Essential Cult Cinema Drawn from the Same DNA as Hello, Everybody!:...

Dir: William A. Seiter

When J. Smythe opens a fashionable women's shop in the little town of Santa Boobara, Jackie Cameron takes over her father's establishment across the street and converts it into an up-to-date haberdashery. Smythe, having fallen for Jackie, gives her preference over all his other customers and persuades her to buy a dress already promised to Evelina Skinner, daughter of the town's richest and meanest man. Two kidnappers, shadowing Evelina, mistake Jackie for her and hold Jackie for ransom. Smythe, learning of Jackie's disappearance and seeing the men enter the Skinner residence, follows them to their cabin and rescues Jackie. They force the kidnappers, who have robbed Skinner, to the sheriff's office, collect Skinner's reward, and decide to enter into a lifetime partnership.

Dir: William A. Seiter

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

Margie Carr, the only daughter of wealthy Tom "Old Top" Carr, becomes determined to aid the less fortunate following an inspirational commencement speech at her college graduation. She establishes the Cheer Society and hires a ruffian named Bubbs as her secretary, along with three of his comrades. Her jilted fiancé, Homer Dean Chadwick, retaliates by founding a charity for impoverished chorus girls, and sparks Margie's jealousy when she sees him in the company of a former chorine named Flossy. Following a disastrous social event, which included Bubbs and his friends as guests, Margie realizes the folly of her endeavor and agrees to marry Homer.

Dir: Louis J. Gasnier

Hajj, a rascally beggar on the periphery of the court of Baghdad, schemes to marry his daughter to royalty and to win the heart of the queen of the castle himself.

Dir: William A. Seiter

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

A fascinating piece of cinema that shares thematic elements.

Dir: William A. Seiter

A young wife is too fond of the frivolities of life to care about raising babies. But one day she finds herself called upon to help a woman in the street who is taken suddenly ill and is obliged to hand over her baby to strangers. The young woman takes the baby home and cares for it. The old trick of the husband misunderstanding a telephone message, and rushing home with an armful of toys for an anticipated heir, is worked in. The arrival of a nurse on the scene to claim the child leaves a vacuum in the home of the young couple, and the wife's hysteria causes the husband to hunt another baby. He arrives at home with it at the same time that the other child, whose mother is unable to care for it, is returned, causing amusing complications.

Dir: William A. Seiter

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

Alice, an energetic vixen, lives in a country estate with her gouty uncle, who denies her any companions. She plagues him with pranks until he leaves the estate. Now free to seek adventure, she dresses as a maid and convinces a passer-by, Richard Comstock, a celebrated author, that the estate is a boardinghouse. She has the servants pose as distinguished guests. The uncle returns and spoils the spoof. Later she meets Richard at the hunt club ball, which Galloping Dick, a gentleman burglar, also attends, in a strictly professional capacity. When jewels are discovered missing, Alice, thinking Richard is the thief, hides him in the cellar, where they run into Galloping Dick's accomplice. Alice and Richard are at first denounced as thieves, but the actual culprits are apprehended.

Dir: William A. Seiter

Jack wants to spend their vacation in the mountains and Daisy wants to spend it at the beach in Santa Barbara.

Dir: William A. Seiter

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

Fanchon Browne promises to marry elderly Peter Armitage to extricate Nethercote, her guardian, from financial difficulties. Before meeting him, however, she meets an attractive young man in the woods and persuades her friend Lilah to vamp the old man. Lilah, however, vamps the wrong Armitage, who turns out not only to be the nephew of the elder Armitage but also the young man with whom Fanchon is involved. Meanwhile, Fanchon's aunt falls in love with the elder Armitage, and Tony, a prizefighter, who adores Lilah, presses his suit. Fanchon borrows money from old Peter's safe to aid young Peter in speculation; when the safe is reported robbed, young Armitage is accused, but guilt is fixed on the butler. Thus, Fanchon is free to marry Armitage, Jr., and her aunt accepts Armitage, Sr.

Dir: William A. Seiter

Young Southerners Buck Hineman and Remington Osbury both are in love with the same woman, who promises to marry the one who returns when the Civil War breaks out. On the battlefield, Remington is wounded and left for dead, and Buck returns to marry her. Shortly afterward, Remington returns and contents himself with becoming one of the Hineman family. Years pass and Buck's daughter Luzelle finds herself wooed by two young men, Philip Burwood and Boyd Savely, whose families have been enemies for years. Luzelle's rejected suitor, Boyd, robs the Hineman bank, opens the strongbox containing Mrs. Hineman's papers and tampers with a letter written to her years before congratulating her on the birth of her daughter. The letter, sent to General Buck Hineman on the occasion of his daughter's marriage to Philip, gives the impression by the obliteration of a word that Remington is Luzelle's father. The wedding is halted and a duel between the two old men arranged. Each shoots in the air and realizes that neither wants to kill the other. Soon after, the robbery is discovered and the two old friends are reconciled.

Dir: William A. Seiter

Billy Barton a bank teller, shoulders the blame for a cash shortage for which Fred Kingston, a fellow employee, is responsible and is sentenced to prison. On his way there, the train is wrecked and he escapes. In the town of Culterton, he meets and falls in love with Mary Spivins, the bank president's daughter, and charms the populace by playing the mouth organ. He obtains work as a farmhand with Silas Harkins, taking the farm mule as wages. When Spivins orders Harkins arrested for assault, Billy learns it was a kick from the mule that laid out Spivins. At the bank he finds Spivins bound while Fred and the clerk are robbing the safe; Billy is locked in the safe, and all efforts to save him prove futile until the wall is kicked out by the mule. Through the efforts of Willie Spivins, the bank is dynamited, but all ends happily.