The Twenty Four Dollar Island

This rarity (cut about by Pathé and at one point apparently used as backdrop for a ballet) is a celebration of Manhattan on the 300th anniversary of its purchase from the locals at a knockdown price. Flaherty begins dockside, as the camera tilts at the prow of a giant liner and follows the grubby tugs nosing alongside an invitingly labyrinthine waterfront. He then moves inland for an awesome series of cityscapes which might be titled 'Architecture and Smoke'. People are excluded except as distantly seen extras, the better to observe their stupendous creation: the city as work of art.