Editor's Top Picks Sharing the Atmosphere of Hell's Hinges: Cult Guide

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Just over the American side of the Mexican border, Big Jim Burmister, the Sheriff, kept law and order, being both feared and hated by the Mexicans who were thus forced to keep within the bounds. Conducting the saloon and gambling hall is Joe Nagle. His devoted slave, who is also his faro dealer, is "Blootch" White. He is much attached to Lottie Nagle, who bears the surname of the saloon-keeper by courtesy only. The Valyez family, the newest arrivals in the little town, are a source of interest to all. The girl, Nita, whose Mexican father is dead, has inherited a great many of his traits. Carlos, a gambler and a bully, is enamored of the girl. His passionate wooing almost wins her, but at the last moment her contrary nature causes her to turn upon him with angry vehemence. Carlos, angered, returns to the saloon. He starts drinking, and before long he is shooting up the place. He is arrested by Jim, who imposes a fine or imprisonment for a year. Carlos is forced to accept the latter alternative. When Nita hears of this, she hastens to the saloon and soundly berates Jim, who has just received word that the nearest town across the border had become infested with the plague. Joe Nagle gives Nita the money to pay the fine of Carlos, thus thinking to win her heart. Lottie jealously watches this, and later overhears Joe telling "Blootch" to "get Carlos." She warns Carlos and gives him a gun. She has seen the notice of the plague and conceals it so that it does not become public. When "Blootch" accuses Carlos of cheating, the latter kills the faro dealer. Then Lottie whispers to him to take his horse and Nita and go across the border, though she knows she is sending them to brave infection. Carlos goes to the cabin of Nita, telling her that he has killed the faro dealer and that they must flee; but at the last moment she does not want to leave her mother. While they are arguing, Big Jim raps upon the door. Nita hides Carlos in a closet. Then Jim plays upon her jealousy and intimates that Carlos has been having an affair with another girl. She grasps Jim's gun and shoots toward the closet, but on the instant is sorry for her act. Jim, realizing that she loves Carlos, goes outside. When Nita opens the closet she finds it empty, as Carlos has escaped through the thatched roof. As Jim is waiting outside, Carlos sneaks along the roof and shoots him. Then he rushes down to Nita, and with sheer force, compels the fainting girl to accompany him. They have just gone when her mother returns, and bandages Jim's wound. Though weak from loss of blood, he takes up the pursuit of Carlos and Nita. When he arrives, after a day's pursuit, he finds Carlos dying a victim of the plague, while Nita is caring for him. Thinking that she loves the Mexican, Jim leaves for the border, but before he has gone far he falls from his horse, where he is found later by Nita. who has come to seek him. realizing that she loves him.

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

A young Egyptian goes to the rescue of his employers, a wealthy European family, when they are menaced by a local strongman and his gang.

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A friend of Dick Bailey is killed by a mysterious assailant, whom Dick suspects to be Stack, who is in league with the crooked sheriff. Out on a spree Dick swears he will marry the first woman he sees, who happens to be Ruth Hammond, sister of his dead friend, arriving to take charge of the Hammond ranch. Revolted by his rough proposal,she fires him as the Hammond foreman and she proceeds to the ranch. Stack informs her he has purchased the ranch for the payment of the back-due taxes, and she relents and rehires Dick and his friends to aid her in her fight against Stack.

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

When Jerry Marston played a sharp business trick on Hop Li, the leader of a Chinese tong, he made the mistake of his life. Jerry never knew what became of one of the Marston twins mysteriously disappearing less than three weeks after the boys were born. So the anxious years passed until his only son Alvin had married and gone abroad on his wedding tour. One evening the butler handed Jerry a package, and at the same time delivered a wireless message telling that Alvin and his bride Edith were arriving on that day's ship from abroad. Marston opened the package. Before him lay a red poppy, a sign of death sent him by Hop Li. When Alvin and his bride reached the house, they found Jerry dying with the red poppy clasped in his hand. Alvin knew enough of Chinese lore to realize that his father had received the tong's death signal and thereafter Alvin lived in the dread of a like warning. On their wedding anniversary, Alvin presented his wife with a string of pearls. That night as Edith lay in bed, she experienced what she thought was a frightful nightmare. Alvin, with leering face, seemed to appear at her bedroom window, enter and try to caress her. The next morning she discovered that her pearls were missing. Alvin assured her that the mystery would soon be cleared up and left for his office. When the man Edith presumed was her husband returned home that evening, his face was dark and leering. When she tried to summon help, he silenced her and then, throwing her pearls at her feet, disappeared. Mystified she summoned Helen and Rex Durant, neighbors. They assured her that Alvin would soon come home safely and as his usual self. When she read in the morning of a crime in Chinatown (the murder of Hop Li, and the burning of his opium den) she connected it with her husband, and his revolting appearance the previous evening. She associated his disappearance with the crime and decided to announce to her friends that her husband had gone to a sanatorium. Several weeks later Rex and Helen Durant came upon Alvin as he was walking aimlessly through the streets. They took him home and told Edith her husband had escaped from the sanatorium. Continuing the deception, she accepted the man as Alvin, but his strange conduct so mystified her that she was mentally tortured. She was convinced that the man was not her husband, but one who strikingly resembled him. One evening the prison siren sounded a screeching alarm. A prisoner had escaped. The sound was so distressing to Mrs. Marston that she pleaded with her companion to take her into the library where the noise might be less acute. While the man and woman were standing near the fireplace under a great Chinese vase, they were startled by a pistol shot. The bullet hit the vase which broke and part of it fell upon the man's head. The shock restored Alvin to his normal mental state. The two turned to the library door and saw a man fall to the floor. Rushing to where he lay. Mrs. Marston recognized the man who had appeared at her bedside and who had returned her pearls. The dying man related that he was Alvin's twin brother whom Hop Li had stolen when but an infant, and had brought him up an opium fiend. His hatred finally conquered him, and he committed the vengeful act of murder of which he has been convicted. Immediately after the guards arrived and found the man dead upon the floor. The picture ends happily with Alvin and Edith restored to connubial felicity.

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The picture tells the story of a little Spanish boy who is cast upon the shore of the east coast of Mexico early in the sixteenth century, when Mexico was dominated by the Aztec Indians. Never having seen a white person before, the local natives, a tribe called Tehuans, bring him up as a god and call him Chiapa. When he reaches manhood, Chiapa is given authority over his entire tribe. He falls in love with the priestess, Tecolote, and she yields to his advances although she is quite unworthy of him, and encourages other suitors. Then the Aztecs hear that under the white god the Tehuans are very prosperous, and start forth to conquer them. The Aztec army is under command of Mexitli, the chief general of Montezuma, the Emperor, and having conquered the Tehuans, he carried off Tecolote as his personal slave. Chiapa follows as a spy. In the garden of Montezuma, he is wounded by a guard, but Lolomi, the beautiful daughter of the Emperor, saves him. They fall in love. Meanwhile Mexitli has tired of Tecolote, and now seeks the hand of the Princess Lolomi, who would rather die than have him. As the Emperor gives Mexitli his consent, he tries to get the princess by force, and in doing so discovers Chiapa. Luiapa is sentenced to die at the end of the year on the sacrificial stone. But Lolomi, finding her pleas to her father of no avail, sends word to the Tehuans that their god is captive. An avenging army sweeps down, and there is brought about a sequence of thrilling scenes with a smashing finish.

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

Wealthy young American Carrington O'Connell is traveling Europe with a "social advisor" to become more polished and sophisticated. While stopping at an inn in Switzerland, he is entranced by pretty young Adrienne Le Blanc, whose parents own the inn and in which she entertains travelers. Adrienne falls for him, but his "advisor" warns him against such a socially "unacceptable" relationship, and he reluctantly leaves. Adrienne soon gets a contract with a theatrical agent for appearances at a musical hall in America, where she happens to meet Carrington's wealthy father Michael. Complications ensue.

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College student Li Ting Lang is a favorite of his friends until his attentions toward socialite Marion Halstead bring forth protests on all sides. In defiance, Marion announces her engagement to Li Ting Lang. Gradually, she becomes socially isolated and Li, realizing that she will be friendless, releases her from her commitment. Soon after, an emissary to America arrives with instructions to compel Li to return to his native land and administers a drug to Li, who awakens aboard a ship bound for China, while back in America, his friends believe that he has committed suicide. Li arrives in the middle of a revolution and becomes a great military leader. Years later, while visiting the Orient on her honeymoon, Marion sees Li and recognizes him. Venturing to his house, she is followed by one of his enemies who plans to kill the girl and throw the guilt on Li, thereby ruining him. When the plotters arrive, Li defends Marion single handed until a rescue party of his old college chums comes to his aid. After a warm reunion among old friends, Marion departs with her husband, and Li is sadly left alone once again.

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

When her mother dies, Mary not only becomes the household slave of her overbearing father, Scottish American Andy MacTavish, but also becomes a mother to her little sister Ruth at their home on the Dakota plains. Years later, Jack Fraser, the son of a surgeon at the nearby fort and a steady visitor at the MacTavish home, secretly marries Ruth although he is deeply loved by Mary. Sometime later, a baby is born to Ruth, and Mary, doubting her sister's assertion that she is married to Fraser, takes the child to the fort to find out the truth from Fraser himself. Andy, believing the baby to be Mary's, orders her from the house. In the meantime, the Indians go on the warpath and Mary is surrounded. Buck Mathews, a half-breed who has lusted after Mary, sees her with the child, and pitying the helplessness of the girl, leaves the Indians to protect Mary. Fraser arrives just as Buck is fatally wounded, rescues Mary, who forgives Buck before he dies. Fraser now acknowledges that he is the husband of Ruth.

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Widow Margaret Dennis, unaware of the abusive nature of Oliver Cathcart, agrees to become his wife. Among other cruelties, Cathcart has ruined the Taylor family in a bad business deal, causing the death of Mrs. Taylor, turning Mr. Taylor into a worthless drunk and embittering their son Raymond, who swears revenge on Cathcart. Margaret's son Jim, learning of all this, forces his mother to choose between him and Cathcart. Choosing the latter, Margaret goes to his country estate, where she finally learns her husband's true nature. Nearby live the Taylors. Raymond is courting Cathcart's maid Milly, and when he comes to the estate one day to visit Milly, Margaret pleads with him to send a message to Jim. Meanwhile, Taylor's sister Steve leaves home, seeking adventure. Receiving Margaret's message, Jim arrives and promises to take his mother away the next day. That night, Cathcart is killed, and on Milly's testimony that Jim had been at the house, he is arrested for the crime. Steve, however, hearing of Jim's arrest, returns and testifies that she and Jim shared refuge from a thunderstorm in an old shack on the night of the murder. Robert Shepherd, the estate gardener, then confesses that he killed Cathcart when he found him struggling with his beloved daughter Bess. Jim is finally freed, and Shepherd acquitted on a plea of temporary derangement.

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D'Artagnan goes to Paris and becomes a member of the famous King's Musketeers. The Queen sends him on a dangerous mission to England. His three companions are either captured or put out of commission in the course of fights on foot and horseback. D'Artagnan reaches London and recovers from the Duke of Buckingham a pair of studs the Queen gave him as tokens of regard. On the ship on which he returns the hero is captured by his deadly enemy, De Rochfort. Jumping over the side, he clings to the chains of the vessel till it reaches port in France. He restores the studs to the Queen, and she has them put back into the necklace where they belong. Cardinal Richelieu has induced the King to command the Queen to appear wearing the necklace at a great court ball. When he sees the complete necklace, his plan to embarrass the Queen falls through. In addition to obtaining the favor of the Queen, D'Artagnan is rejoiced over the safe return of his comrades and his reward from his sweetheart for his bravery.