The Cult Collection Inspired by the Vision of Revenge: Cult Guide

Dir: Tod Browning

Rosie Cooper is cashier in a cheap restaurant and among those she favors is - Smith, the bakery boy. Rose is a 'wise kid' all right, but it takes her some time to see through a shiny young thin model gent - . The girl entertains his advances because he means romance to her. But he proves his shallow character and Rosie is glad to turn to Jimmy, the bakery youth.

Dir: Tod Browning

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of Peggy, the Will O' the Wisp perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

Peggy Desmond, the daughter of an Irish magistrate, loves Captain Neil Dacey, but is pursued by Terence O'Malley, the nephew of Squire O'Malley, a wealthy landowner. Although the squire offers to pay off the Desmonds' debts if Peggy were to marry Terence, Peggy refuses. After Neil invokes the name of Rory O'More, the "Will o' the Wisp," a legendary Irish Robin Hood, Peggy dresses up as a highwayman and robs Squire O'Malley, then gives the purse to one of the squire's poor tenants. As the local law officer, Neil is assigned to capture the bandit, but is robbed himself by his clever incognito sweetheart. When the squire turns up dead, Neil, whose gun is found next to the corpse, is arrested and jailed. To free her love, Peggy disguises herself once more as a highwayman and forces Terence to confess to the murder at gunpoint. Once released, Neil deduces that Peggy is the bandit and makes good on her promise to marry the man who succeeded in unmasking the "Will o' of the Wisp."

Dir: Tod Browning

Jacala, a strong-willed, temperamental ranch girl, inherits her father's millions and moves from Montana to New York, determined to earn a place in society. There she meets and is strongly attracted to Kenneth Hyde, but believing him to be a worthless man-about-town with a neglected wife, she hires Tony Dewey to pose as her fiancé. Tony wants a wealthy wife, and when his attentions toward Jacala are sternly rebuffed, he spreads scandalous stories about her. Jacala learns that Kenneth's supposed wife is actually his sister, and he, in turn, believes her claims that Tony's stories are untrue. With Kenneth, Jacala retreats from the superficial society life she had once coveted.

Dir: Tod Browning

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

Alisa Graeme travels from Scotland to America to visit Jeremiah Wishart, an old wealthy friend of her grandfather. The invalid Jeremiah is charmed by Alisa and decides she would make a good wife for his favorite nephew David. Without meeting Alisa, David refuses the arrangement and runs away. Later, Alisa also runs away rather than wed another of Jeremiah's nephews and meets a young billboard painter in the country. The two form a partnership, travel the countryside together painting billboards and gradually fall in love. When the painter tells Alisa that he won't marry until his finances are secure, she leaves him in anger and heads for Jeremiah's house. From his wheelchair, Jeremiah sees first his wayward nephew painting a nearby billboard, then a young woman stopping to help him. Jeremiah's initial anger at David mellows when he recognizes the woman as Alisa. Once Alisa and David realize the other's identity, they happily reunite.

Dir: Tod Browning

Jim Bludso is engineer of the Mississippi River packet the "Prairie Belle." He has a home in Gilgal, Ill., and a wife and twelve-month-old baby at the time the story opens, in 1861. A call is received for volunteers and he joins the Northern army. His wife is a Southern girl, and she opposes his joining the Union forces. The quarrel results in a separation and Jim goes to war. Ben Merrill, an unscrupulous contractor, meets Jim's wife in Natchez, her home town, and induces her to go with him to New Orleans. She deserts her baby and goes. In New Orleans a levee contractor comes to Merrill with the proposition that they take the contract for a new levee to be built at Gilgal. Merrill accepts and leaves New Orleans without telling the woman where he is going, and she is left to take care of herself. After the war Jim returns to Natchez and finds that his wife has deserted their little boy, and no one knows where she is. He takes the boy, Little Breeches, and Banty Tim, a negro, who has saved his life during the war, and returns to Gilgal. He is welcomed by Kate Taggart, the daughter of the village storekeeper. Jim's wife yearns for her baby and returns. Jim forgives her for the child's sake. The high waters are coming on and Merrill is afraid that the levee will not hold. He plans to lay the blame on Jim and the negro. He arouses the suspicion of the townspeople against the negro and Jim is forced to fight for Banty Tim on several occasions. Merrill meets Jim's wife and induces her to loosen the sandbags and leave the water into the village. She escapes in a boat, the bottom of which has been cut by Merrill. In the middle of the stream the boat begins to sink and Banty Tim goes to her rescue. The negro is accused of breaking the levee and then escaping. Jim offers his life as a forfeit if the negro does not return by sunrise. The next day the village people are at Indian Mound, and the men are about to hang Jim because Banty Tim has not come back. Just then he comes on with Little Breeches, who tells of his rescue by the negro. A year later Jim is again engineer of the "Prairie Belle." In a race with another boat the engines become overheated. Merrill is aboard and Jim has him locked in the oil room. When the boat takes fire Jim goes and opens the door of the oil room and finds his son there with Merrill. While they are trying to escape the boilers explode. Jim is rescued from the debris by Banty Tim. Some time later Jim's wife having died, he and Little Breeches and Kate and Banty Tim are united in a happy family.

Dir: Tod Browning

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

An English nobleman, known only as Victor, arrives in Algiers and joins the French Foreign Legion as a private without revealing his true identity. He attracts and is loved by Cigarette, a French-Arab girl and "daughter of the regiment," but does not return her attentions. She is at first furious, and when she learns Victor's past and the name of his true love she goes to the Princess Corona with the intention of killing her. But Cigarette's hate turns to admiration, and she reveals Victor's identity to the princess. Learning of Sheik Ben Ali Hammed's plots against Victor and Algiers, she gives evidence that clears him of treason, makes a wild ride ahead of the Arabs to warn the troops, and dies in Victor's arms after shielding him from the executioner's bullet.

Dir: Tod Browning

Gudrun works in the American wheat country as a hired girl to Mrs. Hawes. Charley Holt, the son of a rich family, takes the Swedish girl to a dance where she is snubbed by his mother and sister. Furious by his elitist relatives, Charley marries Gudrun and gets a menial job as a mill worker. A child is born, but Gudrun's life is unhappy because Charley becomes an alcoholic. After five years of marriage Charley dies in a saloon fight. Gudrun then buys a small farm and works the wheat fields. When tramp Martin O'Neill comes to the farm, Mary feeds him and he works for her. Martin later saves Gudrun and her child from a burning barn but is suspected of starting the fire himself and narrowly escapes a lynching. Finally, it is disclosed that the fire was actually started by Heine, a jealous rival, and Gudrun and Martin are married.

Dir: Tod Browning

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

Powerfully built Greek Philip, falls in love with Toinette, a French girl whom he meets when she is injured in an auto accident. She is hospitalized, operated upon and then recovers, but a hospital attendant misinforms Philip that Toinette has died. The Greek, keeping a pledge to his love, continues to sing beneath her hospital room window every night at midnight. Meanwhile, a gang has been terrorizing a park near the hospital, and one night during a confrontation with the police, the leader is stabbed and he is taken to the same doctor who had arranged for Toinette to enter the hospital. While at the hospital, the leader recognizes Philip as the person who slipped him a pack of cigarettes when he was earlier hospitalized, during Toinette's stay. The gangster informs Philip that his love is alive and well. The Greek rushes to Toinette, who had been told that Philip had returned to Greece, and the lovers are reunited.

Dir: Tod Browning

In Winnebago, Wisconsin, the Jewish Brandeis family--Molly, Ferdinand, and their two children Fanny and Theodore--run a modest dry-goods store. Theodore is studying violin and auditions for a famous violinist, The Great Schabelitz, who is giving a local concert. Schabelitz is impressed by the boy's talent and recommends that he plan to study in Dresden, Germany. After Ferdinand dies, the family makes many sacrifices to enable Theodore to study in Dresden, where he eventually marries a worthless chorus girl and causes his mother's death from a broken heart. Although she continues to contribute to Theodore's support, Fanny decides to live her own life and moves to Chicago. There she becomes a highly-efficient businesswoman in a department store, spurred on by her colleague and admirer Michael Fenger, who is trapped in a loveless marriage. A former school friend, Clarence Hyle, also attempts to woo her. Later, Theodore, deserted by his wife, returns from Europe with his baby daughter and comes to live with Fanny. When he eventually becomes a successful performer, he leaves Fanny a message saying that he is returning to his wife. After so much self-sacrifice, Fanny decides to live only for herself and is about to sail to Honolulu with Fenger when Clarence makes her realize that her true happiness lies with him.

Dir: Tod Browning

Railroad president John Houston, along with his daughter Marjorie and his fiancee, Elinor Craig, are aboard the express train when it is held up by a gang of outlaws. Outlaw Dan Tracy is attracted to Marjorie, who, filled with dreams of romance, returns his interest. They exchange rings and later meet secretly in the city. When Houston learns that his daughter's new suitor is an outlaw, he hires a detective to investigate. The investigation indicates that Tracy is Houston's son by a former marriage, and Houston, mortified, allows the outlaw to escape. Tracy then persuades Marjorie to elope with him and takes her to his shack in the hills where she is rudely awakened to the realities of outlaw life. Houston arrives to save his daughter, and after Tracy is killed by Rosanne, the woman he betrayed, it is revealed that Tracy was not his son but an offspring of his former wife and an outlaw.