Editor's Top Picks Following the Footsteps of Old Dad: Cult Guide

Dir: Lloyd Ingraham

Hunchbacked Japanese artist Marashida, marries Jewel, the daughter of Yasakuj. Their happy married life is destroyed when the daughter of an American missionary, Alice Carroway, known as Ali-San, persuades Marashida to pose for her sculpture of the deformed god Ni-O. While Marashida's character gradually deforms, Yasakuji recognizes in Ali-San the traits of the legendary Fox Woman, who because she had no soul of her own, stole those of others, sometimes turning warriors into crazy beasts. After Jewel, to please Marashida, indulges Ali-San's demand that she be her "playmate," she suffers further humiliation when Ali-San makes her the servant in her father's mission. Finally, Jewel discards the American clothes she is made to wear and, dressed in her wedding robes, goes to her ancestors' tomb to commit harakiri. When Yasakuji climbs up Ali-San's balcony, and she sees his face in her mirror, she accidentally falls off the balcony to her death. Released from Ali-San's spell, Marashida takes Jewel's dagger from her, and they live happily again.

Dir: Lloyd Ingraham

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

A mountain girl with an army-hating father, meets a handsome army captain, who teaches her how to love her country.

Dir: Lloyd Ingraham

A young woman of wealth revenges herself on a young author whose peculiar ideas about women have led him to act and speak in an insulting manner. This young man isolates himself in the mountains for the purpose of writing a story on the primitive woman, where he is discovered by his friends, to whom he vows that no woman shall cross his threshold. The mischievous young woman of the story, determined to place him at her feet, goes secretly to the home of a mountain woman with whom she lives in the guise of a wild girl of the hills. Purposely sliding over an embankment where she knows she will fall in his path, she is rewarded by having him pick her up and carry her to his cabin, where she pretends to be too much injured to be moved that day. The mountain woman is sent for and the two remain in the cabin of the author for several days. Finally she is discovered by her people, when it also comes to light that the woman-hating author has fallen to the charms of his pretty visitor.

Dir: Lloyd Ingraham

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

Wild young Ann Anderson keeps getting expelled from boarding schools because of her passion for pulling pranks. She is finally enrolled at Madame D'Arcy's Finishing School. One night she is awakened by a noise in her room to find a young man stealing from her. However, it turns out that the burglar, Robert, is forced to steal money to buy food for his starving mother. Ann, feeling sorry for him, tells Madame D'Arcy that Robert is actually her husband home from the army, but it doesn't work and she gets expelled from that school, too. However, circumstances take a strange turn when she gets mixed up with a second burglar, is kidnapped and discovers that "Robert" isn't quite who he said he was.

Dir: Lloyd Ingraham

In China, a man is arrested and tortured for a crime committed years before by his twin brother.

Dir: Lloyd Ingraham

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

Young Jackie Kernwood, the daughter of the colonel commanding an army post, is bored with the routines of post life, and to break the monotony she organizes a girls' brigade, of which her father disapproves. When the colonel forces her to disband the group, she makes up her mind to run away and become a nurse in the Red Cross. Before she can do that, however, she stumbles across evidence of a spy ring headed by an officer on the post that is plotting to blow up a troop train--and it looks like the chief spy is her boyfriend, Lt. Adair.

Dir: Lloyd Ingraham

Julia Deep works at the exchange desk of Timothy Black's department store by day, but her evenings are spent in the library of Terry Hartridge, a fellow resident in Mrs. Turner's boardinghouse. Terry has never seen Julia, since he is too busy squandering his inheritance on easy living and showgirl Lottie Driscoll, but the two meet when Terry, having learned that he has spent his last cent, enters the room with a gun. Julia prevents him from shooting himself and they become fast friends. Black gives Terry a job, and the young man adopts a renewed and more sober interest in life. Lottie later reappears but Terry convinces Julia that the actress means nothing to him, and the young couple pool their resources and settle down.

Dir: Lloyd Ingraham

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

An orphan girl, believing herself cursed with the hoodoo until she gets married, is adopted by a childless couple after the orphanage burns down. Boy-next-door meets girl-next-door, and all looks great until she finds a loaded gun.

Dir: Lloyd Ingraham

Young and wealthy Molly Allison can't be "presented" into society until her older sister Julia is married, but that doesn't stop Molly from pursuing her usual wild ways. She finds herself in turn pursued by Count Renaud, unaware that he is a criminal interested in swindling her out of her money. To discourage the Renaud's attentions--and because she already has a boyfriend, Billy Wilcox--she tells Renaud that she is actually an Indian squaw who is just living in the Allison household. That doesn't stop the Count, however, and he turns his attentions to Molly's sister Julia.

Dir: Lloyd Ingraham

A small-town girl returns home from schooling in the East to find that her father's small store and indeed the whole town are in danger of being eliminated by a ruthless land developer. The developer has a son who falls for the young girl, and together they try to come up with a plan to save her father's store and the town.