The Auteur's Selection In the Shadow of By Right of Possession: Cul...

Dir: William Wolbert

College friends John Burt and Arthur Morris are rivals for the hand of Jessie Garden. They come to blows over Jessie, and John, believing that he has killed Arthur in the fight, goes West to search for the location of a mine belonging to his grandfather. John finds the mine and returns home a millionaire, but discovers that Jessie is planning upon sacrificing herself to Arthur in order to retrieve the fortune her father lost as a result of Arthur's stock manipulations. John puts his own fortune at Garden's disposal and succeeds in breaking Arthur. In anger and hatred, Arthur attempts to kill John but fails and commits suicide instead. With the menace of Arthur removed, John and Jessie marry and face a happy life together.

Dir: William Wolbert

U.S. Navy Lieutenant George Blenton becomes drunk at an official reception, and his fiancee, Jane Ravenslee, the captain's daughter, breaks their engagement. After war is declared, George, entrusted with a secret code book to deliver to an English admiral, drinks and loses the book which German spies recover. During a private court-martial he is offered a pistol for suicide. After drinking again, he fires a shot, but still lives. Put ashore on the island of Tafofu "to rot," George, hating the U.S., moves in with Lehua, a half-white who tries to wean him from drink. Jane, still in love, attempts to find George, but her ship is torpedoed and captured by a German submarine. After the sub arrives at Tafofu to sink George's ship, the U.S.S. Victory , Lehua unsuccessfully tries to warn them. George, who has befriended the German captain, sees the Victory 's flag, and signals danger. The Victory sinks the sub, and George, while fighting the captain, is shot. After Jane finds his body, he is honored posthumously on the victory.

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

Dir: William Wolbert

Tom Evans, the fearless range boss of the Double X Ranch, falls in love with a romantic schoolteacher from the East named Clara. They marry and for a time are happy, but in Tom's absence, his partner Blackie persuades the restless young wife to run away with him. Blackie soon deserts Clara, and she is forced to earn her keep at a disreputable dance hall. After robbing a stage, Blackie returns, and Tom, who has been waiting for his former friend, goes after him. In a gun battle with Tom and his posse, Blackie kills Clara and escapes, but Tom follows him into the desert and takes his horse, leaving him to die of thirst. Tom returns to Elsie, the girl who had secretly loved him all along, and marries her.

Dir: William Wolbert

After her romance with Martin Stuart shatters, Kathleen St. John leaves Montreal for the little village of Montrouge, where she plans to teach school. Kathleen loses her way between the station and the village and is attacked in the woods by the town bully, Louis Courteau. Seeing a pretty woman in distress, Bateese Latour, a warmhearted lumberjack whose drunken temper tantrums have earned him the sobriquet "That devil, Bateese," beats off her attacker. A short time later, Bateese falls in love with Kathleen, and promising to abandon his drinking, he carries her off and marries her. When Martin comes to Montrouge, however, Bateese becomes convinced that Kathleen still loves her former sweetheart and paddles away in his canoe, intending to let the falls carry him to his death. Louis's sister, a pathetic creature who is still clad in the wedding dress she wore when her groom deserted her, recognizes Martin as her long-lost lover, whereupon Kathleen rushes out to find Bateese. Hurt, but still alive on the bank below the waterfall, Bateese returns home with his wife.

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

Dir: William Wolbert

Wanda Carson travels to Reno, Nevada to visit her brother Sam, but finds that he went to the hills to work. Curious about the lively divorce colony, Wanda, who has never had a romance, impersonates a divorcée, exhibits her companion's baby as her own, and becomes the colony's favorite. Visiting Reverend Jerry Ferguson from Boston, who fights against divorce, rescues Wanda when her horse runs away. In the hills, under their assumed names of "Prince Cactus Pete" and "The Sagebrush Queen," they pursue a romance. While in town, Wanda challenges Jerry's views in the newspaper without either realizing the other's identity. When Wanda falls in love and withdraws from the divorce colony, an angry member tells Jerry that Wanda has a child. Wanda witnesses a holdup and thinks that Jerry is the bandit. She goes to warn Jerry of the sheriff's posse, and they both ride off with Jerry thinking that Wanda's irate husband is pursuing. After the sheriff catches them and reveals Jerry's identity, Sam, riding with the posse, reveals Wanda's. The now-exposed couple, plans their future together.

Dir: William Wolbert

Ed Wetherford becomes an outlaw and, to escape imprisonment, abandons his wife Eliza and daughter Virginia. After attending college in the East, Virginia returns to California, where she meets and falls in love with Ross Cavanaugh, a United States ranger. Ross is busy trying to maintain peace between warring cattlemen and sheepherders and, in the line of duty, meets Virginia's father. The two men become friends and Virginia, who had been reluctant to accept Ross's proposal because of her father's misdeeds, finally marries Ross.

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

Dir: William Wolbert

To retaliate for Bill Warned's vigilante activity, Captain Sunlight, a notorious outlaw, kidnaps Warned's sister Janet, an Eastern society girl, from her train and holds her in the hills. Janet is rescued by Jack Conway, a rancher, but faints before getting a good look at him. Because he bears a resemblance to Sunlight, Janet turns Jack over to the posse the next time they meet. After Jack is released with a laugh by the posse, Janet dumps her Eastern fiancé in favor of the dashing cowboy. Sunlight, spurred on by his defeat, begins a series of raids on the local ranches that culminates in an attack on the Warned place. As a battle between the posse and the bandits rages, Janet escapes from the ranch and rides to Fort Maxey to summon the troops. With Janet leading the way, the troops defeat the outlaws, but Jack is shot in the fight. While tending to Jack's wounds, Janet is surprised by Sunlight, but finally overcomes him, tossing him over a cliff to his death.

Dir: William Wolbert

Bertha Gilman, helping her mother run a small hotel, is courted by Marshall Haney, gambler and saloonkeeper. She promises to marry him if he will give up his gambling habit and live on the income of $100,000 which he receives yearly from the mines he honestly acquired. A miner who has been fleeced of his money in the gaming hall after Haney sells out shoots Haney. Bertha and Haney are married, and she nurses him back to health, though he remains badly crippled. They move to Colorado Springs, and buy a magnificent home. Later Bertha meets Ben Fordyce, an honorable young man, engaged to Alice Heath, a consumptive. Haney and his wife go east at the same time that Ben takes his affianced wife back. The four travel on the same train, and during the trip Ben and Bertha become more attached to each other. Both, however, remain loyal to their trusting ones. In the east Bertha's longing for Ben becomes almost unbearable. Her husband, noting her morose condition and being apprised of the cause of it by Alice just before she dies, suggests to his wife that they return to their home in Colorado Springs. So that he might bring happiness to the two young lovers, Haney whose heart is weak, deliberately climbs a mountain. As he reaches the top he dies, and Bertha and Ben realize as they gaze upon the body of Haney what a great sacrifice he has made that their lives might become one.

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

Dir: William Wolbert

Although the prominent Hollywood family prides itself on its illustrious family tree, young Winifred Hollywood exhibits a fondness for wild adventures that greatly disturbs her parents. When Winifred becomes engaged to bank official Harold Burton, his equally snobbish parents visit the Hollywood home and are shocked by the young woman's spirited outbursts and mischievous tricks, and the engagement is broken after she decides to perform bareback feats with a traveling circus. On an evening ride, Winifred overhears two men planning to rob a bank, but when she attempts to phone for help, they make her their prisoner. In trying to rescue Winifred, Harold proves an able fighter, and with the aid of the circus crew, she is freed and the crooks apprehended. The Hollywoods then reveal that one of their ancestors was a bandit, while the Burtons admit that their line included a noted pugilist, and the young people are allowed to resume their romance.

Dir: William Wolbert

Geoffrey Hampden, a Texas oil millionaire living in New York, seeks revenge against Philip Armond, the man who caused his sister to commit suicide. His attempt on Philip's life is unsuccessful, but he is sent to prison for five years, after which he returns to Texas using the name George Hammond. He moves into a cabin with his business partner, Dick Stewart, whose sister Cynthia is abducted by business rivals. In a rescue attempt, Dick is mortally wounded, and on his deathbed he asks George to protect Cynthia. Although she agrees to marry George, Cynthia does not love him, and immediately after the ceremony, she moves to New York to break into society with her husband's money. There she becomes engaged to Philip Armond, and the two return to Texas to ask for a divorce. Philip has heart failure when he recognizes George, and Cynthia, learning the truth about her lover's past, returns to her husband to start a new life.