Editor's Top Picks Sharing the Atmosphere of Polly of the Storm Cou...

Dir: Arthur Rosson

Doc Saunders, an alcoholic, leaves his little daughter Mayme in the care of his sister and goes West to start a new life. In the little town of Sago, Doc becomes an avowed prohibitionist, thus earning the enmity of Art the saloon keeper. Back East, Mayme grows to adulthood and marries reporter Jimmy Baggs who has just been hired by the newspaper in Sago. When Jimmy begins to drink heavily, Mayme appeals to the town doctor for help. Doc Saunders, recognizing her, chooses not to disclose that she is his daughter, but instead invites them to move into his house for treatment. Jimmy reforms until one day he is sent to the saloon to get a statement on the liquor question for his paper. When Jimmy returns home drunk, Doc, enraged, invades the saloon brandishing a gun and shooting wildly. Doc is arrested and tried, but pronounced not guilty by a jury that sympathizes with him. With Art's power finally broken, Doc confesses to Mayme that she is his daughter, and the family sees an end to their troubles.

Dir: Arthur Rosson

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

Parisian music hall celebrity Mignon marries young American civil engineer John Stanley. When John is suddenly assigned to undertake an engineering project in the Sahara, Mignon accompanies him and her son to the desert, although she is accustomed to a life of frivolity. After months of discontent, Mignon leaves her husband and son for Russian Baron Alexis, who establishes her in a palace in Cairo. Brokenhearted, John becomes a drug addict. Mignon later runs across her husband and son, who have become beggars. She is filled with remorse and returns to the desert to nurse her husband. John recovers slowly, reconciles with his wife, and the family finds happiness together.

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.

Dir: Arthur Rosson

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of A Sister to Salome perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

Jack Towne, who has just inherited one million dollars, is warned by his Uncle Mark to beware of strangers. Heedless of his uncle's advice, Jack becomes involved with Doris Ames whom he casually meets in a café. Unknown to Jack, Doris, who is in desperate need of money to pay the mortgage on her mother's house, is working for Mrs. Ames, The Menace and Laughing Louie, a gang of grafters hired by Uncle Mark to teach Jack a lesson. With the aid of the gang, Doris traps Jack in a compromising situation and then threatens blackmail. She refuses to go through with the scheme however, when she falls in love with Jack and realizes that the gang is out to blackmail him in earnest. Jack then proves the most cunning by hiring his own detectives to ensnare the grafters. Thus, he demonstrates to his uncle that he can handle his own affairs while also freeing Doris from the clutches of the crooks.

Dir: Arthur Rosson

Dreamer dairyman Phineas Dobbs of Cow Hollow suddenly acquires a fortune when oil is discovered on his ranch, and celebrates by throwing a party for the whole town. One day a young woman comes to town, delayed by train trouble. Dobbs rescues her from the town bully, and agrees to follow her to San Francisco. The woman is actually a princess who is being forced into a marriage with a man who wants to share her throne. Dobbs rides by Market Street to the St. Francis Hotel in his Western garb, and performs daring stunts to rescue the princess in distress. Together they free the princess' father. Dobbs then returns to Cow Hollow, and the princess gives up her throne to become Mrs. Phineas Dobbs.

Dir: Edgar Jones

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

A mail-order bride arrives at a Maine lumber camp but doesn't like her prospective husband.

Dir: Arthur Rosson

Millionaire spendthrift Sam Morgan marries Constance Winwood, who tries to break Sam's spending habits by convincing Downer, the trustee of Sam's inheritance, to pretend to abscond with Sam's money. During their honeymoon, Sam spends his $10.30 pocket money, then discovers that his checks are bouncing. Unable to pay an increasingly-large taxi fare, Sam and Constance keep the cab and its sleepy driver engaged after they are thrown out of a hotel. After a friendly thief gets Sam a job in a herring refinery, Sam uses his rudimentary knowledge of Spanish to buy a shipload of herring from a South American dealer and sell it to the refinery's directors, who know no Spanish, thus making enough profit to pay his now-exorbitant taxi bill. Constance confesses her scheme, and although it seems that Downer really has absconded, he finally returns. Wealthy again, Sam and Constance adorn their bedroom with taxi meters and headlights.

Dir: Arthur Rosson

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of Rough-Riding Romance perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

A fascinating piece of cinema that shares thematic elements.

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.

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.