Top-Tier Alternatives In the Shadow of The Green Flame: Cult Guide

Dir: Ernest C. Warde

Sailor Jesse, shipwrecked off the Texas coast, naively becomes involved with a cattle rustler. Because the sheriff believes in his innocence, Jesse finds work as a cowboy, but soon becomes infatuated with Polly, the medium for fake hypnotist Bull Brooks, and marries her. When he learns that Polly married to win a bet, Jesse attempts to take her from the town's influences to open spaces, but Brooks falsely reports that she killed herself rather than go. In the mountains, Jesse meets Kate Trevor, an opera singer who moved there to help her alcoholic husband who abuses her. After Trevor drowns trying to cross a river when he sees Jesse and Kate together, they marry, have a child, and are happy until Polly and Brooks arrive. Kate and Jesse separate, but when Jesse learns that Brooks is attacking Kate, Jesse fights him. Polly shoots Brooks, but before he dies, he reveals that Polly was married to another man when she married Jesse.

Dir: Ernest C. Warde

After learning that her stepfather, John Braun, is a spy, Ruth leaves him and starts out upon a cross-country journey. In her travels, she sees a plane crash to earth and rushes to assist its pilot, John Barker. The two fall in love and are married. In the midst of their honeymoon, war breaks out and John is called to his post, leaving Ruth alone with only the servants to protect her. In John's absence, the enemy invades the countryside, commandeers the Barker house and imprisons Ruth in her room. Meanwhile, John takes leave to search for his wife. Managing to get through the enemy line, he arrives just as Ruth, enraged at the action of the invaders, dynamites the cellar of the house. As the building explodes, Ruth and John escape in his plane.

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

Dir: Ernest C. Warde

Toby, a peculiar young man, lives in a shack in the Kentucky hills, spending his days drinking moonshine and whittling toys for the local children. Fearful of his influence, the villagers revive an old Kentucky statute whereby Toby may be sold into servitude for a year. Virginia Dare, horrified by these proceedings, purchases Toby for one dollar and returns with him to her Uncle Poindexter's tobacco plantation. Invigorated by his love for Virginia, Toby forsakes his whiskey habit and labors diligently on the plantation until his old friend Dink Wallerby, a moonshiner, begs Toby to care for his sick daughter Nell. En route to obtain medicine, Dink stabs a revenue officer with Toby's knife but confesses just before Toby is sentenced. Toby, at one time a lawyer, successfully defends Dink, after which a visiting judge proclaims Toby his son. Having regained his good name, Toby proposes to Virginia.

Dir: Ernest C. Warde

"In Hidden Valley," Valkyrien is a white goddess who has been captured by savage blacks in South Africa. She is found by a young missionary, played by Boyd Marshall, and rescued from a sacrificial altar. Valkyrien was selected as the most perfectly formed girl in Denmark in a competition conducted by the government. The dance of the white goddess before the natives is one of the most beautiful scenes in the production. The Moving Picture World, August 5, 1916.

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

Dir: Ernest C. Warde

When the circus comes to town, a mild-mannered man, whose good nature is viewed as weakness by wife, has the chance to prove himself when a lion escapes.

Dir: Ernest C. Warde

Sylvia Leigh's only recollection of her father was a dim memory of a distinguished-looking man who brought her to boarding school when she was a youngster. From that time he never came to see her, but letters came from him with foreign postmarks stating that "important business" kept him away. After her graduation an old family servant took her to the home she had never known. Within a few months her father appeared. Not the parent she had pictured, but a broken old man whose mind seemed ham ted by some shadow from the past. One day while they were motoring in the park he suddenly drew a revolver, and aiming it at a passing auto, exclaimed, "That man wrecked my life." But before he could pull the trigger he fell exhausted from the effort and the other car passed before Sylvia saw his face. Her father became seriously ill from the excitement. On his deathbed he made her promise to run to earth the man who ruined his life. With no clues or an inkling of what the secret was, she attempted to locate him by an ad in the papers, only to fall into a trap. A roughly-clad young man came to her rescue. Some weeks later she was surprised to find this same young man as a guest at a dance given by a girlfriend. But this time he was clad in evening dress and perfectly at home among society. Then came the blow. An incident revealed him to her as the man she had vowed to bring to atonement. She shadowed him, caught him in a compromising position, kept him captive and phoned the police. Then the fact that she still loved him rushed over her. She realized also that her father's secret was still a mystery. What will he do? Keep a deathbed promise and turn him over to the law or obey her heart? Love wins out. As a knock comes on the door she tells him she still loves him and to escape. But he only smiles, opens the door to the officers, who greet him familiarly, and then he make some remarkable disclosures to Sylvia, which brings happiness to her troubled heart.

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

Dir: Ernest C. Warde

Lear is an old man blind to his weaknesses. He decides to divide his kingdom among his three daughters according to who recites the best declaration of love. Goneril and Regan pretend to love him but treat him cruelly. Cordelia is loyal but, confusing honesty with insolence, he disowns her.

Dir: Ernest C. Warde

When Barbara Norton is left orphaned, she goes to live with her aunt and uncle. Time passes, now grown to adulthood, Barbara, becomes engaged to a wealthy young man who believes in pacifism. When the United States declares war on Germany, Barbara's fiance declines to enlist, and so Barbara gives him back his engagement ring and goes to France as a Red Cross nurse. En route, her steamer is torpedoed and Barbara is assumed to be drowned. Even this tragedy does not inspire the young man's patriotism and when solicited to enlist, he declares that the United States be damned. These sentiments shock an old friend of his father's, who brings the young man a copy of the book The Man Without a Country . Upon reading the book, the young man visualizes the story of Philip Nolan and is compelled to serve his country. As he is about to go to war, Barbara returns, and the two lovers embrace.

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

Dir: Ernest C. Warde

In Hong Kong, William Neal helps Kirk Marden fight off a group of rowdies. Back in New York, Kirk again turns to William's assistance when his father's rivals plot to take control of the Marden railroad. William teaches Kirk how to open safes so that Kirk can procure papers outlining the takeover plans. While Kirk is robbing the safe, Janet Leslie, daughter of one of the conspirators, enters, and Kirk forces her to marry him so that she cannot testify against him. Kirk succeeds in reconciling his father with his rivals and in winning his new wife's love.

Dir: Ernest C. Warde

John Benton is the head of a company that makes parts for ships. He is a fair and honorable man, but his partner Henry Vance is not. Vance and employee Daniel Grey sign Benton's name to orders for boilers they know to be defective. Their partners in the scheme, which involve installing the boilers in the ship so it will sink at sea and they can collect the insurance, are the agent who carries the ship's insurance and a government inspector. After the ship sinks, the conspirators hire a safecracker to plant money in Benton's safe to make it look like it was he alone who profited from the scheme. Benton is sentenced to prison. He serves 12 years and is released, and when he gets out he finds out what really happened, but the men who were responsible for it are now wealthy and have become powers in city politics. Determined to clear his name, he comes up with a plan to expose the crooks by using their tactics against them.