Editor's Top Picks Following the Footsteps of The Dictator: Cult Guide

Dir: Alexander Butler

In Alberta, Canada, a Cornish emigrant unmasks a rustler posing as the girl's "blind" father.

Dir: James Cruze

When the brokerage firm of Blatch, Markham and Driggs dissolves, Markham steals company records and the option of a valuable mine. Meanwhile, Blatch, who wants the option to expire so he can then purchase it at a low price, hires attorney Burley Hadden to convince Driggs that he is trying to recover it. Hadden sees John Craig, a bungling construction contractor who needs $800 for his payroll, running nervously from the pop of a paper bag, and offers the supposed "dub" $1,000 to retrieve the papers, thinking he will fail. After Markham tries to dupe John, he meets Enid Drayton, Markham's ward, who is being held a virtual prisoner in Markham's mansion. With the help of a friendly burglar, they retrieve the option and other papers which prove that Markham and Blatch had been cheating Driggs for years. After Driggs rewards John and informs Enid that she owns a million dollar estate, she and John embrace.

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

Dir: Richard Smith

Two female candidates for Chief of Police live across the hall from each other, and their political rivalry follows them home, leading to plenty of hi-jinks.

Dir: Edgar Jones

A mail-order bride arrives at a Maine lumber camp but doesn't like her prospective husband.

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

Dir: Bruno Ziener

A fascinating piece of cinema that shares thematic elements.

Dir: James Cruze

A young man infiltrates the underworld by pretending to be a convicted burglar. While undercover, he meets a young woman who turns out to be no more a part of gangland than he, but with similar reasons for disguising herself.

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

Dir: James Cruze

Walsingham Van Dorn, a rather unsuccessful book agent, is stunned to learn that he has inherited forty million dollars from his two uncles. Van Dorn asks his attorney Wilkins to handle the responsibilities entailed in managing the fortune and then retires to his mansion. One evening, however, he is awakened by a young woman named Desiree Lane, who refuses to leave until the two million dollars that his uncles swindled away from her father is restored. Van Dorn tries to return the money but discovers that Wilkins has stolen it and fled. Van Dorn and Desiree set out to find him, but when the hotel in which they have stopped for the night burns down, they are left standing in the street clad only in pajamas. To avoid a scandal, they marry and happily settle down. Two years later, Wilkins, unable to handle the fortune, returns it, but the young couple wonders whether they will continue to be happy as millionaires.

Dir: Perry N. Vekroff

While in New York seeking work, Cynthia, a young English girl, meets Bruce Crittenden and George Rhode who introduce her to Madame Savarin, a wealthy woman seeking a companion for a sea voyage. She hires Cynthia, and while at sea, Cynthia discovers that Bruce is the ship's purser. Cynthia's father was a famous wireless expert who taught her how to read code, which enables her to overhear a plot to sink the ship and steal Mrs. Savarin's jewels. Soon after, the crew mutinies, and while Rhode and Bruce fight the crew, Cynthia sounds the alarm. As he is attempting to foil the jewel thieves, Bruce falls overboard, and Cynthia swims to his rescue with the jewels strapped to her back. They are rescued by a government patrol boat and taken back to New York where Cynthia and Bruce are married.

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of Eva, wo bist du? perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

Dir: James Cruze

Rival logging companies battle for the Valley of the Giants (redwood trees) when a young engineer returns home to help his father by building a new rail line to transport the logs to the sawmill. A romance between the engineer and the rival's niece complicates the situations.

Dir: James Cruze

An inventor travels to the South Seas, where there is buried treasure belonging to a girl. The girl's father is being held captive by cannibals until she returns a pearl that belongs to one of their idols.