The Cult Collection Inspired by the Vision of Bad Sister: Cult Guide

Dir: Hobart Henley

Martin Ross and his East Indian servant Sima poison Mrs. Dean, whose money and pearls are left to her little daughter Elsie. Ross, the executor of the estate, spends all of the money with the willing assistance of seductress Fanette, but manages to retain the priceless pearls. When Elsie reaches the age of 18, she learns that she is penniless and formulates a plan to retrieve the jewels with the aid of her boyfriend William Gavin, Jr. Posing as seer "Madame Rama," Elsie sets Ross against Fanette, who has taken the pearls from their hiding place. When he confronts Fanette, she kills him and frames William for the crime. William is arrested, but "Madame Rama" tricks Fanette into confessing her guilt in the presence of several detectives. With Fanette and Sima behind bars, the pearls are restored to Elsie, who starts a new life with William.

Dir: Hobart Henley

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

Jane Ridgeway, the daughter of retired Secret Service man Charles Ridgeway, has inherited her father's knack for solving crimes and puts her talent to work when her sweetheart, Richard Grant, is accused of robbing a bank. Her father, now a bank examiner, works in collusion with two thieves who are acquainted with a master criminal known only as "the Face in the Dark." When the evidence implicates her father in the robbery, Jane confronts him, and although Richard is released from jail, Ridgeway escapes. The two crooks lead him to the Face in the Dark, but as the two men are shaking hands, the place is raided by Secret Service agents who arrest the mysterious criminal and congratulate Ridgeway for his fine detective work. Jane is happily reunited with her sweetheart and her father.

Dir: Alexander Butler

In Alberta, Canada, a Cornish emigrant unmasks a rustler posing as the girl's "blind" father.

Dir: Bruno Ziener

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

A fascinating piece of cinema that shares thematic elements.

Dir: Hobart Henley

A fat man tries to enlist in the Army, but is told he is too large for service. So he joins the YMCA and ultimately proves his heroic mettle anyway.

Dir: Hobart Henley

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of Eva, wo bist du? perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

Mrs. Sherwood hates her life with her husband, who is drinking increasingly as a result of his own unhappiness in the marriage. Mrs. Sherwood is in love with Le Roy Scott, who encounters a woman of astonishingly identical features to Mrs. Sherwood. He contrives to substitute the other woman, Marion Roche, in Mrs. Sherwood's place while he and Mrs. Sherwood escape for a tryst. But Marion is much more the wife that Sherwood dreamed of, and he falls in love "anew" with his "wife," and she with him. She determines to find some way to permanently replace the real Mrs. Sherwood.

Dir: Harley Knoles

Jim McDonald, the foreman of a shipbuilding plant and head of the labor union, strives to combat the anarchistic propaganda being put forth by Klimoff, the leader of a Bolshevik gang whose goal is to disrupt the country with strikes and anarchy. Despite McDonald's efforts, a strike is called, resulting in chaos. McDonald's child is knocked down by runaway horses abandoned by their striking driver, and dies. Mob scenes take place in America, as well as in Russia. Eventually, the unrest is quelled with an armistice called between Capital and Labor for a year, during which time wages are to be increased to reflect the cost of living, and leaders are to work out a common plan for their mutual advantage. The strikers now realize that they have been pawns of the Bolsheviks and call off the strike, agreeing to the plan.

Dir: Edgar Jones

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of Too Fat to Fight perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

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

Dir: Hobart Henley

Susie organizes plays to benefit the Red Cross. She marries her hero, Robert, but finds out he did it to avoid the draft. She begs to be taken in his place and is soon captured by the enemy. Will Robert become the hero she believed he was?

Dir: Hobart Henley

Two baby boys are born in Owentown. One is the unwanted offspring of an avaricious grasping father. He grows to an evil manhood, and loses his one chance of real happiness to the play-fellow whose parents have met their responsibilities.