The Global Archive For Devotees of The Cowardly Way: Cult Guide

Dir: John Ince

Wealthy, beautiful Juanita Holland leaves the comfortable surroundings of her home in the North and journeys to the Cumberland Mountains to educate the illiterate mountaineers. Finding herself in the middle of a fierce feud between the McBriars and the Haveys, Juanita urges the clan members to end the violence and settle their differences in the courtroom. She and clan leader "Bad Anse" Havey fall in love, and under her influence, he convinces his followers to let the law punish the murderer of Jeb Havey's father. After one of the McBriars is found guilty and hanged, "Old Milt" McBriar swears that his family will obtain revenge and organizes a party to go after Bad Anse. When they shoot the young man, seriously injuring him, Juanita seizes a rifle and opens fire. Fearing that Anse will not recover, she marries him that night, but he eventually regains his health.

Dir: John Ince

Janet Newell learns that her husband Raoul is a crook and leaves him. However, when he offers her a position as companion to the wealthy Richard de GIles and his wife, she accepts, believing that they hold a property deed that rightfully belongs to Raoul's friend Langstreet. Janet is established in the de Giles' Long Island estate, where she falls in love with the kind old couple's nephew, Hugh Maxwell. Soon Raoul appears, and although Janet now realizes that she has been a pawn in his plan to rob the de Giles' jewels, she is forced into silence by his threat of revealing her marriage to Hugh. On the appointed evening, Ross, the butler, drugs the de Giles' coffee and joins Raoul, who has opened the safe with ease. As they are about to escape, however, the de Gileses--who are actually detectives assigned to capture Raoul's gang--appear, bearing guns and pronouncing the crooks under arrest. Raoul grabs a gun but is shot and killed. Janet is left a single woman, but only temporarily.

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

Dir: John Ince

Shrewd crook Boston Blackie is determined to go straight. At a celebration held on the eve of his marriage to Mary Dawson, Fred the Count plants a stolen jewel and Blackie is arrested and sentenced to twenty years in jail. Fred the Count tries to win Blackie's fiancée, but the honorable Mary rejects him. Blackie's only hope for escape is from the hospital, so he manages to get into a weakened state. He escapes from the hospital, but is trailed by the warden. Blackie refuses to shoot the defenseless man, and the warden recognizes Blackie as an honorable person and allows him to escape. Blackie frames the Count, and leaves for Honolulu with Mary.

Dir: John Ince

Muriel Ashley is engaged to Ferdie Walton. Ferdie's father opposes the marriage; Muriel's parents favor it. The couple are married by a strange parson who wanders into the Ashley home, then after they leave for the honeymoon, Ferdie's father discovers that the clergyman is a crook. He notifies the hotel and the young couple are ordered out. They return to the bridal suite by way of a window, but the hotel catches fire and they escape. They go to the Ashley home where they learn they are actually not married. The "clergyman" who married them breaks into the house and is captured. Rev. Dr. Jenkins identifies him, however, as a genuine clergyman who has been suffering loss of memory; thus the marriage turns out to be legal after all.

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

Dir: John Ince

A serious-minded fool named Stradivarious O'Day because his music-loving mother says he "fiddles his time away," acquires his nickname because of his motto of "one thing at a time and that done well." Falling in love when he first sees circus bareback rider Prairie-Flower Marie, O'Day, living off his inheritance, follows the circus until the pestered manager gives him a job cleaning his Ford. With the help of a manual, O'Day learns to drive and secures employment with the circus as a chauffeur. After strong man Gorilla Lawson, who also loves Marie, beats him up, O'Day contacts his friend, boxer Roughneck M'Dool, to teach him to fight. Lawson, frightened by O'Day's daily development, steals the circus receipts and the Ford on the day of their scheduled fight, but O'Day overtakes and whips him. After O'Day weds Marie, he unwittingly goes against his motto when he becomes the father of twins.

Dir: John Ince

Philip Eaton is a passenger in a Pullman sleeping car headed to Chicago. However, he's not quite what he seems to be--he's actually Hugh Overton, who has just escaped from prison to clear himself after having been falsely convicted of murdering Matthew Latrone, a corrupt financier who cheated Hugh's mother out of her estate. It turns out that Latrone is still alive and sends out a killer to eliminate Hugh. Complications ensue.

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

Dir: John Ince

Ashton Kirk is a young man of high social position and great wealth; he is a deep student and learned in the lore of ancient tablets and forgotten books. His keen mind delights in those mysteries which have proven too shadowy for the police. He finds a joy in the hunt; there is a thrill in matching his intelligence against the craft of the criminal. His interest in the mystery of the house of fear, Cramp's house, was awakened by Pendleton, who, as a guest of Cramp, communicated to Kirk, his friend, the strange sense of mystery and fear surrounding Cramp's house. In Cramp's household lives Grace, his sister, Miss Hohenlo, his aunt, and Kretz, his servant. Kirk learns through his agent in Mexico that Cramp's father was an expert engraver in Mexico years before, and his astute mind connects this fact with the number of Mexicans in the vicinity. He also learns that, in a time of financial stress, Cramp's father forged some currency plates for one Alva, an unscrupulous Mexican, but at the last moment failed to deliver them. At the time of Kirk's visit, the plates rested securely under a great stone in the cellar of Cramp's house, and the presence of the prowling, murderous Mexicans, headed by Alva, was explained by this. The perplexing question, however, was how these intriguers managed to gain nightly entrance to the cellar in their search for the plates. It takes Ashton Kirk to resolve the queer markings on the string of a package sent to Miss Hohenlo into the message "tonight." That night, Kirk and his aides wait in the cellar as the unsuspecting Miss Hohenlo lets in her confederates. There is a big scene in which Alva and his men are overpowered, and it is learned that Miss Hohenlo is Alva's wife. Thus does Ashton Kirk solve the mystery of The House of Fear.

Dir: John Ince

Older couple Abe and Angie Rose lose their life savings in worthless mining stock; their last $100 is for Angie to live in the Old Ladies' Home, while Abe must content himself with the poorhouse. Their parting at the gate of the institution affects the inmates so deeply that they make arrangements for Abe to remain there as "Old Lady 31." Once there, the ladies almost nurse Abe to death, and when inmate Blossy's new husband, Captain Darby, suggests he escape, Abe welcomes the opportunity. Remorse overtakes him, however, and he returns to discover that the mining stock is worth enough money to buy back the Roses' old house.

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of One-Thing-at-a-Time O'Day perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

Dir: John Ince

Helen Merrimore, the daughter of a mine owner, is snubbed by New York society. Weary of being courted for her wealth, she attends under an assumed name a house party being given by Ned and Edith Loring. There she falls in love with Schuyler Livingstone, the impoverished heir of the elite Livingstone line. Edith Loring, who secretly loves Schuyler, arranges to have dinner with him at a questionable roadhouse. They are discovered by Edith's husband, Ned, but Helen, who has happened to come there, protects the innocent Schuyler by telling Ned that she herself arranged the dinner meeting to announce her engagement to Schuyler. Helen later learns that Schuyler earlier has been persuaded by her father to marry her--sight unseen, buying Schuyler's name with Merrimore money. The estranged but still engaged couple give a ball in Merrimore's mine, during which there is a cave-in. She and Schuyler come to recognize their true love just as they are rescued.

Dir: John Ince

Unknown to her, Mary Manchester is a double for the ailing Mrs. Adelaide Rutherford, a wealthy woman who has been driven insane by her husband's cruelty. Rutherford is in league with Jasper Haig and Dr. Babcock. Together these men hold in trust sixty million dollars which upon Adelaide's death will revert to her brother Stanford Gorgas. Fearful of Adelaide's imminent death, the conspirators plan to substitute Mary in her place, thus preventing Gorgas from inheriting the money. After imprisoning Mary in Adelaide's house, their plan backfires when Gorgas meets her and, suspecting something is wrong, learns of Mary's plight. After Gorgas helps Mary escape, she is recaptured by Haig, who decides he must now eliminate Gorgas. Assuming that a fluttering behind the curtain is his adversary, Haig takes aim and shoots, only to kill Rutherford instead, thus freeing Mary to spend her future with Gorgas.