Deep Archive Finds in the Vein of Brave and Bold: Cult Guide

Dir: Carl Harbaugh

Broadway actress Sibyle Fane visits the home of Anna Mae Neil, daughter of a Hickville farmer, who is engaged to local druggist Virgil Cole. Impressed with Miss Fane, Virgil sells his business and sets out for New York City. Miss Fane advises Anna Mae to arrive in the city ahead of Virgil and monitor her fiancé under the guise of a famous model. The actress introduces Anna Mae to sculptress Violet Garden and songwriter Pinky Hale, who teach her the latest jazz steps. She flirts with Virgil in a fashionable restaurant and discovers his shifting affections at a party. Convinced of Virgil's unfaithfulness, Anna decides that talented young artist Peter Van Reuter is deserving of her love.

Dir: Carl Harbaugh

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

Hezekiah Dill is a meek clerk in a store in a small town. One day a pair of criminals robs the store safe, but Hezekiah manages to lock them in the safe, and begins to pick up their intended loot. He suddenly realizes that all this money would enable him to become the "Broadway Sport" he's always wanted to be, so he goes for it. Complications ensue.

Dir: Carl Harbaugh

Minnie, the village tomboy, meets a handsome Stranger after playing ball one afternoon. She invites him to see a bridge model her father has designed; but finding her intoxicated father in the act of destroying the model, she swears vengeance on the local bootleggers and joins a newspaper as sportswriter so as to expose their activities. Pike, the station agent, leader of the bootleggers, spreads a scandal about Minnie when she rejects him, but through the help of the Stranger everything is cleared up.

Dir: Carl Harbaugh

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

Finding that marriage conflicts with his carefree life, Teddy Brant, a dissolute man-about-town, fakes his own suicide, thus freeing Rose, his self-sacrificing wife, and his baby daughter Helen from life with an irresponsible drunk. Learning of her husband's alleged death, Rose remarries. Years later, Teddy, now a hopeless derelict, wanders the country until, unable to find a place to sleep one night, he strays into the waiting room of a train station. Here he sees a young girl being accosted by an elderly gentleman who entices her home. Teddy thinks nothing of the incident until he finds a purse lying on the seat and learns that the girl is his daughter Helen. Teddy hastens after them and in the ensuing fight, strangles Helen's assailant and then flees. Helen is arrested for the murder, but is acquitted when Teddy staggers into the police station and confesses to the crime, takes his life in his cell.

Dir: Carl Harbaugh

A fascinating piece of cinema that shares thematic elements.

Dir: Carl Harbaugh

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

Shirley Reynolds returns home from boarding school to find that her mother, weary of her husband's philandering, has filed for divorce. Hoping to effect a reconciliation, Shirley visits her father's apartment, where she interrupts a riotous party held in honor of his new mistress, Lola Wayne. Shirley prevents Lola's outraged father from killing her own father, but later, Wayne decides to wreak his revenge through Shirley and hires the lecherous Trask to lure her to ruin. On a particular evening, Wayne persuades Shirley to visit Trask's disreputable roadhouse, where Lola has arranged to meet with Reynolds. Suspicious, Shirley's sweetheart, Richard Ormsby, follows her to the inn. Reynolds hears Shirley struggling with Trask behind a locked door but is unable to assist her until Richard arrives. Trask, in his struggle to escape the two men, leaps from a window to his death, after which Wayne takes Lola home. Shirley then convinces her mother to forgive her remorseful husband.

Dir: Carl Harbaugh

Celeste Hardin wants to set up her brother Henry, a confirmed bachelor, with her college friend Henrietta Downs, believing that she wold be a good wife for him. Henry and Henrietta discover Celeste's scheme and decide to play a trick on her--Henrietta will pose as Myra Haynes, an escaped lunatic and pretend to be in love with Henry. However, the real Myra Haynes attends a political rally, at which Henry declares his intention to run for mayor, and she becomes convinced that he is her long-lost lover, also named Henry. Complications ensue.

Dir: Carl Harbaugh

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

Sarah Maitland is consumed by two interests, managing her steel mill and raising her children, Blair and Nannie, to be honest and caring. As a result, she is shocked when Blair seduces Elizabeth Ferguson away from his best friend, Doctor David Ritchie, and marries her. Elizabeth soon realizes her mistake and begs David to take her back, but his mother Helena, calling upon personal experience, warns the couple against an extra-marital affair. Then, Sarah is injured in a mill accident and doctors predict that she will die in a few hours. David manages to save her, however, and when Blair comes to see her, he vows to divorce Elizabeth so that she can marry the man she really loves.

Dir: Carl Harbaugh

The film tells the story of a noble but poor woman who arrives at Boston in the 17th century. There she marries an old but quite rich doctor but does not become happy.

Dir: Carl Harbaugh

After Mary Page marries Fred Walton, she soon discovers that he is a womanizer. She tries to ignore Fred's affairs but, refuses to file for divorce even when Platt Sinclair, her husband's lawyer, urges her to do so. Mary does not realize that Sinclair is actually helping Fred, who is in love with his current mistress, Helen Lee, and wants to marry her. To escape her misery, Mary organizes a settlement house in the slums and there meets reporter Eric Mann, with whom she becomes very close. One night, as Sinclair goes to Mary's house to try to convince her to change her mind, he sees Eric through the window and informs Fred that she is seeing another man. Fred wants to sue Mary for divorce, but when Eric threatens Sinclair with disbarment, the suit is dropped. One night, Mary interrupts Fred during his evening with Helen on the same night that Jimmy Hope, a burglar, is robbing their house. The result of the night's activities are the death of Fred and the ultimate arrest of the real murderer who was obsessed with Hope.