Must-Watch List Comparable to the Style of Boden's Boy: Cult Guide

Dir: Henry Edwards

A girl presumed drowned escapes from a lighthouse keeper to find her husband insane and framed for murder.

Dir: Henry Edwards

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

A boarding house skivvy helps a poor playwright, becomes an actress and saves him from an insane convict.

Dir: Sidney Franklin

A chorus girl hopes to rise to stardom and thus accepts the advances of a wealthy man. But she becomes fearful of her reputation and safety. In an attempt to escape the rake's attentions, she hides out with a disparate group of men who room in a house called "The Barn." There she learns that there is more to life than that found on the stage.

Dir: Henry Edwards

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

A poor author feigns marriage to please his dying father.

Dir: Henry Edwards

A Russian's secret wife marries her cousin to give her baby a name.

Dir: J. Gordon Edwards

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

William Farnum is Drag Harlan, a tough cowboy vigilante. After learning about a gold mine from a dying man, he seeks his daughter (Jackie Saunders) as well as the gold. He falls in love with her, but the same gang that shot the old man is after the gold.

Dir: Henry Edwards

In the East London tenements lives one Alexandra Vickers, better known as "Viccy." She is rough-tongued, quick-tempered, and generous as far as her slender means allow. Her parents died when the girl was very young and left her to shift for herself. Later she takes up her abode with Mr. and Mrs. Alfred Smith and their nephew, Albert Grummett. In the month of August the family decides to go to the hop fields and earn their living picking the sticky vegetable from which is made the national beverage, beer. About this time in America a wealthy contractor dies and leaves his immense fortune to Victoria Alexandra Vickers, the only daughter of his brother. A search is made for the girl and she is finally located in the hop fields. She is placed under the care of a Mrs. Carrington, to become polished. After "Viccy" leaves, Grummett, with five hundred pounds given him by the girl, sets himself up in business and is soon prosperous. Mrs. Carrington's son asks "Viccy" to marry him, as he needs money to pay his debts, and the girl accepts him. She later sees Grummett, however, and after discovering that Carrington wants only her money she goes back to Grummett, and East returns to East.

Dir: Henry Edwards

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

A shepherdess becomes an opera star. A shepherd becomes a sculptor.

Dir: Arthur Rosson

The Hopkinses are a family of squatters struggling against the wealthy landowners or "hilltoppers." When Jerry Hopkins is unjustly imprisoned, his young wife and baby die as a result of the shock, but his sister Polly maintains the faith that has been instilled in her by her grandmother. Later, Polly meets hilltopper Robert Robertson and the two fall in love. Their courtship is disrupted when Robert's sister Evelyn is blackmailed by Oscar Bennett, the man to whom she is secretly wed. In her efforts to help Evelyn, Polly falls under unjust suspicion. Meanwhile, MacKenzie, one of the vindictive landowners, arrests Polly's father and sends her brother to an orphanage. Devastated by these events, Polly's grandmother dies of grief and Polly swears revenge. She has Evelyn kidnapped and brought to her cabin, but the memory of her grandmother prevents Polly from harming her tormentor. Polly's nobility inspires Evelyn, who exonerates Polly, thus clearing the path for her marriage to Robert.

Dir: Raoul Walsh

Dave Henderson, an orphan who has become the beneficiary of a rich man's will, falls in with race-track crooks Martin Tydeman and Bokky Sharvan who bilk him out of his $100,000 inheritance. In retaliation, Dave steals the money from Tydeman's safe, but is caught and sentenced to five years in jail. In prison, Dave becomes friendly with Millman, who is about to be released, and reveals the money's hiding place to him, arranging to rendezvous at the end of Dave's term. Once released, Dave is hounded by members of Tydeman's gang as well as the police, who are waiting for him to retrieve his bounty. While taking refuge at the house of Capriano, an old bomb maker, Dave falls in love with the old man's daughter Teresa. However, Capriano sets a trap for Dave, who awakens in a drugged state to find the $100,000 missing. With the help of Millman and Teresa, Dave recovers the money, turns it over to the police and resolves to go straight.