Must-Watch List in the Vein of Back to the Woods: Cult Guide

Dir: George Irving

Jaffery Chayne is the spectacular one of four chums, the others being Hilary Freeth, a literary man, Adrian Boldero, a short story writer, and Tom Castleton, a playwright. The story opens with Tom Castleton going on a voyage for his health and leaving with his friend, Adrian, the manuscript of the first novel he ever attempted. Shortly after Castleton's trip, he dies at sea and when word is received by Adrian of his friend's death, the temptation to secure the girl he loves by publishing his friend's novel and taking the money and credit from it is so strong that he succumbs and becomes the "literary lion of the hour." Jaffery returns to London with the widow of his associate, who is an Albanian chieftain's daughter, the last one of her tribe. Jaffery arrives in London with this strange woman and she is introduced into the household of Hilary Freeth and meets Jaffery's friends. Adrian brings his sweetheart, Doria, and when she is introduced to Jaffery, it is a case of love, on Jaffery's part, at first sight, he having no eyes for Liosha, the widow desperately in love with him. Doria, however, marries Adrian, supposed to be the great author, and Jaffery leaves Liosha in London and then goes on another expedition. On his return he finds Adrian dead. His love for the wife, Doria, is as strong as ever and he tenderly cares for her and takes charge of Adrian's affairs. When Jaffery and Hilary are appointed the legal executors of Adrian's estate they find the original novel in Castleton's handwriting and nothing that could be made into a second novel from the pen of Adrian. They realize that Adrian has stolen his fame and fortune and that his conscience really has killed him. Jaffery realizes that the knowledge of this will probably be the death blow to Doria, who has always worshiped Adrian as a genius, so he takes the papers home and puts them out of sight in his desk and then begins to go through his own experiences and from them he writes a novel, signs it with Adrian's name and gives it to the publishers as the second work of the literary genius. The novel does make a tremendous sensation. When Jaffery proposes marriage to Doria she refuses him. The former starts on a long voyage. Liosha begs to go, too. Jaffery consents. The result is the strengthening of the love of Liosha for Jaffery. Doria learns the perfidy of her late husband and offers to be the wife of Jaffery in gratitude for his self-sacrifice. Jaffery, however, discovers he loves Liosha and Doria releases him.

Dir: George Irving

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

Ne'er-do-well Joe Louden scandalizes his small town and especially the proper Judge Pike. But through the love of young Ariel Taber, Joe shows the town who the real scoundrel is.

Dir: George Irving

Claire Martin, niece of the wealthy Mrs. Taylor, suffers from loss of memory. Under the effect of this, Claire acts as an entirely different person. She wanders through the woods seeking shelter and food, and finally reaches a cabin temporarily occupied by a New York sportsman, who is fishing and hunting in the woods. For a week, Claire accepts the shelter from this sportsman whose love grows with each day's stay. Finally a strange rider passing the cabin asks for a drink, and Claire in her innocence shows her admiration for the new man, making him finally accept the temptation of her eyes to kiss her. At this moment Houghton, the sportsman, returns and bursts into the cabin. He drives out the stranger and then takes a knife and marks the woman so that she will always remember that her love must be for him alone. Houghton returns to New York. While walking down Fifth Avenue he sees in a photographer's showcase a picture which closely resembles the girl he thinks he lived with in the woods. He finds out who she is and decides to visit Great Neck and see if it is the same girl. Returning to his boat, Houghton looks at some pictures which he had taken of the girl and decides it must be she. He returns to the grounds of Mrs. Taylor's home and meeting Claire declares she is the woman who was with him at the cabin. Pushing back the dress from her shoulders, he points to the scar. She begs him to tell her what he knows about the scar, and he thinking she is bluffing, tells her to come to the houseboat and he will tell her. There Houghton proves that she must have been with him at the cabin and when he demands that she love him now as she did then and attempts to take her, she picks up a knife from the table and kills him. Kent, who has been over to the Yacht Club to a committee meeting, sees this when returning to his launch. He rushes to the boat and carries the fainting body of Claire home, gets her to her room and calls the doctor to see if he can help her. The doctor declares that the girl is guiltless of the crime, having gone back to her old personality, and they decide to make the case appear as one of suicide. When Kent is returning to the boat the following morning he finds there some pictures of her and her scarf, but when he himself is charged with the murder by the man who heard the quarrel, he is made to believe that Claire is innocent by Kent and the doctor, who point out to him the terrible weakness of circumstantial evidence. After Charlie goes, the doctor tells Kent that Claire needs care and attention and must be protected, and Kent in his great love takes her to his heart.

Dir: George Irving

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

John Glayde is a stone-hearted man intent on wealth to elevate his family, losing his wife to another man in the process.

Dir: George Irving

Mountain boy Steve O'Mara, living in the Adirondack Mountains, who loves to fight, is taken in by a well-to-do family after the death of his foster father. Steve is attracted by a young girl, Barbara, who is visiting his family, but she is repelled by his violent behavior. He fights another boy over her affections and then vows not to return until he corrects his ways and makes good. Ten years pass, and Steve has become a road construction engineer with the East Coast Railroad Company. He is trying to complete a railroad being built through his home town. Barbara is now engaged to Archie Wickersham, who for financial reasons is trying to prevent the railroad from being completed. After several delays, Steve brings his rival's unscrupulous business practices to light. When Barbara witnesses the fight that ensues between Steve and her fiancé, she runs off and gets lost in the forest. After a search party is formed, Steve finds her and she realizes that she loves him. Harrigan, one of her fiancé's henchmen, witnesses this tender scene and shoots Steve. Barbara then draws Steve's pistol and shoots Harrigan dead. Only wounded, Steve finally is embraced by Barbara.

Dir: George Irving

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of John Glayde's Honor perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

When the United States enters World War I, widow worries that she will lose her only son David, who has just turned 21. Although David patriotically urges the employees at his factory to enlist, he reluctantly gives in to his mother's pleas to remain at home with her. When David is drafted, his panic-stricken mother alters the date on his birth certificate, although the later birth date implies that he is illegitimate. Disgusted, David enlists under an assumed name, thus shaming Helen, who confesses her dishonesty to the townspeople. Her son, now in uniform, then forgives her.

Dir: George Irving

Loyal slave of the aristocratic Dabney family, Dan is overjoyed when Raoul becomes engaged to Northerner Elsie Hammond and his sister Grace becomes engaged to Elsie's brother John. When the Civil War breaks out, the heartbroken Hammonds return North and John joins the Union army. Raoul joins the Confederacy, but his vindictive overseer, Jonas Watts, becomes a Union officer. Watts takes Grace prisoner, but before he can act on his desires, John rescues her. He then encounters Raoul and is obliged to arrest him, but Dan comes to his aid by throwing red peppers into his captors' eyes. When John is arrested by Confederates, Raoul frees him for Grace's sake, but when his superiors discover his treason, he is sentenced to death. Stonewall Jackson, a family friend, tries to obtain a stay of execution for Raoul, but in the meantime, Dan visits him and convinces his master to blacken his face and take the slave's place. He does, and Dan is executed. After the war, Raoul and Elsie, and John and Grace marry and settle on the Dabney estate.

Dir: George Irving

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of Then I'll Come Back to You perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

Aerial dancer La Syrena, whose jealous husband kills her while she performs in midair. Her daughter, Jennie Raeburn, soon orphaned, grows up unaware of her mother's occupation, but nonetheless feels the urge to dance. She makes a successful stage debut and gets caught up in the social world of the theater. A cousin from the country, Zachary Trewehella, who has always loved Jennie, disapproves of her sudden obsession with wealth and status, but Jennie ignores his warnings. As a result, she has a disastrous affair with a society man, and realizes that her cousin was correct. In the end, bitter over her last affair, she reluctantly marries Zachary, but soon falls in love with him.

Dir: George Irving

A Lithuanian immigrant falls into financial hardship in Chicago when he loses his job due to cutbacks.

Dir: George Irving

At a lavish luncheon in Palm Beach, Walker Farr, a wealthy and idle young man, bets that he can live in perfect contentment as a penniless hobo and sets out to prove it. On the road, Walker meets Kate Kilgour and her fiancé, Richard Dodd, but upon his arrival in the town of Marion he learns that she is being forced into the marriage by her mother, who owes Richard $5,000. Walker helps a deformed but cheerful river man named Etienne Pickerone to retrieve the body of a woman who has drowned herself, and after reading the note found on her clothing, he goes directly to her house and adopts her little girl Rose-Marie. For a time, Walker works as an ice wagon driver to support the child, but a typhoid epidemic caused by contaminated drinking water strikes the town, and Rose-Marie dies. Having learned that Col. Simon Dodd, Richard's uncle and a corrupt local official, is responsible for the epidemic, Walker leads an election campaign that results in Dodd's defeat. After Kate settles her debt with Richard, which leaves her free to marry Walker, the "hobo" discloses his real identity, and all ends happily.