The Recommended Vault Parallel to the Artistry of Down Home: Cult G...

Dir: Irvin Willat

Drakma, an international spy, seeks the possession of the triangulator (a device emitting electronic death rays), which radio expert Alan Holt invented for the United States Government. Mary Walsworth manages to smash the machine before Drakma can get it; therefore, the villain captures Alan and Mary, puts Mary on a rum-runner, and leaves Alan on an island to build another triangulator--under threat of Mary's death. Instead, Alan builds a radio and broadcasts an SOS, which is answered by Admiral Walsworth, Mary's father. Alan gets to the rum-runner on a raft, and holds off the crew until sailors arrive to the rescue.

Dir: Irvin Willat

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

A widely respected deep-sea diver is approached by a ring of con artists who want him to be the front man for a phony scheme to recover gold from sunken ships. When he refuses, they send a sexy young woman to seduce his son, and then blackmail the father into going along with their scheme.

Dir: Irvin Willat

Pioneer rancher August Naab finds Easterner Jack Hare in the desert and takes him home, where Naab's Spanish-Indian ward Mescal cares for and falls in love with Jack though she is betrothed to Naab's wayward son Snap. To avoid marrying Snap, Mescal flees into the desert and is captured there by desert pirate Mal Holderness, a ruthless man seeking to control the surrounding area's water rights by buying or seizing the local ranches. Because Naab has refused to sell, Holderness begins a feud, taking Mescal prisoner and killing her prospective bridegroom Snap, who has followed her into the desert. As the leader of the law-abiding community, Naab, with a group of sympathetic Indians, burns down the neighboring town serving as a hideout for Holderness and his gang. Mescal is rescued and returned to Jack.

Dir: Irvin Willat

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

Peter Kennedy, a pernicious landlord who desires his tenant, Nora McCree, realizes that the only way to possess Nora is to eliminate her husband Patrick. To accomplish this, Kennedy arranges a fight between Patrick and another man, in which the latter is badly wounded. Patrick is told that his opponent has died, and at Kennedy's suggestion, joins the army and goes to Africa to fight the Boers. In his absence, Kennedy, unable to win Nora by fair means, does everything in his power to make her feel the pinch of poverty and thus capitulate to him. Things are at their worst for the McCree family when little Eileen, after listening to fairy tales told to her by the Irishman Flynn, dreams of her father and finds him the next day, unconscious under a large tree after having been waylaid by Kennedy upon his return home. With Patrick's return, Kennedy's plans are dashed, and the McCree family is united once again.

Dir: Irvin Willat

Hung Chin Chung, a philosopher of noble birth, is deported from Hawaii to his native China, where he faces certain death at the hands of his enemies. American millionaire Henry Drew offers to reprieve Hung, if the young philosopher becomes his indentured servant for the next twenty years. Rage at his humiliation and inability to marry as a free man smolders in Hung throughout his servitude. Toward the end of his indenture, Hung sails to San Francisco, California, with Drew and his wife. Also on board is Drew's business associate, Ralph Coolidge, who is in love with Mary-Will Tellfair, the millionaire's stenographer. Shortly after their arrival, Drew is stabbed to death, and suspicion falls on Ralph, the owner of the curious Chinese dagger that is identified as the murder weapon. However, subsequent events lead Hung to confess to the crime.

Dir: Irvin Willat

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

Wu Fang rules the Chinese underworld with the aid of crooked politician Jim Murdock, who shields the criminal from the police in exchange for a share of the profits. When Wu Fang kills Sergt. Joe Duncan, however, Patrolman Terence Shannon decides to conduct a raid. Wu Fang, who is expecting to receive a large shipment of opium, kidnaps Chinatown mission worker Patsy O'Connell and threatens to harm her if the police interfere in the drug smuggling operation. Although Terence is attracted to Patsy, he places duty before his own feelings and goes ahead with the raid but is captured by Wu Fang. Patsy and Terence are about to be thrown into a rat-infested pit when Officer Michael O'Shea and his men arrive, and in the ensuing battle, Wu Fang is killed and Murdock arrested. Chinatown having been made safe, Patsy agrees to be the wife of the new police chief, Terence.

Dir: Irvin Willat

The Zeppelin's Last Raid concerns the conflict of a youthful commander of a German airship engaged in bombing raids, whose sweetheart is a member of a rebel group working to overthrow the German Kaiser towards the end of World War One.

Dir: Irvin Willat

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

Alain de Montcalm is the son of a French trading post proprietor. When a murder and kidnapping occur, Alain pursues the abducted girl and her captor across the far northern wasteland of ice.

Dir: Irvin Willat

A German-American naval officer takes revenge against the German submarine commander who brutalized his wife.

Dir: Irvin Willat

Jailed unjustly for a murder he did not commit, a young man uses his amazing powers of escape to free himself and pursue the actual killers, who hold his fiancée captive.