Visionary Picks In Alignment with the style of One Touch of Nature: Cult Guide

Dir: Edward H. Griffith

Babs Marvin loves David Darrow, a young lawyer. Babs' father, the powerful Senator Marvin, is supporting Eben Sprague for a seat in the State Legislature. Darrow discovers that Sprague is a crook and threatens to expose the candidate unless the senator agrees to switch his support to him. Babs opposes Darrow's decision, fearing that it will ruin his promising law career. Determined to defeat Darrow, she promotes the candidacy of the village pauper, Hank Dawes, and contrives an elaborate campaign based upon the slogan that Dawes' election would remove him from the welfare rolls. Dawes wins the election, but Darrow is consoled with Babs's love and the senator's support of his law career.

Dir: Edward H. Griffith

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

A fascinating piece of cinema that shares thematic elements.

Dir: Edward H. Griffith

Vaudeville dancer Rosalie Ray, disgusted by the advances of her admirers, quits the stage and retires to the anonymity of a small town. At her rooming house she meets young minister Arthur Lyle who proposes to her. Soon after, Rosalie learns of a mysterious woman in Lyle's past and decides to investigate. Learning that Lyle keeps a cherished memento of this femme fatale in his room, Rosalie determines to unearth it. Locating the box, she opens it, only to discover her own garter inside. Rosalie is so repulsed at the revelation that when her former manager, Brad Mortimer, appears to offer her his hand in marriage and a professional engagement, she accepts both and returns to the stage.

Dir: Edward H. Griffith

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

A beautiful and intelligent horse is carried off North after his master, a Confederate soldier, is shot and left for dead. After many unusual and cruel adventures, Beauty is discovered by his former master and returned home to the South.

Dir: Edward H. Griffith

Maurice Travers attends college through the self-sacrificing efforts of his mother. However, his love for sports and consequent neglect of his studies prevent his graduation. Madeline Marshall, an orphan living with Mrs. Travers, is in love with Maurice, but he marries wealthy socialite Donna Wayne instead. Their carefree life in New York City is interrupted when Donna's father insists that Maurice support her. When the young man proves himself incapable, Donna elopes with a rich suitor. Maurice endures the blindness and death of his mother, after which he finds happiness with the faithful Madeline.

Dir: Edward H. Griffith

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

Bill Peck is discharged from an army hospital and goes in search of a job. Cappy Ricks hires Bill, but gives him an seemingly impossible test of finding and buying a particular blue vase to prove he can handle a challenging job in China.

Dir: Edward H. Griffith

A schoolgirl elopes with a young man, but her father has the marriage annulled and takes the girl off to Europe to forget the boy. A couple of years later, the girl and the man she now hopes to marry encounter her ex-husband and his new wife at a society party, and difficulties arise.

Dir: Edward H. Griffith

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of If Women Only Knew perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

A newspaper reporter, Phyllis Dale, tries to help get her younger sister "Bobby" out of a scandal situation, and soon finds herself mired deep into the same situation.

Dir: Edward H. Griffith

On her journey to the United States, Marya Nisko falls in love with another immigrant, Sascha Rabinoff. Arriving and discovering her sister's poverty, she fails as a lady's maid and then arranges an introduction to a theatrical manager, though Sascha is opposed to her becoming a professional dancer. She obtains an engagement through Stephen Ross, who arranges for her training. Meanwhile, unable to pursue his education and reduced to the breadline, Sascha attracts the attention of a wealthy philanthropist, Josef Marinoff, who takes an interest in his idea for a home for immigrants, and through Marinoff's aid he and Marya are reunited.

Dir: Edward H. Griffith

Advised by his doctor to take a vacation, New York banker Henry B. Boltwood and his flapper daughter, Claire, drive to Glacier Park. Claire has promised to give an answer to Jeffrey Saxton, who wishes Claire to marry him, upon her return, but during a stop in a small Minnesota town, it is love at the first sight of garage owner Milt Daggett. Milt follows the Boltwoods out of town in his small "bug," pulls them from a muddy ditch, and rescues them from a tramp (an escaping murderer?). Jeffrey is at Glacier Park to meet the Boltwoods, but he settles Claire's dilemma by showing himself a coward when the tramp returns. Milt rescues her, and the two are married.