The Definitive Watchlist For Devotees of Fifty-Fifty: Cult Guide

Dir: Allan Dwan

The story of David Harum, a small-town banker, and how what he does and who he is affects the lives of everyone in his town, whether they--or he--realize it.

Dir: Allan Dwan

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

Dorothy Raleigh is a high-spirited Southern beauty who has been brought up by her father, Col. Raleigh, an unreconstructed Kentuckian, to have nothing to do with the townspeople of the little village of Norwalk, just outside of Louisville. She has no other companions than the old negro servants, her animal pets and her books. One day there comes into her life by chance a young millionaire gambler named Forbes Stewart. He makes love to her and asks the Colonel for her hand. Indignant at his presumption, the Colonel orders him from the house. But the young people elope. When Dorothy meets her husband's friends she is grievously disappointed. He determines, rather than cause her unhappiness. to change his mode of living, and give up his old friends. But a detective who knows something of his past, tries to blackmail him. His defiance leads to his arrest, and he is sentenced to a year in the penitentiary. Dorothy is loyal to him at first but when another woman enters her home and seemingly proves that she is Stewart's wife by an earlier marriage, she goes back to her father. The stern old man, however, has disowned her, and she is compelled to seek shelter in a cabin with her old negro mammy. When Stewart is released from the penitentiary he hastens to his home to find his wife. Instead he finds this other woman, an old flame who has taken this method to win him back again. He repudiates her, however, and hurries to Norwalk to see the Colonel and demand Dorothy. The Colonel refuses to tell her whereabouts, but from an old servant Stewart learns the truth. Dorothy in the meantime has been led to believe her baby illegitimate, and the villagers, glad to see the proud name of the Raleighs dragged in the dust, make her life miserable. She is about to kill herself when Stewart arrives. The outcome reunite the lovers and brings a change in the heart of the father that is supremely satisfying.

Dir: Allan Dwan

Drusilla Ives, a young Quaker girl living on an isolated island, leaves to become the servant of the spendthrift Duke of Guisenberry in London, who is the Lord of her village. She finds that she is attracted to the bustling city's night life, and when the duke discovers that she is a fine dancer, he helps her turn professional. In short order she becomes known as Diana Valrose, the city's favorite dancer. Unfortunately, her strict father and her Quaker fiancee, John Christison, back on the island find out about her newfound fame and career and strongly disapprove--her father places a curse on her and her boyfriend marries her sister Faith. Complications ensue.

Dir: Allan Dwan

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

When Colonel Archer, the military post commanding officer, refuses to loan money to his second-in-command, Captain Waring, Waring gets the money from Brent Lindsay of the nearby mining town, in exchange for his note. Both Waring and Lindsay court Floyd Bingham, the daughter of a retired colonel, but Floyd learns that Lindsay is involved with Queen, a dance hall girl. Following the urging of her father, Floyd marries Archer, who has two children left to him by his dying sister, whom Floyd loves. When Lindsay continues his attentions to Floyd, Archer quarrels with her and leaves to go hunting. Floyd goes walking in the woods with Lindsay and his kiss is photographed by Waring, who attempts to blackmail Lindsay. When Lindsay is found dead and Archer, who suspects Floyd, is arrested, the men from the mining town almost lynch Archer, but Queen, who witnessed the murder, clears him.

Dir: Allan Dwan

Moll O'Hara, a child of the gutter, grows up with the horrible example of her drunken mother before her, and when, reaching womanhood, the girl loses her mother she keeps as a terrible souvenir the mother's craving for liquor, thrust upon the child when helpless to defend itself. But, save for the love of drinking and of fighting, Moll keeps to "the straight road" and the other temptations of her squalid life leave her unscathed. One day Moll is attacked by Liz, a disreputable woman in Bill Hubbell's saloon; the two women fight and are arrested. On their way past the settlement, Ruth Thompson a wealthy young settlement worker and her fiancé, Douglas Ames, see the pitiful procession, but Ruth insists that Moll and the others be brought into the settlement until she has the affair investigated. They come in and with them Bill Hubbell, the handsome and athletic saloon-keeper, and when he tells the true story of Moll's being first attacked by Liz. Moll is released, at the solicitation of Ruth Thompson. When the others have gone, Ruth pleads with Moll to quit drinking, and aided by the pleading of Mike Finnerty, a little crippled boy, Moll at last gives in, the callous indifference of her nature vanishes, and she becomes a different creature. Mrs. Finnerty, made kindly by Moll's love for little Mike, takes her home with her and a new life begins for Moll. Bill Hubbell, the saloon-keeper, instead of being offended by Moll's abstaining from his wares, encourages her, and a friendship springs up between the two that soon ripens into romance. But Douglas Ames, though engaged to Ruth, with the day set for their wedding, has determined to make a conquest of Moll, and one day, just as she is leaving Ruth, having told of her engagement to Bill, Ames follows and catches her in his arms. Ruth comes upon them, and Ames treacherously throws the fault on Moll, pretending that she had made advances to him, which he was repelling. Naturally, Ruth believes the man she loves in preference to the girl from the gutter, but at last promises the frantic Moll that she will come to her rooms at Finnerty's at 6 o'clock the following evening. After Moll leaves, Ames follows, as Moll knew he would, and begs that he be allowed to visit her. She coquettes with him and promises to be at home to him at six next evening, determined that Ruth shall find him and realize his vileness and the truth of Moll's story. But Bill Hubbell sees and overhears the appointment, and the next night when Ames calls, Bill, instead of Ruth, bursts into the room and sees Ames in the act of embracing Moll. In vain Moll tries to tell Bill the trap she had set for Ames. He laughs scornfully, and when Ruth enters tells her what he saw. Ames sneaks away, and both Ruth and Bill leave, believing Moll guilty. The frenzied and desperate Moll seizes the whiskey Ames had brought her and starts to drink, determined to go back to the gutter, when her despairing eyes fall on the sweet pictured face of the Madonna, a gift from Ruth. Throwing away the liquor, Moll falls on her knees and prays for succor and vindication. How her prayer is answered, her enemy crushed, her innocence established and her love and faith restored is developed in the climax of this drama.

Dir: Allan Dwan

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

An outlaw calling himself Passin' Through halts his evil ways long enough to help out some children in difficulty.

Dir: Allan Dwan

A girl with old-fashioned values becomes a modern sophisticate.

Dir: Allan Dwan

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

A wealthy girl's banished mother returns as the seamstress at her daughter's wedding.

Dir: Allan Dwan

After the death of her father, Betty Lockwood goes to Graystone Gables, the estate where he had been the caretaker, to spend some time alone there. She meets David Chandler, Graystone's owner, who is attracted to her and tells her to come back whenever she wants to. Betty's mother soon remarries, but her new stepfather is not the same kind of man that her father was; she finds herself the subject of some vicious gossip begun by her mother's new husband when he spots her at the estate with David. Complications ensue.

Dir: Allan Dwan

Neighboring ranchers John Ashby and Allene Houston are in love, but their fathers' violent feud over the route of the new X. Y. Z. Railroad eventually drives them apart. Colonel Houston and the elder Ashby are both killed in a fight, leaving John and Allene to continue the feud, John accepting a position with the railroad company and Allene swearing that it will never cross her property. Allene is aided in her battle by the foreman of the Houston ranch, Harry Marshall, an ambitious man who hopes to make Allene his wife. After an intense struggle, one of Allene's men shoots John, but even as she is winning the fight, Allene realizes that she still loves John. In the end, Allene herself lays the last tie just in time to save the company's franchise rights.