmar, nevertheless, is in love with Greta, who will not marry him until he is proven worthy of her trust. After many narrow escapes from exposure of the personal intrigue, he manages to sway the attentions of Mona, who persuades the war minister to sign the treaty, thus gaining Belmar an appointment as ambassador to Peru and Greta as his wife.

When the Desert Calls(1922)

British bank cashier Eldred Caldwell lives with his wife on the edge of the Arabian desert. One day a man named Richard Manners appears at their doorstep. He has some incriminating information about Eldred, who is so devastated he disappears, an apparent suicide. His wife flees into the desert, with Manners in hot pursuit. She is taken in by an unlikely rescuer and years later, after she becomes a nurse when World War I ends, she makes a startling discovery.

Song of Triumphant Love(1915)

The One Woman(1918)

Denounced for preaching socialism Reverend Frank Gordon founds his own "Temple of Man." financed by Kate Ransom, the woman Gordon has fallen in with love and entered into a common-law agreement with after divorcing his wife. With the outbreak of World War I, however, the members of his new congregation oppose conscription while he wholeheartedly supports the Allied cause. Driven from his own church, he returns home to find Kate in banker Mark Overman's arms, enraged he strangles the banker. Sentenced to life imprisonment, his ex-wife Ruth pleads with Governor Morrison to pardon the errant clergyman. Gordon is allowed to return to his family.

Shackles of Truth(1917)

Law partners, Gerard Hale and Luther Snaith, vie for a vacant Senate seat as well as the governor's daughter Marion. When Tom Shores and his sister Mary appear at the firm with the news that her two-year-old is the illegitimate child of Gerard's late father, Gerard Hale, Sr., Snaith sees the opportunity to win both the Senate seat and Marion. Gerard, feeling an obligation, gives Mary a check for $50,000. Luther has Mary and Tom seized by detectives to force an open admission from Gerard of culpability. Meanwhile, Mrs. Hale and Marion have stopped in to visit and Gerard, fearing the truth will prove fatal to his mother's ailing heart, claims that the baby is his. Mrs. Hale is confined to bed and Snaith blackmails Gerard to withdraw from the race. Mrs. Hale asks Gerard to do his duty and wed Mary. Mary wants to be truthful, but Gerard fears that may prove fatal to his mother. However, when Mrs. Hale dies, Gerard is freed from the shackles of truth.

The Knickerbocker Buckaroo(1919)

A lost film. Teddy Drake is a pleasure-seeking aristocrat who ends up expelled from his exclusive Fifth Avenue club for playing practical jokes and other rambunctious antics. He decides to reform his selfish ways and boards a train heading heading for the Southwest.

The Son of Wallingford(1921)

A young man's journey into adulthood, love, and ambition, inspired by a serial by George Randolph Chester exploring themes of love, ambition, and self-discovery, set against the backdrop of the Roaring Twenties.

The Glory of Yolanda(1917)

A Russian peasant girl becomes a member of the Imperial Ballet.

The Spider(1916)

Valerie St. Cyr, seizes a chance for excitement and money, deserts her infant daughter Joan and her impoverished husband and runs away to Paris with the Count Du Poissy. Years later, without knowing that they are mother and daughter, both Valerie and Joan fall in love with artist Julian St. Saens, who rejects the former but becomes engaged to the latter. Enraged, Valerie convinces the count to kidnap Joan, but after she is captured, Joan stabs the count to death. When Valerie learns that Joan is her daughter, she takes the blame for the murder and goes to the guillotine while Joan, still unaware that Valerie is her mother, makes plans with Julian for their marriage.

The Little Dutch Girl(1915)

The old gardener, attracted by the ducks' antics, goes to the lake to find a basket with a baby in it. He becomes her guardian but passes away when she is fourteen, leaving her the house and garden. Beloved by the woodsman Jean, one day Lionel, a famous painter, approaches her to be his model, and she accepts. Eventually she finds herself torn between the two men.