Editor's Top Picks Sharing the Atmosphere of Shadi Ki Raat: Cult Guide

Dir: Michael Curtiz

Edward Stephenson, the son of a great industrialist, is due to marry the daughter of another prominent business leader. But the boy prefers a modest employee of the latter, Maud Hartley, whose brother is an impossible rascal, murderer of a police officer. Maud is spurned by Edward who wrongly assumes she is unfaithful. Later, the girl is victim of a railway accident and then throws herself headlong into the easy life. Will the couple reunite again, for better or worse?

Dir: Ernest C. Warde

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

When young writer Brandon McShane is left penniless by the death of his father, he is forced to rent a room in the tenement district from the Mahon family. Brandon soon becomes infatuated with the fortune hunting Mimi Gascoigne, who casts him aside for a wealthy suitor. In search of revenge, Brandon acquires a magic skin which will gratify its owner's wishes, but which exacts years from the petitioner's life in payment. Brandon wishes himself wealth and his enemies unhappiness, and then lives in terror of the penalty he must pay. One day he meets Pauline Mahon who has loved him since his tenement days. Pauline convinces Brandon to wish the skin out of his life, and then he discovers that Pauline's love is the fulfillment of this last wish.

Dir: Edward F. Cline

A bank clerk ends up in a seemingly haunted house that is actually a thieves' hideout.

Dir: Rudolf Liebscher

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

A mad scientist, an Indian fakir and a Japanese conman walk into a lab - and try to resurrect a dead alchemist in order to discover the secret of creating gold.

Dir: F.W. Murnau

In the castle Vogeloed, a few aristocrats are awaiting baroness Safferstätt. But first Count Oetsch invites himself.. Everyone thinks he murdered his brother, baroness Safferstat's first husband, three years ago. So he is rather undesirable. But Oetsch stays; arguing he is not the murderer and will find the real one...

Dir: Julius Herska

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

France in the late 1600s, the son of a widowed lord is kidnapped by gypsies, who carve a permanent grin on the child's face. When the deformed boy grows up, he falls in love with a blind girl named Dea, and joins a touring company as a performer. Calling himself Gwynplaine, he develops an act in which he reveals his hideous face to the crowds for money. A sexually perverse, seductive socialite named Josiane becomes attracted to him and seeks to possess him.

Dir: Fritz Lang

When a woman's fiancé disappears, Death gives her three chances to save him from his fate.

Dir: F.W. Murnau

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

Vampire Count Orlok expresses interest in a new residence and real estate agent Hutter's wife.

Dir: Charles Raymond

A magician helps outwit a Chinaman's gang.

Dir: André Deed

The story begins with a scientist creating a device shaped like a man that can be remote-controlled by a machine.