The Definitive Watchlist Seeking the Same Brilliance as Love Me: Cult Guide

Dir: Roy William Neill

On an ocean liner returning to America, Alison Landis, an actress, avoids paying duty on a valuable pearl necklace by hiding it in the lining of a hat which she sends to Benjamin Staff, a playwright. The necklace is being trailed by a crook who is related to another passenger, Eleanor Searle, who also has a striped hatbox similar to the one recovered by the unsuspecting playwright. The crook bears an uncanny resemblance to Eleanor's father. The two bandboxes are inadvertently switched at the dock. The crook discovers the switch, and pursues Eleanor to a cabin on a deserted island where she fights for her life, but is saved by her father and Benjamin. The crook is killed, the jewels are destroyed, and plans for marriage between Eleanor and Benjamin ensue.

Dir: Roy William Neill

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

French scientists are developing a secret weapon, a gun that uses the mysterious powers of X-ray and ultra violet rays, called a "Ray Rifle." Miss Dalton played the girl that would protect it from German spies.

Dir: Roy William Neill

New bride Winnie Davis wants to buy her husband Elmer a birthday present, but she can't because he insists that all household expenses be charged to him, and she doesn't want him finding out what she's buying him. She decides to make money by using the family car as a taxi, puts on a "chauferette" uniform and soon is attracting many new customers--mostly male. Matters become more complicated when a jealous former suitor of Winnie tries to ruin her husband by putting financial pressure on Elmer so Winnie will come back to him..

Dir: Roy William Neill

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of Charge It to Me perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

Pearson Hunter, a jealous Southern plantation owner, returns home with his new wife Shirley, a Northerner. Shirley's socializing enrages Pearson when he finds her in the company of Alexander Chapman, a drunken wastrel, but after a bitter quarrel, they reconcile. Pearson's younger brother Morgan soon arrives accompanied by his fiancée, Margery Gibson. Shirley befriends Morgan, creating jealousy in Margery, who goes to Pearson for consolation and advice, but instead rekindles Pearson's own jealousy. Later, at a dance in the Hunter home, Chapman reappears uninvited. Morgan, aware of the situation, removes Chapman to the garden where the latter says insulting things about Shirley. Morgan knocks Chapman out, then returns to the house just as Jim Webb, a poor man with consumption enters the garden. Upon seeing Chapman, Webb kills him in revenge of a past conflict, but when a servant discovers the body, Morgan assumes that he is guilty and seeks council from Shirley. Pearson breaks in on them and, assuming a romance between them, despondently goes to the garden where he overhears Webb's confession, which results in a reconciliation among all the parties.

Dir: Roy William Neill

Inga Sonderson an artist model and her sweetheart, sculptor Robert Milton, win recognition through the efforts of Daniel Garford, an artist of international fame. One day, upon returning home to find his wife in the arms of another man, Garford becomes so despondent that he loses all interest in his work and turns to opium for comfort. Inga, seeking to redeem her patron, follows him into the opium dens and brings him home. Meanwhile, Milton, seeing his sweetheart return late at night with Garford, misunderstands and in a jealous rage breaks his engagement. Under Inga's care, Garford gradually begins to reform and, regaining his reputation, asks her to marry him. Milton, grief-stricken that his love is wed to another, is about to leave the city when Inga appears and announces that she is planning to marry the man she loves, Milton.

Dir: Roy William Neill

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

Young Gloria O'Connell falls in love with her neighbor, James Oliver. She is sent to a small town to stay with her three spinster aunts, while James becomes a newspaper reporter and arranges to write a story on the town and its large old-maid population. James pursues overweight "Hippo" Harger, a rival for Gloria's affections, and challenges him to a duel. When James' newspaper story appears, the disgruntled old maids hunt down the author. In a fit of anger, Gloria decides to marry "Hippo," but James rescues her at the office of the justice of the peace. The youthful lovers continue their relationship with their parents' understanding.

Dir: Roy William Neill

Rita Hackett's father has unscrupulously gained possession of an old southern mansion. The owner, Randolph Manners, is evicted and takes up residence in the training quarters on the estate. It is there when Rita meets Randolph and learns of her father's deeds. Rita disguises herself as a jockey and enters a a race, determined to help Randolph reclaim what is his.

Dir: Roy William Neill

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

Allaine Grandet lives with her father in the barren land of the north, where women are nothing more than mere chattels. She is sold by her father to Jules Latour, a brutal and primitive trapper, who subsequently gambles her away to James Dermot, the keeper of a den in the gold settlement. She is here befriended by a besotted pianist, who has seen better days, but whose manhood revives in Allaine's environment. The gambling hall proprietor seeks to bend her to his will, but she resists him, nameless fear tugging at her heartstrings. When he seeks to enforce his will upon her, she shoots and wounds him, and with this act her fear vanishes and she becomes mistress of herself. She goes with the pianist into the snows, and in a drift their dog unearths the body of Latour. So she finds happiness in the love of her protector, whose manhood has restored her faith in him.

Dir: Roy William Neill

Eileen Rodney believes herself in love with Raymond Moreland, who poses as the leader of an oriental cult, but discovers his duplicity in time to avoid the serious consequences of an elopement. She marries her guardian, John Harland, and is happy until Moreland returns and seeks to reopen the affair under threat of exposure. Moreland is killed, and her husband, as District Attorney, takes charge of the case. Her efforts to recover the love letters she wrote Moreland are nearly her undoing, precipitating an unusually thrilling chain of action.

Dir: Roy William Neill

Heiress and orphaned Alicia Lea, is being forced into a marriage for money, goes to visit her friend Rosa Vargas, who is married to a rich planter in Santiago, Cuba. Rosa's husband Don Luis Vargas is a revolutionary, hostile to the government headed by the president and his brother Don Mariano Calderon, commander of the army. When Alicia visits the fort with the Vargases, the garrison mutinies, and Don Mariano's troops attack. Alicia is captured by Mariano but treated well, and, after she begs Mariano to spare Vargas' life, she is allowed to return to America. Later, in New York, Alicia meets Mariano, exiled from his country for allowing the political prisoners, including Vargas, to escape. Mariano and Alicia fall in love.