Essential Cult Cinema Drawn from the Same DNA as Das Geheimnis der ...

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.

Dir: Jerome Storm

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

A bumbling would-be detective always seems to reach the wrong conclusion, but one day accidentally stumbles across a real crook, guilty of a real crime.

Dir: Colin Campbell

Although separated at birth, Siamese twins Fabien and Louis de Franchi remain united emotionally. One day, Parisian Emilie de Lesparre arrives in their Corsican village with her father, and both brothers fall in love with her. Louis goes to Paris to study law and sees Emilie often, but Emilie loves Fabien who has remained in Corsica with their mother. While attending a dinner given by another admirer of Emilie's, M. Chateau Renaud, Louis is drawn into a duel with Renaud and killed. Back home, Fabien senses what has happened and journeys to Paris to avenge his brother's death. After he kills Renaud in a duel, Emilie finally confesses her love to Fabien.

Dir: Charles Swickard

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

A young Egyptian goes to the rescue of his employers, a wealthy European family, when they are menaced by a local strongman and his gang.

Dir: George Beranger

Writer Frank Theydon goes undercover to research the criminal activity in New York City's Chinatown.

Dir: J.P. McGowan

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

A fascinating piece of cinema that shares thematic elements.

Dir: Dallas M. Fitzgerald

Edith Sturgis, the daughter of a judge, returns from studies abroad to find her widowed father remarried. The new Mrs. Sturgis does not reveal that she has a son Dick, once unjustly jailed by Judge Sturgis, but now working as a reporter while still maintaining an association with the Brownlow gang. Quarrelling with her stepmother, Edith leaves home, meets Dick and falls in love. While Dr. and Mrs. Allen (whom Edith met on the steamer) are visiting in the Sturgis home, the doctor's valuable radium is stolen from the safe, and Judge Sturgis is found murdered. Dick, though with Edith at the time, is accused of the crime. Finally, an old shoemaker confesses that he entered the house to steal the radium, with which to cure his crippled son, and witnessed the judge's slaying by the Brownlow gang. Dick is freed and finds happiness with Edith, and the doctor helps the crippled boy.

Dir: Scott R. Dunlap

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of Number 17 perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

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: George D. Baker

A prison inmate obtains his release from prison in order to rescue his daughter from the clutches of her unscrupulous mother's plot to implicate the girl in a blackmail scheme.

Dir: Raoul Walsh

Dave Henderson, an orphan who has become the beneficiary of a rich man's will, falls in with race-track crooks Martin Tydeman and Bokky Sharvan who bilk him out of his $100,000 inheritance. In retaliation, Dave steals the money from Tydeman's safe, but is caught and sentenced to five years in jail. In prison, Dave becomes friendly with Millman, who is about to be released, and reveals the money's hiding place to him, arranging to rendezvous at the end of Dave's term. Once released, Dave is hounded by members of Tydeman's gang as well as the police, who are waiting for him to retrieve his bounty. While taking refuge at the house of Capriano, an old bomb maker, Dave falls in love with the old man's daughter Teresa. However, Capriano sets a trap for Dave, who awakens in a drugged state to find the $100,000 missing. With the help of Millman and Teresa, Dave recovers the money, turns it over to the police and resolves to go straight.