Must-Watch List Comparable to the Style of Oz University: Cult Guide

Dir: Unknown Director

It is the early days of California. Father Sebastian, trudging his way on foot from the Mission, his attention is attracted to the wall of an infant coming from the crest of a ridge. He finds the body of a Spanish woman. Sitting beside its dead mother, a tiny baby greets the Padre's gaze. Lifting the infant tenderly in his arms, the Father resumes his journey, accompanied by an Indian woman, to whom he has entrusted the care of the orphaned child. Years pass by and we see the infant grown to manhood strong, handsome and a true worshiper; the bright eyes of a pretty Spanish maiden turn the head of our Jose, causing him to forget his duty. How, after the Padre has warned him of the danger, he disregards the advice of the Father and leaves in the night with his inamorata; how, in their ignorance of the trails, they wander out into the terrible desert and almost die from thirst and the burning heat; how they are found by some American prospectors and nursed back to life; how Jose lays in a delirium of fever and Papinta returns to another, and the long search of the patient Padre for his adopted son, which is rewarded at last by finding him. The settings are real and beautiful, the locations being chosen from in and about San Gabriel Mission, the sea coast, the Sierra Madre Mountains and the great desert of southern California.

Dir: Unknown Director

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

The life of Jesus Christ. The film is believed to possibly be a US re-release of Alice Guy's The Birth, the Life and the Death of Christ (1906).

Dir: Unknown Director

A championship fight that took place in the Nevada goldfields between boxers Joe Gans and Battling Nelson.

Dir: Unknown Director

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of The Joe Gans-Battling Nelson Fight perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

A fascinating piece of cinema that shares thematic elements.

Dir: Unknown Director

A fascinating piece of cinema that shares thematic elements.

Dir: Unknown Director

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

A fascinating piece of cinema that shares thematic elements.

Dir: Unknown Director

This fascinating region was set apart as a Government Reservation, to be known as Yellowstone Park, in 1S72. The park proper is about 62 miles long, from north to south, and 54 miles wide. While the tourist may reach the park entrance by rail, it has been decreed by Uncle Sam that beyond the Great Lava Arch Gateway the iron horse shall not trespass. So here leaving the pathway of steel we take our place on one of the six-horse coaches that run from Gardiner up to Mammoth Hot Springs. Coaching, Troops, Morris Basin, Great Fountain, Pack mules, Riverside Geyser, Old Faithful, Deer and Bear, Upper Falls, Canyon, Field Glasses. Standing on a balcony at Artist's Point we take up the field glass to have a tele-photo panorama of these weird walls with their clinging pine trees. We look down the Great Gorge. On either side walls of exquisite color rise with here and there pinnacle-like great church spires. Above our heads fly eagles who build their nests and raise their young on the top of these lofty peaks. The scene is a powerful one and beyond words, but the Great Falls add force and quality of action which tempers and dignities the whole scene. This enormous volume of water that looks like a curtain of lace, tumbles over a cliff of volcanic rock 310 feet. Here the traveler finds himself spellbound, held by the pure beauty of the scene. In turning away he pauses to marvel at the wonders of nature and the beauties of our great national playground.

Dir: Unknown Director

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

A fascinating piece of cinema that shares thematic elements.

Dir: Unknown Director

Adaptation of the classic Australian novel about the bushranger Captain Starlight.

Dir: Unknown Director

Billed as the "Fight of the Century", reigning champion Jack Johnson takes on former champion James J. Jeffries in a gruelling 15-round beatdown.