Curated Recommendations Seeking the Same Brilliance as The Gilded Spider: Cult Guide

Dir: Joseph De Grasse

A girl from Paris' underworld fights for love and survival during a time of international turmoil.

Dir: Joseph De Grasse

In pre-Civil War days, a woman dies in childbirth. Her sister, believing the child to be illegitimate, leaves the baby in care of one of her sister's slaves.

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

Dir: Joseph De Grasse

Priscilla Glenn is a product of the woods, a wild, impulsive, nature-loving child. Her father is her antithesis, seeing none of the beauties of nature, thinking women only creatures to be browbeaten. Between her mother and herself there existed a strong bond of love and understanding, understanding that they were companions in the same misery and unhappiness. Priscilla had to fight for an education. At last, through the efforts of Anton Farwell, the schoolmaster, Priscilla had the opportunity of beginning her education. For a rest there came to the spot Mrs. Travers and her crippled boy, Dick, and later a specialist, Dr. Leydward, who was to eventually straighten the crooked limbs of the boy. Priscilla and Dick met and a romance between the two was begun. Jerry Jo, a half-breed, coveted the girl, and lured her to a house on the hill where there was a library. Although the girl was as sweet and pure when she returned home the next day her father sent her from his roof. Priscilla went to her only friend, Anton Farwell, and together they started for a new country. For Farwell was hiding from the world. In the long ago he had loved Joan Moss, and for the love of her killed the brother of Dr. Leydward. Before Priscilla and Farwell had gone far he received word that he must choose the alternative of living buried in the woods or in prison. So Priscilla went on to find her way alone in the big city with the mission to look for Joan. Priscilla devoted her life to the care of the sick, and so once more she and Dick Travers met, and worked hand in hand for suffering humanity. It was thus that she knew Dr. Leydward and his daughter, Margaret, who was to wed Clyde Hunter. One day as Priscilla was strolling in the park she saw Jerry Jo, now a nondescript beggar. Towards him she bore no malice, but a strong desire to make life happier. On following Jerry Jo to the tenement room he called home, some of the inmates mistook her for an angel of mercy for a dying woman, who was none other than Joan. From her lips she learned that the crippled child belonged to the affianced of Margaret Leydward, and also secured Farwell's exoneration. She showed Leydward and Margaret the true type of the man the latter was about to marry. Then she wandered back to the "place beyond the wind" to find comfort and peace. She found that her mother had died and her father had been stricken blind and still refused to own her as his own flesh and blood, and a second time sent her from his home. And then, crushed and wounded, she again found solace in her old friend, Anton Farwell, who a short time previous had returned to his home. To Farwell she told of the finding of Joan, but left with him his ideal of her, of her trueness and worth of trust. Priscilla returned once more to her little sanctuary in the woods, where she had erected her own altar to her own God, and where, too, she first met Dick. And there he found her. For realizing his love for her, he had followed her to the "place beyond the wind" and for a second time, with his old violin he started a new spark in the life of tho one woman, the one whom he would cherish and love and protect as long as time went on.

Dir: Joseph De Grasse

Young ballet dancer Bobbie Brent has lost her parents and must care for herself and her younger brother and sister. To keep the children, she pretends that they are her own children and not her siblings. Jack Stinson, her boyfriend, is aghast at this deception and breaks up with her. However, Jack's old girlfriend Velma is still jealous of Bobbie and comes up with a scheme to get rid of her once and for all so she can have Jack all to herself.

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

Dir: Joseph De Grasse

Nenette Bisson, who dances in her father's French restaurant in New York, takes a joy ride with "Kink" Colby in a stolen car, and is shot in the shoulder by a pursuing policeman. The driver leaves her at the hospital of David Kendall, with whom she falls in love, but he, believing French women to be frivolous, does not return her affections. Nenette's parents turn her out when they learn of her trouble with the police, after which she becomes a success on the stage. David serves overseas for two years during World War I and there learns to appreciate the valiance of French women. On his return, he proclaims his love for Nenette and helps her achieve a reconciliation with her parents.

Dir: Joseph De Grasse

Lemuel Morewood is a wealthy businessman to whom riches bring no pleasure because he has entirely lost the sympathy of his sons, for whom he lives. Billy is society-mad and completely enthralled by Mrs. Bruce Guilford, a leader of the smart set. Tom thinks of nothing but sports; he is an amateur athlete of national prominence. Lemuel longs to see the boys interested in the business. He especially wants Tom to marry Frances Berkeley and Billy to marry Emily Donelson. But the boys will have none of them. Bessie Brayton is a Western orphan who has come to New York and taken up society entertaining for a living. Her only property is a half-interest in the Bluebird mine, which she supposes is worthless. One evening, the Morewoods employ Bessie to entertain at an exclusive dinner they are giving, and here she meets Major Bellamy Didsworth, who offers to sell her half-interest for her. Lemuel has run away from this dinner. But, goaded by Bessie's taunts that he is old-fashioned, he gets into his evening clothes and enters into the gambling that follows. Bessie encourages him and he cleans up on Didsworth, as the others look on, staggered by his plunging. Leaving them dazed, Lemuel makes a spectacular exit with Bessie to "blow his winnings." Lemuel keeps up the pace he has set. He goes to the races and there his conduct is so riotous, and his followers, Bessie and a sporting man, so conspicuous, that Mrs. Bruce Guildford is scandalized. She criticizes Lemuel to his son. Billy defends his father, and the quarrel results in a complete break. Bessie has a telegram from Didsworth saying he can get $1,000 for her stock. Lemuel suspects that Didsworth is planning to rob her and takes the matter into his own hands. He and Bessie go out to Nevada together. Lemuel's sons think he has run away to get married to Bessie, and they follow, with Emily, Frances, and Ford, the family lawyer. Out in Nevada, Lemuel and Bessie find that her half of the Bluebird is worth at least $75,000, and they discover that the other half is owned by Carl Higbee, Bessie's old sweetheart who disappeared in Alaska. On the way to Nevada, Tom becomes engaged to Emily and Billy to Frances, which is exactly contrary to what Lemuel planned. They arrive in time to stop the wedding, as they think, and are mortified to learn that they are all wrong, and that Bessie is to be married to Higbee. Lemuel is delighted that his sons are bringing the girls into the family, although they have shifted partners. Lemuel agrees to go back and help the boys run the business.

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

Dir: Joseph De Grasse

While awaiting the train to Broadway, Nell Baxter meets the leading man of a repertory company to whom she confides her ambitions. Upon arriving in the city, Nell attracts the lascivious eye of stage manager David Montieth, who eventually gives her the starring role in a play with the expectation that he will be favored with her affections. Nell, however, has fallen in love with playwright Paul Neihoff. On the afternoon that the show is to open, Montieth learns of Nell's romance and cancels the show. Nell goes to Montieth's apartment to plead with him to open the show, and he consents after setting Nell's virtue as the price of her ambition. When he attempts to collect, Nell stabs him and rushes to Neihoff's apartment. The playwright tells her to go to the theater as if nothing has happened, writes a letter confessing that he killed the manager, and then takes an overdose of a drug and dies. Word comes to Nell after the second act that Neihoff has sacrificed himself, and in the last act, she substitutes a real dagger for the fake one and stabs herself to death. It has all been a story, however, concocted by the leading man to cure Nell of her infatuation with the footlights, and no one has died.

Dir: Joseph De Grasse

A young author is so overjoyed at selling her first book that she unknowingly signs over all her rights to the greedy publisher. Later, after the book becomes a best-seller, the publisher's nephew (who has fallen in love with her) tries to help her get her rights back.

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

Dir: Joseph De Grasse

Louis and August Siever, twin sons of a German father and American mother, are traveling through Europe when war breaks out. August joins the Kaiser's army, while Louis, a loyal American, is trapped in Berlin for a year while he tries to prove his citizenship. After a violent confrontation with Louis, August steals his brother's passport and leaves for New York City with Gerda Anderson, a German spy. Louis also returns to the U.S., and sometime later is invited to a weekend party on Long Island by his wealthy friends, the Waynes. When August and Gerda learn of the event, they rent a nearby house and invite all of the Waynes' guests, including Louis, to a "mystery" party. Upon their arrival, the women are held prisoner and ransom notes are sent to their husbands via carrier pigeon. Shirley Wayne and Louis track down and are captured by the kidnappers. Meanwhile, Mortimer Eddington, an amateur detective, devises a method to trace the pigeons back to the house. Before Shirley and Louis come to harm, police officers arrive and demand the Germans' surrender.

Dir: Joseph De Grasse

After divorcing his first wife and marrying a more gentle natured woman, Ralph Hadley finds himself again attracted to his ex-wife, a shrewd business woman. Trouble begins when he foolishly invites her to lunch, setting gossipy tongues-wagging. The news reaches his devoted wife who has discovered she is pregnant. She confronts the ex-wife who agrees to never see Ralph again and marries another admirer. Devasted, Ralph decides to kill himself ,luckily he is found in time by the doctor with the good news of the birth of his child. Ralph regains his senses and the couple are happily reunited.