Editor's Top Picks Following the Footsteps of The Final Close-Up: Cult Guide

Dir: Walter Edwards

Paul Boudeaux shares lodgings with Richard Landers, his business partner, and Richard's young wife Matilda. Paul and Richard are in deep financial trouble, but when Paul's wealthy uncle, Batiste Boudeaux, comes to visit for a night, Matilda suddenly is inspired with a plan to save the business. Knowing that Uncle Batiste will give Paul $50,000 if the young man marries, Matilda introduces herself as Paul's wife, which greatly pleases the old bachelor. Complications arise, however, when Batiste decides to stay for a month, and the situation gets worse when early one morning, he sees Paul sleeping on the sofa and Richard stealing away from Matilda's room. Because Paul falls in love with Batiste's nurse Rose, the partners finally get their money, and even the old uncle gives up his bachelorhood by marrying fashion model Mme. Julie.

Dir: Walter Edwards

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

After discovering her husband Roger has been unfaithful to her, Angela De Haven sets out to make all men pay for his deceit. Roger, despairing of ever winning back his wife, sails for the South Sea islands and is lost during the voyage. Meanwhile, Angela establishes a salon where prominent men vie for her attentions. One of the members of her court, Bragdon Brant, controls the Bob Cat mine, but not the railroad extending to it which is owned by Bob Spalding. Brant sends Angela West to buy the controlling interest in the railroad and she meets Bob, who falls in love with her. Angela refuses to marry him and flees after securing control of the road through Bob's partner, Durant. She returns to New York, intent upon ruining Brant, but is prevented from carrying out her plans when Bob appears and forces her to realize the destructive path that her life has taken. Angela then restores the railroad shares to Bob, and thus reconciled, they travel West to spend the rest of their lives together.

Dir: Walter Edwards

Foster Borrum is the wealthiest man in the town of Norwalk. He practically owns everything. He has won his position by merciless grinding and is regarded by the villagers with fear and contempt. A stern man, with only one softening influence in his life, his wife, whom he idolizes. The wife dies and Borrum turns on the world with added bitterness and hatred. He is living a life of dreary isolation when one day a visitor steps off the train at the station, a little girl; also alone in the world; who has been tagged to her destination in the search of a relative who has long since disappeared. The villagers are too poor to adopt the child. In a cynical mood Borrum takes possession of the girl. Ivy Marten, and installs her in his home. Ivy, aching for sympathy, meets with no response from the austere man, whose treatment of her borders on brutality. Exaggerated reports of this reach the authorities, and Borrum is haled before them. Ivy, who loves the old man in spite of his coldness, is the prime witness for the defense and her loyal support of her guardian wins the day. A change comes over the attitude of Borrum towards the child and the world in general and with a softened heart he strives to make life happier for the orphan and for the hitherto despised inhabitants of the poverty stricken village.

Dir: Walter Edwards

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

A Pair of Silk Stockings is a 1918 American silent marital comedy film starring Constance Talmadge and Harrison Ford. It was directed by Walter Edwards and produced and distributed by Select Pictures Corporation. The film is based on a 1914 Broadway play of the same name.

Dir: Walter Edwards

David Waltham is the head of a syndicate, which corners the food supply. His wife hears of her husband's operation and begs him to consider the poor, who will be unable to pay the prices that his monopoly will exact. He is merciless, however. Among those who suffer from Waltham's efforts is an engineer named John Adams. The bank in which his small funds are deposited undergoes a "run" and he loses all his money. He has previously lost his job. The Adams family is reduced to starvation and finally Adams in desperation breaks a window in a bakery and gets away with an armful of bread. He is arrested and is sent up to the workhouse for thirty days. The rent collector comes around, but Mrs. Adams is unable to pay him anything though she slaves over the washboard and her two children assist her. Seeing that the woman is beautiful, the collector gives her some money, telling her to buy her children and herself a square meal. She reluctantly accepts his gift. Little by little she descends until she even appears in a low dance hall with the man. John Adams returns from jail and goes to his humble rooms. There he finds his children in bed. Finally his wife appears in beautiful and expensive clothes. She appears disgusted with the life she leads and wipes the paint off her lips with loathing. Then she suddenly sees her husband, who is staring at her as if in a trance. She is almost hysterical from fright. He grasps her wrists roughly and demands an explanation. She tells him that she has done it for the children's sake. This plea saves her life, but the soul of John Adams is filled with bitterness. Widespread suffering and destitution prevail and bread lines are everywhere in the poorer quarters of the great city. Men and women practice deception to get a little more bread and some get into fights overcome by their own and their children's sufferings. Three desperate men invade the sanctum of David Waltham, but are quelled by his masterful manner and slink away impotently when he tells them that he will call the police if they are not gone in a minute. John Adams gets a job in Waltham's big storage house. A fellow worker points out Waltham to Adams and the latter's rage against the big monopolist is aroused to a high pitch of fury as he thinks of his wife's degradation. Adams blames it all on Waltham. That night he secrets himself in the big warehouse and telephones to Waltham saying that the police are down there, having heard of a secret plan on the part of some of the starving populace to destroy the place. He tells Waltham to leave his auto a block or two away from the building, when he comes, to avoid suspicion. Adams gets Waltham in the building and securely ties him and then leaves him to starve. That he may not be found, Adams surrounds the magnate with a big pile of boxes. In his struggles to free himself, Waltham upsets the towering piles of boxes and they topple over completely burying him.

Dir: Walter Edwards

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

Wealthy John Steele has a handsome young son, Frank, on whom he pins his hopes. But riches lead Frank not into social standing and duty, but into depravity, drug-addiction, criminal activity, and finally to tragedy.

Dir: Walter Edwards

Jim Gordon, a stranger to Paluski, a Western mining settlement, does not drink or gamble, and refuses dance hall girls' advances. Gonda, the dance hall queen, accepts a wager by gambling proprietor "Ace High" Lawton, who is hopelessly in love with her, that she cannot seduce Gordon. After a drunken miner attempts to shoot Gonda, Gordon protects her, but when she tries to induce Gordon to drink, he knocks her glass from her hand, thus beginning a barroom brawl. Although Gordon wins, he is injured. While Gonda nurses him, they fall in love and plan to marry, but Gordon discourages Gonda from becoming pregnant. When Gordon receives a letter from his wife back East containing a knitted baby shoe and news that he has been proven innocent of a murder charge, he leaves Gonda some gold and starts home. Thinking that Gordon wronged Gonda, Lawton throws him from a cliff. After an Indian trapper robs Gordon, Gordon attempts to rob the gambling hall but fails. He is about to be lynched when Gonda, who has discovered the letter, arranges for Gordon's escape for the sake of his son and agrees to marry Lawton, who then misleads the party trailing Gordon.

Dir: Walter Edwards

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

Millicent Drake's mother, a woman of social ambitions, has decided that her daughter should marry the socially prominent Van Tyle. Millicent thwarts her mother's plans, however, when on a visit to Van Tyle's mountain lodge, she meets gold miner Carson Stewart and falls in love. Soon after, Stewart comes East to see Millicent and the two are married. Marital discord is injected by Mrs. Drake, who attempts to convince her daughter not to give Stewart the child he so desires. Upon learning that his wife is pregnant and his mother-in-law is advocating an abortion, Stewart leaves home in disgust. Millicent, finally realizing the error of her ways, follows her husband out West with the new addition to their family, and a reconciliation is effected.

Dir: Walter Edwards

After her family dies in the jungle, Ollante is raised by Brazilian Indians, and, from her rugged lifestyle, she grows into a woman of uncommon strength and courage. Then, she rescues Ridgeway Webb, an explorer lost in the wilderness, and he soon discovers, through papers left on Ollante by her parents, that she is worth a fortune. As a result, the unscrupulous Ridgeway starts courting Ollante, and after she has fallen in love with him, he marries her and brings her to New York. At a society party, however, which Ridgeway turns into a drunken orgy, Ollante hears her husband boast of his cunning in catching a millionaire for a wife. Suddenly aware of his motives, Ollante takes off her American high society outfit, puts on her jungle costume, and strangles Ridgeway.

Dir: Walter Edwards

Bright young novelist Mabel Vere is engaged to Gerald Wantage, a prig who angrily objects when she advertises for a husband in order to elicit ideas for her new book. Mabel's roommate, Maud Bray, a physical culture expert, frightens away the less desirable suitors, while the writer responds to the more interesting letters, and soon becomes embroiled in a number of adventures. One of her applicants is a butler, whose employer, Noel Corcoran, also has answered the ad. Noel informs Mabel that Gerald has bet the other members of his club that she will answer no more letters. Angered, she responds to several particularly lurid ones, after which she and Gerald break off their engagement. Having fallen in love with Mabel, Noel proposes and is accepted.