The Definitive Guide Inspired by the Vision of Crimson Dynasty: Cul...

Dir: Maurice Tourneur

Richard Duvall is a young American detective in the employ of the French Secret Police. While in Paris he meets Grace Ellicot, also an American, with whom he falls in love. He marries her and is about to start on his honeymoon when he is called on by Mons. Lefevre, chief of the secret police. The French Ambassador to England, Monsieur De Grissac, has lost an ivory snuff box which must be found. They depart for London to interview the Ambassador. In London they go to the Embassy. There the Ambassador tells them that he was robbed of the snuff box while he was dressing and suspecting his valet, Noel, he locked him in his room. When Duvall goes to interview the valet, he finds that he has been murdered. Meanwhile, in Paris, Lefevre has broken the news to Duvall's wife of his departure to London. She, wishing to follow Duvall, asks Lefevre where she can find him. Lefevre tells her that if she will help in the recovery of the snuff box she will find Duvall. She consents, and Lefevre tells her to go to Brussels and try to place herself in the sanitarium run by Dr. Hartmann. who is supposed to be a German spy and whom Lefevre believes to be instrumental in the theft of the snuff box, which box, Lefevre hints, is of diplomatic importance. Richard Duvall, aboard the boat for Antwerp, finds the man whom he is following, asleep in a saloon, and during the night he opens the stranger's suitcase. He finds the package given the stranger in the barber shop, and on opening it, discovers the contents to be rice powder. By this time Duvall has learned that Grace is in the sanitarium, and that she furnished the news to Lefevre's agents. He feels that Grace should leave the sanitarium as soon as possible. He goes to Mr. Phelps, the American Ambassador, and has him invite Grace to dinner, planning to escape after dinner. During dinner that night, Dr. Hartmann, who is beginning to suspect Grace and Duvall, turns up at Mr. Phelps' house as an unexpected guest. When Richard and Grace leave on the pretext of Duvall's escorting Grace back to the sanitarium, Hartmann asks if he might ride with them. Because of no plausible reason, Duvall is forced to consent. On arriving at the sanitarium, Duvall is taken prisoner by two of Dr. Hartmann's attendants. His failure to discover the snuff box angers Dr. Hartmann. He knows that Duvall must have it with him, as his luggage has been searched and his friends imprisoned on various trumped-up charges. He gives Duvall until the next evening to confess the whereabouts of the box. The time allotted him is up, and Duvall refuses to confess. Hartmann resorts to torture. Finally Richard, at night, finds his opera hat behind a packing case and secures the box from the hat. Experimenting with several ornaments on the top of the box, he discovers that it has a double top. Inside the box is a piece of tissue paper, on which a series of numbers are written. Duvall substitutes another set of numbers, and conceals the set found in the box. In order to make Grace confess where the box is, as Dr. Hartmann believes she knows, he lets her see Duvall being tortured. She is almost crazed by watching his pain, so gets the box and delivers it to Hartmann. They are at once released, and proceed to Paris. They are not able to deliver the box to Lefevre, but they give him the series of numbers. Duvall and Grace at last start on their delayed honeymoon.

Dir: Maurice Tourneur

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

A hypnotic Svengali controls the singing voice of a young starlet, but he cannot control her heart.

Dir: Maurice Tourneur

After being expelled from college, Giles runs away from home and meets and falls for a young lady.

Dir: Maurice Tourneur

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of The Wishing Ring: An Idyll of Old England perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

A restless young girl yearns to leave her rural environment and "get away from it all." One day she stumbles upon a film crew shooting a Western near her home. She makes friends with the film's leading man, who encourages her to try her luck as an actress, so she leaves her small town and goes to the big city to break into the picture business. However, things don't turn out quite the way she planned.

Dir: Maurice Tourneur

A resourceful young girl struggles to free herself from slum life.

Dir: Maurice Tourneur

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

The story of the training of a racehorse, the Whip, of the amnesiac nobleman who loves the horse, and of the villains who attempt to keep it from racing.

Dir: Maurice Tourneur

Novice businessman Curtis Jadwin ( Wilton Lackaye ) is introduced to the world of grain speculation by veteran broker Charles Cressler ( Alec B. Francis ). At a performance of Faust , Curtis meets and falls in love with Laura Dearborn ( Gail Kane ), the sweetheart of artist Sheldon Corthell ( Milton Sills ). Curtis pursues Laura and finally convinces her to marry him, but soon after their wedding, he neglects her for his business. In her loneliness, Laura renews her relationship with Sheldon and the lovers plan to elope. When Curtis is ruined on the market, however, Laura rejects her lover and comforts her husband.

Dir: Maurice Tourneur

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

The wealthy but selfish parents of a lonely young girl begin to rethink what is important to them after a servant's irresponsibility results in a crisis.

Dir: Maurice Tourneur

James Kestner is a government secret agent on the trail of a band of counterfeiters and particularly anxious to locate the head of the gang, Frank Lambert, who, in addition to his skill as a counterfeiter, is known to the underworld as the only man who can fill in the perforations of a used bank check. Kestner locates the band in their underground work shop near the river front. He cleverly maneuvers his way into the headquarters of the band when it is empty, but is caught in the act of searching for incriminating evidence by "Bull's Eye" Cherry, a clever girl crook, and one of the mainstays of Lambert's crowd. Lambert and his daughter, who has been educated in crime by her father, return to find Kestner held at the point of Cherry's revolver. Lambert is for killing the detective outright. Impressed by Kestner's brave demeanor, Maura intercedes in his behalf, but finding her father determined in his intention to kill the government agent, she pretends that the police are outside. The counterfeiters make their escape without settling accounts with Kestner. Kestner locates the criminals in their new quarters. One of his assistants trails "Bull's Eye," who has the new counterfeit plates in her possession, but she cleverly evades capture and returns the plates to Lambert's headquarters. Kestner forces his way into the gang's rooms, arriving just in time to witness a desperate battle between Lambert and Tony Morello, one of his accomplices, whose passion for Maura has led him to attempt to force his advances upon her. Lambert kills Morello with a knife, but before dying the man acquaints Maura with the fact that Lambert is not her real father, but that he stole her when a baby and reared her to this life of crime. Kestner places Lambert under arrest, but the crook evades capture a second time by a ruse. Kestner's assistant arrives with the police, but Kestner permits Maura to go free on account of her having saved his life on the occasion of their first meeting. Kestner is determined to capture Lambert single-handed. He trails him to a midnight rendezvous on a wharf, where he and Lambert fight it out to a finish. The revolver battle between the two men in the dark culminates in a hand-to-hand encounter in which Kestner ultimately proves victor, but has barely strength enough to handcuff himself to his unconscious opponent before collapsing. In the end Kestner induces Maura to return to the straight road, and she takes up her home with his mother. The story closes with the intimation that the romance so strangely begun will lead, as time passes, to a life of happiness for them, together.

Dir: Maurice Tourneur

Arriving with her husband in Arabia, Katherine Wyvrne is ready for romantic times in the exotic Middle East, but her aristocratic husband prefers to be out hunting "Barbara sheep" than fulfilling his wife's desires. She soon meets up with the dashing Arab chief Benchaalai and falls for his charms, but he has a much more sinister goal in mind for her than romance.