Cinematic Discoveries Resonating with the Themes of His Naughty Wif...

Dir: Victor Heerman

"Eve and Joe are engaged, but Joe cannot help contrasting the drabness of her attire with the dressy clothes of their friends. She overhears him talking of this and breaks with him. Then, with the help of her friend, Mazie, she metamorphoses into a ravishing beauty. Joe is remorseful, but the situation is made more complex when he suspects Eve of questionable relations with her boss. In the end, he discovers she is innocent and that she still loves him." ( Moving Picture World, 1927).

Dir: Victor Heerman

When eccentric Colonel Wynn threatens to kill Joe Benson if he marries his daughter Dorothy, the couple wed secretly. Their honeymoon at a resort is interrupted by Barbara Dow, a friend who threatens to expose the marriage unless Joe announces that Barbara is his wife. Then Myra Gray, a divorced friend of Joe, appears, followed by her enraged ex-husband, who believes that Joe has stolen his wife's affections. Joe and Dorothy attempt to escape the ensuing chaos, and after a series of misadventures, the colonel becomes enamored of Myra and accepts his daughter's marriage.

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of Don't Ever Marry perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

Dir: Victor Heerman

Upon being released from prison, Lawrence Hilliard takes the name of John Smith and looks for work, and falls in love with Irene Mason, a social secretary, but is reluctant to tell her about his past.

Dir: Victor Heerman

Melville Carruthers finally decides to propose to his girlfriend Grace and sets out for her house, but gets a sudden attack of shyness and stops in at a café to calm himself. A fight erupts and Melville is knocked out. He wakes up in his room the following day with a young "cabaret girl" taking care of him. Just at that time Grace and her father stop by, and Melville is unable to explain who the girl is and why she's there. Complications ensue.

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

Dir: Victor Heerman

A young man's aunt refuses to give him his inheritance until he marries, so he passes off the wife of his friend as his new bride. His ruse is threatened when his aunt takes a liking to his new "bride" and whisks her off on a retreat when she thinks that she (the bride) is becoming too attentive to her "husband"'s friend (her real husband.) Now it's up to the young man to tell the truth and straighten up all the misunderstandings.

Dir: Victor Heerman

A European royal couple come to New York to sell some of the royal family's crown jewels. A gang of international jewel thieves plans to steal the gems, so a private detective is assigned to guard them. Unfortunately, the private eye turns out to be a bumbling, inept fool--or so everyone thinks.

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

Dir: Victor Heerman

Searchlight Doyle, lightweight boxing champion of the United States Navy, is shanghaied into the fleet of Sainte Cassette, an island republic, as a replacement for a wealthy slacker who must serve his country to receive a $2 million inheritance, a scheme concocted by attorney Gabriel Grabowski. All his shipmates, except Hyacinth Nitouche, assume that he is indeed the wastrel he purports to be. Doyle falls in love with Adrienne, the most beautiful of the captain's daughters, and wins her affections by treating his comrades in her teashop. Admiral O'Brien, grandfather of the man Doyle is impersonating, comes to visit, and mistaking him for a civilian, Doyle throws him overboard and to everybody's surprise is complimented on his vigilance. But his real identity is exposed by some American sailors, and he is suspected of killing young O'Brien; he is cleared of suspicion, however, and is reinstated by the admiral, thereby gaining Adrienne's love.

Dir: Victor Heerman

A fascinating piece of cinema that shares thematic elements.

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

Dir: Victor Heerman

In the gold fields of the Canadian Northwest, a man is falsely accused of a crime and determines that a lookalike is responsible.

Dir: Victor Heerman

Tom Clark, the part owner of a luckless gas station in New York, returns to his place of birth for Old Home Week, posing as the millionaire president of the Amalgamated Oil Co. He is chosen as the orator for the homecoming banquet and given complete financial control over an oil well drilled in the town by Coleman and Barton, a pair of oily swindlers. Tom discovers that the well is a fake and has it connected secretly with the local reservoir. A wire from Tom's partner is intercepted, and Tom is exposed as a fraud. Coleman and Barton are about to leave town when Tom fakes a gusher and quickly sells the well back to the swindlers at a profit. The swindlers realize that they have been outsmarted, and their anger convinces the townspeople that Tom has acted in the best interests of the community. Tom is again the toast of the town, feted by its inhabitants and rewarded with the kisses of his sweetheart.