Visionary Picks In Alignment with the style of The Eye of God: Cult...

Dir: Phillips Smalley

A woman runs a birth control information bureau until police intervene. Though wealthy have access to this knowledge, the poor don't. She defies speaking bans, gets arrested, and wins over her doctor husband and a judge.

Dir: Phillips Smalley

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

Wally Dreislin commits suicide because his family disapproved of his romance with chorus girl Estelle Ryan, the newspapers, delighting in all the details of the affair, turn Estelle into a national celebrity. Fame only increases her power to attract men, and she soon is involved in a romance with Jansen Winthrop, another young man from a wealthy family. Jansen's alarmed mother then begs Robert, her other son, to end the relationship. Obediently, Robert kidnaps Estelle and takes her to a remote hunting lodge with plans to keep her there until she agrees to leave Jansen. After several weeks, however, Robert realizes that Estelle's reputation as a vamp has been completely engineered by the press. As a result, Robert sends for Jansen to retrieve his sweetheart, but when he arrives, Estelle announces that she has fallen in love with her abductor, and then begins a romance with him.

Dir: Phillips Smalley

A poor shopgirl is offered a "good time" for a week by the son of her employer. She accepts, but the offer is misunderstood by her brother, who informs the girl's parents of her "fling."

Dir: Phillips Smalley

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of The Price of a Good Time perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

Accustomed to flirting and dropping every suitor at her feet, Cora Madison - a young woman belonging to one of the most prominent families in the city - collides with Valentine Corliss, a newcomer.

Dir: Phillips Smalley

John Needham is the last of a long line of profligate Englishmen and just in the nick of time to save him from beggary, comes word that he has been appointed guardian of Thomas Creighton, and placed in charge of the millions which have been left as the heritage of the boy. Packing young Creighton off to a boarding school, Needham takes possession of the Creighton estate and begins a life of riotous dissipation. Several years elapse, until one morning Needham receives a letter from America stating that young Creighton is coming home to demand possession of his estate and will require an accounting for every penny. Joseph Norbury lives in a quiet English village and reads the news that Needham has been appointed executor of the Creighton estate. Norbury's wife remarks that with his mustache off. Norbury could easily be taken for Needham. In after years Norbury moves to London, where he and Needham met at the same club and become fast friends. When Needham learns that he is to be called to account for his stewardship, he realizes that imprisonment faces him and to avoid disgrace, he undertakes to devise measures to commit murder. Having sent to the Creighton country seat the servants from the Creighton townhouse, he invites Norbury to visit him. During the evening, Needham contrives to drop poison into the wine which Norbury drinks and after Norbury falls dead upon the floor, Needham changes clothes with the corpse. The murderer then goes to Norbury's home and undertakes to pass himself off as Norbury. The papers next morning relate how John Needham has been found a suicide in the Creighton mansion. Upon discovery of the corpse, Parks, who has been Needham's valet, refuses to believe that the dead man was his master, and through this suspicion and some good detective work by Parks, Needham is subsequently accused of the crime. Taking advantage of momentary opportunity, Needham drinks some of the same poison which he had given to Norbury and dies.

Dir: Phillips Smalley

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

Homeless Mina Rogers is desperate for a job, is briefly employed as a housemaid for three nurses. When she loses the job, she decides to impersonate one of the nurses to take a job at the home of wealthy invalid Harvey Gorman. There, she comes under the control of Gorman's male nurse Roberts, who, discovering her deception, forces her to aid in his plan to acquire the money that Gorman plans to leave to his ranch foreman Cal Morgan. While Roberts begins poisoning Gorman with arsenic, Mina is instructed to seduce Cal into proposing to her, a plan that fails only because the jealous daughters of the ranch's housekeeper expose Mina's charade. When it is learned that Gorman is being poisoned, Mina is suspected, but a letter is eventually discovered that incriminates Roberts. Dr. Prine, Gorman's doctor, has fallen in love with Mina and, after hearing the story of her miserable childhood, forgives her impersonation.

Dir: Phillips Smalley

Mrs. Forbes, longtime housekeeper at the country mansion of disappointed, embittered aristocrat Mr. Evringham, who is almost a luxurious recluse, is worried: the household has been turned upside-down by the advent of the wife of Evringham's dead son Lawrence, who has arrived with her daughter Eloise. The mother is a schemer who, reduced to her last penny, is pulling every wire to induce wealthy young Dr. Ballard to marry Eloise. It looks as if she is going to succeed and the need for success is imperative because Mr. Evringham is set against his female dependents, whom he might expel from his home at any moment. Then word comes from another son, Harry Evringham, who writes that he and his wife must make a business trip abroad and he asks his father to take Jewel, the child he has never seen, into his home until they return in six weeks. Old Mr. Evringham reluctantly agrees to his son's request. He hates children and is gruff, unresponsive, and self-centered. The only reason he agrees to take the child is because his daughter-in-law, the widow, tries to get him to refuse. He hates this daughter-in-law; therefore takes Jewel in to spite her. Upon her arrival, Jewel meets with a very cool reception. She finds that, according to the Christian Science teachings with which she is familiar, that she has entered a household of hatred and discord. She puts the scriptures and Mrs. Eddy's teachings to practical use and proves to all scoffers that she has found and can demonstrate the truth. Jewel takes a strong liking to her bluff, stern, old grandfather and he finds his heart softening under her influence. She cures herself of a fever which she says came o because a shadow of hatred passed over her for the house's inmates. She wins the heart of the grim housekeeper when she redeems her drunkard son from the grip of the liquor demon, she converts Eloise to the truth of Divine Science, and she proves to everyone that Science can win in spite of all. She reaps a harvest of good from a bleak, barren soil, uniting the strained and jarring household by chain after chain of love.

Dir: Phillips Smalley

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

Lydia Jansen is a faithful and loving wife, though unknown to her husband, a customs inspector, she has become addicted to smoking opium. In the parlance of the underworld this devil's brew is called "hop." Her own father, a politician in the city in which they live, is the head of an opium importing gang, which is the principal medium whereby the addicts obtained their supply of opium. Lydia's craving for the drug is so great, and her desire to conceal the habit from her husband so strong, that she is embroiled in a series of blackmailing attempts by her maid, who is affianced to the stevedore through whom most of the opium is landed from the vessels by which it is smuggled. Her attempts to satisfy her craving for hop, at a time when the government is closing in upon the smugglers, excites her husband's suspicion, and of course he thinks another man has entered her life, and it is only through an almost superhuman exercise of willpower that she finds the strength to conquer her appetite and confess to her husband the terrible habit which she had formed, and thus relieving the terrible suspicion which had grown like a hunting nightmare into his very life. The shock of finding that he himself had contributed to his own daughter's downfall causes the father's suicide and the capture of the entire opium smuggling gang.

Dir: Phillips Smalley

In 1840, while California is ruled by Mexico, American settlers are in constant danger from Mexican marauders. After a band of Mexican soldiers led by American renegade George Granville kill the parents of Leonardo Davis, he vows vengeance and begins a career as a masked highwayman who terrorizes the Mexican offenders. Because Leonardo gives his plunder to those Americans who have been robbed, and he protects the women, children, poor, and helpless from attacks, he becomes known as "Captain Courtesy." At the San Fernando Mission, Leonardo falls in love with Eleanor, the orphaned ward of Father Reinaldo. For Eleanor's sake, Leonard renounces his mission of vengeance and joins the California Riflemen. When Granville learns about a cache of gold hidden at the Mission, he organizes an attack. Leonardo crashes through the stained glass window on his horse and rides to General Stephen Kearny's troops encamped in Los Angeles, who then rout the Mexicans. When Granville boldly admits that he slew the Davises, Leonardo fights him, but Eleanor persuades him to spare Granville's life.

Dir: Phillips Smalley

The story opens with the male gossips inside the club gazing from the window and making comments on the passers-by. Green, a member of the club, lives in the apartment beneath that of William Wright, a broker. Wright is in business difficulties, but his business associates have not yet learned this, as his wife's father has promised to relieve the situation with a loan. Daisy Dean, Wright's stenographer, is in his confidence. Daisy has her foot caught in the elevator of the building and Mr. Wright takes her home in his car. As he passes the club window, the gossips and Green see him with Daisy and slander is started. Green, coming home, tells his wife of Wright's joy ride with his office girl. Their servant overhears and quickly calls the news up the dumbwaiter to Mrs. Wright's maid in the flat above. Mrs. Wright enters in time to hear the discussion and her slumbering jealousy is fanned into a flame. In Daisy's neighborhood her ride in Mr. Wright's car has occasioned some comment, especially from Susan, an old maid aunt next door, whose brother, Robert, has long loved Daisy in secret. Daisy is engaged to Austin Clark. Mrs. Wright has particularly noted that the stenographer always has a bunch of daisies on her desk. In the most innocent fashion, Mr. Wright comes home with one of the flowers in his button-hole. The fact that Daisy is seen morning and evening in Mr. Wright's car gives color to the lies that are now freely circulating. Daisy and Austin quarrel and part. Mrs. Wright haunts Daisy's neighborhood in a taxicab and has her worse suspicions confirmed in the fact that her husband is seen outside. Without giving him a chance, she leaves him. The father withdraws his financial support and ruin overtakes Wright. One morning the newspaper has an item which reads: "Wife of broker leaves him on eve of his bankruptcy. Mrs. William Wright returns to her father's house. She will apply for divorce from her husband, naming his stenographer. Daisy Dean, as co-respondent." By the time the gossips get through with Daisy Dean, she is glad to marry Robert, next door, for protection. On the day of her wedding. Austin repents his hastiness and writes that he has never ceased to love her, but it is too late and Daisy hides the letter with his photograph. Wright, broken and penniless, is saved from suicide by his old mother. Time passes and the old trouble seems forgotten. In their new happiness, Daisy and Robert and their baby go to a seaside town for the summer. Robert's work calls him away and his sister, Susan, in spite of her dislike of Daisy, comes to stay with her during his absence. In the meantime, Austin, who is now engaged to a girl in the town, comes down for his vacation. He and Daisy meet and he introduces the two women. Daisy remembers his photograph and letter hidden away; gets them out and burns them, but Susan recovers the end of the letter, which was burned and which reads: "I have never ceased to love you. Austin." She sends the letter to her brother. Daisy is included in many of their engagement festivities in a perfectly innocent way, but to Susan's suspicious mind there can only be one conclusion placed upon their intimacy. The letters and insinuations to Robert breathe such suspicion against Daisy and Austin that he is driven almost mad. Finally, unable to work, he returns home without notifying his wife. The same evening, Daisy has joined Austin and a party of their friends in an auto ride out of town for dinner. A series of accidents to the car, miles from nowhere, detain them until dawn. A cottager, who proves to be Mr. Wright, assists them. Robert reaches his home about daylight in a condition bordering on insanity. He is met by Susan with the news that Daisy has been out all night with Austin. The auto party, having stopped at the sweetheart's home, drops her and her parents first and Austin then escorts Daisy to her cottage. On entering the house, Daisy is confronted by Robert and Susan. A terrible scene takes place, during which Robert's self-control is entirely lost. Austin, returning from the garage, passes the house and is shot dead by Robert, who is taken into custody. Daisy, terror-stricken, takes her baby and hastens as far from the town as her strength will carry her. At last, more dead than alive, she sees no hope for herself but death and is about to end her life and the baby's when she is saved by Mr. Wright, who takes her to his mother. The shock of the tragedy kills Robert's sister, while Daisy receives the following letter: "Do not come home, I am disgraced enough. Your Mother." News reaches the clubroom that Mr. Wright and Daisy Dean are living in the same house and the scandal goes on.