Visionary Picks Drawn from the Same DNA as Kinkaid, Gambler: Cult Guide

Dir: Raymond Wells

A fascinating piece of cinema that shares thematic elements.

Dir: Raymond Wells

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of Mr. Dolan of New York perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

Jimmy Dolan has just been defeated in a fight with "Spider" Flynn. Jones, Dolan's trainer, had bet their whole bank role on the battle. Twenty-four hours from Paris, in the little principality of Konigstadt, lived a king and his ward. Countess Alicia, a beautiful girl, was courted by Count Conrad, the King's nephew. Prince Frederick was to pay the King a visit, and the old King planned to wed him to Alicia. Count Conrad gets a message from the Prince asking him to come to a certain café. Conrad finds Frederick in company with a Mlle. D'Orsay. He begs Conrad to say he is stricken with scarlet fever. The Count consents, but plans to be revenged on Alicia. Jones and Jimmy enter the café. The Count calls Jimmy to his table, offers him twenty thousand francs to impersonate Prince Frederick, gain Alicia's consent to marriage and thus humiliate her. Urged by Jones, Jimmy accepts, and Conrad begins to teach him courtly manners. Jones is to play the role of an Arabian bodyguard. Jimmy and Jones are presented to the King and to Alicia.. Jimmy and Alicia are promptly interested in each other. Some days later, Jones and Jimmy read in the newspaper about "Spider" Flynn's being the champion of all Europe and are indignant. He sends Flynn an insulting message, challenging him to another battle, and Flynn immediately accepts. The King decides to call on Jimmy informally, and finds Jones and his friend boxing. The King takes up boxing and has a gymnasium built. Prince Frederick and Mlle. D'Orsay quarrel. He arrives at Konigstadt the evening of a dance given in honor of Jimmy. Jones sees him at the hotel, and with Jimmy's help ties him in a chair. The Prince escapes and tells the King of the outrage. The big fight is on between Jimmy and "Spider" Flynn. A great crowd has gathered, and among them the King, Alicia and the Prince. Jimmy defeats Flynn and the King is one of the first to congratulate him. The King looks from Alicia to Jimmy, saying there is a Count's title vacant in Konigstadt and that he hasn't had a good boxing match since Jimmy left.

Dir: Raymond Wells

Having been unlucky in love, Duke Chalmers renounces civilization and moves to New Mexico, where he establishes himself as an illicit whiskey trader. Although he does not really love her, Duke marries Natchah, a Navaho Indian, who bears him a daughter, Tonah. When Esther Brown arrives from the East and opens a school in the small New Mexican settlement, Duke denies Tonah permission to attend, but Esther refuses to abandon her interest in the child and soon grows to love her. Duke rescues Esther from a pair of drunken Mexicans, after which he falls in love with her. Esther, however, reminds him of his duty toward his wife and daughter, whereupon Duke closes his shop and takes his family to a new life in the Far West.

Dir: Raymond Wells

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

The story gets away with a bang, as the wedding of Tony the Banker is rudely interrupted by Detective Moran and the bridegroom is dragged off to the station house. Tony is tried, convicted of counterfeiting and sent to prison. Moran becomes a police captain and, shortly afterward, runs up against the most baffling mystery of his career. Laura Bowers, a new boarder at the house where he lives, is the person that excites his curiosity. He sees her open a street door with a hairpin, but is forced to believe her when she assures him she is now leading an honest life. A love affair follows. After the wedding the couple go to their own home and Moran is shot while seated at a window. Tony threatened to get even when Moran was married and the news is brought that the Italian has escaped from prison. The fact is also established that he was killed while trying to resist capture, but finger marks outside the window prove that he is implicated in the shooting of Moran. The explanations are cleverly planned.

Dir: Raymond Wells

During World War I, Jeanette Gontreau becomes a "godmother" to three Allied soldiers imprisoned in a German camp. Describing herself as an old woman, she sends them cheerful letters and baskets of small gifts until one of the soldiers, Harry Ledyard, informs her that he has been released and will visit her in New York. Panic-stricken, Jeanette dons a wig and spectacles, and although she convinces Harry that she is old and gray, she soon falls in love with him. Harry worships his "godmother," and when secret service agents discover coded messages on her letters, he shields her by assuming the blame. Eventually, however, Jeanette's employer, Frederick Armstrong, confesses that it is he who is guilty of espionage. Jeanette reveals her true age to Harry, who joyfully proposes to her.

Dir: Raymond Wells

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

Hal Sinclair, the chief agent at the Fort Roscher trading post in the Canadian Northwest, controls the town and cheats the trappers, until a group of independent fur traders arrives. After nearly all of the traders are killed by Sinclair's brutal henchman, Mont Brennan, Officer Jamison of the North West Mounted Police is sent to investigate. Charles Morin, a wealthy French Canadian businessman, also arrives at Fort Roscher that week with the intention of entering the fur trade, and soon falls in love with Petain Monest's pretty daughter Marie. Sinclair, who also loves Marie, commissions Brennan to kill the young trader, but Marie overhears their plans. As Brennan is taking aim, Marie shoots and kills him and subsequently is accused of murder. Jamison has also fallen in love with Marie, but realizing that she prefers Morin, he decides to stand by the young couple. With Jamison's help, Marie is exonerated and finally joined to the man whose life she saved.

Dir: Raymond Wells

Cashiered out of the army by what he believes was an unjust court-martial, the man known as The Weakling wanders aimlessly in the desert and is found by cowboys from the Lazy Y Ranch. They clean him up and give him a job on the ranch as a cowboy. He soon finds love with a local dance-hall girl, and discovers that his luck may be changing in more ways than one.

Dir: Raymond Wells

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

Failing to get a loan from Nicholas Eyre, the Steel King and friend of his wife's father, Robert Lathrop induces his wife to beg for the money he plans to spend upon his mistress. He is given a check. Hurrying to Lola's apartments, he finds her in the arms of her lover, Haskell. In the fight that follows, Lathrop is killed and left in the park. Believing her husband to be a suicide because Eyre refused to advance him funds, the wife plans to revenge what she considers his murder, but enlightenment comes after terrible damage has been done.

Dir: Raymond Wells

Chuck Connelly discovers his sister in a compromising situation with a gunman and kills the man. Two private detectives connect him with the crime. Later, the members of the protected organization to which the man belonged, attempt to kill Chuck, but he kills three of them and the detectives help him make a getaway. They then force Chuck with threats of the electric chair to kill a reformer who has been upsetting the organization. Chuck then becomes a regular member of the gang. Chuck falls in love with Annie Mangan, who is persuaded to go to the Salvation Army home. Chuck comes to the dancehall looking for her and is told that she has joined the Salvation Army. The new District Attorney is pounding the graft organizations. Word is passed to the gunmen to get him. Chuck goes to the District Attorney's house to threaten him, and is taken aback when the District Attorney's three-year-old daughter leans trustfully on his knee and looks up into his face with a smile. He goes to the Salvation Army for another sight of Annie. Chuck's sister has become the mistress of Jim Canford, the man higher up. The District Attorney pays no attention to the warning. Chuck is ordered to kill him and breaks into the house. He sees the District Attorney's little daughter, who forgot one of her dolls and is on her way to the library to get it. He steps out of sight, the child passes him, and he attempts to go up the stairs but cannot do it. Canford arranges to put some other man on the job and accuse Chuck. His sister overhears and warns Chuck, who has gone to the Salvation Army. He tells Annie he has thrown the gang down and asks her to teach him "this religion thing." She explains, but he cannot understand how a few words of acknowledgment can square all he has done. His sister arrives and, seeing a chance "to square himself with God," goes to save the District Attorney. The gunmen have surrounded the District Attorney's house before Chuck arrives. He reaches the door and sees the gunmen. There is no time to wait, so he breaks through the library window, grabs the District Attorney and his daughter, hurries them up stairs and faces the gunmen. The District Attorney's life is saved, but Chuck is mortally wounded. Word is sent to Annie and his sister and they come to the house. Chuck dies, feeling that this was the only way in which he could atone.

Dir: Raymond Wells

In adjoining kingdoms rule Sylvia, beloved of her people, and Ferdinand, who is forced to exact homage from his subjects. He spends his life in riotous living. One day the two meet, and straightway Ferdinand decides that he will marry the queen, sending his prime minister with the proposal. But she refuses it. He delivers the ultimatum that unless she consents to his proposal within a certain space of time, he will declare war. In America two cowboys, Jim and Johnny Little Bear, discover a rich mine and decide to spend some of the money traveling. The two start out. It happens that during their travels they stop near the kingdom of Sylvia, and Jim, wishing to see a real queen, makes bold to climb the wall. He sees a beautiful lady, who is none other than Sylvia herself, but he thinks her one of the court ladies. She finally confides the predicament of the queen, and he tells her that he will come to the assistance of the great lady. He wires to Bill, one of the cowboys, and tells him to come on with the whole gang. When he rides to the palace to tell the lady, he finds that she is the queen. Meantime, Ferdinand's favorite, seeing that her reign is coming to an end, tries to hold him, but he refuses to have more to do with her. Both sides prepare for battle. Ferdinand, with his army, attacks Sylvia's force before the cowboys arrive, and they are being forced to retreat when Bill arrives and saves the day. The favorite is killed when she tries to slay Sylvia. Jim explains to the boys that he is in love with Sylvia, and they finally persuade him to ask her hand in marriage. But Sylvia kindly explains that though she loves him, the dictates of custom compel her to marry royalty. Bill and the boys, seeing that Jim is taking this keenly, leave him in the palace and after a time return, telling him that they have captured the whole of Sylvia's forces, and that now he is the king. Sylvia is informed of this and with queenly dignity places her crown upon Jim's head, and so accepts his proposal of marriage.