Deep Archive Finds in the Vein of Il était une fois: Cult Guide

Dir: Léonce Perret

A fascinating piece of cinema that shares thematic elements.

Dir: Léonce Perret

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

At a house party given by Doris Parker, the daughter of a retired sea captain, Doris' friends congregate to receive mail from their "adopted" soldiers in France. When one of them suggests that Doris write to Harry Townsend, who has no family or friends outside of the army, she writes a note and he sends her a friend's photograph since he has none of himself. Harry's letters awaken a love in Doris which causes her to deny the ardent entreaties of Captain Jack Tims. After Harry is wounded and thinks he will die, his farewell note inspires Doris to visit. After Doris convinces Tims to take her aboard his transport ship against naval regulations, a submarine attack results in Tims' death and burial at sea. Finding Harry's face covered with bandages, Doris nurses him to health, and then discovers that he is not the soldier in her photograph, but she realizes she loved him because of his letters. After the armistice they marry.

Dir: Léonce Perret

Young Kitty runs away from home to avoid marrying a man she doesn't love. Her car breaks down on a country road and she meets Robert, a young artist who has just been turned down by a woman he loved madly and is about to commit suicide by lying on the railroad tracks. He sees Kitty in trouble and decides to help her. They get the car running, but it runs out of gas in front of a farmhouse. The farmer, mistakenly believing that the two are married, has them share a bedroom for the night. The next morning Kitty's father shows up looking for her and discovers that she has "spent the night" with a stranger. Complications ensue.

Dir: Bruno Ziener

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

A fascinating piece of cinema that shares thematic elements.

Dir: Léonce Perret

Valentin Marquis de Sombreiul, alias Monsieur Simon, is known as the great master because he is the leader of a band of Parisian Apaches who mete out their own private justice to individuals who have violated their code in a secret tribunal known as the court of St. Simon. In an effort to cure Eugene, a young American longing for excitement, Valentin induces the young man to witness these horrors with the result that the youth is drawn into the Apache gang and sentenced to prison for one of their crimes. Later, after the master has disbanded his secret society and married Virginia Arlen, a charming girl from an aristocratic family, he discovers to his horror that the boy whose life he has ruined is his wife's brother. When Virginia learns the truth, she refuses to forgive Valentin, but after a period of separation, the two are reconciled by their child.

Dir: Léonce Perret

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of Eva, wo bist du? perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

Vania, the daughter of Russian revolutionary Serge Ostowski, escapes to America when her father is blown up by one of his own bombs. There she marries Clifford Howard, a drug-ridden man whom she comes to despise. One night while in a drunken rage, Howard attacks her, and Vania shoots and kills him. Her attorney, Hugh Mason, believing her innocent, falls in love with his client. Vania does not tell him the truth for fear of losing his love. Meanwhile, revolutionaries have pursued Vania to America to obtain her father's papers. In defense, Hugh hires detectives to protect her. One night, a revolutionary breaks into her house and is shot by the detective. Before dying, he confesses that it was he who fired the shot that killed Vania's husband, thus freeing her to accept Hugh's love.

Dir: Léonce Perret

A story of the First World War, told in semi-documentary style, focusing on the iniquities of the German war machine, and with its dramatic center the sinking by a German U-boat of the passenger liner Lusitania in 1915.

Dir: Edward LeSaint

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

When famous opera singer Elinore Duane undergoes an operation on her throat, she has a series of ether-induced visions. In one, she is transported to ancient Rome where she appears as a much-admired woman in love with Paul, a young heretic, and at odds with Lutor, the high priest. To save her love, she poisons Lutor with her ring. After several other visions which involve variations on this love triangle, Elinore awakens to discover that Lutor is actually her doctor, Sascha Jaccard, and that Paul is the son of a friend who has come to visit the recovering prima donna.

Dir: Léonce Perret

Mrs. Philip Mason commits suicide after she has an affair with Stephen Lee, a disreputable stockbroker, and sells her husband's securities so that Lee can buy stocks. When Lee goes bankrupt, he blackmails Helen Trent by threatening to reveal silly love letters she wrote to him before she married. Her brother, Willy Grosby, and his fiancée, Helen O'Neil, who lives with the Grosbys, go to retrieve the letters. While Willy waits outside, Lee is knifed to death as he attacks Helen. Lee's friend, Edward Wales, attempts to pin the murder on Helen by having Madame LaFarge, a clairvoyant, conduct a séance. In the darkened room, Wales, through whom Lee's spirit supposedly speaks, is about to name Helen as the murderer, but Wales, who sits in the thirteenth chair, is himself murdered. After Helen confesses to Inspector Donohue that Madame LaFarge is her mother, LaFarge, while conducting another séance, tricks Philip Mason into confessing to the murders.

Dir: Léonce Perret

When her father's death leaves Virginia Hastins facing a life of poverty, she breaks her engagement to Robert Monti to marry millionaire James Vandam. Unaccustomed to wealth, she entertains lavishly and flirts with many men, although her husband's secretary Harry Torrence remains immune to her wiles. Using her old love letters, Monti attempts to blackmail Virginia, and when he attacks her, she throws the blame on Torrence, who is then discharged. As a result of the incident, Torrence loses his wife, child, and home and becomes a tramp. Later, upon seeing the wreck of a man that she ruined, Virginia dreams that she is Salome of the Bible; awakening full of remorse, she confesses the truth, and Torrence and his wife reconcile.Upon learning of his wife's plight, Vandam thrashes Monti, rehires Torrence, and forgives Virginia.