The Recommended Vault Deeply Connected to An Alien Enemy: Cult Guide

Dir: Wallace Worsley

In return for money and medical aid for his invalid mother, struggling author Robert Sandell agrees to subject himself to experiments by Dr. Lamb, who claims he is trying to extend the human lifespan. Despite warnings from the doctor's wife and a hunchbacked assistant, Robert allows himself to be strapped to an operating table, whereupon he learns the true nature of the surgeon's experiments: To prove the theory of evolution by devolving his human subjects into an approximation of their simian ancestors. However, before Dr. Lamb can proceed, the hunchback un-cages another victim, an ape-man, who crushes Dr. Lamb to death.

Dir: Wallace Worsley

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

Adele Bleneau is a young nurse who assists her father, a renowned surgeon/. While in Washington, DC, she meets and falls in love with a British army officer, Capt. Fraser. While traveling by ship to France with her father, she meets Count von Schulling, a German diplomat who is an acquaintance of her father. Von Schulling falls for the pretty young Adele. While in France, Adele organizes a rescue party to save Capt. Fraser, who has been on a secret mission behind enemy lines and has been wounded. In a twist of fate, Adele finds the wounded Fraser and takes him to a hospital, but Count von Schuling, who has also been wounded, is placed in the same room as Fraser. When the hospital is overrun by German forces, Adele is placed in a delicate position by von Sculling: either spy for the Germans or Fraser will be shot.

Dir: Wallace Worsley

Helen Rowland is unresponsive towards her rich husband Henry and spends most of her time at social events. Henry agrees to give financial assistance to young clergyman John Sterling for his missionary cause if Helen can become interested in Sterling's work in the slums. Helen becomes so interested in Sterling's mission work that she admits to Henry that she is in love with the clergyman. Henry then insists that Sterling arouse Helen's hatred. Sterling feigns drunkenness and Helen is so disgusted that she hurries home. Henry is remorseful about the scheme, but confesses he did it out of love for her, and so Helen discovers, finally, that she loves her husband.

Dir: Wallace Worsley

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

Alouette, the daughter of prosperous French vintner LeSieur Juste DeLarme, secretly marries Bertrand Beaubien although her father wants her to wed wealthy German Kurt Von Klassner. After Kurt slays Bertrand, Alouette is forced to marry the brutal German, and only her love for her little son Bertrand, whom Kurt imagines is his offspring, but who actually is the slain Frenchman's, saves her from complete unhappiness. Years later, when the Germans invade France during World War I, Kurt assists them although they have killed his father-in-law. Bertrand's young sweetheart is killed during the German occupation of the village, and fiercely determined to drive them out, he enlists in the French army. With the arrival of the French forces, the town is rescued, and Kurt, through Bertrand's testimony, is arrested as a spy.

Dir: Wallace Worsley

Mary Thorne, a quarter-breed Native American, returns home from the East with a college degree and an air of refinement, although she relishes the freedom of her father Marshall's mountain cabin. When Mark Hamilton and Chester Martin visit the cabin on a hunting expedition, Mary, in a spirit of mischief, dons her Indian clothing and convinces them that she is full-blooded. Mark falls deeply in love with the girl, while Chester, contemptuous of her Indian background, though attracted to her, decides to possess her. While her father is hunting for gold at Lost Lake, Chester enters Mary's room and attacks her. Mark rescues her, after which he realizes, by the modern décor of her room, that Mary is a cultured young lady. Later, Marshall is killed by an Indian guard at Lost Lake, but Mary inherits the gold he discovered and marries Mark.

Dir: Wallace Worsley

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

Wealthy and middle-aged Gerald Fitzgerald begins to tire of his wife who is an extremely temperamental and romantic opera singer and believes he has found another woman who suits him better. He endeavors to arrange with his wife for a divorce. She agrees, but returns home from her foreign opera tour. The situation brings her face to face with the fact that she really loves him but with a woman's wiles she adopts a more subtle method. When she finds that her policy of agreeing with him is having its effect, she cleverly arranges for a dinner party and invites him to bring the other woman. She makes every situation work to her advantage and presses her advantage after dinner with the final result that she wins her husband back.

Dir: Wallace Worsley

A rich young boy has to prove his worth to the gang he has just joined by enduring all sorts of hardships, including a kidnap attempt, before they'll accept him.

Dir: Wallace Worsley

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

An orphan boy from the Kentucky hills joins the Union Army and rescues his adopted family from Morgan's raiders. He learns his real identity when he returns after the war.

Dir: Wallace Worsley

After Alice Dane, a poor English schoolteacher, witnesses Sir John Turnbull throw an adversary over a cliff, Turnbull offers her money and marriage, because a wife cannot testify against her husband. To support her invalid father and for desired luxuries, Alice accepts, but she finds her husband humiliating and insulting. When Bobby Ralston, the superintendent of Turnbull's South African mines, reports that Turnbull's interests are endangered by a Zulu uprising, Turnbull takes Alice to Africa. After Turnbull shoots an emissary of Zulu chief Cetygoola carrying a flag of truce, Alice is taken hostage, to be burned at the stake unless the messenger's killer is offered. Knowing that Ralston loves Alice, Turnbull dares him to offer himself, which he does, but the Zulus realize he is not the guilty party. During the Zulus' subsequent attack, Ralston and Alice escape to an observation balloon. Reinforcements defeat the Zulus, but Cetygoola hides and kills Turnbull. Ralston and Alice are then free to marry.

Dir: Wallace Worsley

Jane Cabot, a working girl whose mother Marion sings in a cabaret and whose father Jim simply loafs, dreams of leaving the slums for a new life. After Jane's mother is discharged, however, Jane is forced to take her place in McGann's saloon, where she attracts the attention of political boss Thomas Dolan and his young assistant, Lee Stevens, who has recently come to New York from the mountains of the West. When Dolan insults Jane, she throws wine in his face, which infuriates Dolan but deeply impresses the idealistic Westerner. Dolan's systematic harassment causes Jane to lose every position she secures, but Lee, believing her unfaithful, returns to the mountains. Meanwhile, Jane's father is convicted of killing a policeman, and on the day he is imprisoned, her mother commits suicide. Lee learns that Jane still loves him and returns to New York just as Dolan is taking the dazed girl to his apartment. The two men engage in a fierce struggle until the police, who have discovered the politician's corruption, enter and arrest Dolan.