Editor's Top Picks Following the Footsteps of The Bat: Cult Guide

Dir: Maurice Tourneur

A thief known as The Hawk has stolen the treasured Garter from the British Museum. One of the men pursuing the thief is mistakenly thought to be The Hawk himself, and so must seek his quarry while himself being hunted.

Dir: Dallas M. Fitzgerald

Edith Sturgis, the daughter of a judge, returns from studies abroad to find her widowed father remarried. The new Mrs. Sturgis does not reveal that she has a son Dick, once unjustly jailed by Judge Sturgis, but now working as a reporter while still maintaining an association with the Brownlow gang. Quarrelling with her stepmother, Edith leaves home, meets Dick and falls in love. While Dr. and Mrs. Allen (whom Edith met on the steamer) are visiting in the Sturgis home, the doctor's valuable radium is stolen from the safe, and Judge Sturgis is found murdered. Dick, though with Edith at the time, is accused of the crime. Finally, an old shoemaker confesses that he entered the house to steal the radium, with which to cure his crippled son, and witnessed the judge's slaying by the Brownlow gang. Dick is freed and finds happiness with Edith, and the doctor helps the crippled boy.

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

Dir: Sam Wood

Truckdriver Dusty Rhoades leads a team of truckers over dangerous roads to deliver emergency supplies before a crucial dam breaks.

Dir: Robert Thornby

When Mrs. Chapman Price, the daughter of wealthy socialite Mrs. Janney, quarrels with her husband over her mounting gambling debts, he packs his suitcase and moves out. Desperate to pay off her debts, Mrs. Price rifles her mother's safe but discovers that its contents are missing. The blame points to Chapman Price and Esther Maitland, Mrs. Janney's private secretary. When the Price baby is kidnapped and held for ransom, Esther is suspected of that crime, too. Only Dick Ferguson, a neighbor, believes in Esther's innocence. After several misadventures, Esther discovers that the kidnapping was perpetrated by the detective whom Mrs. Price hired to unravel the burglary, which was committed by Ferguson's servant. Thus cleared, Esther joins the man who believed in her, and the Prices are reconciled.

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of What's Your Hurry? perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

Dir: Roland West

A fascinating piece of cinema that shares thematic elements.

Dir: George Beranger

Writer Frank Theydon goes undercover to research the criminal activity in New York City's Chinatown.

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

Dir: Tom Collins

Tex clears an innocent man who has been found guilty of murdering a man who was molesting his sweetheart. One of the 'Tex' detective series.

Dir: Ernest C. Warde

When young writer Brandon McShane is left penniless by the death of his father, he is forced to rent a room in the tenement district from the Mahon family. Brandon soon becomes infatuated with the fortune hunting Mimi Gascoigne, who casts him aside for a wealthy suitor. In search of revenge, Brandon acquires a magic skin which will gratify its owner's wishes, but which exacts years from the petitioner's life in payment. Brandon wishes himself wealth and his enemies unhappiness, and then lives in terror of the penalty he must pay. One day he meets Pauline Mahon who has loved him since his tenement days. Pauline convinces Brandon to wish the skin out of his life, and then he discovers that Pauline's love is the fulfillment of this last wish.

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of A Woman's Honor perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

Dir: Roland West

After being unfaithful to "The Stranger", who committed a murder on her account, Cherry Millard, known as "The Siren", leaves to work in a dance hall in the Western town of Nugget. When Burt Hall arrives in town to deliver a will to the heirs of Bruce McClade, he is captivated by Cherry, who learns of Burt's mission. Discovering that the will dictates that Dr. Langdon, a friend of the family, is to receive $25,000, Cherry decides to impersonate Langdon's daughter Rose and thus gain possession of the money. In the meantime, The Stranger, who has been freed from jail, returns, recognizes Cherry as The Siren and kills her. This frees Burt from her evil spell, and The Stranger, now insane, follows The Siren's spirit into the desert.

Dir: Thomas R. Mills

Returning from the war front, Captain Phoebe Plunkett accepts an assignment to apprehend jewel smugglers in pursuit of the Sultana diamond. On his mission, he meets Patricia Melton, who introduces herself as a French Secret Service agent also in search of the diamond. Plunkett is in love with Olga Karakoff, daughter of a wealthy jeweler, and he soon comes to suspect that Olga's father is in league with the smugglers. However, Patricia is the true impostor, and after she discovers that the jewel is encased in a locket worn around Olga's neck, she captures Olga and the diamond. Plunkett comes to the rescue and wins both Olga and a large reward for recovering the jewel.