Curated Recommendations Similar Cinematic Experiences to Ruth of th...

Dir: Ernest C. Warde

At the request of her dying father, heiress Laura Fairlie marries Sir Percival Glyde, despite her love for Walter Hartridge and the warnings of Ann Catherick, a half-witted girl who bears a striking resemblance to Laura. After the marriage, Glyde schemes to appropriate his wife's money. When he learns that Ann has escaped from an asylum and has perished, Glyde takes Laura to the asylum and commits her, claiming that she is Ann. He then informs everyone that his wife had died, and buries the body of the insane woman in her place. Walter and Laura's half sister, Marian Halcombe, become suspicious, however, and remembering Ann's previous warnings, discover what Glyde has done. After Glyde meets his death in a fire, Walter rescues Laura and the two lovers are reunited.

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.

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

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

"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.

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

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.

Dir: Ernest C. Warde

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.

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

Dir: Ernest C. Warde

Sailor Jesse, shipwrecked off the Texas coast, naively becomes involved with a cattle rustler. Because the sheriff believes in his innocence, Jesse finds work as a cowboy, but soon becomes infatuated with Polly, the medium for fake hypnotist Bull Brooks, and marries her. When he learns that Polly married to win a bet, Jesse attempts to take her from the town's influences to open spaces, but Brooks falsely reports that she killed herself rather than go. In the mountains, Jesse meets Kate Trevor, an opera singer who moved there to help her alcoholic husband who abuses her. After Trevor drowns trying to cross a river when he sees Jesse and Kate together, they marry, have a child, and are happy until Polly and Brooks arrive. Kate and Jesse separate, but when Jesse learns that Brooks is attacking Kate, Jesse fights him. Polly shoots Brooks, but before he dies, he reveals that Polly was married to another man when she married Jesse.

Dir: Ernest C. Warde

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.

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

Dir: Ernest C. Warde

In Hong Kong, William Neal helps Kirk Marden fight off a group of rowdies. Back in New York, Kirk again turns to William's assistance when his father's rivals plot to take control of the Marden railroad. William teaches Kirk how to open safes so that Kirk can procure papers outlining the takeover plans. While Kirk is robbing the safe, Janet Leslie, daughter of one of the conspirators, enters, and Kirk forces her to marry him so that she cannot testify against him. Kirk succeeds in reconciling his father with his rivals and in winning his new wife's love.

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.