Recommendations
Senior Film Conservator

The 1920 release of Pagan Love redefined the parameters of Romance storytelling, the narrative complexity found here is a rare find in the 1920 landscape. Prepare to discover your next favorite movie in our hand-picked collection.
Historically, Pagan Love represents to explore the darker corners of the human condition with character-driven intensity.
Tsing Yu-Ch'ing, a young Chinese, is sent to the U.S. from his native land to study Western civilization and carry on work for his government. After attending an American university, Tsing starts a Chinese newspaper in New York City, and falls in love with a pretty blind girl, Kathleen Levinsky, the daughter of a Jewish father and an Irish mother. Kathleen's life is barren of love and she gladly accepts his attentions. When Dr. Hardwick, a classmate from college, calls on Tsing and meets Kathleen, he offers to cure her blindness through surgery. The operation is a success, but the newly-sighted Kathleen is visibly upset by Tsing's appearance. After saving Kathleen from a killer known as the Hatchetman, Tsing returns to China and commits suicide, believing he will find eternal love with her in the afterlife. Back in the U.S., a mutual attraction develops between Kathleen and Dr. Hardwick.
The influence of Hugo Ballin in Pagan Love can be felt in the way modern Romance films handle character-driven intensity. From the specific lighting choices to the pacing, this 1920 release set a high bar for atmospheric immersion.
Based on the unique character-driven intensity of Pagan Love, our vault has identified these titles as the most compelling follow-up experiences for fans of Romance cinema:
Dir: F. Martin Thornton
In Paris an orphan cartoonist loves a man with a mad wife, who dies in time to prevent her marriage to a jilted Comte.
View Details
Dir: Eduardo Notari
A crime drama in the Gennariello-series. The police detective in Naples that is confronted with modern gangsters and crime events.
View Details
Dir: Edward LeSaint
When famous opera singer Elinore Duane undergoes an operation on her throat, she has a series of ether-induced visions. In one, she is transported to ancient Rome where she appears as a much-admired woman in love with Paul, a young heretic, and at odds with Lutor, the high priest. To save her love, she poisons Lutor with her ring. After several other visions which involve variations on this love triangle, Elinore awakens to discover that Lutor is actually her doctor, Sascha Jaccard, and that Paul is the son of a friend who has come to visit the recovering prima donna.
View Details
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.
View Details
Dir: Dallas M. Fitzgerald
Confidence artist Flossie Golden attempts to fleece foolish but wealthy James Venable with a breach-of-promise suit. Venable's shrewd attorney, Richard Harding, outwits Flossie by proposing that she marry Venable and live on an allowance of $3,000 per year. Flossie is determined to get even with Harding for ruining her plans. In an attempt to con him, she poses as Innocence Page, but falls in love and marries him instead. Larry, Flossie's former accomplice, endeavors to blackmail her with her errant past, but Harding is already cognizant of the facts and Larry fails.
View Details
Dir: Wilfred Lucas
Brian O'Farrell (Snowy Baker), is an English 'new chum' who takes a job at an Australian cattle station. He is teased by station hands because of his appearance (including spats and a monocle) but he soon impresses them with his skills at riding and boxing. The station manager, John MacDonald (Wilfred Lucas), takes O'Farrell to Sydney to meet his daughter Edith (Kathleen Key) who is working in the slums. Edith is kidnapped by criminals after witnessing a crime but O'Farrell rescues her. It is later revealed he is the owner of the station.
View Details
Dir: Tod Browning
Achmet Bey, a Turkish chieftain, catches one of his many wives in adultery and murders her lover. Throwing aside the cuckolding wife, he abducts his harem an innocent girl. However, a brave American who loves her comes to her rescue.
View Details
Dir: Bruno Ziener
A fascinating piece of cinema that shares thematic elements.
View Details
Dir: Edgar Jones
A mail-order bride arrives at a Maine lumber camp but doesn't like her prospective husband.
View Details
Dir: Hugo Ballin
Frivolous young Zoie, exasperates her husband Alfred with her lack of interest in domestic affairs and inability to tell the truth. After a quarrel, Alfred leaves for Boston and Zoie, disconsolate, is consoled by her good friend Aggie. Aggie suggests that, as Alfred wants a baby, Zoie should adopt one for him. Fascinated with the idea, Zoie sets out for the hospital where she arranges to buy a baby and then wires Alfred that he is about to become a father. Jimmie, Aggie's obedient husband, is dispatched to fetch the infant, but he discovers that the mother now refuses to part with her child. With Alfred expected at any moment, Jimmie is ordered to procure a child, and so he orders a set of twins and then steals a baby from the hospital. When Alfred arrives, he finds himself confronted with a parade of babies and learns of his wife's deception when the infants' parents appear to claim them. However, all ends happily when Zoie promises to tell Alfred the real truth.
View DetailsAnalysis relative to Pagan Love
| Film Title | Atmosphere | Complexity | Similarity |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Flame | Surreal | High | 97% Match |
| 'A mala nova | Surreal | Layered | 92% Match |
| A Sister to Salome | Gothic | High | 88% Match |
| The Amateur Wife | Surreal | Linear | 97% Match |
| Blackmail | Surreal | High | 88% Match |
This guide was algorithmically generated using the cinematic metadata of Hugo Ballin's archive. Last updated: 5/23/2026.
Back to Pagan Love Details →