Top-Tier Alternatives Exploring the Legacy of Double Crossed: Cult ...

Dir: Robert G. Vignola

Seventeen-year-old William Sylvanus Baxter has fallen madly in love with young coquette Lola Pratt. After he has spent all his money on the fickle girl, she runs off with an older man. Now heartbroken, William contemplates suicide until May Parcher, a friend from childhood, visits him and decides to fall in love with him.

Dir: Robert G. Vignola

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

When rich civil engineer Robert Penfield goes to a small Quaker town in Pennsylvania to supervise a job, he meets Patience, who soon falls in love with him, but Robert is engaged to Edith, who plans to marry him for his money only. To remain close to Robert, Patience returns with him to the city to take a job as his mother's secretary. After Robert and Edith's wedding, and following the birth of their child, Patience takes care of the baby much more enthusiastically than Edith does; in fact, Edith is preoccupied with Paul Dunstan, a former suitor who wasn't rich enough to marry her, but who has since inherited a fortune. Finally, the couple elope, but they both die when Paul's yacht sinks. After the accident, Robert realizes that he loves Patience, and marries her.

Dir: Robert G. Vignola

A Russian refugee who masquerades as Zara, niece of Francis Markrute, comes to his home and marries Lord Tancred, a scion of the English nobility, after a long series of misadventures she makes a full confession to her supposed uncle and to her husband regarding her origin and her young son by a former marriage to a Russian prefect of police, whom an infuriated mob murdered for his cruelty. Tancred is stunned, but only for a moment. Overwhelmed with forgiveness he avows his undying love.

Dir: Robert G. Vignola

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

Dick, who thinks Elsie is a farmer's daughter, and Elsie, who believes Dick to be a hired man, fall in love with each other. While returning from a trip to the city shortly afterwards, Dick accidentally exchanges traveling bags with Spike, a burglar, on his way to rob the Dunbars' summer home. Pinkarter, a detective, witnesses the incident and trails Dick. Late that night, the young man sees Elsie apparently breaking into a cottage. The girl had accidentally been locked out of the farmhouse where she had been stopping, and therefore decided to return to her father's country home nearby. Ignorant of this, Dick believes Elsie a thief and follows her into the house, Spike also gets inside, and the three are presently bagged by Pinkarter and lugged to the village lockup. In his effort to establish his identity, Dick requests the detective to examine his travelling bag. When this is done, a fine collection of burglar's tools is brought to view. Thus Elsie is led to think her lover a thief. Although Dick eventually clears himself, this comes too late; Elsie's identity has been established by her father, who then took her home. Still in ignorance of each other's identity, the heartbroken lovers return to the city. Some time later Dick accompanies a friend to a dinner given at the Dunbar's home. To his intense surprise, the boy finds himself confronting Elsie. Still believing him to be a burglar, Elsie shouts for help. Dunbar is about to hand the luckless youth over to the police when the snarl is untangled, and the course of true love allowed to run smoothly.

Dir: Robert G. Vignola

Kate Tarleton grows up on a Southern plantation and becomes engaged to her guardian, Dr. Robert Manning, a famous surgeon. When Robert, Kate, and her younger sister Mary Lou visit New York, where the doctor wishes to conduct medical experiments, the superstitious Kate goes to the home of a fortune-teller named Stella Hill. Stella, whose principal business is white slave trafficking, drugs Kate and forces her to work in a "den of vice," run by Stella and her accomplice Jimmy Bristol, where she contracts syphilis and goes insane. Robert, Detective Ellis, and a lawyer named Billy Meredith rescue Kate, who recovers her sanity but remembers nothing of her bondage. Robert uses Stella and Jimmy in his experiments and through them discovers a cure for Kate's illness. District Attorney Scott is questioning Robert about the propriety of his experiments when Kate enters and sees Jimmy. Her memory suddenly returns, and she narrates her story to Scott, clearing Robert's name.

Dir: Robert G. Vignola

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

A humble orphan suddenly becomes a gentleman with the help of an unknown benefactor.

Dir: Robert G. Vignola

A fascinating piece of cinema that shares thematic elements.

Dir: Robert G. Vignola

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

Molly McGill, a scrub-woman, labors long hours so that her children will not have to face life in the slums. Driven to desperation after her husband and baby daughter are killed in the streets, and fearful that her little son Jimmy will suffer the same fate, Molly accepts the proposition of Harvey Brooks, a broker in one of the offices that she cleans, to become his mistress. Keeping her life a secret from her son, she places him in a vocational school. When Jimmy finishes his education, Molly returns to her life as a scrub-woman. Then one day she reads in the paper of an heroic act performed by Jimmy, who is now a fireman. Unable to resist temptation, she creeps past the fire station where she sees Jimmy with his sweetheart, Dora Palmer. Later the girl seeks employment as a stenographer in Brooks's office where Molly is again working, and she keeps a watchful eye on Dora. True to Molly's suspicions, Brooks attacks Dora and Molly springs to her aid. In the ensuing fight, Brooks is killed and a fire breaks out. Jimmy comes to the rescue, but there is time to save only one of the women; and so Molly is left behind to die in peace, knowing that her son has escaped the slums.

Dir: Robert G. Vignola

Amina loves Rudolph and turns the powerful Count Wolfenstein down when he proposes to her. In a jealous rage, Wolfenstein throws Rudolph into a dungeon. Meanwhile, Hertzog, "The Black Crook," has a deal with the devil: he must hand over to Satan one soul each year or find himself banished to Hell. With only 24 hours left before the year ends, Hertzog focuses all of his attention on Amina and Rudolph, believing them to be weakened from despair and therefore easy prey.

Dir: Robert G. Vignola

After their wedding, Richard Vaughan and his wife Courtney take up residence in Richard's ancestral home. Courtney, despised by Nanny, the old housekeeper, and neglected by her husband, who buries himself in his chemical experiments, leads a lonely life. Consequently, when experimental chemist Basil Gallatin pays a lengthy visit to the Vaughan home, Courtney finds herself attracted to him. One day, during Richard's absence, a burglar alarm places Courtney and Gallatin in a compromising situation. Witnessing their embrace, Nanny is struck speechless, but when Richard returns she recovers her speech and gives damning evidence against Courtney. Gallatin flees, and Richard, realizing his culpability, gives his wife a divorce. Having read of the divorce, Gallatin returns and Courtney admonishes Richard to kill them both. Richard frightens Gallatin away with the threat of exploding one of his compounds, but Courtney defies death and remains. A reconciliation between husband and wife then follows.