Masterpiece Selection that Capture the Essence of The Cradle: Cult ...

Dir: Paul Powell

Meena, an Amish girl, is left wealthy when her parents die. She goes to live with her unpleasant relatives in New York. There she encounters a German count, who, though he believes her to be a servant girl, falls in love with her.

Dir: Paul Powell

A fascinating piece of cinema that shares thematic elements.

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of The Marriage of Molly-O perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

Dir: Paul Powell

Hard-working insurance-company bookkeeper John Carter comes home on Easter eve to his suburban cottage with a potted lily for his loving wife and two daughters. The Carters live happily until cashier Charles Ryder is murdered by the night watchman, a "coke-sniffer" in need of money, and Carter is accused because he worked with Ryder that evening. During intense third-degree police questioning, Carter acts guilty, but cub reporter Ned Fowler, who loves Carter's daughter Helen, intervenes. After the watchman, arrested for fighting and in need of drugs, confesses, Carter is released, but insurance company president Ira Wolcott will not reinstate him because of his notoriety. During the next year, Carter fails to find work because of his age. As Easter approaches and his life-insurance premium comes due, Carter decides to kill himself in a gas-filled hotel room so that his starving family can collect the insurance money. When Carter's little daughter Nellie strays into Wolcott's yard, Wolcott learns about Carter's plight and rescues him. Carter returns to work, and Helen becomes engaged to Ned.

Dir: Paul Powell

Judy's family takes in seven orphans after the orphanage is foreclosed on by a hard-hearted businesswoman.

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

Dir: Paul Powell

When George Walsh learns that his director is ill, he hires a French director named Monsieur Hoe Beaux to write and direct his new film, and after it has been completed, they sit down to view the results. Kirk White, having finished college, boards a ship to South America to procure a large inheritance left to him by his uncle. On the way, he and his sweetheart, Violet Ray, encounter a group of revolutionaries led by Jazzbando Boullion. Because Boullion and his henchmen are also after the money, they imprison Kirk and Violet in a small town, but after a series of narrow escapes, the young man manages to send a wireless to the United States Marines. After their rescue, Kirk and Violet declare their love for each other. Following the screening back in the movie studio, Hoe Beaux is ordered off the lot.

Dir: Paul Powell

Betsy Harlow is a hard-working maid in a boarding house. Her dream. however, is to be a detective, a dream she shares with her boyfriend Oscar, a delivery boy for a local grocer. One day a mysterious character named Harry Brent takes a room at the boarding house. Harry, seeing that Betsy is falling for his rather shady charms, persuades her to help him get a box of jewels owned by the Jaspers, an elderly couple who lives across the hall. It turns out that Harry is not quite who he seems; neither, however, are the Jaspers.

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

Dir: Paul Powell

To the dismay of Allison Edwards, her adoring bookworm neighbor Mary Randolph falls in love and marries Jack Van Norman, a rich, handsome former football star. After a few months of marital contentment, Jack becomes infatuated with exotic dancer Rose. Despite Mary's attempts to win him back, Jack agrees to a divorce, moves in with Rose, and leaves Mary to bear their baby alone.The new couple lives happily at the seashore until Jack discovers that whenever he goes away on business, Rose entertains other men. Despondent over Rose's repeated infidelities, Jack commits suicide. At his coffin, Mary forgives him, then finds solace in the arms of the faithful Allison, now a successful author. After dedicating his latest book to her, Allison proposes marriage, and he and Mary happily wed.

Dir: Paul Powell

When a wealthy hypochondriac is dissatisfied by the care of the town doctor (Doc Arnold), he consults with a new physician in town who swindles him out of a large sum of money. When his daughter tries to retrieve the check, the quack (Dr. Bell) turns up dead with a gun shot wound to the chest. Doc Arnold lends his expertise to the investigation and solves the case by finding microscopic evidence on the murder weapon left at the scene.

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

Dir: Paul Powell

A teenage girl lives with two grizzly bears in a cave in the California Sierras and plays with rabbits and birds. When gambler Jim Hamilton and his mistress try to interest wealthy Bob Jordan in purchasing an abandoned mine in the Sierras, Jordan, mistakes the girl clothed in leaves and feathers for an animal, shoots her in the arm. He nurses the girl, who cannot speak, and she repays him with a slave-like devotion. At the mine, Hamilton remembers that fifteen years earlier, Indians attacked his home while he was away and killed his family. The wild girl, really Hamilton's daughter, remembers fleeing from the raid into the woods. Although Hamilton's mistress tries to seduce Jordan, he refuses to buy the mine. Hamilton then tries to rob Jordan at gunpoint, but the girl has buried Jordan's money belt as a prank. Jordan's anger causes her to return to her cave, but later they reconcile, and she returns the belt. After Hamilton's mistress leaves with another man, Hamilton returns to the city, and Jordan starts back with the girl following at his heels.

Dir: Paul Powell

While covering night court for a newspaper, a reporter falls in love with a woman arrested on a prostitution charge. Soon after they are married, however, he catches her with Dan O'Sullivan, the publisher of the newspaper. Although the reporter had always believed his wife innocent of the prostitution charge, he now refuses to accept that she was lured to Dan's room under false pretenses and fought desperately against the publisher's advances. As a result, the reporter leaves his wife, becomes an alcoholic, and loses his job. Then, he gets a lead on a graft story involving Dan, and ultimately discredits him. While working on the story, he also finds proof that his wife had told him the truth, and so he makes up with her, after which he gives up drinking and gets an even better newspaper job than the one he had before.