Hidden Genre Gems In Alignment with the style of Devil-May-Care: Cult Guide

Dir: Sidney Franklin

A spoiled young rich girl is forced by misfortune to fight for survival in the slums and alleys, where she becomes involved with all manner of unpleasantness.

Dir: Sidney Franklin

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

Puck is a music-hall dancer married to an abusive husband. One night the music hall catches fire. Puck is rescued by an Army officer and her husband perishes. Puck marries the officer and they begin a new life in India, until a man from her past finds her and makes demands.

Dir: Jerome Storm

David Harrington plans to marry Betty Graves. He is an old-fashioned boy, believing in marriage, having children, and living a suburban life. Betty is more ultra-modern, and independent. When Betty gets a tour of the bungalow that David has built for them, she says it's cute but she would hate to have to live in it. The two break up and Betty goes back to a former sweetheart. Sybil, the wife of David's friend Herbert, has just has a row with her husband because he wouldn't buy her a new hat. So she takes their three children and hides in David's home, hoping to throw a scare into her husband. Now David tries to take care of the kids, hoping to forget his own troubles. Herbert phones David that he is coming over, but David tells his friend he has the measles. Meanwhile, Sybil's kids have gotten sick from eating too much taffy. So David calls Betty's father, who is a doctor. Betty comes over with her father, and David cooks up a scheme with the doctor to quarantine the house so that Betty will have to stay and help him take care of the children. Herbert arrives and chaos ensues when he discovers his wife and kids are there. Eventually, things get straightened out and David regains Betty's love.

Dir: Sidney Franklin

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

A Chinese mandarin hopes to regain favor with the Emporer by betrothing her to him, but he doesn't know she's secretly married to the American consul and pregnant.

Dir: Sidney Franklin

Susan Allenby's (Enid Markey) father is killed during a robbery staged by Bannack's corrupt sheriff Tom Slade and his men, leaving her to care for her eight brothers and sisters. Andy Crawford and his father William take the orphans in, but after Andy's father is killed, the young prospector vows to avenge his death and clean up the town. Learning that Slade's deputy, Ned Skinner, is his father's murderer, Andy orders his arrest, but Slade ignores Andy, who finally kills Skinner in a duel. While Andy's vigilante committee is searching for the outlaws who held up the stage, Slade imprisons Susan in the saloon. Informed of the kidnapping by the children, Andy returns and rescues her, killing Slade in the process. The appreciative townspeople then name Andy the new sheriff, and Susan happily agrees to become his wife.

Dir: Herbert Blaché

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

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: 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: Raoul Walsh

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

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: Victor Heerman

In the gold fields of the Canadian Northwest, a man is falsely accused of a crime and determines that a lookalike is responsible.

Dir: Sidney Franklin

Josephine, a seemingly happily married mother, comforts her friend who has just found out that her husband is cheating on her with her own story: raised in an infamous dive and taught to steal money from her customers, one night she meets a well-known novelist and his wife who are "slumming" and who give her a sum of money in order for her to leave her surroundings, but her guardian takes it from her. She is eventually sent to a reformatory but escapes and finds the novelist, now divorced. She determines to once and for all escape the life she's in and offers herself to the novelist in exchange for a promise of marriage. Complications ensue. When the place is raided, Jo is sent to a reformatory, but she later escapes. So that she will not have to return to the reformatory, Harrison marries her "in name only," with the idea that after a few months they will divorce. When Nina, now unhappily married, starts pursuing Harrison, his friend Huntley McMerton helps Jo make Harrison jealous, whereupon he declares his love. Jo suggests that her friend should act similarly.