The Definitive Guide Deeply Connected to The Dust of Egypt: Cult Guide

Dir: George D. Baker

Overcome with guilt after having an affair with her best friend's husband, Clorinda hopes to escape her past by moving to Europe, where she meets Malcolm, a decent man who falls in love with her. Unable to accept his love, she returns to America and confides her sin to Rev. Bainbridge. Malcolm has followed her, but when she discloses her past, he turns his back. Rev. Bainbridge proposes and before the marriage takes place, Malcolm returns, begging Clorinda's forgiveness. Preferring the worldly man over the minister, Clorinda marries Malcolm and they begin their new life together in France.

Dir: George D. Baker

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

Jim Lassells travels to Africa to obtain proof that his cousin Harold Brooks is dead as rumored, and learns that an Algerian sultan killed the rich American. Since it is assumed that Brooks was childless, Jim inherits his cousin's fortune. At a slave market he buys a young girl named Perdita and sends her to a convent in Corsica to be educated. Years later, Jim meets Perdita again while traveling through Corsica with the impecunious Duchess of Westgate and her daughter, Lady Lilah Grey. When the party stops at an inn, Jim discovers that Perdita is not only a Persian princess, but also the long-lost daughter of Brooks, and therefore the rightful heir to Brooks' fortune. Perdita, who has fallen in love with Jim, engages the romantic Count Theodore de Seramo to abduct the duchess and her daughter, and later the count and Lady Lilah become engaged. Jim offers to turn over his wealth to Perdita, but she declares her love for him and they wed.

Dir: George D. Baker

Acting on his belief that most people become sentimental at Christmas time and are therefore easy prey, New York confidence man "Silk" Wilkins ingratiates himself with millionaire Lawrence Gray, whose wife and little daughter Zelda were lost in a flood eighteen years earlier. After promising to find Gray's daughter, Silk returns to his boardinghouse, where he finds Alice Sheldon attempting to escape her desperate financial straits through suicide. Silk convinces Alice to pose as Zelda Gray and then notifies Lawrence via a note placed in an almond shell that he has found the lost daughter. Lawrence treats Alice so kindly that when Silk demands payment from her on Christmas morning, she refuses. Lawrence, who has overheard the conversation, enters and laughingly reveals that he had known of the frame-up all along. Grateful to Silk for finding him a wife, Lawrence writes the confidence man a large check.

Dir: George D. Baker

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

Although Earle Courtney has married factory girl Annie Leigh, his millionaire father, Major James Courtney, is determined that Earle will marry the wealthy Ethel Ainsworth. Courtney kidnaps his son and sends a message to Annie requesting an annulment, to which he signs Earle's name. All records of the marriage are then destroyed and Earle is led to believe that his wife has perished in a factory fire. Meanwhile, Annie goes to the city looking for her husband and there her child is born. While in the hospital, she reads an announcement of the wedding of Earle and Ethel. Obtaining employment in a film studio, Annie soon soars to stardom. When Mexican investments result in financial disaster for the Courtneys, Annie takes over the mortgage on their estate and produces a picture based on the story of her betrayal. When Earle views it, he learns of his father's treachery and the major, overcome with remorse, begs Annie's forgiveness. Nothing can undo Earle's unhappy marriage, though, until Ethel elopes with artist Paul Roubais, thus removing all obstacles in the path of Annie and Earle's reconciliation.

Dir: George D. Baker

Clover Ames's life consists only of the drudge work that she performs at her Aunt Sarah's boardinghouse. No longer able to withstand her aunt's abuse, Clover runs away and obtains a job as a maid to a wealthy woman. Willed $7,000 by Pierre Dubois, a boarder at her aunt's house, Clover, inspired by a novel that she has read, poses as a duchess at a fashionable winter resort. There she meets and falls in love with Walter Gray, who is also traveling incognito as a ribbon clerk. When Clover's money runs out, her trick is discovered and she vanishes. Obtaining employment in Gray's department store, Clover learns that her ribbon clerk is actually the owner's son, who rushes her to the wedding bureau.

Dir: George D. Baker

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

"Beauty Smythe is at his old tricks again. Look at the raving beauty he's got on the string now." This was Manning's contribution to the discussion, which was taking place in one of New York's most exclusive clubs. All seemed to take a jolly view of the matter, except Van Allen, who, the others noticed, looked with disapproval on the flirtation. They could not understand his mood, and prodded him for his prudishness. When Smythe joined them, Van Allen called him over and asked him to listen to the story he was about to tell, the story of one man who paid for his loose habits. First, he drew from his pocket, a picture of a young man, about Smythe's age. "My sister's only boy," he said. "Two years ago he was leading the kind of life you are now, Smythe. He came down to Mexico to visit me and met Chonita, a pretty Mexican girl. He immediately became infatuated with her, to the consternation of Pedro, another of her lovers, who soon saw that Teddy held a higher place in her heart than he. When her father heard of the affair, he sent her away to their summer hacienda, hoping that she would forget Teddy. Then Ted received an invitation from a friend to spend the summer with him, and accepted. Out hunting one day, he met Chonita and both were happy at the reunion. He told her of his love for her, and she believed him. Of course he promised to marry her. One day, while walking through the forest. Ted just missed stepping on a tarantula, and shrinking from the hideous thing, told Chonita that he feared those terrible spiders worse than anything on earth. Sometime later, Ted received a note from her telling him to meet her at the usual place, and from the tone of the note he knew what had happened. She came, and brought a minister with her, but Teddy was married, and had two children, so even if he had wanted to, he could not have married her. Before word got back to the hacienda, Ted had hopped on a horse and started at a mad gallop for the railroad station, to avoid the wrath of her father and Pedro. Back in New York once more, he felt secure. Chonita meanwhile was thrown out of her father's house, and her child was born in an abandoned cabin. It lived but a few hours. Then Chonita got a position as dancer in a cheap music hall and became popular immediately. The proprietor of a New York café, seeing her perform, asked her to come to the city and dance for him. When she remembered that her betrayer was also in the city, she accepted. Hearing of her proposed trip, her father sent her a dagger, so that she might first kill Teddy and then herself, but she returned it, telling him that she would choose her own method of death for both of them. In the city she met Teddy once more. She responded to all his advances and finally induced him to invite her to his apartment. Here she presented him with an elaborate jewel case, which, she said, contained a gift. When his anxious hands opened the case, a giant tarantula crawled out. Need I tell you that he died a terrible death?" In a meditative mood, Beauty Smythe sat in his room and reflected on what he had heard. Then the moral hit home, and the letter he had intended sending to his latest "sweetheart" never went further than the trash basket.

Dir: George D. Baker

A fascinating piece of cinema that shares thematic elements.

Dir: George D. Baker

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

Gordon Allen works hard to support his wife Dorothy, but she becomes bored with Gordon and her marriage. She takes a trip with her friend Evelyn to a farm for a vacation, and there meets and flirts with handsome but native farmer Jed. She thinks nothing of it, but Jed takes it very seriously, and his sister Mary tries to break up the relationship. When Gordon pays a surprise visit to the farm to see Dorothy and she greets him warmly and kisses him, Jed realizes that he's been played, and after Gordon beats him in a fight, Jed kills himself. Mary, outraged, vows vengeance on Dorothy.

Dir: George D. Baker

The disgrace and suicide of her father drives Eleanore Marston from her comfortable existence into a life as a department store clerk in New York. There she meets wealthy Powers Fiske, who offers her a life of luxury if she will consent to an operation on her brain which would deprive her of her memory. Eleanore agrees, and after the operation, Fiske is horrified to learn he has robbed her of her individuality and that she has become cruel, selfish and remorseless. Dr. Trow, a friend of Fiske, hypnotizes Eleanore to learn of her previous incarnations. Eleanore first remembers herself as a heartless Viking woman, then progresses to a Borgian princess, ending as a woman persecuted as a witch in Salem. Continuing to exercise his power over her, Trow draws Eleanore to the edge of a cliff. They are followed by Henry Johnson, one of Eleanore's compatriots from the department store, who traced the girl to Fiske's house. At Eleanore's plea for help, Johnson leaps upon Trow and the two plunge to their death over the cliff. Fiske arrives just in time to lead Eleanore back to the house. He appeals to a great scientist who restores her memory by means of a second operation, and Eleanore then becomes Fiske's bride.

Dir: George D. Baker

Ira Wilton and his son-in-law Harry Bennett resort to the subterfuge of telling their wives that they are members of the Thirteenth Regiment, to be sure of having a night off each week, Friday night, for the regiment drills. They substantiate their deception by bringing into their little game Ira's daughter Laura and her fiancé Jack Brent, a genuine member of the Thirteenth. Their deception runs along nicely until one Friday night when the men have gone to the club, their wives find the invitation, and are just about to start out when they discover that the water pipe has burst. Laura informs the men by telephone what is discovered, and warns them to hurry home. They arrive and find that the kitchen and dining room are flooded, and, after all has been given a good soaking, Lord Dudley, an admirer of Laura, manages to stop the flow of water. Just as the trouble concerning the flood has subsided, Jack Brent arrives home and tells the men that the Thirteenth has been ordered to the front. The husbands, seeing a good chance to take a little vacation, purchase soldiers' clothing and fall in behind the Thirteenth Regiment as it passes their wives, but slip out as soon as it is out of sight. They then go to the barn, where they substitute their soldiers' habiliments for civilian clothes and then make all possible haste to the lake, where they intend to spend a little vacation. But their vacation is short-lived, for one day they see in the newspapers that the entire Thirteenth regiment has been wiped out. They hurry home to the old barn, where they get into their regimentals as quickly as possible--not forgetting to add a few rents here and there, to make it appear as if they have had a terrible struggle at the front and in escaping. When they arrive home they observe that Mrs. Wilton's brother has returned from the West and promised to take care of the "widows." In reply to Lena's (the fat cook), question concerning her lover Conrad, they were just about to tell her that he died with her name on his lips, when in come Harry and Conrad with the news that the newspaper report was all wrong. Ira and Harry fix it up with Conrad, and Jack, desiring to keep on the right side of the old man, tells the women that the men had a terrible fight, and brother Tom forgets about asking questions when a couple of good cigars are shoved into his mitt.