The Auteur's Selection Complementing the Tone of Bucket of Blood: C...

Dir: John Cosgrove

The Films centers around a family who is plagued by a mysterious pultergeist. Basesd on true events

Dir: Ernest C. Warde

When young writer Brandon McShane is left penniless by the death of his father, he is forced to rent a room in the tenement district from the Mahon family. Brandon soon becomes infatuated with the fortune hunting Mimi Gascoigne, who casts him aside for a wealthy suitor. In search of revenge, Brandon acquires a magic skin which will gratify its owner's wishes, but which exacts years from the petitioner's life in payment. Brandon wishes himself wealth and his enemies unhappiness, and then lives in terror of the penalty he must pay. One day he meets Pauline Mahon who has loved him since his tenement days. Pauline convinces Brandon to wish the skin out of his life, and then he discovers that Pauline's love is the fulfillment of this last wish.

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

Dir: Julius Herska

France in the late 1600s, the son of a widowed lord is kidnapped by gypsies, who carve a permanent grin on the child's face. When the deformed boy grows up, he falls in love with a blind girl named Dea, and joins a touring company as a performer. Calling himself Gwynplaine, he develops an act in which he reveals his hideous face to the crowds for money. A sexually perverse, seductive socialite named Josiane becomes attracted to him and seeks to possess him.

Dir: Rudolf Liebscher

A mad scientist, an Indian fakir and a Japanese conman walk into a lab - and try to resurrect a dead alchemist in order to discover the secret of creating gold.

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

Dir: Michael Curtiz

Edward Stephenson, the son of a great industrialist, is due to marry the daughter of another prominent business leader. But the boy prefers a modest employee of the latter, Maud Hartley, whose brother is an impossible rascal, murderer of a police officer. Maud is spurned by Edward who wrongly assumes she is unfaithful. Later, the girl is victim of a railway accident and then throws herself headlong into the easy life. Will the couple reunite again, for better or worse?

Dir: Richard Smith

Harpo played the hero, a detective named Watson who "made his entrance in a high hat, sliding down a coal chute into the basement". Groucho played an "old movie" villain, who "sported a long mustache and was clad in black", while Chico was probably his "chuckling [Italian] henchman". Zeppo portrayed a playboy who was the owner of a nightclub in which most of the action took place, including "a cabaret, [which allowed] the inclusion of a dance number". The final shot showed Groucho "in ball and chain, trudging slowly off into the gloaming". Harpo, in a rare moment of romantic glory, gets the girl in the end.

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

Dir: Charles Raymond

A magician helps outwit a Chinaman's gang.

Dir: Maurice Elvey

Sherlock Holmes comes to the aid of his friend Henry Baskerville, who is under a family curse and menaced by a demonic dog that prowls the bogs near his estate and murders people.

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

Dir: F.W. Murnau

Vampire Count Orlok expresses interest in a new residence and real estate agent Hutter's wife.

Dir: Urban Gad

A loose and unofficial silent adaptation of H. G. Wells' The Island Of Dr. Moreau.