Underground Favorites Parallel to the Artistry of The Country Mouse: Cult Guide

Dir: Hobart Bosworth

To escape the dreary formality of her born life, Drucilla marries a missionary, Ferdinand Smith, and goes with him to Africa. Here her life proves anything but happy. Denied the pleasures enjoyed by most girls of her age, she endures her husband's cold severity as long as possible and then leaves him, returning to America, where she visits her old school friend, Letitia Proudfoot. It is while attending a reception with Letitia that she meets the poet, Forrest Smith, whose attentions are welcome after the austerity of the frigid Ferdinand. A friendship springs up between them which soon ripens into love. On the news that Ferdinand has been lost at sea, she and the poet marry. Love in a cottage is hardly more satisfactory to pretty Drucilla than life among the heathen. Forrest is not a good provider, and when she threatens a suit for non-support, he disappears, leaving a note of farewell pinned to his coat, which is found at the edge of the sea. Free again, Drucilla for the first time really falls in love, this time with Frank Smith, a wealthy club man, athletically inclined. Frank turns out to possess a very jealous nature. Drucilla puts up with his doubts and suspicions patiently, but before long a climax arrives which precipitates a suit for divorce. Drucilla welcomes this conclusion to her unhappy domestic affairs with relief and sets off with Letitia in search of repose. Now it happens that Ferdinand was not lost at sea, and Forrest did not commit suicide, and each develops a desire to be reunited with his wife. Forthwith they set out in search of her, and eventually meet at the same hotel. Here also comes Frank, who, too, has undergone a change of heart. Thus instead of finding repose, as she hoped, Drucilla is plunged deeper than ever into marital tribulations. Her tender heart prompts her to make up with Frank. But no sooner is this done than Forrest puts in an appearance and makes his claim. Drucilla cries, "I am a bigamist," but belated Ferdinand, entering the scene, answers, "No, you are a trigamist." Which one of the husbands will Drucilla take, and how will she evade the law? This is the question. The clever authors have so arranged that this will be a guess until the very last, and then it ends just right for everybody.

Dir: Hobart Bosworth

The cruel captain of a schooner dominates the shipwreck victims he picks up.

Dir: Hobart Bosworth

Artist Richard Alden goes to Laguna, California to paint the beautiful cliffs and shore which make this village one of the most talked-of places in Southern California. There he meets a young lady from the city, and their acquaintance soon ripens into love. For a while all goes well, and the little elfin sprite, a waif of the beach, who unknown to them watches them every day and weaves the dreams of romance and fairyland around them, sees only happiness. Soon, however, comes a young millionaire, and choosing between love and worldly ambition the young lady sails away with the millionaire, both questing for happiness along the paths of wealth and power. Brokenhearted, the artist feels that his pursuit of happiness has been in vain. How the little waif of the beach, budding into womanhood, shows him the true path, and how in later years the son of the rich man and the daughter of the artist bring the two men together again in a stirring revelation of what life has meant to each of them, is told in the latter part of this play.

Dir: Hobart Bosworth

A ranch man saves a baby girl from Indians. Years later he unknowingly finds her and falls in love.

Dir: Hobart Bosworth

At the opening of the play Billy Roberts is successively a pugilist and a teamster, and Saxon, a young girl, works in a laundry. They meet at a Weazel Park picnic, the afternoon of the lively "roughhouse" between San Francisco and Oakland. They find each is of the race of the sturdy pioneers, which crossed the plains on foot and founded the new empire of the West. "We're just like old friends, with the same kind of folks behind us," says Billy. We see their simple wedding, and the happiness of the new life. Then comes the teamsters' strike, with its consequent poverty and unhappiness and the embittering of Billy's spirit. A succession of scenes shows the rioting that ensues when strike-breakers are imported. A thousand men were used in this part of the play. The action does not pause from the moment the strike-breakers leave the train until the riot culminates in front of Saxon's eyes, in the killing of Bert, Billy's chum. Things go from bad to worse, but it is when their fortunes are at the lowest ebb, when Billy is in jail and Saxon destitute, and while she sails on San Francisco Bay, that the great inspiration comes to her; the city is just a place to start from and that beyond the circling hills, out through the Golden Gate, somewhere they will find what they most desire. After his release and fired by her enthusiasm. Billy agrees and, with the thought that they are only following in the footsteps of their ancestors, they start out on foot to find a new home. Charming glimpses of the country through which they tramp are given, in the course of which we make the acquaintance of that delightful group of artists who call themselves the "Abalone Eaters," at Carmel, and attend a boxing match at which Billy earns a much-desired camping outfit in twenty-seven seconds. Finally they come to a cairn and view from it a valley that is all they have looked for. It is Sonoma, an Indian name, which means the Valley of the Moon. Our last view of them is in the midst of busy ranch life, and in a dell in Wildwater Canyon, where Saxon whispers to Billy the secret that crowns the summit of their happiness.

Dir: Hobart Bosworth

An adventurer, who goes by the nickname "Burning Daylight", strikes it rich during the Alaskan Gold Rush. After he achieves wealth and success in the Klondike, he sets out towards 'the lower 48' (the continental U.S.) to find new challenges, but his money making abilities do not prepare him for the vicious cons and manipulation of Wall Street. He is soon cheated out of his entire fortune, but the 'hero' now has learned the lessons 'of the street', and fights to become a success again, with the knowledge that it takes a scoundrel to beat a scoundrel.

Dir: Hobart Bosworth

A fascinating piece of cinema that shares thematic elements.

Dir: Hobart Bosworth

From a hard-won leadership of a hoodlum gang in Oakland, Cal., from a beach-comber's life in the South Seas, and from the inferno of the stokehole, Martin Eden, an unlearned sailor, wins his way to fame and fortune. But it is not until great odds have been conquered and much has been sacrificed that the goal is reached. And then it is too late. The odds are ridicule, poverty and lack of education. The great sacrifice, love. A chance meeting, in his hoodlum days, with Arthur Morse, a college man, proves the turning point of his life, for through him he meets Arthur's sister Ruth. This means the opening of a new world, and in the remaining reels of the play we see Martin's indomitable spirit and the development of his career. He makes two picturesque friends. One is Russ Brissenden, a poet, who encourages Martin when he sorely needs it, though his taking the latter to the Socialists' meeting had unfortunate results for the cub reporter as well as for Martin. The other is Maria, his warm-hearted Portuguese landlady, whose wildest flight of imagination, ""hoe all da roun' for da kids," Martin later is happily able to gratify. A third figure comes now and then into Martin's life: beautiful, wistful Lizzie Connelly, who loves him and whom he pities but cannot love. As in so many lives, matters are at their lowest ebb before the tide turns. Martin is penniless and without food or warmth. He has had only one sale of a manuscript in the many months of unceasing endeavor. Brissenden is dead. Ruth, losing her faith, has broken their engagement and refuses to see him. Then comes the sudden sweep of success, with publishers clamoring for his work and fame and wealth in his hand. But the tension that sustained him during his days of poverty and struggle breaks. Even Love, in the person of the repentant Ruth, knocks at his door in vain, and he sails for the South Seas, to find again, if he may, his old-time zest for life.

Dir: Hobart Bosworth

Hudson Bay fur trapper Na-Ta-Wan-Gan, falls in love with Janet Mackintosh, the daughter of the factor at the trading post who has been promised to the deceitful Henri Drouet. After stealing skins from Mr. Mackintosh with the help of Red Pete, Henri hides the evidence in the mail bag of Janet's brother Robert. Caught with the stolen goods, Robert is declared guilty and sentenced to a three-day journey into the wilderness. To save his love's brother, Na-Ta-Wan-Gan claims to be the thief and is jailed by Mackintosh. Robert and Janet release the trapper from prison, and then he and Janet abscond to a missionary's hut where they wed. The couple makes a home in the woods with the help of Wehnonah, an Indian chief's daughter who also loves Na-Ta-Wan-Gan. While on his death bed, Red Pete confesses his part in Henri's crimes, and Henri is apprehended and sent on a long traverse . Only after a series of misadventures, however, does he come to justice and clears Na-Ta-Wan-Gan's name.

Dir: Hobart Bosworth

Mrs. Helen Barker, mother of son Jack, is married to Jerrold Scott. When Jack finishes college he returns home and is made a partner of his stepfather in the firm of Scott and Son, and at Scott's request he adopts his stepfather's surname. Scott and Son's reception room is full of girls waiting in answer to an advertisement for a stenographer. One pretty girl opens the wrong door and enters the room where Jack is waiting for his father. She and Jack get into conversation and she tells him of her troubles in finding a position; he tells her that it is his first day in business. Scott, entering, greets his son and shows him the sign on the door including him in the firm. Jack tells him that the girl is Gertie Meyer, who is looking for a position and who came to the wrong door. She is sent to the waiting room and Jack is taken to the auditing department to get his first training. The bookkeeper, Crane, who has been with the firm 20 years, and knows Scott's requirements for a secretary, selects those who are competent but lacking in physical charms, and sends them in for interview. One of these is Miss Wiggins, but she is too clever and is sent out to interview Crane. He retains her for some extra work on his own account. Scott, coming to the door, selects Gertie and dismisses the others. He asks her many personal questions, but nothing about her efficiency, and accepts her at a higher salary than she asked of him. Gertie, delighted with her position, begs her mother to leave the laundry where she is working, and brings her two small brothers home from the orphan asylum. All goes well the first week, except that with the first dictation Gertie makes a hopeless failure of the letters, and when she cries over her failure, Scott, in a fatherly way, puts his arms around her, and tells her that it was a difficult letter, and he will straighten it out. When he goes out, and while Gertie is making the corrections, Miss Wiggins slips into the private office and warns Gertie about Scott, tells her just what to expect, and asks her if he has taken her to luncheon yet. Gertie resents this and warmly defends her benefactor. When Scott returns and learns that Gertie has no money to pay for her luncheon, he persuades her to go to a restaurant and lunch with him. She dissents, but finally goes. She is awed by the fashionable people, the music, and the odd names on the menu. She refuses to have a cocktail, but Scott drinks. Seeing Paul Montgomery, his daughter's fiancé, in the restaurant, he feigns sudden illness to avoid speaking to him, gives Gertie a $10 bill and tells her he must rush off to meet an engagement and for her to pay for the meal. By the end of the first month at her position, Gertie has often dined with her employer, but her sense of propriety never ceases to be outraged by his amorous demonstrations. In the meantime, Jack Scott, who has had a growing interest in her since the morning she applied for the position, declares his love for her. and asks her to marry him. In her perplexity, Gertie goes to the Y.W.C.A. to call upon Miss Wiggins, who tells her to marry Jack if he really loves her, and receive no more attentions from the father. Gertie resolves to do this, even though she lose her position. The next day Scott asks Gertie to remain at the office in the evening, to do some work for him. Jack, not seeing Gertie leave the office, secretly waits for her. When the other employees are gone, Scott locks the door, seizes Gertie in his arms, and declares his love for her. In the struggle which follows, Gertie screams for help. Jack smashes through the door and defends the girl. Scott does not know of their love, and orders Jack out. In the excitement Gertie slips out. Jack, not knowing her address, hires detectives to locate her. Gertie, arriving home, is denounced by her mother for bringing the family to poverty again, and threatens to go to Scott's house herself and take a lawyer with her. Gertie goes out to a telephone and calls Jack, and at his request meets him at his home. Together they wait for his mother and sister, but when they come they do not receive Gertie with open arms. Scott and his lawyer Stuart are in the library discussing the affair when the butler gives away the fact that Jack and his fiancée are in the house with Mrs. Scott. Mrs. Meyers, enraged that detectives should be sent to her house, and fearing that the Scott millions have led away her little girl, bursts in and denounces Scott in her broken German-English. Stuart is authorized to provide financial aid for the Meyer family, and when Scott learns that Jack has not told the whole story to Mrs. Scott, he forgives everything, thanks his lucky stars that his wife does not know his perfidy, and accepts the situation in a truly happy way.