Visionary Picks Drawn from the Same DNA as The Flight of the Duchess: Cult Guide

Dir: Eugene Nowland

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

Marcella, the wife of Jim Gregory, a Pennsylvania coal miner, elopes with Giovanni, her Lover. She leaves their baby daughter with her husband, Gregory, feeling powerless to give proper care to the little one, abandons her on a doorstep, tying around her neck a note and her mother's discarded wedding ring. Tom and Sara Wentworth are the child's foster parents, and Tom calls her Dorothea, meaning "the gift of God." She grows up in sympathy with him, but wholly misunderstood by her foster-mother, who is much displeased at her propensity for caring for all the stray dogs and cats she can find and turning the Wentworth home into a haven for animals. In later years Dr. Grant Hunter falls in love with Dot and she persuades him to give up his work in vivisection. "Dot" loves Grant, but his suit is frowned upon by Sarah Wentworth. Her husband has inherited a large coal mine, and she wants someone more important than an impecunious doctor for her daughter, "Dot" has never been told of her true parentage. Marcella and Giovanni, after many years of prosperity in Naples, have come to grief. Giovanni, known as the Marquis del Carnavacchi, is the leader of a branch of the Camorra. The Italian Secret Service has discovered his operations, and he tells Marcella, who is posing as his sister, that they will be compelled to go to America. Marcella is alarmed, fearing to encounter her husband. At this time the miners in the Pennsylvania town where Gregory lives are talking of going on strike. Gregory has stirred the much abused foreigners into action, telling them the wages paid them are insufficient. In his friendship for them he has drifted into a branch of the Camorra, where he is their spokesman. Little dreaming that Wentworth is the man who has cared for his child all these years, Gregory leads a delegation of strikers who go to the Wentworth's mansion. He sees Dorothea, but does not know she is his daughter. Later, an accident to him at the mine interests "Dot" in him, and she visits him daily in the hospital, the two being strangely drawn to each other. Giovanni is ordered by the Camorra to visit the coal mine. He represents himself as an agent of the Italian government. Sarah Wentworth welcomes so remarkable a personage as a Marquis, and invites him and his "sister" to make her house their home during their stay. They do so, enabling Giovanni the better to betray Wentworth to the miners, and also to make love to Dorothea, whom he makes up his mind to marry. He tells Marcella that he will divide with her the money he receives as a marriage settlement. An intuitive feeling causes Marcella to oppose the match, and "Dot" herself joins her foster father in objecting, but Sarah is determined to have a Marquis in the family. The marriage settlement is ready to sign, when "Dot" upsets everything by saying that if it costs so much money to get a husband she will remain single. His plans thwarted, Giovanni decides to abduct "Dot" and kill Wentworth. Marcella is horrified, but Giovanni tells her to pack up and be in readiness to leave. Gregory, now recovered, refuses to be a party to the murderous plans of the Camorra members, but carries a message from them to Wentworth. While there, he overhears Sarah upbraiding "Dot" for spoiling the match with the Marquis, and he learns that "Dot" is his own child. Under Wentworth's roof he meets Marcella, and husband and wife join forces in an effort to save their child. Marcella invents a pretext to take "Dot" out of Giovanni's reach, and Gregory remains to fight with Wentworth against the coming strikers, having sent in a call for the police. Gregory and Giovanni struggle and the former is shot. Giovanni is caught by the police, but Gregory has been mortally wounded, and dies giving "Dot" his blessing, but not letting her know that he is her father. Marcella places her daughter's hand in that of Dr. Grant Hunter.

Dir: Eugene Nowland

In a little Western mining camp a man works day after day at his claim to win riches for his adored wife--who is dissatisfied with her lot in life and sees her husband as an impractical dream. The tempter appears to this young, attractive, discontented wife as a you Easterner who comes to the mining town in search of fortune. The miner welcomes the new arrival and gives him work on his claim. Gold is discovered, and the newcomer is made a partner in the claim and sent to register it in the name of his benefactor and himself. The miner does not know that the young Easterner has paid attentions to the wife, fanning her discontent and telling her how happy she would be if she would only divorce her husband and go away with him. In the mining town the man from the East registers the claim in his name alone, and sells it at once to the proprietor of a dance hall. This man, with a number of hired thugs, goes to the mining claim and takes possession, driving off the indignant husband. When the miner demands by what right he dares to seize the claim, the dance-hall owner shows him the registry deed and a receipt from the Easterner. Then, for the first time, the truth dawns upon the miner. He runs to his cabin to tell his wife the news, and finds her gone. A note tells him that she has left with the other man and intends to secure a divorce and marry him. Stopping at a nearby town, the angry husband overtakes the fugitives and a fierce fight ensues. A blow from the Easterner's pistol butt sends him to the ground unconscious. Then the wife and the Easterner board a train for the east, while the unconscious miner is carried back to his cabin. In the East the wife secures a divorce from her husband and marries the other man. As the years pass the banker's wife learns her husband's true character. The desire for revenge has become almost an obsession with the miner, and when he is able to dispose of the timber lands he owns he leaves for the East. When he arrives in New York he discovers that his former partner is visiting a friend in the Adirondacks, so he goes there and hires a cabin where he can watch the banker and plan his vengeance. The opportunity comes soon. The banker's host gives a handsome entertainment to his guests. While the gaiety is at its highest, a stern-faced man lurks outside the house. Twice he raises his rifle to fire, and each time stays his hand, for if he pressed the trigger he would have killed his wife. As the banker stands alone, a groom sees the figure with the leveled rifle and springs upon him. The muscular miner easily overpowers the servant and escapes. Several days later the banker's little daughter rides off through the snow-covered mountains. Night is falling when the riderless horse returns to the stable. The miner found the child, sick and delirious, in the snow, cared for her and decided to bring her up in ignorance of her real parentage. The former miner prospers. Tempted to recoup his losses by using the funds entrusted to his care, the banker is arrested and sentenced to prison. Several years later, the former banker's wife is sent to a wealthy home where she was told that a housekeeper was wanted. In the owner of the handsome mansion she recognized her first husband. Gradually the heiress becomes attached to the housekeeper. The convicted banker escapes from prison and in his desperation appeals to his wife. She aids him. As he leaves he is seized. In the struggle that follows he is killed. The girl never learns that her father is slain by officers of the law, and the true story of her life is never told to her, for her foster father marries his housekeeper.