Visionary Picks Drawn from the Same DNA as Other Men's Daughters: Cult Guide

Dir: Carl Harbaugh

Celeste Hardin wants to set up her brother Henry, a confirmed bachelor, with her college friend Henrietta Downs, believing that she wold be a good wife for him. Henry and Henrietta discover Celeste's scheme and decide to play a trick on her--Henrietta will pose as Myra Haynes, an escaped lunatic and pretend to be in love with Henry. However, the real Myra Haynes attends a political rally, at which Henry declares his intention to run for mayor, and she becomes convinced that he is her long-lost lover, also named Henry. Complications ensue.

Dir: Carl Harbaugh

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of When False Tongues Speak perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

After Mary Page marries Fred Walton, she soon discovers that he is a womanizer. She tries to ignore Fred's affairs but, refuses to file for divorce even when Platt Sinclair, her husband's lawyer, urges her to do so. Mary does not realize that Sinclair is actually helping Fred, who is in love with his current mistress, Helen Lee, and wants to marry her. To escape her misery, Mary organizes a settlement house in the slums and there meets reporter Eric Mann, with whom she becomes very close. One night, as Sinclair goes to Mary's house to try to convince her to change her mind, he sees Eric through the window and informs Fred that she is seeing another man. Fred wants to sue Mary for divorce, but when Eric threatens Sinclair with disbarment, the suit is dropped. One night, Mary interrupts Fred during his evening with Helen on the same night that Jimmy Hope, a burglar, is robbing their house. The result of the night's activities are the death of Fred and the ultimate arrest of the real murderer who was obsessed with Hope.

Dir: Carl Harbaugh

Marie Grandon, one of the multitude that labor in a big New England oyster cannery, meets "Iron" Lloyd, millionaire financier and tenement owner, whose yacht is cruising off the coast near the town where Marie works. Lloyd is visiting the little city incognito. He gets into a fight and is injured. During his illness he becomes acquainted with Marie, and as he convalesces their friendship ripens into love. Marie tells him that if she had the means she would wage battle against the oppressive tenement lords and carry on a campaign of reform. To test her, Lloyd, whom she knows as Strange, has his lawyer transfer a fortune to her. Marie thinks the money is a legacy from a long lost relative. The girl goes to New York and does what she vowed she would do. She concentrates her fight on Lloyd and his tenements. Ogden Deneau, Lloyd's business rival, associates himself with Marie, claiming interest in her work, but really to crush Lloyd. But Marie also has old scores to settle with Deneau, and in her plan to ruin both of these financiers enlists Strange's aid. Strange, or Lloyd, helps her gladly, and on the evening of the day the grate coup is to be made, meets her. He tells Marie that Deneau is bankrupt. When she asks about Lloyd, he informs her of the deception he has practiced. At first she is furious. Later she hears his explanation of the test and finally agrees to start life over again with him, a life not to be marred with sordid tenements.

Dir: Carl Harbaugh

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

Hezekiah Dill is a meek clerk in a store in a small town. One day a pair of criminals robs the store safe, but Hezekiah manages to lock them in the safe, and begins to pick up their intended loot. He suddenly realizes that all this money would enable him to become the "Broadway Sport" he's always wanted to be, so he goes for it. Complications ensue.

Dir: Carl Harbaugh

Three New York families are introduced: wealthy Fred Hartley and his wife, who, feeling neglected, encourages the attentions of debonair J. Douglas Kerr, the middle-class Moore family, consisting of mother, daughter, and son Jimmie who supports them, and the Simons, an East Side Jewish family. When America enters the war, Hartley, Jimmie, and Davy Simon enlist. When Jimmy says goodbye to his sweetheart Becky, one of Davy's three sisters, her father refuses to consider him as a future son-in-law. Kerr sends Mrs. Hartley a cablegram reporting Hartley's death in the war. She puts off responding to Kerr's proposal, and after the armistice, Hartley finds her trying to break free from Kerr's embrace. When Kerr hastily exits, an irate butler grabs his trousers. Mr. Simon accepts Jimmie as Becky's fiancé, and Kerr is last seen squatting so that his overcoat covers his backside.

Dir: Carl Harbaugh

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

Broadway actress Sibyle Fane visits the home of Anna Mae Neil, daughter of a Hickville farmer, who is engaged to local druggist Virgil Cole. Impressed with Miss Fane, Virgil sells his business and sets out for New York City. Miss Fane advises Anna Mae to arrive in the city ahead of Virgil and monitor her fiancé under the guise of a famous model. The actress introduces Anna Mae to sculptress Violet Garden and songwriter Pinky Hale, who teach her the latest jazz steps. She flirts with Virgil in a fashionable restaurant and discovers his shifting affections at a party. Convinced of Virgil's unfaithfulness, Anna decides that talented young artist Peter Van Reuter is deserving of her love.

Dir: Carl Harbaugh

Sarah Maitland is consumed by two interests, managing her steel mill and raising her children, Blair and Nannie, to be honest and caring. As a result, she is shocked when Blair seduces Elizabeth Ferguson away from his best friend, Doctor David Ritchie, and marries her. Elizabeth soon realizes her mistake and begs David to take her back, but his mother Helena, calling upon personal experience, warns the couple against an extra-marital affair. Then, Sarah is injured in a mill accident and doctors predict that she will die in a few hours. David manages to save her, however, and when Blair comes to see her, he vows to divorce Elizabeth so that she can marry the man she really loves.

Dir: Carl Harbaugh

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

A fascinating piece of cinema that shares thematic elements.

Dir: Carl Harbaugh

Minnie, the village tomboy, meets a handsome Stranger after playing ball one afternoon. She invites him to see a bridge model her father has designed; but finding her intoxicated father in the act of destroying the model, she swears vengeance on the local bootleggers and joins a newspaper as sportswriter so as to expose their activities. Pike, the station agent, leader of the bootleggers, spreads a scandal about Minnie when she rejects him, but through the help of the Stranger everything is cleared up.

Dir: Carl Harbaugh

Finding that marriage conflicts with his carefree life, Teddy Brant, a dissolute man-about-town, fakes his own suicide, thus freeing Rose, his self-sacrificing wife, and his baby daughter Helen from life with an irresponsible drunk. Learning of her husband's alleged death, Rose remarries. Years later, Teddy, now a hopeless derelict, wanders the country until, unable to find a place to sleep one night, he strays into the waiting room of a train station. Here he sees a young girl being accosted by an elderly gentleman who entices her home. Teddy thinks nothing of the incident until he finds a purse lying on the seat and learns that the girl is his daughter Helen. Teddy hastens after them and in the ensuing fight, strangles Helen's assailant and then flees. Helen is arrested for the murder, but is acquitted when Teddy staggers into the police station and confesses to the crime, takes his life in his cell.