The Auteur's Selection Complementing the Tone of A Man and His Mate...

Dir: John G. Adolfi

Mary Ann, an orphan leading a life of drudgery, falls in love with a promising but equally penniless composer, John Lonsdale.

Dir: John G. Adolfi

The true story of Edith Cavell, a British nurse who served with the underground in Belgium during the First World War.

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

Dir: John G. Adolfi

Unbekownst to each other, Charles Macklin and his widowed father Arthur are having an affair with an exotic dancer called The Sphinx. When both come to see her at the same time, Charles gets upset, denounces the Sphinx, and is knocked out by Arthur. Arthur then decides to marry the Sphinx, while Charles then resumes his affair with Frances, to whom he was engaged before he met the Sphinx.

Dir: John G. Adolfi

Effie Marchand refuses to marry a man she has never met, but who has been picked out by her mother, is exiled to boarding school Then, when sculpting teacher Jules Gerard asks her to pose for him, an always impulsive Effie quickly consents. During one of the modeling sessions, however, Jules tries to seduce her, and Effie is saved only when Al Tournay, a visitor to the studio, fights off the sculptor. Later, when Jules' latest nude statue looks just like Effie, who really only posed for the head, an outraged principal expels her. Effie then begins a romance with Al, and when they get married, Effie's mother takes the wedding as just one more sign of her daughter's impulsiveness. Mrs. Marchand soon finds out, however, that her new son-in-law is the man she had chosen for Effie long before, and so mother and daughter are quickly reconciled.

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

Dir: John G. Adolfi

While vacationing at a hunting lodge, Ralph Strong, a recent medical school graduate, meets Anitra Frane. Their courtship is interrupted when the United States enters World War I and Ralph offers his medical assistance. Anitra, who has not been able to develop her beautiful singing voice in the country, goes with Ralph's father John to the city as his mistress so that she can pursue a singing career. After John refuses to marry her and sends her a check, Anitra becomes known as the seductress "The Flame," and decides to build a free clinic for children with money she gets from ultra-rich men. When Ralph's dissolute friend, Gaston Duval, kills himself because Anitra will not marry him, Ralph vengefully vows to find "The Flame." After Anitra convinces him instead to enter politics to cleanse the city of sin, Ralph is elected mayor. When he introduces his father to Anitra, she faints. After John has a heart attack and dies, Anitra confesses that she is "The Flame." Ralph says that he loves her and that they should strive together for a better future.

Dir: John G. Adolfi

Joyce's mother keeps her younger daughter in the background so that Polly, the elder daughter, can monopolize all the eligible young men, especially Tom. Although Tom is Polly's choice, she decides to pique his interest by flirting with Harry. Joyce, who likes Tom herself, decides to defeat her sister's plan by having Tom pretend that he likes her. Soon, the pretense turns to love and Tom proposes to Joyce. To test his sincerity, Joyce jumps into shark-infested waters and almost loses her life. Tom visits her constantly in the hospital and finds that his operation on her heart was quite successful.

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

Dir: John G. Adolfi

Stephen Field, a Jewish financier, takes great pleasure in philanthropic work at a community service center in the U.S. His daughter Esther devotes her time to entertaining returning soldiers in a canteen. When he reads in a newspaper about massacres of Jews and Armenians in Europe, and the suffering and starvation among other peoples there, Stephen remembers having lost his own wife and young son in a massacre years earlier. At the canteen, Esther meets Robert Graham, who suffers from fainting spells, the result of a war wound. Graham falls in love with Esther, much to the chagrin of his anti-Semitic father. Esther is also courted by the brilliant Jewish surgeon, William Morris. Esther's affection for Morris leads the jealous Graham to lash out at his rival with anti-Semitic invective even though Esther gently refuses Morris' marriage proposal. Graham loses control of his high-powered car due to a fainting spell, and the car goes over a precipice and turns over on top of him. Morris is the only person who can save his life, but the surgeon hesitates, fearing that failure would be interpreted as jealousy and thus compromise his professional integrity. Esther pleads with Morris to perform the operation, and he finally consents, sacrificing his own happiness for the woman he loves. The operation is proclaimed a surgical miracle, and Esther chooses to marry the man who performed that miracle.

Dir: John G. Adolfi

A teacher begins a school in the Tennessee mountains. His prize student is a charming but uneducated young woman named June. Their relationship turns to love, but a bullying, jealous rival tries to break them up by telling her that the teacher's sister and niece are actually his wife and daughter.

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

Dir: John G. Adolfi

After running away from an orphanage, young Alicia Jones disguises herself as a boy and gets a job on a farm. She falls in love with Harry Deigan, a farmhand who knows her secret, but when the farm's owner finds out, he fires her. Alicia is forced to return to the city, where she meets a wealthy man who adopts her. He turns out to be Thomas Deigan, the half-brother of Alicia's love Harry Deigan. Harry finds out that Thomas is his half-brother, but also finds out something that could change his, Thomas', and Alicia's lives forever.

Dir: John G. Adolfi

Schoolteacher Frances Angel finds herself attracted to wealthy rancher Jim McPherson but finds his rough-hewn ways objectionable, so when he proposes marriage she rejects him. Her father asks her to return to his home in the East, where her former boyfriend Chet Condon now holds the mortgage on the family home and is threatening to foreclose on it unless Frances marries him. When she also learns that her recently-widowed sister Jane is also moving back east with her newborn, Frances is torn between her duty to her family and her love for Jim.