The Definitive Watchlist For Devotees of Hell-to-Pay Austin: Cult G...

Dir: Paul Powell

Revivalist Davids persuades Daire Vincent to elope with him. Within the year, inspired by his associates to seek a held of greater grafting possibilities, he deserts her without having made her a wife, and goes to New York, where he meets with great success. Daire has a child, and after many failures, becomes a dance hall singer to support it. In New York she is approached by Davids' confederates who ask her to help them in raiding the Mozart dive in which she works. She thus discovers Davids' present whereabouts and activities, and, taking her child, confronts him. Davids' young wife is dying, childless. The sight of his own son, whom he cannot claim, stirs him deeply and with a regenerating effect. The wife dies. Davids, insistently urged by the Purity League to do this, makes a raid on the Mozart. He is wounded. Father White, a slum worker, striving for Daire's spiritual upliftment, hears her life's story and intercedes with Davids to legitimatize the child. Davids and Daire go through a marriage ceremony. Later each is shown rising from the depth to a fuller and better knowledge of life.

Dir: Paul Powell

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

Abby Hopkins, the eldest of a small-town newspaper-owner's five daughters, is urged by her family to marry the wealthy, twice-widowed J.B. Hanks. Abby leaves Hank on the night of the wedding and goes to New York, where she supports herself as a waitress and shares an apartment with a co-worker. At the restaurant, Abby meets J. Booth Hunter, a heavy-drinking "ham" actor, and tries to convince him to give up liquor. Hanks shows up one day and during a battle with his estranged wife, Hunter comes to Abby's rescue. Abby finally gets a divorce from Hanks, Hunter conquers his drinking habit, and Abby marries him.

Dir: Paul Powell

A fascinating piece of cinema that shares thematic elements.

Dir: Paul Powell

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of The Marriage of Molly-O perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

Jimmy Conroy plans to marry Marna, stepdaughter of the wealthy Theodore Lewis, who disapproves of Jimmy as a son-in-law. His idea of a husband is Wally Henderson. Jimmy and Marna decide to elope. Jimmy cuts the tires on father's automobile and secures a rope ladder, while Marna packs up. Wally sees them eloping and informs father, who hustles him down to the train to prevent a ceremony until he can obtain injunctions and follow on the limited to serve it, Marna being under legal age. Jimmy has the marriage license, but has no time to get married before getting to the train. Wally takes the same train and lectures them on parental deference, but is shoved away. The train stops ten minutes at a way station. Jimmy rushes to the Rev. Tobias Tubbs, who is bathing. When he comes to the door, clad only in a bathrobe, Jimmy hustles him to the train just as it pulls out. Wally is on the platform and prevents them from boarding the cars. By the liberal use of money and I.O.U.'s Jimmy digs up a variegated costume for Tubbs and forces him along by hand car, mule back, afoot, and on the bumpers. After numerous adventures the limited, with father aboard, is flagged by Jimmy, who is thrown off, but pulls Tubbs up with him on the observation platform. He is about to be put off again when father pretends to be friendly. Instead he conspires with the conductor to have them arrested for stopping the limited. Meanwhile, Wally has convinced Marna that Jimmy has deserted her. She weepingly accompanies him to the hotel, there to await father's arrival. Jimmy and Tubbs are arrested when they disembark. Jimmy escapes and Tubbs is locked up. Father gives the injunction for service and has a scene with Marna. Jimmy has a hairbreadth escape from father and the officers as he attempts to get Marna from the hotel. Then he communicates by telephone and arranges for her to go to the city jail, where he will try to break in and Tubbs will marry him. Changing clothing with a sympathetic hotel maid, Marna eludes her guard and reaches the jail. Jimmy is sighted trying to break in, and a heart-breaking chase follows over rooftops, up and down the walls of buildings and over apparently unsurmountable obstacles. Mama, discouraged, is sent back to the hotel room. The search for Jimmy continues. He takes refuge on the telegraph wires overhead. Walking past several poles, he comes to one where a lineman is working. After explanations, the lineman agrees to help and makes a three-cornered telephone connection between Tubbs in jail, Marna in her room, and Jimmy on the pole. While the pursuers howl threats below, the unique wedding is under way. Father suddenly realizes it and dashes for the jail, arriving as the ceremony is completed. In conclusion, Jimmy is shown in his office settling I.O.U.'s. When alone again, he opens the vault, and out steps Marna into his arms.

Dir: Paul Powell

Meena, an Amish girl, is left wealthy when her parents die. She goes to live with her unpleasant relatives in New York. There she encounters a German count, who, though he believes her to be a servant girl, falls in love with her.

Dir: Paul Powell

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

William needs to impress millionaire Bradford who is willing to invest in William's struggling business. So William and his wife Maude pose as servants while their guests Elizabeth and Richard pretend to be landlord and landlady.

Dir: Paul Powell

Betsy Harlow is a hard-working maid in a boarding house. Her dream. however, is to be a detective, a dream she shares with her boyfriend Oscar, a delivery boy for a local grocer. One day a mysterious character named Harry Brent takes a room at the boarding house. Harry, seeing that Betsy is falling for his rather shady charms, persuades her to help him get a box of jewels owned by the Jaspers, an elderly couple who lives across the hall. It turns out that Harry is not quite who he seems; neither, however, are the Jaspers.

Dir: Paul Powell

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

A teenage girl lives with two grizzly bears in a cave in the California Sierras and plays with rabbits and birds. When gambler Jim Hamilton and his mistress try to interest wealthy Bob Jordan in purchasing an abandoned mine in the Sierras, Jordan, mistakes the girl clothed in leaves and feathers for an animal, shoots her in the arm. He nurses the girl, who cannot speak, and she repays him with a slave-like devotion. At the mine, Hamilton remembers that fifteen years earlier, Indians attacked his home while he was away and killed his family. The wild girl, really Hamilton's daughter, remembers fleeing from the raid into the woods. Although Hamilton's mistress tries to seduce Jordan, he refuses to buy the mine. Hamilton then tries to rob Jordan at gunpoint, but the girl has buried Jordan's money belt as a prank. Jordan's anger causes her to return to her cave, but later they reconcile, and she returns the belt. After Hamilton's mistress leaves with another man, Hamilton returns to the city, and Jordan starts back with the girl following at his heels.

Dir: Paul Powell

To the dismay of Allison Edwards, her adoring bookworm neighbor Mary Randolph falls in love and marries Jack Van Norman, a rich, handsome former football star. After a few months of marital contentment, Jack becomes infatuated with exotic dancer Rose. Despite Mary's attempts to win him back, Jack agrees to a divorce, moves in with Rose, and leaves Mary to bear their baby alone.The new couple lives happily at the seashore until Jack discovers that whenever he goes away on business, Rose entertains other men. Despondent over Rose's repeated infidelities, Jack commits suicide. At his coffin, Mary forgives him, then finds solace in the arms of the faithful Allison, now a successful author. After dedicating his latest book to her, Allison proposes marriage, and he and Mary happily wed.

Dir: Paul Powell

When George Walsh learns that his director is ill, he hires a French director named Monsieur Hoe Beaux to write and direct his new film, and after it has been completed, they sit down to view the results. Kirk White, having finished college, boards a ship to South America to procure a large inheritance left to him by his uncle. On the way, he and his sweetheart, Violet Ray, encounter a group of revolutionaries led by Jazzbando Boullion. Because Boullion and his henchmen are also after the money, they imprison Kirk and Violet in a small town, but after a series of narrow escapes, the young man manages to send a wireless to the United States Marines. After their rescue, Kirk and Violet declare their love for each other. Following the screening back in the movie studio, Hoe Beaux is ordered off the lot.