The Recommended Vault Deeply Connected to Doing Their Bit: Cult Guide

Dir: Kenean Buel

Jane and Katherine are the sweetest youngsters in the world--in their mother's eyes. The family is summering at a seaside resort when Mama is called to town for a week. Not wishing to interrupt her darlings' good time, she summons her young bachelor brother to the hotel to look after the girls until she returns. "Billy" Parke undertakes the job. On the way to the resort he meets Betty Murray. The two are bound for the same hotel and it's love at first sight. Billy would have enjoyed the bus ride from the station to the hotel with Betty if his nieces hadn't entered, recognized him, and made themselves at home on his lap after being drenched when they drove an electric wheelchair into the surf. He must neglect Betty on reaching the hotel to get the youngsters dry clothing and clean them up. Soon after her arrival at the hotel Betty and her father enter the dining room at the same time Billy and Katherine appear. Katherine had previously met Mr. Murray and introduces Uncle Billy to Mr. Murray and Betty. They are talking when Jane, who had been left in her room asleep, appears in an exceedingly brief costume on the trail of something to eat. Billy grabs her and bundles her back upstairs. Jane and Katherine keep the hotel in a turmoil. Every time Billy tries to advance his suit for Betty is an opportunity for a new escapade by the youngsters. On one of her trips about the resort Katherine comes upon Bob Murray, the son of Mr. Murray, whose father cast him out for forging a check. Bob is in a bad way when Katherine finds him, and her motherly attentions awaken his deadened manliness and he promises her he'll go straight and earn his father's forgiveness. Meanwhile, Mr. Murray confides in Katherine his great sorrow and she asks him why he doesn't ask his prodigal son to return, to which the elderly man replies that he would if he could find him. Katherine promises to help him. A few nights later two crooks with whom Bob was connected plan to rob the Murray apartment in the hotel. Bob, though not knowing his pals were planning to rob his father, tries to quit the job, but is finally prevailed upon to undertake it. The first thing the boy's flashlight hits on entering the apartment is a picture of his dead mother. He refuses to go farther and telephones to the hotel desk asking for help just as one of the crooks fells him. The thieves flee from the room just as Mr. Murray enters and finds his son. They take refuge in Jane's room. Recognizing the men as crooks she slips from bed and hides in a bureau drawer. Uncle Billy enters, grapples with the men and is being overcome when Jane hits one of the robbers on the head with an iron. Billy soon quiets the other. The racket attracts Mr. Murray and hotel attendants, who arrest the crooks. After the excitement subsides Mr. Murray embraces his son and restores him to his estate. Billy and Betty withdraw and decide there is no blessedness in being single, and Jane and Katherine watch with mingled pleasure and surprise the outcome of the events in which they were small but important factors.

Dir: Kenean Buel

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

Little Jane and Katherine approve of the romance of Miss Ashton, their rich and beautiful aunt, with Jack Fenton, but when she becomes distracted by the debonair Percival Gilpatrick, whom the children detest, they decide to intervene. After the children interrupt his attempted marriage proposals several times, Percival, actually a crook, orders his accomplices, Mike and Bill, to keep the girls occupied. Annoyed that Percival would rather court Miss Ashton than rob the bank, however, Mike and Bill decide to kidnap the children and hold them for ransom. Imprisoned in a cellar, Jane and Katherine torment the two men with their pranks until the crooks willingly release them, but Percival stages a rescue that, much to the girls' dismay, impresses Miss Ashton. Later Percival and his men rob the bank, but the youngsters aid the police in catching them. Miss Ashton then happily agrees to marry Jack.

Dir: Kenean Buel

Billy Martin is sent to New York to put through a war contract for his father, a new England manufacturer, and takes $100,000 as a security. The munition broker's secretary, a crook, tells Graham, a gambling house keeper, of Billy's coming. Miller is detailed to lure him to the gambling house. Miller, posing as the broker's representative, meets Billy and offers to show him New York life. He meets Zena and is so captivated that he consents to try his luck at the roulette wheel. After his first success he loses rapidly. At last Zena drags him away with only $15,000 left. Zena repentant, tries to comfort Billy. She finds he is determined to win back his losses and is captivated by his pluck. Reluctantly she takes him to the gambling house. Billy loses all. When the mail brings no word from Billy, his wife comes to New York. She enters his room just after he and Zena arrive. Zena hides in a closet. Billy refuses to return with his wife until he has recovered his father's money. Zeena returns to her apartment. Graham accuses her of double-crossing him. She orders him to leave. Zena sets out to recover Billy's money, and returns to the gambling house. Graham thinks she has repented. Martin comes to New York for Billy. Zena picks him out as the man from whom to get the money. She lures him to her den. Billy calls up, and when Zena recognizes his voice she hangs up. Suspecting Zena has deceived him Billy rushes to the apartment and finds her embracing his father. Zena rushes to him. Billy casts her off. Martin tells Billy he did this to show the treachery of Zena's love. Heaping abuse on Zena, who sees her one true love lost, Billy leaves with his father. Zena in remorse leaves her old home and life, a wreck. Billy asks his father's forgiveness. "I forgive you," says the old man, "but I can't forget that I trusted you."

Dir: Kenean Buel

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

The Hawaiian Princess Laone's love for Keith Parrish is thwarted by social pressure. After being persuaded to refuse Mr. Parrish's proposal, she attempts suicide.

Dir: Kenean Buel

A fascinating piece of cinema that shares thematic elements.

Dir: Kenean Buel

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

Letters from the late mother of orphaned sisters Jane and Katherine seem to indicate that their father is Capt. Bob Dutton. Under orders from his superior, Colonel Harding, to acknowledge the children or quit the service, Dutton accepts responsibility for them. Shocked by his presumably checkered past, Cecile Harding, Dutton's fiancée and the colonel's daughter, breaks their engagement. One evening Jane surprises Capt. Robert Duncan, Dutton's rival for Cecile, stealing Bob's papers. Subsequently shot, the dying Duncan reveals that he is an Austrian agent, as well as the father of Katherine and Jane, having eloped years earlier with Ethel Harding, the colonel's older daughter. The colonel assumes the care of Jane and Katherine, and Dutton and Cecile are reconciled.

Dir: Kenean Buel

Alice Lindsay arrives in New York from a small town and becomes part of Greenwich Village Bohemian life. Alice resists the advances of Gwenne Stevens, an advocate of free love, and marries civil engineer Samson Rathbone.

Dir: Kenean Buel

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

Orphaned sisters Kate and Irene are separated as children, but each keeps half of their mother's wedding ring. Years later Irene marries John West, the head of a munitions camp. Kate happens to run the saloon in the camp, and she and Irene become friends but neither ever imagines that the other is her long-lost sister. Matters take a turn for the worse, however, when Kate starts a romance with Cliff, Irene's adoptive brother, and Irene strongly disapproves of the relationship.

Dir: Kenean Buel

Young Margaret Walsh's husband dies while on a polar expedition. Grief-stricken, she consents to marry Morgan Delafield, a much-older man who is a close friend of her father. However, it's not long before she falls in love with Stephen Bond, a man who's actually younger than she is. While she tries to resist her feelings for Stephen to not endanger her marriage, gossip about the pair nevertheless begins to make the rounds, with unintended consequences for all concerned.

Dir: Kenean Buel

General Wolfe, appointed commander of the expedition against Quebec, comes to bid his mother goodbye. Before sailing, the general calls upon his sweetheart, Katherine Lowther. She presents him with a locket containing a miniature of herself. Wolfe places the jewel on a chain about his neck. Mignon Mars and her brother, Hubert, of a Canadian family, are captured by a body of men attached to the Royal Americans. Lieutenant Arleigh, the officer in charge, secures their release. Mignon loses her heart to the young officer. General Montcalm arrives at Quebec and takes command of the French forces. Under his supervision, fortifications are erected on the isle of Orleans, to protect the approach to the city. The general gains the enmity of Vaudreuil, the vainglorious governor, when he protects Mignon Mars from the unwelcome attentions of the latter. Mignon's brother enlists in the French army and is made an officer. The English fleet carrying Wolfe's men arrives off the Isle of Orleans. Wolfe entices the Canadian pilots aboard his vessel by raising the French flag. The pilots are compelled to take the fleet up the river, under penalty of death. Mignon discovers Wolfe's ruse and rides to warn Montcalm of the approach of the English fleet. Wolfe lands his soldiers on the Isle of Orleans, twelve miles below Quebec. The fleet then proceeds up the river and anchors before Quebec. In an effort to destroy the fleet, Montcalm prepares to fire the ships. But the wind and the tide are against the French, and the fire ships drift ashore. Under orders from the young commander-in-chief, Monckton, one of the British generals, seizes Point Levis, overlooking Quebec. Wolfe offers amnesty to the Canadians who lay down arms. The inhabitants, however, prove unruly. Later, the English batter away at Quebec, with the fortifications at Point Levis and the guns of the fleet. The bombardment does terrific destruction, houses being rattled by the shot and shell, while fires, caused by the rain of death, spring up everywhere. Bushwackers attack the Chateau Mars, on the Isle of Orleans, the home of Mignon. The girl and her father are in dire peril, when Wolfe and his men approach and drive the renegades before them. Wolfe makes the chateau his headquarters. Wolfe orders an attack on the French redoubts above Montmorenci Falls. The impetuosity of the Grenadiers leads them to disobey orders, with the result that the English are compelled to retreat, after a desperate battle. The approach of the Highlanders, who cover the retreat of the army, saves the English from annihilation. Lieutenant Arleigh strives in vain to check the retreat. Fighting like a hero, he is shot by an Indian, a Caughnawaga ally of the French. The redskin is about to scalp the young soldier when Hubert Mars comes to the rescue. The Canadian saves Arleigh's life, but is himself desperately wounded. Wolfe is greatly downcast by the defeat. He returns to the chateau in dejection. Mignon looks in vain for her English lover. She learns that he is among the missing. Setting forth, she searches the battlefield among the dead and wounded. Mignon hears that Hubert is wounded and goes to the hospital to see him. To her delight, she sees Arleigh lying on the cot next to her brother. Mignon returns to the chateau and reports to Wolfe that his young aide is captured. That night, Arleigh makes his escape by changing cots with a French soldier who has died. He dons the man's uniform and leaves the hospital. Later, Arleigh succeeds in escaping through the French lines. He swims out to the English fleet. The following day, Mignon returns to the hospital and is informed that Arleigh is dead and has just been buried. Heartbroken, she returns home with the sad news. Wolfe is stricken with a fatal illness and learns that he cannot recover. During his sickness, his brigadiers recommend an attack without his knowledge. Wolfe learns of it. Despite his weakness, the commander-in-chief rises from his bed and goes to take command. In his escape, Arleigh has learned of Montcalm's intention to send boats and supplies down the river at nightfall. He returns to the chateau and delivers his information to Wolfe. Mignon is overjoyed to find her sweetheart safe. Wolfe learns of a narrow path leading up the mountain side to the Plains of Abraham. The English troops are sent down the river and due to the password given by Arleigh are enabled to slip by the French sentries. All night long the English toil up the mountainside. When morning dawns, they are drawn up in battle array on the Plains of Abraham. The fight commences. Montcalm, emerging from his tent, grows uneasy when he hears the sound of firing. He learns of the state of affairs. The bugles summon the French troops to battle and they march forth to the Plains of Abraham. Montcalm calls upon Vaudreuil, the governor, for assistance, but that cowardly official refuses to render aid. The French approach within firing distance of their foe. Wolfe delivers a stirring address to his men as the French approach. The battle commences. The opposing forces come together with a clash that sends both sides reeling. Forward they spring, slashing and stabbing like madmen. Wolfe is in the thickest of the fray. A shot strikes him. He falls. A tremendous shouting arrests his agony. "They run, they run," cries one of his aides. "Who runs?" gasps Wolfe. "The enemy." "Now God be praised," the dying man whispers, "I die happy." At the same moment, Montcalm, desperately striving to check the rout, is mortally wounded. The French commander is carried to his headquarters. He is informed that his wound is mortal. "How long shall I live? Twelve hours more or less? So much the better. I am happy that I shall not live to see the surrender of Quebec," he gasps. Wolfe's body is placed aboard the English flagship to commence its journey to the land for which he gave his life. Seated in a boat on the river, Arleigh and his bride, Mignon, watch the vessel sailing out towards the setting sun.