Rare Cinematic Gems Exploring the Legacy of Hell Below: Cult Guide

Dir: Jack Conway

Great financier Jesse Craven is ill, but so closely guarded that the public can obtain no details. Lawrence Ashmore, a young reporter, is detailed by his paper to obtain an interview. Larry Craven, Jesse's son, is expected one morning, and the chauffeur mistakes Ashmore for him. But when Jesse's niece Edith and friend Richard Creelman see Ashmore, they realize that he is not Larry and take him prisoner, fearing that he's a reporter. Larry has been kidnapped by the orders of Shackleton, who is the confidential man, also the former secretary to Craven, to Farnum and Sharp, two brokers who are bent upon the ruin of Craven and the thousands of stockholders who have entrusted their investments to him. Creelman and Ramsdale, Craven's broker, offer Ashmore a large sum of money if he will pose as Larry, and he agrees. He and Edith become friends. Farnum and Sharp, thinking they have Larry safe, manipulate the stock market, and things are looking rather serious for the Craven interests. In order to carry out their bluff further, it is planned that it shall be reported that Larry, in reality Ashmore, and a party will take a yachting cruise. Ashmore and the party leave on the trip, and Shackleton, who has secured the services of a chauffeur of the Craven's, kidnaps Ashmore, having enticed him from his own yacht by a ruse, and takes them on board their vessel. A storm comes up and the boat springs a leak. All are forced to jump overboard. Ashmore reaches the shore more dead than alive; Edith and the others think that Ashmore has deserted them at the crisis. Ramsdale and Creelman decide to give their entire fortunes to trying to save Craven interests. Craven is better, but Larry has control of his account, and he is helpless. Ashmore hails a passing car to take him back to the Craven place. He rushes to the Stock Exchange and turns the tide against the conspirators. The Craven fortune is saved. Farnum threatens to have Ashmore arrested for impersonating a member of the Stock Exchange. Ashmore defies him and tells him that he is the son of the man whom Farnum ruined, and that he possesses evidence which will send his enemy to jail. Farnum sees himself defeated at every turn. In the meantime Larry has caught Bernice trying to drug him and has managed to escape from her apartment. He hurries to the Cravens and is recognized at once as the real Larry Craven. He arrives just in time to prevent the shooting of Ashmore by Farnum. Ashmore is presented to Larry as the man who saved the Craven fortune. Larry sees that Edith and he are in love and offers him the position of manager of the Craven interests, which Ashmore accepts. Soon after, Edith accepts him as her life partner.

Dir: Jack Conway

On the South Sea island of Somona, an American rough-and-ready hero, Sylvester Todd, punches a German prince for insulting Lady Diana Loring of England. Sylvester flees the island, and at the request of an English official, sails to another province to help quell a native uprising. The German foreman of an English platinum mine on the island plans to destroy it with the assistance of the natives. When Lady Diana arrives, Sylvester takes her and several other English friends to a chateau for safety, but the building is surrounded by the rebels. Sylvester escapes to a wireless station and sends off an appeal for help. The party is rescued by an American warship, after which Sylvester and Diana marry.

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

Dir: Jack Conway

When bachelor friends David Clark, Dick Porter and Jerry Mathers agree to adopt Belgian war orphans, David unexpectedly finds himself the guardian of a little girl, Rene Lescere. After David is pursued by Mrs. Hardwick, a divorcee, Rene is determined to find him a more suitable wife and introduces him to Emmeline Warren. David and Emmeline are engaged, but the engagement is broken after Emmeline meets Jerry, her old beau, and their romance is rekindled. David, sad but resigned, sends Rene to boarding school and retires to his hunting lodge with Dick Porter. Later, Emmeline and Jerry, now married, visit the lodge and suggest that Rene accompany them on a trip abroad. At the moment of parting between Rene and her guardian, both realize that they love each other and Rene becomes David's wife.

Dir: Jack Conway

A secretary (Gloria Swanson) uses her boss to get money for her unfortunate sister (Ann Kroman) but eventually falls in love with him.

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

Dir: Jack Conway

Judge of the Circuit Court, Camden McClure is a extremist advocate of law enforcement until he kills his brother during a fight. Fleeing from his crime, the judge hires Cal Nelson as his guide through the Western badlands. While crossing the desert, they meet Mary Jackson, who is lost and exhausted. Mary recovers, but the judge suffers heat stroke and, in his delirium, confesses his crime to Mary. To ease his guilt, Mary admits that she is a murderer, too, and the couple decide to get married. However, when the judge reads that his brother is alive, he once again adheres to the letter of the law and denounces Mary to the authorities. Cal, who has fallen in love with Mary, carries her to the desert to escape the sheriff, and there Mary admits that she fabricated her crime to relieve the judge. The judge then discovers that his brother is actually dead, and follows the fugitives into the desert, but is killed in a sandstorm, thus freeing Mary to wed Cal.

Dir: Jack Conway

Mary seemed to have been born with music in her feet. She danced to school, danced at her work and danced while at play. Her invalid mother, realizing her talents and knowing her ambition to become an expert dancer, made the father promise that Mary should have her heart's desire. When the mother died Mary's father sold the farm and purchased a traveling show to give Mary her chance to be a stage dancer. There was a Madame La Rue in the company, who had a daughter of about Mary's age, and the two girls disagreed, with Mme. La Rue continually inspiring discord. Mary's father is stricken at a time when Mary is on the stage giving her performance, Mme. La Rue has him removed to her own dressing room, and there the old man makes his dying statement to the scheming woman. He tells her where in his trunk he keeps his money; asks that his wealthy brother, in a distant town, be notified of his death, and that Mary be taken to her undo who will provide her from his abundance with a home. Mme. La Rue takes the money from the trunk, wires to Mary's uncle that she is bringing Mary and the body of her father to him, and, deserting Mary, takes her own daughter instead. Mme. La Rue and her child are accordingly, established in luxury. When the authorities disband the juvenile opera company because the owner is dead and there is no one to carry on the show. Mary is taken in charge by a shrewish woman who makes a kitchen slave of the child. Mary bears oppression as long as she can, and then runs away to the town where her father is buried. Near the ocean shore she locates a cottage that offers shelter, even though the owner is not at home. Mary goes to sleep in the bed and awakes next morning to find that a kindly disposed young man, who makes his living fishing with his nets, owns the cottage and straightway offers a home and working partnership. Mary one day meets Phillip, a handsome young author, who is a visitor at the home of Mary's uncle. Mme. La Rue has been trying to ensnare Phillip as a husband for her daughter, Zella, but Phillip is slow to advance. Mary and Phillip meet frequently on the beach, and Bob grows jealous of his rival. One day Mme. La Rue and Zella recognize Mary as she is conversing with Phillip, they also observe Bob's jealous conduct. Going to Bob they tell him that Phillip is engaged to Zella and is only trifling with Mary. Bob in a rage assaults Phillip, and believes that the blow be strikes has killed the young author. Informing Mary of what he has done, the two friends agree that they had better leave the neighborhood and go at once to a distant town. In the years that follow Bob devotes himself to the task of realizing, for Mary, her ambition to become a great dancer. At a society function where Mary is the attraction, Phillip (who has only been stunned by Bob's blow) sees the girl and recognizes his little friend from the fishing village. The renewal of acquaintance discloses Mary's parentage, and the locket she wears proves that she should be occupying the place in her uncle's home that Mme. La Rue had, by fraud, established for Zella. The outcome gives Mary her proper place and we are left to believe that she and Phillip will find their way to happiness.

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

Dir: Jack Conway

Inheriting his father's alcoholism, Lawyer Tom Gallatin goes into the woods to rehabilitate himself. Once there, he loses his way and then meets Jane Loring, who is also lost. They are attracted to each other, but when Jane offers him a drink from a flask, Tom takes more than just a few sips, and then tries to rape her. A search party rescues Jane, after which, sobered by the seriousness of his attempted crime, Tom cures himself of his drinking problem. Later, in the city, Jane and Tom meet again and she forgives him. However, Coleman Van Duyn, who loves Jane, and Nina Jaffray, who wants to marry Tom, decide to make sure that no romance develops. They convince Jane that Tom is already engaged to Nina, but then, guilt-ridden, the alleged fiancee confesses everything to Jane, who quickly goes to Tom and tells him that she loves him.

Dir: Jack Conway

Widow Martin struggles to rear her little daughter Nora amid the squalor of the slums yet imbue her with the refinement to which she had been accustomed in her girlhood. Fearing that she is losing the battle, Mrs. Martin decides to turn to her wealthy father, who had disowned her upon her marriage years earlier. To raise funds for the trip, she pawns Nora to Aaron Levovitch, an aged pawnbroker with a heart of gold under his gruff exterior. Upon reaching her father's house, Mrs. Martin falls ill and dies before she can relate her story, and Nora is raised by the pawnbroker until a reporter prints her human interest story of a "jewel in pawn." The girl's grandfather reads the article and claims Nora, then sends her to a fashionable boarding school. Nora longs for her home in the slums and her sweetheart Jimmy, however, and so returns to marry Jimmy in an elaborate traditional Jewish ceremony at the pawnbroker's home.

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

Dir: Jack Conway

In a seventeenth century New Mexico village, after Indians attack and kill everyone except two monks and a baby named Manuel, the neighboring Penitentes, a violent, fanatical Catholic sect, lay claim to all property, including the estate belonging to Manuel's family. Years later, during a regional fiesta, Father David, the local religious leader, notices the striking Manuel, now grown, and questions the Penitentes' chief about his background. Fearing exposure, the chief induces his followers to choose Manuel as their annual sacrificial victim, to be crucified on the upcoming Good Friday. Dolores, Manuel's sweetheart, attempts to sway him from the group, but he insists on participating in the ceremony. At the urging of Father David, Colonel Banca orders his troops to stop the ceremony, and Manuel narrowly escapes crucifixion. Later, the confession of one of the old monks reveals the true identity and heritage of Manuel.

Dir: Jack Conway

Aside from the fact that Polly had red hair in abundance, she was not otherwise an exceptional child, save for one thing. She was willing to work and slave, if need be, to keep her baby brother, affectionately termed "The Lump," from being sent to the poor house. So she did housework and prepared breakfasts for John Ruffin, an attorney, and Hon. Gedge-Tompkins. John Ruffin's sister, Lady Osterly, has separated from her husband, and he holds their child. When Lady Osterly calls on Ruffin she is struck with the remarkable resemblance Polly bears to her own child. Ruffin and Lady Osterly formulate a plan to come into possession of her daughter, by using Polly as a substitute. When they offer Polly twenty sovereigns to go to the Duke of Osterly's home and impersonate the other child, the amount of money fairly staggers Polly and she accepts. By changing the children when the child of the Osterly's is out riding with her nurse. Polly gains access to the Duke's home and the Osterly child comes to John Ruffin's apartments to stay until her mother can get her ticketed to the continent and travel away with her. Polly does the best she can under strange conditions, but despite her resemblance to the Osterly child, the servants are suspicious and the Duke falls to wondering what has happened. Young Lord Ronald, visiting the Duke, is above all suspicious of Polly. The Osterly girl is under similar suspicion at Ruffin's home. "The Lump" positively declines to have anything to do with her. There is a blunder in the preparations Lady Osterly and John Ruffin make for the European trip. Polly disregards positive instructions and leaves the Osterly mansion before plans can be worked out. The Duke follows Polly in his automobile, searching for her in a nearby park where she has liked to go with young Lord Ronald to play. Finding Polly where he thought he would the Duke carries her back to his home. Here John Ruffin directly arrives, to tell the Duke that his wife and child must, by that time, be well on their way across the Channel. Lady Osterly, through miscalculation, has become worried because Ruffin does not arrive with the tickets and telephones him at the Duke's (her husband's) home. The servants call the Duke in answer to the summons and thus husband and wife find themselves talking to each other, much to their mutual surprise, as well as secret delight. As a result of this accidental 'phone call, a reconciliation is effected and everything ends happily for everybody, including Polly Redhead, who has made a great conquest of young Lord Ronald's heart.