Masterpiece Selection Resonating with the Themes of Chinatown After...

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.

Dir: Stuart Paton

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

Whiskey smuggler Dubec, trades liquor to the Indians, takes revenge on the Royal North West Mounted Police pursuing him by killing the wife of post commander Sergeant Delisle and abducting his teen-aged daughter Nonette. After twelve years of futile searches, the eighteenth birthday celebration of Delisle's other daughter Julie is disrupted when Sergeant MacNair arrives to replace Delisle because Delisle cannot control the lawlessness in the camp. MacNair falls in love with Julie though she scorns him. When Dubec and Nonette, now his wife, return from the Klondike with a dance hall troupe of women, Delisle, not recognizing Dubec but resenting his flirtations with Julie, orders them to leave. Dubec captures Julie and MacNair, forcing Julie to dance, and offers her to the highest bidder. MacNair saves her just as Delisle, warned by Nonette of Dubec, arrives. Nonette is reunited with her father, and MacNair and Julie, now in love, embrace.

Dir: Stuart Paton

Antiques collector Bradley West agrees to adopt Little Marie, a French war orphan, to please his wife. Marie and a servant's son, George Washington Jones, Jr., irritate Bradley with their mischief until he hires Hulda, a governess who objects to Marie's friendship with a Black child. Marie attempts to placate Hulda by whitewashing George, then presents him at a tea party and shocks the guests. Bradley's nephew and secretary, Trent Gordon, befriends Marie and she assists him in overcoming difficulties with his girlfriend, Phyllis Dare. Unbeknown to the West family, Hulda, alias "Chicago Hattie," is in league with a gang of thieves led by Raymond Brownleigh, intent on robbing Bradley's safe. On the night of the burglary, the noise awakens Marie and she locks Brownleigh in the safe. Before the thief can make his escape, Trent captures the entire gang. Marie's courage and resourcefulness win her the love of her foster father.

Dir: Stuart Paton

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

Episode 1: "The Bank Mystery" Mr. Carlow, a wealthy American living in London, is engaged to Lady Gwendolin, and has ordered from Arabin and Company, famous Fifth Avenue jewelers, a necklace worth two million dollars, to be made for her wedding present. She is anxious to see it, and he sends the junior partner of his London solicitors, Wade Hildreth, to America to get the jewel. He cables the young attorney's personal description to Arabin, and gives Wade his certified check for two million dollars. Wade makes ready to go with his secretary. Jean Marco. In New York is a master criminal known as the Gray Ghost. So perfect is his organization that he is never even suspected of the crimes and robberies which follow each other in quick succession. Only one member of the detective force really believes in his identity. This is Jerry Tyron. The Gray Ghost intercepts the message from Arabin. He prepares a reception for Hildreth, for he wishes to get the necklace and the check. Banker Olmstead is at dinner with his wife and son who is employed in the bank with him. His father is anxious that the books shall be in order, as the auditor is coming to examine them. He decides to go down to the bank. Young Olmstead is in the power of the Gray Ghost, to whom he has lost at cards. He goes to him to say that the game is up, and asks for mercy. Instead of helping him, the man plans to get him further into his power. Morn Light, a musical comedy star, whose connection with the Ghost is mysterious, arrives during their discussion. The Ghost asks her to retire, but she listens and watches. She sees the Ghost's men strike down Olmstead, and demands to know what is to be done with him. The Ghost tells her to mind her own business, and she is very angry. He sends her home. Olmstead has arrived at the bank and ordered the vault to be opened. The watchman is in the pay of the Ghost. Olmstead discovers his son's thefts from the bank. Suddenly he is shot down. It is the Ghost's men who have been introduced into the vault by the watchman. The men appear, carrying the boy. They place a revolver in his hand, and leave him lying upon his father's body. He comes to, and the watchman tells him that he has shot his father, and that the police are after him. He cannot believe it, but an officer rushes in and drags him out. In the car the officer changes his clothes to civilian attire, and when Olmstead demands to know what it means he is silenced. The Gray Ghost waits till one o'clock, and then he calls up Tyron and tells him that the bank has been robbed. Tyron sets out at once with a large force of police. They arrive at the bank, and find the unconscious watchman. The body of the banker has disappeared.

Dir: Stuart Paton

Episode 1: "The Oriental Death Punch" Alvin Van Cleft has a penchant for chorus girls, particularly Polly Marion. One night they leave a café and enter a taxi, closely watched by two muffled figures. As Van Cleft and the girl are riding through the park Van Cleft falls into a stupor, a mysterious hand which seems to have no attachment to a body, enters the cab and kills Van Cleft. Later Howard, his son, is notified by a mysterious voice that his father has been murdered and is the third victim, two others interested in chorus girls having preceded him. Howard notifies John Shirley, interested in criminology, and Professor Montague, a prominent physician, and they, together with Cronin, head of a detective agency, start working on the case. Shirley arrives at the conclusion that Van Cleft was murdered by the Japanese death punch, Sen Si Yao, as he is telling this to his friends he receives a telephone message that Cronin is in Bellevue Hospital with a crushed skull and that Montague may be the fourth victim. Shirley visits Cronin, who tells how he was beaten by two chaps who had been in the same taxi with him. Shirley then receives a message that he will be the next victim if he does not stop meddling in others' affairs. The professor, to the surprise of Howard, disguises himself and goes out the back way; as he jumps over the wall he is attacked by two thugs, whom he overpowers and marches to the police station.

Dir: Stuart Paton

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

George Grant has invented a device which is being financed by his partner, John Benson, who receives an offer of $200,000 for the patent rights of the valuable invention. The offer is accepted with Grant's approval. Grant enters a barroom where an old man reprimands Dave Wilson, a young man out of employment, for wasting his time in barrooms. Dave strikes the old man, and Grant interferes, giving the young man a black eye. Benson sees the encounter and Grant returns to his home office with Benson. As Benson is leaving he meets Dave, who tells him he has been persuaded by his mother to apologize to Grant. The apology is accepted. Then Grant suddenly drops dead. Dave hears a police whistle blown outside, and runs into the next room where he crawls under the bed. Policemen and members of Grant's household arrive and discover Grant's body. One of the policemen telephones to the police station, and Detective Doyle is assigned to take charge of the case. Dave is present when Doyle arrives on the scene of the murder, and explains to Doyle how Grant dropped dead. Meanwhile a policeman finds a pistol in the yard, and hands it to Doyle. Benson telephones from his home that he wishes to speak to Grant. Doyle answers that there has been an accident and he had better come over at once. When Benson arrives Dave urges him to tell the detective that Benson knew of Dave's mission to the house, but Benson answers, "I know about the fight, and I know nothing about the apology." Dave collapses and is dragged off to the police station. The scene then shifts to the courtroom where Dave has been tried for murder and the jury have found him guilty. Shortly after Dave is electrocuted. One year later James Sprague, the criminologist, is visiting his old friend, the warden, and is shown the reforms the warden has made in prison life. The warden believes in the golden rule, and between working hours the men are allowed their freedom and are treated as human beings. The prisoners are shown playing baseball, and are given manual exercises. During the game the warden tells Sprague that he is glad capital punishment has been abolished as many an innocent man had been electrocuted. The warden then shows Sprague a photograph of Grant's home, declaring that he doesn't believe that the man who was electrocuted for killing Grant was actually guilty. Sprague is interested in the case, and departs with the photograph in his pocket. We next see Sprague at Grant's home making a close examination of the room in which Grant was killed. He looks out of the window into the yard where he sees a boy in a swing. He chases the boy out of the yard, gets on the swing, and concludes that Grant was shot by the murderer swinging himself to a height on a level with Grant's window which would account for the revolver picked up in the yard subsequent to the murder. Meanwhile Benson's guilty conscience has made him a nervous wreck. He goes to his home, where he has another vision of Grant, and shoots at the specter with his revolver. The servants rush in, and the butler revives him with a stimulating drink. Sprague consults Detective Doyle, who asserts that Grant's murder was a case of murder for revenge, and in his subsequent investigation learns of Benson's strange attack of nervousness. Under the pretense of wanting to make a business contract, Sprague makes the acquaintance of Benson. He bribes the butler and maid servant to get themselves discharged and the next day he installs servants of his own choice in Benson's household. Sprague's wife is engaged as the maid servant. The butler and Sprague's wife, abetted by a detective, act so strangely and get Benson into such an extremely nervous condition that when Sprague calls on him to close the proposed contract he begins to suspect that he is being spied on, especially on being asked whether he is interested in the abolition of capital punishment. Sprague then relates to him the peculiar case of Dave Wilson in connection with the murder of George Grant, which increases Benson's apparent nervousness. Meanwhile, Detective Doyle, who is in the yard, fires off a revolver, at a given signal from Sprague. Benson becomes hysterical and confesses that he committed the murder. At the close of the picture, Benson is seen in prison stripes in order to emphasize that while Dave Wilson had no chance of redemption. Benson, through the abolition of capital punishment, would at least be given a chance.

Dir: Stuart Paton

A fascinating piece of cinema that shares thematic elements.

Dir: Edgar Jones

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

A mail-order bride arrives at a Maine lumber camp but doesn't like her prospective husband.

Dir: Alexander Butler

In Alberta, Canada, a Cornish emigrant unmasks a rustler posing as the girl's "blind" father.

Dir: Stuart Paton

Emerson Boyd is the owner of the Great Boyd Mills, a relentless scheming, grinding corporation, which employs child labor and disregards all laws of health and sanitation. He is also in control of the Boyd Chemical Company, another large corporation with the same greedy and heartless policy which turns out upon the public certain harmful and toxic medicines, among which is Saco-Ozone, a widely advertised cure for tuberculosis and pulmonary diseases. Back of the powerful arm of Emerson Boyd is David Duncan, general manager of the Boyd Mills. Duncan is also a crooked politician. He is in love with Eleanor, Boyd's daughter, who, however, is secretly engaged to Matthew Brand, one of the idle rich. Emerson Boyd reads a newspaper attack upon the Boyd Corporation and, in a great rage, calls Duncan to see what influence he can use as a political boss to muzzle the paper. Eleanor goes away and Brand runs across the newspaper article against her father. Alarmed by the facts set forth in the paper, Brand determines to investigate, and, calling upon Cole, the editor of the "Clarion," hears a story that makes him sick at heart. Then he learns that Boyd's political machine has muzzled the paper. Brand pays a visit to Boyd's factories, and is horrified at the unsanitary conditions. Brand visits the "Clarion" office and buys the paper, but retains Cole to help him. They start at once on an article that drives Boyd wild with rage when the paper comes from the press. Brand goes to call on Eleanor. At the same time Duncan and the detective are closeted with Boyd. While Brand is telling Eleanor of his campaign with the Tuberculosis Society to wipe out the dread disease the detective is telling Boyd that the man who is so bitterly opposing him and printing the vitriolic stories is none other than the quiet Matthew Brand, who has been courting his daughter. Boyd is astounded. Meanwhile, Eleanor has become so enthusiastic that she determines that her father must hear the story and hurries to the library, where Boyd is closeted with his hirelings, and begs him to come and listen to Matthew Brand. When Brand sees Boyd, the latter attacks him unsparingly and, refusing to grant him a hearing, orders him to leave the house and never return. Eleanor is astounded. The National Tuberculosis Society meets with failure, for, when Boyd learns of the proposed sanitarium, he orders the mayor to prevent it, fearing that it might hurt his patent medicine business. Following the dictates of his superior, Mayor Alrich replies that the finances of the town would not warrant such a measure. Meanwhile Boyd becomes interested in the persistent attack upon the horrible system of the great mills and inquires of Duncan as to the truth of the stories. The latter lies glibly. In the meantime, Eleanor has gone to the "Clarion'' office to see her sweetheart. Duncan calls, and Brand pushes Eleanor into an adjoining room, that she may hear what is said. Duncan threatens Brand to induce him to stop the damaging articles, but Brand defies him. Boyd is beginning to admire Brand, but Duncan plans to dynamite the "Clarion." Eleanor, becoming very ill, the old family physician is sent for, and, making a thorough examination, tells Boyd the crushing news that his daughter has symptoms of tuberculosis. Duncan arrives at the rendezvous where he learns that the police have become suspicious of the gangsters and they had retired to await his orders. Duncan is angered to the utmost over the hitch in the well-laid plans, and, calling them all the utmost cowards, takes the bomb himself and bids them follow. In the darkness of the rear of the "Clarion" office, Duncan sets the bomb and lights it, while on the inside, Brand and a helper are working over some copy. The bomb has a defective fuse, and a premature explosion takes place, killing Duncan, while the falling bricks and masonry seriously injure Brand. Boyd's family physician tells the money king that there are no places in Every-town for the proper treatment of tuberculosis, as Boyd and other corporation owners have persistently fought to keep out all sanitariums. Boyd thinks of his own remedy, and sends for a case of Saco-Ozone. He reads from the testimonials of its wonderful cures, but the family physician appears, and hurls it all from the window, telling him that it is harmful and poisonous. He then tells Boyd that Eleanor, to get well, must be sent to an open air sanitarium. When Boyd tells Eleanor of the doctor's suggestion, and offers her anything her heart desires, if she will only try to get well, he is told that her one wish is that he will send for Brand and listen to him. Boyd leads Brand to the library, where he listens to the other's talk on the existing evil conditions and of his efforts to prevent the spreading of tuberculosis. Boyd thereupon plans to reconstruct Every-town. Miracle upon miracle is accomplished by the enthusiastic money king, who sends his daughter to a sanitarium, where she ultimately recovers after receiving good care, fresh air, rest and wholesome food. The story ends one year later with a big banquet to celebrate a new and clean Every-town and, incidentally, the engagement of Eleanor and Brand.