Underground Favorites Mirroring the Impact of Please Get Married: Cult Guide

Dir: John Ince

A serious-minded fool named Stradivarious O'Day because his music-loving mother says he "fiddles his time away," acquires his nickname because of his motto of "one thing at a time and that done well." Falling in love when he first sees circus bareback rider Prairie-Flower Marie, O'Day, living off his inheritance, follows the circus until the pestered manager gives him a job cleaning his Ford. With the help of a manual, O'Day learns to drive and secures employment with the circus as a chauffeur. After strong man Gorilla Lawson, who also loves Marie, beats him up, O'Day contacts his friend, boxer Roughneck M'Dool, to teach him to fight. Lawson, frightened by O'Day's daily development, steals the circus receipts and the Ford on the day of their scheduled fight, but O'Day overtakes and whips him. After O'Day weds Marie, he unwittingly goes against his motto when he becomes the father of twins.

Dir: John Ince

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

Young society girl Joyce Lyndon is engaged to energetic Grant Garrison, who lures the judge's daughter to a roadhouse for the night and meets his death at the hands of an abandoned wife. Joyce escapes in fright and meets Martin Antrim, who protects her in exchange for an introduction to her circle of friends. Antrim elicits a confession from Garrison's widow, and Joyce recovers an incriminating handbag from the innkeepers when they attempt to blackmail her.

Dir: John Ince

Philip Eaton is a passenger in a Pullman sleeping car headed to Chicago. However, he's not quite what he seems to be--he's actually Hugh Overton, who has just escaped from prison to clear himself after having been falsely convicted of murdering Matthew Latrone, a corrupt financier who cheated Hugh's mother out of her estate. It turns out that Latrone is still alive and sends out a killer to eliminate Hugh. Complications ensue.

Dir: John Ince

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

Eunice Fielding, rich, with every wish gratified, is a spoiled society girl and a moral coward. She is in love with Jack Harcourt, who is poor but brave, and who is deeply in love with her. Marjorie Harcourt, Jack's sister, reads Eunice's character and warns her brother against the advisability of marrying her. Nance St. Germain, who is a mystic and a student of theosophy and occult lore, talks to Eunice, but all her warnings are without avail, and Jack and Eunice marry. They are happy for a time, but lack of money causes embarrassment. Eunice is ignorant of everything relating to the value of money, cries over their difficulties, and Jack in despair calls Marjorie home from college and confesses the state of affairs to her. He begins to neglect Eunice, who is highly indignant, and becomes very cool to Marjorie. Bob Fisher, who is in love with Marjorie, is sent west by Jack to look after the details of a mining scheme and Jack, short of money, cuts Eunice's allowance. She makes a great fuss over this, and in a talk with Marjorie Jack is informed that there is a baby coming. Jack is called away on business, and while he is absent Eunice loses a lot of money gambling, and fearing comment talks of committing suicide. Eunice talks with Nance, who warns her against committing suicide, and tells her to confess to Jack. Jack returns and gives Eunice all the money he has, leaving himself broke. Marjorie comforts her brother, but he tells her that things have gone wrong, and the mine is a failure. Marjorie tells Eunice, who becomes despondent and leaves a note for Jack, tries the cowardly way, takes gas and dies. Jack reads the note and goes insane. Eunice, in the halls of Death, sees Death, who tells her she is not dead, but must wait until her time comes. Death shows Eunice her home with Jack crazy. Jack sees her. and Eunice sees Marjorie and the nurse and Marjorie greeting Bob Fisher. She goes after Bob, and the face of Death changes as he sees the reconciliation. Marjorie and Bob marry. Jack's insanity continues. Eunice is there and is seen by Jack but invisible to the others. While they are there. Death sends a child to Eunice with the words, "I was to be your child, but now I am to be Marjorie's." Jack, rendered clairvoyant by his insanity, sees and hears this, and makes his first rational remark to the others, saying "Marjorie is to have a little girl," and in surprise Marjorie tells it to Bob. The baby is born, and Jack wants to see it but is refused. Death awakens Eunice, and tells her that whenever she wants Jack's mind restored she is to call on him, but after that she has done so Jack will never see her again. Jack threatens to get the child and kill it if it is not shown to him. Eunice in terror at the danger to child hastily calls on Death to restore Jack's reason, which is done, and she disappears from Jack's sight. With Jack sane again there is a happy reunion of all except Eunice, who sees Death again. Death shows her in his book where she has redeemed herself by her renunciation.

Dir: John Ince

Actress Nina Seabury is only interested in her lovers' bank accounts, but in the case of Emory Townsend, she miscalculates and believes he's a bank president when he's just a cashier. Hoping to afford her tastes, he steals $12,000 in bank funds, but she still breaks up with him, and he falls in love with Mary Winslow. A few months later, however, a detective working on the bank-funds case find evidence implicating Emory. Aware that he is about to be arrested, a desperate Emory goes to Nina and begs her to give him $12,000, so he can return the money to the bank. Nina refuses, but then Mary, who is pregnant, arrives; after pulling a gun on Nina, she forces her to write a check for the whole amount, thereby saving Emory from jail.

Dir: John Ince

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

Unknown to her, Mary Manchester is a double for the ailing Mrs. Adelaide Rutherford, a wealthy woman who has been driven insane by her husband's cruelty. Rutherford is in league with Jasper Haig and Dr. Babcock. Together these men hold in trust sixty million dollars which upon Adelaide's death will revert to her brother Stanford Gorgas. Fearful of Adelaide's imminent death, the conspirators plan to substitute Mary in her place, thus preventing Gorgas from inheriting the money. After imprisoning Mary in Adelaide's house, their plan backfires when Gorgas meets her and, suspecting something is wrong, learns of Mary's plight. After Gorgas helps Mary escape, she is recaptured by Haig, who decides he must now eliminate Gorgas. Assuming that a fluttering behind the curtain is his adversary, Haig takes aim and shoots, only to kill Rutherford instead, thus freeing Mary to spend her future with Gorgas.

Dir: John Ince

Thanya is a woman around whose presence there revolves an atmosphere of mystery. She is located in the Russian Capital, where she meets Vance Holden, an American artist. Although deeply in love with him, she is coquettish, and he, believing she is trifling with him, leaves her. Alexander Bagroff, Grand Duke of Russia, sees Thanya pass in her carriage and desires to know her. He arranges with a mutual friend to go to her apartment. He becomes infatuated with her but she dislikes him, not only because he is a man long past the prime of life, but for other and more important reasons. At midnight, after her guests depart, Thanya, in disguise, steals out to a small tavern where she meets Boris, her brother, leader of a club of social revolutionists. The gang is just about to choose a marked coin which will brand one as the man chosen to carry the next mission of death to a ruling power, in this case the most hated man in Russia, Bagroff. Boris draws the marked coin. Thanya falls in a swoon. In an agony of fear, she asks Boris to forsake his society. When he tells her it will be his pleasure to strike at the most hated man in Russia, the Grand Duke, Thanya is startled. Telling Boris of Bagroff's infatuation for her, she promises to assist him in his mission. Thanya is invited to attend a ball given by Bagroff. She notifies Boris to strike that night at twelve. Boris gains admittance into the grounds, but is discovered near the house. A shot is fired, the guests are terrified. Thanya surmises the cause, she controls herself. Boris, cornered, attempts to gain admittance into the house and lose himself among the guests. As he enters he is shot. Bagroff, believing someone among his guests has betrayed him, orders his soldiers to tie Boris to a pillar, strip him to the waist and lash him with the Russian pronged whip. As the blood streams down Boris' back, Thanya rushes to him, informing Bagroff that she is the traitor. They are both placed in a cell, where Bagroff offers Thanya her liberty if she will but become his mistress. He is rebuked, and both are sent with a train load of other prisoners to an exile in Siberia. During a storm, they escape and go to Paris. Vance, after leaving Russia, comes to Paris and here he and Thanya are brought together again, reconciled and married. Boris leaves for America. Vance encounters difficulties in selling his paintings. The following winter Bagroff comes to Paris. A Parisian doctor attending Vance, tells Thanya that he can bring her a client for Vance's pictures. He brings Bagroff, who tells Thanya that through the Prince Kenla he can make all the people of Paris patronize Vance, providing she pay the price herself. Desperate to obtain the welfare of her husband, Thanya resolves to give herself to Bagroff for a night. The Princess sits for Vance. He becomes popular as if overnight. The Princess, going to a week-end party to the country, implores Vance to accompany her. Thanya remains alone in the city and unbeknown to Vance, prepares herself for the terrible ordeal with the Grand Duke. The appointment is made. Bagroff dismisses his servants, Thanya comes, disrobes. As he looks upon his prey with the lustiness he has nourished for years, he is suddenly seized by Boris, who, upon returning from America, learns of Bagroff's presence there, and seeing his servants leave together, enters through a window in time to save Thanya. Pulling out his revolver, Boris makes short work of Bagroff, and immediately sets sail for America. The news of Bagroff's mysterious death causes the Princess to hurry back to Paris, and Vance returns with her. He finds Thanya in his den, prostrated. He raises her up, but, as she had promised Boris, she tells him nothing of her night's experience. Thanya and Vance open the window, and the sunlight pours into the room, an omen which prophesies a life of uninterrupted happiness for both of them in the future.

Dir: John Ince

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of Her Maternal Right perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

Carew, surgeon at an army post, is in love with Marjorie Caldwell, but Marjorie, who is all for social stuff, thinks her feeling toward him is only friendship. Dames comes to the post as junior surgeon, and supersedes Carew in her regard, marrying the girl. Mrs. Drew, a widow, comes to the post and an intrigue begins between Dames and the widow. Carew sees it, and to save Marjorie tells her that his absences are matters of duty. He asks to be transferred to Manila, and he and Dames are both sent there. On the way Carew warns Dames that he will lose Marjorie's love, and they quarrel, Dames being partly drunk. The ship hits a reef, and Dames, in an effort to save himself, wrenches a life preserver from a woman. Marjorie and Carew are left on the ship, but Carew rescues her, and in the morning they are on the shore of an island with an overturned boat and the bodies of their fellow passengers in the surf. On the shore of another island Dames is rescued by an Abbot, but his wounds cause him to lose his identity. On the first island, Marjorie comes to see the strength of Carew's character but he refrains from telling her of the actions of her husband. A ship is sighted, and Carew, after a struggle, lights the beacon that will save them both but probably take Marjorie away from him. In San Francisco they learn that Dames is reported missing. He asks her to be his wife, but she thinks Dames may still be alive. Dames is on the island with lepers, and works with the monks as Father Fabrician. Carew comes to the island and finds Dames at work among the lepers. He recognizes Dames, but the latter denies his identity. He goes to the monastery, tells the Abbot the truth, and Dames leaves with Carew for Manila, and an operation that will restore his memory. After the operation Dames returns to his drunken habits, and reading some of Carew's letters he learns of the feeling of his wife, giving it a sinister turn. As he prepares to assault Carew he sees the marks of leprosy on his arm, becomes agonized with fear, jumps overboard and is lost. In San Francisco Carew finds Marjorie, tells her of the occurrences and of Dame's death, and while she feels sorry that he has gone as he did, she finds her true happiness with Carew.

Dir: John Ince

Ashton Kirk is a young man of high social position and great wealth; he is a deep student and learned in the lore of ancient tablets and forgotten books. His keen mind delights in those mysteries which have proven too shadowy for the police. He finds a joy in the hunt; there is a thrill in matching his intelligence against the craft of the criminal. His interest in the mystery of the house of fear, Cramp's house, was awakened by Pendleton, who, as a guest of Cramp, communicated to Kirk, his friend, the strange sense of mystery and fear surrounding Cramp's house. In Cramp's household lives Grace, his sister, Miss Hohenlo, his aunt, and Kretz, his servant. Kirk learns through his agent in Mexico that Cramp's father was an expert engraver in Mexico years before, and his astute mind connects this fact with the number of Mexicans in the vicinity. He also learns that, in a time of financial stress, Cramp's father forged some currency plates for one Alva, an unscrupulous Mexican, but at the last moment failed to deliver them. At the time of Kirk's visit, the plates rested securely under a great stone in the cellar of Cramp's house, and the presence of the prowling, murderous Mexicans, headed by Alva, was explained by this. The perplexing question, however, was how these intriguers managed to gain nightly entrance to the cellar in their search for the plates. It takes Ashton Kirk to resolve the queer markings on the string of a package sent to Miss Hohenlo into the message "tonight." That night, Kirk and his aides wait in the cellar as the unsuspecting Miss Hohenlo lets in her confederates. There is a big scene in which Alva and his men are overpowered, and it is learned that Miss Hohenlo is Alva's wife. Thus does Ashton Kirk solve the mystery of The House of Fear.

Dir: John Ince

Shrewd crook Boston Blackie is determined to go straight. At a celebration held on the eve of his marriage to Mary Dawson, Fred the Count plants a stolen jewel and Blackie is arrested and sentenced to twenty years in jail. Fred the Count tries to win Blackie's fiancée, but the honorable Mary rejects him. Blackie's only hope for escape is from the hospital, so he manages to get into a weakened state. He escapes from the hospital, but is trailed by the warden. Blackie refuses to shoot the defenseless man, and the warden recognizes Blackie as an honorable person and allows him to escape. Blackie frames the Count, and leaves for Honolulu with Mary.