Hand-Picked Alternatives for Fans of Rugged Water: Cult Guide

Dir: Irvin Willat

During World War I, a professional thief known as The Lone Wolf is assigned to steal a cylinder with important information from behind the German lines and bring it to Allied intelligence headquarters. However, German agents set out to stop him, headed by the man who was responsible for the death of the thief's sister.

Dir: Irvin Willat

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

Nance Pelot is bravely trying to support herself and her father Joe, the town drunk, by playing piano in an unsavory roadside inn owned by Larry Shayne. Chet Todd, the son of a shop owner, is in love with her, but her reputation has been sullied by her profession, so Chet's mother disapproves of her. Nance inherits a small farm from her mother, and when Shayne discovers that the property is valuable, he plots to cheat her out of her inheritance. After a series of misadventures, including a revival meeting and a blinding snowstorm, Joe stops drinking and Chet rescues the farm from Shayne. When Nance sells the property, she gains a respectable income, as well as the respect of the community and her future mother-in-law.

Dir: Edward LeSaint

When famous opera singer Elinore Duane undergoes an operation on her throat, she has a series of ether-induced visions. In one, she is transported to ancient Rome where she appears as a much-admired woman in love with Paul, a young heretic, and at odds with Lutor, the high priest. To save her love, she poisons Lutor with her ring. After several other visions which involve variations on this love triangle, Elinore awakens to discover that Lutor is actually her doctor, Sascha Jaccard, and that Paul is the son of a friend who has come to visit the recovering prima donna.

Dir: Robert N. Bradbury

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of A Sister to Salome perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

A simple country girl, brutally mistreated by her stepfather, awakens first the sympathy, then the love, of The Boy. The Spider, who lusts after The Girl, makes a bargain with the stepfather and takes her to the city where, kept prisoner, she is soon broken in health and spirit. Cast out and near death, she is taken in by The Boy. Following the demise of The Spider, The Boy takes her to church, where he prays, and after many hours she is restored to health.

Dir: Irvin Willat

A German-American naval officer takes revenge against the German submarine commander who brutalized his wife.

Dir: Alexander Butler

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

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

Dir: Irvin Willat

A widely respected deep-sea diver is approached by a ring of con artists who want him to be the front man for a phony scheme to recover gold from sunken ships. When he refuses, they send a sexy young woman to seduce his son, and then blackmail the father into going along with their scheme.

Dir: Irvin Willat

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

When cowboy Nick McCredie notices in a second-hand book an inscription to "Emily, the prettiest girl in school," he writes to her and learns that she is a lonely Eastern farm girl living with her grandmother. Instead of sending his own picture to her, Nick encloses a photo of his handsome friend Pen Walton. After Nick sees Walton stealing two horses, Nick agrees to keep quiet, when Walton promises to reform. Meanwhile, Emily's grandmother dies, and her new guardian tries to force her to marry him. She writes to Nick, who proposes by letter. Nick meets her, but identifies himself as "Andy," and when she says she would be disappointed if Nick was not as handsome as his picture, he shows her the way to Walton, and rides off alone. After Walton rustles another horse and plants Nick's glove as evidence, he abducts Emily. She escapes, and riding the stolen horse, she leads the rest to the ranch in time to stop Nick's hanging. After the real identities are revealed, Nick and Emily marry.

Dir: Irvin Willat

Jailed unjustly for a murder he did not commit, a young man uses his amazing powers of escape to free himself and pursue the actual killers, who hold his fiancée captive.

Dir: Edgar Jones

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