The Definitive Guide Inspired by the Vision of The Bells: Cult Guide

Dir: Ernest C. Warde

Dr. Primrose, the vicar of Wakefield, enjoys life with his wife and five children. His two daughters, Olivia and Sophia, are courted by two apparent gentlemen, Mr. Burchell and Squire Thornhill, who is Dr. Primrose's landlord. But when Mr. Burchell is supposed to have seduced and abandoned Olivia, the Primrose family finds its fortunes dwindling in every sense. It is learned that Burchell is innocent of the seduction, and the real villain is unmasked, but not before Primrose and his family come very near disaster.

Dir: Ernest C. Warde

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

At the request of her dying father, heiress Laura Fairlie marries Sir Percival Glyde, despite her love for Walter Hartridge and the warnings of Ann Catherick, a half-witted girl who bears a striking resemblance to Laura. After the marriage, Glyde schemes to appropriate his wife's money. When he learns that Ann has escaped from an asylum and has perished, Glyde takes Laura to the asylum and commits her, claiming that she is Ann. He then informs everyone that his wife had died, and buries the body of the insane woman in her place. Walter and Laura's half sister, Marian Halcombe, become suspicious, however, and remembering Ann's previous warnings, discover what Glyde has done. After Glyde meets his death in a fire, Walter rescues Laura and the two lovers are reunited.

Dir: Ernest C. Warde

"In Hidden Valley," Valkyrien is a white goddess who has been captured by savage blacks in South Africa. She is found by a young missionary, played by Boyd Marshall, and rescued from a sacrificial altar. Valkyrien was selected as the most perfectly formed girl in Denmark in a competition conducted by the government. The dance of the white goddess before the natives is one of the most beautiful scenes in the production. The Moving Picture World, August 5, 1916.

Dir: Ernest C. Warde

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

Burke Harlan an artist, saves Anne Warren from auto thieves, but he is wrongfully arrested and accused of stealing her car. The girl's father is a criminologist and has Harlan released into his custody as he would like to try to reform the young man. Harlan finds this highly amusing and goes along with the idea, mainly because it will allow him to be nearer lovely Anne. He does his best at convincing he is a delinquent, however Anne has a beau who is the police commissioner. But the clever Harlan outwits everyone and elopes with Anne before revealing his true identity.

Dir: Ernest C. Warde

Although John Lynch owns a ranch, he earns his living gambling in the mining town of El Monte, California. His father Elias, a Virginia gentleman chagrined by his son's gambling, leaves to live outside the town in a cabin with his friend "Twisted" Tuttle. 'Bige Rivers, a road agent who looks like John, abuses his lover Nita, a dance hall girl, who then is cared for by John and his daughter Mary. Rivers and his band rob the midnight stage of gold and kill all the passengers at the same time that John is in the vicinity to visit his father. Rivers and his gang divide the money at Tuttle's cabin where he shoots Elias. Before he dies, Elias accuses John of the shooting. Nita's screams upon discovering Rivers hiding, bring the mob, about to lynch John, too late to save her. John shoots Rivers and is then released.

Dir: Ernest C. Warde

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

Spoiled, lazy Harold Chester Winthrop Gordon finds that he has been disinherited, barred from seeing his sweetheart, and expelled from his club. He decides to reform himself and begins by crossing out his first three names with an "x." Thereafter known as "Three X Gordon," he says goodbye to pretty Dorrie Webster and sets out with his friend Archie for the West. Because they are penniless, however, they get only as far as a New Jersey town, where they become farmhands. Shocked at first by the long hours and hard labor, Three X and Archie soon find the work so physically and morally beneficial that they decide to establish a farm for the regeneration of millionaires' sons. The plan is a success, and Three X even makes a man of Dorrie's lazy brother. With the declaration of World War I, Three X proudly leads his clients into his country's service, promising to return to Dorrie.

Dir: Ernest C. Warde

Sailor Jesse, shipwrecked off the Texas coast, naively becomes involved with a cattle rustler. Because the sheriff believes in his innocence, Jesse finds work as a cowboy, but soon becomes infatuated with Polly, the medium for fake hypnotist Bull Brooks, and marries her. When he learns that Polly married to win a bet, Jesse attempts to take her from the town's influences to open spaces, but Brooks falsely reports that she killed herself rather than go. In the mountains, Jesse meets Kate Trevor, an opera singer who moved there to help her alcoholic husband who abuses her. After Trevor drowns trying to cross a river when he sees Jesse and Kate together, they marry, have a child, and are happy until Polly and Brooks arrive. Kate and Jesse separate, but when Jesse learns that Brooks is attacking Kate, Jesse fights him. Polly shoots Brooks, but before he dies, he reveals that Polly was married to another man when she married Jesse.

Dir: Ernest C. Warde

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

When the circus comes to town, a mild-mannered man, whose good nature is viewed as weakness by wife, has the chance to prove himself when a lion escapes.

Dir: Ernest C. Warde

Sylvia Leigh's only recollection of her father was a dim memory of a distinguished-looking man who brought her to boarding school when she was a youngster. From that time he never came to see her, but letters came from him with foreign postmarks stating that "important business" kept him away. After her graduation an old family servant took her to the home she had never known. Within a few months her father appeared. Not the parent she had pictured, but a broken old man whose mind seemed ham ted by some shadow from the past. One day while they were motoring in the park he suddenly drew a revolver, and aiming it at a passing auto, exclaimed, "That man wrecked my life." But before he could pull the trigger he fell exhausted from the effort and the other car passed before Sylvia saw his face. Her father became seriously ill from the excitement. On his deathbed he made her promise to run to earth the man who ruined his life. With no clues or an inkling of what the secret was, she attempted to locate him by an ad in the papers, only to fall into a trap. A roughly-clad young man came to her rescue. Some weeks later she was surprised to find this same young man as a guest at a dance given by a girlfriend. But this time he was clad in evening dress and perfectly at home among society. Then came the blow. An incident revealed him to her as the man she had vowed to bring to atonement. She shadowed him, caught him in a compromising position, kept him captive and phoned the police. Then the fact that she still loved him rushed over her. She realized also that her father's secret was still a mystery. What will he do? Keep a deathbed promise and turn him over to the law or obey her heart? Love wins out. As a knock comes on the door she tells him she still loves him and to escape. But he only smiles, opens the door to the officers, who greet him familiarly, and then he make some remarkable disclosures to Sylvia, which brings happiness to her troubled heart.

Dir: Ernest C. Warde

Frank Keenan, president of the Stillwater Railroad, demands that Hugh Tomlinson, an engineer who has been on duty for eighteen hours, make another run. Tomlinson falls asleep at the throttle, and a collision results. The engineer is discharged, and dissension spreads among his co-workers. J. Montgomery Nixon, the scheming president of the Central Railroad, tries to ruin the Stillwater system, but is foiled by Simeon Tetlow, of the latter company. Unknown to Tomlinson he is given aid by Tetlow, but the engineer continues to work against him. The differences between the two men are straightened out by the engineer's little grand-daughter, and after the grievances of the workmen of the Stillwater company have been settled, Tomlinson is appointed to run Tetlow's special train.