The Auteur's Selection Complementing the Tone of Stranded: Cult Guide

Dir: Lloyd Ingraham

Following her grandfather's death, spirited young Susan Gaskell is placed in the charge of her cousin Martha Brown, the housekeeper for wealthy bachelor Bernard Marshall. Distressed by his brother Ted's involvement with adventuress Eva Thornton, Bernard decides to divert the young man's attention with Susan and hires Henri Delafaire to dress the girl in modern clothing and educate her in deportment and manners. Henri is so successful that he, Ted, and Bernard all fall in love with Susan, although Bernard conceals his affection. Susan is in love with Bernard; to please him, she agrees to marry Ted, but the night before the wedding, the young man sends Bernard a telegram stating that he has married Eva. Bernard finally confesses his love for Susan and they become engaged.

Dir: Lloyd Ingraham

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

An orphan girl, believing herself cursed with the hoodoo until she gets married, is adopted by a childless couple after the orphanage burns down. Boy-next-door meets girl-next-door, and all looks great until she finds a loaded gun.

Dir: Lloyd Ingraham

Young Jackie Kernwood, the daughter of the colonel commanding an army post, is bored with the routines of post life, and to break the monotony she organizes a girls' brigade, of which her father disapproves. When the colonel forces her to disband the group, she makes up her mind to run away and become a nurse in the Red Cross. Before she can do that, however, she stumbles across evidence of a spy ring headed by an officer on the post that is plotting to blow up a troop train--and it looks like the chief spy is her boyfriend, Lt. Adair.

Dir: Lloyd Ingraham

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

A small-town girl returns home from schooling in the East to find that her father's small store and indeed the whole town are in danger of being eliminated by a ruthless land developer. The developer has a son who falls for the young girl, and together they try to come up with a plan to save her father's store and the town.

Dir: Lloyd Ingraham

Rosemary van Voort lives in the countryside with her elderly Dutch parents. She carves beautiful wooden dolls, and her work catches the eye of a group of artists who are having a picnic in the area. Among them is Ricardo Fitzmaurice, an aspiring opera singer. The group convinces Rosemary to move to New York City in order to take full advantage of her talent. Soon she becomes wildly successful, but a problem arises--the temperamental Madame Fedoreska, who is in love with Ricardo, has been driven insane by his growing affection for Rosemary and threatens to kill her. When the Madame turns up shot to death, the police look at Rosemary as a suspect--and even worse, she has no alibi.

Dir: Lloyd Ingraham

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

Alys Gilson leaves the complacency of her parents' home to move to the big city and partake in the lofty ideals espoused by the Culture Club. As a member of this Bohemian group, Alys succumbs to the influence of Peyton Le Moyne who preaches that marriages should be founded on absolute freedom. Consequently, when Thurston Bruce, a young lawyer not of the group, proposes to Alys, she accepts on the condition that the marriage be dissolved if either finds their love has ceased to exist. Bruce soon wearies of his wife's "serious thinkers" who occupy his apartment day and night, and their relationship becomes strained. Finally, Bruce informs Alys that they must terminate their marriage because he is in love with his secretary, Marion Hamilton, who will give him a real home. Brokenhearted, Alys returns to her parents' home to find Bruce waiting there for her and discovers that the whole story was a scheme to bring her to her senses.

Dir: Lloyd Ingraham

When the son of a leader of a Paris underworld family known as The Apaches is arrested and tried in court, the boy's mother asks the judge for mercy, but he refuses. In retaliation, the family kidnaps the judge's young daughter and raises her to be one of their own, schooling her in the ways of crime. One day she steals a valuable pin from a young American artist; he catches her, but an attraction develops between them--and her "Apache" family is not happy about it.

Dir: Lloyd Ingraham

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

A young woman of wealth revenges herself on a young author whose peculiar ideas about women have led him to act and speak in an insulting manner. This young man isolates himself in the mountains for the purpose of writing a story on the primitive woman, where he is discovered by his friends, to whom he vows that no woman shall cross his threshold. The mischievous young woman of the story, determined to place him at her feet, goes secretly to the home of a mountain woman with whom she lives in the guise of a wild girl of the hills. Purposely sliding over an embankment where she knows she will fall in his path, she is rewarded by having him pick her up and carry her to his cabin, where she pretends to be too much injured to be moved that day. The mountain woman is sent for and the two remain in the cabin of the author for several days. Finally she is discovered by her people, when it also comes to light that the woman-hating author has fallen to the charms of his pretty visitor.

Dir: Lloyd Ingraham

When Geoffrey Challoner sees his new wife Robin reading old love letters, he assumes that they have been sent by a rival lover and storms out of the house. In his absence, Norman Craig, who with his wife plans to lease an upstairs apartment owned by Judge Corcoran, wanders into the Challoners' apartment, and Robin, mistaking him for a burglar, shoots him and then runs for a doctor. Returning, Geoffrey sees a man draped across his wife's bed and immediately files for divorce. Mrs. Craig and Norman, who had merely fainted, are invited to Judge Corcoran's weekend home along with the Challoners, whom the judge hopes to reunite. Norman's drunken condition brings him once again into Robin's room, however, while Geoffrey is discovered in a compromising situation with Mrs. Craig. Following a bewildering series of misadventures, including an attempted robbery by the maid and the chauffeur, Geoffrey learns that the love letters actually were his own, and the young couple are reconciled.

Dir: Lloyd Ingraham

Charity and her young brother are taken in by Merlin Durand, the son of a penurious millionaire, when their mother, a poor cleaning woman, dies. Charity is a strong believer in the world of fairy tales, and calls Merlin "The Prince". Merlin's cheapskate father cuts off his allowance until he gets a job and earns a salary, then leaves home for a "water cure". His servants immediately take a vacation, leaving the house empty, so Charity and Merlin hide there until Merlin can find a job. Charity begins to call the mansion "Charity Castle". They soon wind up involved with a strange cast of characters, including a burglar and an unemployed Shakespearean actor.