The Definitive Watchlist Seeking the Same Brilliance as Shadows: Cu...

Dir: Reginald Barker

Mark Horn, once a lowly shoeshine boy, grows up to become a millionaire on Wall Street, but because of his experiences as a youth, still harbors a grudge against the rich. His money and position gain him entrance to high society, and he decides to drive wealthy Wayne Madison to ruin, agreeing to save Madison only if he lets Mark marry his daughter Viva. However, things don't turn out quite the way Mark intended.

Dir: Reginald Barker

A parson, in love with a girl who is betrothed to a rich Count in her family's hope of partaking in the Count's fortune, uses his pulpit in a scheme to shame the family into allowing the girl to break the engagement and marry him instead.

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

Dir: Reginald Barker

Confederate soldier Frank Winslow is terrified of the war and eventually runs away from battle. But when he finds himself behind enemy lines with vital information, he must decide between his fear and his conscience.

Dir: Reginald Barker

A poor ditch-digger, Pietro Massena, lovingly raises his motherless daughter Rosina. Phil Griswold, in order to throw a party to celebrate his expected inheritance, induces his friend Robbins to rob the flower shop where he works. After the inheritance goes to Phil's brother William, who refuses Phil money to return to the flower shop, Phil abducts William's daughter Dorothy and sends a "Black Hand" ransom demand to throw suspicion onto Pietro, who earlier frightened Dorothy when he delivered a Christmas tree to William's house. William drives into the slums looking for Pietro and accidentally runs down Rosina. The grieving Pietro goes to the flower shop on Christmas morning to buy a rose for Rosina's coffin and is accused of the kidnapping, because Phil arranged to have a man known by "the sign of the rose" pick up the ransom money there. Pietro threatens to kill the arresting detective so that he can return to his "bambino," when William arrives with news that Dorothy has been found. William offers Pietro compensation, but he refuses and sorrowfully returns home.

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

Dir: Reginald Barker

In war-torn Europe, Colonel Damien seizes an enemy town, then to persuade the defeated soldiers to give up their ill-gotten money, the Emir of Balkania, commander of the supporting native troops, threatens to unleash his men on the women who are staying in the town abbey. After giving the captured men a payment deadline, Damien collapses in a chair and falls asleep. As he sleeps, the emir goes to the abbey where Sylvia, the colonel's daughter, is staying in secret. He offers to free the other women in exchange for her sexual favors, but after complying with his demands, she shoots and kills him. When Damien discovers the emir's corpse, he orders the assassin shot, and covered in a veil, Sylvia is promptly executed. After her body is identified, the colonel is overcome with grief. Finally, he wakes up in his armchair and, realizing the tragedy was only a dream, orders his troops to leave the town in peace.

Dir: Reginald Barker

A young Italian immigrant girl, uneducated and superstitious, finds an abandoned baby on the stairs of her tenement, with a note attached explaining the baby is illegitimate. A young newspaper reporter, whom the girl knows from waiting on him at the restaurant where she works, reads the note for her. But the police arrest her, at no evidence whatsoever other than possession of the baby, for kidnapping. She refuses to tell them the baby was abandoned and fatherless, because she was herself, and confesses, in order to save the baby from being branded a bastard, that she stole it. The reporter goes to the jail and elicits the truth from her. And then proposes to her and adopts the baby.

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

Dir: Reginald Barker

Japanese diplomat Tokoramo ( Sessue Hayakawa ), on a mission to Paris, begins a love affair with chorus girl, Helene ( Gladys Brockwell ), who subsequently rejects her American fiance, Richard Bernisky. When the Japanese discover the affair, they try to force Tokoramo to end it, but Helene refuses to stop visiting him. One night, during one of her visits, Bernisky comes to Tokoramo's apartment and, while Helene hides, rebukes her to her lover. After Bernisky leaves, Tokoramo orders Helene out, but when he realizes his love for her, he calls her back. Suddenly, she rejects and insults him to the point that he strangles her. Tokoramo wants to confess his crime, but he must complete his work, and so his countrymen sacrifice a boy, Hironari, who pleads guilty to the murder and eventually is executed. In the end, Tokoramo also dies and his colleagues burn his valuable papers in order to protect Japan.

Dir: Reginald Barker

An American sailor falls in love with a fisherman's daughter and convinces her that Jesus is more powerful than the gods who have cursed her.

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

Dir: Reginald Barker

"Honest Jim" Martin is elected by popular vote to the U.S. Senate in the fight against the Railway Land-Grab Bill. When Jim goes to Washington his mother accompanies him. At the first reception of the season, Jim is introduced to Harriet Lane, the most dangerous woman in the Capital, by Wm. Landers, chief of the secret railway lobby. Harriet is a lobbyist and is supposed to win the votes of the senators for the Land-Grab Bill. Jim becomes fascinated by Harriet's wit and beauty and she and Landers set a snare for him. Harriet writes him that she is in great trouble and asks him to call at her hotel. In his sympathy for her he places his arm about her and she leans against him, burying her face against his shoulders. As she does this she manages to loosen her hair, which falls in a tangled mass over her shoulders. She also disarranged her waist, giving evidence of a struggle having taken place between herself and Jim. While they are in this position Landers snaps their picture from a curtained doorway where he is concealed. He then confronts Jim and tells him that the negative will be given the newspapers if Jim doesn't give them his vote. Jim leaves the hotel in no pleasant frame of mind, first telling Harriet of his scorn for her. Harriet, who has become friendly with Jim's mother, is very unhappy because of the part she has been obliged to play and when Mother Martin calls on her that afternoon, bringing her a pie which she has baked herself for Harriet's birthday, Harriet determines to get the negatives from Landers and destroy them. To do this, she goes to Lander's office that night and unable to open the safe, because Landers has anticipated some such move on her part and changed the combination, she telephones to police headquarters and asks them to send up an expert to open the safe. This is done and while Harriet and the expert are still in the office (Harriet with the negatives in her hand) Landers enters and snatches the negatives from her. He has drawn his pistol and as he stands there talking with the safe expert, Harriet snatches the pistol from his hand and shoots the negatives to pieces as they lay on Lander's desk. The next day she sends them to Jim with a note telling him that all the evidence the lobby had against him is enclosed and asking him in future to try to live up to his mother's belief in him.

Dir: Reginald Barker

Christ takes on the form of a pacifist count to end a senseless war.