Cinematic Discoveries Following the Footsteps of The Girl of Gold: Cult Guide

Dir: [object Object]

When famous opera singer Elinore Duane undergoes an operation on her throat, she has a series of ether-induced visions. In one, she is transported to ancient Rome where she appears as a much-admired woman in love with Paul, a young heretic, and at odds with Lutor, the high priest. To save her love, she poisons Lutor with her ring. After several other visions which involve variations on this love triangle, Elinore awakens to discover that Lutor is actually her doctor, Sascha Jaccard, and that Paul is the son of a friend who has come to visit the recovering prima donna.

Dir: [object Object]

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

Muriel Ashley is engaged to Ferdie Walton. Ferdie's father opposes the marriage; Muriel's parents favor it. The couple are married by a strange parson who wanders into the Ashley home, then after they leave for the honeymoon, Ferdie's father discovers that the clergyman is a crook. He notifies the hotel and the young couple are ordered out. They return to the bridal suite by way of a window, but the hotel catches fire and they escape. They go to the Ashley home where they learn they are actually not married. The "clergyman" who married them breaks into the house and is captured. Rev. Dr. Jenkins identifies him, however, as a genuine clergyman who has been suffering loss of memory; thus the marriage turns out to be legal after all.

Dir: [object Object]

Eunice Fielding, rich, with every wish gratified, is a spoiled society girl and a moral coward. She is in love with Jack Harcourt, who is poor but brave, and who is deeply in love with her. Marjorie Harcourt, Jack's sister, reads Eunice's character and warns her brother against the advisability of marrying her. Nance St. Germain, who is a mystic and a student of theosophy and occult lore, talks to Eunice, but all her warnings are without avail, and Jack and Eunice marry. They are happy for a time, but lack of money causes embarrassment. Eunice is ignorant of everything relating to the value of money, cries over their difficulties, and Jack in despair calls Marjorie home from college and confesses the state of affairs to her. He begins to neglect Eunice, who is highly indignant, and becomes very cool to Marjorie. Bob Fisher, who is in love with Marjorie, is sent west by Jack to look after the details of a mining scheme and Jack, short of money, cuts Eunice's allowance. She makes a great fuss over this, and in a talk with Marjorie Jack is informed that there is a baby coming. Jack is called away on business, and while he is absent Eunice loses a lot of money gambling, and fearing comment talks of committing suicide. Eunice talks with Nance, who warns her against committing suicide, and tells her to confess to Jack. Jack returns and gives Eunice all the money he has, leaving himself broke. Marjorie comforts her brother, but he tells her that things have gone wrong, and the mine is a failure. Marjorie tells Eunice, who becomes despondent and leaves a note for Jack, tries the cowardly way, takes gas and dies. Jack reads the note and goes insane. Eunice, in the halls of Death, sees Death, who tells her she is not dead, but must wait until her time comes. Death shows Eunice her home with Jack crazy. Jack sees her. and Eunice sees Marjorie and the nurse and Marjorie greeting Bob Fisher. She goes after Bob, and the face of Death changes as he sees the reconciliation. Marjorie and Bob marry. Jack's insanity continues. Eunice is there and is seen by Jack but invisible to the others. While they are there. Death sends a child to Eunice with the words, "I was to be your child, but now I am to be Marjorie's." Jack, rendered clairvoyant by his insanity, sees and hears this, and makes his first rational remark to the others, saying "Marjorie is to have a little girl," and in surprise Marjorie tells it to Bob. The baby is born, and Jack wants to see it but is refused. Death awakens Eunice, and tells her that whenever she wants Jack's mind restored she is to call on him, but after that she has done so Jack will never see her again. Jack threatens to get the child and kill it if it is not shown to him. Eunice in terror at the danger to child hastily calls on Death to restore Jack's reason, which is done, and she disappears from Jack's sight. With Jack sane again there is a happy reunion of all except Eunice, who sees Death again. Death shows her in his book where she has redeemed herself by her renunciation.

Dir: [object Object]

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

Janet Newell learns that her husband Raoul is a crook and leaves him. However, when he offers her a position as companion to the wealthy Richard de GIles and his wife, she accepts, believing that they hold a property deed that rightfully belongs to Raoul's friend Langstreet. Janet is established in the de Giles' Long Island estate, where she falls in love with the kind old couple's nephew, Hugh Maxwell. Soon Raoul appears, and although Janet now realizes that she has been a pawn in his plan to rob the de Giles' jewels, she is forced into silence by his threat of revealing her marriage to Hugh. On the appointed evening, Ross, the butler, drugs the de Giles' coffee and joins Raoul, who has opened the safe with ease. As they are about to escape, however, the de Gileses--who are actually detectives assigned to capture Raoul's gang--appear, bearing guns and pronouncing the crooks under arrest. Raoul grabs a gun but is shot and killed. Janet is left a single woman, but only temporarily.

Dir: [object Object]

Ashton Kirk is a young man of high social position and great wealth; he is a deep student and learned in the lore of ancient tablets and forgotten books. His keen mind delights in those mysteries which have proven too shadowy for the police. He finds a joy in the hunt; there is a thrill in matching his intelligence against the craft of the criminal. His interest in the mystery of the house of fear, Cramp's house, was awakened by Pendleton, who, as a guest of Cramp, communicated to Kirk, his friend, the strange sense of mystery and fear surrounding Cramp's house. In Cramp's household lives Grace, his sister, Miss Hohenlo, his aunt, and Kretz, his servant. Kirk learns through his agent in Mexico that Cramp's father was an expert engraver in Mexico years before, and his astute mind connects this fact with the number of Mexicans in the vicinity. He also learns that, in a time of financial stress, Cramp's father forged some currency plates for one Alva, an unscrupulous Mexican, but at the last moment failed to deliver them. At the time of Kirk's visit, the plates rested securely under a great stone in the cellar of Cramp's house, and the presence of the prowling, murderous Mexicans, headed by Alva, was explained by this. The perplexing question, however, was how these intriguers managed to gain nightly entrance to the cellar in their search for the plates. It takes Ashton Kirk to resolve the queer markings on the string of a package sent to Miss Hohenlo into the message "tonight." That night, Kirk and his aides wait in the cellar as the unsuspecting Miss Hohenlo lets in her confederates. There is a big scene in which Alva and his men are overpowered, and it is learned that Miss Hohenlo is Alva's wife. Thus does Ashton Kirk solve the mystery of The House of Fear.

Dir: [object Object]

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

Philip Eaton is a passenger in a Pullman sleeping car headed to Chicago. However, he's not quite what he seems to be--he's actually Hugh Overton, who has just escaped from prison to clear himself after having been falsely convicted of murdering Matthew Latrone, a corrupt financier who cheated Hugh's mother out of her estate. It turns out that Latrone is still alive and sends out a killer to eliminate Hugh. Complications ensue.

Dir: [object Object]

Shrewd crook Boston Blackie is determined to go straight. At a celebration held on the eve of his marriage to Mary Dawson, Fred the Count plants a stolen jewel and Blackie is arrested and sentenced to twenty years in jail. Fred the Count tries to win Blackie's fiancée, but the honorable Mary rejects him. Blackie's only hope for escape is from the hospital, so he manages to get into a weakened state. He escapes from the hospital, but is trailed by the warden. Blackie refuses to shoot the defenseless man, and the warden recognizes Blackie as an honorable person and allows him to escape. Blackie frames the Count, and leaves for Honolulu with Mary.

Dir: [object Object]

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

Thanya is a woman around whose presence there revolves an atmosphere of mystery. She is located in the Russian Capital, where she meets Vance Holden, an American artist. Although deeply in love with him, she is coquettish, and he, believing she is trifling with him, leaves her. Alexander Bagroff, Grand Duke of Russia, sees Thanya pass in her carriage and desires to know her. He arranges with a mutual friend to go to her apartment. He becomes infatuated with her but she dislikes him, not only because he is a man long past the prime of life, but for other and more important reasons. At midnight, after her guests depart, Thanya, in disguise, steals out to a small tavern where she meets Boris, her brother, leader of a club of social revolutionists. The gang is just about to choose a marked coin which will brand one as the man chosen to carry the next mission of death to a ruling power, in this case the most hated man in Russia, Bagroff. Boris draws the marked coin. Thanya falls in a swoon. In an agony of fear, she asks Boris to forsake his society. When he tells her it will be his pleasure to strike at the most hated man in Russia, the Grand Duke, Thanya is startled. Telling Boris of Bagroff's infatuation for her, she promises to assist him in his mission. Thanya is invited to attend a ball given by Bagroff. She notifies Boris to strike that night at twelve. Boris gains admittance into the grounds, but is discovered near the house. A shot is fired, the guests are terrified. Thanya surmises the cause, she controls herself. Boris, cornered, attempts to gain admittance into the house and lose himself among the guests. As he enters he is shot. Bagroff, believing someone among his guests has betrayed him, orders his soldiers to tie Boris to a pillar, strip him to the waist and lash him with the Russian pronged whip. As the blood streams down Boris' back, Thanya rushes to him, informing Bagroff that she is the traitor. They are both placed in a cell, where Bagroff offers Thanya her liberty if she will but become his mistress. He is rebuked, and both are sent with a train load of other prisoners to an exile in Siberia. During a storm, they escape and go to Paris. Vance, after leaving Russia, comes to Paris and here he and Thanya are brought together again, reconciled and married. Boris leaves for America. Vance encounters difficulties in selling his paintings. The following winter Bagroff comes to Paris. A Parisian doctor attending Vance, tells Thanya that he can bring her a client for Vance's pictures. He brings Bagroff, who tells Thanya that through the Prince Kenla he can make all the people of Paris patronize Vance, providing she pay the price herself. Desperate to obtain the welfare of her husband, Thanya resolves to give herself to Bagroff for a night. The Princess sits for Vance. He becomes popular as if overnight. The Princess, going to a week-end party to the country, implores Vance to accompany her. Thanya remains alone in the city and unbeknown to Vance, prepares herself for the terrible ordeal with the Grand Duke. The appointment is made. Bagroff dismisses his servants, Thanya comes, disrobes. As he looks upon his prey with the lustiness he has nourished for years, he is suddenly seized by Boris, who, upon returning from America, learns of Bagroff's presence there, and seeing his servants leave together, enters through a window in time to save Thanya. Pulling out his revolver, Boris makes short work of Bagroff, and immediately sets sail for America. The news of Bagroff's mysterious death causes the Princess to hurry back to Paris, and Vance returns with her. He finds Thanya in his den, prostrated. He raises her up, but, as she had promised Boris, she tells him nothing of her night's experience. Thanya and Vance open the window, and the sunlight pours into the room, an omen which prophesies a life of uninterrupted happiness for both of them in the future.

Dir: [object Object]

Brian O'Farrell (Snowy Baker), is an English 'new chum' who takes a job at an Australian cattle station. He is teased by station hands because of his appearance (including spats and a monocle) but he soon impresses them with his skills at riding and boxing. The station manager, John MacDonald (Wilfred Lucas), takes O'Farrell to Sydney to meet his daughter Edith (Kathleen Key) who is working in the slums. Edith is kidnapped by criminals after witnessing a crime but O'Farrell rescues her. It is later revealed he is the owner of the station.

Dir: [object Object]

In Alberta, Canada, a Cornish emigrant unmasks a rustler posing as the girl's "blind" father.