Cinematic Discoveries Resonating with the Themes of Lest We Forget:...

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 fascinating piece of cinema that shares thematic elements.

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

Dir: Léonce Perret

Lolette is the painter Rouchard's model and he wants to marry her. But she is not interested in him and falls in love with Pierre Bernier, a penniless painter.

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.

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

Dir: Léonce Perret

Leroy Trenchard loves Therese Verneuil, and when Leroy enters the army goes to France to fight, Therese follows as a Red Cross nurse. But suspicion arises that Therese is actually Princess Sonia, a German spy.

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.

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

Dir: Léonce Perret

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

Valentin Marquis de Sombreiul, alias Monsieur Simon, is known as the great master because he is the leader of a band of Parisian Apaches who mete out their own private justice to individuals who have violated their code in a secret tribunal known as the court of St. Simon. In an effort to cure Eugene, a young American longing for excitement, Valentin induces the young man to witness these horrors with the result that the youth is drawn into the Apache gang and sentenced to prison for one of their crimes. Later, after the master has disbanded his secret society and married Virginia Arlen, a charming girl from an aristocratic family, he discovers to his horror that the boy whose life he has ruined is his wife's brother. When Virginia learns the truth, she refuses to forgive Valentin, but after a period of separation, the two are reconciled by their child.

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of Lafayette, We Come perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

Dir: Léonce Perret

Vania, the daughter of Russian revolutionary Serge Ostowski, escapes to America when her father is blown up by one of his own bombs. There she marries Clifford Howard, a drug-ridden man whom she comes to despise. One night while in a drunken rage, Howard attacks her, and Vania shoots and kills him. Her attorney, Hugh Mason, believing her innocent, falls in love with his client. Vania does not tell him the truth for fear of losing his love. Meanwhile, revolutionaries have pursued Vania to America to obtain her father's papers. In defense, Hugh hires detectives to protect her. One night, a revolutionary breaks into her house and is shot by the detective. Before dying, he confesses that it was he who fired the shot that killed Vania's husband, thus freeing her to accept Hugh's love.

Dir: Léonce Perret

Sisters Yancsi and Roszika Dolly are loved by Jack Hobson and Tom Hylan respectively, but the twins refuse to marry until they are as wealthy as their prospective husbands. Accordingly they agree, in exchange for a million dollars, to aid a celebrated psychologist who is developing a cure for an ailing maharajah. The maharajah inexplicably detests his bride, a beautiful princess, and the Dolly sisters are sent to his New York palace to learn the cause of his odd behavior. They soon discover that the maharajah has been hypnotized by his uncle, the Rajah Ismael, but the spell is broken when, after a series of dangerous adventures, one of the twins obtains a ring from the maharajah and gives it to the princess. As the maharajah takes his wife in his arms, the Dolly sisters return home with their million and prepare to marry their sweethearts.