The Global Archive Complementing the Tone of The Empty Cradle: Cult...

Dir: Burton L. King

The sole support of her invalid mother and young crippled brother, Heloise Broulette is forced to become the mistress of Leland Norton in order to secure the money for an operation to save her mother's life. Mrs. Broulette recovers, but when she discovers the real source of her daughter's income, the news kills her. After her mother's death, Heloise leaves her career behind and goes to the country where she takes a job as a secretary to author Carter Vail, who falls in love with her. Ruth finds herself in a dilemma when Vail's sister Alice visits friends in the city and falls in love with Norton. Honor bound, Ruth sacrifices her own happiness to save Alice from Norton. In revenge, Norton informs Vail of Heloise's past, but Vail responds that she has the soul of a Magdalene despite the life that she had been forced to endure.

Dir: Burton L. King

Sonia Smirnov, a Paris opera singer known as "The Black Butterfly", starts an affair with young Alan Hall. Hall, however, is still pining over his previous lover, a young peasant girl. Sonia--a former poor peasant girl herself--discovers a secret involving Hall and his former lover that neither knows about, but that involves an incident in Sonia's youth that could affect all of them.

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

Dir: Burton L. King

When bank president Leslie Morrison dips into the till, he seeks to place the blame on bank clerk David Moulton by altering the figures in Moulton's books. He lays his plan carefully, but upon leaving the building late one night, Morrison falls into an elevator shaft and is killed. Moulton, the one man known to have been there, is charged with murder and tried by district attorney Robert Murdock. Unable to afford a competent defense, Moulton is convicted and sentenced to die in an electric chair. However, Mary Reed, a stenographer who loves Moulton, appeals as a last resort to the newly elected public defender, Arthur Nelson. Nelson investigates the case and discovers evidence on the very eve of the execution, evidence that will warrant a stay. Rescued from death in the nick of time, Moulton is granted a new trial under the supervision of the public defender and is found innocent.

Dir: Burton L. King

Engrossed in the perfection of a new high power explosive, the husband seems to neglect his wife. She is further piqued by the introduction into their home of a man whose presence is unexplained, but who is really a Secret Service operative guarding the invention. The Government has asked that the wife be kept in ignorance. In this frame of mind the wife lends a ready ear to Aachen, who suggests that the husband be taught a lesson by the abstraction of this all-absorbing formula. Through this means he gets the formula, but in the end the Government gathers him in, and the only permanent result is a needed lesson to the innocent little traitor.

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

Dir: Burton L. King

When the dominating financier takes the girl as his private secretary he secures not only an efficient girl but a beautiful one. It is then that his son decides to take an interest in business. His father suspects that his son has suddenly become imbued with business affairs because of the striking young woman secretary he has engaged and tells him that if he intends to go into business he can do so but he does not want him about the office. The son is unsuccessful in many deals and when some bonds are missing the guilty parties manage to successfully charge him with stealing them. In the meantime he had been visiting the charming young secretary of his father and often met his father's cashier coming out of the apartment. He had become furiously jealous and the climax came when he discovered his sweetheart in the arms of the cashier. It is when he is accused of stealing the bonds that he begins to realize that his father's cashier and the pretty secretary are in a plot to ruin his father. And right here is where the story becomes intensely interesting and the suspense is finally lifted. Of course the business rivals become staunch friends again as of yore. But the lovers have come over a rough road in their romance and a pleasant future is also assured for them.

Dir: Burton L. King

A battalion of the U. S. Army's 77th Division penetrates deep into the Argonne Forest of France during the First World War. The battalion becomes surrounded and holds out for six long days, awaiting reinforcement and rescue.

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

Dir: Burton L. King

Albert Jordan, publishing house manager, lavishes his salary on his adored wife, Rita, and little daughter Edna. She is a churchgoing woman, while his home and his family is his religion. While returning home one day, Jordan sees his little daughter in the path of an auto. He runs to snatch her from instant death. He saves her but is seriously injured himself. As a result, he becomes a half paralytic. His wife becomes the bread-winner of the family. She frets against this and is tempted by a former lover, Jim Shaw, a race-track follower, and leaves with him. Jordan becomes an embittered blasphemer. He is compelled to sell newspapers and pencils at an elevated station. Here a splendid woman with a deathless faith finds the hopeless Jordan and teaches him her creed of life. Jordan begins to pray. At last, in response to his prayers and more hopeful state, Jordan is healed and learns that God's way is not always the ways of men. The years pass. Jordan with health, new strength, new friends, becomes successful in business. His daughter, Edna, now a beautiful young woman, marries Frank Rollins, of aristocratic family, and assistant district attorney. Jordan makes his home with the young couple. On the other hand, Rita, who first lived in luxury, has gradually gone down the ladder of life and now reaps the harvest of her sin and selfishness. Shaw is drinking heavily and beats her. They return from Paris and start a flashy tango hall. A few months later, after his daughter's marriage, Jordan is asked by Rollins to accompany him on a vice crusade. While in a dance place, there is a quarrel between a man and a woman. Jordan goes to intervene and comes face to face with his wife. After a night of anguish Jordan goes to Rita, telling her of himself and of Edna. He teaches her to see the "light," as he calls it, as he has seen it. Rita is touched by Jordan's willingness to forgive and forget and the latent good in Rita's nature rises to meet the good in Jordan. How Rita repays his wish to reclaim her is unfolded in the climax.

Dir: Burton L. King

Extravagance has always marked the lives of Norma Russell and her father, Courtland Russell. As a consequence, debt overtakes them, and Russell is forced to borrow a large sum of money from Howard Dundore, the banker. Even this hint of coming trouble does not cause them to economize, and soon Russell has to ask Dundore for an extension of his note. This the banker refuses to do unless the note is accompanied by the signature of a depositor of the bank. Russell forges the name of Robert Mackay, one of the bank's wealthiest depositors. Dundore knows the name is forged, but instructs his confidential man, Horace Scott, to pay the note and subtract it from his private account. He then accuses Russell, and to save her father from the consequences of his forgery Norma is obliged to consent to marry Dundore. She cables her lover, Franklin Hall, a businessman, who has gone to South America to look after a rubber investment, that she cannot marry him. Hall returns at once, pays back the amount of the note, thereby beggaring himself, and marries Norma. Dundore pretends to be friendly to the young couple, tells Hall he knows his investment has gone badly, and offers him a position in the bank, which Hall accepts. Dundore then seizes the opportunity to have Hall's accounts falsified in order to make it appear that he has stolen large sums of money. He continues to call at the Hall's home, and on one occasion makes love to Norma. Hall comes in unexpectedly, the men come to blows, and Dundore accuses Hall of having taken money from the bank. He is arrested, brought to trial and sentenced to five years' imprisonment. The only man who could have testified in his behalf, Horace Scott, has been given money by Dundore, with orders to leave the city. Norma feels that her husband's trouble is a judgment upon herself for her extravagance, since he has always gratified her every wish. Left without means by his imprisonment she turns her talents to scenario writing, at which she is immensely successful. Her father, who has been ousted from his clubs for non-payment of dues, and who lives in a little apartment with his daughter, secures work as a motion picture actor. One evening when they are returning from the studio in the motor car of the director, they see an old man run down by another car. Norma takes the injured man home. When he regains consciousness days later his mind is a blank. During his ravings Norma gleans enough to suspect that he has knowledge of her husband's supposed crime, and tries in every way to bring back his memory. All efforts fail. She takes him to the prison to see her husband, and Hall recognizes him as Scott, but he does not recognize the husband. Norma decides upon an idea, and with the aid of her director carries it out. She writes a scenario embodying the facts in the case of her husband's false accusation, and has it acted for the screen. Then she invites Dundore to see her latest picture at a special showing, and has Scott present. The picture is called "The Banker." As its action progresses there is a shout from the auditorium. Scott jumps to his feet wildly exclaiming: "That's the way he did it; Hall was not to blame. Dundore made me do it." In the ensuing excitement Dundore escapes. He hurries to the railroad station, engages a special and leaves the city, but fate follows him, and he is killed when his engine crashes into a line of "dead" freight cars. Hall is released on the testimony of Scott, whose memory has been brought back by Norma's plan, and Norma and her husband begin life happily once more, both she and her lather having learned a bitter lesson on the folly of extravagance.

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

Dir: Burton L. King

Nancy Page is a frivolous socialite until her husband Richard becomes entangled in his employer David Davenport's shady business dealings. Davenport, a building contractor, had secured Richard's signature on several papers that promised payment of over a million dollars, even though the firm was insolvent. At a party held in honor of wealthy Japanese agent Tato Usaki, Richard tries to convince Davenport's wife Lila, who is in love with him, to obtain the vouchers, and Nancy attempts to charm Usaki into signing a building contract that will save the firm. Usaki and Nancy arrange to meet at the vacant house next door, where he signs the contract but then locks the door and attacks her. Nancy escapes through a window and returns to the party with the contract, while Davenport, having discovered that his wife has destroyed the incriminating vouchers, shoots himself.

Dir: Burton L. King

Laura Sutphen breaks off her engagement with Donald Loring because he drinks excessively and she refuses to see him socially. When her automobile breaks down in front of a friend's empty estate during a storm, Laura is forced to spend the night with Von Kolnitz, a rich foreigner also stranded by the weather. After ignoring Donald's advice to get out, Laura receives a threatening phone call from the editor of the Tattle Tale . To keep her name out of the gossip newspaper, Laura agrees to invite Sue Schuyler, her best friend and an incurable flirt, and Von Kolnitz to a party and to allow Donald to attend as an employee of the Tattle Tale . At the party, Sue and Von Kolnitz arrange a compromising midnight rendezvous at which Donald appears with a camera. After a series of misunderstandings with Laura, Donald reveals himself to be a secret service agent and exposes Von Kolnitz as a social blackmailer. Her faith restored, Laura is reconciled with Donald.