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

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 A Pair of Cupids perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

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

The son of millionaire James Carter, Vantyne deliberately shuns work, which sickens his father, he decides to test his son's ability to become self-sufficient. Carter, Sr. has his lawyer report that he has been killed on a hunting trip, and at the reading of the will, Van learns that, unless he can support himself within six months with only an old farmhouse left to him as working capital, he will lose the family fortune to his cousin Teddy Brown. Van immediately gets busy and, with the help of Arizona Brown, a visiting Westerner with whom he has fallen in love, turns the old farm into a thriving and very fashionable resort. His chance of becoming a millionaire fading fast, Teddy arranges with actress Edith Trentoni to ruin the hotel's reputation by means of a kitchen strike and a jewel robbery. He succeeds, but old Carter finally appears to turn the villain out and proclaim Van and Arizona a successful team.

Dir: Charles Brabin

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

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.

Dir: Charles Brabin

Becky, a child, is left an orphan by the death of her father and is consigned to the tender mercies of the Misses Pinkertons, who conduct a fashionable school for girls. Becky feels keenly the semi-charitable nature of her life, and, when kindly-hearted Amelia Sedley invites her home, she eagerly accepts. It is then that Becky, the child, becomes Becky, the adventuress, cold, calculating and selfish. With the entrance of Becky into the peaceful Sedley home comes misfortune. Sedley goes bankrupt. Old man Osborne promptly breaks the engagement between Amelia and his son, George. Becky lays her traps for Joseph Sedley, Amelia's brother, and nearly succeeds in her designs on that self-satisfied young man. Urged by his faithful friend, Captain Dobbin, George marries Amelia. This change throws Becky into new surroundings. She goes to Queen's Crawley and enters the most active sphere of her existence. Her adventures with old Pit Crawley, her marriage to Rawdon Crawley, their poverty Becky's flirtation with Lord Steyne and her subsequent separation from Rawdon, the Battle of Waterloo and the death of George Osborne are all faithfully portrayed incidents of Thackeray's novel.

Dir: Charles Brabin

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of Red, White and Blue Blood 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

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

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

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

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

Claiming that he has no need for social butterflies, Warren Dexter refuses to attend a reception at which he was to meet debutante Phyllis Lane. Humiliated, Phyllis makes a wager that she will lead Warren to the altar within the month. To gain his attention, she faints on his doorstep and then realizes that he is not at home. Peering through the window, Phyllis spies a woman stealing the silver, whereupon she enters the house and forces Mollie, the burglar, to exchange clothing with her. When Warren arrives, Phyllis feigns a guilty look and explains that her father and brother force her to steal. Hoping to reform the attractive "crook," Warren offers her a position as his maid and soon falls in love with her. Later the crooks again try to rob him, and after Phyllis helps him to foil their plan, he proposes. Upon learning her true identity, Warren is greatly offended, but Phyllis easily convinces him that her love is genuine.