The Auteur's Selection Complementing the Tone of The Conqueror: Cul...

Dir: Raoul Walsh

After Mary Carroll's husband learns that she has had an affair, he challenges her former lover to a duel and is killed. Mary is thrown out by her husband's wealthy family and separated from her little boy, John Carroll, Jr. Years later, John Jr. falls in love with Ruth Fulton, the daughter of the horse trainer for Rex Burleigh. When her father dies, Ruth accepts Rex's offer to care for her, but she leaves the expensive apartment he has provided when she learns his true motives. Boxer and former jockey Kid Dugan kills Rex because he also loves Ruth. Ruth later becomes a secretary to Mary, unaware that she is John Jr.'s mother. Ruth leaves after Mary learns of her involvement with Rex, then Mary acknowledges to John Jr. that she is his mother. John Jr. introduces Ruth to his mother, who advises her to confess everything to her son. Ruth does so, but John Jr. refuses to believe in her innocence. When John Jr. is set up to lose on a big horse race, Ruth rushes in and rides the horse to victory and is forgiven by John Jr.

Dir: Raoul Walsh

During World War I, an enterprising and patriotic reporter named Jack Bartlett interviews President Woodrow Wilson on the importance of the Fourth Liberty Loan. Jack returns from Washington to find that Otto Crumley, a German sympathizer, has taken control of his newspaper, and when Crumley tears up the story, Jack resigns and joins the Liberty Loan campaign. After raising a large sum of money for the government, Jack succeeds in preventing a strike in a local munitions plant. Later, he learns that Crumley, actually a German agent, has stolen a secret gasoline substitute formula invented by William Desmond, the father of his girlfriend Margaret. Crumley imprisons Margaret, but Jack rescues her and then swims out to the schooner on which Crumley is making his escape. The spy apprehended, Jack turns the ship's guns on a German submarine and sinks it.

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

Dir: Raoul Walsh

In the Canadian province of Acadia, young Evangeline is betrothed to Gabriel. But before their wedding can take place, the British imprison the men and send them into exile with their lands forfeit to the Crown Evangeline follows the exiled men in hopes of finding her beloved, but even after he and the other Acadians are released in Louisiana, she cannot find him, always arriving at some locale just after he has departed. But she dedicates her life to searching the continent for the man she loves.

Dir: Raoul Walsh

A Spanish soldier falls under the spell of a fiery gypsy girl named Carmen. His obsession with her leads to his ruin.

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

Dir: Raoul Walsh

Given a choice between traveling to South America as an emissary for his father's ammunition company and foregoing his weekly allowance, Billy Drake heeds his father's warnings and buys an ocean liner ticket. Before leaving, however, the movie-struck Billy spots a beautiful woman standing in front of a theater and imagines that she is a film star. To his delight, he finds the woman on board his ship, as well as Count Von Nuttenburg, a political troublemaker, who has stolen a movie camera, thinking that it is a new brand of machine gun. Von Nuttenburg shows the camera to Billy, who concludes that the count is a director and the ship is a set for a movie melodrama. When the boat lands at a port torn by revolution, Billy insists that the guns and soldiers are part of the show. Not until he and the girl are seized by the rebels and threatened with death, does he admit his error. By a clever ruse, he escapes from his captors and with the help of Federal troops, defeats the count and wins the heart of his pretty shipmate.

Dir: Raoul Walsh

Before diplomatic relations between the United States and Germany have been severed during World War I, Count Johann von Bernstorff establishes an intricate spy network in America, headed by the treacherous Otto Goltz and his ally, Wolff von Eidel. Their activities result in labor strikes, factory explosions, and transportation disasters. Headquartered in a major U.S. industrial center, Otto marries Lillian O'Grady and treats her so brutally that she eventually dies. Lillian's death is avenged by a young American soldier named Dick Gregory, who is in love with her sister Rosie. Following Otto's death, von Eidel is arrested, but when a group of German sympathizers tries to rescue him, a patriotic vigilante group attacks the jail, shooting the spy and imprisoning the disloyal Americans. In the end, as American forces storm France, Kaiser Wilhelm grows desperate.

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

Dir: Raoul Walsh

Karsten Bernick, last of the house of Bernick, whose shipyards are the mainstay of the town, is forced to return home from a Bohemian life to Paris to assume the management of the business which is nearly bankrupt. He breaks an engagement to Lona to marry Betty, her rich half-sister. With her fortune he saves the company and eventually comes to be known as a Pillar of Society. Then a certain Mme. Dorf, an actress, arrives in town and threatens o expose an episode in his history which occurred during his days in Paris. He persuades his brother-in-law, Johan, to take the blame for him. Johan agrees to do so for his sister's sake and then leaves for America with his sister Lona. Mme. Dorf dies and leaves her little daughter to Karsten's care. Karsten really fears to refuse the guardianship and wins new honors as an upright benevolent citizen. In the midst of his security in the community, Johan and Lona suddenly return, the former to clear his name, the latter, who still loves Karsten, to persuade him to establish his place as a Pillar of Society on a foundation of Truth instead of lies. Karsten defends himself vigorously on the grounds that a Pillar of Society must resort to subterfuge and deception in order to protect society which depends upon him. Johan falls in love with Karsten's little protégée, the daughter of Mme. Dorf, and renews his insistence that Karsten clear his name. Desperate, Karsten connives at their departure on an unseaworthy ship, but his plan reacts on himself, for his only child, Olaf, has run away and been discovered on the ship as a stowaway. The ship catches fire and there is a thrilling rescue of the little boy in a motorboat. Karsten is awakened to the truth of his position and at a reception given him by the townspeople as a tribute to their leading citizen, confesses the truth. Thus he learns that the Spirits of Truth and Freedom are the true Pillars of Society and not man, however powerful.

Dir: Raoul Walsh

Under promise of marriage, innocent Mary Ellen Ellis leaves her country home to accompany the experienced Walter Benton to the city. Mary Ellen finds herself in an underworld milieu, but she is able to influence burglar Bull Clark to reform, thus earning his undying gratitude. Clark is able to repay Mary Ellen when he rescues her from The Weasel, who has followed her to her apartment. When Benton returns and finds his wife and Clark together, a fight ensues between the two men in which Benton is killed by The Weasel. Clark is accused of the murder and sentenced to jail, but escapes and joins the Navy. Meanwhile, Mary Ellen is forced to live in shame until she is rescued by Jane Murray, an office assistant in an East Side infirmary. There Mary Ellen meets Dr. Graham, Benton's cousin, and the two fall in love. Fear of the doctor's scorn for her past life forces Mary Ellen to leave, and she is abducted by The Weasel and imprisoned in a vacant room. A newsboy informs the doctor of her whereabouts, and through the doctor's efforts Mary Ellen wins her freedom as well as his love.

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

Dir: Raoul Walsh

A man is convicted unjustly of a crime and then subjected to inhumane torment in the Yuma Territorial Prison in the Arizona Territory, run by corrupt administrators.

Dir: Raoul Walsh

Harle, a successful French businessman, is so absorbed with his factory that he neglects his wife Claire. One day, Harle's old friend Henri, the Marquis de Puymaufray, comes to visit, and Claire falls in love with the cultured and sensitive man. Several months after his departure, Claire gives birth to a baby girl, Claudia, and dies shortly afterward from neglect and depression. Twenty years pass and Claudia has grown into a beautiful woman. Her father wishes her to wed a count, but she loves Maurice, a young American. During a labor dispute, Claudia is abducted by her father's disgruntled employees and held for ransom. The marquis, who has long watched over the girl, loses his life in a rescue attempt, but Maurice finally succeeds in liberating his sweetheart. After the marquis' death, it is revealed that Claudia actually was his daughter, and Harle, crushed, retires to his country estate, freeing the girl to voyage to America with the man she loves.