The Definitive Watchlist For Devotees of Mein Herz sehnt sich nach ...

Dir: Jacques Jaccard

Douglas MacLeod of the Royal North West Mounted Police is in love with Suzanne Foucharde, who has adopted an abandoned Indian baby, the illegitimate child of Louis La Rocque and Na Fa Kowa. When La Rocque insinuates that the baby is Suzanne's, her brother Henry defends his sister's honor and kills the villain. In spite of his love for Suzanne, it is Douglas' duty to arrest Henry. He does so, but later allows him to escape, taking the bullet himself that was fired after Henry by Constable Burke. Meanwhile, the dead body of Na Fa Kowa is found, accompanied by a note proving that the Indian was the baby's mother. In the spring, when Douglas recovers from his wounds, he and Suzanne are married.

Dir: Roy William Neill

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

Mary Wayne (Constance Talmadge) is left alone and penniless in New York City after her father dies. She desperately needs a job after being thrown out of her apartment for causing a small fire while cooking. At an employment agency she becomes fast friends with a sick girl, Nell Norcross, and assumes her identity and good references to start work as a secretary for elderly socialite Caroline Marshall, which soon involves playing wrangler to the lady's college-dropout nephew William "Bill" Marshall (Vincent Coleman). Bill is much more interested in going to illegal boxing matches with his buddy Peter Stearns (Ned Sparks) than in throwing lavish dinner parties for his family's high-society friends. While Mary tries to do her job and keep her true identity from being discovered, William begins to fall in love with her.

Dir: J. Gordon Edwards

Don Caesar de Bazan, a reckless nobleman, falls for Maritana, a gypsy dancing girl. When Maritana is insulted by a drunk, Don Caesar wins her love by coming to her rescue. The two go to Madrid, where the girl is summoned to dance before the Queen. Maritana also attracts the attention of King Charles. Don Jose, the prime minister, who secretly loves the Queen, plots to get Maritana for the King. To do this, he schemes to have Maritana marry a nobleman so she can enter the King's court. Don Jose chooses Don Caesar, who has been imprisoned and sentenced to death for dueling during Holy Week. Don Caesar agrees to marry the woman selected by Don Jose. After the ceremony, his wife believes he has been pardoned, but Don Caesar is sent to a firing squad. He is saved by a youth who has removed the bullets from the rifles. Eventually, Don Caesar wins the King's approval, and he is made prime minister.

Dir: J. Gordon Edwards

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

William Farnum is Drag Harlan, a tough cowboy vigilante. After learning about a gold mine from a dying man, he seeks his daughter (Jackie Saunders) as well as the gold. He falls in love with her, but the same gang that shot the old man is after the gold.

Dir: Kenneth S. Webb

Mary Horton, a country girl, moves to New York to make her living as a seamstress, where she meets Hilda Newton, an old neighbor who has renounced her country ways for the immoral life of the city. Mary moves in with Hilda and meets Bob Merrick who, charmed by the girl's innocence determines to protect her. Just as she is about to succumb to evil influences, Mary is called home to her mother's sickbed where she is denounced for her evil ways by her former sweetheart, Horace Worth. However, when Hilda's friends decide to visit Mary, Bob Merrick defends her reputation and proposes to her. The couple decide to remain in Mary's country village, while Hilda and her friends return to the city.

Dir: Herbert Blaché

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

French dancer Sigrid, diagnosed with a weak heart, is ordered by her doctor never to dance again. But when her dancing skills are needed by her lover's father to help quell a native uprising on the East Indian frontier, she determines to dance whatever the cost.

Dir: Maurice Elvey

A lady marries a horse trainer but withholds herself until her crippled brother is cured.

Dir: Sidney Franklin

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

A chorus girl hopes to rise to stardom and thus accepts the advances of a wealthy man. But she becomes fearful of her reputation and safety. In an attempt to escape the rake's attentions, she hides out with a disparate group of men who room in a house called "The Barn." There she learns that there is more to life than that found on the stage.

Dir: F. Martin Thornton

In Paris an orphan cartoonist loves a man with a mad wife, who dies in time to prevent her marriage to a jilted Comte.

Dir: Clifford Smith

Sergeant Tim Ryerson of the North West Mounted Police is commissioned to round up a gang that smuggles Chinese laborers across the border. While visiting his fiancée, Sylvia Sturgis, at her father's ranch, Tim becomes suspicious of ranch foreman Ferdinand Baird, who is the leader of the smugglers. One night, Tim catches Baird smuggling Chinese across the border to the U.S., but Baird escapes and flees to the Sturgis house where he abducts Sylvia. Tim pursues Baird to Vancouver's Chinatown, raids the smuggler's headquarters, and rescues Sylvia.