The Auteur's Selection Complementing the Tone of Rider of the Law: ...

Dir: Frank Beal

During a raging Montana snowstorm, Doctor Jim Barnes collapses at Esther Anderson's cabin door. Esther offers Jim refuge, but when he discovers that their food supplies are running dangerously low, he braves the journey into town in order to replenish them. On the way, he is overcome with exhaustion and fails to return. Esther, unaware of Jim's condition and abused by her stepfather, joins a theatrical troop and leaves home. Time passes and Jim finally finds Esther, but a vindictive member of her troupe accuses her of having an affair with the manager and Jim believes the accusation. He leaves and Esther goes to New York City where she becomes engaged to a jealous artist, although she still loves Jim. Sam Tuttle, a long time friend, is aware of Esther's continuing love, and so brings Jim to New York City in time to save Esther from an unhappy marriage.

Dir: Edgar Jones

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

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

Dir: Eduardo Notari

A crime drama in the Gennariello-series. The police detective in Naples that is confronted with modern gangsters and crime events.

Dir: Paul Hurst

Two prospectors, one the father of Skye "Lightning" Bryce and the other the father of Kate Arnold, find a large gold deposit belonging to an Indian tribe. They head for home but each sends a note to their respective off-springs advising them of their good fortune. One of the fathers conceives a plan of taking a dagger and wrapping a piece of string around the blade, after which he prints on the string with a lead pencil, the exact location of their find. If something happens to them, the string goes to the son and the knife to the daughter. That night an Indian approaches their camp and blows some mysterious wolf powder which causes a man to see wolves in place of human beings. Lightning's father see his partner as a wolf and stabs him to death; later he is brought into town in a dying condition but before dying, hands the knife and the string over to the sheriff with instructions to deliver to Lightning and Kate. The sheriff also informs Kate that Lightning's father killed her father, and she immediately turns against Lightning. "Powder" Solvang also knows the story behind the knife and the string, and is determined to gain possession of both, even to the extent of making Kate his prisoner in an opium den in Chinatown.

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

Dir: Paul Hurst

Episode 1: "The Lumber Pirates" "Dollar" Holmes, so called because of his greed for money and power, is a small timberland owner in a region where both the trust and a tribe of Klamath Indians hold similar lands. He is under contract to the combine to deliver to it 10,000,000 feet of timber by a specified date. It is a rich deal. His wife is about to become a mother, and Holmes has set his heart fiercely on a boy to inherit the fortune he means to pile up. A forest fire sweeps away half of Holmes' standing timber. Greer, president of the trust, learning of this, writes a sneering letter hinting at Holmes' ruin unless he fulfills his contract on time. This he cannot do unless he obtains possession of the Indian lands adjoining his. Sleepy Dog, chief of the tribe, refuses to sell. Holmes' wife gives birth to a daughter, and he in a wild rage of double disappointment curses her and the babe, and rushes out of the cabin into the deep woods. He comes upon Dill, a bootlegger, surreptitiously selling whiskey to his loggers. Holmes promises to forebear punishing him if he will go into the Indian camp, from which Sleepy Dog is absent on a trip, and sell his stuff to the savages. The Klamaths are made drunk, and when they demand more whiskey Holmes offers them $100 apiece if they will deed their timber lands to him. They do so, and Holmes wires Greer that he will fulfill his contract; also that with acquisition of the Indian lands he has obtained exclusive right to use of the region's one river for log-floating purposes, thus cutting off the trust's lands from the market. The trust capitulates and accepts Holmes' terms, by which he is given a heavy interest in the combine and made a director. Sleepy Dog returns. Holmes quarrels with him, murders him and throws his body over a cliff. The crime is witnessed by Holmes' wife, a fact which he discovers. In terror of her life, the woman flees the cabin, carrying her infant in her arms. In trying to reach the farther bank of the river over a jam of logs she is hurled into the stream when a blast of dynamite blows up the king-log, and is whirled away in the current, clinging to a log and holding the babe in her arms.

Dir: Harley Knoles

Jim McDonald, the foreman of a shipbuilding plant and head of the labor union, strives to combat the anarchistic propaganda being put forth by Klimoff, the leader of a Bolshevik gang whose goal is to disrupt the country with strikes and anarchy. Despite McDonald's efforts, a strike is called, resulting in chaos. McDonald's child is knocked down by runaway horses abandoned by their striking driver, and dies. Mob scenes take place in America, as well as in Russia. Eventually, the unrest is quelled with an armistice called between Capital and Labor for a year, during which time wages are to be increased to reflect the cost of living, and leaders are to work out a common plan for their mutual advantage. The strikers now realize that they have been pawns of the Bolsheviks and call off the strike, agreeing to the plan.

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

Dir: Edward Dillon

Her education in a French convent school completed, plain Justine Spencer returns to New York. There she is shocked to discover that her mother Dodo is a flamboyant musical comedy actress with many male admirers. Dodo, on the other hand, is dismayed to find Justine priggish and dowdy. One of Dodo's suitors is Billy Ferris, who, in a fit of jealousy, murders her and slays himself. Out of pity, Cosmo Spotiswood, another admirer of Dodo, marries Justine, but soon tires of his platonic marriage and leaves for Europe. Upon his return, Cosmo finds Justine transformed. Under the tutelage of Dodo's maid Loti, she has bobbed her hair and donned fashionable apparel. Thus changed, Justine is surrounded by suitors. Stung by jealousy, Cosmo falls in love with his sophisticated wife.

Dir: Charles Horan

While working as a flower girl in Devlin Maddox's nightclub, Nellie Vaughan meets wealthy young Pelton Van Teel and falls in love. Maddox, desirous of using Nellie to blackmail Van Teel, spreads a rumor that she is his mistress. This makes Nellie uncomfortable, and she demands that Van Teel marry her immediately, to which he agrees. Meanwhile, Van Teel has been losing money gambling to Maddox, who threatens to break up the marriage by producing a worthless check that the young husband has written. Venturing to Maddox's apartment for a showdown, Nellie pulls a gun and demands the check, accidentally shooting Maddox when he throws a lamp at her. Maddox plans to charge Nellie with assault, but when the police arrive, his butler, actually a detective employed by the elder Van Teel, exposes Maddox, who is then arrested, clearing the path for the couple's happiness.

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

Dir: Maurice Elvey

A lady marries a horse trainer but withholds herself until her crippled brother is cured.

Dir: Alexander Butler

In Alberta, Canada, a Cornish emigrant unmasks a rustler posing as the girl's "blind" father.