Curated Recommendations Seeking the Same Brilliance as Her Country First: Cult Guide

Dir: James Young

Helene Marie, on the run from the Russian police in St. Petersburg, plots to kill the Czar.

Dir: James Young

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

American surveyor William MacDonald comes to an Ojibway village in the Canadian Northwest. He seduces half-breed girl Annette while her fiancé Baptiste and half-brother Jules Beaubien are away on a trapping expedition. After his work is over, MacDonald spurns Annette and leaves. When she realizes that she is pregnant, Annette wanders delirious into the forest and is devoured by wolves. On returning, Jules persuades Baptiste to let him avenge Annette's death. Jules and Baptiste go to the cabin of Andrew MacTavish, a wretched, self-exiled Scotsman who continually berates his daughter Hilda, whom Jules loves, because her mother left him years earlier. MacDonald arrives and convinces MacTavish that he will take Hilda to his mother in Scotland to educate her, after which they will send for MacTavish. Jules discovers MacDonald's identity when he drunkenly boasts of his previous conquests. Jules fights MacDonald and MacTavish, and escapes with Hilda in a canoe. After MacDonald's pursuing canoe smashes in the rapids, Jules duels with him and kills him.

Dir: James Young

When a woman's husband is presumed dead in the war, her sister, for her own unscrupulous reasons, attempts to get her remarried. But the husband, it seems, is not dead after all.

Dir: James Young

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

One of the customs in the Breton island of St. Batiste is the lashing of any woman involved in a extra-marital affair. As a result, when Sidonie (Marie Doro) starts an affair with English vacationer Warren Harding (Elliott Dexter), the townsfolk prepare to mete out punishment. To avoid it, Sidonie elopes with Warren, but when she finds him making love to another woman, her first response is conditioned by her upbringing, and she attacks the woman with a whip. Afterward, Sidonie returns alone to St. Batiste, and gets ready to accept her lashing. Just before her public humiliation, however, Warren arrives and refuses to let the whipping take place, after which he pledges to remain faithful to Sidonie.

Dir: James Young

Robert Strickland, the self-confessed murderer of Gerald Trask, refuses to defend himself on the witness stand. His attorney, however, cross-examines Strickland's wife and by questioning his daughter Doris as well, he exposes the fact that years earlier Trask had seduced Mrs. Strickland. This evidence is sufficient to call for a verdict of not guilty from eleven of the jury, but the twelfth member holds out because money disappeared from Trask's safe the night of the murder, and evidence points to Strickland as the thief. When Glover, Trask's secretary, is cross-examined, however, he breaks down and confesses to the robbery, thus clearing the way for Strickland's acquittal and his reunion with his family.

Dir: James Young

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

With the electric-ray machine that he invented, a scientist brings his daughter back to life after she dies in a car crash but he fails to revive her soul at the same time.

Dir: James Young

A fascinating piece of cinema that shares thematic elements.

Dir: James Young

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

Mountain girl Plutina lives with her grandfather, refuses to marry moonshiner Dan Hodges, preferring instead Zeke, a young farmer. When Zeke learns that Dan, in revenge, shot Plutina's pet trained bear, Zeke vows to kill him. After a revenue officer, shot by Dan, is cared for by Zeke's mother, Dan vows to kill Zeke. Dan and Zeke fight, and although Dan is beaten, he escapes into the mountains. Sometime later, the revenue officer secures for Zeke the position of overseer of government timber lands. As Zeke waits for a train after missing the first one, he learns that Dan, who has threatened to kill Plutina's grandfather and sister and set fire to their house unless Plutina marries him, has abducted her. Zeke arrives at a hidden cave where Dan has taken Plutina just as she is about to jump from a cliff. The ensuing brawl ends when Dan is plunged over the cliff. Finally, Zeke and Plutina marry.

Dir: James Young

Ted Vandeveer, a lawyer without clients, receives notice that he has been included in his rich uncle's will, he and his partner, James Sweeney, are excited, then they find that Ted's cousin Archie inherited nearly everything. With the $700 left after paying their creditors, Ted and James go to a fashionable resort, where the hotel clerk mistakenly puts them in the exclusive suite reserved for Archie. Passing for a wealthy man, Ted attracts many eligible girls, among them Mildred Niles, the daughter of a wealthy broker. After Mildred and Ted become engaged, James encourages him to elope before the money runs out. When Mildred's father announces that he lost his fortune in the market, Mildred's mother persuades Mildred to elope before the news is known. Three days into their honeymoon, Mildred and Ted mutually confess their poverty and unable to pay their hotel bill, until Ted learns of a codicil to the will stating that he really inherited a million dollars. It was intentionally kept secret until he married so that no woman would marry him for money.

Dir: James Young

A fascinating piece of cinema that shares thematic elements.