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

Dir: John Ince

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

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

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

On a visit to the city of Boston, a village girl is taken advantage of by a man there and returns home feeling sullied and ashamed. A young man who had once sought her hand returns from years away in Europe and reiterates his suit. She returns his love and agrees to marry him, but has difficulty telling him the truth about her misadventure. When she finally does, his response seems to doom the pair to tragedy.

Dir: John Ince

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of Should a Woman Tell? perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

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.

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.

Dir: John Ince

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

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

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

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of Old Lady 31 perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

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.

Dir: John Ince

Alias "the Dancer," fashionable society crook Jimmy Burke is hot on the trail of the Brent diamonds. Upon learning that Molly Brent and her diamonds are the stars of an amateur play, Jimmy obtains the leading man's part and devises a plan to steal the jewels. Molly falls in love with her leading man, who plans to switch the gems with fakes during the performance. After the play, the police question the couple and Molly declares that the robbery was part of the drama. When she discovers Jimmy's deed, she begins to cry and "the Dancer," realizing that he is in love with his victim, renounces his profession.

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.