Must-Watch List in the Vein of Home: Cult Guide

Dir: Lois Weber

Marie, a hotel maid, falls in love with millionaire's son Roger, but Roger cannot marry her because of her inferior station and his unwillingness to make his family unhappy thereby. They separate. When next they meet, Roger discovers that Marie is actually a princess. Now their renewed romance cannot continue because Roger is a mere commoner. But the Bolshevik revolution provides complication and at last resolution to their dilemma.

Dir: Lois Weber

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

Babe Scott, a cabaret dancer who is constantly searching for sensational material to shock her customers, thinks up burlesquing a Salvation Army girl and attends mission meetings on the East Side for atmosphere. There she meets Jerry Wilson, an honest truck driver and friend of the Army captain. Although the act is a success, Babe is disillusioned to find Lonnie, a fellow worker who has been romancing her, stealing her money and making overtures to Big Bertha, the hard-boiled club hostess.

Dir: Lois Weber

Mary Regan, the child of an heiress who married a handsome thief hoping to reform him, then died when he went to prison, refuses to marry New York District Attorney Robert Clifford because she fears that the family's past will hurt his career. After refusing to cooperate with her father's gang members, Jim Bradley and Peter Loveman, Mary goes to the mountains. Bradley and Loveman get Jack Morton, a dissolute youth from a wealthy family, involved with Nina Cordova, an adventuress. After winning the trust of Morton's father, Loveman takes Morton to the mountains, supposedly to get him away from Nina, but really to involve him with Mary. Morton falls in love with Mary, and she marries him hoping to effect his reform. After Morton tries to hide the marriage from his father, the gang tries to blackmail Morton, Sr., but Mary contacts Robert, and after Morton is killed in a fight, the gang is arrested. Robert then convinces Mary to be true to her heart and marry him.

Dir: Lois Weber

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

The parallel stories of a modern preacher and a medieval monk, Gabriel the Ascetic, who is killed by an ignorant mob for making a nude statue representing Truth, which is also represented by a ghostly naked girl who flits throughout the film.

Dir: Lois Weber

Carillo and his wife Selma are devoted to each other. As a sculptor, Carillo has achieved the qualities of honor and love until the Devil seeks to overturn these accomplishments by sending his imps Lust, Drink and Self Pity to the artist's home. Carillo succumbs to lust and sells his honor to the Devil. When he loses love, he finally crumbles until Loyalty regenerates him when Selma carves Repentance under the shadow of the cross. This causes Satan to recoil, and the couple start a new life without Youth and Honor, but enriched by Wisdom and Experience.

Dir: Lois Weber

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

Jewel stays with her grizzled, angry grandfather while her parents are overseas on business. Family squabbling is brought to heel through love and understanding from Jewel's pure love for others and trust in Divine Love

Dir: Lois Weber

A fictionalized composite of several celebrated murder cases, particularly the Stielow case, in which an innocent man is convicted and sentenced to death on purely speculative evidence.

Dir: Lois Weber

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of Even As You and I perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

Professor teaches unmotivated wealthy students. Neighbor Olsen is rich, Griggs family is poor. Olsen and Reverend Gates admire Amelia Griggs. Wealthy student Phil befriends Reverend, recognizes class divide, tries to help.

Dir: Lois Weber

An insecure wife fears her husband may be straying back to an old flame.

Dir: Lois Weber

Ray Sturgis, leader of the fashionable Long Island jazz set, is engaged to "Egypt" Hagen, an up-to-date girl in every respect. Egypt is arrested at a roadhouse raid, and at her mother's bidding, the Reverend Norman Lodge arranges for her freedom. At a fancy-dress ball, when Ray wears a costume made of newspaper headlines concerning her arrest, Egypt is offended. Seen constantly in the company of Reverend Lodge, her reputation causes church people to take up the matter with the bishop. Leaving the country club, Egypt goes to the Lodge home and hides behind the door when the bishop arrives; Reverend Lodge wants to marry her, and they admit their love; but humiliation causes her to leave with Sturgis that night. Their yacht is wrecked, but Lodge and the bishop follow and rescue Egypt, though Sturgis is drowned. The bishop, realizing the depth of their love, consents to marry them.