Masterpiece Selection Resonating with the Themes of Confession: Cul...

Dir: Sidney Franklin

Susan Allenby's (Enid Markey) father is killed during a robbery staged by Bannack's corrupt sheriff Tom Slade and his men, leaving her to care for her eight brothers and sisters. Andy Crawford and his father William take the orphans in, but after Andy's father is killed, the young prospector vows to avenge his death and clean up the town. Learning that Slade's deputy, Ned Skinner, is his father's murderer, Andy orders his arrest, but Slade ignores Andy, who finally kills Skinner in a duel. While Andy's vigilante committee is searching for the outlaws who held up the stage, Slade imprisons Susan in the saloon. Informed of the kidnapping by the children, Andy returns and rescues her, killing Slade in the process. The appreciative townspeople then name Andy the new sheriff, and Susan happily agrees to become his wife.

Dir: Sidney Franklin

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

An impoverished British lord (Paul Menford) impersonates a doctor in order to woo an ailing American heiress (Dorothy Adams). The lord is in it for love, but his business associate (Joe Diamond) smells money.

Dir: Sidney Franklin

Distraught young Ann Carter is saved from committing suicide by Hayden Masters, but he turns out to be a vicious criminal who wants to make her his partner-in-crime. Fearful of what might happen to her if she doesn't marry him as he asked, she accepts, but on their wedding night he is arrested for burglary and thrown into prison. Broke and alone, Ann gets a job as a secretary to a wealthy executive, whose son Donald falls for her. When she hears that Masters has been killed in a failed prison escape attempt, she accepts Donald's proposal--then Masters shows up, very much alive.

Dir: Sidney Franklin

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

A free-spirited girl is caught between her love for her husband and her attraction to a handsome adventurer.

Dir: Sidney Franklin

Dulcy (Constance Talmadge), a devoted but scatterbrained bride, tries to improve her absent husband's finances by inviting two of his business prospects to dinner. Though at first thoroughly confusing the deal, she does get her husband a bigger share than he bargained for.

Dir: Sidney Franklin

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

Kathleen, a young Irish woman, is in love with Kenneth Wayne but is prevented from marrying him by her guardian John Carteret. John is haunted by memories of his thwarted love for Kathleen's aunt, Moonyean.

Dir: Sidney Franklin

With her marriage on the verge of breaking up, a young wife attempts to win back the love of her husband and child.

Dir: Sidney Franklin

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

A Chinese mandarin hopes to regain favor with the Emporer by betrothing her to him, but he doesn't know she's secretly married to the American consul and pregnant.

Dir: Sidney Franklin

Puck is a music-hall dancer married to an abusive husband. One night the music hall catches fire. Puck is rescued by an Army officer and her husband perishes. Puck marries the officer and they begin a new life in India, until a man from her past finds her and makes demands.

Dir: Sidney Franklin

Josephine, a seemingly happily married mother, comforts her friend who has just found out that her husband is cheating on her with her own story: raised in an infamous dive and taught to steal money from her customers, one night she meets a well-known novelist and his wife who are "slumming" and who give her a sum of money in order for her to leave her surroundings, but her guardian takes it from her. She is eventually sent to a reformatory but escapes and finds the novelist, now divorced. She determines to once and for all escape the life she's in and offers herself to the novelist in exchange for a promise of marriage. Complications ensue. When the place is raided, Jo is sent to a reformatory, but she later escapes. So that she will not have to return to the reformatory, Harrison marries her "in name only," with the idea that after a few months they will divorce. When Nina, now unhappily married, starts pursuing Harrison, his friend Huntley McMerton helps Jo make Harrison jealous, whereupon he declares his love. Jo suggests that her friend should act similarly.