Hand-Picked Alternatives Movies That Echo the Spirit of She Loves a...

Dir: Chester Withey

A down-on-her luck streetwalker is ultimately redeemed by the love of a decent man.

Dir: Chester Withey

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

A young man planning to marry receives a cautionary tale from his bishop based on the sad tale of the bishop's own early romance.

Dir: Chester Withey

Genevieve Rutherford Hale, a pampered youngest child, reads an advertisement for women to work on farms to increase food production during World War I. After having her modiste make silk overalls which Genevieve models on Russian ballet attire, she arrives at the Hubbard ranch in New York State with her chauffeur, maid, and pet dog, to be a "farmerette." While Genevieve finds the chores difficult and the other girls unfriendly, Bobbie, the youngest Hubbard, discovers officer training camp to be equally discouraging. Although he is tempted to desert, Bobbie only leaves for one night to see his home again. He finds Genevieve crying in a potato patch, and together they resolve to do their patriotic duty. When a prying neighbor, seeing them together, tells the Hubbards that Genevieve was with a soldier, Genevieve remains silent about Bobbie's identity, and is banished from the ranch. After Bobbie gets a furlough and explains matters, the Hubbards apologize to Genevieve. Bobby proposes, and they plan to marry when he returns from "over there."

Dir: Chester Withey

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

A German-American father, loyal to his new U.S. home, finds himself on opposite sides with his son in the wartime conflict between Germany and America. The son becomes involved with German agents plotting against U.S., and the father must decide between his son and his adopted homeland.

Dir: Chester Withey

Polly, a young woman on the run from three unwanted suitors, checks into a hotel using an assumed name. This subterfuge leads a Secret Service agent to mistake her for a German spy, which in turn leads her to become unwittingly involved with real German spies.

Dir: Chester Withey

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

Betty Griffon delays her wedding to Harry Lindsey, because her brother Dick is late for the ceremony. Upon learning that her dear brother has been injured in an accident, Betty refuses to leave on her honeymoon until he has recovered. When Harry objects, Betty proclaims that he is insensitive and demands a divorce. To oblige his wife, Harry hires his friend Tom Robinson to testify as corespondent in a divorce case, and a separation is granted. Betty and Harry realize that they really love each other too late and decide to remarry, but are prevented from doing so by the divorce papers which forbids Harry from marrying again. They finally decide to circumvent the New York law by becoming really married in New Jersey, and all ends happily.

Dir: Chester Withey

Carmen Wagner is an orphan, the daughter of a musician whose career was ruined by the nagging of her stepmother. Her grandfather, also a violinist, hates all women because of his son's ruined career. He tries to save his granddaughter, whom he adores, from the stepmother. He also makes his granddaughter a woman hater and brings her up disguised as a boy. While in this garb she meets Edward Holmes, a law clerk, and the two become friends. The stepmother, catching the grandfather giving Carmen music lessons, drives him from the house. Carmen runs away, joins him, and they become vagabond musicians. They take passage on a ship, and Edward is consulted by the stepmother and delegated to find them. He takes passage on the same ship, identifies an innocent Italian musician and his daughter, whom he arrests. For this false arrest Edward is discharged. And in this plight he meets Carmen and her grandfather, who live on a derelict vessel and who make a living by playing violin in the streets. While protecting Carmen from a drunken sailor Edward is badly hurt and is taken in and cared for in the old hulk. Carmen throws aside her boy's clothes, puts on feminine apparel, imitates the dock watchman's daughter and coquettes with Edward, who at last identifies her as the girl whom he was originally employed to seek. They are in love, but keep it secret from the woman-hating grandfather. Other detectives, employed by the stepmother this time, have located Carmen, and Edward is knocked out defending her, while the stepmother and Carmen take a steamer home. Edward follows in a fast motorboat with a friend, and Carmen jumps from the steamer and is rescued by Edward. The stepmother pursues in a pilot boat, but they finally make their escape to marriage and happiness.

Dir: Chester Withey

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

Lydia Bolton is only a child when financial difficulties overtake her father. His fellow townsmen do not give him support and he goes to the wall. Andrew Bolton goes to prison an embezzler, cursed by everyone. Lydia is taken in charge by an uncle and the old Bolton mansion, once a proud landmark, is left to neglect. Time has not tempered the disposition of the community when Lydia Bolton comes back, her identity hidden in the name of Lydia Orr. She opens her purse first at a church festival, but her generosity is rewarded only by disparaging remarks and open hints of ulterior motives. She lives at the same boarding house as the young minister and tongues of scandal are at once loosed. Then she purchases the old Bolton mansion, her childhood home, and offers to buy at unreasonably high prices all antique furniture in the town. There is a rush to get all the girl's money, but a few decent folks seek to protect her and at once the town is split in two hostile camps. The minister has a sweetheart and she is jealous of Lydia, which adds to the complexity of her troubles. And in the midst of it all, Bolton, his prison term ended, steals back to town. Lydia and a few loyal friends seek to hide his identity, for a time, at least, but the senile old man eludes them and goes to the country store and proclaims himself. All the pent-up hatred against him now is turned against the daughter and the townspeople utterly blind to all she has done for them and the town, rush to the old Bolton home to wreck it and lynch Bolton. The old man, aided by the minister and Lydia's sweetheart, are striving to protect the girl when Bolton falls dead. This tragedy disperses the mob and finally Lydia's enemies come to see her and her efforts in their true light.

Dir: Chester Withey

When anarchist bombs disrupt the engagement ball of Princess Marie Pavlovna, her fiancé, Prince Michail Koloyar, helps her to escape in a carriage. Then Theo Kameneff, secretly in the pay of a foreign government, becomes dictator and, desiring the princess, issues an edict that all women between the ages of seventeen and thirty-two must register and become state property. Outraged, Marie, disguised as a shopkeeper, organizes women to refuse the order. After she is discovered by Orel Kosloff, Kameneff's henchman, Marie declines Kameneff's offer to repeal the edict if she will live with him. Kosloff then initiates mass brutality, killing women who do not register, including to Kameneff's dismay, his beloved sister, whom he tried to save. Meanwhile, Michail, who has infiltrated the Bolshevik ranks, is found out and narrowly escapes a firing squad. After he stops Kameneff's attack on Marie, Kameneff is shot by a potter, revenging his daughter's ravishment. Marie and Michail finally escape across the border.

Dir: Chester Withey

Billy Jenks, a young bank clerk in a small town, goes to New York City in search of greater opportunity and becomes a cashier in a department store. When several dollar bills he is counting are blown out a window, he chases after them and, by coincidence, finds the money at the feet and on the hat of stenographer Phoebe Howard. They become so romantically overwhelmed that they neglect their jobs and are soon fired. Billy wires his aunt for money, but the next day, when he throws his alarm clock out the window, it hits, by coincidence, the head of a lawyer who has come to tell Billy that his aunt has died and left him $100,000 in thousand-dollar bills, which he duly presents to the stunned heir. When Billy gives Phoebe the news on a Fifth Avenue bus, con man "Handsome Harry" Brent overhears their conversation, introduces himself, and arranges to "help" them by investing the money the next day. However, Billy's money is stolen by John Carter, who is desperately in debt, and Billy, by coincidence, mistakes Stephen Fiske, Carter's creditor, for the thief. During a series of chases, notes and money are exchanged to the satisfaction of all parties, leaving Billy and Phoebe to get married.