The Recommended Vault Deeply Connected to Marriage: Cult Guide

Dir: Roy William Neill

Marcella Duranzo finds it increasingly difficult to support herself and her ailing father on her earnings as a clothing store fashion model, she accepts an assignment from Lois Underwood, the bored wife of millionaire Robert Underwood. For $1,000, Marcella agrees to live in Reno for a time under Lois' name; meanwhile, the restless wife may accompany her lover, Count Louis Le Favri, on a yacht trip and still sue her husband for divorce. Robert, however, visits the fashionable Reno hotel in which Marcella is registered and soon learns the truth. In Reno, Robert's son Bobby becomes seriously ill, and when Marcella nurses him back to health, Robert falls in love with her. Lois, who has found a new lover in Jack Porter, is about to sue Robert, naming Marcella as the co-respondent, when the jealous count, posing as Jack's chauffeur, drives himself, Jack and Lois into an oncoming train. Marcella then consents to marry Robert.

Dir: Edgar Jones

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

A mail-order bride arrives at a Maine lumber camp but doesn't like her prospective husband.

Dir: Roy William Neill

Glory Wharton is the granddaughter of Civil War veteran Jed Wharton, who entertains everyone with his war stories, but has a serious drinking problem, which Glory is determined to help him overcome.

Dir: Roy William Neill

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

Catherine Bush, a lowly office worker, uses her attractive personality and her perseverance to lift herself to a high place in society, eventually becoming Lady Catherine.

Dir: Roy William Neill

Upon hearing that her parents have been killed in the war, actress Genevieve Bouchette returns to her native village of Deschon, France, and engages in Red Cross work. The Germans capture the town, and when Genevieve refuses to submit to the amorous demands of one of the soldiers, he orders her branded with the "cross of shame." Her sweetheart, Jean Picard, now a volunteer in the French army, is seriously wounded while attempting to deliver important orders to Col. Bouchier, and Genevieve saves his life by telling his pursuers that he is dead. After delivering the papers herself, Genevieve visits her lover in the hospital, but he fails to recognize her, having lost his memory through shell shock. When Jean sees the cross of shame of Genevieve's breast, however, his memory returns, and the two pledge their troth.

Dir: Edward LeSaint

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

When famous opera singer Elinore Duane undergoes an operation on her throat, she has a series of ether-induced visions. In one, she is transported to ancient Rome where she appears as a much-admired woman in love with Paul, a young heretic, and at odds with Lutor, the high priest. To save her love, she poisons Lutor with her ring. After several other visions which involve variations on this love triangle, Elinore awakens to discover that Lutor is actually her doctor, Sascha Jaccard, and that Paul is the son of a friend who has come to visit the recovering prima donna.

Dir: Roy William Neill

A poor girl determines to right the wrong done to her father, and will let no one stand in her way.

Dir: Roy William Neill

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of Vive la France! perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

Trixie Darling, a leading chorus girl in the musical comedy number "Chicken, Chicken, You're Some Pickin'," refuses Broadway Benham's seductive wine parties and luxuries. Instead, she marries John Collins, an awkward Westerner, who, she is surprised to learn, is a multi-millionaire with a huge orange grove in California. John, overhearing jealous dancers say Trixie married for money, decides to test her. He takes her in a rickety Ford to their "home," a shack, where he throws things, raves, and makes her fix his breakfast at five. When Benham brings the troupe to town, he easily convinces the disillusioned Trixie to appear, but John carries her off the stage. Gertie Brown, John's jealous former sweetheart, starts the Committee on Public Morals to get rid of Trixie. When Trixie interrupts their meeting and has a hair-pulling fight with Gertie, a dislodged kerosene lamp starts a fire. After nearly losing her life saving Gertie, Trixie awakens from unconsciousness to find herself in John's mansion, now accepted by all.

Dir: Roy William Neill

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

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.