The Cult Collection Comparable to the Style of Hop - The Devil's Brew: Cult Guide

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John Wall meets his new sweetheart and takes her to the movies; his neglected wife Anne follows them there. Molly, disobeying her parents, meets her boyfriend at the same theater. A working man with his wife and children, all obsessed with the sordidness of their lives, also attend the movie, as does a dishonorable young man. They watch a film called 'Life's Mirror' in which they see their own lives turned into dramas, complete with possible "final curtains.": Molly, who refuses to listen to her parents, sees her motion-picture surrogate give birth to an illegitimate child after she is abandoned by her boyfriend; Anne Wall, tired of the phoniness of John's wealthy family and friends, deserts him and their children to return to the slums and do charity work for the needy. After the movie, John, sadder but wiser, leaves his sweetheart and goes home with Anne, Molly decides to apologize to her parents, the working man's family realizes that they must look to the future, and the young man promises to lead a more responsible life.

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

A woman's husband is taken by his wife's suitor to see a play in which events from the husband's marriage are recalled, in an attempt by the suitor to convince the husband to relinquish his wife.

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Accustomed to flirting and dropping every suitor at her feet, Cora Madison - a young woman belonging to one of the most prominent families in the city - collides with Valentine Corliss, a newcomer.

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

Katherine Bradley, known as "Kit," is an orphan and heiress. At an early age she is placed in a fashionable and select seminary for young women. Kit, by means of her fascinating daring, her unlimited cash, and her lovable personality, enlists the cooperation of all the girls in any affair which she undertakes. She so impresses the principal of the school with her open-heartedness that she is given permission to drive her car from four to five o'clock each day. The story opens on the day of the annual play given by the young women of Miss Smythe's Select Seminary. The question passes from mouth to mouth, "Where's Kit Bradley? She's our leading man." A search is instituted which results in finding a note in Kit's room saying that she has taken her car out for a drive. The principal is horrified that her charge should be out without a chaperon, and determines that such an action shall not be repeated. In the meantime, Kit, speeding along the country roads far from home, has an accident. A tire is blown. Kit is perplexed. Then a handsome young man comes along and offers assistance. She accepts it, and promises to meet him on the next afternoon. This arrangement is not carried out quite as Kit planned. Arriving at school very late in the evening, she finds it necessary to enter through an open window. Quickly slipping into a kimono to cover her street clothes and getting into bed. Kit faces an indignant principal who enters her room, with a story of a nerve-wracking toothache which keeps her awake. The next afternoon when Kit would take her usual spin, Miss Smythe reminds her that she must take a chaperon. Kit takes her, but makes the ride so hazardous that the chaperon, when told that the car is not the kind that can go slowly, is glad to be left by the wayside, while Kit takes a spin and returns for her. Kit keeps her tryst. Among the trees she and Cameron enjoy a picnic luncheon, but while this meal is in progress a passing tramp sees Kit's classy new roadster, likes it, and takes it. Cameron takes her in his car and on the wayside they pick up the outraged chaperon, who believes not a word of the little story and hurries the culprit to Kit's guardian. To save herself, Kit announces that she is engaged to the artist, and this is confirmed by Cameron. Brought before the guardian, he recognizes in Cameron an old-time friend, gives his consent, and after reciting a passage from the will of Kit's father that her fiancé must not see her for six months after the engagement, disappears in time for Kit and Cameron to become really and truly engaged. The idea of not seeing her newly found fiancée for six months, is not to Kit's liking, besides, she is just a bit jealous, for he is an artist. So Kit persuades her guardian to take her to a performance of Elsie Janis in "The Fair Co-Ed." From the production she obtains an inspiration that determines her future course of action. Kit changes clothes with a servant and enters Cameron's studio as a slavey. Toddling back and forth in the performance of her menial duties of serving and dusting, she keeps an eye on Cameron and notes those who are constantly coming and going. They are stylish; they are beautiful; they are cultured. Then, too, there is in the studio a fascinating blonde model. Kit must change her tactics and be some or all of these things. She will be beautiful. For surely he, with his artistic temperament and taste, will most appreciate that quality. She, too, will be a model. As Carlotta, the Queen of Italian beauties, she agrees to pose for Cameron. And then, just for the sheer joy of it, and because in Miles Smythe's select school she had learned the art as "leading man," Kit arrayed herself in all the paraphernalia of an up-to-the-minute "chap." She visits the studio and by flashing unlimited coin and even boasting about the large sums she has "on" her. Kit proceeds to win the affections of the beautiful blonde who has been flirting with Cameron. Cameron has seen through the little disguises all the while, but now that he is confronted by a "man," he feels licensed to treat him as a man. He smokes a vicious cigar, blows smoke in Kit's face, and presses her to drink with him. This is too much; she will reveal her identity at once, will or no will. "Guardy," passing Cameron's studio, recognizes Kit's car standing outside, and without ceremony enters and stands behind the young couple as Kit commences to reveal to Cameron her real identity. He sees the lay of the land and makes to them an unexpected and startling disclosure. There probably never was such a wedding. What an assembling of rarely beautiful girls and brave courtly men; a canopy of unflecked blue mountains standing black against the sky and extending off into misty nothingness and great stretches of green and flowers. Kitty was at last married to Cameron.

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Fenella, a poor Italian girl, falls in love with a Spanish nobleman, but their affair triggers a revolution and national catastrophe.

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

Homeless Mina Rogers is desperate for a job, is briefly employed as a housemaid for three nurses. When she loses the job, she decides to impersonate one of the nurses to take a job at the home of wealthy invalid Harvey Gorman. There, she comes under the control of Gorman's male nurse Roberts, who, discovering her deception, forces her to aid in his plan to acquire the money that Gorman plans to leave to his ranch foreman Cal Morgan. While Roberts begins poisoning Gorman with arsenic, Mina is instructed to seduce Cal into proposing to her, a plan that fails only because the jealous daughters of the ranch's housekeeper expose Mina's charade. When it is learned that Gorman is being poisoned, Mina is suspected, but a letter is eventually discovered that incriminates Roberts. Dr. Prine, Gorman's doctor, has fallen in love with Mina and, after hearing the story of her miserable childhood, forgives her impersonation.

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Newly elected police court judge John Fairbrother is impassioned when it comes to the laws affecting the dives and cabarets of the city, and promises equal justice for all. The source of his crusading passion is the loss of his own sister to the lure of the notorious Johnson Café years earlier. His wife Grace's two prominent brothers, newspaper editor George Ferguson and Episcopal Bishop William Ferguson, worked hard to elect Fairbrother to office, and although they are initially puzzled by the judge's intent to shut down dance halls and cabarets, they agree to stand behind him after he confides to them about his fallen sister. However, on the day when Fairbrother takes his seat on the bench, he is called upon to sentence Mace and Lily, two young women arrested for disorderly conduct during a police raid on the same Johnson's Café that claimed the purity and ultimately the life of his sister. Lily is a brazen city girl, while Mace is a shy "country mouse" who fell into bad company. When the judge demands to know the names of the men who accompanied Mace and Lily at the time of their arrest and are therefore guilty of the same charge, the arresting detectives shock him with the revelation that one is Charles Ferguson, the son of the editor, and the other is the nephew of the bishop. Enforcing his principles, Fairbrother demands that the young men be sentenced with the women. This causes much consternation, but the judge devises a fair method for solving the double standard. He declares all four defendants guilty, but then suspends their sentences pending good behavior. He convinces Mace to return home to the country, and secures an office job for Lily. Discovering that the young ladies' apartment building is owned by his wife's family, Judge Fairbrother realizes that the roots of evil sometimes grow close to home.

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

A District Attorney's outspoken stand on abortion lands him in trouble with the local community.

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John Needham is the last of a long line of profligate Englishmen and just in the nick of time to save him from beggary, comes word that he has been appointed guardian of Thomas Creighton, and placed in charge of the millions which have been left as the heritage of the boy. Packing young Creighton off to a boarding school, Needham takes possession of the Creighton estate and begins a life of riotous dissipation. Several years elapse, until one morning Needham receives a letter from America stating that young Creighton is coming home to demand possession of his estate and will require an accounting for every penny. Joseph Norbury lives in a quiet English village and reads the news that Needham has been appointed executor of the Creighton estate. Norbury's wife remarks that with his mustache off. Norbury could easily be taken for Needham. In after years Norbury moves to London, where he and Needham met at the same club and become fast friends. When Needham learns that he is to be called to account for his stewardship, he realizes that imprisonment faces him and to avoid disgrace, he undertakes to devise measures to commit murder. Having sent to the Creighton country seat the servants from the Creighton townhouse, he invites Norbury to visit him. During the evening, Needham contrives to drop poison into the wine which Norbury drinks and after Norbury falls dead upon the floor, Needham changes clothes with the corpse. The murderer then goes to Norbury's home and undertakes to pass himself off as Norbury. The papers next morning relate how John Needham has been found a suicide in the Creighton mansion. Upon discovery of the corpse, Parks, who has been Needham's valet, refuses to believe that the dead man was his master, and through this suspicion and some good detective work by Parks, Needham is subsequently accused of the crime. Taking advantage of momentary opportunity, Needham drinks some of the same poison which he had given to Norbury and dies.

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In 1840, while California is ruled by Mexico, American settlers are in constant danger from Mexican marauders. After a band of Mexican soldiers led by American renegade George Granville kill the parents of Leonardo Davis, he vows vengeance and begins a career as a masked highwayman who terrorizes the Mexican offenders. Because Leonardo gives his plunder to those Americans who have been robbed, and he protects the women, children, poor, and helpless from attacks, he becomes known as "Captain Courtesy." At the San Fernando Mission, Leonardo falls in love with Eleanor, the orphaned ward of Father Reinaldo. For Eleanor's sake, Leonard renounces his mission of vengeance and joins the California Riflemen. When Granville learns about a cache of gold hidden at the Mission, he organizes an attack. Leonardo crashes through the stained glass window on his horse and rides to General Stephen Kearny's troops encamped in Los Angeles, who then rout the Mexicans. When Granville boldly admits that he slew the Davises, Leonardo fights him, but Eleanor persuades him to spare Granville's life.