Must-Watch List in the Vein of The Divorcee: Cult Guide

Dir: Herbert Blaché

A fascinating piece of cinema that shares thematic elements.

Dir: Herbert Blaché

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

An unkempt chorus girl is arrested on a minor charge. In court, she is spotted by a novelist who is looking for someone of her type on whom to model a character in a book he is writing. He takes her into his home where she is looked down upon by his snobbish family. But the girl brings something to the family unlike anything they have known before.

Dir: Herbert Blaché

A fascinating piece of cinema that shares thematic elements.

Dir: Herbert Blaché

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

The opening scene is of the interior of the Malamute saloon. Dangerous Dan McGrew and the lady known as Lou are seen seated at a table in one corner. A dog-sleigh stops outside, and its owner, a tired-looking, bedraggled miner, stumbles through the door. After treating the house, he sits down at the piano and begins to play. Into the soulful, stirring music he pours his pent up feelings of hatred, sorrow, love, and regret. Years before, Jim Maxwell's best friend Dan McGrew had deceived his wife into believing him unfaithful. Their elopement completely unnerved him for a time. But finally he resolved to forget about it, until he next met Dan McGrew. Years afterwards, while prospecting, he met his daughter, now grown to womanhood and married. Her husband had been arrested for a murder committed by McGrew, and Maxwell assisted in effecting his escape. Just previous to the miner's entrance, Nell's husband had been captured in the saloon by the sheriff. As Maxwell finishes playing, he turns about, faces Dangerous Dan McGrew, and tells him, in uncomplimentary language, what he thinks of a man of his type. The lights go out, two guns blaze in the dark, and both men fall. Maxwell recovers and is reunited with his wife Lou. McGrew dies.--May 22 1915.

Dir: Herbert Blaché

In a Virginia resort town in August 1918, Christopher Brent is viewed as a slacker because he refuses to enlist. Secretly, Christopher is observing German spies who are passing information about coastal fortifications for invasion preparations. Seeing Christopher consort with Mrs. Miriam Lee, also from the secret service, his fiancee Molly Preston, who had been bothered by the talk about him, becomes jealous. When Molly's brother Norman discovers a German code book in Mrs. Lee's possession, Christopher, who obtained the book when he destroyed the wireless of the chief spy, Carl Sanderson, who also loves Molly, is suspected of aiding the Germans. After Christopher saves a hotel when the spies ignite a bomb to signal a U-boat, captures a list of enemy spies, kills several spies, and with the help of a U.S. destroyer, sinks the U-boat, he is honored by the town. Molly then asks to be forgiven.

Dir: Herbert Blaché

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

A fascinating piece of cinema that shares thematic elements.

Dir: Herbert Blaché

A young profligate son of a wealthy merchant falls in love with the daughter of an inventor, who has devoted the best years of his life to perfecting the machinery of his employer's plants. After an accident has caused the death of the inventor, the merchant, none too scrupulous, lays claim to an unpatented invention. Not aware of his father's acts, the merchant's son is courting the inventor's daughter, but parental opposition is interposed. Offering his son a half interest in his business if he will renounce his love for the girl, the father is dumbfounded when his son refuses and decides he wants the girl more than the money. Ordered from home, the son secures a job as stevedore on the docks. The foreman takes a dislike to the boy and tries to browbeat him. After a quarrel, the boy accidentally pushes the foreman into the river, runs away and tells his sweetheart that he has committed murder. Detectives pursuing him, arrest and bring him to headquarters, where he is sentenced to Blackwell's Island. During his sojourn on Blackwell's Island, he learns that the man he is supposed to have murdered is alive, and, enraged at the injustice of his sentence, he breaks jail. In the meantime his young sweetheart has also discovered his innocence through a friendly attaché of the Governor's office, and with his assistance dashes to Albany, where the Governor is persuaded to issue a pardon for her young hero. The next and last scene discloses the happy couple in their own little home.

Dir: Herbert Blaché

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

The invalid Count de Suchet, nearing death, tells his friend, artist Henri Dutray, about the tragic events of his early life. He secretly married a dancer, and after she gave birth to a daughter, his father convinced her that she was ruining her husband's life. She gave the baby to an old couple, and then killed herself. The grieving count now worries about his daughter. Meanwhile, Jeanne, an Apache dancer in Montmartre, refuses to be sold by her brother Jacques to an old rogue. After she escapes and hides in Henri's studio, Henri, because he needs money, plots with Jacques to make the count believe that Jeanne is his daughter. Although Jeanne rebels at first, she moves in with the count and grows to love him. After the count dies happily, Jacques robs the count's safe and finds a photograph of Jeanne's mother. The butler shoots him, but before he dies, he reveals that Jeanne really is the count's daughter. Jeanne then marries a boy from the adjoining estate.

Dir: Herbert Blaché

Trotty Veck, the licensed messenger, reconsiders his promise to allow the marriage of his daughter Meg to Richard, after being advised by Alderman Cute that it is a sin for the poor to wed. After his day's labors, he meets William Fern with his infant daughter Lillian seeking shelter from the authorities, who have threatened to hang him. The kind-hearted little man takes them to his humble home for the night. Far after midnight, Trotty, seated by the fireside and soothed by the chimes, falls asleep and dreams. His dream first takes him to the belfry of the old church, where the spirit of the chimes chides him for having done something he should not, and endeavors to show that the consequences might be, by picturing the future. In this vision, Trotty sees his daughter Meg living in poverty and acting as mother to Fern's daughter Lil, now grown to girlhood, Fern, in prison for his demonstration against the rich, and Richard, a drunkard from disappointment. Sir Joseph Bowley visits the little home and offers to adopt Lil, but instead mistreats her so that she is compelled to escape, but finally, upon promise from Sir Joseph to free her father, gives herself up to him, only to be ejected in time from his fine home with an unfortunate infant. She goes back to Meg and dies from the effect of her ill-treatment, leaving the infant to Meg, who in turn is compelled to leave her home due to her poverty. Going to the bridge, Meg attempts to end all for herself and infant. At this point Trotty's dreams come to an end. He now realizes that the poor as well as the rich have a right to marry, and hastens to correct his error. This done, he goes to check Fern, leading one of his meetings. Knowing the influence little Lil has on her father takes her and induces Fern to give up his plans. Trotty and Richard are taken prisoners by Sir Joseph's servants and brought before this despot, who instead of compelling Trotty to submit to his terms, is himself forced to sign a document giving the poor their rights.

Dir: Herbert Blaché

An old woman in Frederick, Maryland during the U.S. Civil War displays her American flag in defiance of the armies of Confederate general Thomas J. Jackson. Based on the folk tale that grew from the poem by John Greenleaf Whittier.