Hand-Picked Alternatives for Fans of Terror: Cult Guide

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Spoiled young heiress Lucy Gillam knows only a life filled with parties and flirtations until she falls in love with a man who loves only her money. She marries him, and after their child is born, she is confronted with life's harsh realities after her husband demands more and more money with which to support his mistress. When he tires of his other woman, he discards her and she kills herself. Suspicion for her death points to her ex-lover, and after much misfortune, Lucy is freed from the burden of her husband and faces life as a responsible adult.

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After many years, Dick Hedlar, a staff artist, stationed in the Soudan, returns to England to find his pictures have made him famous. He has always cherished memories of his childhood sweetheart, Maizie, and at an exhibition of his pictures he meets her again and the old romance is revived. She, still struggling to make a name for herself in the world of Art, refuses his offer of marriage, fearing that her acceptance would mean a hindrance to their careers. Dick tries to comfort himself with his painting. Bessie, a model, comes into his life and makes love to him. In the meanwhile love overcomes Maizie's decision and in a sudden resolve she goes to Dick's studio to tell him that she will marry him. She finds Dick repulsing the advances of Bessie and mistakes the situation as being Dick's overtures to the demi-monde. She leaves in disgust and refuses to hear his explanations the next day. An accident affects his eyesight, and gradually going blind, he completes his master picture. His bosom friend, Torpenhow, brings some of his friends to Dick's studio to admire the picture, only to find that Bessie has ruined the masterpiece. They keep the fact from the now totally blind Dick, and he as a last gift to Maizie sends the picture to her unknowing what has happened to it. Torpenhow, horrified at what has happened, goes to see Maizie, and she learns of the injustice she has done Dick. She and Torpenhow make haste to Dick's studio only to find him gone. Cursed with the blindness and with a deep ache in his heart, Dick has heard the call of the East. They follow the trail of the "mad Englishman," as he is called, for many hundreds of miles and reach him just as a horde of Dervishes are about to make an attack, in the skirmish both Maizie and Dick are wounded and die in each other's arms. In Dick's clenched hand Torpenhow finds the verse of their childhood dreams, cherished through all the years.

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Harold R. Peat tries to enlist in the United States army so that he may fight in World War I but is rejected by the recruiting officer. He is despondent until he and his friend, Old Bill, concoct a scheme whereby they are both accepted. After a stint in training camp, Harry bids his sweetheart Mary goodbye and accompanies Bill to France. Following several adventures at the front, Bill is killed and Harold, in trying to save a load of ammunition, is wounded. Harold spends some time in a French hospital, after which Mary comes to France to bring her heroic private home.

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A woman unhappily married to a blackguard is washed ashore after a shipwreck and finds her sole companion to be a young man recently jilted. Both of them despise the opposite sex, but after a little time on the island....

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After a harsh childhood, orphan Jane Eyre is hired by Edward Rochester, the brooding lord of a mysterious manor house, to care for his young daughter.

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Frank Clamart, abandoned illegitimate son of a wealthy merchant, flees to Paris and joins a gang of "society crooks" led by Chu-Chu and Leontine Petrovsky, his sometime-lover. To prove his prowess to the gang and to Leontine, with whom he has fallen in love, Frank attempts to rob the house of a well-to-do family but is shot by the owner. As Leontine escapes unharmed, Frank is inspected by the owner's wife, who, recognizing a birthmark on Frank's wrist, identifies him as her husband's missing half-brother. Nursed back to health by his sister-in-law, Frank agrees to renounce his life of crime, but when a jealous Chu-Chu breaks into the house and steals the family jewels, Frank is suspected. To exonerate himself, Frank tricks Chu-Chu and retrieves the gems. Determined to have revenge, Chu-Chu tries once more to rob the house and, when caught by Frank, shoots him in the shoulder. Frank pursues Chu-Chu in a taxicab, forces him over a cliff, then leaves with his new love, the cab driver, who fires a shot that kills Chu-Chu.

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Fedora, a beautiful and elegant woman of Russian society, travels to Paris in search of her fiance's murderer.

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Laura Ward a selfish girl steals a large sum of money, her twin sister Agnes is mistakenly accused of the crime and sent to prison. Meanwhile, Laura abandons her sweetheart, alcoholic architect Richard Leigh, to marry an elderly millionaire named William Benedict, but she soon renews her affair. When a detective catches the lovers together, Agnes, just released from prison, agrees to pose as Richard's mistress, thereby saving Laura's marriage. Through Agnes's influence, Richard is regenerated, and the two eventually marry. Later, however, Laura reappears, and Agnes finds Richard drinking and embracing her. In a rage, William shoots and kills Laura, but Agnes forgives her erring husband and takes him home.

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Learning he has six months to live, the wealthy Simon De Gex decides to tell no one of his impending death and to spend his fortune madly. He breaks off his engagement to Eleanor Faversham, then is approached in a park by a dwarf and enlisted in a plot to kill the deserting husband of the beautiful Lola, a cat trainer at the London Hippodrome. The murder plans are carried out in Paris; the dwarf stabs Lola's husband and Simon departs, only to be overcome by his sickness. Selflessly Lola nurses him back to health, but, ridiculed as low-class by Eleanor and Dale, Simon's secretary, she returns to the theater. Cured by a daring operation, Simon sets out to find Lola. His search is rewarded but coincides with the reappearance of the demented dwarf. In a fury of rejection, the dwarf accidentally blinds his beloved. Simon devotes himself to Lola, but she resists his proposals until a second miraculous operation restores her eyesight and frees her to marry in good conscience.

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In the French town of Savenay live Arlette and her grandfather Chaupin, the proprietor of the inn. Richard Vale, an impoverished young American artist, comes to Savenay to sketch and lodges at the inn where he meets Arlette and induces her to pose for him. During this period, Arlette falls deeply in love with Richard, who is on the brink of starvation. When wealthy libertine and art connoisseur Prince Boissard arrives in Savenay and lusts after Arlette, he proposes to help Richard in return for the girl's consent to become his mistress. Arlette agrees, and Boissard, feigning an interest in Richard's work, sends the young artist to Italy to continue his education. A year passes and Richard returns, now a celebrated artist. Boissard then demands payment of Arlette, who reluctantly agrees to honor her debt. Before she can be dishonored, however, Boissard's servant Sarthe, who is devoted to Arlette, stabs his master, thus freeing the girl to marry her artist.