Visionary Picks In Alignment with the style of Detectives: Cult Guide

Dir: Maurice Campbell

Carver Endicott, a young sophisticate, is rejected by his fiancée for being too foppish and dull. When she feigns an interest in his father, Carver attempts to disgrace his family name by working as a farmhand and later as a busboy in a hotel. However, the newspapers only praise him for his self-sacrificing principles; and finding that he cannot bring shame to the family through menial labor, he takes up with a notorious actress. But when this maneuver also fails, he returns to his former fiancée, who has no further complaint about his being an inexperienced dullard.

Dir: Chester M. Franklin

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

Young Jim Hawkins is caught up with the pirate Long John Silver in search of the buried treasure of the buccaneer Captain Flint, in this adaptation of the classic novel by Robert Louis Stevenson.

Dir: Chester M. Franklin

Jack exchanges his cow for some magic beans. The beans grow overnight into a beanstalk. Jack climbs it and arrives at a castle that is his. He sets a deal with the giant in exchange for the fortune.

Dir: Chester M. Franklin

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

A young woman and her six little brothers and sisters are left orphans by the murder of their father over gold found on his ranch. Together the seven offspring fight against their greedy neighbors to keep what is rightfully theirs.

Dir: Lloyd Ingraham

While walking along the street one day, Arthur P. Hampton, an impoverished young doctor, and his chums, Stub Masters and Johnny Stokes, are persuaded to part with their last remaining funds by tag day solicitor Mary Jane Smith, with whom the doctor promptly falls in love. Doc's friends then hit upon a get-rich-quick scheme. Knowing that his Uncle George has promised a large sum of money upon his nephew's marriage, they persuade Doc to send out fake wedding invitations naming Mary Jane as the blushing bride. Uncle George, elated at the good news, writes to Mary Jane's aunt, Angelica Burns, an old sweetheart, to invite Mary Jane and Angelica to be his guests on an ocean voyage. Meanwhile, Mary Jane pays a visit to the doctor's office and, upon seeing the wedding invitations, becomes so flustered that she trips and sprains her ankle. Doc comes to her rescue and then begs her to pose as his wife. She agrees, but at ship-side, Stub and Johnnie confess all to Uncle George, who flies into a rage until Doc announces that he and Mary Jane have chosen a wedding at sea.

Dir: Chester M. Franklin

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

The Japanese emperor's son Hanki Pan (Francis Carpenter) is in love with beautiful Fan Fan (Virginia Lee Corbin) and determined to marry her, although his father has decreed that he shall wed the Ancient and Honorable Lady Shoo, an ugly hag. Hanki Pan and Fan Fan elope and find employment as entertainers at the Wisteria Gardens. However, Lady Shoo and Fan Fan's rejected suitor, the Chief Executioner, follow in close pursuit and soon catch the young lovers. The Executioner plans to behead Hanki Pan, but when the emperor discovers the plot, he orders the villain to choose between the sword and marriage to Lady Shoo. Hanki Pan and Fan Fan are reunited, while Lady Shoo is happily wed.

Dir: Richard Smith

Two female candidates for Chief of Police live across the hall from each other, and their political rivalry follows them home, leading to plenty of hi-jinks.

Dir: Chester M. Franklin

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

Katie Standish is the family drudge on a New England farm. Her elder sister "enjoys" poor health and her mother sees to it that Katie not only does her own work but that of the weak or lazy Priscilla. Oliver Putnam, a husky young farmer lad, comes courting Katie, but her parents interfere so much that he is discouraged. Oliver finally goes to Mexico with Ben Standish, uncle of Katie and Priscilla, who owns a valuable mine there. Priscilla marries Caleb Adams, a young man who bought a farm adjoining that of Standish. Father and Mother Standish die and Katie goes to live with her sister. Soon she is doing all the housework, and as Priscilla rapidly becomes the mother of seven, each and every one of them is turned over to Katie's care. Then Priscilla and her husband are killed by an express train while driving to the city. Then Katie must teach school to help keep the wolf from the door. She writes to her uncle, telling of her sister's death and how the care of the children had fallen to her. The uncle invites her to bring the motherless brood with her and they can all make their home with him in Mexico. Oliver Putnam is expecting Katie, but the information about the children has been withheld from him. He is overjoyed when he sees Katie step off the train, but is flabbergasted when he sees the many children--only the first time the children get between Oliver and Katie, and Oliver comes to resent them. He sees two of them fussing and spanks one of them; Katie catches this and gives him a scathing rebuke. Then she happens to hear him tell Dan that he hates children; this lands him squarely in her bad graces. Uncle Ben likes the youngsters. He shows them how a series of guns in their little home could be discharged at once by pulling a lever and how a mine around the house could be discharged in a similar manner. He is careful to lock the room where the weapons of destruction are placed, but one of the children finds out where he has hidden the key. While Katie and Oliver are away on an errand of mercy, Mexicans attack the little house. The children are all there but one. The missing one happens to be outside and escapes to the road, where he is saved by a cowboy who goes after help. Meanwhile the children defend themselves by discharging the guns and firing the mines as their uncle had shown them. Katie and Oliver have a desperate fight when they are attacked by another band of Mexicans, but hold them off in a deserted cabin, till the cowboys rescue them. Oliver can't help admiring the brave way in which the children have defended the house, and is grateful also for the fact that the silver under the floor has been saved from the Mexicans. So Oliver and Katie forget their differences and make a home for the children in a mansion in the United States.

Dir: Charley Chase

A young married couple volunteer to take charge of several orphans after the asylum has burned down. Of course they find their hands full with their troublesome charges.

Dir: Chester M. Franklin

The little school ma'am has come out to a Western town from her home back in Virginia. The townspeople just can't help making life miserable for the little schoolteacher, and when a young playwright who happens to be from Virginia himself, arrives in the town and meets the lonely little teacher, old Mrs. Grundy just runs riot. To make matters worse, the young people go off for a ride and when they wander off to a spring to get a drink, the horse runs away,, so they must stay out in the woods all night. Then there is a crash, and the school teacher is summarily dismissed from her position.