The Cult Collection Comparable to the Style of Baby Face: Cult Guide

Dir: Alfred E. Green

While on vacation from college, William Bankinton is shipwrecked. His mind a blank, he is picked up by a derelict ship upon which there are only a lion and a stowaway named Broot. After Broot commits suicide, Bankinton and the lion are cast adrift upon the shores of Africa where they exist in a primitive state for several months. One day, when Nakhia, the daughter of the Bedouin chief Ali-Es Hadji is out riding, she is beset by danger. Bankinton comes to her rescue and gradually he and the girl fall in love. Ben Saada, the bandit chief, desires Nakhia, and tries to kidnap her. The lion and Bankinton once again come to her defense, and in the ensuing fight, Bankinton is struck on the head and his memory is restored. He then proposes to Nakhia, and the couple set sail to America where they are reunited with Bankinton's family.

Dir: Alfred E. Green

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

Patches, a beautiful girl, lives with her foster-mother Liza Biggs, who dresses her in rags. She is surprised to see Judas, the overseer, give Liza a locket. Jack Merry arrives to purchase cotton from Colonel Silverthorne, a Southern gentleman of the old school, who looks after his dead brother's estate for his niece and nephew, Juliet and Lee. Col. Silverthorne tells Merry that years ago his brother chastised a field hand named Judas, and that little Selma disappeared. Her mother died of grief, while her father had not been seen since, on one occasion, he rowed to a houseboat, and was supposed to have been murdered; and that according to his will, the entire estate was to go to his missing daughter Selma if found within 20 years; if not, the estate was to be divided between Juliet and Lee. That night Judas demands money from Lee on penalty of disclosing the whereabouts of Selma. In the meantime, Merry meets Patches and kisses her hand, exclaiming "May the Princess of Patches have a happy reign." He leaves with Col. Silverthorne, the money for the cotton, and Lee steals it. Lee claims that Waggles, a tramp friend of Patches, is the thief, but Patches believes Judas has the money and he is captured with part of it in his possession. Col. Silverthorne, despite the protests of Juliet and Lee, invites Patches to become one of the family. Years pass. Patches returns from a fashionable school and again meets Merry Judas, who has escaped from prison, also returns, as does Waggles the tramp. Waggles asks Lee where he can find the "Princess of Patches," as he wishes to return a locket which she lost. Lee recognizes the locket as the one proving the identity of Selma, and upon his promise to deliver it to Patches, Waggles surrenders it. This is the locket Judas gave to Liza, and which Patches afterwards secured. Patches, among the daisies, plucks the petals and murmurs "He loves me, he loves me not." "He loves you dearly," exclaims Jack Merry behind her, as he takes her in his arms. Lee is dumbfounded to see Judas, who tells him unless he helps to keep him out of jail, he will produce proofs that Patches is Selma Silverthorne. Lee gives money to Judas and tells Juliet what he has learned; she tells him he must marry Patches. Waggles overhears Judas and Lee and informs Patches. At midnight they secrete themselves on the houseboat and hear Judas tell Lee that he stole Selma, and that the baby clothes he produces are proofs of her identity. The money Lee offers Judas is not satisfactory, and as the two fight, Waggles secures the proofs. They discover the loss, and suspecting someone else is on the boat, light the fuse connected with a box of gunpowder. Lee springs overboard, and Patches confronts Judas, exclaiming: "I know everything and you shall be punished." Judas overpowers the girl and Waggles, binds them, and swims ashore. Patches finally frees herself and releases Waggles. They spring into the water just as the explosion demolishes the houseboat. On reaching the shore, Waggles overpowers Judas, who confesses Patches is the real heiress; and repeats the confession to Colonel Silverthorne a few minutes before Lee and Juliet would have come into possession of the property. Lee, implicated by Judas, disappears and Patches is happy in the love of Jack Merry.

Dir: Alfred E. Green

A fascinating piece of cinema that shares thematic elements.

Dir: F. Martin Thornton

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of Little Lost Sister 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: Dallas M. Fitzgerald

Confidence artist Flossie Golden attempts to fleece foolish but wealthy James Venable with a breach-of-promise suit. Venable's shrewd attorney, Richard Harding, outwits Flossie by proposing that she marry Venable and live on an allowance of $3,000 per year. Flossie is determined to get even with Harding for ruining her plans. In an attempt to con him, she poses as Innocence Page, but falls in love and marries him instead. Larry, Flossie's former accomplice, endeavors to blackmail her with her errant past, but Harding is already cognizant of the facts and Larry fails.

Dir: Edward Dillon

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

Her education in a French convent school completed, plain Justine Spencer returns to New York. There she is shocked to discover that her mother Dodo is a flamboyant musical comedy actress with many male admirers. Dodo, on the other hand, is dismayed to find Justine priggish and dowdy. One of Dodo's suitors is Billy Ferris, who, in a fit of jealousy, murders her and slays himself. Out of pity, Cosmo Spotiswood, another admirer of Dodo, marries Justine, but soon tires of his platonic marriage and leaves for Europe. Upon his return, Cosmo finds Justine transformed. Under the tutelage of Dodo's maid Loti, she has bobbed her hair and donned fashionable apparel. Thus changed, Justine is surrounded by suitors. Stung by jealousy, Cosmo falls in love with his sophisticated wife.

Dir: Bruno Ziener

A fascinating piece of cinema that shares thematic elements.

Dir: Alfred E. Green

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

Most of the scenes are laid in a parrot-and-monkey country in South America, a land where "it is always after dinner." The Llano Kid, a Texas bad man, flees there from justice. The consul persuades him to play the long-lost son of a Castilian family, and tattoos a coat of arms on the back of the Kid's hand to make the deception complete. The Kid is taken into the household, trusted and loved by the gladdened mother. For the first time he has a home. The romance develops. And when the time comes to rob and flee he has too much manhood to break the loving mother's heart. The surprise comes when it is revealed that the man the Kid killed in Texas was the real son.

Dir: Edgar Jones

A mail-order bride arrives at a Maine lumber camp but doesn't like her prospective husband.

Dir: Colin Campbell

Zora, a girl of French origin, is raised by a wealthy Bedouin family after her mother Valerie dies while eloping with another man. Zora feels such great longing for the French artist Adrien that she accepts the offer of another artist, Raoul, to take her to Paris with the stipulation that if Adrien rejects her, she must give herself to him. Jan, the chieftain's son who is in love with Zora, follows the two to Paris. There Zora realizes that Adrien does not love her and discovers her real love for Jan. However, she feels bound to honor her pact with Raoul and is about to succumb to his advances when her father appears and recognizes Raoul as the man who destroyed his home years earlier. In the ensuing fight between the two men, Raoul is killed, thus freeing Zora to accept Jan's love.