The Auteur's Selection Complementing the Tone of The Handy Man: Cul...

Dir: Gilbert M. 'Broncho Billy' Anderson

A fascinating piece of cinema that shares thematic elements.

Dir: Unknown Director

A fascinating piece of cinema that shares thematic elements.

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

Dir: Gilbert M. 'Broncho Billy' Anderson

Mrs. Graham and her baby boy are on their way from the east to an uncle's ranch in Wyoming, and they have completed the long journey in safety up to the time they are to take the stagecoach to Snakeville, near which the ranch is located. Through an accident Baby "Bumps," as he is fondly called by his mother, is carried off by the coach and Mrs. Graham left behind. The baby is the only passenger and fails to explain to the driver that they have run off without mother, who, in an effort to catch the coach, runs down the dusty road in pursuit. Arriving at Snakeville, the driver turns the baby over to a hotel keeper, who in turn assigns Broncho Bill as nurse, and instructs Bill to take care of the baby and try to put it to sleep. While one cowboy is sent off to milk a cow, another is routed out of his bed and the baby put in it. The baby refuses to go to sleep and Bill has his hands full in endeavoring to keep quiet the roistering cowboys in the dance hall and gambling palace below stairs. Bill is "all in" and about ready to do something desperate when Mrs. Graham, dusty and exhausted, and with gathering wrath, comes into the room and snatched her darling boy to her heart, and goes out of the room after giving Broncho Bill a piece of her mind.

Dir: Henry Edwards

A millionaire bets £25,000 that he can earn his own living for six months.

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of The Infant at Snakeville perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

Dir: Reggie Morris

A fascinating piece of cinema that shares thematic elements.

Dir: Gilbert M. 'Broncho Billy' Anderson

A fascinating piece of cinema that shares thematic elements.

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of The Amazing Quest of Mr. Ernest Bliss perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

Dir: Jerome Storm

Ne'er-do-well Homer Cavender ventures to the city from Mainsville in an effort to find fame and fortune. Both elude him, and after clerking for two years, Homer returns home for a vacation. Impressed by his flashy clothes, the townspeople assume that Homer has achieved success. Attempting to win Rachel Prouty from his rival, Arthur Machim, Homer continues the deception by announcing that his employer, Kort and Bailly, has dispatched him to enroll stockholders for a proposed new plant to be built in Mainsville. Machim discovers the sham and denounces Homer as a crook. Meanwhile, Homer returns to New York, convinces his employers of the merits of his plan and comes home triumphant, with a proposal for both the new plant and for Rachel's hand in marriage.

Dir: Gilbert M. 'Broncho Billy' Anderson

A young man is lured into a cardgame by a crooked dealer. He is about to lose all the money that was given to him to get medicine for his mother when a local cowboy comes to his rescue.

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

Dir: Edgar Jones

A mail-order bride arrives at a Maine lumber camp but doesn't like her prospective husband.

Dir: Maurice Campbell

Carver Endicott, a young sophisticate, is rejected by his fiancée for being too foppish and dull. When she feigns an interest in his father, Carver attempts to disgrace his family name by working as a farmhand and later as a busboy in a hotel. However, the newspapers only praise him for his self-sacrificing principles; and finding that he cannot bring shame to the family through menial labor, he takes up with a notorious actress. But when this maneuver also fails, he returns to his former fiancée, who has no further complaint about his being an inexperienced dullard.