The Definitive Watchlist For Devotees of Barber Shop Blues: Cult Guide

Dir: Charley Chase

A young married couple volunteer to take charge of several orphans after the asylum has burned down. Of course they find their hands full with their troublesome charges.

Dir: Malcolm St. Clair

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of Don't Weaken! perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

A dancing instructor gets involved with a newly rich family.

Dir: Joseph Henabery

Mountaineer Pap Clayton has promised his daughter Sairy Ann (Dorothy Gish) to his cousin Jed Martin, but Sairy Ann loves Dr. Richard Cavanagh (Sam DeGrasse), the son of Judge Lee Cavanagh. In the midst of a feud between the Claytons and the Jacksons, a jealous Jed sets out to kill Richard. Jed shoots a deputy who gets in his way and is taken before Judge Cavanagh, whom the Claytons have threatened to kill if Jed is convicted. The Claytons are true to their word when Cavanagh finds him guilty, and Richard immediately vows to kill Jed, who has escaped. Sairy Ann, however, reminds Richard that he has railed against family feuding and has said that only the law can take a life. A sobered Richard captures Jed and hands him over to authorities; then, after he has forgiven the Claytons, he and Sairy Ann become engaged.

Dir: Edgar Jones

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of Children of the Feud 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: Joseph Henabery

Whenever The Young Fellow is troubled or undecided, The Hunch, a miniature version of The Young Fellow, perches on his shoulder offering common-sense advice and encouragement. Consequently, when The Young Fellow, recently hired as a cub reporter for The New York Herald , is assigned to interview a noted financier who earlier refused to admit a star reporter, he screws up his courage, scales the millionaire's wall and forces the interview from him at the point of a gun. The editor, much impressed, then asks the young man to unearth the facts concerning a scheme to defraud a group of minor stockholders in the town of Melford. Unless certain papers in the possession of an old bachelor are delivered to a board meeting, the villainous financier will win complete control of a local company, and the stockholders will lose their investments. With the aid of his Hunch, the aging bachelor's attractive secretary and The Young Fellow's spinster landlady, the determined reporter thwarts the millionaire and his gang of thugs, delivers the papers on time and obtains a sensational story. In the process, he captures the secretary's heart, while the spinster wins the kindly bachelor.

Dir: Richard Smith

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

Two female candidates for Chief of Police live across the hall from each other, and their political rivalry follows them home, leading to plenty of hi-jinks.

Dir: Unknown Director

The village youths are rivals for the hand of the local belle. Their battles lead them to the village store, where chaos soon reigns, terminating in the place being blown up, leaving Bobby a happy victor.

Dir: Frank Moser

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of Say! Young Fellow perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

The simple story is about two siblings, little brother Bud and big sister Susie. After they've been reading "Huckleberry Finn" they dream of adventures on the Mississippi River.

Dir: Ralph Ince

A fascinating piece of cinema that shares thematic elements.

Dir: Joseph Henabery

In order to find out who's behind a cattle rustling operation that's hurting ranchers, a detective for the Cattleman's Protective Association pretends to be a tenderfoot from back east who's just arrived in the area and doesn't know how to ride, rope or shoot.