Editor's Top Picks Following the Footsteps of Brother Alfred: Cult ...

Dir: Henry Edwards

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.

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

Dir: Maurice Campbell

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: 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.

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

Dir: Jerome Storm

Ne'er-do-well Homer Cavender ventures to the city from Mainsville in an effort to find fame and fortune. Both elude him, and after clerking for two years, Homer returns home for a vacation. Impressed by his flashy clothes, the townspeople assume that Homer has achieved success. Attempting to win Rachel Prouty from his rival, Arthur Machim, Homer continues the deception by announcing that his employer, Kort and Bailly, has dispatched him to enroll stockholders for a proposed new plant to be built in Mainsville. Machim discovers the sham and denounces Homer as a crook. Meanwhile, Homer returns to New York, convinces his employers of the merits of his plan and comes home triumphant, with a proposal for both the new plant and for Rachel's hand in marriage.

Dir: Henry Edwards

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

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

Dir: Vernon Stallings

Krazy Kat is held in jail and Ignatz finally bails him out after encountering "guilt".

Dir: Henry Edwards

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

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

Dir: Richard Smith

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: 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.