Visionary Picks Drawn from the Same DNA as A Man's Fight: Cult Guide

Dir: Thomas N. Heffron

American heiress Jennie Leslie, the Honorable Cecil Winthrope, and the alcoholic Thomas Blake are washed ashore on a deserted island after a shipwreck. At first, Jennie sticks close to Cecil, preferring his upper-class British breeding to Thomas' man-of-the-people approach. Cecil, however, turns out to be completely ineffective when it comes to survival, and so both he and Jennie depend on Thomas for food, clothing, and protection. The surroundings bring out the "caveman" in Cecil in one respect, however; he tries to rape Jennie. During the attempt, which takes place during a storm, Cecil is crushed by a falling tree, and just before he dies, he reveals that he was merely a valet posing as an aristocrat. Then, Jennie and Thomas realize that they are in love with each other, and when a rescue ship picks them up, they begin making plans for their marriage.

Dir: Thomas N. Heffron

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

During a dance, John Valiant challenges duel Edward Sassoon to defend the honor of Virginia beauty, Judith Fairfax, John promises Judith he won't take the life to his opponent, but when the smoke clears, Sassoon lies dead and John must flee North. Before he leaves, John entrusts Major Bristow to deliver an explanatory note to Judith, but, torn by his own desire for the Southern belle, Bristow pockets the letter instead. In the North, John founds a successful business and marries, but his young wife dies while giving birth to a son. Filled with hatred for John, Judith marries Tom Dandridge and has a daughter, Shirley. Many years later, John, Jr., now head of the Valiant Corporation, becomes engaged to Katherine Fargo. In order to save his company during a business panic, John must stake his entire fortune and, with his financial situation looking dim, loses Katherine's interest. In despair, John returns to his father's estate and falls in love with Shirley Dandridge. To rekindle her romance with John, Katherine tells Shirley of the family feud and Shirley suddenly cools toward John. On his deathbed, Barstow finally gives Judith John's letter in which John reveals that Edward had shot himself during the duel. John and Shirley are happily reconciled.

Dir: Thomas N. Heffron

Although Tom Hartwell is the town drunk of Matherville, his son Bill, a blacksmith, loves him and batters down the jail door when the old man is arrested. In an effort to drive them both out of the village, the narrow-minded townspeople attack Bill, but the Rev. David Lane defends him and then invites him to dinner. Bill falls in love with the reverend's daughter, Mary Lane, but she becomes infatuated with Edward Jones and marries him. Edward robs Mary and flees to Chico, Arizona, and when Mary follows him, she learns that he has a wife there. Following his father's death, Bill travels to Chico, where he and Mary become entangled in several adventures. Finally Bill is accused of stealing a horse, and after Mary rescues him just as he is about to be hanged, the two return to Matherville as man and wife.

Dir: Thomas N. Heffron

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of Old Hartwell's Cub perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

Betsy Shelton, an orphan since early childhood, lives in Myrtleville with her aunt, and is engaged to marry Calvin Stone, a young lawyer. Betsy's brother, Dick, ostensibly working in New York to recover the family fortune, becomes involved with one Roger Enderleigh, a shyster promoter, who because of crooked dealings, is forced to flee from the postal authorities. He induces Dick to take him to Myrtleville, where Dick introduces Enderleigh as a prosperous banker promoting a munition plant, thus swindling the townsmen. The visit terminates in a vivid climax when the postal authorities track Enderleigh, who prepares to flee leaving Dick to bear the brunt. Dick kills Enderleigh and then asks for mercy on the plea that Enderleigh has ruined Betsy. Stone, true to the code of Southern chivalry, does not lose faith in his fiancée, and in the closing scenes of this photodrama, restores her good name and brings her erring brother to punishment.

Dir: Thomas N. Heffron

Paul Le Marsan captains his seventeenth-century French pirate ship, the Cygnet, with an iron hand, but is all graciousness and charm with the ladies. When his crew captures the British ship Lady Devon, Paul encounters the beautiful Molly Tarpley, who is en route to join her uncle in the Carolinas. Escorting the British ship to the pirate town of Cayo del Muerto in the Bahama Islands, Paul protects Molly, drawing his sword on any buccaneer who dares to touch her. After accommodating Molly in his richly furnished home, Paul realizes that she will never return his love and agrees to sail the Lady Devon to the Carolinas. As the ship nears the coast, however, Paul's crew rebels, enabling the British to retake their ship and lock Paul in irons. To repay Paul for his kindness, Molly secretly releases him, kisses him once and watches as he rows away.

Dir: Thomas N. Heffron

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

Osgood and Short are promoters floating stock in a fraudulent tropical rubber plantation among the residents of a New England community. Their best prospect is Elizabeth Mann, a wealthy widow, who is kept from investing only by the influence of her rather effeminate son. To get him out of the way the promoters offer to send him to the tropics to manage the plantation. David, having been brought to a realization of his worthlessness through a curt refusal of marriage, accepts, and is soon landed in the tropics. He meets Senora Morales, a Mexican slave dealer and her daughter, Consuela. They are just departing to deliver a number of slaves to Ludwig Hertzer, the most feared and hated planter on the Isthmus. David gets an insight into Hertzer's peculiar character, and the horror and brutality of the rubber slavery system. Next morning Senora Morales and Consuela arrive with the slaves, among them a big Yaqui chief, to whom Hertzer's half-breed daughter is attracted. Going on to his own plantation, David finds that it is little more than a rubbish heap and sends a cable to his mother not to invest, but this is intercepted by Hertzer for his personal gain. David's housekeeper, Andrea, is a wild, sensuous daughter of the tropics, and endeavors to appropriate David to herself. David turns his attention to reforming conditions and building up the plantation, especially after he hears that his mother has invested in the company. Crazed by the unspeakable brutality to which they are subjected on Hertzer's plantation, the Yaqui chief and his sister escape. In the flight the sister is killed by Hertzer and the following morning the Yaqui is captured, taken back and terribly flogged. Andrea's fight to win David reaches a climax when, after he had ridden by a stream and had seen her bathing, he yields to the lure of her dancing and love-making that night. They are interrupted by cries of yellow fever and, as David goes to attend the sick man, the slaves and Andrea, after looting the hut, follow them. After writing a letter to Morales for more slaves, David is himself stricken with the fever. Morales being away from home, Consuela brings the slaves. Hertzer accompanies her and nurses him back to life. While nursing the sick man, Hertzer schemes to have David removed by Osgood and Short so that he may manage the plantation and divide the spoils with the promoters. Consuela assists David in his reforms by opening a school for slave children. David asks her to marry him. She agrees, providing his mother consents. At that moment Hertzer brings a letter authorizing him to take charge of the plantation, and, as David speeds back to New England to gain his rights, Consuela stays on to try to protect his interests. Hertzer urges Consuela to marry him. In answer to her query as to why he has been so brutal, he explains that because years ago native bandits killed his wife and stole his baby, and this had so warped him that he thought only of revenge. In New England David secures control of the plantation, while his mother writes to Consuela urging her marriage with David. Patricia obtains the letter and shows it to Hertzer, who is so enraged that he locks her up in a hut and, after a night of drinking, starts to wreak his vengeance on her. Drunk, he wanders into the jungle, where he falls unconscious. Returning home, Morales finds that Consuela is at Hertzer's, and starts out for her, with David, who has just returned. Morales is killed. That evening Hertzer goes to the hut and attacks Consuela. She is saved by the arrival of her slave. Patricia pleads with Hertzer to give up his plan, but Hertzer locks her up in another hut and goes back to Consuela. He now plans to mate her with a slave. The slave is brought in, but Consuela is again saved by an uprising of the slaves. A battle ensues between them and Hertzer and the overseers. Hertzer is left helpless on the ground by the Yaqui chief, who, to avenge himself for the death of his sister, carries off Hertzer's half-breed daughter, Patricia. The slaves burn the plantation and Hertzer, a physical wreck, plans his worst revenge. If he cannot have Consuela he determines that no one else shall, and crawling to the hut, he sets fire to it, to burn both of them. David, nearing the plantation, sees the flames and rescues Consuela. Carrying her out, he adds mental anguish to Hertzer's death by telling him that Consuela is his own daughter. He revives Consuela and all ends happily.

Dir: Thomas N. Heffron

A young man gets arrested after a drunken night. Sentenced to 30 days in jail, he tells his wife he has to go to Mexico for a month.

Dir: Thomas N. Heffron

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

Ann Tyson leaves her little cabin and goes West with her brother John, whom she has not seen in fifteen years during his imprisonment for a crime he did not commit. Ann becomes a barmaid in the local saloon, where she meets cowboy Deuce Duncan, and the two fall in love. Deuce correctly suspects that John is involved with a gang of cattle rustlers but remains silent because of his love for Ann. In a drunken rage, John attacks Ann, admitting that he is not her brother and demanding that she marry him. Deuce arrives and rescues Ann just as Clements, the head cattle rustler, sneaks up on the cabin and shoots John.

Dir: Thomas N. Heffron

Magazine writer J. Hamilton Vance travels to the mountains of Kentucky to get local color for his stories, and falls in love with Roxie Bradley, the daughter of a moonshiner. Regarded at first with suspicion by the mountaineers, Vance finally wins their confidence and is appointed teacher in the little log school house. The former teacher, resentful at the intrusion, attempts to shoot Vance through the schoolhouse window, but Roxie intercepts the bullet. Vance nurses her back to health, engendering the jealousy of Lily Bud Raines, who starts a rumor that Vance is a federal agent spying on the moonshiners. As the mountaineers plot to extract vengeance on Vance, Roxie and he are married, and when his antagonists discover that Vance is now one of them, they accept him as part of the mountain community.

Dir: Thomas N. Heffron

Frank Perry's wife Helen is away visiting her mother, and he uses this "free time" for a night of drinking at a nightclub. Unfortunately, when he tries to return home, he enters the wrong house and is nearly arrested When Helen comes back he tells her that the "incident" was actually an initiation rite of the Masons, knowing that his wife has always wanted him to join the group. She excitedly tells her father about Frank's becoming a Mason, since her father is also a Mason. What neither she nor Frank know is that her father has actually been doing the same thing Frank is--pretending to be a Mason when he actually isn't. Complications ensue.