Underground Favorites Mirroring the Impact of Infatuation: Cult Guide

Dir: Harry A. Pollard

When a young bride, newly entered into society, discovers she is pregnant, she consults an old friend on the most effective means of abortion. The friend gives her a potent drug, and that night the woman locks herself in her room, presses the potion bottle to her lips, falls across her bed and begins to dream. In her dream, her husband finds out about her abortion and demands a divorce. Years pass and the woman, now decrepit and alone, is visited by the ghost of her "Child-That-Might-Have-Been." The ghost takes her on a spiritual journey where she sees her husband, who is remarried and happy with his own family, hundreds of smiling babies wrapped in flowers in Babyland, and finally her own death and damnation. At her demise, she wakes from her nightmare, joyful to find the drug untouched, and rushes to tell her husband about her impending motherhood.

Dir: Harry A. Pollard

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

On the steamer going over to London the "Kid" falls in love with a senator's daughter and his manager is too sick to keep him in any training. After a week or two of training the "Kid" enters the ring only to find that his rival is one of his sparring partners. Knowing all the "Kid's" punches the opponent scores many points during the combat but suffers a punch in the jaw which loosens a tooth. The "Kid" waits for the moment when the terrible fighter must turn his head to spit out the tooth before he gives him the final knock-out punch. The agreement has terminated between the champion and his manager but is renewed by a hand-shake at the close of the final reel.

Dir: Harry A. Pollard

A fascinating piece of cinema that shares thematic elements.

Dir: Harry A. Pollard

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

Kane is very much interested in a new sweetheart who is a professional skater. His old girl goes over to the enemy's camp and spurs on the rival by telling him that Kane insulted her. The fighter can hardly wait for the day set for the battle, but attacks Kane on the ice in Central Park. During the fight Kane is folded but refuses to accept the decision and goes on to a finish. He knocks out his opponent, but falls down from fatigue. The referee starts counting both fighters out, but reaching "nine" finds Kane recovered and upon his feet. The two girls then enter the ring and proceed to finish the battle.

Dir: Harry A. Pollard

Messalla, the embodiment of youth and innocence, lives in an old house in Washington Square, New York City, with her father, who has been ruined financially and lost his wife through the lure of Fifth Avenue. He tells Messalla that the thoroughfare is a dragon lying in wait for victims. Messalla starts out to find the dragon and goes up the avenue. Her meetings with various people bring destruction and death to those who had wrought her father's ruin, although she is unconscious of the effect she is having on their lives. Messalla escapes the wiles of the white slaver. She allows a discarded flame of a big merchant to take her place at dinner to which she has been invited, and the merchant suffers at the hands of the discarded woman. A policeman's attention is attracted to Messalla and a man is killed by an automobile while he is looking at her. At a lacemaker's shop a wealthy young woman is tempted to take a bit of lace because Messalla has admired it, but she is caught and jailed. There is a robbery affecting some papers which have been taken and replaced by a bomb, and Messalla gives the package to a woman who turns out to be her father's lost wife; the house is destroyed after the woman and Messalla leave. There is a reconciliation. All those injured were people who had injured her father, and the dragon has been slain by Messalla's youth and innocence.

Dir: Harry A. Pollard

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of A Fool and His Money perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

In New Orleans, Kid Roberts is lured to a rooming house just before the fight, where he is bound hand a foot, and it looks as though all bets would be forfeited. A free-for-all fight is staged as a preliminary, and while this is going on Kid Roberts gains his freedom and arrives in time for the feature event. At a given signal the lights of the hall were to be turned off, and this have his adversary a chance to knock the Kid out, in the second round. The Kid is mad clear through, however, and knocks his man through the ropes in the first round and wins the fight.

Dir: Harry A. Pollard

Leander Potts, a burlesque manager, has brought his Frivolous Frolickers to Greenville for a one-night stand at the Opera House. But there are bigger things ahead for Leander in Greenville. The natives have mistaken him for the Potum of Swat, a sturdy centenarian, who with his daughters, ranging in age from 70 to 85 years, is to give a lecture on how to live a thousand years. Leander and his burlesquers are given a royal welcome, and then and there he decides to assume the identity of the real Potum.

Dir: Harry A. Pollard

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

A naive débutante longs for a romantic adventure, and sets out to have one, scandalous or not. She rashly decides to burgle a random home, but is caught. At the jail, she's mistaken for a notorious con woman, and nervously is taken into a gang.

Dir: Harry A. Pollard

John Douglas, a high-society playboy, is a cynic concerning the women of his social set, and has a pictured ideal of the girl of his dreams. Wising to avoid the upcoming social season, he hops a freighter bound for the Orient. It sinks in mid-ocean and he, as the sole survivor, is washed upon a island, where he is rescued by Nia, daughter of the tribal chief, Neto.John is puzzled as all of the tribe are white people, but he learns from the tribal chief they are descendent's of English-origin who also are on the island because of a ship wreck a few hundred years ago. John soon arouses the jealousy of Kaura, the tribal sub-chief who wants Nia as his bride, but Nia wants nothing to do with Nia, and favors John. Kaura demand that Nia become his bride, but John Rescues her and they head for the jungle, with Kaura and his henchmen in hot pursuit. The pursuit only lasts until a storm comes up and Kuara is killed by a bolt of lightning, and his followers take that as a sign the Gods aren't in favor of the pursuit. John and Nia take up residence in the Tribal Priest's jungle cave, after the Tribal Chief performs a marriage ceremony. They are quite happy and content, especially Nia who likes to play the harp John made for her. But a yacht appears on the horizon, and John struggles with a decision as to light a signal fire and be taken back to civilization.

Dir: Harry A. Pollard

The Leather Pushers were a charming series of eighteen 2-reel comedies based upon the story of a prize-fighter from the Colliers articles by H.C. Witwer. Each episode was self-contained and complete in itself. Formerly wealthy Kane Halliday (Reginald Denny) finds he must support himself with his fists in the ring after his father goes suddenly broke. A great mix of comedy and action set against the gritty world of the old New York boxing scene.