Must-Watch List in the Vein of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde: Cult Guide

Dir: Charles Raymond

A magician helps outwit a Chinaman's gang.

Dir: Ernest C. Warde

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

When young writer Brandon McShane is left penniless by the death of his father, he is forced to rent a room in the tenement district from the Mahon family. Brandon soon becomes infatuated with the fortune hunting Mimi Gascoigne, who casts him aside for a wealthy suitor. In search of revenge, Brandon acquires a magic skin which will gratify its owner's wishes, but which exacts years from the petitioner's life in payment. Brandon wishes himself wealth and his enemies unhappiness, and then lives in terror of the penalty he must pay. One day he meets Pauline Mahon who has loved him since his tenement days. Pauline convinces Brandon to wish the skin out of his life, and then he discovers that Pauline's love is the fulfillment of this last wish.

Dir: Jan S. Kolár

A fascinating piece of cinema that shares thematic elements.

Dir: André Deed

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

The story begins with a scientist creating a device shaped like a man that can be remote-controlled by a machine.

Dir: Károly Lajthay

A girl has frightening visions after visiting an insane asylum where one of the inmates claims to be Drakula and she can not be sure whether they were a nightmare or real.

Dir: Julius Herska

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

France in the late 1600s, the son of a widowed lord is kidnapped by gypsies, who carve a permanent grin on the child's face. When the deformed boy grows up, he falls in love with a blind girl named Dea, and joins a touring company as a performer. Calling himself Gwynplaine, he develops an act in which he reveals his hideous face to the crowds for money. A sexually perverse, seductive socialite named Josiane becomes attracted to him and seeks to possess him.

Dir: Fritz Lang

When a woman's fiancé disappears, Death gives her three chances to save him from his fate.

Dir: Jacob Fleck

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of Dracula's Death perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

Depicts a society lady trapped under the spell of an unskilled hypnotist.

Dir: Maxwell Karger

Horace Parker is a wealthy young man who is exceedingly selfish and self-centered. He is engaged to Minnie Talbotr who has discovered his selfishness and she is on the brink of calling off the engagement. On Christmas Eve, a messenger from Mars comes to Earth to show Parker the error of his ways.

Dir: Richard Smith

Harpo played the hero, a detective named Watson who "made his entrance in a high hat, sliding down a coal chute into the basement". Groucho played an "old movie" villain, who "sported a long mustache and was clad in black", while Chico was probably his "chuckling [Italian] henchman". Zeppo portrayed a playboy who was the owner of a nightclub in which most of the action took place, including "a cabaret, [which allowed] the inclusion of a dance number". The final shot showed Groucho "in ball and chain, trudging slowly off into the gloaming". Harpo, in a rare moment of romantic glory, gets the girl in the end.