Visionary Picks Drawn from the Same DNA as Fallen Angel: Cult Guide

Dir: Robert Thornby

Vaudeville artist LaBelle Geraldine and her dancing partner Freddie Montgomery are stranded in Arizona when their troupe breaks up. In order to raise money, Geraldine orders Freddie to impersonate masked bandit Black Jim so that she may turn him in and collect the $2,000 reward. When the real Black Jim holds up her coach, Geraldine, believing that he is Freddie, boldly pulls out her gun, and the bandit shoots her in the wrist and takes her to his cabin. Later Freddie is captured too, but when members of the gang insult Geraldine, he refuses to protect her. Gradually Black Jim falls in love with her, and she comes to admire him so deeply that instead of seizing a chance to escape one night, she returns to warn him of the gang's plot to kill him. Together they hold the gang off until their cabin is set on fire. Dashing through the flames, they leap onto their horses and escape to safety.

Dir: Robert Thornby

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

Susie is the daughter of a very good bricklayer. The lad who loves her is a very rich lad, as all lads should be, but, alas are not. To win her, he poses as a hod-carrier, certainly an unromantic disguise for a wooer. His mother has social aspirations for him, with Newport as a base of action, but what cares he? He loves the bricklayer's daughter. Is it not simple? It is. Simple, but sweet. Later Susie gets rich by means of a legacy, and the bricklayer's family moves into opulent quarters. Then sweet Susie is elegantly-gowned, but no happier. What are mere dollars to sweet Susie? The main situation in which Susie figures is one of finance. Seeing that dollars mean unhappiness, she plans to induce her father to invest in the stock market and to let him believe that he has lost all. This scheme succeeds in bringing the picture to its ideal end, and Susie marries the lad who posed as the hod-carrier. - Picture Play Magazine 1917.

Dir: Robert Thornby

Young playwright Harold Montague travels to the Kentucky mountains to seek the local color that his manager has complained is lacking in his new play. There he falls in love with Kate Kendall, a mountain girl, and tries to befriend a group of moonshiners, who regard him with suspicion because of their fear of revenue officers. Looney Lige, jealous of Harold's success with Kate, alerts the officials to the location of the still, and the mountaineers, led by Big Hank, decide that the outsider whom they assume has betrayed them must hang. Kate saves Harold at the last moment, and, badly shaken, he catches the next train back to New York. At the rehearsal of his play, his manager introduces him to his leading lady--Kate Kendall, who had also been sent to the mountains for local color.

Dir: Robert Thornby

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

A feud over boundaries between the McKinstry and Harrison families, both from Kentucky, but squatting in California in search of gold, has caused Cressy McKinstry to show disdain for Joe Masters, a cousin of the Harrisons, even though she secretly loves him. Nellie Dabney, who left her husband Ben for city-bred John Ford but then was deserted by him, returns and is rejected by Ford, who is now the schoolteacher of the settlement and is attracted to Cressy. After Ben fights Ford and takes Nellie back, Cressy schemes with Ben for him to buy the land in her name. A San Franciscan representative of the legal owner arrives to take possession and provokes a fight at the boundary line which leaves Joe with a bullet in his arm. Cressy proves that the land belongs to her and Joe, who she will soon marry, and the families are reconciled.

Dir: Robert Thornby

Joseph Stagg is a lonely, grouchy middle-aged man living with his housekeeper, "Aunt Rose", in a New England village. A prominent merchant in town, one day he gets a letter notifying him that his sister and brother-in-law have been lost in a shipwreck. He takes in his sister's daughter Carolyn and her dog, Prince. Carolyn meets Amanda Parlow, a local woman, and discovers that Amanda and her Uncle Joe had an affair years ago, and its breakup left Joe hurt and bitter. Carolyn resolves to get them back together, but a forest fire that breaks out in the mountains where Amanda and Carolyn are staying puts her plans, and her life, in danger.

Dir: Robert Thornby

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

Newt Spooner's determination to kill Henry Falkins. who has denounced Newt and sent him to prison, grows deeper rooted with the years. It seems that the red-branded hatred in his mind has seared its impression upon every fiber of his being. And then Minerva Rawlins enters his life. The change in Newt's nature does not come in a flash. Despite the influence of the girl he loves, he still cherishes his hatred. Fate throws the two men together in the Philippines. Amidst battle and bloodshed the vision of Minerva follows Newt. His opportunity to slay Henry Falkins occurs, but the influence of Minerva reaching out even across miles of salt ocean, stays his hand at the eleventh hour. How Newt's final stage on the upward path he has set himself to follow is reached, is depicted dramatically. The last barriers with which Newt has steeled his dark hatred are swept away and a woman's power saves him from himself and the vengeance of the law.

Dir: Robert Thornby

Rose, a pretty young country girl,gets engaged to Steve, a handsome young lumberman whom she loves, but Claude, a city slicker who wants Rose, cons her into believing that Steve's obsessive love for her is ruining his life and that she should leave him for his own good. Steve, however, mistakenly thinks that Rose and Claude are having an affair, and breaks off the engagement. Complications ensue.

Dir: Robert Thornby

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

According to old Mr. Barry's will, if his son Jim fails to marry, the vast Barry estate will revert to the O'Maras. When one night Jim, an irresponsible drunk, falls down the stairs and is given until morning to live, Mrs. Barry, in order to protect the property from the O'Maras, pleads with Molly Shawn to marry her son. Molly, although in love with Barney Malone, agrees out of a sense of indebtedness to the Barry family, and the two are married. Much to everyone's surprise, Jim recovers and Molly pines for her sweetheart Barney until it is discovered that the priest who performed the ceremony was really a criminal who, to escape the law, had disguised himself in priests' robes. Overjoyed, Molly is disentangled and now free to marry Barney, the man she loves.

Dir: Robert Thornby

Mining engineer Paul Grayson writes a play that is sent to theatrical producer McKay Hedden, who decides that it is so good it is worth stealing. Hedden makes a copy and then returns the original with a note that it is worthless. At Hanleytown Harbor on the New England coast, Hedden meets Silver Sands, the daughter of an old sea captain, and decides to star her in the play. Paul also visits the harbor and falls in love with Silver. Hedden begins rehearsals with Silver in New York, then a drama critic notifies his friend Paul of the treachery. Paul arrives in New York and rescues Silver from Hedden's advances. Hedden acknowledges Paul as author of the play which is a success with Silver in the leading role.

Dir: Robert Thornby

When the Duke of Wynninghame, a "simple soul" who prefers science to royalty, meets Molly Shine, a London shop girl, he is enthralled by her love of books and begins to send her two pounds weekly so that she can purchase the books that she adores. Molly's mother discovers the money and, assuming that the duke is paying her daughter for immoral reasons, drags the girl to the duke's home, where she charges him with seduction. The duke good-naturedly agrees to marry Molly, and then ignores her. Molly loves her husband, but his neglect, coupled with the enmity of Octavia, the duke's sister, compels her to leave. As she prepares to flee, the duke realizes that he has fallen in love with his wife, and the two face a happy future together.