Editor's Top Picks Following the Footsteps of Seven Keys to Baldpat...

Dir: Hugh Ford

Carlotta grows up in a Turkish harem and upon turning 18 finds out that her foster father plans to sell her to an old Turk. An Englishman helps her escape to Britain, but he is arrested upon their arrival.

Dir: Hugh Ford

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of When We Were Twenty-One perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

Richard "The Imp" Audaine is a clever but dissolute orphan whose guardian and friends are trying to lead him from the path of ruin and back to his senses.

Dir: Hugh Ford

Ramona is the daughter of the governor of Port Royal. She is a school girl living in Spain. John Barton, a soldier of fortune, is cast ashore in Spain penniless and scrapes an acquaintance with Ramona by rescuing one of her pets. He is putting up at a rather questionable tavern where he learns of a huge treasure buried by Firebrand, a pirate, and secures plans of the spot in which it is concealed. Ramona sails for Port Royal and Barton is on the same ship. Firebrand attacks the ship and captures as part of his booty Ramona, whom he appropriates for himself after Barton has been knocked overboard in her defense. Until the acquisition of Ramona, Firebrand's favorite has been Anna, who now becomes jealous of the Spanish beauty. After attempting to make Ramona accept his attentions peacefully, Firebrand vents his wrath upon her and orders her confined in one of his cabins. Barton, recovering from his injuries sufficiently to make his way ashore, stumbles upon the cabin in which Ramona is a prisoner but the jealous Anna discovers him and informs Firebrand of the supposed duplicity of his new favorite. The pirate chief rushes to the cabin and when he attempts to force his attentions upon Ramona she kills him. Anna denounces Ramona as the culprit and, in a fit of vengeance, suggests that Ramona be sold as a slave in the public market. Her rare beauty causes lively bidding among the men who attend the sale. Meanwhile Barton has gone in search of the buried treasure and has found it. He has bought a horse on which he comes in search of Ramona, only to find her on the slave block, with a horde of men frantically bidding for her. Plunging into the crowd, he fights his way to the front and forces the bidding until, after a soul-stirring scene, he succeeds in vanquishing his rivals, and rides off triumphant in search of a minister.

Dir: Hugh Ford

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

The story is of two artists, one a success and the other, although with far greater ability, lacks the funds with which to make the connections that contribute toward success. Both love the same woman, who selects the poor artist as her husband. Through a long period of stress and financial difficulties she emerges with the determination to aid her husband financially. On a visit from the rich artist to their home, he admires a painting of her husband's for which she had posed in the nude. The rich artist explains that he requires just such a model for the completion of a painting upon which he has been at work, "The Harem Market," and that he would be willing to pay thousands of dollars for her services. Later, the wife, in order to obtain the money with which to assist her husband, visits the rich artist, tells him she was her husband's model, and that she will accept his offer. In time, the husband learns of her act, and entirely misunderstanding her motive, denounces her as a false wife. How his faith in his sacrificing wife is restored, and how the dawn of a new life brightens before them is tenderly unfolded in the photoplay.

Dir: Hugh Ford

Bella Donna falls for the exotic Baroudi and plots to poison her husband.

Dir: Hugh Ford

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

A poor boy named Tom Canty and Edward, the Prince of Wales exchange identities but events force the pair to experience each other's lives as well.

Dir: Hugh Ford

When her husband is accused of murder, a woman pretends to be a "vamp" in order to seek out the real killer.

Dir: Hugh Ford

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

Kate Vernon returns to "Mizzoura," after attending a fashionable seminary and looks down on her former suitor, sheriff Jim Radburn, who, unknown to Kate, paid for her education. When a highwayman robs the train, Sam Fowler, an express messenger, is arrested as being an accomplice. After Kate gently refuses Jim's marriage proposal, she plans to elope with handsome Robert Travers from St. Louis, whom she met at school. When Sam, freed with Jim's help, recognizes Travers as the highwayman, Travers kills a detective and escapes because Jim will not spoil his record of never killing anyone. Travers tells Kate that Jim has framed him, and she hides him. Jim tracks Travers to Kate's house, and although he thinks that the mob should have him, he takes Travers to his own house, to hold him for trial, out of respect for Kate and the law. When the mob prepares to raid Jim's house, Travers is killed trying to escape. After Kate learns that Travers was already married, and that Jim paid for her education, her love for him returns and they marry.

Dir: Hugh Ford

Jean finds the boyish manner in which her late father raised her, is now causing quite a lot of trouble for her, and she ends up in a reformatory. After escaping this prison she meets Craig Atwood, a handsome artist, and now Jean must prove through a series of trials, that she is worthy of his love.

Dir: Hugh Ford

Daniel MacNeill seeks to avenge his childhood humiliation by the dissolute Lord Raa by forcing his daughter Mary to marry him with the stipulation that Raa would lose his claim to MacNeill's recently acquired fortune if he did not remain faithful. On her honeymoon in Egypt, Mary lives in name only with Lord Raa, who introduces his former mistress Alma Lier as Lady Raa. Mary meets explorer Martin Conrad, a former lover and makes love with him the night before he leaves on an Antarctic voyage. Mary then secludes herself in France where she gives birth to a child. When her father insists that she return to Lord Raa in India, Mary announces that the child's father is Conrad, divorces Raa and is disinherited. After learning that Conrad has been lost and her money is gone, Mary returns to London. In order to support her child, she turns to prostitution, and the first man she approaches turns out to be Conrad who has been searching for her. They marry and raise their child together. After Lord Raa's money is gone and he is deserted by Alma, he kills himself.