Rare Cinematic Gems Sharing the Atmosphere of The Battle of Gettysb...

Dir: Charles Giblyn

Immediately after Susan Lane becomes Mrs. Richard Greer, she grows jealous when she sees her husband talking to Marion Starr, one of her bridesmaids. Susan's brother Phil wishes to marry Marion, but is entangled with actress Maizie Middleton. Consequently, Dick Greer agrees to see Maizie, whose troupe is playing Niagara, and attempts to buy her off. Susan follows Dick to Marion's dressing room, returns to the hotel and wires her Uncle Jimmy to file for divorce. Uncle Jimmy, resolved to cure Susan of her jealousy, intends to allow Susan to believe that she has been divorced, without actually filing. His law partner rushes the case through the courts, however, and the divorce is granted. Susan suffers such despair at the news of her separation from Dick that Uncle Jimmy rushes out and secures a minister, the couple are remarried and begin their honeymoon again.

Dir: Charles Giblyn

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

Bored by the slow pace of life in her little home town, Helen Drayton rebels when her friends and relatives assume that she will marry her friend and escort, Chet Vernon. Helen is so anxious to experience life in the big city that she falls in love with visiting New York architect John Galvin almost immediately after his arrival. Several weeks later, the two marry and move to New York, where, after a series of painful experiences, Helen finally realizes John's selfishness. In the end, she gratefully returns home and becomes Chet's wife.

Dir: Charles Giblyn

Theodore Whitney, Sr. commissions his son Theodore, "Ted" Jr., to retrieve a missing stock certificate. On the road, Ted meets and falls in love with Betty Blake, the beautiful but elusive niece of Major Blackburn, whose home was recently robbed. When a detective disguised as British nobleman Lord Roxenham arrives to investigate the case, Ted bribes the officer to let him play the role for one night so that he may be near Betty. As the love struck young man is romancing his sweetheart, Lady Roxenham suddenly arrives, alienating Betty and throwing Ted into a panic. Lady Roxenham agrees to participate in the deception, but later Ted spies her breaking into the major's safe. After he alerts the household, she and the butler are revealed as notorious thieves. Betty, who had been trying to purchase Whitney's stock, accepts Ted's marriage proposal, and the profits are shared between the two.

Dir: Charles Giblyn

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

The Sardou play begins with this girl's life as the young wife of a man nearing forty, kind enough to his bride, but more or less absorbed in his serious work. She has dreamed of romantic love, intoxicating adventure, and tumultuous passions only to find none of these things in retirement with a good husband. She decided that her existence has been wrecked and ruined, and gets it into her foolish head that the only remedy is a divorce. There is a lover handy, her husband's cousin Adhemar, French in his ambition to have an "affair" with some charming married woman, and equally French in his thrift; he is a poor young man in no situation to marry any such extravagant young lady. The clear-headed husband enters into a little conspiracy with some friends to let his bored young wife have her own way, ostensibly yielding to her wishes, and he even makes things as easy and comfortable as possible for the unsuspecting lover, inviting him to the house, and announcing that he has even provided for his wife's future by settling a large sum of money upon her. She sees that this settlement has weight with the lover, and begins to falter, but she goes on determinedly with what gradually loses all the charm of forbidden fruit. Her relations with Adhemar become more and more commonplace at a time when she begins to realize her husband's magnanimity. He has denied her nothing, and he gives Adhemar full permission to marry her as soon as the divorce is granted. Meanwhile she begins to be distressed by the fact that her husband seems to be enjoying himself, staying out late at night, and suspects that he has an "affair" with some woman "not worthy" of him. She revolts when he announces he has a dinner engagement, urges him to break it and have a little celebration with her and Adhemar, finally deciding to leave Adhemar out altogether. It would be such a lark to steal away from him and have dinner in a private room with her husband, so compromising. Adhemar learns of the infidelity of his wife-to-be, and goes in search of her in a rainstorm. He is drenched when he finds the restaurant where she is dining alone with her husband in a private room contrary to what he conceives to be the rights of a husband-to-be, and he is so indignant that he seeks the protection of a Commissary of police as a safeguard for his future marital rights. The situation now becomes ludicrous in the extreme, and it ends with restored sanity for the young wife, and a complete reconciliation with her husband.

Dir: Charles Giblyn

Nance Molloy's cheerful disposition, in sharp contrast to the slum near the cathedral where she and her parents make their home, earns her the nickname "Sunshine Nan." However, her fights with the cathedral choirboys, led by MacPherson Clark, gets her into trouble. For interfering in a family squabble, she and her pal, Dan Lewis, are sent to reform school for five years, and upon her release, she becomes a stenographer in the elder Clark's shoe factory. Dan meanwhile has taken a job in the factory's chemical department, where he invents a dye process that promises to make him rich. In trouble over a woman, MacPherson decides to steal the formula and present it to his father as his own. Nan enters the lab just as MacPherson is copying Dan's formula, and the two old enemies begin to fight. Dan joins in the scuffle, but when some chemicals spill, the lab is enveloped in fire. Dan rescues Nan, and MacPherson, awakening in the hospital, remorsefully confesses his crime. Nan and Dan soon marry and the alley's name is changed to "Cathedral Court."

Dir: Charles Giblyn

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of Let's Get a Divorce perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

In Italy, Sister Beatrice becomes the confidante of the Contessa Angelica de Vecchio, whose brother, Prince Candoni, has placed her in a convent for having an affair with Carlo Parodi, a young radical. Angelica soon dies, and Beatrice, suddenly aware that she needlessly has shut herself off from the real world, leaves the convent and joins a group of revolutionaries. She marries Guido Perli, one of the leaders, and tries to temper his radical fervor with some religious tolerance. Finally, however, he calls on the people to rise against Candoni, and a horrified Beatrice alerts the prince. Candoni sends out his guards, and during the fighting, both Carlo and Guido are killed. Before he dies, however, Guido forgives his wife for betraying him to the prince, after which a remorseful Beatrice returns to the convent.

Dir: Charles Giblyn

After an idyllic mountain life in Russia, Berna goes to live with her uncle in the Jewish section of Kiev, arriving just as Cossacks massacre most of the Jews in the city. Berna escapes to New York and works at a sweatshop controlled by Boss Jim McManus, but he seduces her, then throws her out on the street, and she becomes a prostitute. Berna later marries Nicolay Turgenev, a young musician, and they soon have a child, but McManus' daughter Ellen falls in love with Nicolay after seeing him perform and convinces him to leave Berna. To make the separation legal, McManus, now a judge, grants Nicolay a divorce and also gives him custody of the child. Almost insane, Berna goes to McManus, denounces him at gunpoint and then kills him.

Dir: Charles Giblyn

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

Marie Chaumontel, a spy for the Germans during World War I, vamps her way through the French high command, accumulating state secrets as she discards lovers. Captain Henry Ravignac commits suicide because of her, after which his brother, Lieutenant Charles Ravignac, vows revenge. As a result, he pretends to be a German spy and then becomes an assistant to Marie, all the while gathering evidence against her. Finally, he accumulates enough to hand her over to French authorities, after which he is hailed as a hero for so damaging German espionage operations.

Dir: Charles Giblyn

The pride of his aristocratic Southern family, a young man shatters his family's hopes by marrying a Broadway vamp known as "The Moth." The young man's father then plots to rescue his unwitting son from "The Moth's" clutches, but at great sacrifice.

Dir: Charles Giblyn

Peggy, a rambunctious young American girl, goes to Scotland to visit her uncle. Her American ways both shock and eventually delight the people of the old village--especially the handsome young minister.