The Auteur's Selection In the Shadow of Alf's Button: Cult Guide

Dir: Cecil M. Hepworth

A widowed heiress, forbidden to re-marry, takes a lover.

Dir: Cecil M. Hepworth

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

A young woman weds a rich and handsome opera singer, only to find out afterwards that he is already married to someone else.

Dir: Maurice Campbell

Carver Endicott, a young sophisticate, is rejected by his fiancée for being too foppish and dull. When she feigns an interest in his father, Carver attempts to disgrace his family name by working as a farmhand and later as a busboy in a hotel. However, the newspapers only praise him for his self-sacrificing principles; and finding that he cannot bring shame to the family through menial labor, he takes up with a notorious actress. But when this maneuver also fails, he returns to his former fiancée, who has no further complaint about his being an inexperienced dullard.

Dir: Henry Edwards

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

A millionaire bets £25,000 that he can earn his own living for six months.

Dir: Cecil M. Hepworth

A miser forces a girl to marry him and pose as his dead wife who was her double.

Dir: F. Martin Thornton

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

In Paris an orphan cartoonist loves a man with a mad wife, who dies in time to prevent her marriage to a jilted Comte.

Dir: Cecil M. Hepworth

A rich man's son loves a nature girl loved by a gypsy who is really her half brother.

Dir: Cecil M. Hepworth

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

Gerard, the eldest son of a wealthy family, is destined by his father for the church, although his own inclinations lie elsewhere. The young fellow is a born artist. His first success comes when he reads of the announcement of a public competition in which a big prize is to be paid for the best picture. It is at this period that he meets Margaret and her aged father. He falls in love with Margaret, and their fast-growing affection is viewed with great concern by the burgomaster of Rotterdam who is keeping in his possession some valuable parchments which relate to Margaret's fortune. Gerard's affection is discovered by his father, who sternly reprimands him, bidding him to think of the vocation in life that he has to fill. Gerard defies his father and family, and goes to his patroness, who, on hearing his story, tells him to put aside all ideas of priesthood for the present, and that she will pay for him to go to Rome and study art. Gerard gratefully accepts the offer, but at the same time he determines that before he leaves, he will wed Margaret secretly. In the meantime his father has been to the burgomaster, attempting to put the law in force against his disobedient son. The burgomaster, fearing for himself if the union between Gerard and Margaret should come to pass, promises his aid. Accordingly Gerard is torn from the arms of his newly-made bride at the very foot of the altar. He is imprisoned in the burgomaster's house. But thanks to the efforts of Margaret and his sister and crippled brother, he makes his escape. While escaping he accidentally discloses a trapdoor which conceals the secret hiding-place of the burgomaster's papers, and thinking that some of them will be useful to him in his work as an artist, he fills his pockets full. He finds on examination that one of them is the actual document relating to Margaret's fortune, and he keeps this, giving the others to Margaret to bury in the garden. He then sets out for Rome and on his way falls in with Denys of Burgundy, a Burgundian soldier of fortune. A friendship springs up between the gentle artist and the rough soldier. Then follows the attempted murder of the two men in the inn by the rascally landlord and his two accomplices, from which Gerard and his companion emerge victorious. Gerard arrives at Rome, and continues his studies. In the meantime his brothers, who have always been jealous of him, discover his whereabouts, and with the connivance of the burgomaster, send a letter to him to the effect that Margaret is dead. This information drives Gerard to such a state of despair that when his life is attempted by an assassin who is bribed to kill him by Princess Cloelia, whose overtures he has rejected. He offers no resistance, but the assassin overcome with remorse drops his dagger and flees from the scene. A year elapses, and Gerard, now a priest, returns to his own country. He is summoned to the death-bed of an old hermit and when he dies. Gerard takes up his life in the old man's cave. His wife comes to the spot to pray, and recognizes Gerard by a birthmark on his hand. The unfortunate man then learns for the first time that he has been deceived, that his wife is alive and that he has a son five years old. When he realizes the extent of the treacherous trick that has been played upon him, he bursts in upon his family and denounces his brothers. The rage of his father knows no bounds, and he is with difficulty restrained from slaying the son who has wrecked his elder brother's life. He next visits the burgomaster, and by the aid of the incriminating parchment, which he has kept all these years, forces him to restore Margaret's fortune. This, however, is the most he can do, and, after taking an agonizing farewell of his wife and child, he is forced to go out in the world alone, for there is no power that can absolve him from the duties of his holy calling, nor is it possible for a man to mix again with the world over whose head the sacred words have been spoken, "Thou art a priest forever, after the order of Melchisedech."

Dir: Victor Heerman

In the gold fields of the Canadian Northwest, a man is falsely accused of a crime and determines that a lookalike is responsible.

Dir: Cecil M. Hepworth

A doctor makes a drunkard's death look like murder so he may marry his widow.