The Definitive Guide Deeply Connected to Shifting Sands: Cult Guide

Dir: Albert Parker

On her way to New York City to complete her art education, Eleanor Gates meets Mr. Harrington, a broker, and the two become friends. When her work meets with great success in Greenwich Village, Eleanor consults with Harrington on investments. Bored with his wife, Harrington begins to fall in love with the fascinating young artist, and she returns his affections. After the death of the Harrington's' baby, Mr. Harrington completely neglects his wife, who soon realizes that he is having an affair. Unaware that Eleanor is the other woman, Mrs. Harrington confides in her, and Eleanor experiences a change of heart. After learning that Eleanor is Harrington's mistress, Mrs. Harrington denounces her, whereupon Eleanor castigates the wife for failing to provide her husband with sympathetic companionship. Mrs. Harrington resolves to become a better wife, while Eleanor returns to the sweetheart she left in the country.

Dir: Albert Parker

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

Designated to write an article on the high price of food, reporter June Justice visits the tenement districts where there have been food riots and where the women of the neighborhood have rebelled against the food retailers, thinking that they are to blame for high food prices. June then visits the retailers, the middlemen, and finally interviews Henry Havens, the leader of the ring of food speculators. Havens attempts to bribe June to slant her story, but finds himself falling in love with her instead. Under June's influence, Havens sees the hardship that his policies have wrought, and finally joins her in her push for legislation which would dissolve the food trust.

Dir: Albert Parker

A young Sherlock Holmes seeks to bring down the criminal mastermind Moriarty as he solves a crime involving a blackmailed prince.

Dir: Albert Parker

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

Seeking revenge, an athletic young man joins the pirate band responsible for his father's death.

Dir: Albert Parker

During World War I, John Stevens invents an anti-submarine device, but the plans are stolen by two German spies, the Baron von Wiederholtz and Madame Elsa, who flee to a New York hotel. Stevens' daughter Alice pursues the spies hoping to retrieve the plans. Also lodging at the hotel are Howard Skeele and Margaret Worth, childhood friends whose parents are forcing them to marry with threats of disinheritance. In attempting to escape, Howard finds himself in the baron's suite just in time to spy the German in the act of hiding the plans. Howard directs Alice to the plans, and then, because he must be wed before six o'clock that evening or lose his inheritance, he proposes to her. They marry with Margaret's blessing, the spies are arrested, and Alice returns home with the plans and a husband.

Dir: Albert Parker

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

A woman runs away from an arranged marriage. Her father finds her and plans to send the man to the same rooming house so they might fall in love. Plans go awry when a police reporter accidentally assumes his place while on a case.

Dir: Albert Parker

Young Anne (Winifred Allen) who lives with her stern uncle, is considered strange by the gossips of her village because she spends much of her time in the woods, where she has imaginary conversations with her deceased mother. When Jimmy (Dick Rosson), a crook is wounded after a robbery, he eludes the sheriff by hiding in a deserted mansion, unaware that the mansion is said to be haunted. The spirit haunting the mansion is Anne, who befriends Jimmy and frightens away his pursuers by pretending to be a ghost. Soon, the young couple begin a romance, safe within the walls of the haunted house.

Dir: Albert Parker

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of From Two to Six perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

Aviator John Leslie meets Diane Du Prez in Canada when she tries to take shelter from a storm, but has to return home after learning of her father's death.

Dir: Albert Parker

On the island of Jamaica, a young man of promise, Clifford Standish, is slowly sinking into an alcoholic debauchery. He meets a good-hearted woman called Ginger who leads him back to sobriety and society. But when they return to England together, they find society not worth living with.

Dir: Albert Parker

In a prologue, Douglas Fairbanks appears in a chef's outfit mixing a cake with action, mystery, adventure, romance and comedy, seasoned with pep and ginger. The finished cake is The Knickerbocker Buckaroo. The story begins as buoyant Teddy Drake, expelled from his exclusive Fifth Avenue club for playing practical jokes and leaping over furniture, decides to reform his selfish impulses. Anxious to do "something for somebody," he boards a train bound for the Southwest. After helping an old woman off the train, Teddy takes the wrong train and meets Manuel Lopez, a Mexican bandit, going to visit his sick mother. To hide Lopez from a crooked sheriff, and because Teddy left his shirt in the first train, Teddy exchanges clothes with him. At the border town of Sonora, the sheriff chases Teddy along the roofs until, seeing a girl in jail, Teddy lets himself be arrested. Learning that the girl, Rita Allison, has money hidden that the sheriff wants to steal, Teddy escapes. After Lopez saves him from a lynching, Teddy finds the money, holds off the sheriff's gang until a U.S. Marshal arrives, and then returns to New York with Rita, now his fiancée.