Curated Recommendations Seeking the Same Brilliance as The Flirt: C...

Dir: Phillips Smalley

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

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

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: 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 The Hand That Rocks the Cradle perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

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

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

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

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: Phillips Smalley

Newly elected police court judge John Fairbrother is impassioned when it comes to the laws affecting the dives and cabarets of the city, and promises equal justice for all. The source of his crusading passion is the loss of his own sister to the lure of the notorious Johnson Café years earlier. His wife Grace's two prominent brothers, newspaper editor George Ferguson and Episcopal Bishop William Ferguson, worked hard to elect Fairbrother to office, and although they are initially puzzled by the judge's intent to shut down dance halls and cabarets, they agree to stand behind him after he confides to them about his fallen sister. However, on the day when Fairbrother takes his seat on the bench, he is called upon to sentence Mace and Lily, two young women arrested for disorderly conduct during a police raid on the same Johnson's Café that claimed the purity and ultimately the life of his sister. Lily is a brazen city girl, while Mace is a shy "country mouse" who fell into bad company. When the judge demands to know the names of the men who accompanied Mace and Lily at the time of their arrest and are therefore guilty of the same charge, the arresting detectives shock him with the revelation that one is Charles Ferguson, the son of the editor, and the other is the nephew of the bishop. Enforcing his principles, Fairbrother demands that the young men be sentenced with the women. This causes much consternation, but the judge devises a fair method for solving the double standard. He declares all four defendants guilty, but then suspends their sentences pending good behavior. He convinces Mace to return home to the country, and secures an office job for Lily. Discovering that the young ladies' apartment building is owned by his wife's family, Judge Fairbrother realizes that the roots of evil sometimes grow close to home.

Dir: Phillips Smalley

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

Inspired by the true story of immigrant Charlie Stielow who was currently on death row for a double murder. The movie was released 2 years before the conclusion of his case, and was purposely made to sway public opinion about the death penalty.

Dir: Phillips Smalley

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: Phillips Smalley

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.