Visionary Picks Drawn from the Same DNA as If Marriage Fails: Cult ...

Dir: Wilfred Lucas

Brian O'Farrell (Snowy Baker), is an English 'new chum' who takes a job at an Australian cattle station. He is teased by station hands because of his appearance (including spats and a monocle) but he soon impresses them with his skills at riding and boxing. The station manager, John MacDonald (Wilfred Lucas), takes O'Farrell to Sydney to meet his daughter Edith (Kathleen Key) who is working in the slums. Edith is kidnapped by criminals after witnessing a crime but O'Farrell rescues her. It is later revealed he is the owner of the station.

Dir: John Ince

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

Muriel Ashley is engaged to Ferdie Walton. Ferdie's father opposes the marriage; Muriel's parents favor it. The couple are married by a strange parson who wanders into the Ashley home, then after they leave for the honeymoon, Ferdie's father discovers that the clergyman is a crook. He notifies the hotel and the young couple are ordered out. They return to the bridal suite by way of a window, but the hotel catches fire and they escape. They go to the Ashley home where they learn they are actually not married. The "clergyman" who married them breaks into the house and is captured. Rev. Dr. Jenkins identifies him, however, as a genuine clergyman who has been suffering loss of memory; thus the marriage turns out to be legal after all.

Dir: John Ince

Philip Eaton is a passenger in a Pullman sleeping car headed to Chicago. However, he's not quite what he seems to be--he's actually Hugh Overton, who has just escaped from prison to clear himself after having been falsely convicted of murdering Matthew Latrone, a corrupt financier who cheated Hugh's mother out of her estate. It turns out that Latrone is still alive and sends out a killer to eliminate Hugh. Complications ensue.

Dir: John Ince

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of Blind Man's Eyes perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

Eunice Fielding, rich, with every wish gratified, is a spoiled society girl and a moral coward. She is in love with Jack Harcourt, who is poor but brave, and who is deeply in love with her. Marjorie Harcourt, Jack's sister, reads Eunice's character and warns her brother against the advisability of marrying her. Nance St. Germain, who is a mystic and a student of theosophy and occult lore, talks to Eunice, but all her warnings are without avail, and Jack and Eunice marry. They are happy for a time, but lack of money causes embarrassment. Eunice is ignorant of everything relating to the value of money, cries over their difficulties, and Jack in despair calls Marjorie home from college and confesses the state of affairs to her. He begins to neglect Eunice, who is highly indignant, and becomes very cool to Marjorie. Bob Fisher, who is in love with Marjorie, is sent west by Jack to look after the details of a mining scheme and Jack, short of money, cuts Eunice's allowance. She makes a great fuss over this, and in a talk with Marjorie Jack is informed that there is a baby coming. Jack is called away on business, and while he is absent Eunice loses a lot of money gambling, and fearing comment talks of committing suicide. Eunice talks with Nance, who warns her against committing suicide, and tells her to confess to Jack. Jack returns and gives Eunice all the money he has, leaving himself broke. Marjorie comforts her brother, but he tells her that things have gone wrong, and the mine is a failure. Marjorie tells Eunice, who becomes despondent and leaves a note for Jack, tries the cowardly way, takes gas and dies. Jack reads the note and goes insane. Eunice, in the halls of Death, sees Death, who tells her she is not dead, but must wait until her time comes. Death shows Eunice her home with Jack crazy. Jack sees her. and Eunice sees Marjorie and the nurse and Marjorie greeting Bob Fisher. She goes after Bob, and the face of Death changes as he sees the reconciliation. Marjorie and Bob marry. Jack's insanity continues. Eunice is there and is seen by Jack but invisible to the others. While they are there. Death sends a child to Eunice with the words, "I was to be your child, but now I am to be Marjorie's." Jack, rendered clairvoyant by his insanity, sees and hears this, and makes his first rational remark to the others, saying "Marjorie is to have a little girl," and in surprise Marjorie tells it to Bob. The baby is born, and Jack wants to see it but is refused. Death awakens Eunice, and tells her that whenever she wants Jack's mind restored she is to call on him, but after that she has done so Jack will never see her again. Jack threatens to get the child and kill it if it is not shown to him. Eunice in terror at the danger to child hastily calls on Death to restore Jack's reason, which is done, and she disappears from Jack's sight. With Jack sane again there is a happy reunion of all except Eunice, who sees Death again. Death shows her in his book where she has redeemed herself by her renunciation.

Dir: John Ince

Carew, surgeon at an army post, is in love with Marjorie Caldwell, but Marjorie, who is all for social stuff, thinks her feeling toward him is only friendship. Dames comes to the post as junior surgeon, and supersedes Carew in her regard, marrying the girl. Mrs. Drew, a widow, comes to the post and an intrigue begins between Dames and the widow. Carew sees it, and to save Marjorie tells her that his absences are matters of duty. He asks to be transferred to Manila, and he and Dames are both sent there. On the way Carew warns Dames that he will lose Marjorie's love, and they quarrel, Dames being partly drunk. The ship hits a reef, and Dames, in an effort to save himself, wrenches a life preserver from a woman. Marjorie and Carew are left on the ship, but Carew rescues her, and in the morning they are on the shore of an island with an overturned boat and the bodies of their fellow passengers in the surf. On the shore of another island Dames is rescued by an Abbot, but his wounds cause him to lose his identity. On the first island, Marjorie comes to see the strength of Carew's character but he refrains from telling her of the actions of her husband. A ship is sighted, and Carew, after a struggle, lights the beacon that will save them both but probably take Marjorie away from him. In San Francisco they learn that Dames is reported missing. He asks her to be his wife, but she thinks Dames may still be alive. Dames is on the island with lepers, and works with the monks as Father Fabrician. Carew comes to the island and finds Dames at work among the lepers. He recognizes Dames, but the latter denies his identity. He goes to the monastery, tells the Abbot the truth, and Dames leaves with Carew for Manila, and an operation that will restore his memory. After the operation Dames returns to his drunken habits, and reading some of Carew's letters he learns of the feeling of his wife, giving it a sinister turn. As he prepares to assault Carew he sees the marks of leprosy on his arm, becomes agonized with fear, jumps overboard and is lost. In San Francisco Carew finds Marjorie, tells her of the occurrences and of Dame's death, and while she feels sorry that he has gone as he did, she finds her true happiness with Carew.

Dir: John Ince

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

Janet Newell learns that her husband Raoul is a crook and leaves him. However, when he offers her a position as companion to the wealthy Richard de GIles and his wife, she accepts, believing that they hold a property deed that rightfully belongs to Raoul's friend Langstreet. Janet is established in the de Giles' Long Island estate, where she falls in love with the kind old couple's nephew, Hugh Maxwell. Soon Raoul appears, and although Janet now realizes that she has been a pawn in his plan to rob the de Giles' jewels, she is forced into silence by his threat of revealing her marriage to Hugh. On the appointed evening, Ross, the butler, drugs the de Giles' coffee and joins Raoul, who has opened the safe with ease. As they are about to escape, however, the de Gileses--who are actually detectives assigned to capture Raoul's gang--appear, bearing guns and pronouncing the crooks under arrest. Raoul grabs a gun but is shot and killed. Janet is left a single woman, but only temporarily.

Dir: John Ince

A serious-minded fool named Stradivarious O'Day because his music-loving mother says he "fiddles his time away," acquires his nickname because of his motto of "one thing at a time and that done well." Falling in love when he first sees circus bareback rider Prairie-Flower Marie, O'Day, living off his inheritance, follows the circus until the pestered manager gives him a job cleaning his Ford. With the help of a manual, O'Day learns to drive and secures employment with the circus as a chauffeur. After strong man Gorilla Lawson, who also loves Marie, beats him up, O'Day contacts his friend, boxer Roughneck M'Dool, to teach him to fight. Lawson, frightened by O'Day's daily development, steals the circus receipts and the Ford on the day of their scheduled fight, but O'Day overtakes and whips him. After O'Day weds Marie, he unwittingly goes against his motto when he becomes the father of twins.

Dir: John Ince

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

On a visit to the city of Boston, a village girl is taken advantage of by a man there and returns home feeling sullied and ashamed. A young man who had once sought her hand returns from years away in Europe and reiterates his suit. She returns his love and agrees to marry him, but has difficulty telling him the truth about her misadventure. When she finally does, his response seems to doom the pair to tragedy.

Dir: Bruno Ziener

A fascinating piece of cinema that shares thematic elements.

Dir: John Ince

Wealthy, beautiful Juanita Holland leaves the comfortable surroundings of her home in the North and journeys to the Cumberland Mountains to educate the illiterate mountaineers. Finding herself in the middle of a fierce feud between the McBriars and the Haveys, Juanita urges the clan members to end the violence and settle their differences in the courtroom. She and clan leader "Bad Anse" Havey fall in love, and under her influence, he convinces his followers to let the law punish the murderer of Jeb Havey's father. After one of the McBriars is found guilty and hanged, "Old Milt" McBriar swears that his family will obtain revenge and organizes a party to go after Bad Anse. When they shoot the young man, seriously injuring him, Juanita seizes a rifle and opens fire. Fearing that Anse will not recover, she marries him that night, but he eventually regains his health.