Underground Favorites Mirroring the Impact of Sailor Be Good: Cult ...

Dir: James Cruze

Walsingham Van Dorn, a rather unsuccessful book agent, is stunned to learn that he has inherited forty million dollars from his two uncles. Van Dorn asks his attorney Wilkins to handle the responsibilities entailed in managing the fortune and then retires to his mansion. One evening, however, he is awakened by a young woman named Desiree Lane, who refuses to leave until the two million dollars that his uncles swindled away from her father is restored. Van Dorn tries to return the money but discovers that Wilkins has stolen it and fled. Van Dorn and Desiree set out to find him, but when the hotel in which they have stopped for the night burns down, they are left standing in the street clad only in pajamas. To avoid a scandal, they marry and happily settle down. Two years later, Wilkins, unable to handle the fortune, returns it, but the young couple wonders whether they will continue to be happy as millionaires.

Dir: James Cruze

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

A young man pursues a young lady with the same energy he applies to his other obsession in life, auto racing.

Dir: James Cruze

When the brokerage firm of Blatch, Markham and Driggs dissolves, Markham steals company records and the option of a valuable mine. Meanwhile, Blatch, who wants the option to expire so he can then purchase it at a low price, hires attorney Burley Hadden to convince Driggs that he is trying to recover it. Hadden sees John Craig, a bungling construction contractor who needs $800 for his payroll, running nervously from the pop of a paper bag, and offers the supposed "dub" $1,000 to retrieve the papers, thinking he will fail. After Markham tries to dupe John, he meets Enid Drayton, Markham's ward, who is being held a virtual prisoner in Markham's mansion. With the help of a friendly burglar, they retrieve the option and other papers which prove that Markham and Blatch had been cheating Driggs for years. After Driggs rewards John and informs Enid that she owns a million dollar estate, she and John embrace.

Dir: Reggie Morris

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

A fascinating piece of cinema that shares thematic elements.

Dir: James Cruze

An inventor travels to the South Seas, where there is buried treasure belonging to a girl. The girl's father is being held captive by cannibals until she returns a pearl that belongs to one of their idols.

Dir: Unknown Director

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

The Judge needs a present for his wife's birthday, so Harry suggests a new corset. They go to the shop, but he's so embarrassed to ask the saleslady he hides in a phone booth.Harry goes in, but finds a GUY wearing one, and runs out.They both dress as women to get back in, but Mrs. Rummy gets there and chases him out.

Dir: James Cruze

A young man infiltrates the underworld by pretending to be a convicted burglar. While undercover, he meets a young woman who turns out to be no more a part of gangland than he, but with similar reasons for disguising herself.

Dir: Charley Chase

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

A young married couple volunteer to take charge of several orphans after the asylum has burned down. Of course they find their hands full with their troublesome charges.

Dir: James Cruze

When Captain Dieppe, an American agent of French descent, refuses to divulge confidential information he gathered for a small Italian principality until they pay him, he is pursued by secret service agent Guilamo Sevier to Fieramondi in Northern Italy. Dieppe agrees to help the lonely Count Fieramondi convince his wife to return from her isolated wing of their castle. The countess, after convincing her cousin Lucia to take her place in the castle, goes to Rome to raise money to pay Paul Sharpe, who is blackmailing her because of her gambling debts. Dieppe falls in love with Lucia, whom he thinks is the countess, and after he fights Sharpe and steals the evidence of the debts, he sacrifices his own love by preparing a reconciliation between the count and the countess. After Dieppe obtains his money from Sevier, the real identities are revealed. Finally the count and countess are reunited, while Dieppe and Lucia maintain their romance.

Dir: James Cruze

Young Jack Wright offers his hand in marriage to the winner of a lottery, but after committing to the winner falls in love with another woman.