Curated Recommendations Seeking the Same Brilliance as Curly Top: C...

Dir: Scott R. Dunlap

When saloon owner Bill Lark detects that gambler Jim Pemberton is cheating, both men draw their guns. In order to prevent a double killing, it is agreed that the first shot should be decided by a draw from a deck of cards. Bill loses and Pemberton gives him three days to live. Meanwhile, Pemberton has persuaded Jess Jones to leave her husband and ride with him to his cabin in the hills where he is chief of a gang of bandits. Upon discovering his wife's absence, Scipio Jones follows Jess but is driven away by Pemberton's gang. After Jones fails, Bill retrieves Jess and brings her home. The next day, Bill is severely wounded when he drives a stagecoach through an attack by Pemberton's gang, but escapes to keep his date with the outlaw. Arriving to accept his fate of the last draw, Bill discovers that the outlaw has been killed by Scipio Jones. Provided with a new lease on life, the honest saloon keeper marries his sweetheart Little Casino.

Dir: Arthur Rosson

The Hopkinses are a family of squatters struggling against the wealthy landowners or "hilltoppers." When Jerry Hopkins is unjustly imprisoned, his young wife and baby die as a result of the shock, but his sister Polly maintains the faith that has been instilled in her by her grandmother. Later, Polly meets hilltopper Robert Robertson and the two fall in love. Their courtship is disrupted when Robert's sister Evelyn is blackmailed by Oscar Bennett, the man to whom she is secretly wed. In her efforts to help Evelyn, Polly falls under unjust suspicion. Meanwhile, MacKenzie, one of the vindictive landowners, arrests Polly's father and sends her brother to an orphanage. Devastated by these events, Polly's grandmother dies of grief and Polly swears revenge. She has Evelyn kidnapped and brought to her cabin, but the memory of her grandmother prevents Polly from harming her tormentor. Polly's nobility inspires Evelyn, who exonerates Polly, thus clearing the path for her marriage to Robert.

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

Dir: Reginald Barker

Don Mateo, a swaggering Spaniard, tosses women aside without a care. But when he falls under the spell of the tempestuous Concha Perez, it is Don Mateo who finds himself tossed about.

Dir: Bud Fisher

Mutt and Jeff go on strike and make their own film.

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

Dir: Herbert Blaché

French dancer Sigrid, diagnosed with a weak heart, is ordered by her doctor never to dance again. But when her dancing skills are needed by her lover's father to help quell a native uprising on the East Indian frontier, she determines to dance whatever the cost.

Dir: Maurice Elvey

A lady marries a horse trainer but withholds herself until her crippled brother is cured.

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

Dir: Kenneth S. Webb

Mary Horton, a country girl, moves to New York to make her living as a seamstress, where she meets Hilda Newton, an old neighbor who has renounced her country ways for the immoral life of the city. Mary moves in with Hilda and meets Bob Merrick who, charmed by the girl's innocence determines to protect her. Just as she is about to succumb to evil influences, Mary is called home to her mother's sickbed where she is denounced for her evil ways by her former sweetheart, Horace Worth. However, when Hilda's friends decide to visit Mary, Bob Merrick defends her reputation and proposes to her. The couple decide to remain in Mary's country village, while Hilda and her friends return to the city.

Dir: Sidney Franklin

A chorus girl hopes to rise to stardom and thus accepts the advances of a wealthy man. But she becomes fearful of her reputation and safety. In an attempt to escape the rake's attentions, she hides out with a disparate group of men who room in a house called "The Barn." There she learns that there is more to life than that found on the stage.

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

Dir: Roy William Neill

Mary Wayne (Constance Talmadge) is left alone and penniless in New York City after her father dies. She desperately needs a job after being thrown out of her apartment for causing a small fire while cooking. At an employment agency she becomes fast friends with a sick girl, Nell Norcross, and assumes her identity and good references to start work as a secretary for elderly socialite Caroline Marshall, which soon involves playing wrangler to the lady's college-dropout nephew William "Bill" Marshall (Vincent Coleman). Bill is much more interested in going to illegal boxing matches with his buddy Peter Stearns (Ned Sparks) than in throwing lavish dinner parties for his family's high-society friends. While Mary tries to do her job and keep her true identity from being discovered, William begins to fall in love with her.

Dir: J. Gordon Edwards

William Farnum is Drag Harlan, a tough cowboy vigilante. After learning about a gold mine from a dying man, he seeks his daughter (Jackie Saunders) as well as the gold. He falls in love with her, but the same gang that shot the old man is after the gold.