Hand-Picked Alternatives Movies That Echo the Spirit of Gold from Weepah: Cult Guide

Dir: Alexander Butler

In Alberta, Canada, a Cornish emigrant unmasks a rustler posing as the girl's "blind" father.

Dir: William Bertram

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

Dolly lives with her aunt, who is a seamstress. The child is sent home from school because she has been naughty, and finds her aunt in the act of making a Red Cross costume for a huge mechanical doll. The doll can walk and talk and excites Dolly's interest intensely. Some of her playmates come and run away with the doll, which is later smashed by a runaway horse. Dolly then dresses in the Red Cross costume, hides in the big box, and is taken to the rich woman's home. She reveals her secret to the daughter, a little girl who is sick. The fairy story touches thrown in here are very fine and will appeal to the imagination of small observers. Dolly carries out her deception successfully at the Red Cross bazaar, but later is kidnapped by a gang who have been raiding the house of the wealthy woman. Dolly assists in rounding up the gang.

Dir: William Bertram

Little Marie, terrified after her drunken father beats her mother, flees from the house. Finding herself alone after her father is arrested for the assault and her mother rushed to the hospital, Marie becomes attached to a little dog that she finds in the park. The maid who is walking the dog is unable to part the two, and so she brings the little girl home to the Greer mansion where Mr. Greer, desperate for the child that his socialite wife is too busy to give him, insists upon adopting Marie. After Marie's mother recovers, she is reluctant to deprive her daughter of the riches she may inherit, and so obtains the position of governess in the Greer household in order to be near her own child. Gradually, a deep attachment develops between Mr. Greer and Marie's mother. After Marie's father is killed during a jailbreak, and Mrs. Greer, suffering from her superficial existence, commits suicide, Greer marries Marie's mother and the reconstituted family begins a new life.

Dir: William Bertram

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

A former Annapolis cadet is thrown out of the Naval Academy for cheating on an exam. Of course he was framed, but he must enlist in the Navy to clear himself. Meanwhile he and his sweetheart search for a buried treasure on Lost Island, which everyone is after.

Dir: Bruno Ziener

A fascinating piece of cinema that shares thematic elements.

Dir: Harley Knoles

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

Jim McDonald, the foreman of a shipbuilding plant and head of the labor union, strives to combat the anarchistic propaganda being put forth by Klimoff, the leader of a Bolshevik gang whose goal is to disrupt the country with strikes and anarchy. Despite McDonald's efforts, a strike is called, resulting in chaos. McDonald's child is knocked down by runaway horses abandoned by their striking driver, and dies. Mob scenes take place in America, as well as in Russia. Eventually, the unrest is quelled with an armistice called between Capital and Labor for a year, during which time wages are to be increased to reflect the cost of living, and leaders are to work out a common plan for their mutual advantage. The strikers now realize that they have been pawns of the Bolsheviks and call off the strike, agreeing to the plan.

Dir: William Bertram

Sally Lou, the small daughter of village blacksmith Jim Davis, uses her sawdust doll to take the place of a real mother. Her father proposes to Rose Budd, a beauty expert who has been stranded in the town. Rose marries Jim in order to have a home, and shows no love to her new stepdaughter. Jim enlists in the army, thinking Rose will care for Sally Lou, but instead Rose plans to elope with the local druggist Raynor. Sally Lou learns Raynor is really a German spy who plans to wreck the troop train carrying Jim. Sally Lou tells Rose and the two rush to the rescue. Sally Lou sets fire to her sawdust doll and uses it as a torchlight to warn the oncoming train. The train is saved, and Rose resolves to be a good mother to their stepchild.

Dir: William Bertram

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of Eva, wo bist du? perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

Mrs. Jasper Reading, an old woman whose concern for wealth has turned her heart to stone, turns her eldest son out of the house for no apparent reason and orders her youngest son Will to assume the management of her estate. Not without trepidation, Will installs his wife and little daughter Marie in his mother's house, but the old woman soon expresses her disapproval of both of them. Just as Mrs. Reading's heart is beginning to soften toward the charming little girl, Luther Parrish, who wishes to gain control of the Reading estate, convinces Will that his wife has betrayed him. Heartbroken, she departs with Marie, but Mrs. Reading soon misses the child and visits her to ask for forgiveness. Meanwhile, Will discovers Luther's dishonesty, and the entire family is reunited.

Dir: William Bertram

Dolly McKenzie's mother fancies herself a gifted painter and goes to the city to live a Bohemian life style. Meanwhile, Dolly's father John, facing an imminent strike in the factory he runs, sends the child, together with her little friend, Ebenezer Eczema Abraham White, and his mother, to his brother Howard's farm. The children soon bring chaos to "Peaceful Acres" with their pranks, but on one of their escapades, they become lost in the woods. Even the striking employees join in the search party, but it is Dolly's mother, coincidentally in the country for a weekend party, who finally finds the frightened children. The negligent mother willingly returns to her family, and John, grateful to his men for their help, promises to settle the labor dispute the next morning.

Dir: William Bertram

After he finds his wife Stella in the arms of ne'er-do-well Allan Standish, Ralph Gordon takes his daughter June out West, where he has extensive mining interests. The inhabitants of Hell's Gulch, who lately have been terrorized by "Rawhide" Pete and his gang of outlaws, elect Ralph sheriff. Standish, whose desertion of Stella has caused her death, arrives in Hell's Gulch and allies himself with Rawhide Pete, while competing with Ralph for the affections of June's governess, Sarah Malcomb. June assists in capturing Rawhide Pete, but Standish escapes and Sarah, moved by pity, agrees to conceal him. Assuming that Standish has again beaten him in love, Ralph catches a train East, but Sarah follows him and becomes June's new mother.