Editor's Top Picks Sharing the Atmosphere of Lydia Gilmore: Cult Guide

Dir: Hugh Ford

Nancy, a sea captain's daughter, loves a rich importer's son, but his father objects to their marriage. Nancy takes a sea voyage to forget the boy, but he stows away and rescues her when the ship is wrecked. But washed ashore with amnesia, she is captured and sold into slavery. Can her young man find her and rescue her again?

Dir: Hugh Ford

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

Carlotta grows up in a Turkish harem and upon turning 18 finds out that her foster father plans to sell her to an old Turk. An Englishman helps her escape to Britain, but he is arrested upon their arrival.

Dir: Hugh Ford

Jean finds the boyish manner in which her late father raised her, is now causing quite a lot of trouble for her, and she ends up in a reformatory. After escaping this prison she meets Craig Atwood, a handsome artist, and now Jean must prove through a series of trials, that she is worthy of his love.

Dir: Hugh Ford

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

Lost film about the son of a Papal guard who gets involved in Italian politics and incurs the enmity of the corrupt Prime Minister, which leads him to discover the hidden secrets of his family's past - and present.

Dir: Hugh Ford

Richard "The Imp" Audaine is a clever but dissolute orphan whose guardian and friends are trying to lead him from the path of ruin and back to his senses.

Dir: Hugh Ford

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

When her husband is accused of murder, a woman pretends to be a "vamp" in order to seek out the real killer.

Dir: Hugh Ford

Zaza is a music hall star in Paris. She meets Bernard Dufrene and a flirtation develops into an intense love on her part. She is in despair when she discovers that he already has a wife and child. To visit them and announce herself as the mistress of the husband and father is her first idea, but the charm of the child restrains her. She cannot strike the blow and passes off her visit with an improvised excuse. She dismisses Bernard and returns to the stage, where she gains real fame as a dramatic artist. Once more he seeks her, but again the memory of the child saves her to her better self. Moving Picture World 1915.

Dir: Hugh Ford

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of When We Were Twenty-One perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

A fascinating piece of cinema that shares thematic elements.

Dir: Hugh Ford

Kate Vernon returns to "Mizzoura," after attending a fashionable seminary and looks down on her former suitor, sheriff Jim Radburn, who, unknown to Kate, paid for her education. When a highwayman robs the train, Sam Fowler, an express messenger, is arrested as being an accomplice. After Kate gently refuses Jim's marriage proposal, she plans to elope with handsome Robert Travers from St. Louis, whom she met at school. When Sam, freed with Jim's help, recognizes Travers as the highwayman, Travers kills a detective and escapes because Jim will not spoil his record of never killing anyone. Travers tells Kate that Jim has framed him, and she hides him. Jim tracks Travers to Kate's house, and although he thinks that the mob should have him, he takes Travers to his own house, to hold him for trial, out of respect for Kate and the law. When the mob prepares to raid Jim's house, Travers is killed trying to escape. After Kate learns that Travers was already married, and that Jim paid for her education, her love for him returns and they marry.

Dir: Hugh Ford

Sapho, whose real name is Fanny Legrand, is the daughter of poor people, her father being a coachman, and her early home is little more than a hovel in the slums of Paris. She is one of the quaint girl flower-sellers on the streets of Paris, earning a few sous daily, which she is compelled to give toward the support of the family. It was while selling her wares in one of the big restaurants that she is first seen by Caoudal, the famous sculptor, who recognizes her wonderful beauty and persuades her to pose for him. The luxury of his studio awakens in her an unsuspected love for the beautiful things of life. One step leads to another, and it is not long before she becomes the most talked of and sought after model of Paris. She is content to live in this way, reveling in beauty and the admiration of her friends and Caoudal himself, until Dejoie, the poet, moved by her beauty, writes verses to her which make both himself and her still more famous, winning her away from Caoudal. The poet is too old to hold the attention of the young girl, who craves young society and admiration, so when she meets handsome young Flamant, she lightly tells Dejoie that he is "too old" and gains the friendship of the younger man. Flamant is an engraver and finds himself hard put to it to gratify the expensive whims of Sapho, but as he is really very fond of the handsome model, he manages to forge a name and obtain money under false pretenses. His ruse is discovered, and as the gendarmes come to lead him away to prison, Sapho receives an invitation to a ball to take place that very evening. At the ball she appears as "Sapho" and there meets for the first time the student, Jean Gaussin, with whom she falls in love. It is a case of love at first sight on both sides and the two are very happy, and Sapho is learning to express the better side of her nature when Jean is shocked by accidentally learning of her past life. It is the "beginning of the end." Jean finally weds a little country girl, and Sapho, rather than return to her old life, turns Red Cross nurse and consecrates the rest of her life to that noble work.