Masterpiece Selection that Capture the Essence of Evangeline: Cult Guide

Dir: Raoul Walsh

When the United States enters World War I, a mother sends her two eldest sons off to the battlefields with a smile, although her heart is breaking. She soon learns that the eldest is missing and the second son is wounded, however, and resolves to keep her youngest at home. The boy, due to the influence of pacifist literature, willingly accompanies his mother on a secret journey to their seaside home, but the father, ashamed that his son is a "slacker," discovers their whereabouts. The three are in the midst of a heated argument when the pitiful survivors of a ship destroyed offshore by a German U-boat come to the house seeking refuge. The mother and son realize the importance of the cause and the son enlists. At Christmas, all three sons come home, the eldest accompanied by his new French bride.

Dir: Raoul Walsh

Dave Henderson, an orphan who has become the beneficiary of a rich man's will, falls in with race-track crooks Martin Tydeman and Bokky Sharvan who bilk him out of his $100,000 inheritance. In retaliation, Dave steals the money from Tydeman's safe, but is caught and sentenced to five years in jail. In prison, Dave becomes friendly with Millman, who is about to be released, and reveals the money's hiding place to him, arranging to rendezvous at the end of Dave's term. Once released, Dave is hounded by members of Tydeman's gang as well as the police, who are waiting for him to retrieve his bounty. While taking refuge at the house of Capriano, an old bomb maker, Dave falls in love with the old man's daughter Teresa. However, Capriano sets a trap for Dave, who awakens in a drugged state to find the $100,000 missing. With the help of Millman and Teresa, Dave recovers the money, turns it over to the police and resolves to go straight.

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

Dir: Raoul Walsh

Harold Whitley, a member of New York's idle rich, is upset when the United States enters World War I. Upon learning that married men are exempt from the Selective Draft, Harold urges his fiancée Mary to wed him quickly, but Mary indignantly threatens to break their engagement. At the twenty-story skyscraper that Harold's father is building, Mary meets Jim Kelly, the contractor's son, and is impressed as he rises on a beam. Jim returns Mary's gloves to her Fifth Avenue address, where Harold insults him. At training camp, Jim, enthusiastic about the draft, is promoted to aviation captain, while Harold, who exhibits cowardice as a captain, is released. In France, Jim is knocked unconscious by a shell and nursed by Mary, now in the Red Cross. Jim captures a German raiding party, and after he makes them exchange clothes with allied soldiers, they are shot by their own men. When Mary is abducted by a German prince, Jim pursues on horseback, tumbles over a cliff, swims ashore and arrives in time to rescue her. They then escape in an airplane.

Dir: Raoul Walsh

Given a choice between traveling to South America as an emissary for his father's ammunition company and foregoing his weekly allowance, Billy Drake heeds his father's warnings and buys an ocean liner ticket. Before leaving, however, the movie-struck Billy spots a beautiful woman standing in front of a theater and imagines that she is a film star. To his delight, he finds the woman on board his ship, as well as Count Von Nuttenburg, a political troublemaker, who has stolen a movie camera, thinking that it is a new brand of machine gun. Von Nuttenburg shows the camera to Billy, who concludes that the count is a director and the ship is a set for a movie melodrama. When the boat lands at a port torn by revolution, Billy insists that the guns and soldiers are part of the show. Not until he and the girl are seized by the rebels and threatened with death, does he admit his error. By a clever ruse, he escapes from his captors and with the help of Federal troops, defeats the count and wins the heart of his pretty shipmate.

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

Dir: Raoul Walsh

Harle, a successful French businessman, is so absorbed with his factory that he neglects his wife Claire. One day, Harle's old friend Henri, the Marquis de Puymaufray, comes to visit, and Claire falls in love with the cultured and sensitive man. Several months after his departure, Claire gives birth to a baby girl, Claudia, and dies shortly afterward from neglect and depression. Twenty years pass and Claudia has grown into a beautiful woman. Her father wishes her to wed a count, but she loves Maurice, a young American. During a labor dispute, Claudia is abducted by her father's disgruntled employees and held for ransom. The marquis, who has long watched over the girl, loses his life in a rescue attempt, but Maurice finally succeeds in liberating his sweetheart. After the marquis' death, it is revealed that Claudia actually was his daughter, and Harle, crushed, retires to his country estate, freeing the girl to voyage to America with the man she loves.

Dir: Raoul Walsh

Peasant girl Vania is assaulted by a duke who murders her lover and sends her away to London. There she becomes a famous actress. The Duke, seeing her perform but not recognizing her, hears that his son is wounded. "If anything should happen to my boy, I think it would kill me." That's all the motivation Vania needs to go to the front, find the one-armed paralyzed boy and marry him. Next she arranges to make love to his father just as the boy enters the room, causing the young man to blow out his brains.

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

Dir: Raoul Walsh

Lady Lou is forced by Hatfield, her cruel foster father, into the dance hall life at a brutal lumber camp. Through the efforts of a stranger who is secretly in love with her, Lou escapes to a neighboring camp where she meets and marries the lumberjack Conahan without telling him of her past. Lou's unsavory past is finally revealed in a confrontation with her foster father, and her husband turns from her in disgust. She is once again saved by the stranger's intervention when he tells Conahan the truth about the girl's life. After Conahan's and Lou's reconciliation, the stranger, no longer needed, wanders alone into the snow.

Dir: Raoul Walsh

When notorious bandit Leopoldo Juarez takes refuge in her house, pretty young Mexican girl Carmelita finds herself falling for him, and arranges to meet him at a nearby brook, but falls asleep soon after he leaves. She awakens to find American army officer William Jerome arriving at the house, looking for Jerome. Intrigued by the young officer, she tells him about her scheduled meeting with the bandit. Juarez finds out about it, and forces her to wear his hat and coat. Jerome mistakenly shoots her, is tried for murder and sentenced to be shot before a firing squad. However, everything isn't quite the way it seems to be . . .

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

Dir: Raoul Walsh

Before diplomatic relations between the United States and Germany have been severed during World War I, Count Johann von Bernstorff establishes an intricate spy network in America, headed by the treacherous Otto Goltz and his ally, Wolff von Eidel. Their activities result in labor strikes, factory explosions, and transportation disasters. Headquartered in a major U.S. industrial center, Otto marries Lillian O'Grady and treats her so brutally that she eventually dies. Lillian's death is avenged by a young American soldier named Dick Gregory, who is in love with her sister Rosie. Following Otto's death, von Eidel is arrested, but when a group of German sympathizers tries to rescue him, a patriotic vigilante group attacks the jail, shooting the spy and imprisoning the disloyal Americans. In the end, as American forces storm France, Kaiser Wilhelm grows desperate.

Dir: Raoul Walsh

A man is convicted unjustly of a crime and then subjected to inhumane torment in the Yuma Territorial Prison in the Arizona Territory, run by corrupt administrators.