Deep Archive Finds Movies That Echo the Spirit of A Petal on the Cu...

Dir: Tod Browning

A slum girl is forced to steal for a living. After she swipes a rich society's matron's necklace, she hides out at the home of a man who turns out to be the socialite's former fiance.

Dir: Tod Browning

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

Master thief Blue Jean Billie, the unknown perpetrator of many sensational jewel heists, robs the guests at the exclusive party marking the engagement of Muriel Vanderflip to Algernon P. Smythe, Lord Chesterton. Overpowering Detective Wood, specially stationed there to stop her, Muriel escapes with her chauffeur, Shaver Michael. After Shaver's car overturns, Billie surprises her pursuers, and at gunpoint, makes them return, but Smythe, hiding on the side of Shaver's car, accompanies them until Billie discovers him and makes him take them to his home, where she holds him prisoner. To Shaver's dismay, Billie and Smythe fall in love. After they escape a police raid, Smythe convinces Billie to send the jewels back and marry him. Although she has her doubts when she learns that Smythe is really the international crook "English Harry," after he fights Shaver and locks him and Wood in their retreat with the stolen jewels, Billie and Harry make their final escape vowing to go straight.

Dir: Tod Browning

Princess Marya and her brother, the Grand Duke Paul of Russia, are studying in the U.S. when word reaches them that Rasputin is to be killed. Paul is seized by Russian secret service men, but through Marya's appeal to Captain Rodney Willard, he is released. In Russia, Marya participates actively in the Revolution, while Willard, with whom she has fallen in love, joins the Allied Commission. Deeply troubled by the influence of German agents in Russia, Marya organizes the Legion of Death, a fighting unit of peasant women, and leads them into battle against the Germans. The legion suffers defeat and Marya is captured, but in the end, she wins her freedom.

Dir: Tod Browning

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

Eleanor Hamlin, a forlorn little orphan living with her grandparents in Cape Cod, is adopted by a wealthy New Yorker, Beulah Page, and her friends. Beulah does not love Eleanor, but her friends -- particularly Peter Bolling, a man she has chosen for herself -- are captivated by the girl. To get Eleanor out of the way, Beulah sends her to an upstate finishing school, but the plan backfires when Eleanor returns a refined and radiant young woman. Realizing that Peter is in love with Eleanor, Beulah tells her that she is engaged to him, and Eleanor sadly returns to her old Cape Cod home. Peter follows her but she eludes him, and although Beulah's deception ultimately is revealed, Eleanor informs her benefactors that she wishes simply to remain their child.

Dir: Tod Browning

Peggy Desmond, the daughter of an Irish magistrate, loves Captain Neil Dacey, but is pursued by Terence O'Malley, the nephew of Squire O'Malley, a wealthy landowner. Although the squire offers to pay off the Desmonds' debts if Peggy were to marry Terence, Peggy refuses. After Neil invokes the name of Rory O'More, the "Will o' the Wisp," a legendary Irish Robin Hood, Peggy dresses up as a highwayman and robs Squire O'Malley, then gives the purse to one of the squire's poor tenants. As the local law officer, Neil is assigned to capture the bandit, but is robbed himself by his clever incognito sweetheart. When the squire turns up dead, Neil, whose gun is found next to the corpse, is arrested and jailed. To free her love, Peggy disguises herself once more as a highwayman and forces Terence to confess to the murder at gunpoint. Once released, Neil deduces that Peggy is the bandit and makes good on her promise to marry the man who succeeded in unmasking the "Will o' of the Wisp."

Dir: Tod Browning

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

Achmet Bey, a Turkish chieftain, catches one of his many wives in adultery and murders her lover. Throwing aside the cuckolding wife, he abducts his harem an innocent girl. However, a brave American who loves her comes to her rescue.

Dir: Tod Browning

Powerfully built Greek Philip, falls in love with Toinette, a French girl whom he meets when she is injured in an auto accident. She is hospitalized, operated upon and then recovers, but a hospital attendant misinforms Philip that Toinette has died. The Greek, keeping a pledge to his love, continues to sing beneath her hospital room window every night at midnight. Meanwhile, a gang has been terrorizing a park near the hospital, and one night during a confrontation with the police, the leader is stabbed and he is taken to the same doctor who had arranged for Toinette to enter the hospital. While at the hospital, the leader recognizes Philip as the person who slipped him a pack of cigarettes when he was earlier hospitalized, during Toinette's stay. The gangster informs Philip that his love is alive and well. The Greek rushes to Toinette, who had been told that Philip had returned to Greece, and the lovers are reunited.

Dir: Tod Browning

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of Peggy, the Will O' the Wisp perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

An English nobleman, known only as Victor, arrives in Algiers and joins the French Foreign Legion as a private without revealing his true identity. He attracts and is loved by Cigarette, a French-Arab girl and "daughter of the regiment," but does not return her attentions. She is at first furious, and when she learns Victor's past and the name of his true love she goes to the Princess Corona with the intention of killing her. But Cigarette's hate turns to admiration, and she reveals Victor's identity to the princess. Learning of Sheik Ben Ali Hammed's plots against Victor and Algiers, she gives evidence that clears him of treason, makes a wild ride ahead of the Arabs to warn the troops, and dies in Victor's arms after shielding him from the executioner's bullet.

Dir: Tod Browning

In Winnebago, Wisconsin, the Jewish Brandeis family--Molly, Ferdinand, and their two children Fanny and Theodore--run a modest dry-goods store. Theodore is studying violin and auditions for a famous violinist, The Great Schabelitz, who is giving a local concert. Schabelitz is impressed by the boy's talent and recommends that he plan to study in Dresden, Germany. After Ferdinand dies, the family makes many sacrifices to enable Theodore to study in Dresden, where he eventually marries a worthless chorus girl and causes his mother's death from a broken heart. Although she continues to contribute to Theodore's support, Fanny decides to live her own life and moves to Chicago. There she becomes a highly-efficient businesswoman in a department store, spurred on by her colleague and admirer Michael Fenger, who is trapped in a loveless marriage. A former school friend, Clarence Hyle, also attempts to woo her. Later, Theodore, deserted by his wife, returns from Europe with his baby daughter and comes to live with Fanny. When he eventually becomes a successful performer, he leaves Fanny a message saying that he is returning to his wife. After so much self-sacrifice, Fanny decides to live only for herself and is about to sail to Honolulu with Fenger when Clarence makes her realize that her true happiness lies with him.

Dir: Tod Browning

Jim Bludso is engineer of the Mississippi River packet the "Prairie Belle." He has a home in Gilgal, Ill., and a wife and twelve-month-old baby at the time the story opens, in 1861. A call is received for volunteers and he joins the Northern army. His wife is a Southern girl, and she opposes his joining the Union forces. The quarrel results in a separation and Jim goes to war. Ben Merrill, an unscrupulous contractor, meets Jim's wife in Natchez, her home town, and induces her to go with him to New Orleans. She deserts her baby and goes. In New Orleans a levee contractor comes to Merrill with the proposition that they take the contract for a new levee to be built at Gilgal. Merrill accepts and leaves New Orleans without telling the woman where he is going, and she is left to take care of herself. After the war Jim returns to Natchez and finds that his wife has deserted their little boy, and no one knows where she is. He takes the boy, Little Breeches, and Banty Tim, a negro, who has saved his life during the war, and returns to Gilgal. He is welcomed by Kate Taggart, the daughter of the village storekeeper. Jim's wife yearns for her baby and returns. Jim forgives her for the child's sake. The high waters are coming on and Merrill is afraid that the levee will not hold. He plans to lay the blame on Jim and the negro. He arouses the suspicion of the townspeople against the negro and Jim is forced to fight for Banty Tim on several occasions. Merrill meets Jim's wife and induces her to loosen the sandbags and leave the water into the village. She escapes in a boat, the bottom of which has been cut by Merrill. In the middle of the stream the boat begins to sink and Banty Tim goes to her rescue. The negro is accused of breaking the levee and then escaping. Jim offers his life as a forfeit if the negro does not return by sunrise. The next day the village people are at Indian Mound, and the men are about to hang Jim because Banty Tim has not come back. Just then he comes on with Little Breeches, who tells of his rescue by the negro. A year later Jim is again engineer of the "Prairie Belle." In a race with another boat the engines become overheated. Merrill is aboard and Jim has him locked in the oil room. When the boat takes fire Jim goes and opens the door of the oil room and finds his son there with Merrill. While they are trying to escape the boilers explode. Jim is rescued from the debris by Banty Tim. Some time later Jim's wife having died, he and Little Breeches and Kate and Banty Tim are united in a happy family.