Hidden Genre Gems for Fans of Laughing Bill Hyde: Cult Guide

Dir: Hobart Henley

An unscrupulous gambler is falsely accused of murder. To avoid capture, he disguises himself as a priest. But his priestly role causes a change in his life and he finds himself making unusual choices.

Dir: Hobart Henley

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

Mrs. Sherwood hates her life with her husband, who is drinking increasingly as a result of his own unhappiness in the marriage. Mrs. Sherwood is in love with Le Roy Scott, who encounters a woman of astonishingly identical features to Mrs. Sherwood. He contrives to substitute the other woman, Marion Roche, in Mrs. Sherwood's place while he and Mrs. Sherwood escape for a tryst. But Marion is much more the wife that Sherwood dreamed of, and he falls in love "anew" with his "wife," and she with him. She determines to find some way to permanently replace the real Mrs. Sherwood.

Dir: Hobart Henley

Hard working Jimmy Dodd, the main support for his widowed mother and three unwed, bickering sisters, promises his mother on her death bed that he will not marry before his sisters. When Jimmy and his fiancée Emily Harrison fail to find husbands for the sisters, Jimmy lets Emily go and she marries another. After many years of complaints, two of the sisters marry and the third goes to work at a settlement house. Because of the war, Jimmy's leather business becomes very profitable. When he is courting flashy young women, his sisters condemn him for being a "gay old dog," but Jimmy realizes that his romantic efforts are pitiful and unfulfilling. He is deeply moved when he sees Emily's boy going off to war in a parade. When his sisters reproach him again, he tells them to leave and not return, blaming them for the loss of Emily and the child that might have been his.

Dir: Hobart Henley

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

Carey Wethersbee and her aunt Lucretia live in an old Southern mansion, which through their quaint manners and outmoded costumes, they imbue with an atmosphere of the antebellum South. After her aunt's death, Carey decides to "go visiting" in the North, journeys to a small town and announces her intention to install herself in the home of wealthy mill owner Hiram Ward. The young bachelor is shocked at first, but his friends convince him to allow her to stay. Carey visits Hiram's mill, where she is shocked and saddened by the miserable conditions under which the employees labor. Her distribution of money among the workers fails to avert a strike, but when the mill is blown up, she staunchly defends the accused man. Through her influence, Hiram's attitude towards his employees softens, and he agrees to improve conditions. He grows to love the unspoiled girl, and she eventually returns his affections.

Dir: Hobart Henley

Cora, a flirt, and the pampered pet of the entire Madison family who sacrifice to humor her whims, becomes engaged to Richard Lindley who does not know that Laura Madison silently loves him. Valentine Corliss, a former member of the community, reappears with a big stock scheme and Cora falls for him. Pretending love, he uses Cora and endeavors to get her father to become secretary of his company knowing his name and reputation will lend prestige. Cora brings Corliss the paper with her father's signature which later proves to have been forged. Corliss makes a getaway but is nabbed as he reaches New York. In the meantime, the townspeople who have been cheated demand the arrest of Papa Madison. Cora, to get away, goes to Lindley but he says their engagement was a mistake. She then goes to another admirer and they are immediately married. Laura, learning of the situation, becomes enraged, gets Cora, and brings her home where she confesses, despite her father's attempt to keep her silent. Jimmy Madison, to whom Papa appealed when he got in trouble, appears and with the arrest of Corliss affairs are straightened out. Lindley, who through a prank of little Hedrick, has learned of Laura's intense love, sees his error and they become happily married.

Dir: Hobart Henley

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

Spinster cousins Emmy and Patty Hodges run the local millinery shop in a small town. One day, the women inherit a fortune from an uncle, and Emmy, determined to soothe her cousin's pain from an aborted love affair with Jim Heath years earlier, insists that they use the money to visit New York. In the city, the two women indulge themselves in shopping sprees but fail to find happiness until Patty hears one night of an invalid living in the hotel room adjacent to theirs and offers assistance. Upon entering the room, Patty discovers her cousin's old suitor Jim and learns that he was forced to leave Emmy to save his younger brother from a prison sentence. This revelation brings about a joyful reunion between Emily and her lost love.

Dir: Hobart Henley

Susie organizes plays to benefit the Red Cross. She marries her hero, Robert, but finds out he did it to avoid the draft. She begs to be taken in his place and is soon captured by the enemy. Will Robert become the hero she believed he was?

Dir: Hobart Henley

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

Lorenzo Carilo (Conway Tearle) selects more-or-less menial jobs at which to make a living, other more "select" jobs not paying enough, and then he meets and falls in love with Vivian Forrester (Martha Mansfield) the daughter of a new-rich family. What's a poor boy to do? He might pose as a French Duke.

Dir: Hobart Henley

Lily Becker, daughter of middle-class parents in Iowa, has always aspired to be a musician but receives little sympathy from her environment. She is forced into an unhappy marriage with Albert Penny, son of wealthy parents, whose brutality proves unbearable; fleeing to New York, she is saved from starvation by a friendly chorus girl and gives birth to a child, which dies. On the point of suicide, she meets young composer Tom Clemons in Central Park, and their friendship ripens into love. In a restaurant, Lily is discovered by Antonio Marvelli, a vocal instructor, who recognizes her talent and offers to teach her for nothing. After a year of hard work, Lily is fitted for an operatic career and makes her debut in Thaïs. At the same time, she is freed from her husband by his death in a railroad accident and finds happiness and success with Tom.

Dir: Hobart Henley

Two baby boys are born in Owentown. One is the unwanted offspring of an avaricious grasping father. He grows to an evil manhood, and loses his one chance of real happiness to the play-fellow whose parents have met their responsibilities.