Curated Recommendations Seeking the Same Brilliance as The Flirt: Cult Guide

Dir: [object Object]

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: [object Object]

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of Where Are My Children? perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

A District Attorney's outspoken stand on abortion lands him in trouble with the local community.

Dir: [object Object]

Fenella, a poor Italian girl, falls in love with a Spanish nobleman, but their affair triggers a revolution and national catastrophe.

Dir: [object Object]

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

Olaf writes his memoirs, before his execution. He tells of his life as a struggling farmer when Renie, stranded in the village, stays one night in his home and Olaf falls in love with her. Later, two men take rooms in the house, and Olaf, to get all their money, kills one of them and wounds the other, Paul. Paul is convicted of the murder and goes to jail, while Olaf, guiltily feeling the "eye of God" upon him, leaves his farm and starts wandering. Meanwhile, Renie, who had been Paul's fiancée, vows to find the real murderer. She once again meets Olaf, whom she has always suspected, and pretends to love him. Then she accuses him of the murder and keeps on accusing him until he, worn down, finally confesses, thereby freeing Paul.

Dir: [object Object]

K is a mysterious man who settles into a small town and becomes a beloved figure there. However, when the life of his rival in love suddenly depends on K's previously unsuspected abilities, his past life is revealed.

Dir: [object Object]

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

John Wall meets his new sweetheart and takes her to the movies; his neglected wife Anne follows them there. Molly, disobeying her parents, meets her boyfriend at the same theater. A working man with his wife and children, all obsessed with the sordidness of their lives, also attend the movie, as does a dishonorable young man. They watch a film called 'Life's Mirror' in which they see their own lives turned into dramas, complete with possible "final curtains.": Molly, who refuses to listen to her parents, sees her motion-picture surrogate give birth to an illegitimate child after she is abandoned by her boyfriend; Anne Wall, tired of the phoniness of John's wealthy family and friends, deserts him and their children to return to the slums and do charity work for the needy. After the movie, John, sadder but wiser, leaves his sweetheart and goes home with Anne, Molly decides to apologize to her parents, the working man's family realizes that they must look to the future, and the young man promises to lead a more responsible life.

Dir: [object Object]

A woman's husband is taken by his wife's suitor to see a play in which events from the husband's marriage are recalled, in an attempt by the suitor to convince the husband to relinquish his wife.

Dir: [object Object]

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of The Doctor and the Woman 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: [object Object]

A rich merchant, Antonio is depressed for no good reason, until his good friend Bassanio comes to tell him how he's in love with Portia. Portia's father has died and left a very strange will: only the man that picks the correct casket out of three (silver, gold, and lead) can marry her. Bassanio, unfortunately, is strapped for cash with which to go wooing, and Antonio wants to help, so Antonio borrows the money from Shylock, the money-lender. But Shylock has been nursing a grudge against Antonio's insults, and makes unusual terms to the loan. And when Antonio's business fails, those terms threaten his life, and it's up to Bassanio and Portia to save him.

Dir: [object Object]

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.