Hidden Genre Gems for Fans of The Dummy: Cult Guide

Dir: Maurice Tourneur

A thief known as The Hawk has stolen the treasured Garter from the British Museum. One of the men pursuing the thief is mistakenly thought to be The Hawk himself, and so must seek his quarry while himself being hunted.

Dir: George Beranger

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

John Fenton visits a fortune-teller to gain insight into his parentage. While there, a police raid occurs, and he climbs the fire escape to the apartment above. There he finds a girl standing over the body of a young man who has just shot himself. The girl, Belle Charmion, explains that her half brother, Gordon Brewster, had stolen some jewels from their uncle and, fearing that the police would capture him, had attempted suicide. Fenton conceals the brother in another room and impersonates him when the police arrive. Later, he and Belle take Brewster to his uncle's home. In the excitement, the jewels have been forgotten, and Fenton returns to search for them. By this time, the family butler, who is a member of an underworld gang, has tipped off his friends, who then steal the Fenton jewels. At the butler's home, a scuffle ensues; Fenton recovers the jewels and learns that he is actually a distant relative of the Charmions, having been kidnapped in infancy by a crook. With both mysteries thus resolved, Belle and Fenton become engaged.

Dir: Thomas R. Mills

Returning from the war front, Captain Phoebe Plunkett accepts an assignment to apprehend jewel smugglers in pursuit of the Sultana diamond. On his mission, he meets Patricia Melton, who introduces herself as a French Secret Service agent also in search of the diamond. Plunkett is in love with Olga Karakoff, daughter of a wealthy jeweler, and he soon comes to suspect that Olga's father is in league with the smugglers. However, Patricia is the true impostor, and after she discovers that the jewel is encased in a locket worn around Olga's neck, she captures Olga and the diamond. Plunkett comes to the rescue and wins both Olga and a large reward for recovering the jewel.

Dir: Dell Henderson

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

A young man doubles as a butler and an amateur detective.

Dir: Tom Collins

When milk magnate Jacob Strauss is found murdered in his library, the guilt points to Strauss' secretary, Harry Gray, who the previous day was fired when his employer discovered that he was secretly engaged to his daughter Sybil. Arrested for the crime, Gray asserts that he arrived in time to witness the attack on Strauss by a masked man who escaped through the window. When the secretary's story is ridiculed because the window is sixteen stories above ground, Sybil appeals to Tex to take the case. After a long search, Tex summons a number of suspects to his office and accuses Blake, whose apartments are above those of the murdered man. It transpires that Blake, who held a grudge against Strauss for losses he suffered in the milk pool on the exchange, killed him and made his escape by means of a rope. Thus exposed, Blake leaps out the window to his death, clearing Gray of guilt and freeing him to face a happy future with Sybil.

Dir: Marcel Perez

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

Ralph Barr refuses to lend more money to Trent, who has been rejected by Judith Reynard and is now engaged to Barr. When Trent insults Judith, Barr threatens to kill him. Then Trent calls on Barr, threatening to kill himself and make it appear that Barr killed him if Barr will not lend him the money. Later it seems that Trent has committed suicide and Barr is suspected of the murder, but disappears. A series of complications follows which make it appear that Barr did kill Trent, but it turns out that he was killed from a shot behind the portieres. Another murder takes place and more mystery develops. Finally it is determined that Barr is not guilty, and Judith's loyalty saves him.

Dir: Unknown Director

A fascinating piece of cinema that shares thematic elements.

Dir: Tom Collins

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

When the body of Wall Street broker Norman Temple is found dead in his office, the police arrest contractor James Borden for the crime on the testimony of Temple's secretary that Borden had threatened her employer over an unpaid note. Also under suspicion is Temple's Japanese valet, who quarreled with his employer the day before the murder. Tex, a detective, enters the case, following his own leads which prove the valet innocent. Tex finally deduces that Minkin, one of Temple's clerks, shot his employer when he interrupted the clerk robbing his safe. With Tex's revelation, Minkin's room is searched, the stolen bonds found and Borden is freed.

Dir: Frank Lloyd

Laura Bruce is married to John Bruce, police commissioner. She discovers her husband is enjoying a drunken revel with another woman, and vows she will obtain a divorce. After doing so she weds Paul Ramsey. His employer, Dick Turner, a libertine, offers his a responsible position in the west, and she faces a long separation. Ramsey later learns that Turner is interested in his wife and engages a man to protect her, who happens to be her former husband. She finds this out, but does not know he is bent on vengeance. She is inveigled to go to Turner's apartment, where she meets Turner's former "flame." One of them leaves the apartment which is "Room 13." Returning from the West, Ramsey is taken to an adjoining room by Bruce, and listens to a conversation in "Room 13" between a man and a woman. He is convinced it is his wife's voice. Maddened he rushes to the room and batters down the door. He confronts Turner and shoots him. At the trial Ramsey will go free if his wife confesses she was in the room She does and he is acquitted. A reconciliation follows. - Moving Picture World 1920

Dir: Robert Thornby

When Mrs. Chapman Price, the daughter of wealthy socialite Mrs. Janney, quarrels with her husband over her mounting gambling debts, he packs his suitcase and moves out. Desperate to pay off her debts, Mrs. Price rifles her mother's safe but discovers that its contents are missing. The blame points to Chapman Price and Esther Maitland, Mrs. Janney's private secretary. When the Price baby is kidnapped and held for ransom, Esther is suspected of that crime, too. Only Dick Ferguson, a neighbor, believes in Esther's innocence. After several misadventures, Esther discovers that the kidnapping was perpetrated by the detective whom Mrs. Price hired to unravel the burglary, which was committed by Ferguson's servant. Thus cleared, Esther joins the man who believed in her, and the Prices are reconciled.