Editor's Top Picks Following the Footsteps of Beverly of Graustark:...

Dir: F. Martin Thornton

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: Sidney Franklin

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

Puck is a music-hall dancer married to an abusive husband. One night the music hall catches fire. Puck is rescued by an Army officer and her husband perishes. Puck marries the officer and they begin a new life in India, until a man from her past finds her and makes demands.

Dir: Sidney Franklin

A Chinese mandarin hopes to regain favor with the Emporer by betrothing her to him, but he doesn't know she's secretly married to the American consul and pregnant.

Dir: Maurice Campbell

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

Carver Endicott, a young sophisticate, is rejected by his fiancée for being too foppish and dull. When she feigns an interest in his father, Carver attempts to disgrace his family name by working as a farmhand and later as a busboy in a hotel. However, the newspapers only praise him for his self-sacrificing principles; and finding that he cannot bring shame to the family through menial labor, he takes up with a notorious actress. But when this maneuver also fails, he returns to his former fiancée, who has no further complaint about his being an inexperienced dullard.

Dir: Sidney Franklin

After the half-breed daughter of a Comanche chief falls for a young engineer who deserts her, she turns to a white Indian agent who marries her.

Dir: Maurice Elvey

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

A lady marries a horse trainer but withholds herself until her crippled brother is cured.

Dir: Reggie Morris

A fascinating piece of cinema that shares thematic elements.

Dir: Sidney Franklin

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

Distraught young Ann Carter is saved from committing suicide by Hayden Masters, but he turns out to be a vicious criminal who wants to make her his partner-in-crime. Fearful of what might happen to her if she doesn't marry him as he asked, she accepts, but on their wedding night he is arrested for burglary and thrown into prison. Broke and alone, Ann gets a job as a secretary to a wealthy executive, whose son Donald falls for her. When she hears that Masters has been killed in a failed prison escape attempt, she accepts Donald's proposal--then Masters shows up, very much alive.

Dir: Hal Roach

An American book salesman (Lloyd) is persuaded to go to the kingdom of Thermosa to impersonate the Prince. He is greeted by a peasants' revolt before the real prince shows up to claim his throne and princess. The revolution succeeds, and the American is elected president of the new republic.

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.