Curated Recommendations Seeking the Same Brilliance as Her Life and His: Cult Guide

Dir: Frederick Sullivan

Bob, John, and Edward--three young boys growing up in the same neighborhood--have vastly-different experiences with sex. Bob's father patiently explains "the birds and the bees" to him, and even takes him to a hospital to see the effects of venereal disease. John's and Edward's parents don't tell them anything, leaving the boys to find out "on the streets". Consequently, when they become adults, John--who's been "playing the field"--contracts syphilis and is stopped from marrying and infecting his sweetheart. Edward, on the other hand, has become addicted to "self-love" and masturbates himself into an insane asylum. Wholesome Bob marries and, naturally, lives happily ever after.

Dir: Frederick Sullivan

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of Saint, Devil and Woman perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

A convent-raised girl falls under her father's executor's dark influence after her uncle dies. As she turns to evil and threatens society with her wealth, a doctor helps restore her true nature.

Dir: Frederick Sullivan

A married man suddenly inherits a fortune and finally has enough money to live his dream of becoming an artist. He moves his wife and daughter to a big expensive house and starts living the life of a "bohemian" artist. When he begins an affair with another woman, his wife leaves him and his daughter Alicia breaks off her engagement to a wealthy doctor and becomes involved in the "free love" movement espoused by one Herbert Rawlins. Rawlins, however, has his own plans for Alicia, and they don't involve "sharing" her with anyone else. Complications ensue.

Dir: Frederick Sullivan

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

A young girl is kept ignorant of her mother by her aunt. After her aunt dies, the girl is used by crooks and arrested. In prison she meets a kindly woman, who is married to a judge. The woman, unbeknownst to the girl, is her mother, and adopts her. The companion of the deceased aunt, in the midst of a ball, denounces the mother and reveals her secret to the judge and guests. The judge will not forgive his wife, so the mother and daughter leave and work among the slums to benefit humanity. Eventually, the judge relents, and seeks his wife for forgiveness, but he is too late.

Dir: Frederick Sullivan

A fascinating piece of cinema that shares thematic elements.

Dir: Frederick Sullivan

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

Margery Carew and her widowed sister, Anna Prentice, find work in a brokerage firm, James Gray, the junior partner, soon falls in love with Margery, while his boss, William Cleves, does his best to seduce Anna. In fighting off William's advances, Anna kills him, but Margery, hoping to protect Anna's child, takes the blame and then escapes to the West, after which she gets married and begins a new life. Following a lengthy search, the police manage to track her down, but Margery still refuses to save herself by telling the truth about the murder, even though Anna and her child died several years before in a car crash. Finally, however, because he still loves her and because he has been stricken by a deadly disease that will kill him in a few months, James confesses to the murder, thereby freeing Margery to return to her husband.

Dir: Frederick Sullivan

A husband enters the wrong flat and finds twins babies, which he takes to the office to show the boys. He engages a German band to help with the celebration at a restaurant, but at this moment the real father arrives with the police.

Dir: Frederick Sullivan

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of Oh, Doctor, Doctor! perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

Unable to agree on the man responsible for the plays commonly attributed to William Shakespeare, Miss Gray, who favors Francis Bacon, and Lieutenant Stanton, who accepts Shakespeare as the author, break off their engagement. Stanton then arranges to be transferred to the Mexican border, and while fighting there is badly wounded. When she hears the news about Stanton's condition, Miss Gray faints, and then dreams that she has been transported to Elizabethan times. Then, after Bacon falls in love with her, she discovers his obsessive jealousy of Shakespeare, and learns that he has bribed a courtier to accuse him of stealing Bacon's plays. As a result, when Miss Gray wakes up, she realizes that she has championed the wrong poet, and so she immediately is reconciled with Stanton, who soon recovers from his wound.

Dir: Frederick Sullivan

The many rejected suitors of Mary Brown form the "Broken Heart Club" and console each other in their misery. The last member decides that Mary needs a lesson and proceeds to give her one. He gets a fashion dummy and on his porch the rejected ones pay "Miss Hope" all sorts of attention. Mary falls for the ruse and starts an investigation. She doesn't find out who the guest is until she has promised to marry the man who had the brains to think up the trick.

Dir: Frederick Sullivan

When her husband Jim strikes it rich, Grace, who has had a lifelong fear of poverty, strictly raises her daughter Florence to accept only luxury. When Florence is old enough to have suitors, she quickly rejects penniless artist Durland and marries rich playboy Alfred Griffin, but soon learns that he is an unfaithful spendthrift, so they soon become bitter enemies. In a final effort to ruin Florence's life, Alfred neatly arranges evidence to make her look like his murderer, then commits suicide, but the butler saw everything and is able to clear Florence of this charge; afterward she rushes to Durland and they plan to get married.