Underground Favorites Parallel to the Artistry of Love Without Ques...

Dir: B.A. Rolfe

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of Miss 139 perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

Tired of her boring life in a small Southern town, Barbara marries Johnny Lester, social secretary to the wealthy Mr. Ellis, in the belief that he will provide her with wealth and social standing. Her plan backfires, however, when Ellis fires Johnny. Johnny is unsuccessfully seeking employment in New York when Ellis makes overtures to Barbara, who accepts his attentions, finally leading to a divorce from her husband. Concluding that the only way to make money is to earn it, Barbara obtains financial backing from Brookes, a wealthy friend, to open a millinery establishment. The store is prospering when Brookes appears and demands payment in flesh. Barbara, in a rage, spurns him, wrecks the store, and returns to Johnny who, satisfied that she has learned her lesson, forgives her.

Dir: B.A. Rolfe

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

In New York City, haughty society girl Olive Muir is engaged to a man named Dick. Olive objects when Alice Prentice, a girl of lower station, comes to visit her family. After Alice's drunken father visits the Muir home, Olive is horrified to learn that she was adopted and that Mr. Prentice is her real father. Humbled, Olive leaves for the West to see her newfound mother, who is ill, and stay with the Prentices. There she becomes involved in a political battle between Kavanaugh, a political boss who desires Olive and controls her father, and Kent Ordway, a district attorney who befriends Olive. Getting wind of a plan to kill Ordway, Olive convinces her father to warn the young man; a huge fight breaks out in Ordway's house, in which Kavanaugh kills Prentice. Back in the Muir home, Olive learns that Dick, her fiancé, and Alice have fallen in love. Olive clears the way for their union, then tells Ordway that she loves him.

Dir: B.A. Rolfe

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of Love Without Question perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

France is being swamped by counterfeit bills that are being made by a ring in the US. A beautiful female member of the French gang circulating the bills negotiates a deal with the counterfeiters' ringleader in the US, and in so doing falls in love with a returning US soldier who has his own reasons for trying to destroy the gang.

Dir: B.A. Rolfe

In the Roman Coliseum, at the beginning of the Christian era, the Emperor Turnerius, accompanied by his favorite, Nerissa, watches the bestial games in the arena. His son Gordian is asked by Grimaldo the magician to save the life of a Christian girl about to be thrown to the lions. He refuses, whereupon Grimaldo prophesies the fate of the Empire by telling the prince a story of the future: Two thousand years hence, in New York, a parallel situation takes place in which a young man is led to put a stop to the base plans of his father. The prince is so deeply affected by the injustice of the story that he plunges into the arena to save the girl, causing the emperor to die in a fit of rage, thus precipitating the coronation of his son as the new emperor.