The Essential Watchlist that Capture the Essence of Redeeming Love: Cult Guide

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When a young woman deserts her rancher husband and, with her son Ben, goes to live with the drunken Tom Blair. Blair raises Ben as his son, but kills Ben's mother, causing the boy to return to his natural father. There, Ben falls in love with Florence Winthrop. Later, Ben gains revenge for his mother's death by killing Tom, but he loses Florence, who decides to live in the East. When Ben learns that Florence has become engaged, he goes after her and issues an ultimatum: if she does not take him back, he will kill her fiancé. After first resenting Ben for his demand, Florence realizes that she loves him and returns West with him.

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Edna Coleman's mother has wanted her two daughters to marry rich men, especially now that the money left to her by her dead husband is dwindling. Edna, however, is adamant about marrying for love and not money, and deliberately "disfigures" herself to thwart her mother's plans. Her sister Dorothy, however, has set her sights on a wealthy poet, Marcus Auriel, and married him. Unfortunately, Edna has been in love with Marcus for many years, and manages to get a job as his secretary in order to be near him and expose her mother's and sister's plans to get his money. Complications ensue.

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

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A Union officer exposes the several deceptions his sweetheart has been engaging in, which include spying for the Confederacy and posing as a boy to comfort her aging, wealthy, heirless uncle.

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Young boxer Jack Ranney agrees to challenge 'Young Kilroy' and knocks him out with his first punch. When he is told that Kilroy is dead, Jack hurriedly heads West and finds a job on a ranch, boasting to all the fellows that he is a killer; unimpressed, they call him a greenhorn. Meanwhile, Jack's sweetheart Mary learns that Kilroy is alive, and she heads West to tell Jack the news, arriving just in time to see him single-handedly save the ranch from a raid by the notorious Lopez Cabrillo and his entire gang.

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of Her Father's Son perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

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Bashful stenographer Bunker Bean ( Jack Pickford ), works for wealthy businessman Jim Breede by day and by night theosophist Prof. Balthasar, who convinces Bean that he is the reincarnation of Napoleon and, more remotely, of the great Egyptian king Ramses. His courage much bolstered by this revelation, Bean begins to deport himself with unaccustomed dignity and becomes a regular visitor to old Breede's estate, where he successfully courts the boss's daughter ( Louise Huff ), "The Flapper." With his $10,000 inheritance, Bean invests in a financial venture that nets him millions and purchases the alleged mummy of Ramses from the professor. After his marriage to The Flapper, Bean learns that the professor is a charlatan, and realizes that it is the belief in one's own strength of character that leads to success.

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Mining magnate Roland Holt sends his worthless son Clyde to reform under the watchful eye of mining superintendent Bob Fulton. Instead of renouncing his irresponsible ways, however, Clyde attempts to rob the company safe. In order to prevent the robbery, Bob is forced to shoot Clyde, who loses his wedding ring while making his escape. Soon after, Clyde's new bride Beth arrives, and learning that her husband has mysteriously disappeared, devotes her time to nursing Bob back to health. Beth falls in love with her patient until her discovery of Clyde's ring leads her to believe that the man she loves is probably her husband's murderer. The truth is revealed, however, when Clyde returns to be killed by the sheriff's bullet, leaving the lovers free to begin a new life together.

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

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Constance, the beautiful wife of Mark Barr, is in fear of her husband's jealousy. Among the guests at their reception are Myrtle Gale and her fiancé, Billy Craig, to whom Constance was at one time engaged. Mark misinterprets a friendly chat between the two and forbids Billy to visit his house. Myrtle goes to the city, and is to return on an early evening train, on which Constance also expects her husband. Both are delayed and Constance persuades Billy, who has come to meet Myrtle, to take her for a ride in his new car. They lose their way and are out nearly all night. Constance is beset with fear at her husband's anger. Billy takes Constance to an inn for a bite to eat and they discover it is a notorious roadhouse. On their way out of the grounds, lightning strikes a tree which falls in the road as another automobile, driven by Fletcher, cashier of the bank, approaches. Monck, watchman at the bank, learning that Fletcher has gone out, breaks open the safe and takes a large sum of money. As an alibi he takes a watch charm which belongs to Fletcher, to the police, and tells them Fletcher overpowered him and robbed the bank. Fletcher is placed in jail and sends for Billy. Mrs. Fletcher also seeks his aid. Constance goes to Billy's office and hides behind a screen as her husband enters. She sneezes but Billy will not allow Mark to look behind the screen. Constance pictures the difference in size between the watchman and the cashier. Billy places his stenographer behind the screen, sends for Monck and secures his confession. Mark comes in and finds the stenographer behind the screen and Constance's happiness is assured. Fletcher is released and Mrs. Fletcher is made happy, while Billy goes to his sweetheart who is doubly happy in the knowledge that Billy has caused justice to be done.

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John Humperdink Stover, otherwise known as "The Varmint" for his pestiferousness or as "Dink" when in special favor, was expelled from a boarding school and sent to Lawrenceville Academy. On the stage on the way to the school he meets a silent man whom Dink sizes up for a salesman and he proceeds to wax eloquent on the subject of his past career and the reason he was expelled from his previous school. The "salesman" is actually the professor of Latin known to the boys as the "Roman." Dink boasts that in a week he will have the boys at the school in his power. A strange uneasiness grips him when he sees that he does not make just the impression he expected. Little by little he succeeds in making himself the most thoroughly disliked and abhorred person on the campus. Dink rises a point in his schoolmates' estimation when he discovers on reporting to the Latin class that the instructor is no other than the traveling man of the stage on the day of his arrival, and in order to make good some of the many boasts he made on that day fakes the translation. The Roman, possessed of a good sense of humor, compliments "Dink" on his performance, much to everyone's surprise. The first girl to attract Dink Stover is the pretty daughter of the Roman, considerably older than he is. After a short and one-sided flirtation, Miss McCarty becomes engaged to another man and Dink is desperate until some new neckwear arrives at the local haberdasher's and diverts his mind from his agony. As a result of his neglect of study, Dink finds himself about to be dropped in school for falling off in his studies. He is to have a private examination at the Roman's house. Stover decides to cheat, and arranges with the Tennessee Shad and MacNooder to overturn a large water cooler outside the Roman's door and other devices to get him out of the way. To his utter dismay, the Roman goes out of the room and stays, thus putting him on his honor. Dink signs his name at the head of the blank paper and is dumbfounded when, upon the Roman's return, he seems to scan the blank sheets closely and says : "I think this will about pass you, Stover." The two discover that they had been friends from the first and Dink really comes into his own when the Roman explains that as he is now an upperclassman, he must set a good example for the younger boys.

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of His Majesty, Bunker Bean perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

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The adventures of Pasquale, an Italian immigrant to New York who runs a little grocery store.

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Up through the din and murk of the steel works, up by brawn and brain until he took his place behind the superintendent's desk came Jim Warren, but his heart was still with the strugglers in the glare of the furnaces. Here he had time to think and here he conceived the "big idea." The "big idea" required an established political position and he started out to get it. Francques, the henchman of Lewis, the political boss, saw in the young reformer a tool through which he could treacherously ruin his superior. Warren was running for the legislature as well as Lewis, and fortified with incriminating evidence against his opponent supplied by Francques, Warren entered the field as an independent candidate and was elected. Lewis took his defeat calmly and made friendly overtures to the newly elected member. Through the influence of Lewis, Warren was invited to visit the speaker of the House, Mr. Tillinghast. Here he was introduced to the girl of his life; the girl he had first seen, as a curious child visitor at the steel works. Several other times fate brought them together. It had been a secret love and he was astounded when he learned from her own lips that she was engaged to marry Lewis. Lewis's wedding to Edna was to occur as soon as Tillinghast was elected governor of the state. Edna admired Lewis and thought she loved him until one day after a talk with Jim Warren she realized the sordid contrast to which she, her father, and Lewis were parties. She told her father that she would not marry Lewis and remained firm in her decision against every argument that her ambitious parent offered. From that moment Warren battled for two loves, the love of a woman and the love of truth. Lewis, behind a smiling face, plotted Warren's undoing. Bribes came from every source. Marked bills, stocks and bonds were lavished by the clique upon the supposed unsuspecting assemblyman. At last they thought the trap ready to spring. He was arrested. He trembled not but unafraid played the last card of his high hand. He calmly led his captors to the vaults of the National Bank and there neatly docketed each in its separate envelope under seal of the bank were the bribes untouched together with the names of the givers and evidence that sent many of them to prison cells. The newspapers went wild. Jim Warren played the game and he was the man of the hour. Weeks later when the state convention had just gone wild over the nomination of Warren for governor, he and Edna were talking. "I think," said Edna, "that as long as I can't be the daughter of the governor, that I will be far happier as the governor's wife."