Hidden Genre Gems for Fans of Compromised: Cult Guide

Dir: John G. Adolfi

June, a country girl, comes to New York to take care of her aunt's little girl Jane. In a squalid First Avenue tenement, she meets Frank, her old sweetheart from back home who had come to the city to make good. In the same house lives a band of thieves who steal a jewel and hide it in a slipper belonging to Mame, one of the members of the gang. One day Jane finds the shoe and begins to play with it. When she accidentally tears off the heel, the gem falls to the floor. Frank, recognizing it as the stolen jewel, rushes off to get the police. Meanwhile, the crooks discover the loss of the slipper and Mame learns that June has it. They all converge upon June just as the police arrive. The crooks are arrested, and June and Frank return home for their honeymoon.

Dir: John G. Adolfi

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

Merilla, a mermaid, must save four humans to earn a soul and human body. She falls for Prince Hero but lets him unite with his true love after saving princess Leanda from villain Boreas, sacrificing her own love but gaining humanity.

Dir: John G. Adolfi

Dana Thornton's niece Eleanor is friendly with Cynthia Carew, a Senator's daughter. After a ball one night, Cynthia finds her father dead in their automobile. While the ball was in progress Cynthia was with naval officer Lieutenant Lane; he asks her father for her hand, is refused, and a quarrel ensued. It later transpires that before going to the ball, Carew wrote a letter to the Secretary of State saying he knows a certain American who is selling his country's secrets in South America. The letter goes on to say that the name of the spy cannot be divulged yet. Immediately following the writing of this letter the old man was found dead, showing that someone thought him dangerous. Cynthia is prostrate and Eleanor Thornton and her uncle come over, the man to take charge of Carew's affairs and the girl to comfort her friend. Eleanor has a mysterious maid who is acting the part of the spy. Douglas Hunter, a secret service agent, is sent to help Detective Brett on the Carew case. The lieutenant who quarreled with Carew is under suspicion and Cynthia feels that he must be guilty and refuses to see him. Carew's nephew, Phil, is also suspected, because he had been seen quarreling with the Senator. Then the Stranger appears. He is Harry Thornton, brother of Dana, and his exact counterpart. Harry visits the Secretary of State, learns of Carew's death and has an attack of vertigo. When the Secretary goes to get him a drink he rushes down the hall. Later Dana visits the Secretary, steals the important papers and the stranger, who rushed away, is suspected. Eleanor sees Barry shrinking in the grounds and aiming a gun at the window. This is during a visit of the whole party as the guests of Dana. Phil is seized with illness. It transpires that Cynthia and Eleanor have identical kimonas. One of them, or so it seems, visits Phil and gives him medicine and he, in delirium, tells where the missing plans are. She goes downstairs and finds them and tears her kimona. Hunter, the detective, sees her as she goes upstairs. The girl's kimonas are examined next day, but no trace of the tear can be found. Consequently it was not one of the girls that was downstairs the night before. Brett and Hunter search the maid's room. There is found the torn kimona and they believe that she was the mysterious girl of the night before. The doctor discovers that Phil is being systematically poisoned. Lieutenant Lane, Cynthia's sweetheart, is arrested for Carew's murder. Dana sees Eleanor's maid listening at the door and finds her stealing papers in the library. That night Harry Thornton comes into the Thornton house and secrets himself in an untenanted room. No one sees him or knows he is there but an old colored servant. Cynthia tells Eleanor of a dream wherein she sees a door with panels in the shape of a cross. She goes to the door and tries to get out but cannot. She awakens screaming in terror. She also tells Cynthia that when she has this dream something terrible always follows. The mysterious maid lies down for a sleep and an arm reaches through the wall and extinguishes her light, leaving the gas on. She dies. Cynthia, coming down, passes the door and seeing the panels in the shape of a cross, screams and several men, to quiet her, force the door open and the body of the maid is found. In the girl's closet is the torn kimona and the missing plans which she stole on the night Hunter saw her. The maid was a secret service spy. All gather in the drawing room. Phil rushes in and accuses Eleanor of the murder of Carew and of poisoning him. He tells how he saw her go down to the machine on the night of the murder and return to the house frightened. She did this because she saw Dana, her uncle. commit the crime. A letter to the Secretary of State is found in a book. It was written by Carew before his death and forgotten. This is sent to the conference in the drawing room, where it is opened and the name of Dana Thornton is found therein. He is the spy. He jumps into a car and is followed by Detectives Brett and Hunter in another car. Dana jumps out of the car and hides, while the car then goes over a cliff. He rushes home and comes face to face with Barry. Barry gives him a gun and tells him it is the only honorable way. Dana shoots himself and falls dead. The crowd rushes in and Barry says: "He has paid the penalty." Eleanor recognizes Barry as her long-lost father and rushes to his arms. Barry tells about the time, years before, when he and Dana were in Panama, he followed him to a saloon where friends of Dana's hit him on the head, and he is sent to jail. He is offered his freedom by soldiers of the small republic for certain secret codes in his possession, but he refuses. He escapes by changing clothes with the guard of the jail. Then he goes to his own country to be revenged on his brother. Hunter and Brett arrive and they learn that Dana did not go over the cliff in the machine, but that he lies dead in the drawing room. Cynthia and Lieutenant Lane are brought together and Hunter and Eleanor have fallen in love, and the long-lost father gives his blessing to their union.

Dir: John G. Adolfi

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

Elaine Brooks marries Robert Ames, a member of the United States Department of Justice. The Germans, who are anxious to secure some papers that Robert possesses, employ Viola Durand to get to Robert through Elaine. Viola tricks Elaine into giving her the papers and also procures a letter that seems to establish Elaine as the traitor. George Blair, an official at the Department of Justice, finally tricks Viola into confessing her guilt, thus clearing Elaine's name.

Dir: John G. Adolfi

Mary Ann, an orphan leading a life of drudgery, falls in love with a promising but equally penniless composer, John Lonsdale.

Dir: John G. Adolfi

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

In Washington, D.C., Betty Lansing renews her acquaintance with young Congressman Brandon Kent and a romance blossoms. Betty and her mother conduct whist games at their home, the proceeds of which are donated to charity, but at one of these parties, Drake, an embezzler, is arrested. Because Kent arrived during the party, Oakland, a rival for Betty's heart, visits the campaign headquarters of Johnson, who is running against Kent for the gubernatorial nomination, and reports that the congressman was involved in a gambling raid. When it becomes clear at the state convention that few delegates plan to vote for Kent, Betty, with the aid of suffrage leader Mrs. Ogden, mounts the platform and delivers a rousing speech exposing Oakland as a liar. Exonerated, Kent wins the nomination.

Dir: John G. Adolfi

The true story of Edith Cavell, a British nurse who served with the underground in Belgium during the First World War.

Dir: John G. Adolfi

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

Effie Marchand refuses to marry a man she has never met, but who has been picked out by her mother, is exiled to boarding school Then, when sculpting teacher Jules Gerard asks her to pose for him, an always impulsive Effie quickly consents. During one of the modeling sessions, however, Jules tries to seduce her, and Effie is saved only when Al Tournay, a visitor to the studio, fights off the sculptor. Later, when Jules' latest nude statue looks just like Effie, who really only posed for the head, an outraged principal expels her. Effie then begins a romance with Al, and when they get married, Effie's mother takes the wedding as just one more sign of her daughter's impulsiveness. Mrs. Marchand soon finds out, however, that her new son-in-law is the man she had chosen for Effie long before, and so mother and daughter are quickly reconciled.

Dir: John G. Adolfi

Stephen Field, a Jewish financier, takes great pleasure in philanthropic work at a community service center in the U.S. His daughter Esther devotes her time to entertaining returning soldiers in a canteen. When he reads in a newspaper about massacres of Jews and Armenians in Europe, and the suffering and starvation among other peoples there, Stephen remembers having lost his own wife and young son in a massacre years earlier. At the canteen, Esther meets Robert Graham, who suffers from fainting spells, the result of a war wound. Graham falls in love with Esther, much to the chagrin of his anti-Semitic father. Esther is also courted by the brilliant Jewish surgeon, William Morris. Esther's affection for Morris leads the jealous Graham to lash out at his rival with anti-Semitic invective even though Esther gently refuses Morris' marriage proposal. Graham loses control of his high-powered car due to a fainting spell, and the car goes over a precipice and turns over on top of him. Morris is the only person who can save his life, but the surgeon hesitates, fearing that failure would be interpreted as jealousy and thus compromise his professional integrity. Esther pleads with Morris to perform the operation, and he finally consents, sacrificing his own happiness for the woman he loves. The operation is proclaimed a surgical miracle, and Esther chooses to marry the man who performed that miracle.

Dir: John G. Adolfi

Schoolteacher Frances Angel finds herself attracted to wealthy rancher Jim McPherson but finds his rough-hewn ways objectionable, so when he proposes marriage she rejects him. Her father asks her to return to his home in the East, where her former boyfriend Chet Condon now holds the mortgage on the family home and is threatening to foreclose on it unless Frances marries him. When she also learns that her recently-widowed sister Jane is also moving back east with her newborn, Frances is torn between her duty to her family and her love for Jim.