Cinematic Discoveries Following the Footsteps of Money Isn't Everything: Cult Guide

Dir: Edward Sloman

To maintain order aboard the Southern Cross, Bull Dorgan, its fierce captain, beats Pedro, a trouble-making sailor, who swears revenge as he steers the boat toward the wild Barbary Coast. While on shore, Bull hears the cries of Emily Gordon coming from a saloon, rescues her from the owner, and drags her and Hugh, a minister, to his departing ship. Bull refuses to believe that Emily came to the cabaret to visit a dying friend, but overcome with desire for her, he forces Hugh to marry them. Nine months later Emily gives birth, but Pedro, still bent on revenge, insinuates that the baby actually belongs to Hugh. When Bull goes to confront Emily with this accusation, he finds her in a compromising position with the minister. Taking advantage of Bull's confusion, Pedro foments a mutiny, but Bull and a devoted shipmate defeat the traitors. Eager to compensate Emily for her hardship, Bull allows her to return to land, but seeing his love for their child, she chooses to remain with the sea master.

Dir: Edward Sloman

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

Rhoda Eldridge lives in the Paris Latin Quarter, learns at the death of her father Charles that her real name is Sayles and that she has an uncle somewhere in America. She travels to the States as a nursemaid but is discharged soon after her arrival. In the park, she finds an envelope containing a letter to Rosy Taylor from a Mrs. Du Vivier, along with a key, $2, and instructions to clean the Du Vivier mansion each week. When the penniless Rhoda learns that Rosy is dead, she cleans the home herself, and all is well until Jacques Le Clerc, Mrs. Du Vivier's brother, mistakes her for a thief and sends her to a reformatory. Rhoda, however, escapes and returns to the house. Upon discovering that Rosy has been dead for weeks, Jacques and his sister catch the mysterious housekeeper once again. Through the efforts of Jacques, who has fallen in love with her, Rhoda is united with her rich uncle, and to demonstrate her gratitude, she accepts the young man's marriage proposal.

Dir: Edward Sloman

A southerner who fought with the Union army regains the confidence of his his community after the war.

Dir: Edward Sloman

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

"The Woman" is brought up on a farm by a miserly uncle who denies her the company of other young people. It is no wonder then that she is introduced by a traveling mining stock broker. When the uncle learns her plight, he puts her out. A storm is raging. The girl seeks shelter in the same place as the man who has seduced her. He persuades her to go to a nearby town and marry him. She does, but shortly after the ceremony she discovers that he is already married, when his wife and the police come and take him. Deserted and alone, the girl finds out that her uncle has been killed in the storm, and has left her his money. She takes it and goes to a small city where she lives. Five years later her little son is quite a lad, and they are living happily. The woman is known as a widow. Two men fall in love with her, a prominent physician and a broker. The broker wins his suit. Later her husband engages a chauffeur for the woman. When the man arrives at the house she discovers that it is the man who betrayed her. He threatens to expose her unless she keeps him supplied with money. She dares not refuse. He treats their son cruelly. One day the broker sees the chauffeur hit the lad and discharges him on the spot. The chauffeur again threatens the woman, this time telling her that if he does not get his job back he will reveal the truth about her. The woman goes to her husband's office when he is not in, and meets the chauffeur there. He flourishes a gun and a struggle ensues. The man is shot and the woman runs away. The coroner finds a locket in the hand of the dead man that belongs to the woman. He keeps the incriminating bit of evidence for the trial. The woman hides herself, unknowing that her husband has been arrested for the murder. A vision of the penitentiary causes her to hasten to court where she tells of the man's attack upon her. This testimony clears the husband, and both are discharged. She determines to have her mind free of the shadow of her secret, and tells her husband the true story of her life when they return home. She is forgiven.

Dir: Edward Sloman

Gerard Hale and Luther Snaith, partners in the same law firm, are rivals for a seat vacant in the Senate as well as for the hand of the governor's daughter Marion. When Tom Shores, recently released from prison, turns up at the law office with his sister Mary and her two-year-old baby, the illegitimate child of Gerard's late father, Gerard Hale, Sr., Snaith sees the opportunity to win both the Senate seat and Marion. Gerard meets with Mary and learns that the child is the offspring of his father. Overcome with his father's dereliction, Gerard gives Mary a check for $50,000. As Mary and Tom leave, they are seized by detectives who bring them back to the office for identification. Meanwhile, Mrs. Hale and Marion have stopped in to visit and Gerard, afraid that the truth will prove fatal to his mother's ailing heart, testifies that the baby is his. Upset over the revelation, Mrs. Hale is confined to bed and Snaith threatens to expose the truth unless Gerard withdraws from the Senate race. Sensing that death is approaching, Mrs. Hale asks Gerard to do his duty and wed Mary. Mary insists upon telling her the truth, but Gerard refuses, fearing that it would prove fatal to his mother, but Gerard is spared from the sacrifice when his mother dies, freeing him from the shackles of truth.

Dir: Edward Sloman

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

When the unruly drinking party at "Big Bill" Darcey's hunting lodge runs out of liquor, they move to the lodge of Darcey's agent, Enoch Foyle, and finding attractive Nora Farnes waiting alone, harass her. Bill, who previously was interested only in pleasure, with his consumptive friend Sammy Goode, protects Nora, who, armed with a revolver, intends to confront Foyle for swindling her mother. When Foyle returns, Nora wounds him slightly. Bill brings her to his lodge for the night, and falling in love, convinces her to marry him to protect her name. As he is preparing to leave on his honeymoon, Bill learns that Foyle fleeced him of his fortune. Finding Nora at Foyle's lodge, he loses faith in her, and leaves with Sammy for the desert because of Sammy's illness. Lost and exhausted, Sammy makes a dying request that Bill return and listen to Nora's explanation. After Bill's rescue, he finds Nora dining with Foyle, but upon learning that she has hidden detectives to overhear Foyle's confession, Bill is reconciled with Nora, and they finish the dinner.

Dir: Edward Sloman

Wealthy banker John Sevier is engaged to Elaine Morier, who runs an upscale gambling club with her father Gerald. One night at the club John stops a fight between club employee Jim Hammond and a wealthy young customer named Tom Leonard. He takes Leonard home and meets his sister Marion. The next day he discovers that his banking partner, Jim Collins, has made too many bad investments with the bank's money and the institution is in danger of going under. John promises to use his own money to save the bank, but Elaine, outraged, breaks off their engagement. However, Marion and Tom congratulate him on his courage in putting up his own money to save the bank. Elaine and her father--who were scheming to take John for his money all along--realize that they made a mistake and try to get the two back together again. Complications ensue.

Dir: Edward Sloman

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

A gray-gowned woman at a masked ball entices wealthy society man Philip Greycourt, who is bored with easy conquests, to a hotel, then leaves without unmasking. Later, Philip visits the country home of John Villiers with a friend, and although Philip thinks that Villiers' second wife Helen, who flirts with him, is the masked woman, she denies having met him earlier. Helen's stepdaughter Catherine falls in love with Philip, but he scarcely notices her. When Villiers leaves for town one evening, Helen invites Philip to her sitting room and admits that she was the masked woman. Villiers returns unexpectedly, and seeing shadows of figures in a window embracing, he runs inside. The maid warns Helen, and Philip enters another room, where Catherine lies in bed. As Villiers pounds on the door, Catherine accepts Philip's proposal. They marry the next day; later, after Villiers dies, Helen attempts to seduce Philip, and jealously tells Catherine, whom Philip now loves, of their past. When Philip learns that Catherine has left to board a steamer, he follows, and they enjoy a honeymoon cruise.

Dir: Edward Sloman

Young Jeffrey Claiborne, the son of a wealthy father, comes to the aid of pretty Betty Jane Moir, who is being bothered by a lecherous chauffeur. He accepts Betty's grateful offer of employment in her mother's taxi company. Smitten, Jeffrey proposes to her, but her mother, not knowing who he really is, dismisses him as not worthy of being her daughter's husband. Determined to prove his worth, he gets his chance when he discovers that Betty's mother is being blackmailed by a criminal gang.

Dir: Edward Sloman

In the parched West, Louise MacLeod works as a secretary for Robert Powell, a lawyer defending businessman John Phelan, whom ranchers accuse of monopolizing water rights. Gordon, Louise's father, is one of the ranchers, and so Louise keeps him informed of Robert's strategy, with the result that the ranchers win their case. John, however, remains determined to control the area's water, and so he hires an engineer to dynamite a river in order to divert it from the ranchers and onto his own land. Robert then realizes the unscrupulousness of his former client, and defuses the engineer's bomb. Afterward, with the ranchers victorious, Robert concentrates less on water rights and more on Louise, with whom he soon begins a romance.