Must-Watch List in the Vein of The Footlights of Fate: Cult Guide

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When elderly Joseph Moreau and his young wife Therese offer refuge to starving young dramatist Paul Savary, gossips begin to spread rumors of a love affair between the wife and the writer. For the good of all concerned, Paul moves into separate quarters. One day Paul overhears the gossip again at a café and challenges the purveyor of the lie to a duel. Moreau, for his own satisfaction, takes Paul's place in combat and is mortally wounded. Moreau staggers to Paul's apartment where he discovers Therese, who has come to beg the writer to refuse to fight. The husband dies cursing the traitorous couple, and then it is revealed that the whole incident was the narrative of Paul's new play, which he is reciting to Moreau and Therese.

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

Caroline Knolleys' greatest amusement is engaging in flirtations with young married men while maintaining her own respectability through her wealthy husband's honored name. While traveling in Switzerland, Caroline becomes mildly infatuated with Lawrence Sanbury, whose wife Hildegard is supporting his architectural studies through her writings. Back in New York, Caroline renews the flirtation, and although Hildegard realizes that Lawrence is enamored of the woman, she says nothing for fear of losing Caroline's patronage. At a dinner party at the Sanbury home, however, Hildegard announces in front of her guests, Emily Madden and her fiancé, Michael Krellin, that she will not sit at the table with her husband's mistress. Lawrence angrily orders Hildegard to retract the statement, but Caroline apologizes and leaves the house.

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When Tony Merritt returns from college, his guardian, Bruce Donaldson, introduces him to Ethel Walling, with whom Bruce is secretly in love. Tony falls in love with Ethel and asks for Bruce's blessing. Bruce, believing that he is too old for Ethel, encourages the romance and Ethel consents to the marriage only to please Bruce. Meanwhile, an emissary of a foreign government steals the plans for a diving bell upon which Bruce has been working, and the theft is blamed on Tony. The plans are finally recovered, and upon returning home, Bruce discovers that Wanda, a girl of questionable reputation, is demanding money to release Tony from his promise of marriage. To save Tony, Bruce compromises himself with Wanda and allows Ethel to discover them. This forces Tony to realize the sacrifices that Bruce has made for him and he rushes to Ethel to confess. Finally realizing Bruce's love for her, Ethel goes to him and they are united.

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

Young Laura Hamilton turns down a marriage proposal from Vincent Carlson and marries Theodore Proctor, a bank president. Proctor's financially strapped brother asks him for help, and he has the bank loan his brother a sum of money, a bad loan that results in :Proctor being removed as president of the bank. Devastated, he fakes suicide and turns to a life of crime. His wife, thinking him dead, marries former suitor Carlton, but when Proctor is discovered to be alive, Laura is charged with bigamy. Desperate to save his wife, Proctor plans on actually committing suicide when something happens that negates all his plans.

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Joan of Plattsburg is a 1918 American comedy drama film by William Humphrey and George Loane Tucker.Its survival status is classified as unknown right now.it is be lived that the film is lost.

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

Vamp propositions a reform candidate for governor.

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A young girl in Monte Carlo is engaged to a nobleman, but is really in love with someone else. A jewel thief named "The Black Spider" has been robbing the wealthy of Monte Carlo, and as a joke the girl steals her aunt's jewels. Unfortunately, a detective finds out and suspects her of being the real "The Black Spider".

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

Howland is a trapper and is supremely happy with his wife, Jeanne, and son, Robert, in their cabin in the north. Blake, a trader, also married is traveling to the nearest trading post. Out with Robert for a sled ride, Jeanne runs her sled into a snow slide, and, but for the timely assistance of Blake, both would have been killed. Jeanne escapes unhurt, but Robert suffers injuries which necessitate an operation. While Howland takes the boy to the nearest doctor, Blake is left to look after Jeanne. In the lonely nights which follow, Blake wins her love and when Howland returns with his son, now recovered, he finds the cabin empty. Howland vows to be avenged on Blake. After some time, the latter tires of Jeanne and leaves her to return to his lawful wife. At home, he finds his three young sons in tears over their mother's death. Sorrowful now for his treatment of Jeanne, he returns to the cabin where he left her but finds that she has already gone. Twenty years later, Howland, now a lieutenant in the Northwest Mounted Police, tells his son, also a mounted man, of the sorrow which Blake caused him, and Robert joins his father in renewing a vow of vengeance if the scoundrel still lives. When Howland sees Blake by the side of a murdered man, an opportunity for revenge presents itself, and though he knows that Blake did not commit the crime, he succeeds in having him convicted. In escaping from his guards, Blake is fatally shot. In Blake's cabin, his three sons hear of their father's death and against the admonitions of David, the other two set out to repay Howland. After killing the latter and stunning Robert, they take to the trail to escape. Robert, with two other men, is detailed to track them. When the brothers separate to baffle their pursuers, Robert follows David, but is so spent when he finally catches up with him that he is helpless to capture him, and falls exhausted in the snow. David ministers to him, but when he recovers, through the other's efforts, Robert insists on a duel to square their account. Though reluctant to fight with one with whom he has no quarrel, David is unable to withdraw with honor. As they are preparing for the fight, a weak cry of distress is heard, and they both answer. Running in the direction from which it came, they find a gray haired woman, lost in the wilderness with her two daughters and dying from lack of nourishment. They unite for the protection of the trio and take them to the home of a nearby trapper, where, during the night, the dishonest trapper and his associates bind the two men and prepare to attack the women. Following their brother's trail, the other two Blake boys are just in time to chase the villainous band and rescue their victims. Then the brothers recognize Howland and bitterly denounce him for sending their father to his death. But Robert halts them by telling the story of how the elder Blake brought dishonor on his mother. After hearing the names of her rescuers, the old woman steps into the breach and tells Robert that she is Jeanne, his mother. After a touching reunion, she tells him of her aimless wanderings since she left his father and explains that the girls are not her daughters, but have been treated as such since the death of their mother. Both Robert and David did not remember their unfought duel, but the friendship which had sprung up between them, while they fought side by side for a woman's protection, prevents them from drawing guns on each other.

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While waiting on a New York park bench for the return of her friends, country girl Jeanne Sterling meets Forrest Chenoweth, a rich young wastrel who, while drunk, registered for a marriage license with fortune-hunting Helen Dorr. Enchanted with Jeanne's innocence, Forrest proposes to Jeanne, and they are married by an alderman friend of Forrest's with the license that Forrest had taken out with Helen. That night Forrest drinks too much, falls in his room and kills himself. The scandal appears in the papers, forcing Jeanne to confess the marriage to her sweetheart Robert Pitcairn. However, Helen, in an attempt to acquire the Chenoweth fortune, claims to be Forrest's widow, thus disgracing Jeanne. The alderman, induced by his son, who is in league with Helen, refuses to recognize Jeanne, but finally relents, clearing the girl's besmirched reputation.