Cinematic Discoveries Resonating with the Themes of Sands of Sacrif...

Dir: Edward Sloman

Bob Stephany, "The Twinkler," is completing a long stretch in prison. He has saved the life of Old Doc, in charge of the dynamo room, and the old man promises to repay Bob, should the opportunity present itself, Bob's fiancée, Rose Burke, whose father, Daddy Burke, has a prison record, comes to visit Bob. She tells him she has but one dream, and that comes to her every night. She pictures Bob in a responsible position, and their living in a vine-clad cottage. Bob is won over by the idea and promises to go "straight." Freed from prison, "The Twinkler" sets about to get honest work. A crooked detective discovers him and he is forced to submit to blackmail rather than lose his job. The chief, Boss Corregan, meets Rose and makes advances to her. At the Political Ball he annoys the girl and Bob comes to her rescue. Daddy Burke, Rose and Bob disappear. The next day Corregan tells Bob to send for Rose to come to his office because he wishes to apologize to her. Bob suspects that Corregan has designs on Rose and tells her to bring his revolver with her. Corregan has Bob jailed on a false charge, and when Rose comes to his office she is greeted by Boss, who takes her into his arms. In the struggle which ensues. Rose fires Bob's revolver and Daddy, who is at the window, also fires a shot and runs away. The police arrive at the scene and find Corregan dead and Rose in a faint. Rose is held for the murder and Bob is released. He is unable to find Daddy and resorts to stealing to secure the money to fight for Rose's freedom. However, Rose is sentenced to execution. On the day before Rose's scheduled execution Bob meets Daddy Burke. The old man has been seriously injured and when told of Rose's predicament confesses that he was responsible for the fatal shot. Bob hurries to the Governor with Daddy's signed statement. The Governor sends his secretary to the prison with a pardon for Rose. Bob boards a train tor the prison city. A fearful storm comes up and all telegraph and telephone communication is cut off. Bob sees a well-groomed man displaying a wallet and he cannot resist the temptation to steal it. He escapes from the train and finds his way to a deserted cabin. Here he opens the wallet and to his horror discovers that he has robbed the Governor's secretary and has Rose's pardon in his possession. Realizing that all communication is cut off, Bob hurries to a nearby town. Here he sees a train and boards it. He arrives at the prison an hour after the time set for Rose's electrocution. There he learns that Old Doc, who has learned of "The Rose's" identity, has been the means of saving her life. He had placed a file in the dynamo and when the switch was turned on, the armature had burned out and it was necessary to send to another town for a new one. "The Twinkler" makes a clean breast of his guilt and produces Rose's pardon. The prison officials agree to forget the incident and set both Bob and Rose free. Old Doc smilingly watches them go.

Dir: Edward Sloman

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

Episode 1: "Fate and Death" Arthur and Esther Stanley and son, little Arthur, en route from Virginia to England, are victims of a train wreck. Father and mother are killed but the child escapes death. Quabba, the gypsy, now the king of the band, learns of the accident from his followers. He hastens to the wreck and finds the bodies of Arthur and Esther Stanley but finds no trace of their son. De Vaux, the conspirator, who has been shadowing the Stanleys, is also present at the wreck. He finds little Arthur and discovers The Diamond From the Sky suspended from his neck. He transfers the jewel to his pocket and disappears into the night carrying off little Arthur. Later Quabba sees De Vaux carrying the child into an orphanage, temporarily used as a hospital. Quabba awaits his chance and steals the child.

Dir: Edward Sloman

Marion Moore's sweetheart, Frank Kenyon, a young author interested in social reform, discovering that Marion's father is the owner of the worst factory in the city, pleads with her to persuade him to make better working conditions. Marion refuses. The season's society event is an entertainment for the benefit of the Belgian War Victims. Marian is to play "Humanity." That day, Mina, a child working in the factory, has her hand mangled in a machine. Frank learns of the accident from Bud and determines to bring the lesson home to Marian. He bribes her chauffeur to drive Marian to Mina's home. Marian is forced to enter the house with him. They find Mina alone and almost unconscious from an overdose of an opiate. The only hope of saving the child is by keeping her awake until he can summon medical aid. He orders Marian to walk the girl until he returns. Then he dashes away in the machine. Marian, seeing another machine approaching, leaves the child, and persuades the owner to drive her to the entertainment. When Frank returns, Mina is past saving. Wild with rage, he sets out for the entertainment. Marian has just achieved a great success when he arrives. He creates a sensation by mounting the platform and scathingly denouncing the shallow society people before him. Marian later hands him back his ring. He drives her by force to Mina's home. Marian is taken aback when she discovers that the animal mother is not weeping for love of Mina, but she wonders how she will ever pay for a cheap piano now that Mina's wages will no longer be forthcoming. Marian promises to attend to the payments. Marian laughs scornfully at Frank. Frank determines to wage a relentless war against Moore until conditions are modified. As champion of the working people, he is elected to the legislature. Frank introduces his bill for better factories. After much excitement, it is passed. Since the accident to Mina, Bud has been working to perfect a number of safety devices. With the idea of cheating the boy, Moore goes with him to a cabinet at one end of the building to look them over. Meanwhile a blaze has started. Soon the flimsy structure is ablaze. Marian escapes with the girls, hut Moore and Bud are trapped in the cabinet. From the roof of an adjoining building Frank throws a rope to the factory, where it fastens around a cornice. Then he makes his way hand over hand across the rope to the burning building, breaks through a skylight, and lowers a rope to Bud. Moore shoves the boy aside. Frank, angered, lowers the rope again for Bud. Moore rushes to the edge of the building. But as he hangs midway, the flames reach the rope, and he plunges to his death. A few weeks later the newspapers announce large gifts to charity from an anonymous source. Through Bud he discovers that it is Marian. The picture closes as she agrees to face the future with him.

Dir: Edward Sloman

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

Anxious to see the world, Nick Fowler boards a train bound for New York. On board he meets Jimmie Keen, a motion picture director, and sees a mysterious beautiful girl who leaves her purse behind. Nick retrieves the purse and inside it discovers a photo of the girl, inscribed with the name Gwendolyn Van Loon. After arriving in New York, Nick pays Keen a visit, but an impertinent office boy prevents him from seeing the director. After a series of similar disappointments in the big city, Nick continues to write glowing accounts of his life to his family back home. While he's writing a letter to his father one day, a guest at an adjoining desk drops a photo of Gwendolyn. The stranger introduces himself as Lord Boniface Cheadle, and Nick becomes an unwitting tool of the man who is in reality Steve Diamond, a crook. Under Cheadle's instructions, Nick goes to the Van Loon house and presents himself as Steve Diamond, which initiates a train of events that culminates in the escape of the real Lord Cheadle while Nick grapples with the crooks until the police arrive. It is then revealed that the whole adventure was invented by Nick to impress his dad, but when Keen reads the story, he is so impressed that he offers Nick a job as a scriptwriter and introduces him to the leading lady: Gwendolyn Van Loon.

Dir: Edward Sloman

"The Woman" is brought up on a farm by a miserly uncle who denies her the company of other young people. It is no wonder then that she is introduced by a traveling mining stock broker. When the uncle learns her plight, he puts her out. A storm is raging. The girl seeks shelter in the same place as the man who has seduced her. He persuades her to go to a nearby town and marry him. She does, but shortly after the ceremony she discovers that he is already married, when his wife and the police come and take him. Deserted and alone, the girl finds out that her uncle has been killed in the storm, and has left her his money. She takes it and goes to a small city where she lives. Five years later her little son is quite a lad, and they are living happily. The woman is known as a widow. Two men fall in love with her, a prominent physician and a broker. The broker wins his suit. Later her husband engages a chauffeur for the woman. When the man arrives at the house she discovers that it is the man who betrayed her. He threatens to expose her unless she keeps him supplied with money. She dares not refuse. He treats their son cruelly. One day the broker sees the chauffeur hit the lad and discharges him on the spot. The chauffeur again threatens the woman, this time telling her that if he does not get his job back he will reveal the truth about her. The woman goes to her husband's office when he is not in, and meets the chauffeur there. He flourishes a gun and a struggle ensues. The man is shot and the woman runs away. The coroner finds a locket in the hand of the dead man that belongs to the woman. He keeps the incriminating bit of evidence for the trial. The woman hides herself, unknowing that her husband has been arrested for the murder. A vision of the penitentiary causes her to hasten to court where she tells of the man's attack upon her. This testimony clears the husband, and both are discharged. She determines to have her mind free of the shadow of her secret, and tells her husband the true story of her life when they return home. She is forgiven.

Dir: Edward Sloman

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

Having overslept on the morning of his wedding, James Page is rushing to the home of his bride, Marah Manning, when he sees Jed Baldwin being attacked. He goes to Jed's rescue and is arrested for his efforts. After being released, James discovers that Marah has called off the wedding; to console himself he ventures West with Baldwin. His troubles just begin when he arrives in Arizona and, mistaken for outlaw Pete Rawley, is thrown in jail. Meanwhile, the real Rawley holds up Marah and her father, who are searching for James and takes the two to his mountain retreat, where they believe that James is their captor. Then Pete's sweetheart Phoebe helps James escape, believing that he is Pete, and takes him to the mountain retreat where they find the real Rawley. After the couples straighten themselves out, Pete and Phoebe escape across the border and Marah forgives James.

Dir: Edward Sloman

Young Jeffrey Claiborne, the son of a wealthy father, comes to the aid of pretty Betty Jane Moir, who is being bothered by a lecherous chauffeur. He accepts Betty's grateful offer of employment in her mother's taxi company. Smitten, Jeffrey proposes to her, but her mother, not knowing who he really is, dismisses him as not worthy of being her daughter's husband. Determined to prove his worth, he gets his chance when he discovers that Betty's mother is being blackmailed by a criminal gang.

Dir: Edward Sloman

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

Wealthy banker John Sevier is engaged to Elaine Morier, who runs an upscale gambling club with her father Gerald. One night at the club John stops a fight between club employee Jim Hammond and a wealthy young customer named Tom Leonard. He takes Leonard home and meets his sister Marion. The next day he discovers that his banking partner, Jim Collins, has made too many bad investments with the bank's money and the institution is in danger of going under. John promises to use his own money to save the bank, but Elaine, outraged, breaks off their engagement. However, Marion and Tom congratulate him on his courage in putting up his own money to save the bank. Elaine and her father--who were scheming to take John for his money all along--realize that they made a mistake and try to get the two back together again. Complications ensue.

Dir: Edward Sloman

During lunch, Cuthbert King asks his sister Phyllis for a loan to pay off his gambling debts. Upon leaving the restaurant, he accidentally takes the overcoat of antique jewelry dealer Grayson Blair. When Phyllis is unable to pay her bill, Grayson, attracted to her, picks up the check, but after he arrives home and discovers that a valuable Hindu necklace he had stored in his coat pocket is missing, he suspects Phyllis as the crook. Dressing up in her brother's clothes, Phyllis finds the necklace, suspects her brother, and seeks out Grayson, whom she has discovered to be the jewel's owner. After a series of mix-ups during which Rhi, who has been trailing the necklace to return it to the Hindu idol from which it was stolen, tries unsuccessfully to kill Grayson, the overcoat is recognized, everything is cleared up, and Grayson and Phyllis become engaged.

Dir: Edward Sloman

To maintain order aboard the Southern Cross, Bull Dorgan, its fierce captain, beats Pedro, a trouble-making sailor, who swears revenge as he steers the boat toward the wild Barbary Coast. While on shore, Bull hears the cries of Emily Gordon coming from a saloon, rescues her from the owner, and drags her and Hugh, a minister, to his departing ship. Bull refuses to believe that Emily came to the cabaret to visit a dying friend, but overcome with desire for her, he forces Hugh to marry them. Nine months later Emily gives birth, but Pedro, still bent on revenge, insinuates that the baby actually belongs to Hugh. When Bull goes to confront Emily with this accusation, he finds her in a compromising position with the minister. Taking advantage of Bull's confusion, Pedro foments a mutiny, but Bull and a devoted shipmate defeat the traitors. Eager to compensate Emily for her hardship, Bull allows her to return to land, but seeing his love for their child, she chooses to remain with the sea master.