Curated Recommendations Seeking the Same Brilliance as Rosie O'Grady: Cult Guide

Dir: John H. Collins

By the death of his father, old Judge Lawrence, William Lawrence inherits the family's vast Southern estates. The slaves welcome him as their new master, but they all dislike "little Jim," William's half-brother, who is left by the father in William's guardianship. Twenty years elapse, and William is elected governor of his state. Little Jim has grown to young manhood, but with the passage of the years, his nature has become worse. It is discovered that Jim has had a secret intrigue with Jenny Strong, a simple country girl, who implores him to keep his promise and make her his wife. Meanwhile, she has kept all knowledge of what has transpired from her brother, Jack. At the state capital are two important families, the Leighs and the Claytons. Evelyn Clayton has fallen deeply in love with Jim Lawrence. William Lawrence has met and fallen in love with Helena Leigh. Arthur Willet, a friend of both families, who has had from the first an instinctive dislike for Jim Lawrence, overhears Jim talking with Jenny Strong. Later, at the home of the Leighs, he comes upon Jim making love to Helena. He thereupon tells her father how he has heard Jenny Strong pleading with Jim to right the wrong he has done her. Dr. Leigh drives Jim from his house. There follows a violent quarrel between Helena and her father, during which the doctor falls to the floor, overcome by heart trouble. On his deathbed he begs Helena to marry the governor. Helena consents because it is her father's dying wish, though she fancies herself in love with Jim. Strong discovers the trouble with his sister and determines to get satisfaction. To revenge the exposition of his guilt, Jim writes to Willet to fight a duel with him. Willet, who is a crack shot, accepts and leaves to indulge in a little practice. Jack comes upon Jim, and before he has finished talking, Jim shoots him with one of Willet's pistols. Willet is accused of the crime and is placed in jail. Jenny takes her own life and an unsuccessful appeal is made for Willet by Curwood, a political leader and uncle of the accused. Moved by Helena's pleadings, Jim confesses to his brother, but still maintains that he committed the murder in self-defense. His brother, the governor, pending the arrival of the sheriff, locks Jim in a room, but he is released by Helena, who, having taken two horses from the stable, rides away with him. Inasmuch as the governor had been to the stable, and seeing that he is accused of intrigue, he says that he did spirit his brother away. He resigns, and Helena, who realizes that she is the cause of her husband's downfall, declares herself in court as the accomplice in the murderer's escape. Helena, now that she is to be indicted in her husband's place and being cognizant of his great love, which she feels is lost forever, is about to commit suicide when her husband appears and tells her that the law has been satisfied by the death of Jim, whom they have learned was drowned in South America. The governor and his wife are reconciled.

Dir: John H. Collins

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

Evelyn and her boyfriend William Bard are members of a small Shaker community. They rock the community one day when they announce that they want to get married and have children, in direct opposition to the Shaker prohibition against marriage and procreating. The Shakers drive the couple out of town, but before she leaves Evelyn gives birth to a daughter, Eve. Shortly afterward Evelyn dies, and the Shakers inform William that their daughter Eve has died also. William leaves town, but vows to take his revenge on the Shakers, whom he blames for the loss of his family.

Dir: John H. Collins

Young Henry Clay Madison, a clerk, falls in love with Flossy Wilson, a prostitute from New York's East Side. Although she reforms under his influence, Flossy believes that she is unworthy of Madison and rejects his marriage proposal. Seventeen years later, Madison's nephew Bert, a social worker, falls in love with wanton Fifty-Fifty Mamie, reforms her and elicits her help in his work. Bert falls ill, and when Mamie tries to visit him, Madison, who now is concerned only with money, convinces her to give up the idea of marrying Bert. Mamie goes to work in Madison's canning factory to investigate conditions. In addition to employing children, Madison's factory has no fire escape and only one staircase, which catches fire, many children die and Mamie is seriously injured. Madison visits Mamie, who cries Bert's name in delirium. When Madison brings Bert, now recovered, Madison notices a photograph of Flossy, Mamie's mother and realizes that Mamie is his daughter. She dies in Bert's arms, and Madison resolves to toil for the welfare of workers and the end of child slavery.

Dir: John H. Collins

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

In order to avenge the disgrace and subsequent death of her sister, New York theatrical star Audrey Graham joins an 1870's caravan bound for the Western town of Silver Bar, where Alvin Steele, the man who betrayed Audrey's sister, now lives. The homesteaders run out of supplies and are dying of thirst on the parched Western plains when they reach the hideout of an outlaw named Zachary Wando. Zachary at first refuses them water, but Audrey, disguised as a child, melts his heart and he relents. After learning of Audrey's deception, however, he threatens to hold her captive unless she brings Steele, with whom his wife Lou is having an affair, to his camp. Audrey locates Steele, captivates him with her beauty, and then leads him to Zachary, who gives Lou a gun and orders her to choose between them. Lou shoots Steele and is then reconciled to her husband, while Audrey returns to New York, her desire for vengeance satisfied.

Dir: John H. Collins

The story of two young sisters: one a demure musician in love with a scoundrel who's no good for her; the other a wild free spirit who is the object of a shy young carpenter's affections.

Dir: John H. Collins

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

Perry Bascom comes to the town of Rising Sun, Indiana, to take charge of the sawmills which have for years been managed by his father's best friend, Col. Henry Clay Risener. His father's half-brother, Jack, has brought the name into disrepute in the town, so he (Perry) decides to be known as Jim Nelson. Perry sees June, who has been sent away from the poorhouse. He shares his lunch with her and protects her from the attentions of Ben Boone, the political bully of the town. June finds a home with old Jacob and Cindy Tutwiler, taking the place of their own daughter, whom Jacob had banished from home eighteen years before, and whose picture has been turned to the wall. Perry becomes the conservative candidate for Congress, opposing Ben Boone, who is the candidate of the liberal party. Perry asks June to marry him if he proves successful. Perry receives a call from Sue Eudaly, with whom he has gone through a marriage ceremony, but whom he left on finding she had a husband living. Her husband, Jim White, has disappeared, and she defies Perry to prove her previous marriage. She threatens to go to the rival candidate with her information, and Col. Risener, as Perry's campaign manager, buys her off. June is alarmed at the interest Sue shows in the man she loves, and Perry urges her to marry him at once, secretly. June continues to live with the Tutwilers. She has discovered that their daughter, who had married a hated Bascom, was her own mother, and that she is the granddaughter of Jacob and Cindy. Ben Boone has fallen in love with Sue, and his affection is returned. At the political rally June leads the village band, trying to drown out the voice of Boone when he harangues the crowd. The tide seems to be turning against Boone. Sue, deciding to explode a bomb in the camp of his opponents, takes her stand beside Perry and tells them he is a Bascom. She says she knows the wife he has deserted. June says that it is not true, since she herself is his wife. But the townspeople will not listen. They believe that he has deceived June, and refuse to believe anything good of a Bascom. The Tutwilers take June home with them and Perry is ordered to get out of town. Perry goes to the Tutwilers' to see June before he leaves. Sue is there. He denies that she is his wife, but she horrifies them all by saying that if Perry's father lured June's mother away from home. Perry and June are brother and sister. Cindy dispels that thought by producing a photograph of June's father. It is Jack Bascom, the half-brother of Perry's father, not a true Bascom by birth. Perry goes away to obtain proof of Sue Eudaly's husband, and June leaves the house, refusing to have anything to do with her grandfather until he retracts his insults to Perry. Ostracized by the townspeople, June lives in a humble cottage, where her child is born. Cindy goes to see the little one, but June will not permit Jacob to come until he admits that he is sorry. Perry at last returns with proof of Jim White's marriage to Sue. He seeks Boone at the mill. Boone cannot understand why Sue refuses to marry him. She finally tells him it is because she has a husband living, and that husband is Perry. Boone attacks Perry and overpowers him. Placing him on the log-carriage, he turns the great lever. He has locked June, who has followed her husband, inside the office. Then he and Sue make their escape. Through the glass door June watches her husband's body approaching the teeth of the saw. Breaking the glass of the door, she plunges out, and, reversing the lever just in time, saves Perry from the saw. Misfortune overtakes Sue and Boone, and with their baneful influence removed, June, Perry and the little one begin a happier life in the little town, with the love and respect of all.

Dir: John H. Collins

In going for a doctor for her sick grandfather, Sally Castleton is detained at the toll-gates by John Derr. The old man dies and the villagers organize themselves into a band of night riders to break down the gates. Jed, who is known as "The Killer," turns traitor, and in the fight with the authorities, Milt, Derr's cousin, loses his hat. Derr finds it and assumes that he is responsible for the raid by the sheriff. Sully is in love with Milt, and Derr, who also wants to make her his wife, threatens to send his cousin to the gallows if she does not consent to be his. Milt hears of Derr's intention and plans to secure revenge. Derr is killed and Sally becomes involved in the murder. After many exciting moments Sally emerges triumphant, however, and marries the man of her heart's choice.

Dir: John H. Collins

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of The Girl Without a Soul perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

President of the Buttonhole Makers' Union Abe Cohen, loses his job in Sam Blumenthal's East Side sweatshop when he endorses Timothy Murphy for alderman over Steve O'Roque, to whom Blumenthal is indebted. After Murphy helps Cohen start a kosher restaurant, Cohen learns that he and his former co-worker, Kitty McGee, won $10,000 in the lottery. He gives free meals to his customers, but when Kitty discovers that her purse containing half of the ticket was stolen, Cohen clears the "loafers" out. Cohen's daughter Minnie, in love with Blumenthal, secretly marries him, but Blumenthal, already married although separated from his wife, keeps Minnie's ring and their marriage certificate. Doubting the marriage, Cohen turns Minnie out, but when Blumenthal's wife appears, and Minnie's suitor, David Moss, whom Cohen likes, finds her, the marriage is invalidated and Cohen reconciles with his daughter. Mixing with the underworld, Cohen outwits the thief who stole Kitty's ticket. Despite a flood coming down from the apartment above, the ensuing celebration marks Minnie and David's engagement.

Dir: John H. Collins

Norton Burbeck, a young man in line for a large inheritance, is in love with the beautiful Beatrice Gaden. What he doesn't know is that she is conspiring with Norton's cousin Howard to swindle Norton out of the inheritance. Norton, however, has an ace up his sleeve that Beatrice and Howard don't know about.

Dir: John H. Collins

Feodor Turov, chief of the Russian Czar's secret police, orders his Cossacks to attack a village he believes to be infested with rebels. The Cossacks attack the village and massacre almost everyone, and the young Katerina is whipped to death. Before escaping to England, her sister Darya swears to avenge her sister's death. Years later--now one of the world's most famous prima ballerinas--she returns to Russia. Turov falls in love with her and manages to secure a meeting. She coyly asks him to take her to see a prison first. As it turns out, what he has planned for her is nothing compared to what she has planned for him.