Editor's Top Picks Sharing the Atmosphere of Patsy: Cult Guide

Dir: John G. Adolfi

Stephen Field, a Jewish financier, takes great pleasure in philanthropic work at a community service center in the U.S. His daughter Esther devotes her time to entertaining returning soldiers in a canteen. When he reads in a newspaper about massacres of Jews and Armenians in Europe, and the suffering and starvation among other peoples there, Stephen remembers having lost his own wife and young son in a massacre years earlier. At the canteen, Esther meets Robert Graham, who suffers from fainting spells, the result of a war wound. Graham falls in love with Esther, much to the chagrin of his anti-Semitic father. Esther is also courted by the brilliant Jewish surgeon, William Morris. Esther's affection for Morris leads the jealous Graham to lash out at his rival with anti-Semitic invective even though Esther gently refuses Morris' marriage proposal. Graham loses control of his high-powered car due to a fainting spell, and the car goes over a precipice and turns over on top of him. Morris is the only person who can save his life, but the surgeon hesitates, fearing that failure would be interpreted as jealousy and thus compromise his professional integrity. Esther pleads with Morris to perform the operation, and he finally consents, sacrificing his own happiness for the woman he loves. The operation is proclaimed a surgical miracle, and Esther chooses to marry the man who performed that miracle.

Dir: John G. Adolfi

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

Merilla, a mermaid, must save four humans to earn a soul and human body. She falls for Prince Hero but lets him unite with his true love after saving princess Leanda from villain Boreas, sacrificing her own love but gaining humanity.

Dir: John G. Adolfi

Elaine Brooks marries Robert Ames, a member of the United States Department of Justice. The Germans, who are anxious to secure some papers that Robert possesses, employ Viola Durand to get to Robert through Elaine. Viola tricks Elaine into giving her the papers and also procures a letter that seems to establish Elaine as the traitor. George Blair, an official at the Department of Justice, finally tricks Viola into confessing her guilt, thus clearing Elaine's name.

Dir: John G. Adolfi

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

French Secret Service agent and boxer Henri D'Alour uncovers a plot to con the government out of millions of francs in its purchase of machinery.

Dir: John G. Adolfi

The true story of Edith Cavell, a British nurse who served with the underground in Belgium during the First World War.

Dir: John G. Adolfi

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

Wealthy playboy Jack Edmunds spends some time in a small mountain town, where he makes the acquaintance of local girl Caprtice Talbert and invites her to his apartment. When Caprice's father finds out about it--although nothing happened--he forces the two to marry, and the newlyweds move to Jack's home in the city. Tensions arise between the two as Jack is still resentful over the "shotgun wedding" and Caprice finds that she can't bear living in the big city and wants to return home.

Dir: John G. Adolfi

Schoolteacher Frances Angel finds herself attracted to wealthy rancher Jim McPherson but finds his rough-hewn ways objectionable, so when he proposes marriage she rejects him. Her father asks her to return to his home in the East, where her former boyfriend Chet Condon now holds the mortgage on the family home and is threatening to foreclose on it unless Frances marries him. When she also learns that her recently-widowed sister Jane is also moving back east with her newborn, Frances is torn between her duty to her family and her love for Jim.

Dir: John G. Adolfi

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

An English aristocrat visiting Norway falls in love with Thelma, daughter of a Viking-like Norse landowner, and this first part is an idyllic story. He marries her and takes her to England. Society women, one of whom has been infatuated with the young man, are disappointed, because Thelma is not only beautiful but has pretty manners and is popular. There is a very melodramatic conspiracy to break her heart by making her suspect her husband. It works and she runs away back to her Norway home. Her husband follows and the happy ending unites the two in the old Norse homestead.

Dir: John G. Adolfi

Effie Marchand refuses to marry a man she has never met, but who has been picked out by her mother, is exiled to boarding school Then, when sculpting teacher Jules Gerard asks her to pose for him, an always impulsive Effie quickly consents. During one of the modeling sessions, however, Jules tries to seduce her, and Effie is saved only when Al Tournay, a visitor to the studio, fights off the sculptor. Later, when Jules' latest nude statue looks just like Effie, who really only posed for the head, an outraged principal expels her. Effie then begins a romance with Al, and when they get married, Effie's mother takes the wedding as just one more sign of her daughter's impulsiveness. Mrs. Marchand soon finds out, however, that her new son-in-law is the man she had chosen for Effie long before, and so mother and daughter are quickly reconciled.

Dir: John G. Adolfi

Unable to tolerate city life, Sadie Barker leaves her husband Max and with her baby, returns to her birth village; afraid to tell her father that she plans to raise a baby without a father, she pretends that she is still childless and asks Lucy White to look after the infant for a few months. Lucy quickly agrees; hoping to preserve Sadie's secret, she claims that the child is really her own, and even conceals the truth from her sweetheart, Dave Allen. Risking the condemnation of the community, which has already ostracized Lucy for having a baby out of wedlock, Dave decides to stand by his sweetheart. He marries her after Max and Sadie are reunited and take back their child.