Rare Cinematic Gems Exploring the Legacy of Our Little Wife: Cult Guide

Dir: Edward Dillon

Her education in a French convent school completed, plain Justine Spencer returns to New York. There she is shocked to discover that her mother Dodo is a flamboyant musical comedy actress with many male admirers. Dodo, on the other hand, is dismayed to find Justine priggish and dowdy. One of Dodo's suitors is Billy Ferris, who, in a fit of jealousy, murders her and slays himself. Out of pity, Cosmo Spotiswood, another admirer of Dodo, marries Justine, but soon tires of his platonic marriage and leaves for Europe. Upon his return, Cosmo finds Justine transformed. Under the tutelage of Dodo's maid Loti, she has bobbed her hair and donned fashionable apparel. Thus changed, Justine is surrounded by suitors. Stung by jealousy, Cosmo falls in love with his sophisticated wife.

Dir: Edward Dillon

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of Help! Help! Police! perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

While vacationing with his father Edward at a Palm Beach hotel, George Welston becomes smitten with Eve Pendleton, the daughter of Edward's business rival Judson. After George prevents Pendleton from getting an option on a deal by racing in his car with his father's $100,000 deposit, Pendleton favors Eve's other suitor, Arthur Trask, whose gentlemanly manner conceals his intent to rob Eve and her wealthy friends. When George sees Trask climb into Eve's window, he follows and is apprehended by a detective, who reluctantly releases George in response to Eve's pleas. Later, Trask binds, gags and robs society belle Marian Trevor. After Trask's dropped cigarette starts a fire, George rescues Marian, who upon reviving, accuses him of theft, arson and abduction. George's father puts up $100,000 needed for an important deal for George's bail, then George chases Trask, who has stolen the $600,000 which Pendleton put up for the same deal. After a fight, George apprehends Trask and races to court before the bail money is forfeited. Pendleton and Welston become partners, while George and Eve marry.

Dir: Edward Dillon

Born on Friday the thirteenth with thirteen letters in his name, Reginald Jones has been plagued with bad luck his entire life. Attempting to escape his jinx, Reginald attends a chauffeur's ball, where, after he helps a girl whose companion is berating her, the girl hits Reginald for interfering. After Reginald loses at matching coins, is sold out in the stock market, and is fleeced of his money in a badger game, he loses his inheritance of $999,998.60 when he gets arrested for fighting, and misses his aunt's funeral. Reginald then boards a schooner and meets millionaire Professor Lattimore and his daughter Helen, supposedly there to look for buried treasure. After falling in love with Helen, Reginald discovers the ship captain's plot to hold Lattimore for ransom. Reginald fights off all the crew members and forces the wireless operator to signal a U. S. Destroyer, which arrives and saves them. Reginald and Helen marry.

Dir: Edward Dillon

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of Never Say Quit perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

Traveling on a Pullman train are two strangers who, except for a difference in hair color, bear a striking resemblance to each other. Horace Barney, the heir to a fortune, is on his way to a mental sanitarium, accompanied by his unscrupulous guardian Maurice Claypool and Claypool's accomplices, Dr. Wallace and Thomas Farrel. Jack Trevor, an automobile salesman, is substituted for Barney when the train crashes and Barney is killed. When Trevor awakens from his unconscious state, he finds himself in a mansion and addressed as Barney. He falls in love with Helen Townsend, Barney's cousin who is next in line for the inheritance. Trevor realizes the fraud and sets out to save the estate for Helen. Claypool, who wants to marry Helen, tries to declare Trevor insane and commit him to an institution. A series of fights, chases, and misunderstandings ensue, but Trevor finally forces a confession from Claypool and wins both Helen and the fortune.

Dir: Edward Dillon

In a mock fraternity initiation, a group of Yale students haze Paul Browning for tattling. When he learns that the leader of the group, oarsman Buck Simmons, is also winning the favor of Aida Courtlandt, the dean's niece, the jealous Browning and gambler Burton Hampdon, to whom Browning owes money, attempt to disgrace Buck so he will not be allowed to participate in the upcoming Yale-Harvard race. After they fail to lure Buck to bed with a girl, Browning takes Aida to a roadhouse so that Buck will have to break training rules to go there. When the coach, suspicious about the roadhouse incident, finds a letter planted on Buck about a deal for him to throw the race, he suspends Buck, but with Aida's influence, the dean straightens matters out. After Yale wins a close race, Browning shoots at Buck, who then trounces him. Proclaimed captain of the next year's team, Buck becomes engaged to Aida.

Dir: Edward Dillon

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of Putting One Over perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

Professional thief Joe Grim is killing time in New York City's Central Park before he robs the Wall Street subtreasury. He spots pretty young Laura White on a runaway horse. He manages to rescue her. Falling for her, he tries to steal a photo of her but is discovered and held at gunpoint by Laura's friend Countess Briand--who, unbeknownst to Laura, is actually the head of a German spy ring, among whose members if Laura's fiance Karl Richter. The countess convinces Joe to steal plane for a new airplane by telling Joe that they're papers that are being used to blackmail Laura. But things don't go exactly as planned.

Dir: Edward Dillon

A young girl, Rose Eastmen ( Besie Love ) lives with her lazy Uncle, who works as a janitor in a publishing house. Lacking education, both Rose and her Uncle are susceptible to the socialist ideas of writer Rudolph Creig. One day Rose encounters Jack Stevens the wealthy son of the owner of a publishing house, working on his car. She believes he is a common laborer, and she begins courting him. Through her exposure to Jack, Rose begins to realize the rich are not such an abominable people. Rudolph has also reached this conclusion after learning Stevens has published his book. Now bolstered by success and armed with a hefty royalty check, Rudolph is able to marry Rose.

Dir: Edward Dillon

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

Dr. Arbutus Budd is a New York physician specializing in "beauty". His business is successful but he is still plagued by money problems. One day he gets an idea--he obtains the coat-of-arms of a long-forgotten Italian noble family, the Bolognias, and uses it as his logo on his line of beauty products. As luck would have it, the crest is recognized in Italy, and before long an emissary is sent to the US to bring back "The Baron". Budd is overjoyed, as he believes that he is about to inherit the Bolognia family fortune. However, it turns out that all he inherits is something he wasn't counting on--a blood feud with a local bandit.

Dir: Edward Dillon

Through the death of a relative, New York sweatshop worker Lizzie Holt is transformed into Miss Elizabeth Holt, heiress. Elizabeth soon tires, however, of the shallowness of society life and occupies herself by working in a settlement house on the lower East Side. There she falls in love with John Russell, an idealist who despises the rich, and to escape his scorn, she identifies herself as Miss Holt's secretary. John's efforts to close up ward boss Ted Phelan's gambling house next door prove successful when the place is raided, but when several of Elizabeth's acquaintances on a "slumming party" seek her aid in escaping arrest, John discovers her true identity. He is about to change his mind about marrying her, when Elizabeth convinces him that her love and her character are true, and the two are united.

Dir: Edward Dillon

A follies girl is courted by the son of an aristocratic family. The presence of this rough and ready showgirl in such sedate surroundings creates amusing situations. She brings with her to the household a sympathetic pet--a goldfish--to which she confides her troubles. When her wealthy suitor is called away on business, she learns of his younger brother, who, though he appears to be absorbed in his books, is more her type. She transforms him into her ideal and alienates the elder brother; her own wit brings about a happy ending in her prospective marriage to the younger brother.