Top-Tier Alternatives In the Shadow of The Bridge of San Luis Rey: ...

Dir: Charles Brabin

The forerunner of all serials, "What Happened to Mary" was a series of 12 monthly one-reel episodes, each a complete entity in itself, revolving its immediate dramatic and melodramatic problems within the framework of a single episode and designed more for story and suspense situations than action. Episode Titles (q.v.): #1: "The Escape from Bondage"; #2: "Alone in New York"; #3: "Mary in Stage Land"; #4: "The Affair at Raynor's"; #5: "A Letter to the Princess"; #6: "A Clue to Her Parentage"; #7: "False to Their Trust"; #8: "A Will and a Way"; #9: "A Way to the Underworld"; #10: "The High Tide of Misfortune"; #11: "A Race to New York"; #12: "Fortune Smiles."

Dir: Charles Brabin

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

Episode 1: "Land of the Intrigue" Taking advantage of his monarch's lack of funds. Prime Minister Simond of Alania, who secretly aspires to the throne, induces him to pass an obnoxious tax bill. Then, with his sovereign unpopular, Simond feels it a good time to strike, so he causes the assassination of the King, Phillip II and Queen Alize, while they are hunting in the royal forests. Capt. Barreto, Commander of the Alanian palace guard, and a loyal friend of Phillip II, realizes Simond's dastardly plan, and when he hears him issue an order for the apprehension of the little Crown Prince, the only obstacle remaining in his path to the throne, he dashes off with him to America, with the aid of Juan, a fisherman. Barreto makes arrangements with Juan to keep in communication with his brother, Lieut. Jarreto. Simond proclaims himself Prince Regent, and with a bold bid for popularity, rescinds the obnoxious tax bill, his first official act.

Dir: Charles Brabin

After wandering the world for fifteen years, Hiram Perkins returns home to find his wife running a small town newspaper to support their two daughters. With pity in her heart, Mrs. Perkins allows her husband to stay in the house providing that he not disclose his identity. Mrs. Perkins is waging a battle against the re-election of Joel Skinner for a seat in the assembly, and when she learns that Skinner has mistreated old Mrs. Miller, she is determined to expose his actions. Rome Preston, running in opposition to Skinner, requests that she stop the story, but Mrs. Perkins refuses and so Preston disables the press. With Hiram's help, Mrs. Perkins prints the story and Skinner is defeated. In revenge, Skinner's men burn the press and demand that Hiram be tarred and feathered. At this moment, Mrs. Perkins acknowledges that Hiram is her husband and all is forgiven as the Perkins family is reunited.

Dir: Charles Brabin

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

Babette is living with her father, the jailer and hangman in the castle-jail at La Fourche. Raveau, a criminal, comes to the castle and meets her. Her sweetness and purity cause him to realize his form of life is an empty shell. He even restores a necklace purloined from a tourist. Later he and Babette realize their love for each other. Their wedding is celebrated with much pomp. Guinard, a detective, turns up. Realizing his danger, Raveau convinces his wife that their friends are planning to separate them, and gets her to escape with him. They elude Guinard. In Montmartre, Raveau and Babette are like two doves. He again takes up art. But his work is not up to date and he finds the purse growing slimmer. When Babette shyly confesses that there will be another mouth to feed, and that she has given much of their store to Fifine, a "Quarter" girl, whose husband is just coming from prison, Raveau realizes how desperate is his need. He tries once more to sell his wares, without success. An appeal to an old partner brings a turn-down. Raveau then steals banknotes from a man in the post office. Guinard turns up after the baby is born. Without letting Babette know of his crime, Raveau parts from her, saying he has a commission which may take him away for a long time, but in the Commissionaire's office he learns his prosecutor is the husband of a woman to whom he had restored the money won at a gaming salon just before his marriage. The man refuses to recognize Raveau as the thief and he returns to Babette to say he has passed up the commission and will stay with her always, and Babette is happy in her husband's love, ignorant of his sacrifice for her.

Dir: Charles Brabin

Doris Morse, the daughter of wealthy copper magnate Digby Morse, is eager to escape the unwelcome attentions of the many fortune hunters who pursue her, so she steals away to Atlantic City for a vacation. There she falls in love with Philip Hazard, an earnest and hard working young man, but because his income is so meager, she poses as a Macy's counter girl to avoid wounding his pride. When, by accident, he finally learns of her wealth, the two quarrel. In order to save the romance, her father pretends to disown her, but at the wedding, he secretly gives her a large sum of money in bonds. Doris soon wearies of her modest home and begins to spend the money on furniture and servants, which so piques her husband that he decides to steal the bonds from her safe. Doris is awakened by the noise and fires a shot, wounding Philip. The shock of injuring her husband brings Doris to her senses, and she agrees to live solely on his income.

Dir: Charles Brabin

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

They were twins, and the passing years had in the sifting melting-pot of life. William looms brilliantly, a success, while John is deep in the discouraging shadows, a failure. Another span of fleeting years, and William attains the summit of a meteoric career; he is a candidate for the United States Senate. John (under an assumed name so that his brother is spared the relationship of the black sheep) holds a modest newspaper position in the same city where William's campaign is centered. William falls sick and John, taking advantage of their resemblance, addresses an important meeting and sweeps the audience into frenzied enthusiasm. Sensing in John that which she has always missed in William, the latter's sweetheart confesses her love, thinking, of course, that she is speaking to William. Soon John finds himself facing the fact that he loves his brother's sweetheart. Fate's law is Heaven's justice; William is found dead by John, and what would have been his brother's now becomes John's, as a reward to his genius.

Dir: Charles Brabin

John Heppell, a wealthy young man about town, falls in love with Diana Laska, a noted actress, and marries her. After their child is born he tires of her and goes back to his old way of living. Infuriated at his neglect, Diana leaves him and goes abroad with Philip Goodier. He also tires of her in time, and she becomes a notorious character on the continent. Finally she awakens to the evil of her life and tries to reform. She finds her path strewn with thorns as the world holds her for what she has been. A longing is kindled in her heart for her daughter. Her first husband has remarried and refuses to permit her to see her. Sick of life, she attempts suicide. She is attended by Doctor Maxwell. He instills hope into her by promising to aid her in her attempt to see her daughter. Maxwell is an old friend of Heppell and partly by persuasion and partly by threats Diana Laska is received into the Heppell home as the governess for Heppell's son by his second wife. She meets her daughter only to find that she is engaged to Philip Goodier, the man who had cast her off. Horrified, she tells the Heppells her daughter must not marry him. Goodier denounces Diana, while admitting his relations with her, but cannot understand why she should have an influence over the Heppells. Finally, Diana tells him that the girl to whom he is engaged is her daughter. He consents to break the engagement only on condition that she leave the house and never see her daughter again. The woman who has developed under Doctor Maxwell's influence, then makes the supreme sacrifice of giving up her daughter to save her from her own shame. And through this sacrifice she wins atonement for her sins.

Dir: Charles Brabin

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

Though the Turk has 15 wives, he yearns to make our heroine his 16th.

Dir: Charles Brabin

Henry Burgess favors a match between his ward, Virginia Parke, and his nephew, Peter Warburton, but she is only interested in her poodle, Frou Frou, and Peter devotes all of his attention to his business. To bring them together, Uncle Henry rents twin babies of the laundrywoman, Bridget McGroghan, placing one on Peter's doorstep and the other on Virginia's. Each discovering that the other has a baby, Peter and Virginia soon begin to share their views on child rearing and matrimony, and are about to become engaged when the babies disappear. Michael McGroghan, the twins' father, hires a pair of crooks to kidnap the babies so that he may collect the $25,000 bond that has been put up by Henry for their safe return. Peter, however, tracks down the kidnappers, and after the infants are returned to their grateful mother, he and Virginia look forward to having their own babies.

Dir: Charles Brabin

John Spaulding saves Helen Molloy-Smythe and her mother, who has recently acquired great wealth, from a train robbery while they are on vacation out West. Some time later, John returns to his father's country estate on Long Island and again saves Helen when she almost drowns. The two fall in love, but when John learns that Helen has a reputation as a society coquette, he plans to teach her a lesson in humility. Learning of his plan, Helen retaliates by accepting the proposal of the fortune-hunting Count Berratti. All ends happily, however, when John saves Helen for a third time and she trades the count's proposal for his.