The Auteur's Selection In the Shadow of Distilled Love: Cult Guide

Dir: Edgar Jones

A mail-order bride arrives at a Maine lumber camp but doesn't like her prospective husband.

Dir: Unknown Director

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

A fascinating piece of cinema that shares thematic elements.

Dir: Vin Moore

The trials and tribulations of a pair of rube lovers.

Dir: Maurice Campbell

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of Howling Lions and Circus Queens perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

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: Malcolm St. Clair

A dancing instructor gets involved with a newly rich family.

Dir: Vin Moore

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

The town of Parched City was being reformed. One of the evidences was a she-sheriff named Susie. But Susie had seen Eddie Polo in the pictures and had adopted his pattern of shirt and his inexhaustible revolvers. By looking cross-eyed she could shoot a man standing at right or left angles with the accuracy of a boomerang thrower. Susie's brother was a bold bad man, although in Susie's hands he was like putty. His gang was always falling afoul of the liquor laws. The greatest indoor sport in Parched City was going to the express office and calling for shipments of dynamite, T.N.T. and Mustard Gas, but finally Susie got wise to this game and shot her revolver through every package as it went by the desk. As a glassware exhibit it wasn't worth taking away. Al Cohol called for his shipment. Susie busted the look with a well-placed shot and out jumped a ferocious lion. When the lion got through with the town it was still more parched and not a drop to wet its whistles.

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: Vin Moore

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of Don't Weaken! perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

Everybody was talking about poor Minnie because she couldn't shimmies. So poor Minnie buys a book that guarantees to teach you how to shimmy. She puts a piece of ice down her back and lo and behold she is an expert at "it". Hubby has to do all the k.p. work, mind the baby, feed the cows and chickens and everything while wifey shimmies. The yearly train arrives, bringing with it a theatrical troupe,who stop at the hotel conducted by Minnie. The vamp of the troupe, looses no time in winning the affections of "hubby", but is foiled by "Bob" the clever dog, who always has his mistress's interest at heart. He pulls Minnie by her skirts into the room where the vamp and hubby are making love. Hubby disappears under the bed but "Bob" goes after him and forces him out. "Bobby" does some clever work; he minds the baby, and is general housemaid in the hotel. He discovers hubby and the vamp making love under the table with their feet. He bites Hubby's foot. Hubby accuses his neighbor of stabbing him in the leg with a fork. An argument follows, during which "Bob" gets away with the sausages. Everybody chases "Bob", and he leads them a lively chase.

Dir: Henry Edwards

A millionaire bets £25,000 that he can earn his own living for six months.

Dir: Vin Moore

Last Chance Valley fairly wallowed in wickedness. To it came Professor Polonius Pinhead upon the back of his donkey and boon companion, King Solomon, and there he found two shrinking flowers of the valley. One's name was Violet and the other was Molly, whose expansion was in direct contrast to Violet's shrinking. She weighed 350 and could juggle a bean-shooter as well as any gun-toter. And, of course, there was a bad man. His name was Howling Hank, and he was a union villain licensed by the Moving Picture Theater Villains' Association, to wear the official black mustache and carry forty-seven shots in his six-shooter. Now, Howling Hank was determined that Violet should work in his dance-hall, and Molly was just as determined that Violet should not. Into this life and death struggle King Solomon, the donkey, kicked Professor Pinhead, and this elongated individual eventually obtained Dutch courage enough to route the villain, to save Violet, and to marry Molly.