Underground Favorites Mirroring the Impact of Riders of the Dawn: C...

Dir: Jack Conway

Genuinely sweet natured, Ambrosia Lee loves to help everyone, soothing their sorrows with her cheerful spirit. Her charms are put to the test, when she tries to save her own Aunt Charlotte's marriage. Happily, all ends well, when her Aunt and Uncle are happily reunited.

Dir: Jack Conway

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

A secretary (Gloria Swanson) uses her boss to get money for her unfortunate sister (Ann Kroman) but eventually falls in love with him.

Dir: Jack Conway

Widow Martin struggles to rear her little daughter Nora amid the squalor of the slums yet imbue her with the refinement to which she had been accustomed in her girlhood. Fearing that she is losing the battle, Mrs. Martin decides to turn to her wealthy father, who had disowned her upon her marriage years earlier. To raise funds for the trip, she pawns Nora to Aaron Levovitch, an aged pawnbroker with a heart of gold under his gruff exterior. Upon reaching her father's house, Mrs. Martin falls ill and dies before she can relate her story, and Nora is raised by the pawnbroker until a reporter prints her human interest story of a "jewel in pawn." The girl's grandfather reads the article and claims Nora, then sends her to a fashionable boarding school. Nora longs for her home in the slums and her sweetheart Jimmy, however, and so returns to marry Jimmy in an elaborate traditional Jewish ceremony at the pawnbroker's home.

Dir: Jack Conway

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

Aside from the fact that Polly had red hair in abundance, she was not otherwise an exceptional child, save for one thing. She was willing to work and slave, if need be, to keep her baby brother, affectionately termed "The Lump," from being sent to the poor house. So she did housework and prepared breakfasts for John Ruffin, an attorney, and Hon. Gedge-Tompkins. John Ruffin's sister, Lady Osterly, has separated from her husband, and he holds their child. When Lady Osterly calls on Ruffin she is struck with the remarkable resemblance Polly bears to her own child. Ruffin and Lady Osterly formulate a plan to come into possession of her daughter, by using Polly as a substitute. When they offer Polly twenty sovereigns to go to the Duke of Osterly's home and impersonate the other child, the amount of money fairly staggers Polly and she accepts. By changing the children when the child of the Osterly's is out riding with her nurse. Polly gains access to the Duke's home and the Osterly child comes to John Ruffin's apartments to stay until her mother can get her ticketed to the continent and travel away with her. Polly does the best she can under strange conditions, but despite her resemblance to the Osterly child, the servants are suspicious and the Duke falls to wondering what has happened. Young Lord Ronald, visiting the Duke, is above all suspicious of Polly. The Osterly girl is under similar suspicion at Ruffin's home. "The Lump" positively declines to have anything to do with her. There is a blunder in the preparations Lady Osterly and John Ruffin make for the European trip. Polly disregards positive instructions and leaves the Osterly mansion before plans can be worked out. The Duke follows Polly in his automobile, searching for her in a nearby park where she has liked to go with young Lord Ronald to play. Finding Polly where he thought he would the Duke carries her back to his home. Here John Ruffin directly arrives, to tell the Duke that his wife and child must, by that time, be well on their way across the Channel. Lady Osterly, through miscalculation, has become worried because Ruffin does not arrive with the tickets and telephones him at the Duke's (her husband's) home. The servants call the Duke in answer to the summons and thus husband and wife find themselves talking to each other, much to their mutual surprise, as well as secret delight. As a result of this accidental 'phone call, a reconciliation is effected and everything ends happily for everybody, including Polly Redhead, who has made a great conquest of young Lord Ronald's heart.

Dir: Jack Conway

Upon learning that the parents of "Little Red" have died, the cowboys of Colonel Ferdinand Aliso's ranch adopt the boy. Parson Jones and his church committee protest that the child should be brought up in more refined surroundings, but the cowboys, particularly Duck Sing, Aliso's Chinese cook, are so enamored of Little Red that they donate their poker money to the church in order to placate the congregation. After Little Red catches pneumonia and nearly dies, however, Dr. Kirk insists that the boy either live with the minister or acquire a mother through the marriage of one of the cowboys. While Little Red is recuperating at the parson's home, ranch hand Tom Gilroy courts the only marriageable women in town -- a widow and two spinsters -- but much to his relief, they all turn him down. In the end, Duck Sing, whom the child much prefers to the parson, kidnaps Little Red, after which the colonel legally adopts him.

Dir: Bruno Ziener

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

A fascinating piece of cinema that shares thematic elements.

Dir: Jack Conway

Patricia Reynolds, the belle of the summer resort she is visiting with her friend, Amy Powellson, attracts the attention of Arthur Kirby, whom Amy loves. On an evening drive, Arthur tries to kiss Patricia , whereupon she leaps from the car and walks home. While Amy, disguised in Patricia 's clothing, accompanies Arthur to a roadhouse, Patricia , walking near the beach, sees her invalid friend, Jim Wheeler, jump into the ocean intending to kill himself. After rescuing him, Patricia persuades Jim to visit a specialist, but when she later is accused of spending the night with Arthur, she refuses to defend herself in order to conceal Jim's attempted suicide. Hastings Carson tries to save her reputation, but he subsequently attacks her, and she is forced to swim from his yacht to shore. Cured, Jim returns to remove Patricia from this social quagmire by marrying her.

Dir: Jack Conway

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

When bachelor friends David Clark, Dick Porter and Jerry Mathers agree to adopt Belgian war orphans, David unexpectedly finds himself the guardian of a little girl, Rene Lescere. After David is pursued by Mrs. Hardwick, a divorcee, Rene is determined to find him a more suitable wife and introduces him to Emmeline Warren. David and Emmeline are engaged, but the engagement is broken after Emmeline meets Jerry, her old beau, and their romance is rekindled. David, sad but resigned, sends Rene to boarding school and retires to his hunting lodge with Dick Porter. Later, Emmeline and Jerry, now married, visit the lodge and suggest that Rene accompany them on a trip abroad. At the moment of parting between Rene and her guardian, both realize that they love each other and Rene becomes David's wife.

Dir: Jack Conway

New York playboy Carter Richmond inherits the family fortune, but it doesn't take him long to blow it. All that's left is an abandoned mine in California, so he travels west to see if he can get anything for it. He finds that a miner, Big Him Helton, and his pretty young daughter Mary have been "squatters" at the site for years, and a neighboring miner, Placer Murray, has been trying to run them off so he can take it over himself. Mary accidentally shoots Carter, thinking him to be one of Murray's men. As she nurses him back to health, they begin to fall in love. Complications ensue.

Dir: Jack Conway

From a Montana mining camp, a young man progresses to the society heights of New York, making his mark publicly as a dancer, but secretly as a gentleman burglar.