The Auteur's Selection In the Shadow of Les Misérables: Cult Guide

Dir: Frank Lloyd

A fascinating piece of cinema that shares thematic elements.

Dir: Frank Lloyd

A sci-fi/espionage film in which world powers vie for control of a death ray during World War I.

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

Dir: Frank Lloyd

A gay dinner party took place in one of Broadway's showiest restaurants. The host was a bachelor of wealth, and his guests included men of his own station in life, and young girls caught in the whirl of gaiety. The bachelor told the young girls that the keeper of his mountain lodge had advised him by letter that she requires the services of a maid, and he offered the proposition to the girls, but they refused. A face then appeared at the window of the restaurant. It was the face of a woman who had been cast aside. The girls told their host to offer the job to her. Being in a mood to take the advice, he hurried from the restaurant, overtook the derelict, and brought her back with him. The woman was starving and accepted the position in the mountain. Her past life was recalled to her that very night, for one of the guests in the restaurant was the man who had made her what she was. In the Adirondack Mountains the woman found life quiet, but a chance acquaintanceship with a family in the valley marked another change in her life. The family (a man, his wife, and their little daughter) took a liking to the maid and induced her to attend services at the village church. The weeks passed, and then the owner of the lodge arrived from the city with a number of his friends. instead of the forlorn outcast whom he had sent to the mountains he found an attractive woman, but one who would not listen to his advances. Angered by her attitude, her employer tried to force his intentions upon her. She then left the lodge and went to the home of the little family, where she was welcomed. Some days later the little daughter was accidentally injured. The doctor declared that her spine was broken, and despite all his efforts, the child steadily sank. The outcast prayed for Divine help, and as she prayed it seemed to her that she was told to heal the child. Strengthened and transfigured by her religious devotion, she accomplished what the doctor had failed to do. The woman's power soon became known and was as effective with other invalids as it was with her first patient, while at the mountain lodge its worldly owner laughed cynically as he thought how these respectable, narrow-minded people reverenced a woman whom they would despise if they knew her past. From the city the man came who had blighted her life. His friend at the mountain lodge had written him about the woman's new career. He came to sneer, but soon learned to respect and honor her. But one day the woman failed for the first time. A mountaineer brought his wife, a cripple for several years, to be cured. Th« owner of the lodge threatened that he would reveal the outcast's past life. Realizing that he would keep his word, the woman's great faith disappeared. While the assembled people were still discussing the failure of their idol, her former employer told them what this woman had been before she came among them, and they recoiled from her in horror, all of them except the man who had been her first enemy and had now become her friend. He asked her to marry him and she refused, going out into the world alone. The old bitterness did not return to her and she prayed for guidance. It seemed to her that she was told to make the cure which she had failed to achieve, and she set out for the mountaineer's cabin. The mountaineer's wife had been crippled by a racing automobile and that day the owner of the mountain lodge told her husband the name of the man who had driven the car. It was the man who had asked the outcast to marry him. The mountaineer decoyed the guilty man into the mountains, and there a fight took place between the two men. The man from the City was no match for the mountaineer and he was about to be hurled into the chasm when he beheld a sight which caused him to forget his vengeance forever. His wife was walking down the mountain path towards him. And with her was the healer, the woman who had failed. Realization came to him as his wife told him of the great cure, and he thanked the woman whom he had misjudged. Happiness has come to the outcast as the wife of the man who made an outcast.

Dir: Frank Lloyd

Alcoholic lawyer Sydney Carton travels to Paris during the Reign of Terror to rescue French aristocrat Charles Darnay, husband of the woman he loves.

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

Dir: Frank Lloyd

Florence Brent is the daughter of Bennington Brent, who runs a successful laundry business. Florence's childhood friend, John Oglesby, is a Congressman. When Florence visits her friend, Eleanor Williamson, in Washington D.C., she meets Eleanor's fiancé, who is a Count. The Duke of Buritz, a countryman of the Count, tries to corrupt Oglesby for political reasons. Meanwhile, the Count breaks his engagement to Eleanor, having become enamored of Florence. Oglesby eventually exposes the duplicity of the Count and Duke.

Dir: Frank Lloyd

The story tells of the troubles started by the fondness for gaiety of three mature French judges. With an eye to securing his good graces, they enjoy losing an occasional game of whist to their superior, Judge Galipaux. M. Galipaux's life burden is an ambitious wife. An escapade with the leading lady of a theatrical troupe, Mlle. Gobette, lands the three judges on the carpet for a severe reprimand. The offending actress is evicted from the hotel. Like an inspiration, a way out of their predicament comes to one of the offenders. That night on returning from seeing his wife on her train to Paris, M. Galipaux finds his house occupied by a strange but very beautiful woman, who refuses to leave. Unexpectedly M. Gaudet, the handsome and irreproachable Minister of Justice, arrives. He is fascinated by Gobette whom he believes to be Mme. Galipaux. Still posing as Mme. Galipaux, Gobette comes to Paris to call upon him. Scenting a possible scandal, Marius, the head usher, lays a trap. Mlle. Gobette calls and the trap is sprung. From then on events crowd quickly upon poor Gaudet, but through humorous situations and startling perplexities he remains undaunted to emerge triumphant.

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

Dir: Frank Lloyd

U. S. Senator Frank Deering has spent his life trying to alleviate the misery of child labor. Judge Vernon, his closest friend, aids him in this struggle. Unexpected circumstances force Judge Vernon to borrow money from Henry McCarthy, one of the factory owners most responsible for the harsh and inhumane working conditions. Judge Vernon is unable to pay off the loan, and is reduced to accepting a bride from McCarthy. Later, the Judge is stricken with a heart-condition but, on his dying bed, he confesses the shameful act he committed to Deering. To keep his friend's name unsullied, Deering makes a deal with McCarthy and votes against the child-labor-act he sponsored. His colleagues and the world, unaware of his sacrifice, mock and jeer him.

Dir: Frank Lloyd

Unhappy with her shotgun marriage to Southern aristocrat Arthur Heatherway, Valerie Marchmont leaves her new husband and, after giving her infant daughter to a Virginia family, goes to Alaska to work in a dance hall. Years later, the daughter, Adrian Gardiner, wants to marry Richard Carver. Richard's father Robert, refuses them to marry because Adrian cannot provide any information about her parents. Following a hunch, Richard goes to Alaska to find the mother Adrian never knew, but just after locating Valerie, he is shot by saloon owner Jim McNeil. When Adrian and Robert go to Alaska to be with Richard during his recuperation, Robert recognizes Valerie as the wife of his old friend Arthur. As a result, he approves of the marriage, but the celebration accompanying the news is cut short when Valerie and Jim kill each other in a fight.

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

Dir: Frank Lloyd

Rev. Dr. Penfield Sturgis, of fashionable St. Martins-in-the-Lane, finds himself face to face with Jane Bartlett, a grand opera prima donna whose opera he has denounced on grounds of morality, and who comes to his very vestry room to make him "eat his sermon word for word." Out of the encounter a strange acquaintance develops, Jane Bartlett interested through vindictive reasons, the rector through the challenge to his church. She prevails upon him to visit the notorious opera, which but deepens his previous convictions, but meanwhile he discovers a surprising humanity in the woman herself. Just as it is beginning to dawn upon him that maybe he takes himself a shade too seriously, word comes that the Mayor has closed "Zaporah" on the strength of his own condemnatory sermon. Repentant, Sturgis decides to apologize in an open letter to the newspapers, at which his vestry and congregation, already perturbed by the ascendancy of the Bartlett woman, are up in arms. To preserve her dignity the young rector offers to marry her, and she accepts him, thus at last making him "eat his sermon word for word," as she had set out to do. But her vanity appeased, Jane Bartlett proceeds to make peace between her young rector and Georgine Darigal, daughter of the rector emeritus and formerly his fiancée, and the reconciliation assured, Jane Bartlett gracefully withdraws.

Dir: Frank Lloyd

To obtain an increase in his income from his wealthy uncle, Charles Shackleton must stop his wild bachelor ways and marry. Charles proposes to Lucy Norton, but her father refuses his permission. Undaunted, Charles tells his uncle he has married and receives his increased allowance. A year later the uncle announces an upcoming visit, and Charles begins a frantic search for a temporary wife, offering Jane, the maid, five hundred dollars to play the part of Mrs. Shackleton. Secretly married to William, the butler, Jane undertakes the role without her husband's knowledge, causing him much confusion and jealousy. When the uncle demands to see "the baby," Jane snatches one from an unsuspecting washerwoman, who later catches the uncle with her child and calls the police on him. Further complications lead to Charles' pleading proposal to Lucy and then finally to the truth, which leaves everyone satisfied.