Essential Cult Cinema Mirroring the Impact of Greater Love Hath No ...

Dir: Herbert Blaché

An old woman in Frederick, Maryland during the U.S. Civil War displays her American flag in defiance of the armies of Confederate general Thomas J. Jackson. Based on the folk tale that grew from the poem by John Greenleaf Whittier.

Dir: Herbert Blaché

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of The Shadows of a Great City perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

A young profligate son of a wealthy merchant falls in love with the daughter of an inventor, who has devoted the best years of his life to perfecting the machinery of his employer's plants. After an accident has caused the death of the inventor, the merchant, none too scrupulous, lays claim to an unpatented invention. Not aware of his father's acts, the merchant's son is courting the inventor's daughter, but parental opposition is interposed. Offering his son a half interest in his business if he will renounce his love for the girl, the father is dumbfounded when his son refuses and decides he wants the girl more than the money. Ordered from home, the son secures a job as stevedore on the docks. The foreman takes a dislike to the boy and tries to browbeat him. After a quarrel, the boy accidentally pushes the foreman into the river, runs away and tells his sweetheart that he has committed murder. Detectives pursuing him, arrest and bring him to headquarters, where he is sentenced to Blackwell's Island. During his sojourn on Blackwell's Island, he learns that the man he is supposed to have murdered is alive, and, enraged at the injustice of his sentence, he breaks jail. In the meantime his young sweetheart has also discovered his innocence through a friendly attaché of the Governor's office, and with his assistance dashes to Albany, where the Governor is persuaded to issue a pardon for her young hero. The next and last scene discloses the happy couple in their own little home.

Dir: Herbert Blaché

A fascinating piece of cinema that shares thematic elements.

Dir: Herbert Blaché

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of A Woman's Fight perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

A fascinating piece of cinema that shares thematic elements.

Dir: Herbert Blaché

Famous playwright Paul Worden takes a country bungalow to write a new work and rehearse with Marjorie Sinclair, his leading actress, who is staying nearby. When riding one day, Paul helps his neighbor, Diana Ardway, the spoiled teenage daughter of a steel magnate, when her horse gets the better of her. Diana, at first insulted by Paul's interference, develops a passionate interest in him, leading her to spy on him, provoke a hair-pulling fight with Marjorie, and destroy one of Paul's rooms after he treats her like a child. When Paul wires his brother Tad, known for his successes with women, to relieve him of Diana's attentions, she rejects Tad. Knowing that her father will return soon from Europe, Diana gives the Associated Press an announcement of her engagement to Paul and kidnaps him to make it appear that he compromised her. After her father returns, Paul, thoroughly beaten, realizes his love for her and accepts his fate.

Dir: Herbert Blaché

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

A crooked promoter commits two murders in his efforts to gain wealth and influence. He is shot on the night of his election as governor and repents of his crimes on his deathbed.

Dir: Herbert Blaché

Satan decides to ruin the innocence of ambitious Everygirl, who has a beautiful voice and wishes to pursue a career singing in opera. He thus assumes human form and follows her in order to make sure that she accepts his terms.

Dir: Herbert Blaché

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

Strolling through the park one evening, Travers comes upon a woman about to throw herself in the lake. It is his sister. She tells him she was betrayed by a man who is her son's father, and she is about to end it all because she is no longer able to endure her destitution. Travers soothes her and promises to take care of her and her son. He furnishes an apartment for them and makes frequent calls there. On one of them he is seen and recognized by Mansfield, a clubman of his, who is infatuated with Mrs. Travers and uses this suspicious, though unconfirmed, incident to try to persuade her to give him her love. Mrs. Travers, made credulous by her insane jealousy of her husband, slightly encourages Mansfield, who, with the bravado of his sort, boasts at the club of his affair with her. Travers hears of this and is uncontrollable. He sends for his sister to come to his dressing room in the theatre, and Mansfield, hearing of it, brings Mrs. Travers to surprise him. Here is the big scene of the play wherein Travers demands of Mansfield an explanation of his conduct, and Travers' sister recognizes Mansfield as the man who deserted her. Travers attempts to kill Mansfield, who is saved by the police. Then Mrs. Travers, learning the identity of "the other woman," and ridden by remorse for the jealousy that has made her doubt her husband and lose his love, attempts to poison herself. She is saved, however, and reunited to her husband by a love whose constant light outshines the occasional flashes from her "green eyes."

Dir: Herbert Blaché

When John Lowery, his wife Mary and their small son Billy journey to a Northern lumber camp to visit its owner, Clifford Beresford, Mary becomes infatuated with the lumberman and neglects her little boy. A Hudson Bay Company clerk named Nan McDonald, known as the "angel of the lumberjacks," forms such a strong attachment to the child that although he becomes seriously ill, Billy refuses to take his medicine unless Nan dispenses it. Watching over him late one night, Nan sees Mary steal from her room to keep a midnight appointment with Clifford, but when Mary falls down the stairs to her death, Nan maintains her silence for John's sake. Heartbroken, John asks Nan to return with him to the East as Billy's governess, but local gossips misinterpret her presence in John's house and he marries her. Informed that John still loves only his dead wife, the unhappy Nan allows Clifford to flirt with her, whereupon John learns the truth about Mary and opens his heart to the woman who really loves him.

Dir: Herbert Blaché

Young Phyllis Shaw, tired of being poor, sets out to snag a rich husband. She meets a young artist named Jerry, who falls for her, but she rejects him because he's not rich. She then meets Kirke, who is exactly the type of man she's looking for, but with one problem--he won't marry her, but as his "kept woman" he will lavish her with money and gifts. What to do, what to do . . .