Underground Favorites Mirroring the Impact of Les précieuses ridicu...

Dir: Léonce Perret

Mrs. Philip Mason commits suicide after she has an affair with Stephen Lee, a disreputable stockbroker, and sells her husband's securities so that Lee can buy stocks. When Lee goes bankrupt, he blackmails Helen Trent by threatening to reveal silly love letters she wrote to him before she married. Her brother, Willy Grosby, and his fiancée, Helen O'Neil, who lives with the Grosbys, go to retrieve the letters. While Willy waits outside, Lee is knifed to death as he attacks Helen. Lee's friend, Edward Wales, attempts to pin the murder on Helen by having Madame LaFarge, a clairvoyant, conduct a séance. In the darkened room, Wales, through whom Lee's spirit supposedly speaks, is about to name Helen as the murderer, but Wales, who sits in the thirteenth chair, is himself murdered. After Helen confesses to Inspector Donohue that Madame LaFarge is her mother, LaFarge, while conducting another séance, tricks Philip Mason into confessing to the murders.

Dir: Léonce Perret

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

When her father's death leaves Virginia Hastins facing a life of poverty, she breaks her engagement to Robert Monti to marry millionaire James Vandam. Unaccustomed to wealth, she entertains lavishly and flirts with many men, although her husband's secretary Harry Torrence remains immune to her wiles. Using her old love letters, Monti attempts to blackmail Virginia, and when he attacks her, she throws the blame on Torrence, who is then discharged. As a result of the incident, Torrence loses his wife, child, and home and becomes a tramp. Later, upon seeing the wreck of a man that she ruined, Virginia dreams that she is Salome of the Bible; awakening full of remorse, she confesses the truth, and Torrence and his wife reconcile.Upon learning of his wife's plight, Vandam thrashes Monti, rehires Torrence, and forgives Virginia.

Dir: Léonce Perret

Playwright Harry Bryant while driving in a rural area, happens upon orphaned Kate astride a white horse, he is so charmed that he arranges for her to work at a nearby inn. Unable to tolerate the cruelty of the innkeepers, Kate runs away and seeks out Harry at his house in Story Brook farm. Charmed by her youthful exuberance, Harry falls in love with the uneducated girl and they marry. Harry soon becomes disenchanted with his illiterate wife, however, and seeks solace in his former sweetheart Diana Nelson. When he discovers that Diana is using him to further her social ambitions, Harry returns to Kate, who provokes his jealousy by paying daily visits to a mysterious apartment house. Finding out that Kate's secret rendezvous was with her tutor, Harry's love for his wife is rekindled.

Dir: Léonce Perret

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

A fascinating piece of cinema that shares thematic elements.

Dir: Léonce Perret

A moneylender kidnaps the young son of an rich widow as part of a plot to cheat her of her fortune. The boy is sent away on a fishing boat with the intention of drowning him, but a kindly old fisherman intervenes.

Dir: Léonce Perret

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

Separated since birth, twins Violet and Daisy White are unaware of each other's existence. Violet, the idol of her indulgent father Harry has everything her heart could desire while Daisy, reared by her indigent mother, is poorly clad and underfed. This fragile child of the slums is not aware that John Bent possesses certain papers which confirm her true relation to Harry White. By hiding from Daisy's father the truth of her existence, Bent is able to manipulate the twins to his own best advantage; they become his pawns. After hiding Daisy away in school, he substitutes her for Violet, whom he has forced into marriage, when the latter dies. Then he disposes of Daisy by declaring her insane and placing her in an asylum. It appears that Bent will win the game until Bob Anderson, who is in love with Daisy, comes to her rescue and checkmates the black knight.

Dir: Léonce Perret

Count Fernand De Keramic plots against his niece in order to acquire her wealth to pay his debts.

Dir: Léonce Perret

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

A fascinating piece of cinema that shares thematic elements.

Dir: Léonce Perret

Matthew Versigny, the head of an American diamond concern, travels abroad with his sister Marguerite to learn the source of some imitation stones which are so perfect that even his company has purchased them. In Paris, they join forces with Paul Bernac, a special agent of the French Secret Service, and Andre Zarnoff, the chemist who invented the formula for the fake stones. The trail brings them into contact with Arthur Graves, the master mind of the counterfeiting ring, who determines to eliminate Versigny. After kidnapping his adversary, Graves employs the Baron de Lambri, Versigny's former manager, to steal the secret formula from Versigny's safe, thus making it appear as if Versigny had decamped with his company's papers. Versigny finally escapes and, with the aid of Bernac and Marguerite, tracks Graves down and captures the villains.

Dir: Léonce Perret

At a house party given by Doris Parker, the daughter of a retired sea captain, Doris' friends congregate to receive mail from their "adopted" soldiers in France. When one of them suggests that Doris write to Harry Townsend, who has no family or friends outside of the army, she writes a note and he sends her a friend's photograph since he has none of himself. Harry's letters awaken a love in Doris which causes her to deny the ardent entreaties of Captain Jack Tims. After Harry is wounded and thinks he will die, his farewell note inspires Doris to visit. After Doris convinces Tims to take her aboard his transport ship against naval regulations, a submarine attack results in Tims' death and burial at sea. Finding Harry's face covered with bandages, Doris nurses him to health, and then discovers that he is not the soldier in her photograph, but she realizes she loved him because of his letters. After the armistice they marry.