Deep Archive Finds in the Vein of A Woman's Fight: Cult Guide

Dir: Herbert Blaché

The invalid Count de Suchet, nearing death, tells his friend, artist Henri Dutray, about the tragic events of his early life. He secretly married a dancer, and after she gave birth to a daughter, his father convinced her that she was ruining her husband's life. She gave the baby to an old couple, and then killed herself. The grieving count now worries about his daughter. Meanwhile, Jeanne, an Apache dancer in Montmartre, refuses to be sold by her brother Jacques to an old rogue. After she escapes and hides in Henri's studio, Henri, because he needs money, plots with Jacques to make the count believe that Jeanne is his daughter. Although Jeanne rebels at first, she moves in with the count and grows to love him. After the count dies happily, Jacques robs the count's safe and finds a photograph of Jeanne's mother. The butler shoots him, but before he dies, he reveals that Jeanne really is the count's daughter. Jeanne then marries a boy from the adjoining estate.

Dir: Herbert Blaché

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

Young Phyllis Shaw, tired of being poor, sets out to snag a rich husband. She meets a young artist named Jerry, who falls for her, but she rejects him because he's not rich. She then meets Kirke, who is exactly the type of man she's looking for, but with one problem--he won't marry her, but as his "kept woman" he will lavish her with money and gifts. What to do, what to do . . .

Dir: Herbert Blaché

An unkempt chorus girl is arrested on a minor charge. In court, she is spotted by a novelist who is looking for someone of her type on whom to model a character in a book he is writing. He takes her into his home where she is looked down upon by his snobbish family. But the girl brings something to the family unlike anything they have known before.

Dir: Herbert Blaché

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

A gentleman burglar is a detective, which acts as a shield to his more shady pastime.

Dir: Herbert Blaché

A crooked promoter commits two murders in his efforts to gain wealth and influence. He is shot on the night of his election as governor and repents of his crimes on his deathbed.

Dir: Herbert Blaché

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

Famous playwright Paul Worden takes a country bungalow to write a new work and rehearse with Marjorie Sinclair, his leading actress, who is staying nearby. When riding one day, Paul helps his neighbor, Diana Ardway, the spoiled teenage daughter of a steel magnate, when her horse gets the better of her. Diana, at first insulted by Paul's interference, develops a passionate interest in him, leading her to spy on him, provoke a hair-pulling fight with Marjorie, and destroy one of Paul's rooms after he treats her like a child. When Paul wires his brother Tad, known for his successes with women, to relieve him of Diana's attentions, she rejects Tad. Knowing that her father will return soon from Europe, Diana gives the Associated Press an announcement of her engagement to Paul and kidnaps him to make it appear that he compromised her. After her father returns, Paul, thoroughly beaten, realizes his love for her and accepts his fate.

Dir: Herbert Blaché

An opium-addicted choirmaster develops an obsession for a beautiful young girl and will not stop short of murder in order to have her.

Dir: Herbert Blaché

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

A fascinating piece of cinema that shares thematic elements.

Dir: Herbert Blaché

When John Lowery, his wife Mary and their small son Billy journey to a Northern lumber camp to visit its owner, Clifford Beresford, Mary becomes infatuated with the lumberman and neglects her little boy. A Hudson Bay Company clerk named Nan McDonald, known as the "angel of the lumberjacks," forms such a strong attachment to the child that although he becomes seriously ill, Billy refuses to take his medicine unless Nan dispenses it. Watching over him late one night, Nan sees Mary steal from her room to keep a midnight appointment with Clifford, but when Mary falls down the stairs to her death, Nan maintains her silence for John's sake. Heartbroken, John asks Nan to return with him to the East as Billy's governess, but local gossips misinterpret her presence in John's house and he marries her. Informed that John still loves only his dead wife, the unhappy Nan allows Clifford to flirt with her, whereupon John learns the truth about Mary and opens his heart to the woman who really loves him.

Dir: Herbert Blaché

Strolling through the park one evening, Travers comes upon a woman about to throw herself in the lake. It is his sister. She tells him she was betrayed by a man who is her son's father, and she is about to end it all because she is no longer able to endure her destitution. Travers soothes her and promises to take care of her and her son. He furnishes an apartment for them and makes frequent calls there. On one of them he is seen and recognized by Mansfield, a clubman of his, who is infatuated with Mrs. Travers and uses this suspicious, though unconfirmed, incident to try to persuade her to give him her love. Mrs. Travers, made credulous by her insane jealousy of her husband, slightly encourages Mansfield, who, with the bravado of his sort, boasts at the club of his affair with her. Travers hears of this and is uncontrollable. He sends for his sister to come to his dressing room in the theatre, and Mansfield, hearing of it, brings Mrs. Travers to surprise him. Here is the big scene of the play wherein Travers demands of Mansfield an explanation of his conduct, and Travers' sister recognizes Mansfield as the man who deserted her. Travers attempts to kill Mansfield, who is saved by the police. Then Mrs. Travers, learning the identity of "the other woman," and ridden by remorse for the jealousy that has made her doubt her husband and lose his love, attempts to poison herself. She is saved, however, and reunited to her husband by a love whose constant light outshines the occasional flashes from her "green eyes."