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

Dir: Frank Hall Crane

A fascinating piece of cinema that shares thematic elements.

Dir: Frank Hall Crane

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

Dorothy Evans, a chemistry teacher at her aunt's girls school, hopes to satisfy her yearning for adventure when she vacations with her aunt, who desires to wear men's clothes, at a secluded island in the Chesapeake Bay. On the boat, they witness officers shooting an escaping prisoner diving overboard. On the island, a gang of crooks vacate the cottage belonging to Dorothy and her aunt, but leave behind a bottle of nitroglycerin. Dorothy recognizes it, and after dumping the contents into the bay, she fills it with her aunt's heart medicine. After the prisoner is taken in by the crooks and volunteers to get the "soup," Dorothy surprises him with a revolver and binds him to a chair. They fall in love, and when the gang tries to rescue him, he fights them. Dorothy's threat to drop the nitro bottle leads to the gang's capture. After the officers identify their "prisoner" as a famous detective Harold Vance, Dorothy and Harold plan to marry.

Dir: Frank Hall Crane

When Patricia "Patty" Hudson, a struggling New York writer becomes ill, her doctor, advising a restful occupation, arranges for her to be the private secretary to the aged James Winthrop, Sr. The closeness of their resulting relationship disturbs Winthrop's relatives, Mrs. Harrison Tyler and her daughter Sally, who hope to inherit his fortune. Mrs. Tyler writes slanderous letters about Patty to Winthrop's son Jim, in the aviation corps in France, and the rumors she spreads cause Patty to decide to leave. Winthrop, however, will not hear of it and proposes that they marry to quell the talk. Patty agrees but renounces all claims to his inheritance. After they marry, Winthrop dies from shock when he hears a false report of Jim's death. When Jim returns, he treats Patty with insolence, but after Patty sacrifices her reputation to protect Sally, the butler and his wife tell Jim the truth about Patty. Jim's subsequent proposal is accepted by Sally.

Dir: Frank Hall Crane

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of His Father's Wife perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

A wealthy society matron is enchanted by a world-renowned opera singer. Her jealous boyfriend, seeing his meal ticket slipping away, hypnotizes the singer and renders him mute. His ploy works, and the singer, now unemployable, soon runs out of money and is reduced to utter poverty. However, a figure from his past is in a position to help him regain his former fame and fortune

Dir: Frank Hall Crane

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.

Dir: Frank Hall Crane

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

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.

Dir: Frank Hall Crane

Ludwig "Old Dutch" Streusand and his daughter Violet live in New York, and after years of hard study and labor Old Dutch completes his invention: the "teloptophone," a device which, when attached to a telephone, enables the speaker to see the party at the other end of the wire. He goes to John Rockmorgan with his invention and after he proves its worth, Rockmorgan agrees to finance his invention and gives him a check for $5,000 on account. Old Dutch and Violet have had a hard time life; now that his invention is a success, he feels that they deserve a Palm Beach vacation. To escape the publicity arising through the invention of the teloptophone, he also thinks it wise to assume another name to avoid being questioned and annoyed about his invention. He arrives at a Palm Beach hotel and registers under the name of John Mueller and daughter, and settles down to a period of rest and comfort. Harold, John Rockmorgan's son, has also gone to the hotel, and when he sees Violet, love awakens in his heart. They meet and she is happy in her first love affair. In the meantime, the vaudeville team of Bings and Bings is discharged from the theater in which they are playing because their act is so bad. They are in desperate straits and the male member of the team has the idea to go to a fashionable Florida hotel and somehow get hold of some of the millionaires' money. Old Dutch has become a great favorite with the children of the hotel, and on the day that Bings and Bings arrive there, he loses his pocketbook while playing with the kids. Mr. Bings has the good luck to spot it, and before they register he goes through the contents and sees the $5,000 check made out to Ludwig Streusand. When he finds that no such man is stopping there, he boldly signs the name of Ludwig Streusand and daughter. When Joubert, the hotel proprietor, learns that such an illustrious person is stopping with him, he immediately begins to give receptions and balls in his honor. Old Dutch is so wrapped up in having a good time that he is unaware a man is masquerading under his name, so when his week's bill is presented he is unable to pay it, as his check for $5,000 and all means of identification have gone with the pocketbook. Joubert is furious that Old Dutch cannot pay his bill and tells him that he and his daughter must either go to jail or work off their board bill, Old Dutch protests and says that his name is Streusand and John Rockmorgan is his partner. Joubert laughs at him and points at whom he thinks is the real Streusand. Harold tells the proprietor he feels sure that Old Dutch is speaking the truth. When Joubert asks him how long he has known him and in what way he can identify them, he is left without an answer. So they are put to work, Old Dutch in the stable and Violet in the kitchen. Meanwhile the vaudeville team of Bings and Bings are having the time of their lives. The female end of the sketch is doing her best to win Harold Rockmorgan, who still believes and loves Violet. After having been forced to perform various duties around the hotel, on the night of a banquet given in honor of the false Streusand, Joubert forces Old Dutch to be headwaiter. In the meantime Old Dutch has induced Harold to phone to his father to come down and identify his partner. At first he refuses, but Harold gets the teloptophone from Old Dutch and tells his father that he plainly sees the stenographer seated on his lap and unless he does come at once he will tell mother. That settles the old man. During the banquet Bings is called upon for a speech, and as he is telling his eager listeners what a wonderful man he is, Rockmorgan arrives downstairs in the hotel. The clerk hastens to tell Joubert. Old Dutch overhears the good news, and knows that his time has come. He tears down to the office, followed by Bings and the surprised guests. He runs up to Rockmorgan who quickly explains that Old Dutch is the real Streusand and the other is a faker. Bings and Bings' day is over, Harold and Violet are free to get married, and Old Dutch takes up his pleasure again.

Dir: Frank Hall Crane

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

Margaret Ellis marries archaeologist Philip Bellamy to please her father, a trustee of Calder College where Philip teaches, and Philip's mother, who convinces Margaret that Philip will not succeed in finding ancient Greek ruins in North Africa, unless she is his wife. Bob Harding, who loves Margaret, joins them on their expedition as Philip's business manager. When Margaret contracts desert fever, Bob cares for her, but the alcoholic Philip takes the last bottle of brandy which Margaret needs. Hassan, a guide who hates Philip, sees the caving in of the ruins of a half-buried relic while Philip explores it, and announces Philip's death. Back home, after a tablet honoring Philip is unveiled, he returns drunk and smelling with hashish to overhear Margaret and Bob confess that they love each other. Philip accuses them of plotting his death, but when Hassan, who is now the servant of Margaret's doctor, sees Philip threaten Margaret, he stabs Philip to death. Margaret now accepts Bob's love.

Dir: Frank Hall Crane

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.

Dir: Frank Hall Crane

During World War I, Dick Randall says goodbye to his mother and joins the troops in battle overseas. Dazed by the explosion of a shell, he wanders over the German lines and is hiding in a haystack when French peasant girl Corinne Frenaud discovers him. Convalescing in her mother's cottage, Dick falls in love with Corinne, and she proves her love by accompanying him across the American lines after a shell destroys the cottage. Corinne quickly becomes the favorite of Dick's regiment, but he is distracted from his jealousy by the idea of showering Berlin with pamphlets featuring a photo of Kaiser Wilhelm and the inscription "Wanted for Murder." With help from a pilot, Dick flies over Berlin and drops the photos, but the plane is shot on its way back to France. Corinne again rescues him just as the truce is declared, and later, Dick takes the brave woman to America as his bride.