The Definitive Watchlist For Devotees of Ruler of the Road: Cult Guide

Dir: Ernest C. Warde

Toby, a peculiar young man, lives in a shack in the Kentucky hills, spending his days drinking moonshine and whittling toys for the local children. Fearful of his influence, the villagers revive an old Kentucky statute whereby Toby may be sold into servitude for a year. Virginia Dare, horrified by these proceedings, purchases Toby for one dollar and returns with him to her Uncle Poindexter's tobacco plantation. Invigorated by his love for Virginia, Toby forsakes his whiskey habit and labors diligently on the plantation until his old friend Dink Wallerby, a moonshiner, begs Toby to care for his sick daughter Nell. En route to obtain medicine, Dink stabs a revenue officer with Toby's knife but confesses just before Toby is sentenced. Toby, at one time a lawyer, successfully defends Dink, after which a visiting judge proclaims Toby his son. Having regained his good name, Toby proposes to Virginia.

Dir: Ernest C. Warde

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

"In Hidden Valley," Valkyrien is a white goddess who has been captured by savage blacks in South Africa. She is found by a young missionary, played by Boyd Marshall, and rescued from a sacrificial altar. Valkyrien was selected as the most perfectly formed girl in Denmark in a competition conducted by the government. The dance of the white goddess before the natives is one of the most beautiful scenes in the production. The Moving Picture World, August 5, 1916.

Dir: Ernest C. Warde

Wealthy businessman Carson Burr discovers first-hand the problem of social unrest when he loses his cook and his chauffeur and he is insulted by a waiter. Burr runs for mayor to improve the labor situation and is elected. The editor of The Red Messenger organizes the streetcar drivers to begin a general strike, but Burr manages to break up the strike by personally running a streetcar and backing it up with armed guards. The anarchists capture his son, but Burr will not back down. He calls together leading businessmen and proposes a cooperative plan that brings together capital and labor and puts a stop to future strikes. Capital and labor are also brought together when Burr's daughter becomes romantically involved with his valet turned personal secretary.

Dir: Ernest C. Warde

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

When Barbara Norton is left orphaned, she goes to live with her aunt and uncle. Time passes, now grown to adulthood, Barbara, becomes engaged to a wealthy young man who believes in pacifism. When the United States declares war on Germany, Barbara's fiance declines to enlist, and so Barbara gives him back his engagement ring and goes to France as a Red Cross nurse. En route, her steamer is torpedoed and Barbara is assumed to be drowned. Even this tragedy does not inspire the young man's patriotism and when solicited to enlist, he declares that the United States be damned. These sentiments shock an old friend of his father's, who brings the young man a copy of the book The Man Without a Country . Upon reading the book, the young man visualizes the story of Philip Nolan and is compelled to serve his country. As he is about to go to war, Barbara returns, and the two lovers embrace.

Dir: Ernest C. Warde

Lear is an old man blind to his weaknesses. He decides to divide his kingdom among his three daughters according to who recites the best declaration of love. Goneril and Regan pretend to love him but treat him cruelly. Cordelia is loyal but, confusing honesty with insolence, he disowns her.

Dir: Ernest C. Warde

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

Hillaire Latour, a warmhearted Canadian trapper, marries Rosalie Dufresne and then travels into the woods to seek his fortune as a lumberman. At the camp, he befriends "Spud" Lafferty, who for six years has tried unsuccessfully to return home with his money, each time falling prey to a beautiful woman who works in the saloon "down the hill." When Hillaire learns through a letter that he is a father, he asks for his money and begins the journey home, but on his first night away from camp, he enters the saloon, where he is robbed by the beautiful Louise. Forced to return to the lumber camp, Hillaire saves his money, but the next year he is cheated again. Louise is on the verge of robbing him a third time when Hillaire, in a rage, wrecks the dance hall and forces her to return his money. At the police station, Hillaire is reunited with his family, who have finally come in search of him.

Dir: Ernest C. Warde

When the circus comes to town, a mild-mannered man, whose good nature is viewed as weakness by wife, has the chance to prove himself when a lion escapes.

Dir: Ernest C. Warde

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

Although John Lynch owns a ranch, he earns his living gambling in the mining town of El Monte, California. His father Elias, a Virginia gentleman chagrined by his son's gambling, leaves to live outside the town in a cabin with his friend "Twisted" Tuttle. 'Bige Rivers, a road agent who looks like John, abuses his lover Nita, a dance hall girl, who then is cared for by John and his daughter Mary. Rivers and his band rob the midnight stage of gold and kill all the passengers at the same time that John is in the vicinity to visit his father. Rivers and his gang divide the money at Tuttle's cabin where he shoots Elias. Before he dies, Elias accuses John of the shooting. Nita's screams upon discovering Rivers hiding, bring the mob, about to lynch John, too late to save her. John shoots Rivers and is then released.

Dir: Ernest C. Warde

Dr. Primrose, the vicar of Wakefield, enjoys life with his wife and five children. His two daughters, Olivia and Sophia, are courted by two apparent gentlemen, Mr. Burchell and Squire Thornhill, who is Dr. Primrose's landlord. But when Mr. Burchell is supposed to have seduced and abandoned Olivia, the Primrose family finds its fortunes dwindling in every sense. It is learned that Burchell is innocent of the seduction, and the real villain is unmasked, but not before Primrose and his family come very near disaster.

Dir: Ernest C. Warde

A murderer is driven slowly insane by a sequence of coincidences and suggestive events which will not allow him to escape his own sense of guilt for his crime.