Must-Watch List Comparable to the Style of Morgane la sirène: Cult ...

Dir: Léonce Perret

A moneylender kidnaps the young son of an rich widow as part of a plot to cheat her of her fortune. The boy is sent away on a fishing boat with the intention of drowning him, but a kindly old fisherman intervenes.

Dir: Léonce Perret

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

Robert Hyde is a confirmed bachelor who has sworn never to marry. Not even the pleading of his two close friends, the pastor and the lawyer, will move him. But an automobile accident brings Clarice to his home and during her recovery, she and Robert fall in love. After their wedding, Clarice's happiness is marred by Robert's preoccupation with hunting and fishing. The pastor then advises her that she will never know real happiness until she has children. Shortly after this, Clarice's aunt, Mrs. Grosvenor, brings a large party of friends to the Hyde estate for a visit. They all plan to give a performance of William Shakespeare's Othello for charity, but the count annoys Robert by his lovemaking scenes with Clarice. After a startling dream in which Robert's Othello kills Clarice's Desdemona, Robert finds the count making advances in earnest, and throws him out. Robert then begins to pay more attention to his wife and soon Clarice finds herself pregnant and happy.

Dir: Léonce Perret

The young daughter of an army captain missing in action runs away from school and is kidnapped by Parisian lowlifes. When the kidnapper flees to Nice with the child, the kind-hearted employee of one of his accomplices sets off in pursuit.

Dir: Léonce Perret

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

A story of the First World War, told in semi-documentary style, focusing on the iniquities of the German war machine, and with its dramatic center the sinking by a German U-boat of the passenger liner Lusitania in 1915.

Dir: Léonce Perret

Matthew Versigny, the head of an American diamond concern, travels abroad with his sister Marguerite to learn the source of some imitation stones which are so perfect that even his company has purchased them. In Paris, they join forces with Paul Bernac, a special agent of the French Secret Service, and Andre Zarnoff, the chemist who invented the formula for the fake stones. The trail brings them into contact with Arthur Graves, the master mind of the counterfeiting ring, who determines to eliminate Versigny. After kidnapping his adversary, Graves employs the Baron de Lambri, Versigny's former manager, to steal the secret formula from Versigny's safe, thus making it appear as if Versigny had decamped with his company's papers. Versigny finally escapes and, with the aid of Bernac and Marguerite, tracks Graves down and captures the villains.

Dir: Léonce Perret

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

A French washerwoman becomes a duchess and a friend of Napoleon.

Dir: Léonce Perret

Mrs. Philip Mason commits suicide after she has an affair with Stephen Lee, a disreputable stockbroker, and sells her husband's securities so that Lee can buy stocks. When Lee goes bankrupt, he blackmails Helen Trent by threatening to reveal silly love letters she wrote to him before she married. Her brother, Willy Grosby, and his fiancée, Helen O'Neil, who lives with the Grosbys, go to retrieve the letters. While Willy waits outside, Lee is knifed to death as he attacks Helen. Lee's friend, Edward Wales, attempts to pin the murder on Helen by having Madame LaFarge, a clairvoyant, conduct a séance. In the darkened room, Wales, through whom Lee's spirit supposedly speaks, is about to name Helen as the murderer, but Wales, who sits in the thirteenth chair, is himself murdered. After Helen confesses to Inspector Donohue that Madame LaFarge is her mother, LaFarge, while conducting another séance, tricks Philip Mason into confessing to the murders.

Dir: Léonce Perret

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

Vania, the daughter of Russian revolutionary Serge Ostowski, escapes to America when her father is blown up by one of his own bombs. There she marries Clifford Howard, a drug-ridden man whom she comes to despise. One night while in a drunken rage, Howard attacks her, and Vania shoots and kills him. Her attorney, Hugh Mason, believing her innocent, falls in love with his client. Vania does not tell him the truth for fear of losing his love. Meanwhile, revolutionaries have pursued Vania to America to obtain her father's papers. In defense, Hugh hires detectives to protect her. One night, a revolutionary breaks into her house and is shot by the detective. Before dying, he confesses that it was he who fired the shot that killed Vania's husband, thus freeing her to accept Hugh's love.

Dir: Léonce Perret

Sisters Yancsi and Roszika Dolly are loved by Jack Hobson and Tom Hylan respectively, but the twins refuse to marry until they are as wealthy as their prospective husbands. Accordingly they agree, in exchange for a million dollars, to aid a celebrated psychologist who is developing a cure for an ailing maharajah. The maharajah inexplicably detests his bride, a beautiful princess, and the Dolly sisters are sent to his New York palace to learn the cause of his odd behavior. They soon discover that the maharajah has been hypnotized by his uncle, the Rajah Ismael, but the spell is broken when, after a series of dangerous adventures, one of the twins obtains a ring from the maharajah and gives it to the princess. As the maharajah takes his wife in his arms, the Dolly sisters return home with their million and prepare to marry their sweethearts.

Dir: Léonce Perret

Playwright Harry Bryant while driving in a rural area, happens upon orphaned Kate astride a white horse, he is so charmed that he arranges for her to work at a nearby inn. Unable to tolerate the cruelty of the innkeepers, Kate runs away and seeks out Harry at his house in Story Brook farm. Charmed by her youthful exuberance, Harry falls in love with the uneducated girl and they marry. Harry soon becomes disenchanted with his illiterate wife, however, and seeks solace in his former sweetheart Diana Nelson. When he discovers that Diana is using him to further her social ambitions, Harry returns to Kate, who provokes his jealousy by paying daily visits to a mysterious apartment house. Finding out that Kate's secret rendezvous was with her tutor, Harry's love for his wife is rekindled.