The Recommended Vault Deeply Connected to Bucking the Line: Cult Guide

Dir: Robert N. Bradbury

A simple country girl, brutally mistreated by her stepfather, awakens first the sympathy, then the love, of The Boy. The Spider, who lusts after The Girl, makes a bargain with the stepfather and takes her to the city where, kept prisoner, she is soon broken in health and spirit. Cast out and near death, she is taken in by The Boy. Following the demise of The Spider, The Boy takes her to church, where he prays, and after many hours she is restored to health.

Dir: Carl Harbaugh

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of A Rich Man's Plaything perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

Marie Grandon, one of the multitude that labor in a big New England oyster cannery, meets "Iron" Lloyd, millionaire financier and tenement owner, whose yacht is cruising off the coast near the town where Marie works. Lloyd is visiting the little city incognito. He gets into a fight and is injured. During his illness he becomes acquainted with Marie, and as he convalesces their friendship ripens into love. Marie tells him that if she had the means she would wage battle against the oppressive tenement lords and carry on a campaign of reform. To test her, Lloyd, whom she knows as Strange, has his lawyer transfer a fortune to her. Marie thinks the money is a legacy from a long lost relative. The girl goes to New York and does what she vowed she would do. She concentrates her fight on Lloyd and his tenements. Ogden Deneau, Lloyd's business rival, associates himself with Marie, claiming interest in her work, but really to crush Lloyd. But Marie also has old scores to settle with Deneau, and in her plan to ruin both of these financiers enlists Strange's aid. Strange, or Lloyd, helps her gladly, and on the evening of the day the grate coup is to be made, meets her. He tells Marie that Deneau is bankrupt. When she asks about Lloyd, he informs her of the deception he has practiced. At first she is furious. Later she hears his explanation of the test and finally agrees to start life over again with him, a life not to be marred with sordid tenements.

Dir: Carl Harbaugh

Three New York families are introduced: wealthy Fred Hartley and his wife, who, feeling neglected, encourages the attentions of debonair J. Douglas Kerr, the middle-class Moore family, consisting of mother, daughter, and son Jimmie who supports them, and the Simons, an East Side Jewish family. When America enters the war, Hartley, Jimmie, and Davy Simon enlist. When Jimmy says goodbye to his sweetheart Becky, one of Davy's three sisters, her father refuses to consider him as a future son-in-law. Kerr sends Mrs. Hartley a cablegram reporting Hartley's death in the war. She puts off responding to Kerr's proposal, and after the armistice, Hartley finds her trying to break free from Kerr's embrace. When Kerr hastily exits, an irate butler grabs his trousers. Mr. Simon accepts Jimmie as Becky's fiancé, and Kerr is last seen squatting so that his overcoat covers his backside.

Dir: Carl Harbaugh

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of The Other Man's Wife 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

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: Bruno Ziener

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

A fascinating piece of cinema that shares thematic elements.

Dir: William Parke

Bruce Wendell, the son of West Virginia coal mine owner James Wendell, graduates from West Point and prepares to lead a fighting unit to the front during World War I. As his father lies dying, however, he convinces Bruce to remain at home and guard the mine. Bruce's fiancée Ann Blair assumes that he is a coward and breaks off their engagement, but her brother Bobbie remains Bruce's loyal friend. Meyer, a German agent, persuades railroad president Parrish to refuse to transport Wendell's coal, but when Bruce adamantly refuses to close the mine, the spy's men decide to blow it up. While Ann is being abducted by Meyer, Bobbie is buried in an explosion at the mine. Bruce rescues Bobbie and then sends a plea to Lieutenant Parrish to rescue Ann. Meyer and his gang are captured and Ann renews her vow of love to Bruce.

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.

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

Jack Spurlock's college escapades, which include a particularly raucous incident involving a bear, finally get him expelled, and his father, John Spurlock, Sr., compels him to go to work in the family's wholesale grocery business. The eager young man inexplicably purchases a huge surplus of onions and then supports the onion workers when they go on strike. After Spurlock, Sr. finally agrees to recognize the Onion Workers' Union, he fires his son and cuts off his allowance. Jack is forced to work as a waiter until his sweetheart, Anita Grey, introduces him to Professor Jackson, who has patented a health tonic made chiefly from onions. The publicity attending the Onion Workers' strike results in a huge demand for Jackson's tonic. In order to produce more of the cure-all, Jack purchases his father's onion surplus, thus redeeming his place in Spurlock, Sr.'s good graces.

Dir: Edward LeSaint

When famous opera singer Elinore Duane undergoes an operation on her throat, she has a series of ether-induced visions. In one, she is transported to ancient Rome where she appears as a much-admired woman in love with Paul, a young heretic, and at odds with Lutor, the high priest. To save her love, she poisons Lutor with her ring. After several other visions which involve variations on this love triangle, Elinore awakens to discover that Lutor is actually her doctor, Sascha Jaccard, and that Paul is the son of a friend who has come to visit the recovering prima donna.