Top-Tier Alternatives Exploring the Legacy of Flare-Up Sal: Cult Guide

Dir: Roy William Neill

Inga Sonderson an artist model and her sweetheart, sculptor Robert Milton, win recognition through the efforts of Daniel Garford, an artist of international fame. One day, upon returning home to find his wife in the arms of another man, Garford becomes so despondent that he loses all interest in his work and turns to opium for comfort. Inga, seeking to redeem her patron, follows him into the opium dens and brings him home. Meanwhile, Milton, seeing his sweetheart return late at night with Garford, misunderstands and in a jealous rage breaks his engagement. Under Inga's care, Garford gradually begins to reform and, regaining his reputation, asks her to marry him. Milton, grief-stricken that his love is wed to another, is about to leave the city when Inga appears and announces that she is planning to marry the man she loves, Milton.

Dir: Roy William Neill

Mary Wayne (Constance Talmadge) is left alone and penniless in New York City after her father dies. She desperately needs a job after being thrown out of her apartment for causing a small fire while cooking. At an employment agency she becomes fast friends with a sick girl, Nell Norcross, and assumes her identity and good references to start work as a secretary for elderly socialite Caroline Marshall, which soon involves playing wrangler to the lady's college-dropout nephew William "Bill" Marshall (Vincent Coleman). Bill is much more interested in going to illegal boxing matches with his buddy Peter Stearns (Ned Sparks) than in throwing lavish dinner parties for his family's high-society friends. While Mary tries to do her job and keep her true identity from being discovered, William begins to fall in love with her.

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

Dir: Roy William Neill

Eileen Rodney believes herself in love with Raymond Moreland, who poses as the leader of an oriental cult, but discovers his duplicity in time to avoid the serious consequences of an elopement. She marries her guardian, John Harland, and is happy until Moreland returns and seeks to reopen the affair under threat of exposure. Moreland is killed, and her husband, as District Attorney, takes charge of the case. Her efforts to recover the love letters she wrote Moreland are nearly her undoing, precipitating an unusually thrilling chain of action.

Dir: Roy William Neill

Trixie Darling, a leading chorus girl in the musical comedy number "Chicken, Chicken, You're Some Pickin'," refuses Broadway Benham's seductive wine parties and luxuries. Instead, she marries John Collins, an awkward Westerner, who, she is surprised to learn, is a multi-millionaire with a huge orange grove in California. John, overhearing jealous dancers say Trixie married for money, decides to test her. He takes her in a rickety Ford to their "home," a shack, where he throws things, raves, and makes her fix his breakfast at five. When Benham brings the troupe to town, he easily convinces the disillusioned Trixie to appear, but John carries her off the stage. Gertie Brown, John's jealous former sweetheart, starts the Committee on Public Morals to get rid of Trixie. When Trixie interrupts their meeting and has a hair-pulling fight with Gertie, a dislodged kerosene lamp starts a fire. After nearly losing her life saving Gertie, Trixie awakens from unconsciousness to find herself in John's mansion, now accepted by all.

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

Dir: Roy William Neill

In a Western mining town, millionaire Gordon Appleby meets Maida Madison, a civil engineer, and proposes. The two marry and return to Philadelphia, where they are coldly received by Gordon's snobbish family. Gordon's elder brother Mortimer's highbrow sensibilities are particularly offended by Maida's breezy manner, and he determines to break up the marriage. Meanwhile, Maida learns that Gordon's sister Eunice, whose husband is a lieutenant overseas, has formed an attachment to playboy Rupert Fenton. Maida decides to save Eunice when, at a party, she overhears her planning to elope with Rupert to Egypt. Late that evening, Maida follows Eunice to Rupert's apartment, where she is seen by Mortimer, who almost succeeds in convincing Gordon of her unfaithfulness. Maida refuses to explain her presence at Rupert's in order to shield Eunice, who, ashamed, confesses her guilt. Filled with gratitude, the Applebys accept their Western daughter-in-law into the family.

Dir: Roy William Neill

Allaine Grandet lives with her father in the barren land of the north, where women are nothing more than mere chattels. She is sold by her father to Jules Latour, a brutal and primitive trapper, who subsequently gambles her away to James Dermot, the keeper of a den in the gold settlement. She is here befriended by a besotted pianist, who has seen better days, but whose manhood revives in Allaine's environment. The gambling hall proprietor seeks to bend her to his will, but she resists him, nameless fear tugging at her heartstrings. When he seeks to enforce his will upon her, she shoots and wounds him, and with this act her fear vanishes and she becomes mistress of herself. She goes with the pianist into the snows, and in a drift their dog unearths the body of Latour. So she finds happiness in the love of her protector, whose manhood has restored her faith in him.

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

Dir: Roy William Neill

When Mark Reid, a young man seeking his fortune in the gold fields of California, discovers Mike O'Hara attempting to jump his claim, he becomes violent. However, the Good Samaritan intervenes and prevents him from injuring O'Hara, Reid, ashamed of his behavior, offers his adversary a share in the mine. Hearing of their good fortune, Morrison, a promoter from San Francisco, makes the partners an offer they cannot refuse. Reid goes to San Francisco to conclude the deal; while there he meets Morrison's niece Barbara and the two fall in love. Morrison learns of their engagement just as he is about to strip Reid of his profits in a bogus stock deal. The news fails to deter him and Reid loses all his possessions, believing that Barbara was an accomplice in her uncle's scheme. Returning to the gold fields, Reid discovers that O'Hara has staked another successful claim and the two men renew their partnership. Reid rises in the financial world and is about to crush Morrison, when the Good Samaritan intervenes once again, bringing Barbara to Reid's house where his better instincts prevail.

Dir: Roy William Neill

Young Gloria O'Connell falls in love with her neighbor, James Oliver. She is sent to a small town to stay with her three spinster aunts, while James becomes a newspaper reporter and arranges to write a story on the town and its large old-maid population. James pursues overweight "Hippo" Harger, a rival for Gloria's affections, and challenges him to a duel. When James' newspaper story appears, the disgruntled old maids hunt down the author. In a fit of anger, Gloria decides to marry "Hippo," but James rescues her at the office of the justice of the peace. The youthful lovers continue their relationship with their parents' understanding.

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

Dir: Roy William Neill

Upon hearing that her parents have been killed in the war, actress Genevieve Bouchette returns to her native village of Deschon, France, and engages in Red Cross work. The Germans capture the town, and when Genevieve refuses to submit to the amorous demands of one of the soldiers, he orders her branded with the "cross of shame." Her sweetheart, Jean Picard, now a volunteer in the French army, is seriously wounded while attempting to deliver important orders to Col. Bouchier, and Genevieve saves his life by telling his pursuers that he is dead. After delivering the papers herself, Genevieve visits her lover in the hospital, but he fails to recognize her, having lost his memory through shell shock. When Jean sees the cross of shame of Genevieve's breast, however, his memory returns, and the two pledge their troth.

Dir: Roy William Neill

Glory Wharton is the granddaughter of Civil War veteran Jed Wharton, who entertains everyone with his war stories, but has a serious drinking problem, which Glory is determined to help him overcome.