The Definitive Guide Inspired by the Vision of Pudd'nhead Wilson: C...

Dir: Frank Reicher

Cinders, a news girl, with a love for books, idealizes as her hero a "Daddy Long-legs," who will someday make her a great lady. Bill Holt, a reporter, is one of her best friends. Walter Crane and Kirkland Gaige observe Cinder's independence as she turns over to a policeman a man who has been annoying her. Later Crane wagers $50,000 that within a year he can transform and improve the girl that one of the men will want to marry her. Crane places her in the care of his aunt, who sends her to a boarding school. At the end of a year she returns home and at once becomes a favorite. Cleo Duvene, an adventuress, demands of Gaige a necklace which he is unable to purchase. Crane meets with reverses and Gaige, anxious to win Cinders, reveals the bet, suggesting she marry him in order that Crane may realize the $100,000 stake. She refuses and goes to her friend. Holt, securing a position as reporter on the paper. Crane accepts the position of assistant cashier in the bank of which Gaige is vice president. In order to buy the necklace for Cleo Gaige takes a bag of currency and Crane, accused of the theft, is placed in jail. Cinders goes to Gaige and by placing chewing gum on the end of her umbrella, picks up the pieces of a receipted bill for the necklace. She gets into the apartment of Miss Duvene, and is demanding that she tell all she knows of Gaige just as he comes in. They bind Cinders but she manages to get the telephone receiver down, calls Holt, who hears the conversation of the three, and with Crane and a policeman apprehend the guilty man just as he is about to escape. Crane frees the brave little girl and takes her to his arms with the statement that it pays to lose some bets.

Dir: Frank Reicher

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

A Japanese maiden is pursued by an unscrupulous American young man who falsely believes her to have great riches.

Dir: Frank Reicher

To help their unemployed father make ends meet, Edith and her twin sister Grace work as seamstresses . An invalid, Grace falls prey to the temptations of Chinatown opium and becomes an addict, a condition worsened by a misguided physician who prescribes morphine to ease her pain. When their father strikes oil, the family enjoys a new prosperity and the sisters meet the eligible Jack Herron, a fellow oil prospector. To Grace's shock, Jack falls in love with Edith and in her jealousy, Grace tells Jack that Edith, not she, has a drug problem. Hinting that her sister will soon need more morphine, Grace arranges for a dinner in Chinatown with the couple. While her sister and Jack dance, Grace slips away to an opium den. Edith follows her, but ends up in the wrong den and is arrested in an ensuing drug raid. After he bails her out of jail, Edith takes an angry Jack to search for Grace and stumbles across her half-conscious body lying in the street. The truth about the sisters is revealed, and after sending Grace to a sanitarium in the country, Jack and Edith are married.

Dir: Frank Reicher

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

When a young girl is placed under hypnotism, it's discovered that she has a split personality.

Dir: Frank Reicher

Henry Sherwin has every cent invested in a mine which is apparently valueless. James Fleming, a mine expert, discovers a rich vein of gold in the mine but keeps it secret. Mr. Sherwin dies and leaves Betty, his daughter, in the care of John Kenwood and his sister, Constance who, finding the estate worthless, allows Betty to believe she has an income. She goes to boarding school, lives luxuriously, and when she returns home is shocked to find John and Constance working, so she hires two servants. A frost wipes out the orange crop, their last hope. Fleming proposes to Betty and is refused. Betty tells John he may have all her money, and although heartbroken and discouraged, he is greatly amused. Fleming finally tells Betty her mine is worthless, again asks her to marry him and is again refused. Betty dreams she sees gold pouring from her mine and runs away. Going to the mine she finds Big Jim, and together they search for gold. The boys "salt" the mine and Betty is delighted at her supposed find of gold. She learns of the joke and decides to try her luck at gambling. She stakes her nuggets in a roulette game and loses. Fleming finds her here and takes her in his arms, announcing, just as Kenwood enters, she is to become his wife. As Jim and the proprietor of the gambling house are looking over the nuggets Jim notices a strange one and asks Betty where she found it. She leads him to the mine and he discovers a rich vein, worth a million. Fleming's conspiracy is discovered. John takes Betty in his arms and tells her he has always loved her, and is informed of the discovery of the gold. Her sudden wealth seems in his mind to create a great gulf between them, but she wriggles back into his embrace. She tells him she loves him and asks him to be her husband. He takes her closer in his arms and their happiness is complete.

Dir: Frank Reicher

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

Hazel Gray, a young nurse, is in love with Phillip Carson, son of Mrs. Carson-Morgan, a philanthropist. Phillip, having quarreled with his step-father, leaves home, secures a position, and lives at the same boarding house as Hazel. Called home by his mother's sudden illness, Phillip manages to have Hazel called on the case. Her recognition of the doctor as the man whose trickery she discovered in time to save her own honor, is concealed from Phillip, but her stay is rendered almost unbearable by the doctor's forced attentions. Mrs. Morgan dies suddenly and in terrible agony, from arsenic poisoning. Suspicion points to Hazel, proof of her knowledge of the location of a bottle of arsenic being established by Morgan. Her former supposed relations with the doctor appear as a reason for the crime. Phillip's testimony is against her, but Gordon Graham, a wealthy young man who is on the jury, is at once impressed with the girl's innocence, and succeeds in securing a verdict of "not guilty." Throughout the trail the spirit of the poisoned woman endeavors to point out the guilty person. The weight of public opinion, however, falls heavily upon the girl, sensational newspapers doing their share to increase it, until Hazel can find no place to stay. Finally Graham takes her to his sister's home where he declares his love for Hazel and an unshaken belief in her innocence. Smith, a dope fiend, refused drugs by Dr. Morgan, threateningly reveals his knowledge that the doctor has substituted arsenic for powders prescribed for his wife by the attending physician. During the struggle which follows, Hazel, Graham and a policeman appear, and Smith, having secured possession of the doctor's pistol, fires the shot which mortally wounds Dr. Morgan, who confesses in his dying moments that he is the guilty person. Hazel's innocence is thus established, the public opinion is quickly changed, and the girl goes to the waiting arms of the man who has so valiantly defended her.

Dir: Frank Reicher

"Mr. Grex of Monte Carlo" is an interesting play of intrigue between the Grand Duke Augustus Peter of Russia, whose incognito is Mr. Grex, an English Secret Service agent, Lord Huntersley and a young American millionaire on pleasure bent, Richard Lane. Mr. Grex and two other diplomats who unofficially represent France and Germany, plan to meet as if by chance in Monte Carlo for the purpose of arranging a secret pact. The American millionaire sees and falls violently in love with Miss Grex, that is, the Grand Duchess Fedora. After several fruitless efforts to gain an introduction to this mysteriously inaccessible young lady, he secures the services of a bandit who is to pretend to hold up Fedora's car so that Lane may effect a rescue. Lane arrives on the scene as per schedule and is informed by the bandit that he has changed his mind and intends to make a real hold-up instead of a fake one. Lane, therefore, makes a real rescue and meets Miss Grex. He is informed by Lord Huntersley that his efforts are useless as she is a Grand Duchess of Russia. The third member of the conference arrives and coming across Lane in the middle of a love scene with Fedora, thrusts the papers into his hand saying "Give these to Huntersley," and disappears. Complications arise between Fedora and Lane. Lane finally manages to get rid of Fedora's father for a few hours and hiring a yacht they pick up a parson who for $5,000 and his trip home consents to go with them to America. Once outside the three-mile limit they are married under the laws of the United States.

Dir: Frank Reicher

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

The sound of merry voices and the clinking of wine glasses came through the closed door of a child's room in an apartment situated in a quarter of Paris where night life predominates and where revelers know they may come and go as they please. It was late at night. The child had been asleep, but awakening, frightened, she stepped to the door a moment to listen and then fearlessly, having heard the musical laugh of her mother, she opened the door and entered a large room. It was filled with men and women, whose gaiety may have had some inspiration from the bottles which poked their heads above the rim of ice buckets, which formed an outer fortification around the banquet table. At the sight of the child the conversation ceased for a moment, then burst forth at some indiscreet remark. A woman arising from the head of the table hurried across the room, caught the child in her arms and carried her back into her room. The woman was Cora May, the child her daughter Diane, age four. Cora May was one of the stirs of the Parisian demimonde. The next morning Cora took the child to a convent, bade her a tearful farewell, and returned, sorrowful, to Paris. In her ears there still rang relentlessly the words spoken by a friend the previous evening when he saw the child, "She has the devil in her eyes, Cora, just like you." The little girl, Diane, grew up in the convent, learned to love the sisters and their sweet ways, blossomed into lovely girlhood and at 19 she left the convent to pass a vacation at a friend's home by the seashore at Narbonne. "Monsieur le Chevalier" saw her one day. Her beauty attracted him, her innocence kept him at a distance, but her eyes, those eyes wherein the "devil" was lurking, baffled and confused him. There followed a flirtation, innocent enough, a few words between them, a declaration of love and Diane had fallen a victim to the worldly wiles of "Monsieur le Chevalier," who was, in fact none other than the Duke of Cluny. Meanwhile Cora May, Diane's mother, had died, never having seen her child from the day she had taken her to the convent. Deserted by her care-free friends she found sympathy in a woman of rank, Duchess of Cluny, who sat at her bedside and watched an unhappy life ebb swiftly away. The Duchess made one promise: she would seek out the child, Diane, and take her into her home and guard her from temptation. Diane, still stunned by the experience of her betrayal, dedicates her life to the friendship for the kind Duchess, never associating her with "Monsieur le Chevalier." Subsequently Diane and the Duke, filled with remorse because of his indiscretion, recognize each other yet spare the Duchess, whom each loves from their secret. The past would have remained untold had Diane and not Lieutenant Dodd, U.S.N. fallen in love. The young woman refuses marriage but withholds her reasons, but the young American is obdurate and in time the truth dawns upon him. In a duel he kills the Duke of Cluny who by death atones for his sin, and we are left with the reasonable conclusion that in time Diane and Lieutenant Dodd find happiness together.

Dir: Frank Reicher

Mrs. Jackson endures the cruelty of her husband, Henry, for the sake of her son, Little Billy. They are visited in their Florida home by Mrs. Lenning, an adventuress who has convinced Henry that his wife is monopolizing Billy's affections. Although Henry intends to leave his wife for Mrs. Lenning, he will not consider a divorce without the custody of his son. While in Florida, Mrs. Jackson meets Richard Darcier, who sympathizes with her plight. Henry accuses his wife of being unfaithful, then sues for divorce and wins custody of Billy. Meanwhile, Jake, an African American voodoo worshiper in Richard's employ, has been warned by a priestess that he must provide their group with a sacrificial victim or die himself. Crazed by the threat, Jake chooses Billy. Mrs. Jackson finds the sacrificial cave and offers her life in exchange for that of her son's. At that moment, Mr. Jackson arrives with a rescue party, saves both their lives, and returns Billy to his mother after witnessing the strength of her mother love. Mrs. Jackson then marries Richard and the reconstituted family begins life anew.

Dir: Frank Reicher

Stephen Stephani leaves Nordhoff with his daughter Mary to visit Zandria, an enemy country, where he tries to steal the war plans of the hostile nation. There, Mary meets Paul Ekald, a Zandrian captain, falling in love with him at first sight. While Mary remains in Zandria for the moment, Stephani returns to Nordhoff. Meanwhile, Vesta, Mary's illegitimate half-sister, has managed to get hold of important war plans stolen from Count Wenzel. But, to get them, she had to kill the count. While trying to reach Nordhoff, she is stopped at the border. There, she also finds Mary waiting to cross the border. Vesta convinces Mary to exchange her passport with her, in order to allow her to leave the country. She thus brings to Nordhoff the plans drawn with invisible ink on her petticoat. Meanwhile, Mary is arrested and, accused in place of Vesta, sentenced to be shot. Vesta, after having fulfilled her mission and learning of her sister's fate, goes back and redoes the exchange with her, allowing her to save herself. After some time, peace is declared and Mary can reunite with the man she loves.