Underground Favorites Parallel to the Artistry of Detective Lloyd: ...

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.

Dir: Jacques Jaccard

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

Douglas MacLeod of the Royal North West Mounted Police is in love with Suzanne Foucharde, who has adopted an abandoned Indian baby, the illegitimate child of Louis La Rocque and Na Fa Kowa. When La Rocque insinuates that the baby is Suzanne's, her brother Henry defends his sister's honor and kills the villain. In spite of his love for Suzanne, it is Douglas' duty to arrest Henry. He does so, but later allows him to escape, taking the bullet himself that was fired after Henry by Constable Burke. Meanwhile, the dead body of Na Fa Kowa is found, accompanied by a note proving that the Indian was the baby's mother. In the spring, when Douglas recovers from his wounds, he and Suzanne are married.

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: Perry N. Vekroff

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

While in New York seeking work, Cynthia, a young English girl, meets Bruce Crittenden and George Rhode who introduce her to Madame Savarin, a wealthy woman seeking a companion for a sea voyage. She hires Cynthia, and while at sea, Cynthia discovers that Bruce is the ship's purser. Cynthia's father was a famous wireless expert who taught her how to read code, which enables her to overhear a plot to sink the ship and steal Mrs. Savarin's jewels. Soon after, the crew mutinies, and while Rhode and Bruce fight the crew, Cynthia sounds the alarm. As he is attempting to foil the jewel thieves, Bruce falls overboard, and Cynthia swims to his rescue with the jewels strapped to her back. They are rescued by a government patrol boat and taken back to New York where Cynthia and Bruce are married.

Dir: F. Martin Thornton

In Paris an orphan cartoonist loves a man with a mad wife, who dies in time to prevent her marriage to a jilted Comte.

Dir: Harry Southwell

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

A fascinating piece of cinema that shares thematic elements.

Dir: Henry MacRae

Dan McQuade, an old fisherman, finds a woman and a child cast up by the storm of the night before. The mother is beyond human aid, but the child is still alive and he takes it to his cottage. Years pass and the child has grown to be a beautiful young girl. She has filled a place in the old fisherman's heart left vacant by the death of his wife and baby many years before. She has a secret cave where she often goes, and as a means of amusement spends her time carving miniature sand statues, in which art she has become proficient. Old Dan has named the girl Coral, and one day the locket she wears falls open, showing a young man and woman. She shows them to Dan, and he tells her how he found her. After her grief has subsided the girl returns to her cave, and from the experience gets an inspiration which makes her carve a life size statue of a mother and babe lying on the rocks. In New York, Phillip Norton, a wealthy young artist and son of a diamond merchant, has been betrothed to Helen, a society girl. On the bridal tour Phillip discovers his wife to be self-centered and selfish and comes to the conclusion that she married him merely to satisfy her vanity. Every advance he makes to his wife is repulsed and he attempts to stifle his love for her. As the yacht upon which they are spending their honeymoon enters the little bay where Dan and Coral live, Phillip takes his painting paraphernalia ashore and makes some sketches to divert his mind. He is discovered by Coral, but she is in awe of him, and when he looks around she flees. As the days pass Coral again finds him, but this time he is downcast. She gives him one of her statues, and the friendship thus engendered grows as time passes. Helen, through marine glasses, espies her husband with Coral, and heaps her wrath upon him when he returns to the yacht. Phillip's pent-up emotions break their bonds, and gathering her up in his arms he carries her to the cabin, where he leaves her. While standing on the deck he sees Coral dive to the water below and swim about. Filled with longing, he seeks her out. Sympathy leads to love, and as Coral caresses the broken man she learns for the first time the meaning of love. Phillip, overcome with remorse at his double acting, asks Coral to forgive and forget him. That night old Dan dies and the girl is left alone. Despite his wife's anger and hate, he takes Coral to his parents' home in New York, where she is received with open arms. Coral's knowledge of sculpture is increased by Phillip's aid, and her happiness is punctuated only by the actions of Helen. A valuable diamond belonging to Phillip's father is missing. During a reception, one of Coral's statues is broken and the diamond disclosed. Coral is accused, but later Phillip's father learns that Helen contrived to have Coral disgraced. Seeing that she has been discovered, Helen hurriedly leaves the house and is killed in a railroad wreck. Meanwhile Coral, who has left the house, comes to the studio of Paul Dore, a sculptor, who offers to teach the girl free of charge. Later she is taken under the "wing" of the old janitor of the art school and his wife, who look upon her as their own child. Some time later the art school offers a price of $1,000 and a medal for the statue that wins the first prize at the Academy, and Coral decides to compete. Phillip has sought in vain for Coral after his wife's death and is persuaded to attend the exhibition at the Academy, and on the unveiling of a statue recognizes it as Coral's work. Coral is summoned to the studio and awarded the prize. After the committee have gone Coral tells Dore of her inspiration and shows him the locket. He recognizes it as a picture of himself and wife and tells the girl of the wreck. There is a happy reunion between father and daughter. Phillip enters and is overjoyed to meet Coral again. Coral makes a visit to the old janitor and his wife and leaves them the envelope with the prize money, which gladdens their old hearts. Some time later a white yacht drops anchor in the bay near where Coral was raised, and while Paul Dore kneels beside his wife's grave high on the cliffs above two figures appear and suddenly merge into one. Phillip and Coral are clasped in each other's arms and Phillip points out their yacht.

Dir: Henry MacRae

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

During a rebellion in Mexico, Nina Garcia, a diplomat's daughter, is forced to become a spy for the revolutionaries. She works as a nurse in a military hospital and steals papers for the rebels, but officials finally discover her involvement in enemy espionage. Just as soldiers arrest her, she performs an experiment on herself, hoping to prove the worth of Dr. Ralph Hamlin's serum for gangrene. Unimpressed by her bravery and unmoved by Ralph's pleas for a pardon, the government orders her shot after her recovery from the injection. Finally, United States troops arrive and save Nina from execution.

Dir: Henry MacRae

During the great drought on the South African veldt, bitterness erupts between the von Haagen and Townsend families when they quarrel over a cattle spring. Nevertheless, a romance grows between Gretel von Haagan and Ned Townsend, who, to escape their families' opposition, marry and leave for the interior. Three years later, Gretel's father Carl, unable to overcome his feelings of remorse, seeks his daughter out and discovers that he is now a grandfather. He arrives in the interior just as his grandson wanders off into the jungle. After several harrowing incidents, the infant is rescued by an elephant and returned to his home where the families are joyously reconciled.

Dir: Maurice Elvey

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