The Global Archive For Devotees of The Blot: Cult Guide

Dir: Lois Weber

A pretty but poor girl leaves the young boy who loves her for a rich playboy who she believes will take care of her, but the wealthy cad has other plans for her.

Dir: F. Martin Thornton

In Paris an orphan cartoonist loves a man with a mad wife, who dies in time to prevent her marriage to a jilted Comte.

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

Dir: Lois Weber

Marie, a hotel maid, falls in love with millionaire's son Roger, but Roger cannot marry her because of her inferior station and his unwillingness to make his family unhappy thereby. They separate. When next they meet, Roger discovers that Marie is actually a princess. Now their renewed romance cannot continue because Roger is a mere commoner. But the Bolshevik revolution provides complication and at last resolution to their dilemma.

Dir: Lois Weber

A fictionalized composite of several celebrated murder cases, particularly the Stielow case, in which an innocent man is convicted and sentenced to death on purely speculative evidence.

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

Dir: Lois Weber

Envious of the wealth of her classmates at the fashionable boarding school to which her parents struggled to send her, Millicent Rankin hides the fact that her father is a plumber. She invites her friend Beatrice Deering to her home, which she describes as lavish, for the vacation, but thinks that Beatrice will refuse. The embarrassment Millicent feels when she receives a wire that Beatrice is coming causes her mother pain, but when Millicent's sister becomes ill with scarlet fever, Millicent goes instead to Beatrice's country residence where she hopes to meet a rich husband. At the Deerings', Millicent is soon disappointed with society's mores. After almost succumbing to the advances of Elmer Lacy, who secretly is carrying on an affair with Beatrice's stepmother, Millicent protects Mrs. Deering's reputation by humiliating herself. When she learns that her mother is ill, Millicent rushes home and discovers happiness with her family and her old sweetheart.

Dir: William Parke

Bruce Wendell, the son of West Virginia coal mine owner James Wendell, graduates from West Point and prepares to lead a fighting unit to the front during World War I. As his father lies dying, however, he convinces Bruce to remain at home and guard the mine. Bruce's fiancée Ann Blair assumes that he is a coward and breaks off their engagement, but her brother Bobbie remains Bruce's loyal friend. Meyer, a German agent, persuades railroad president Parrish to refuse to transport Wendell's coal, but when Bruce adamantly refuses to close the mine, the spy's men decide to blow it up. While Ann is being abducted by Meyer, Bobbie is buried in an explosion at the mine. Bruce rescues Bobbie and then sends a plea to Lieutenant Parrish to rescue Ann. Meyer and his gang are captured and Ann renews her vow of love to Bruce.

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of The People vs. John Doe perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

Dir: Dallas M. Fitzgerald

Confidence artist Flossie Golden attempts to fleece foolish but wealthy James Venable with a breach-of-promise suit. Venable's shrewd attorney, Richard Harding, outwits Flossie by proposing that she marry Venable and live on an allowance of $3,000 per year. Flossie is determined to get even with Harding for ruining her plans. In an attempt to con him, she poses as Innocence Page, but falls in love and marries him instead. Larry, Flossie's former accomplice, endeavors to blackmail her with her errant past, but Harding is already cognizant of the facts and Larry fails.

Dir: Lois Weber

Carillo and his wife Selma are devoted to each other. As a sculptor, Carillo has achieved the qualities of honor and love until the Devil seeks to overturn these accomplishments by sending his imps Lust, Drink and Self Pity to the artist's home. Carillo succumbs to lust and sells his honor to the Devil. When he loses love, he finally crumbles until Loyalty regenerates him when Selma carves Repentance under the shadow of the cross. This causes Satan to recoil, and the couple start a new life without Youth and Honor, but enriched by Wisdom and Experience.

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

Dir: Harley Knoles

Jim McDonald, the foreman of a shipbuilding plant and head of the labor union, strives to combat the anarchistic propaganda being put forth by Klimoff, the leader of a Bolshevik gang whose goal is to disrupt the country with strikes and anarchy. Despite McDonald's efforts, a strike is called, resulting in chaos. McDonald's child is knocked down by runaway horses abandoned by their striking driver, and dies. Mob scenes take place in America, as well as in Russia. Eventually, the unrest is quelled with an armistice called between Capital and Labor for a year, during which time wages are to be increased to reflect the cost of living, and leaders are to work out a common plan for their mutual advantage. The strikers now realize that they have been pawns of the Bolsheviks and call off the strike, agreeing to the plan.

Dir: Lois Weber

Hi Judd, poet, postmaster and philosopher, is the sunshine of the village, a veritable doctor of happiness. His right arm the little world of the village leans on, the kind words he scatters broadcast reap their harvest of love for the old postmaster and the verses he writes (sometimes when he should be working) proclaims him the wit of the village. And because of the verse writing Mrs. Judd is often discouraged. Hi confides in his daughter, Bess, that he often stands in awe of Mrs. Judd when she catches him pencil in hand, with the woodpile untouched and the chores not done. But Bess is consoling and when Hi is not around she makes a collection of the verses and sends them on to a great newspaper. Theirs is a peaceful life that must have its dramatic climax and it all descends upon them at once. Jim Skinner, an unscrupulous, grasping old miser, holds the mortgage on the house and also has designs upon Hi's position as postmaster. Then the bank fails and shadows hang low. In the meantime drama is stirring within their home. Bess who had thought she cared for Hal, the station master is under the spell of Sam who has come from the city to be the new ticket agent. Hi, dubious of his character and regretting his daughter's change of heart, before it is too late, finds a picture of Sam, his wife and their baby. Hi recognizes in the wife, Belle, the long-missing daughter of Mother Wilkins, a widow of the village whose home has burned and who would have suffered privation had it not been for the generosity of Hi. He sends for Belle, making her believe the money and message come from Sam and when Sam is confronted with the wife and baby he sees there is nothing to be done but face the unexpected situation. The mortgage is due. Heartbroken, they are preparing to leave the little home when word comes from the newspaper: "Verses accepted, send them as fast as you can write them." Thus ends the story. Hi, with his $500 check from the newspaper pays off the mortgage, the future holds its promise; Mother Wilkins is happy with her daughter and the little baby, and Hal and Bess are engaged to be married.