Editor's Top Picks Sharing the Atmosphere of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves: Cult Guide

Dir: Chester M. Franklin

Jack exchanges his cow for some magic beans. The beans grow overnight into a beanstalk. Jack climbs it and arrives at a castle that is his. He sets a deal with the giant in exchange for the fortune.

Dir: Chester M. Franklin

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

While visiting China, an American man falls in love with a young Chinese woman, but he then has second thoughts about the relationship.

Dir: Chester M. Franklin

Sculptor Roger Heath realizes his new maid is possessed by the soul of his departed wife.

Dir: Chester M. Franklin

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of All Souls' Eve perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

Katie Standish is the family drudge on a New England farm. Her elder sister "enjoys" poor health and her mother sees to it that Katie not only does her own work but that of the weak or lazy Priscilla. Oliver Putnam, a husky young farmer lad, comes courting Katie, but her parents interfere so much that he is discouraged. Oliver finally goes to Mexico with Ben Standish, uncle of Katie and Priscilla, who owns a valuable mine there. Priscilla marries Caleb Adams, a young man who bought a farm adjoining that of Standish. Father and Mother Standish die and Katie goes to live with her sister. Soon she is doing all the housework, and as Priscilla rapidly becomes the mother of seven, each and every one of them is turned over to Katie's care. Then Priscilla and her husband are killed by an express train while driving to the city. Then Katie must teach school to help keep the wolf from the door. She writes to her uncle, telling of her sister's death and how the care of the children had fallen to her. The uncle invites her to bring the motherless brood with her and they can all make their home with him in Mexico. Oliver Putnam is expecting Katie, but the information about the children has been withheld from him. He is overjoyed when he sees Katie step off the train, but is flabbergasted when he sees the many children--only the first time the children get between Oliver and Katie, and Oliver comes to resent them. He sees two of them fussing and spanks one of them; Katie catches this and gives him a scathing rebuke. Then she happens to hear him tell Dan that he hates children; this lands him squarely in her bad graces. Uncle Ben likes the youngsters. He shows them how a series of guns in their little home could be discharged at once by pulling a lever and how a mine around the house could be discharged in a similar manner. He is careful to lock the room where the weapons of destruction are placed, but one of the children finds out where he has hidden the key. While Katie and Oliver are away on an errand of mercy, Mexicans attack the little house. The children are all there but one. The missing one happens to be outside and escapes to the road, where he is saved by a cowboy who goes after help. Meanwhile the children defend themselves by discharging the guns and firing the mines as their uncle had shown them. Katie and Oliver have a desperate fight when they are attacked by another band of Mexicans, but hold them off in a deserted cabin, till the cowboys rescue them. Oliver can't help admiring the brave way in which the children have defended the house, and is grateful also for the fact that the silver under the floor has been saved from the Mexicans. So Oliver and Katie forget their differences and make a home for the children in a mansion in the United States.

Dir: Chester M. Franklin

Rowena Jones attracts the attention of wealthy playboy William Vaughn, when trying on an expensive fur coat belonging to one of the guests at the hotel where she works as a hat check. Determined to marry a millionaire in order to alleviate her family's financial woes, Rowena accepts Vaughn's dinner invitation. That afternoon, while modeling at a fashion show, Rowena is attracted to a young man, but because he appears to be a poor chauffeur, she continues her pursuit of Vaughn. However, when Vaughn's wife appears at dinner, Rowena consents to go to a masked ball with her chauffeur. Arriving at the ball, she is pleasantly surprised to discover that her sweetheart is not a chauffeur but a millionaire, that meets her standard for a husband.

Dir: Chester M. Franklin

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of Let Katie Do It perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

Millionaire Hamilton fakes death to test wife's loyalty. His wife and brother plot to kill his children for inheritance. Hamilton warns kids through Hansel and Gretel story. Wife overhears, realizes her evil plan. Family reunites.

Dir: Chester M. Franklin

On a boat to San Francisco, Nellie Proctor is nearly caught stealing a man's wallet, but because she slips it into James Blair's pocket, he is arrested for the crime and sentenced to two years on the chain gang. Nellie, ashamed at having sent an innocent man to prison, convinces her friend Milligan to help James escape, after which all three go to an Alaskan mining town to begin new lives. While James prospects for gold, Nellie and Milligan find work in a local saloon, and Nellie takes charge of four orphaned children. Warren McKenzie, the saloon owner, is also the sheriff, and when he discovers James' identity, he threatens to turn the young man over to the law unless Nellie visits him in his cabin. To save James, with whom she has fallen in love, from a second prison term, Nellie consents, but James and the children come to her rescue.

Dir: Chester M. Franklin

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of You Never Can Tell perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

Following the death of her fiance and the birth of her baby, Dorothea, to avoid even the hint of a scandal, gives the child to her best friend Martha, who has arranged to have the infant raised by her old nurse. Soon, having kept her child a secret, Dorothea marries Deacon Hunt, while Martha becomes engaged to John. When unconscionable Sell Hawkins remembers having seen Martha bring the baby to the nurse, accuses her, before the church congregation, of being an unwed mother. Dorothea remains silent, and Martha, hoping to protect her friend, refuses to tell the truth about the child. Just as Martha's guilt seems assured, however, the child is brought to the church with an injury, and when a concerned Dorothea rushes to the infant, her actions and expression betray her own secret.

Dir: Chester M. Franklin

The story of Aladdin and the Princess Badr al-badr's adventures as told through child actors.

Dir: Chester M. Franklin

A French orphan girl is adopted into the home of wealthy Americans. There she becomes romantically involved with a farm worker and at the same time entangled in the deteriorating marriage of the American couple who rescued her.