The Cult Collection Comparable to the Style of Sirens of the Sea: Cult Guide

Dir: Allen Holubar

Aurora Meredith, the village blacksmith's eldest daughter, is blessed with a natural singing voice. One day, wealthy New Yorker Mrs. Thorndyke visits Aurora's village and, upon hearing the girl sing in the church choir, is so impressed with her ability that she sends her abroad to study. At the end of her third year of studies, Aurora's benefactress dies, and she is forced to accept the aid of Juliantimo, an Italian admirer. After attaining great fame as a singer, Aurora returns to America to escape her Italian admirer's attentions and is awarded the starring role in a new opera. Juliantimo follows her, though, and on opening night he positions himself in a box above the stage, shoots Aurora, and kills himself. She recovers, but loses her voice, and with the loss of her talents, her friends desert her. Lonely, she returns home, where she is welcomed by her family and her childhood sweetheart Phineas Scudder. The traumatic death of Aurora's mother restores her singing voice, but she finally realizes that true love comes but once to every woman, and she chooses to stay in the village as Phineas' wife.

Dir: Allen Holubar

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of Man-Woman-Marriage perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

Rebelling against a forced engagement to Schuyler, Victoria falls in love with young attorney David Courtney and marries him. At first they are happy, but when David is drawn into political corruption and accepts the attentions of other women, she tries to compete with them, then denounces him. When he runs for U.S. Senator, she is nominated as a dark-horse candidate against him and wins. He is indicted for bribery during the campaign and while in prison is redeemed through her visits. In each crisis Victoria dreams of the women of corresponding ages: the stone age, the age of chivalry, Amazons and their supremacy over men, the life of debauchery in the Roman era, and the dawn of Christianity in her dream of David as Constantine and herself as a Christian slave who converts the pagan world.

Dir: Allen Holubar

After Ralph Carter steals $50,000 from the bank where he is employed, his wife Gloria phones bank official Jerome Harris, a wealthy man who has loved her for years, and is told that the charges against Ralph will be dropped if Gloria will offer herself as security against her husband's "loan." Accordingly, she moves into Jerome's house but rebuffs his advances, and soon he leaves her in peace. When Ralph, who has been seen in the company of chorus girls, angrily demands money from Gloria, Jerome appears and orders him from the house. Because of the covert dealings of Meyer, Jerome's secretary and a German spy, Jerome nears financial ruin, which moves Gloria to pity. Having learned of Meyer's duplicity, she confronts the spy, and as they struggle, Ralph enters and is killed. Meyer is arrested, and Gloria realizes her great love for Jerome.

Dir: Allen Holubar

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

The enemy's success in smuggling a spy through the lines places the Stratiria armies in a dangerous position. The spy is intercepted and killed by Pettrus Baariot, the telegraph operator, who then succeeds in sending a message that saves the Stratiria forces from defeat. For his heroism, Pettrus is promised a promotion, but after his recovery from his severe wounds, he is humiliated through the treachery of Danick Rysson, a government official who desires to marry Floria Natarre, Pettrus' beloved. Bitter, Pettrus listens to the overtures of one of the enemy and steals the new telegraph code. Soon after Pettrus is again made an ardent supporter of his country when he is awarded his promotion. He then follows the spy to the frontier and recovers the crucial document.

Dir: Allen Holubar

Brothers James and Allen Mornington are both addicted to cocaine and both believe that their addiction is caused by a hereditary failing. James rises to the position of judge, but when Allen is brought into his court on drug charges, James resigns. The two brothers, along with James's daughter, Hilda, then retire to the country to fight their desire for drugs. Although James is under a doctor's care for his habit, Allen continues to supply his brother with cocaine. The doctor discovers this and in an argument is shot and killed by Allen. The murder snaps James's mind and Hilda, believing that her father is guilty, assumes the blame for the crime. She is convicted and sentenced to be hanged when the doctor's assistant, Franklin Shirley, comes to her aid. Shirley induces his friend, criminologist Mortimer Gildane, to take Hilda's case, and Gildane succeeds in extracting a confession from Allen. Acquitted of the crime, Hilda still fears falling heir to her family's predilection towards drugs, until Franklin dispels her apprehensions and she agrees to marry him.

Dir: Allen Holubar

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

Lola, girl captain of a smuggling schooner and the ruler of wild men gives her love to a traitor, and takes it back by taking from him the woman who first won his love.

Dir: Allen Holubar

In the northwestern wilderness of Alaska, an innocent young girl falls into the clutches of a band of evil men of the gold fields.

Dir: Allen Holubar

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of Fear Not perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

An American woman is terrorized by the ravages of war and a lecherous Prussian lieutenant when she becomes a Red Cross nurse overseas during the Great War.

Dir: Allen Holubar

After Neila Pendleton's father dies, leaving his wife and daughter penniless, the avaricious Mrs. Pendleton decides to marry Neila to the highest bidder. At the cost of her daughter's reputation, Mrs. Pendleton accepts money from elderly broker Wilbur Simons, and later tries to force Neila into a marriage with a dissolute old millionaire named Hale Faxon. Even though she loves young Steele Minturn, Neila decides to consent to Hale's proposal for her mother's sake. One evening, however, Mrs. Pendleton discovers that Steele has won a large sum of money, and unable to resist the temptation, she steals it. Clad in her nightgown, Neila enters Steele's room hoping to replace the money, but he awakens and, misunderstanding her intentions, nearly attacks her. Finally convinced of her mother's selfishness, Neila accepts a job in another town, and later Steele encounters her again. While the two are trapped on a burning roof, Neila tells Steele the truth about her midnight visit, and he takes her in his arms as the firemen appear to rescue them.

Dir: Allen Holubar

Two soldiers are in love with the same woman. Before they go off to war, she marries one of them, who turns out to be a coward in battle. The other soldier, believing that his rival has been killed, takes it upon himself to protect the man's reputation, only to find out that he isn't dead after all.