Deep Archive Finds in the Vein of Forbidden Paths: 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

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

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

Mazie-Rosie Carden, a waif who pays her board by selling papers on the street, saves the life of starving musician Deal Hendrie by giving him her cherished "lucky dime." Meanwhile, her brother Ben, employed as a weigh-master by the West Coal Company, has been discharged on a trumped-up accusation by the company's manager, Samuel Winter, of falsifying weights. Later, West finds proof of Winter's false records, summons him to the house and, after a fight, is killed by his employee. Ben, induced by Mazie to go to West and say that he has been falsely accused, arrives in time to see Winter robbing the body of his employer and taking Mazie's dime, which Hendrie had lost. Winter attacks Ben, knocks him unconscious and escapes, but is seen by Mazie. The next Sunday, while at the church where Hendrie is employed as an organist, Mazie sees Winter contributing the lucky dime and accuses him of murder before the whole congregation. Mazie's accusation is corroborated by her brother Ben, who has regained consciousness to testify against Winter, and all ends happily when Hendrie proposes to Mazie.

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.

Dir: Robert Thornby

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

Bradford Stewart, a young American surgeon studying in Germany, is dining in Cologne with a German friend, Ritter Bloem, a philosopher and a patriotic German. The latter is called away by German officers, and on his return announces to Stewart that war has been declared. After Bloem's departure, Trapadoux, chief of the French Secret Service maintained in Germany, who has been listening to their conversation, accosts Stewart, claiming to be one of the German police agents, inspects his passport, and learns to which hotel he will go in Aachen, which is his next destination. Frau Schanne, the proprietress of the Holmer Hof, secretly maintains French sympathies, but her servant, Hans, is a German spy. In Stewart's absence from his room, Trapadoux brings Frau Schanne a package, the contents of which he instructs her to place in Stewart's baggage to avert police suspicion during their later moves. Upon his return to his room Stewart finds in his luggage a lady's slippers, silk hose and dainty lingerie. The door of his room is opened and Little Comrade hurries in, embraces him fondly and calling him husband. Outside the door Hans listens, perplexed and a little suspicious, but had he not seen the lady's garments in Stewart's belongings? Perhaps, after all, she is his wife. After making sure of Hans' retirement, Little Comrade explains to Stewart that she is a French spy fleeing from Germany with secrets stolen from the German officers with whom she has been wont to flirt in Alsace-Lorraine; that even now they are on the watch for her and that if she is brought back, death will be the penalty. Stewart consents to help her, and watches while she forges an addition to his passport, adding to his own name and description, the description of herself as his wife traveling with him. Together they pass the gauntlet of police inspection and board the train for Brussels. At the frontier the train is held up and all passengers inspected. The police inspector stationed there holds Stewart and his "wife" for the coming of a German' officer from Metz to identify Little Comrade. One of the French spies on the frontier summons Trapadoux, who comes in the guise of the officer from Metz, and after inspecting Little Comrade, states that she is not the woman spy they feared. In the morning they arrive at the Belgium camp, where they are welcomed, but a few hours later the Belgians muster in battle against the German invaders. Little Comrade and Stewart are wounded, and while Stewart goes for a stretcher for her, she is captured by a genuine officer from Metz, who takes her to German headquarters and denounces her as a spy. Bloem, who is in command is unable to persuade her to confess. When Stewart discovers Little Comrade gone, weak from loss of blood, he becomes unconscious for several days. Upon regaining consciousness he learns that Little Comrade has been captured, so he concentrates his energies on delivering to General Joffre the papers she confided to his keeping. In gratitude, General Joffre bestows on Stewart the ribbon of the Legion of Honor, but overwhelmed by his loss and weak from this last effort, Stewart is borne away delirious. At the German headquarters, Bloem finding Little Comrade obdurate, is about to pass sentence upon her when she begs him to send her last words of love to Stewart. Finding that Stewart is her lover, Bloem, whose life was once saved by Stewart, refuses to condemn her, claiming that there is not sufficient evidence, and sends her back to "her American husband." There follows a joyous reunion in the hospital between Stewart and Little Comrade.

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 Simple Souls perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

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

Jill Cummings and her sisters Marguerite and Jane are left penniless when their father dies. To provide for the family, Jill accepts a sales position in a department store, where she attracts the attention of her unhappily-married boss, George Hemingway. Desperate to escape her difficult circumstances, Jill accepts Hemingway's proposal that she live as his mistress and subsequently is kept in high style in a large, beautiful house. Some years later, Hemingway dies, and with the fortune he leaves her, Jill tours Europe. There she becomes engaged to Harry Adams, but when George Hemingway, Jr. appears to act as best man in the wedding, Jill is forced to confess her past to Harry. The two separate for a year to think things over, and when Harry returns, he suggests to Jill that they live together "in a happy way." Jill leaves him and continues her life alone.

Dir: Robert Thornby

Young Celeste Janvier ( Bessie Love ) lives in an East Side tenement with her immigrant grandfather, a humanitarian and socialist. Like her kindly grandfather, Celeste also has a kindhearted soul, and her friendly nature has earned her the nickname, " the little sister of everybody." When several unpleasant men try to court her, Celeste turns them down. Meanwhile, Hugh Tavers Jr., ( George Fisher ) whose father owns a factory, has died suddenly. The young Tavers poses as a laborer in order to understand why the workers want to strike. He meets and falls in love with Celeste, who works at the factory, and he secures a better job for her. Celeste learns that anarchist Ivan Marask ( Hector Sarno ) plans to kill Travers, she hurries to warn her employer and is shocked to learn that he is the poor laborer whom she loves. Marask comes to respect Travers, who agrees to improve working conditions for the factory workers, and finds lasting contentment with the lovely Celeste.