Must-Watch List in the Vein of In Old California: Cult Guide

Dir: Burton L. King

Extravagance has always marked the lives of Norma Russell and her father, Courtland Russell. As a consequence, debt overtakes them, and Russell is forced to borrow a large sum of money from Howard Dundore, the banker. Even this hint of coming trouble does not cause them to economize, and soon Russell has to ask Dundore for an extension of his note. This the banker refuses to do unless the note is accompanied by the signature of a depositor of the bank. Russell forges the name of Robert Mackay, one of the bank's wealthiest depositors. Dundore knows the name is forged, but instructs his confidential man, Horace Scott, to pay the note and subtract it from his private account. He then accuses Russell, and to save her father from the consequences of his forgery Norma is obliged to consent to marry Dundore. She cables her lover, Franklin Hall, a businessman, who has gone to South America to look after a rubber investment, that she cannot marry him. Hall returns at once, pays back the amount of the note, thereby beggaring himself, and marries Norma. Dundore pretends to be friendly to the young couple, tells Hall he knows his investment has gone badly, and offers him a position in the bank, which Hall accepts. Dundore then seizes the opportunity to have Hall's accounts falsified in order to make it appear that he has stolen large sums of money. He continues to call at the Hall's home, and on one occasion makes love to Norma. Hall comes in unexpectedly, the men come to blows, and Dundore accuses Hall of having taken money from the bank. He is arrested, brought to trial and sentenced to five years' imprisonment. The only man who could have testified in his behalf, Horace Scott, has been given money by Dundore, with orders to leave the city. Norma feels that her husband's trouble is a judgment upon herself for her extravagance, since he has always gratified her every wish. Left without means by his imprisonment she turns her talents to scenario writing, at which she is immensely successful. Her father, who has been ousted from his clubs for non-payment of dues, and who lives in a little apartment with his daughter, secures work as a motion picture actor. One evening when they are returning from the studio in the motor car of the director, they see an old man run down by another car. Norma takes the injured man home. When he regains consciousness days later his mind is a blank. During his ravings Norma gleans enough to suspect that he has knowledge of her husband's supposed crime, and tries in every way to bring back his memory. All efforts fail. She takes him to the prison to see her husband, and Hall recognizes him as Scott, but he does not recognize the husband. Norma decides upon an idea, and with the aid of her director carries it out. She writes a scenario embodying the facts in the case of her husband's false accusation, and has it acted for the screen. Then she invites Dundore to see her latest picture at a special showing, and has Scott present. The picture is called "The Banker." As its action progresses there is a shout from the auditorium. Scott jumps to his feet wildly exclaiming: "That's the way he did it; Hall was not to blame. Dundore made me do it." In the ensuing excitement Dundore escapes. He hurries to the railroad station, engages a special and leaves the city, but fate follows him, and he is killed when his engine crashes into a line of "dead" freight cars. Hall is released on the testimony of Scott, whose memory has been brought back by Norma's plan, and Norma and her husband begin life happily once more, both she and her lather having learned a bitter lesson on the folly of extravagance.

Dir: Burton L. King

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

Sonia Smirnov, a Paris opera singer known as "The Black Butterfly", starts an affair with young Alan Hall. Hall, however, is still pining over his previous lover, a young peasant girl. Sonia--a former poor peasant girl herself--discovers a secret involving Hall and his former lover that neither knows about, but that involves an incident in Sonia's youth that could affect all of them.

Dir: Burton L. King

A series of six episodes involving the adventures of an American actress in Old Egypt: #1: The Purple Iris; #2: The Cage of the Golden Bars; #3: In the Shadow of the Pyramids; #4: For the Honor of a Woman; #5: In the Name of the King; #6: The Crown of Death.

Dir: Burton L. King

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

John Ashton, a young mechanical engineer, is completing the plans of a new submarine. The government is interested in his work, and he has promised to have it done by the tenth of the month, which gives him only six days in which to complete it. More and more he has been resorting to whiskey to keep his brain active. Robert Gray remonstrates with him, but to no avail. His fiancée, Grace Sealey, telephones him and urges him to attend a dinner party on the ninth. He accepts, though against his will. He falls asleep and dreams that he prepares to attend the dinner; he is still intoxicated when he arrives. Grace's father at once breaks off the engagement, and he leaves the house in disgrace. He goes home and finishes his plans on the morning of the tenth, and then, still wearing his evening clothes, wanders out into unknown streets. He goes into a saloon on the waterfront and drinks until he is insensible. There he is noticed by the captain and mate of a freighter, and shanghaied on board the vessel. When he comes to his senses he is far out at sea, and is told that the cruise will occupy six months, but that he may have all he wants to drink. At the end of the cruise Ashton and the captain, coming ashore, take a farewell drink together. Meg, a human derelict, attracts the captain's attention, and he attempts to force his attentions upon her. Ashton comes to her assistance, angering the captain, who gets two stevedores to attack him. Meg takes him to her own meager quarters and takes care of him. Gradually she induces him to stop drinking. Passing the building where he formerly had his office, he sees Franklin Darrow, a government engineer, and Gray, and hears them speak of Grace's wedding. She is to marry Wilfred Carleton, a broker, thinking Ashton dead. The news sends Ashton back to drinking heavily once more. But Meg learns of his real identity and helps him to win back his self-respect. They are married and Ashton's ambition returns. He resumes his work and seeks out his former friends. But Meg is unused to the new life. Her husband's work takes him more and more away from her, and she decides to take radical measures. Since he fell in love with her when under the influence of drink, she induces him to drink again, preferring his society in idleness and sordid surroundings to his neglect in luxury. The new plans for the government's submarine are made while he is intoxicated. They are wrong, and the crew of the first boat launched is drowned. Meg confesses what she has done, and takes the blame on herself. He flies at her throat, and waking up, knocks over the things on his desk. His original plans are as yet unfinished. He puts from him "the devil at his elbow," whiskey, and he and his fiancée have an early marriage, with the promise of a life full of achievement and ambition that is not clouded by an enemy which steals away the brains.

Dir: Burton L. King

Nancy Page is a frivolous socialite until her husband Richard becomes entangled in his employer David Davenport's shady business dealings. Davenport, a building contractor, had secured Richard's signature on several papers that promised payment of over a million dollars, even though the firm was insolvent. At a party held in honor of wealthy Japanese agent Tato Usaki, Richard tries to convince Davenport's wife Lila, who is in love with him, to obtain the vouchers, and Nancy attempts to charm Usaki into signing a building contract that will save the firm. Usaki and Nancy arrange to meet at the vacant house next door, where he signs the contract but then locks the door and attacks her. Nancy escapes through a window and returns to the party with the contract, while Davenport, having discovered that his wife has destroyed the incriminating vouchers, shoots himself.

Dir: Burton L. King

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of The Devil at His Elbow perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

Engrossed in the perfection of a new high power explosive, the husband seems to neglect his wife. She is further piqued by the introduction into their home of a man whose presence is unexplained, but who is really a Secret Service operative guarding the invention. The Government has asked that the wife be kept in ignorance. In this frame of mind the wife lends a ready ear to Aachen, who suggests that the husband be taught a lesson by the abstraction of this all-absorbing formula. Through this means he gets the formula, but in the end the Government gathers him in, and the only permanent result is a needed lesson to the innocent little traitor.

Dir: Burton L. King

Ephram Judson is an itinerant evangelist. He is always accompanied by his daughter Ruth and his 17-year-old son Tom. They enter a community of devout Christians and hold a series of meetings. On the outskirts of the community lives Hugh Lee, an outcast. His only sister had been burned to death on her wedding day when he renounced the world and his God. Accidentally he meets Ruth Judson, the evangelist's daughter. For the first time since the tragedy, the world looks bright to him. Ruth induces him to attend the Sunday service, but in the midst of it, he pictures his sister's death, and bursts forth into a violent denunciation of religion. The worshippers are shocked and pursue him to the woods. The collection that day was large and the money is given to young Tom Judson to take to the treasurer. Tom has formed the acquaintance with the village sport, who meets him and inveigles him into a game of cards. Tom stakes the church funds and loses. The gambler turns the money over to the village grocer in payment of a bill and the distressed boy, who has witnessed the transaction, sees the grocer hide it. Tom steals the money, but is pursued and slightly wounded by the grocer. He makes his way to the only place of refuge he can think of, the cabin of Hugh Lee, the unbeliever. Tom believes he is dying and pleads for his sister. Lee fetches her at night to the cabin. Meantime the grocer has aroused the community, including the evangelist, to hunt down the thief. The boy is traced to Lee's cabin, which is attacked. Ruth, aroused, as she was from her slumber, is found in the cabin in her night clothes, but she still shields her guilty brother and Lee. The fury of the mob breaks loose, Lee is dragged from his cabin and a noose placed about his neck. Ruth refuses to tell why she was in the cabin, despite the pleadings of Lee to save her honor, and give her brother up to the law. She declares that God will save them all. A storm is raging. Lighting its way with fire-brands, the mob marches Lee to the scene of the revivals after having fired the cabin. The leader of the mob throws the end of the noose over a tree and gives the horse Lee is riding a crack with the whip. Just at that moment a terrific bolt of lightning strikes the limb, severing it from the tree and throwing Lee to the ground. It strikes, too, the mob leader, killing him instantly. Tom, driven from the burning cabin, has followed the mob and arrives on the scene just as the hand of God saves an innocent man. He confesses his guilt, clearing Lee and his sister's honor and changing a frenzied mob into a rejoiceful gathering, the picture closes with Lee acknowledging the power of faith that has saved him and clasping Ruth in his arms.

Dir: Burton L. King

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of Her Husband's Honor perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

When Vera, the daughter of steel king Daniel Maitland, marries Blair, a young lawyer, her father cuts her off with only a small allowance. A few months later, Blair becomes famous by securing the acquittal of one of his friends who had killed his wife's lover, basing his plea on "the unwritten law." He then succumbs to the fascination of another woman. Vera discovers them in a compromising situation and shoots Blair. At her trial, her lawyer is pleading for mercy when Vera explains that she does not want mercy, but justice. She asks if there is one law for a woman and another for a man and explains that she shot her husband because he betrayed her trust. At that moment, it is revealed that the whole episode is being composed by novelist Elaine Esmond, who interrupts her story to go to the opera with her sweetheart.

Dir: Burton L. King

Having forced Jim Carson to leave town in order to avoid a trumped-up embezzling charge, now Albert Temple is rid of his only serious rival for Helen, whom he soon marries. Jim goes to Alaska, where he adopts Bob Adams, the son of a murdered friend, and then makes a fortune in a gold strike. After eighteen years in the Yukon, Jim returns to his hometown with Bob, who falls in love with Helen and Albert's daughter Dorothy. Because he so hates Albert, however, Jim refuses to consent to a marriage between Bob and Dorothy until Helen tells him that Albert is not the young woman's father. In reality, Dorothy is Jim's own daughter, and when he learns this, Jim quickly changes his mind about the marriage.

Dir: Burton L. King

When bank president Leslie Morrison dips into the till, he seeks to place the blame on bank clerk David Moulton by altering the figures in Moulton's books. He lays his plan carefully, but upon leaving the building late one night, Morrison falls into an elevator shaft and is killed. Moulton, the one man known to have been there, is charged with murder and tried by district attorney Robert Murdock. Unable to afford a competent defense, Moulton is convicted and sentenced to die in an electric chair. However, Mary Reed, a stenographer who loves Moulton, appeals as a last resort to the newly elected public defender, Arthur Nelson. Nelson investigates the case and discovers evidence on the very eve of the execution, evidence that will warrant a stay. Rescued from death in the nick of time, Moulton is granted a new trial under the supervision of the public defender and is found innocent.