Essential Cult Cinema Drawn from the Same DNA as The Crucial Test: Cult Guide

Dir: John Ince

Cyril Maitland and Henry Everard, friends since childhood, are of contrasting temperaments, the former hot-headed and rather impractical, the latter cool-tempered and possessed of a sane viewpoint. Cyril, studying for the ministry, is engaged to Henry's sister Marian, and Henry, studying medicine, is engaged to Cyril's sister Lillian. Unable to resist temptation, Cyril ruins a girl of his parish, Alma Lee, and when a child is about to be born, her father swears to kill the man, but Alma conceals his name. On the night the child is born, Alma's father is found dead. Cyril, being about Henry's build, has worn his clothes, and witnesses see him in the vicinity of the woods where the crime was committed. Henry is convicted of the crime of which Cyril is guilty. Lillian alone believes him innocent, and is sent to prison. Alma declares him to be her child's father. Cyril, believing his calling in the church above all other things, keeps silent, but at the last moment, about to speak, is held back by his father, who thinks him unstrung. Cyril marries Marian, but his conscience tortures him almost beyond endurance and his life becomes a living hell. Finally Henry is released after 20 years in prison, and he attends the cathedral presided over by Cyril, who has become the great Dean Maitland, the most eminent preacher in the country. Cyril sees Henry in the congregation and there is a powerful scene. Cyril meets his son, with a letter from Alma asking for his education, then Alma dies, and her son, learning his identity, renounces his father. Marian dies, and Cyril's troubled soul is grief and conscience-stricken. Henry, seeing the terrible pain of recognition in the cathedral, and remembering his old love for Cyril, now so changed, writes a letter of forgiveness to him, when beyond all endurance, Cyril's pride now broken, repentance enters his soul. The next day, Sunday, his sermon is at first a trite appeal to repentance, and then a dramatic confession of his own sins, when, falling from the pulpit, he drops dead. And after the storm, the sunshine: Henry and Lillian live happy in their true and undying love.

Dir: John Ince

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of A Favor to a Friend perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

When Mary Worthington will not sign a document absolving the executors of her late father's estate from the loss of money due to mismanagement, they lock her up to force her to comply. Meanwhile, Danny Abbott, a press agent for Mary's friend, Gloria Morning, and two East Side Jewish backers, worry that Gloria's failing musical, The Purple Pagoda , will ruin them. Danny persuades his friend Robert Garrison to kidnap Gloria and release her before showtime, thus creating a news item to attract ticket buyers. When Mary escapes and approaches Gloria's apartment, Garrison, thinking that she is Gloria, kidnaps her. Mary plays along to escape the executors and falls in love with him at his cabin where they fight off Gloria's would-be rescuers. After the executors find Mary and take her to an insane asylum, Garrison saves her, they marry, and Gloria's show becomes a success.

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

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

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.

Dir: John Ince

Joe and Eleanor Woodbury lead an unhappy married life: she is fond of the gay life, and he is not. Together, they visit Nadia, a lovely young woman who tells the future by gazing into a crystal ball, and Joe and Nadia fall in love at first sight. Although Eleanor is having an affair with Gene Deering, a lounge lizard, she wants to stay married to Joe and therefore tells Nadia that she is pregnant. The diminutive crystal-gazer promises to stop seeing Joe, and Eleanor resumes her illicit relationship with Deering. Following a raid on a roadhouse where they are carousing, Eleanor and Deering are involved in an automobile accident and she is slightly hurt. The doctor who attends her later informs Nadia that Eleanor is not expecting a child, and Nadia telephones Joe to tell him of his wife's double deception. Joe then tells Eleanor that he is going to divorce her and goes to Nadia.

Dir: John Ince

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

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

Eunice Fielding, rich, with every wish gratified, is a spoiled society girl and a moral coward. She is in love with Jack Harcourt, who is poor but brave, and who is deeply in love with her. Marjorie Harcourt, Jack's sister, reads Eunice's character and warns her brother against the advisability of marrying her. Nance St. Germain, who is a mystic and a student of theosophy and occult lore, talks to Eunice, but all her warnings are without avail, and Jack and Eunice marry. They are happy for a time, but lack of money causes embarrassment. Eunice is ignorant of everything relating to the value of money, cries over their difficulties, and Jack in despair calls Marjorie home from college and confesses the state of affairs to her. He begins to neglect Eunice, who is highly indignant, and becomes very cool to Marjorie. Bob Fisher, who is in love with Marjorie, is sent west by Jack to look after the details of a mining scheme and Jack, short of money, cuts Eunice's allowance. She makes a great fuss over this, and in a talk with Marjorie Jack is informed that there is a baby coming. Jack is called away on business, and while he is absent Eunice loses a lot of money gambling, and fearing comment talks of committing suicide. Eunice talks with Nance, who warns her against committing suicide, and tells her to confess to Jack. Jack returns and gives Eunice all the money he has, leaving himself broke. Marjorie comforts her brother, but he tells her that things have gone wrong, and the mine is a failure. Marjorie tells Eunice, who becomes despondent and leaves a note for Jack, tries the cowardly way, takes gas and dies. Jack reads the note and goes insane. Eunice, in the halls of Death, sees Death, who tells her she is not dead, but must wait until her time comes. Death shows Eunice her home with Jack crazy. Jack sees her. and Eunice sees Marjorie and the nurse and Marjorie greeting Bob Fisher. She goes after Bob, and the face of Death changes as he sees the reconciliation. Marjorie and Bob marry. Jack's insanity continues. Eunice is there and is seen by Jack but invisible to the others. While they are there. Death sends a child to Eunice with the words, "I was to be your child, but now I am to be Marjorie's." Jack, rendered clairvoyant by his insanity, sees and hears this, and makes his first rational remark to the others, saying "Marjorie is to have a little girl," and in surprise Marjorie tells it to Bob. The baby is born, and Jack wants to see it but is refused. Death awakens Eunice, and tells her that whenever she wants Jack's mind restored she is to call on him, but after that she has done so Jack will never see her again. Jack threatens to get the child and kill it if it is not shown to him. Eunice in terror at the danger to child hastily calls on Death to restore Jack's reason, which is done, and she disappears from Jack's sight. With Jack sane again there is a happy reunion of all except Eunice, who sees Death again. Death shows her in his book where she has redeemed herself by her renunciation.

Dir: John Ince

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

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

Young society girl Joyce Lyndon is engaged to energetic Grant Garrison, who lures the judge's daughter to a roadhouse for the night and meets his death at the hands of an abandoned wife. Joyce escapes in fright and meets Martin Antrim, who protects her in exchange for an introduction to her circle of friends. Antrim elicits a confession from Garrison's widow, and Joyce recovers an incriminating handbag from the innkeepers when they attempt to blackmail her.

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.