Top-Tier Alternatives Exploring the Legacy of One Dollar Bid: Cult ...

Dir: Ernest C. Warde

"In Hidden Valley," Valkyrien is a white goddess who has been captured by savage blacks in South Africa. She is found by a young missionary, played by Boyd Marshall, and rescued from a sacrificial altar. Valkyrien was selected as the most perfectly formed girl in Denmark in a competition conducted by the government. The dance of the white goddess before the natives is one of the most beautiful scenes in the production. The Moving Picture World, August 5, 1916.

Dir: Ernest C. Warde

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of The Man Without a Country perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

When Barbara Norton is left orphaned, she goes to live with her aunt and uncle. Time passes, now grown to adulthood, Barbara, becomes engaged to a wealthy young man who believes in pacifism. When the United States declares war on Germany, Barbara's fiance declines to enlist, and so Barbara gives him back his engagement ring and goes to France as a Red Cross nurse. En route, her steamer is torpedoed and Barbara is assumed to be drowned. Even this tragedy does not inspire the young man's patriotism and when solicited to enlist, he declares that the United States be damned. These sentiments shock an old friend of his father's, who brings the young man a copy of the book The Man Without a Country . Upon reading the book, the young man visualizes the story of Philip Nolan and is compelled to serve his country. As he is about to go to war, Barbara returns, and the two lovers embrace.

Dir: Ernest C. Warde

A pro at the shell game, Jim Blake practices his skills at country fairs, circuses, and carnivals until he becomes "J. Hatfield Blake," the promoter of phony stock and land deals which provide his beloved daughter Margaret with luxuries. Margaret falls in love with Dick Wilbur, who leaves her because Blake swindles his father out of $100,000 and Margaret sides with Blake. When Margaret meets a poor widow with starving babies to whom Blake sold some worthless desert land, she leaves him, saying she will not return until he rectifies his wrongdoings. She marries Dick, while Blake, shaken by her words, repays everyone who suffered from his dishonesty after he legitimately strikes oil. Alone on Christmas Eve, Blake invites some barroom characters to his mansion for a drunken dinner, after which, at his urging, they take his silverware and paintings. Blake continues to drink and when Margaret and Dick arrive to surprise him, they find him dead.

Dir: Ernest C. Warde

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

Spoiled, lazy Harold Chester Winthrop Gordon finds that he has been disinherited, barred from seeing his sweetheart, and expelled from his club. He decides to reform himself and begins by crossing out his first three names with an "x." Thereafter known as "Three X Gordon," he says goodbye to pretty Dorrie Webster and sets out with his friend Archie for the West. Because they are penniless, however, they get only as far as a New Jersey town, where they become farmhands. Shocked at first by the long hours and hard labor, Three X and Archie soon find the work so physically and morally beneficial that they decide to establish a farm for the regeneration of millionaires' sons. The plan is a success, and Three X even makes a man of Dorrie's lazy brother. With the declaration of World War I, Three X proudly leads his clients into his country's service, promising to return to Dorrie.

Dir: Ernest C. Warde

Sailor Jesse, shipwrecked off the Texas coast, naively becomes involved with a cattle rustler. Because the sheriff believes in his innocence, Jesse finds work as a cowboy, but soon becomes infatuated with Polly, the medium for fake hypnotist Bull Brooks, and marries her. When he learns that Polly married to win a bet, Jesse attempts to take her from the town's influences to open spaces, but Brooks falsely reports that she killed herself rather than go. In the mountains, Jesse meets Kate Trevor, an opera singer who moved there to help her alcoholic husband who abuses her. After Trevor drowns trying to cross a river when he sees Jesse and Kate together, they marry, have a child, and are happy until Polly and Brooks arrive. Kate and Jesse separate, but when Jesse learns that Brooks is attacking Kate, Jesse fights him. Polly shoots Brooks, but before he dies, he reveals that Polly was married to another man when she married Jesse.

Dir: Ernest C. Warde

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

Burke Harlan an artist, saves Anne Warren from auto thieves, but he is wrongfully arrested and accused of stealing her car. The girl's father is a criminologist and has Harlan released into his custody as he would like to try to reform the young man. Harlan finds this highly amusing and goes along with the idea, mainly because it will allow him to be nearer lovely Anne. He does his best at convincing he is a delinquent, however Anne has a beau who is the police commissioner. But the clever Harlan outwits everyone and elopes with Anne before revealing his true identity.

Dir: Ernest C. Warde

Lemuel Deering's son Harvey graduates from college at the top of his class, then returns home to become a partner in his father's steel business. Because Harvey appears to be an exemplary young man who neither drinks nor smokes, when bills from liquor dealers, tobacconists, and billiard emporia pour in, the proud father is mystified. Harvey stoutly denies having contracted the bills, including one for $25,000, and Lemuel, though puzzled, believes him until the workers threaten to strike and the bank places an attachment on the mill. Lemuel is about to disown his son when Harold Morrowton, Harvey's college roommate, confesses that he forged Harvey's name to the bills because his own father refused to give him spending money, and Harvey adds that because the two were fraternity brothers, he could not betray Harold's trust. Exasperated, Lemuel orders both young men to pay their debts through hard labor in the mill.

Dir: Ernest C. Warde

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

Hillaire Latour, a warmhearted Canadian trapper, marries Rosalie Dufresne and then travels into the woods to seek his fortune as a lumberman. At the camp, he befriends "Spud" Lafferty, who for six years has tried unsuccessfully to return home with his money, each time falling prey to a beautiful woman who works in the saloon "down the hill." When Hillaire learns through a letter that he is a father, he asks for his money and begins the journey home, but on his first night away from camp, he enters the saloon, where he is robbed by the beautiful Louise. Forced to return to the lumber camp, Hillaire saves his money, but the next year he is cheated again. Louise is on the verge of robbing him a third time when Hillaire, in a rage, wrecks the dance hall and forces her to return his money. At the police station, Hillaire is reunited with his family, who have finally come in search of him.

Dir: Ernest C. Warde

Lear is an old man blind to his weaknesses. He decides to divide his kingdom among his three daughters according to who recites the best declaration of love. Goneril and Regan pretend to love him but treat him cruelly. Cordelia is loyal but, confusing honesty with insolence, he disowns her.

Dir: Ernest C. Warde

Frank Keenan, president of the Stillwater Railroad, demands that Hugh Tomlinson, an engineer who has been on duty for eighteen hours, make another run. Tomlinson falls asleep at the throttle, and a collision results. The engineer is discharged, and dissension spreads among his co-workers. J. Montgomery Nixon, the scheming president of the Central Railroad, tries to ruin the Stillwater system, but is foiled by Simeon Tetlow, of the latter company. Unknown to Tomlinson he is given aid by Tetlow, but the engineer continues to work against him. The differences between the two men are straightened out by the engineer's little grand-daughter, and after the grievances of the workmen of the Stillwater company have been settled, Tomlinson is appointed to run Tetlow's special train.