The Definitive Watchlist Seeking the Same Brilliance as A Broadway Saint: Cult Guide

Dir: Harry O. Hoyt

Bruce Armstrong (MacDonald) is quite wealthy. He is also a drinker, a gambler, and pretty much worthless as a human being. For some reason, successful dancer Marilyn Merrill (Bow) sticks by him. In spite of this, he gambles with her boss, and when he loses, he writes bad checks. In order to avoid jail, Armstrong gets involved in diamond smuggling.

Dir: Harry O. Hoyt

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of When Love Grows Cold perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

Margaret has given up her stage career to marry inventor Jerry Benson. Jerry fails to impress oil executive William Graves with his idea, but Margaret has better luck when she catches Graves' attention and she both makes the sale and becomes the object of Graves' obsession. Profits from the invention make the Bensons wealthy; however Graves schemes to steal Margaret from Jerry by swindling them out of their money and getting Broadway floozy Gloria to break up their marriage.

Dir: Harry O. Hoyt

The first film adaptation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's classic novel about a land where prehistoric creatures still roam.

Dir: Harry O. Hoyt

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of The Lost World perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

Steel magnate Rodney Graham divorces his wife, Alice, after she suffers an injury that renders her unable to give him an heir. He pursues debutante Katherine Dale, whose fiancé, Dick Allen, died on the eve of their wedding. With the help of Katherine's ambitious mother, Rodney persuades her to marry him. Katherine dies after giving birth to Rodney, Jr., and the elder Graham's stepbrother, Arthur Haynes, angrily predicts the magnate's sad demise. Rodney devotes himself to raising his son, who later falls in love with Arthur's' daughter, Ruth. Although he objects to the match, Rodney is persuaded by Alice to allow it. Upon discovering that his son was actually Dick Allen's child, Rodney plans to disinherit the boy, but is paralyzed by a stroke before he can change his will. He attends the wedding in a wheelchair and dies soon after.

Dir: Harry O. Hoyt

Madame Adele, a faded Parisian theatre star, mentors young American performer Marie Duval, allowing her to revive Adele's former glory. Together they regain stardom in Paris, one reclaiming it and the other achieving it anew.

Dir: Harry O. Hoyt

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of The Hand Invisible perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

The story of a woman on trial for her life for shooting the man who had promised to love her but had deserted her...and of a woman on the jury who refused to condemn her when eleven men had voted guilty...a woman brave enough to defy public opinion, brave enough to lose the loss of the love of her husband by baring her soul to the world in order to save the girl on trial.

Dir: Harry O. Hoyt

Cattlemen attempt to keep their lands and herds from being overrun by nesters.

Dir: Harry O. Hoyt

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of The Belle of Broadway perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

Just out of jail and vowing to go straight, gentleman crook Boston Blackie (played by Raymond Glenn) undertakes the reformation of a pretty blonde (played by Corliss Palmer), who has stolen a necklace from a cabaret dancer (played by Rosemary Cooper). When he learns that the jewels belong to the girl's philandering father, Boston Blackie saves the day by performing one last job: replacing the necklace in its owner's safe.

Dir: Harry O. Hoyt

Author Noel Graham goes to the little village of Mondon, where his ancestors lived, for solitude to write. While searching for a lost puppy, Noel meets Rhona Allerton, who is visiting her guardian, Lewis Moffat, a writer in his declining years. Realizing that he needs inspiration to write a passionate romance, Moffat, with the help of old Benson, a former derelict now in his service, encourages the blossoming love affair between Rhona and Noel, while planning to destroy it later and analyze their suffering. After Noel proposes and Rhona accepts, Moffat makes each believe that the other loves someone else. After Rhona returns to New York heartbroken, Moffat writes his book, but cannot finish because of his failing strength. Noel completes the book, and it turns out to be better than anything Moffat had previously written. After Noel prevents a burglary in Moffat's house and saves Benson's life, Benson tells him about Moffat's scheme. Declaiming Moffat and the book as false, Noel burns it. Moffat dies, and Rhona returns to marry Noel.

Dir: Harry O. Hoyt

The marriage between Donald and Flora Brookes is under pressure. Donald has eyes for a new girl, innocent at first, but more and more affectionate. But the new girl is unstable and dramatic.