Visionary Picks Drawn from the Same DNA as A Petticoat Pilot: Cult Guide

Dir: Rollin S. Sturgeon

Mary Melville marries rich playboy Claude Varden to please her invalid mother. On the night they are to depart for a South American honeymoon, Mary's mother becomes seriously ill and Mary decides to stay home and taker care of her. Varden goes on the trip anyway, as he owns some mines in South America. However, Tom Nelson, the husband one of the many married women Varden has had affairs with in the past, is stalking him and follows him on board the ship. On the ship Varden meets the beautiful and rich Nitra Ruiz and her brother Ramon. Deciding that he doesn't want to be married to Mary anymore, he proposes to Nitra. However, his plans don't quite work out the way he had wanted them to.

Dir: Rollin S. Sturgeon

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

A professor's daughter craves excitement and sends her father on a treasure hunt. The captain leaves him to die on the island and returns for his possessions and the girl. Dick saves her father from the island and comes to her rescue.

Dir: Rollin S. Sturgeon

Gertie Jones, known among other thieves as "The Chatterbox" because she talks to herself while she works, becomes a rich woman's French maid after learning about her employer's $40,000 diamond necklace. To cover up the scratches left by her tools after she unsuccessfully tries to open the safe containing the necklace, Gertie telephones the police to report an attempted burglary. Jimmy Hartigan, a famous thief, arrives and after he and Gertie fall in love at first sight, he is arrested. After Gertie helps Jimmy escape from prison, they move to New York and continue their illegal endeavors until they see Gertie's sister, whose time in prison has left her consumptive, and a famous crook, now a broken wreck, and decide to go straight for each other's sake. As the "Harts," they buy a farm in New Jersey after foiling the plans of a crooked real estate promoter. When Kersey, a detective on Jimmy's trail, arrives, Jimmy and Gertie pretend to save him from two escaped convicts. The grateful detective, believing that the "Harts" have reformed, refuses to recognize them as the "Hartigans."

Dir: Rollin S. Sturgeon

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

Charles Howard, a young artist in " In The Folly's Trail, " is induced by a friend to attend a week-end party, given by a millionaire social bounder named Max Goldberg. At this event he joins in the general round of elaborate dinners, masquerade dances and the like. He meets a girl singer named Lita O' Farrell, a friend of Goldberg's. The host of the occasion really loves Lita, but she is uncertain of her regard for him. Lita is attracted to Howard and he to her. Though both are doubtful of the outcome, they marry. Howard cannot endure Lita's lack of breeding and she resents his cold, superior attitude. They quarrel frequently and she offers him a chance for a divorce by deliberately going back to Goldberg. Howard, stung by his jealousy, follows, threatening to kill Goldberg. The latter assures him no harm has come to Lita. He finds her and she tells him of her coming child. They determine to make another effort to live happily together. - The Moving Picture World, 1920.

Dir: Rollin S. Sturgeon

Fearing former suitor James Armstrong, Louise Newbold accompanies her husband William on a trip to the Colorado Rockies. While riding a mountain trail, Louise and her horse fall over a high cliff. Her injuries are so severe that she begs her husband to kill her to end her suffering, and, out of love, he does so--and blames Armstrong for being the instrument that drove Louise to take the dangerous trip. Five years later, Armstrong meets Enid Maitland and falls in love with her, and they go on a camping trip with several acquaintances. While out fishing, Enid is caught in a sudden violent storm and is rescued by a mountain man: William Newbold, who has become a recluse. But the snow imprisons them in his camp for the winter. The spring thaw brings Armstrong and others searching for Enid, and Newbold recognizes Armstrong as his old enemy.

Dir: Rollin S. Sturgeon

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of In Folly's Trail perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

Hugon, a Canadian backwoodsman who is respected for his strength both of limb and of character, falls in love with Marie even though she has another sweetheart, a young man named Gabriel. Realizing that Marie favors Gabriel, Hugon good-naturedly offers to help the boy develop muscles and stamina but soon abandons the hopeless task. Meanwhile, Roque and his group of crooked surveyors have made plans to swindle the woodsman out of his property. Hugon's discovery of the plot leads to a brutal fight in which he is seriously injured. Deeply ashamed, he hides himself in a lonely cabin. Seeking to console Hugon, Marie reminds him of the strength of the spider, which continually rebuilds its broken web. Gabriel proposes to Marie but later backs out, and she, realizing her love for Hugon, builds a home with him on his restored property.

Dir: Rollin S. Sturgeon

Far away, in the timberlands of the North, where the purity of woman is placed above all else, lived Josephine Adare, a kind, honest soul, whose face plainly bore an expression of deep sorrow and anxiety. Up to this, God's Own Country, came a man, Philip Weyman, to spend a year in that region. The man meets the woman and falls in love with her. He begs her to confide in him her great sorrow, which he sees she is constantly thinking of, but she tells him that she cannot do so. Seeing that he is persistent, and really anxious to help her, she asks him if he would be willing to follow her wherever she goes, doing whatever she asks of him, asking no questions and with the hope of no reward but her undying gratitude. Owing to his great love for her, he consents, knowing that he will be working for a just cause. Through the long, bitter, northern winter, he travels with her, knowing neither where he is going nor what he is going to do. To aid her plans, they are married, but it is a marriage in name only. She then takes him to the home of her father, John Adare, a rugged woodsman, where she tells him to pose as the father of an infant which she shows him. For a moment, his faith in her wavers, when he sees the child, but his manhood conquers and he determines to stand by his promise. Then, on one eventful day the infant dies. After the baby's death Philip notices unusual activity about the camp, and suspects that Josephine's enemies are about. Though he knows not who they are, he longs to fight them, but Jean Croisset, Josephine's half-breed protector, who has also been assisting her in her trouble, tells him that he can do nothing but wait for orders from her. He is tempted to cast caution to the winds and search for them himself, but his better judgment prevails and he realizes that he must be satisfied with anxiety and inactivity. Josephine's ferocious wolf-hounds have grown to love Philip as they love their mistress. These terrible beasts, though born for fighting, have big hearts in their savage breasts, and at a word from one whom they love, would tear an enemy to pieces. One day, Josephine, who is known throughout the neighborhood for her kindness and love of children, is called to another village to tend a sick child. Jean follows to protect her, and Philip trails him with the dogs. Philip learns that she was kidnapped by Lang, who, Jean tells him, is responsible for all her troubles. Philip rouses all the honest woodsmen in the neighborhood, who love Josephine for her kindness, and they set out to rescue her. They also enlist the aid of a tribe of Indians in their cause. After traveling for some time, the rescue party traps the villainous gang in its lair, "Devil's Nest." Here Lang and his gang barricade the doors and windows and prepare for the attack. A battle ensues, and Lang's followers, seeing they are being beaten, try to escape but find themselves hemmed in. In the midst of the battle, Jean is shot, and, knowing he is about to die, calls Philip to his side. He tells him how, a year before, Josephine's mother had fallen into Lang's clutches while her husband was away, and of the birth of the child, which Josephine had claimed as her own to shield her mother's honor. The story told, the faithful half-breed dies, with a parting injunction to Philip to kill Lang and destroy the incriminating papers in his possession. During a lull in the fighting, Lang tries to escape through a window with Josephine. His action is seen by Philip, who rushes over to protect her. In the struggle which follows, Lang manages to gain the upper hand, and reaches for his knife to end Philip's life. Seeing his danger, Josephine releases the dogs, with a command to kill. As though they knew the sorrows of their mistress, the shaggy beasts leap upon the struggling forms, single out Lang and kill him with their merciless fangs. Philip informs her that he knows all, and that she need no longer fear for her mother's honor, as he has destroyed the papers. She tells him that she has always loved him, and Philip looks forward to a happy future, in God's country with the woman of his choice.

Dir: Rollin S. Sturgeon

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

During the California gold rush, the all-male mining camp of Spanish Bar, on the Sundown Trail, delegates "Oily" Jones to go East to bring women for them to marry. A young widow arrives with the brides and searches for Velvet Eddy. After "Quiet" Carter, who remains a bachelor, rescues her from Eddy's attack, she learns the attacker's identity and insists on finding him. Lost in a storm, she arrives exhausted at a Mexican dancer's cabin. Because the vigilance committee intends to run her out of town, the dancer exchanges clothes with the widow, who has lost her memory. After Eddy loses a knife duel with Carter, he requests, before he dies, that Carter care for his child. Carter rescues the widow from the vigilantes, and marries her to protect her. After an Easterner claims that she is his wife, Carter learns that he lied to get her property. When he retrieves her, she recognizes the child, which Eddy was holding for ransom, as her own, as her memory returns.

Dir: Rollin S. Sturgeon

Mildred Manning, known as Middy, is an apprentice in Madame Lizette's fashionable shop. Her beauty is discovered by Madame's brother, George Martin, and she is made a model. One afternoon, she tries on a rejected bathing suit and by adding a touch here and there, makes it into a beautiful creation. Madame then sends her to the beach to carry out a clever advertising scheme. At the shore, Middy is pursued by a reporter and photographer, who have been commissioned by Madame to photograph the girl for calendar advertising. In her flight from the publicity men, Mildred takes refuge in a car owned by lawyer Philip Gordon, who gets into the vehicle and drives off with Middy. Middy, fearing exposure, asks him to drop her off at a fashionable residence. When Gordon later returns to the address to call on Middy, he is puzzled to be greeted by an aging spinster. After Middy's picture appears in the calendar despite her objections, Middy quits her job at Madame Lizette's and threatens to sue to prevent the use of her photo for advertising purposes. At this point, Gordon traces her through the calendar and takes her case, refusing to let her go again until she promises to marry him.

Dir: Rollin S. Sturgeon

A girl's father cannot afford a train ticket, so he ships his daughter by Wells Fargo & Co. Express. He loses his money to a villain and cannot claim his "shipment." The villain attempts to claim her, but the Wells Fargo agent foils the plot and claims her himself.