Hand-Picked Alternatives Movies That Echo the Spirit of Strangers o...

Dir: Fred Niblo

A seemingly idiotic fop is really the courageous vigilante Zorro, who seeks to protect the oppressed.

Dir: Fred Niblo

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of What Every Woman Learns perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

Because Amy Fortesque's dying grandfather advises her to get all the joys out of life, she marries Dick Gaylord because he is funny, rather than Walter Melrose, a staid young lawyer who loves her. Gaylord turns out to be a heavy drinker who treats his wife poorly. He tricks Melrose into a meeting in Amy's room, and in a drunken state he shoots him. Amy seizes the gun and kills Gaylord, but she eventually is found innocent of the crime and seeks happiness with Melrose.

Dir: Fred Niblo

A young wife slaves for her cad of a husband. When she learns that he has been "stepping out" with his secretary, she gets revenge by going after the attentions of her husband's employer.

Dir: Richard Smith

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

Two female candidates for Chief of Police live across the hall from each other, and their political rivalry follows them home, leading to plenty of hi-jinks.

Dir: Fred Niblo

Journalist Betsy Thorne travels from New York to Virginia to cover a story about the disappearance of Daniel Arnold at a supposedly haunted estate. In order to get into the house, she pretends to be a maid. In the household she meets Daniel's sister Dolores, the neighbor Dr. James Dunwoody who loves Dolores, and his son Roland, who is under suspicion. Betsy pretends to be tough, but when she sees a ghost emerge from the chapel, she screams. The result is that Dolores locks her in at night. The following night, Betsy climbs out of her window and sees the ghost again, this time in the graveyard. After some intrepid investigating, she finds that playing certain chords on the chapel organ cause a door to open, leading into a passage to a tomb. Betsy bravely pursues the ghost who turns out to be Daniel, though he has become deranged. Further, she discovers that he is actually desired by the law as an international forger.

Dir: Unknown Director

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

The Judge needs a present for his wife's birthday, so Harry suggests a new corset. They go to the shop, but he's so embarrassed to ask the saleslady he hides in a phone booth.Harry goes in, but finds a GUY wearing one, and runs out.They both dress as women to get back in, but Mrs. Rummy gets there and chases him out.

Dir: Fred Niblo

Impersonating Little Eva in a third-rate travelling production of Uncle Tom's Cabin fails to earn Nora enough for a square daily meal, and to make thing worse, her stage career comes to a sudden end when the sheriff arrives with a writ of seizure. Nora hops a passing freight but is frightened by a tramp, jumps off, and literally rolls into the town of Wattelville. After being arrested as a suspicious character, Nora is adopted by the kindly Ma Forbes, whose son James works in the local bank. "Pug" Hennessy and "Soup" McCool, two crooks, inveigle the scrupulously honest James into a poker game and, as a result, he is forced to steal $300 from the bank to cover his losses. Impersonating expert safe-cracker Velvet Mary, Nora helps the crooks to break into the bank, but upon opening the safe, she sounds the alarm, and the crooks are arrested. Having learned his lesson, James proposes to Nora, who never again is forced to go hungry.

Dir: Maurice Campbell

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

Carver Endicott, a young sophisticate, is rejected by his fiancée for being too foppish and dull. When she feigns an interest in his father, Carver attempts to disgrace his family name by working as a farmhand and later as a busboy in a hotel. However, the newspapers only praise him for his self-sacrificing principles; and finding that he cannot bring shame to the family through menial labor, he takes up with a notorious actress. But when this maneuver also fails, he returns to his former fiancée, who has no further complaint about his being an inexperienced dullard.

Dir: Fred Niblo

Agnes Cuyler, a cabaret singer in New York who loathes her work, is fired for slapping Grant Haywood, a customer from the West who tries to kiss her. Haywood begs forgiveness and after glorifying the clean Western life, proposes. To escape her circumstances, Agnes accepts, but soon learns that Haywood is a brutal drunkard. In the Arizona desert, when she tries to stop him from drinking while driving, Haywood hurls her out of the car. Hassayampa Hardy, an old desert rat, finds Agnes and revives her. She becomes a waitress and helps Arthur Gould, a penniless Easterner who is out West because of ill health. Agnes, Arthur and Hardy form a partnership and strike ore. After Haywood finds Agnes and convinces her to return, he steals her partners' claim notice and drains their water supply. While heading for town, Arthur collapses in the desert. When Agnes learns of Haywood's duplicity, he tries to kill her, but Hardy arrives and pursues Haywood to the desert where he shoots holes in Haywood's gas tank and canteen. Agnes rescues Arthur and they fall in love.

Dir: Fred Niblo

Millicent Lee is a young bride whose faith in her husband is tested when she finds a book in his possession entitled "How to Be Happy, Though Married", along with a photograph of a beautiful young woman.