Visionary Picks Drawn from the Same DNA as The Gray Mask: Cult Guide

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Grocery clerk James Clarke pilfers $500 to send his ailing sister to a more healthful climate. Frederick Payton, a fellow employee, learns of the theft and blackmails him, but both men are eventually arrested and sent to prison. While a motion-picture company is filming inside Sing Sing, James mixes in with the players, later returning with them to the Fort Lee studio of the World Film Corp. Following his escape, James assumes a different name and successfully establishes himself in another town. Payton, who has served out his sentence, finds James happily engaged to Catherine Hudson, the boss's daughter, but when Payton again threatens to blackmail him, James decides to reveal his true identity and complete his prison sentence. Catherine promises to wait for James, who returns to prison with a clear conscience.

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A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of As in a Looking Glass perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

Scandalous European temptress Lila Despard, travels to America to escape her lover, criminal Jack Firthenbras. On the ship, she meets Andrew Livingston, a United States Navy planner, and Senator and Mrs. Gales. Her new friends host a party for Lila in Washington, D.C., where a spy named Dromiroff threatens to expose her past unless she steals Andrew's secret naval plans. In order to secure the papers, Lila makes love to Andrew, but the plan backfires when she falls in love with him. Eventually, Lila agrees to marry Andrew, but during their honeymoon, Dromiroff abducts her from the bridal suite. At headquarters, Lila is shot while destroying the documents, and before dying, she telephones Andrew to confess her misdeeds. The conspirators are killed when their car plunges from a cliff.

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Charles Nelson is a self-made man and has amassed a fortune. His family consists of his wife, son Kenneth, and daughter Alice. His wife has become absorbed in society, requiring all the money her husband can made to support the large establishment and entertain. The wife, son, and daughter are out night after night, leaving Mr. Nelson much alone; while he pays the bills, he has little of the society of his family. He turns to vaudeville performer Kitty Claire for consolation and companionship. His son Kenneth gets into an argument with a friend at his club and hears that his father is keeping a woman in an establishment uptown. Kenneth returns home under the influence of liquor and insults his mother's companion, Mary Burke. Mr. Nelson enters, sees the situation and asks him what it all means. Kenneth turns on him and tells him that everyone knows he is keeping a woman in an apartment uptown. This conversation is overheard by Mrs. Nelson, who asks Mr. Nelson if it is true. He replies, "Yes." They agree to part. Kenneth clings to his mother. His sister Alice sympathizes with her father. She realizes that it is their own fault; they have given him nothing in return for all his labor in their behalf. Mr. Nelson is now living at the Alpine apartments, to which comes Kitty Claire. He tells her that the end has come. Meanwhile Kenneth, has come to see his father. Kitty, going out, hears him ask if his father is in, and seeks an acquaintance with Kenneth, who becomes infatuated with her, moves to the same hotel, and begins to live a Bohemian life with Kitty Claire and Dick LeRoy, another vaudeville performer. He finally asks Kitty to become his wife. She replies, "It is impossible, there is another man." The boy, crushed and brokenhearted, demands the man's name. Mr. Nelson enters at the point when Kenneth demands the name of the man. Kitty points to Mr. Nelson. Humiliated and ashamed Kenneth decides to end his life. He is about to write a letter when his mother arrives; she sees the pistol and tries to keep him from carrying out his plan. They are interrupted by a knock at the door; Kenneth is called down to the office by the clerk; while he is gone Mrs. Nelson seizes the opportunity to telephone Mr. Nelson, who arrives with Alice. Kenneth and his father are reconciled, also Mrs. Nelson, and her husband and the family are reunited.

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

Kraus' little jewelry shop on the east side of New York is typical of that locality thirty years ago, and while his competitors advance with the times, he stands still in the simplicity of his kindly old soul, and devotes more time to his domestic affairs than to his business. In the rear of his small shop are the few immaculate rooms presided over by Katie, his motherly old housekeeper for many years, who also fills the vacancy of mother for Marie, the daughter of Kraus. Kraus' most intimate friend and neighbor is Spiegel, a kindred soul, and the father of Fred. Both parents have planned for years the ultimate union of their children. Marie, however, has other ideas on the subject, and has given her heart to Frank MacPherson, a worthless young "sport" and the son of her father's keenest competitor. From time to time a pinochle game at the home of one or the other is arranged by the two old Germans, as a pretext to throw Marie and Fred in each other's company. Fred's attentions to Marie on these occasions mislead the old folks, who do not see that Fred's sincerity is not returned. Marie's eighteenth birthday arrives, and in honor of the event, Kraus closes up shop, and with Marie, Katie and the Spiegels, journeys to the Jersey shore for a picnic in the woods. Frank follows them, and in the midst of their gaiety calls Marie to him. She slips away unseen, and tells him of the predicament that her blind love for him has placed her in. Unsympathetic, he speaks of her delicate condition as his "rotten luck." His craven mind plans further deception, and she becomes the victim of a mock marriage. Before leaving with Frank she sends a boy back to the picnic with a note to her father, telling of her intention. Old Kraus' grief upon its receipt is pitiful, and the holiday's joy is turned to sorrow. No word comes from Marie and Kraus broods over his loss until poverty and want confront him. He is at last compelled to accept a position in the store of his former salesman and a home with the Spiegels. Meanwhile, Marie and Frank have traveled down a parallel scale until he leaves her with her baby and goes away. Without support she is eventually dispossessed from her squalid room, and going she knows not where, encounters Fred, her father's choice. He persuades her to come home with him, where his sister Alice makes her comfortable. The Spiegels now plan a reconciliation, and by shrewd means bring father and daughter back to each other's arms. MacPherson has turned against his son Frank, and is the means of bringing him to an accounting. With his grandchild in his arms, Kraus' anger melts, and the glances he detects between Fred and Marie make him believe that his fondest hopes may yet be realized.

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Ruined by a powerful financial ring, Farrington commits suicide, after which his daughter Paula vows to take vengeance in her own hands and hunt the man behind the ring. At a house party, Paula meets Dr. Smith, who falls in love with her, but a misunderstanding separates them. Unsuccessful in locating the man, but knowing that papers in the house of Van Brunt, one of the ring members, will identify the leader, Paula secures the papers with the aid of Old Bill Fitch, a reformed burglar. To her horror, she discovers that the man is Dr. Smith's father. Paula relinquishes vengeance for love, and Dr. Smith's father, realizing the error of his ways, agrees to make reparations.

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A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of The Man Who Stood Still perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

While developing a powerful explosive, naval officer Paul Towne introduces his friend Richard Tracy to Judith Corbin, his friend since childhood. For years, Paul had assumed that he would marry Judith, but when Richard proposes, Judith, tired of waiting for Paul, accepts. Soon after the marriage, Richard becomes more interested in the new explosive than in his new wife, and to pay off gambling debts, he agrees to steal the formula and sell it to a foreign government. While spying at close range on a test of the explosive, however, Richard is killed, after which Judith, who has long since realized her mistake in becoming Richard's wife, accepts Paul's marriage proposal.

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A fascinating piece of cinema that shares thematic elements.

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

Mrs. Helen Courtland passes a fake check for $25,000 from a millionaire named Woodruffe Clay, who is in love with her daughter Anita. To save the family from a scandal in court, Anita marries Woodruffe, even though she loves Captain Hugh Shannon of the Foreign Legion. During an argument on their wedding night, Woodruffe falls and is seriously injured, and during his recovery, he makes her life miserable. Anita suffers from sleepwalking, and after one episode she dreams of poisoning her husband, she awakens to find him dead. Believing that she killed Woodruffe, Anita travels to Europe with Sarah Harden, her nurse, and there renews her affair with Hugh. When the evidence points overwhelmingly to Anita, however, she decides to return to America, but before she can confess her guilt, Sarah admits that it was she who killed Woodruffe in order to free her mistress from an unhappy marriage.

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Dora, the daughter of a wealthy man, marries a good-looking young fellow from the country who has made an auspicious start in New York business life. Having won the girl by trickery, he proceeds to reveal a baseness of disposition that makes his young wife's life a terrible burden. He becomes a drunkard who abuses his wife and baby. Dora resents his cruelty and he robs her of the child, surreptitiously conveying it to his mother, then going away to sea on a fishing schooner. Bereft of husband and child, Dora falls prey to grief. Fresh suffering awaits her when news comes that her vicious young husband was drowned at sea. Concealing her identity, she makes her way to the fishing village where her husband was born, becomes his mother's paying guest, recognizes her child, and inspires the love of her husband's brother, now a clergyman. Dora's troubles are about to recommence with undiminished severity. Her husband married her under a false name, so she is in ignorance of his relatives, and in this state of ignorance she lends a willing ear to the wooing of the Rev. John St. John, her late husband's brother. The wedding ceremony is about to take place when a storm at sea arises, a ship in distress is sighted, there is a call to man the life-boat, and Dora's fiancé volunteers. Among the rescued is Dora's legal husband Frank, who re-asserts his claim to wife and child, grows jealous of his brother, and once more becomes a drunkard. One of his New York reprobate companions appears to demand money. There is a quarrel and both men are killed. The sinful man has reaped as he sowed, and like so many of his kind has made others suffer for his misdeeds, particularly the fond girl who married him.

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Cowboy Mark West lives with his sister Mary, who suffers from a serious spinal disorder. While on vacation at the West's ranch, Violet Ridgeway, an Eastern socialite, toys with Mark's affections and then promptly forgets him. After Violet leaves, Mark works hard and earns the money to pay for an operation for his sister, which Doctor Welsh and Doctor Boyd agree to perform even though they know that it will probably result in her death. As expected, Mary dies, and Mark receives a letter detailing the doctor's risk-taking. A vengeful Mark kills Dr. Boyd, but Welsh, who is engaged to Violet, flees to safety. Mark goes to prison, but later Violet marries him in order to satisfy a stipulation in her late aunt's will. On his way back to jail, Mark escapes, and when Welsh and Violet reunite, they travel past Mark's hideout, and he captures them. Peblo, an evil Indian who is infatuated with Violet, kidnaps her, but Mark kills him. During the fight, Welsh behaves like a coward, and an enlightened Violet escapes to freedom across the Canadian border with Mark.