Visionary Picks Drawn from the Same DNA as Common Sense: Cult Guide

Dir: Wilfred Lucas

Brian O'Farrell (Snowy Baker), is an English 'new chum' who takes a job at an Australian cattle station. He is teased by station hands because of his appearance (including spats and a monocle) but he soon impresses them with his skills at riding and boxing. The station manager, John MacDonald (Wilfred Lucas), takes O'Farrell to Sydney to meet his daughter Edith (Kathleen Key) who is working in the slums. Edith is kidnapped by criminals after witnessing a crime but O'Farrell rescues her. It is later revealed he is the owner of the station.

Dir: Robert N. Bradbury

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

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: Bruno Ziener

A fascinating piece of cinema that shares thematic elements.

Dir: Louis Chaudet

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of Eva, wo bist du? perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

Nancy Glenn is a pupil in Pop Hogland's school for crooks. When, attired as a boy named "Spider," Nancy fails at her lessons as a pickpocket, Pop decides to pair her with Pliny Drew, a graduate thief and swindler. Nancy rebels at her proposed partnership with Pliny, and after she is involved in an auto accident and rescued by wealthy young Ralph Harding who takes her to his home to recover, Nancy pretends to have lost her memory. Gradually, Ralph falls in love with the girl, and his mother accepts her as one of the family. However, when Pliny attempts to involve Ralph in a mining swindle, Nancy sacrifices her security and exposes the plan, thus saving her benefactor. Learning of the conditions which drove her into life at the edge of the law, Ralph forgives Nancy and they face a happy life together.

Dir: Edgar Jones

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

Dir: Harley Knoles

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

Jim McDonald, the foreman of a shipbuilding plant and head of the labor union, strives to combat the anarchistic propaganda being put forth by Klimoff, the leader of a Bolshevik gang whose goal is to disrupt the country with strikes and anarchy. Despite McDonald's efforts, a strike is called, resulting in chaos. McDonald's child is knocked down by runaway horses abandoned by their striking driver, and dies. Mob scenes take place in America, as well as in Russia. Eventually, the unrest is quelled with an armistice called between Capital and Labor for a year, during which time wages are to be increased to reflect the cost of living, and leaders are to work out a common plan for their mutual advantage. The strikers now realize that they have been pawns of the Bolsheviks and call off the strike, agreeing to the plan.

Dir: Louis Chaudet

As an infant, Ruth Drake was stolen from her father by her vengeful mother, and then abandoned. She was adopted and raised by a pawnbroker, and as a young woman joins the Salvation Army in order to help the kinds of people she has seen--and was--growing up. When war breaks out in Europe, she volunteers to go to France, and there meets a young man who has had an affair with a prominent actress. When Ruth and the man return to the US, the actress is outraged that her former boyfriend is now seeing Ruth, and sets up a scheme to frame Ruth for a robbery. However, during the trial certain facts come out that shock everyone.

Dir: Louis Chaudet

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

A girl nicknamed "The Weed" lives with her foster parents in their mountain cabin and frequently visits a nearby health resort to sell milk and eggs. On one of her excursions, she befriends a cantankerous old millionaire, George Bassett, who later bequeaths to her his entire estate. Ralph Long's car plunges down an embankment, and he is dragged from the wreckage and looked after by the Weed, who soon captivates him with her charm and ingenuousness. While he is in the hospital, however, the lecherous Kenneth Stewart snaps a photo of the girl swimming in the nude in a mountain pool and hangs an enlargement of it in his club. He once attempts to enter her room but she bolts him out. Through a neighbor, Ralph learns that Stewart is actually the girl's father, whose abandonment of his wife soon after the Weed's birth led to the woman's death. Ralph confronts Stewart, and the latter, deeply ashamed, leaves town. Ralph resolves to keep the truth from the Weed and proposes to her.

Dir: Louis Chaudet

Billy simply has no use for mothers-in-law, and when his bride informs him that "mother" is coming for a visit, he digs up an excuse concerning a business trip to 'Frisco. It is only camouflage on Billy's part, for his real reason is to meet a couple of lady buyers who are sportively inclined. And that's where the complications begin. Wifey must see him off on the boat which gets his "goat," since he knows he is in for a healthy bath in swimming back to town. The bride, in the meantime, is entertained at a shady roadhouse by friendly neighbors, and Billy takes his buyers there to drink at the shrine of Bacchus. The upshot of it all is, the place is raided, and Billy finds out that his story of the sinking boat is a figment of his imagination. But mother-in-law arrives in time to restore amicable relations. And Billy finds that his prejudice hasn't a leg to stand on for she proves to be his fair companion - the buxom buyer.

Dir: Louis Chaudet

To further his political ends and enrich himself, a political boss lets corruption run rampant in his city. A young couple set out to expose him.