Must-Watch List in the Vein of Run Tin Can: Cult Guide

Dir: Robert Thornby

The Highlanders and Lowlanders are sworn enemies until Lieutenant Kemper, the son of Brigadier Kemper, the leader of the militaristic Lowlanders, is held hostage by the Highlanders until his father's army has retreated to its own boundaries. Much to his surprise, the lieutenant is treated with kindness and consideration by his captors, especially by Boyadi and his beautiful daughter Nathalia, whom he learns to love. Thus, instead of obeying his father's command to escape at an appointed time when the Lowlanders plan to violate their pledge and storm the fortress, he keeps his promise to his captors and remains a prisoner. The Highlanders, inflamed by the Lowlander's broken word, are about to kill the lieutenant when news comes of the approach of another foe and, hailing the Kempers as saviors, the two former enemies unite to defeat this new foe.

Dir: Robert Thornby

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

Newt Spooner's determination to kill Henry Falkins. who has denounced Newt and sent him to prison, grows deeper rooted with the years. It seems that the red-branded hatred in his mind has seared its impression upon every fiber of his being. And then Minerva Rawlins enters his life. The change in Newt's nature does not come in a flash. Despite the influence of the girl he loves, he still cherishes his hatred. Fate throws the two men together in the Philippines. Amidst battle and bloodshed the vision of Minerva follows Newt. His opportunity to slay Henry Falkins occurs, but the influence of Minerva reaching out even across miles of salt ocean, stays his hand at the eleventh hour. How Newt's final stage on the upward path he has set himself to follow is reached, is depicted dramatically. The last barriers with which Newt has steeled his dark hatred are swept away and a woman's power saves him from himself and the vengeance of the law.

Dir: Robert Thornby

A feud over boundaries between the McKinstry and Harrison families, both from Kentucky, but squatting in California in search of gold, has caused Cressy McKinstry to show disdain for Joe Masters, a cousin of the Harrisons, even though she secretly loves him. Nellie Dabney, who left her husband Ben for city-bred John Ford but then was deserted by him, returns and is rejected by Ford, who is now the schoolteacher of the settlement and is attracted to Cressy. After Ben fights Ford and takes Nellie back, Cressy schemes with Ben for him to buy the land in her name. A San Franciscan representative of the legal owner arrives to take possession and provokes a fight at the boundary line which leaves Joe with a bullet in his arm. Cressy proves that the land belongs to her and Joe, who she will soon marry, and the families are reconciled.

Dir: Robert Thornby

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

As Nan Lorimer's mother lies dying, she makes Nan promise to take care of her younger sister Masie. Unfortunately, Masie falls for the shady Dr. Thornton and travels secretly around New York City to meet him. One night she is rescued during a subway accident by wealthy John Harwood, a miner, who falls in love with her and marries her. Although the two are deeply in love, John begins to neglect his wife for his mining business, and soon Masie begins to see Dr. Thornton again. Complications ensue.

Dir: Robert Thornby

According to old Mr. Barry's will, if his son Jim fails to marry, the vast Barry estate will revert to the O'Maras. When one night Jim, an irresponsible drunk, falls down the stairs and is given until morning to live, Mrs. Barry, in order to protect the property from the O'Maras, pleads with Molly Shawn to marry her son. Molly, although in love with Barney Malone, agrees out of a sense of indebtedness to the Barry family, and the two are married. Much to everyone's surprise, Jim recovers and Molly pines for her sweetheart Barney until it is discovered that the priest who performed the ceremony was really a criminal who, to escape the law, had disguised himself in priests' robes. Overjoyed, Molly is disentangled and now free to marry Barney, the man she loves.

Dir: Robert Thornby

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

Captain Ford, U.S.A., is sent down south to trail a gang of moonshiners. Jefferson Gwynne, a lovable but rather hot-headed young southerner, believes Ford is aiding the negroes in their political fight against the whites, and as Ford is compelled to keep his mission secret, Jefferson conceives a violent dislike for this agitator as he believes Ford to be, and makes no pretension of concealing his aversion. Georgia Gwynne, Jefferson's young sister, on the other hand, is attracted to the young northerner, and after her saves her in a runaway accident, their friendship develops rapidly, to the dismay of Paul Fitzhugh, Georgia's cousin, who is much in love with her. When Georgia refuses Paul's offer of marriage, he accuses her of being in love with the strange agitator, but she also ignores his remarks and he goes away angry. Jefferson accuses Ford of stirring up the negroes to vote against the whites. Ford tries to quiet the excited boy, but his calmness only tends to heighten Jefferson's anger, and drawing Ford's sword from his scabbard, he begins a fight. Ford defends himself with a piece of wood. A scuffle ensues, and Jefferson falls wounded. Ford rushes to the house for assistance. While he is gone, Sampson, a negro political leader, who hates the Gwynnes, steals up and seeing the wounded boy and the sword lying at his side, is possessed of a demoniacal idea. He seizes the sword, and plunges it into the boy's body. Captain Ford, coming up with Georgia, her father and others, is overcome to find Jefferson dead. Circumstantial evidence points to Ford as the criminal, and despite his vehement protest of innocence, he is led away to prison. Georgia alone believes in him and comforts him with her assurance of faith. Paul, who saw Sampson stab the boy, and knows therefore that Ford is innocent, is torn by conflicting emotions, but his hatred of his rival, and his desire to get him out of the way proves stronger than a sense of justice, and he conceals his knowledge of the crime, and allows Ford to be led away to prison. Despite the unpleasantness of his surroundings in prison. Ford conducts himself bravely and manfully. In defending an old negro against the guard, he incurs the enmity of that official, and in revenge the guard has him whipped by the negro Sampson, who had been in prison for stealing a ballot-box. Angered by this unnecessary indignity, Ford still submits in silence, but that night when the prison catches fire, he seizes the opportunity to escape, and is trailed by the guards with dogs to Georgia's home. Georgia scarcely recognizes in this worn, haggard prisoner, the man whom she loves, but she receives him gladly, and struggles hard to conceal him from the guard. Her efforts, however, are futile; the door is broken in and Ford dragged out. Georgia has read that an individual can lease any convict he or she may desire, by applying to the Governor for a permit, and she determines now to make use of this knowledge. By clever maneuvering, she manages to detain the arresting party, white she rushes a messenger to the Governor, with an application for the releasing of Ford. Just as the guards are ready to lead Ford away, the messenger returns with the permit, signed by the Governor, and Georgia demands that the prisoner be turned over to her. Ford finds his new captivity much to his liking, and the affection between captor and captive rapidly grows. The old negro, whom Ford defended in prison, is released, and hurries to Col. Gwynne. to toll him the real truth about the murder; how Sampson, talking in his sleep, revealed how he seized the sword and killed Jefferson. By a clever re-enactment of the murder scene, Sampson is led to confess the truth. Ford is cleared, and he and Georgia are happy in each other's love.

Dir: Robert Thornby

Susie is the daughter of a very good bricklayer. The lad who loves her is a very rich lad, as all lads should be, but, alas are not. To win her, he poses as a hod-carrier, certainly an unromantic disguise for a wooer. His mother has social aspirations for him, with Newport as a base of action, but what cares he? He loves the bricklayer's daughter. Is it not simple? It is. Simple, but sweet. Later Susie gets rich by means of a legacy, and the bricklayer's family moves into opulent quarters. Then sweet Susie is elegantly-gowned, but no happier. What are mere dollars to sweet Susie? The main situation in which Susie figures is one of finance. Seeing that dollars mean unhappiness, she plans to induce her father to invest in the stock market and to let him believe that he has lost all. This scheme succeeds in bringing the picture to its ideal end, and Susie marries the lad who posed as the hod-carrier. - Picture Play Magazine 1917.

Dir: Robert Thornby

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

Vaudeville artist LaBelle Geraldine and her dancing partner Freddie Montgomery are stranded in Arizona when their troupe breaks up. In order to raise money, Geraldine orders Freddie to impersonate masked bandit Black Jim so that she may turn him in and collect the $2,000 reward. When the real Black Jim holds up her coach, Geraldine, believing that he is Freddie, boldly pulls out her gun, and the bandit shoots her in the wrist and takes her to his cabin. Later Freddie is captured too, but when members of the gang insult Geraldine, he refuses to protect her. Gradually Black Jim falls in love with her, and she comes to admire him so deeply that instead of seizing a chance to escape one night, she returns to warn him of the gang's plot to kill him. Together they hold the gang off until their cabin is set on fire. Dashing through the flames, they leap onto their horses and escape to safety.

Dir: Robert Thornby

Young Celeste Janvier ( Bessie Love ) lives in an East Side tenement with her immigrant grandfather, a humanitarian and socialist. Like her kindly grandfather, Celeste also has a kindhearted soul, and her friendly nature has earned her the nickname, " the little sister of everybody." When several unpleasant men try to court her, Celeste turns them down. Meanwhile, Hugh Tavers Jr., ( George Fisher ) whose father owns a factory, has died suddenly. The young Tavers poses as a laborer in order to understand why the workers want to strike. He meets and falls in love with Celeste, who works at the factory, and he secures a better job for her. Celeste learns that anarchist Ivan Marask ( Hector Sarno ) plans to kill Travers, she hurries to warn her employer and is shocked to learn that he is the poor laborer whom she loves. Marask comes to respect Travers, who agrees to improve working conditions for the factory workers, and finds lasting contentment with the lovely Celeste.

Dir: Robert Thornby

Bradford Stewart, a young American surgeon studying in Germany, is dining in Cologne with a German friend, Ritter Bloem, a philosopher and a patriotic German. The latter is called away by German officers, and on his return announces to Stewart that war has been declared. After Bloem's departure, Trapadoux, chief of the French Secret Service maintained in Germany, who has been listening to their conversation, accosts Stewart, claiming to be one of the German police agents, inspects his passport, and learns to which hotel he will go in Aachen, which is his next destination. Frau Schanne, the proprietress of the Holmer Hof, secretly maintains French sympathies, but her servant, Hans, is a German spy. In Stewart's absence from his room, Trapadoux brings Frau Schanne a package, the contents of which he instructs her to place in Stewart's baggage to avert police suspicion during their later moves. Upon his return to his room Stewart finds in his luggage a lady's slippers, silk hose and dainty lingerie. The door of his room is opened and Little Comrade hurries in, embraces him fondly and calling him husband. Outside the door Hans listens, perplexed and a little suspicious, but had he not seen the lady's garments in Stewart's belongings? Perhaps, after all, she is his wife. After making sure of Hans' retirement, Little Comrade explains to Stewart that she is a French spy fleeing from Germany with secrets stolen from the German officers with whom she has been wont to flirt in Alsace-Lorraine; that even now they are on the watch for her and that if she is brought back, death will be the penalty. Stewart consents to help her, and watches while she forges an addition to his passport, adding to his own name and description, the description of herself as his wife traveling with him. Together they pass the gauntlet of police inspection and board the train for Brussels. At the frontier the train is held up and all passengers inspected. The police inspector stationed there holds Stewart and his "wife" for the coming of a German' officer from Metz to identify Little Comrade. One of the French spies on the frontier summons Trapadoux, who comes in the guise of the officer from Metz, and after inspecting Little Comrade, states that she is not the woman spy they feared. In the morning they arrive at the Belgium camp, where they are welcomed, but a few hours later the Belgians muster in battle against the German invaders. Little Comrade and Stewart are wounded, and while Stewart goes for a stretcher for her, she is captured by a genuine officer from Metz, who takes her to German headquarters and denounces her as a spy. Bloem, who is in command is unable to persuade her to confess. When Stewart discovers Little Comrade gone, weak from loss of blood, he becomes unconscious for several days. Upon regaining consciousness he learns that Little Comrade has been captured, so he concentrates his energies on delivering to General Joffre the papers she confided to his keeping. In gratitude, General Joffre bestows on Stewart the ribbon of the Legion of Honor, but overwhelmed by his loss and weak from this last effort, Stewart is borne away delirious. At the German headquarters, Bloem finding Little Comrade obdurate, is about to pass sentence upon her when she begs him to send her last words of love to Stewart. Finding that Stewart is her lover, Bloem, whose life was once saved by Stewart, refuses to condemn her, claiming that there is not sufficient evidence, and sends her back to "her American husband." There follows a joyous reunion in the hospital between Stewart and Little Comrade.