Cinematic Discoveries Resonating with the Themes of The Heart of a Girl: Cult Guide

Dir: John G. Adolfi

Merilla, a mermaid, must save four humans to earn a soul and human body. She falls for Prince Hero but lets him unite with his true love after saving princess Leanda from villain Boreas, sacrificing her own love but gaining humanity.

Dir: John G. Adolfi

Fearing that his daughter Patsy is becoming a tomboy, John Primmel sends her to a friend back East for education and refinement. Arriving in New York, Patsy discovers that her father's friend has died and his apartment is now inhabited by his son, Dick Hewitt. Dick allows Patsy to stay, and they hire a maid, a housekeeper, and a butler. One night, while Dick is drunk, adventuress Helene Arnold tricks him into marrying her. Soon after, Dick's sister Alice arrives and urges him to marry Patsy, whom he really loves. Helene then threatens to expose Dick unless he pays her $10,000 hush money. Dick refuses and the next evening, while at a party, Helene tells the guests that she has an important announcement to make. Just as she is about to expose Dick, his butler appears and Helene gasps, announces that she is going to Europe to become a nurse, and rushes from the house. The butler then informs Dick that Helene is his wife who deserted him years earlier. Dick's marriage thus nullified, he is free to marry Patsy.

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

Dir: John G. Adolfi

French Secret Service agent and boxer Henri D'Alour uncovers a plot to con the government out of millions of francs in its purchase of machinery.

Dir: John G. Adolfi

While vacationing at a hunting lodge, Ralph Strong, a recent medical school graduate, meets Anitra Frane. Their courtship is interrupted when the United States enters World War I and Ralph offers his medical assistance. Anitra, who has not been able to develop her beautiful singing voice in the country, goes with Ralph's father John to the city as his mistress so that she can pursue a singing career. After John refuses to marry her and sends her a check, Anitra becomes known as the seductress "The Flame," and decides to build a free clinic for children with money she gets from ultra-rich men. When Ralph's dissolute friend, Gaston Duval, kills himself because Anitra will not marry him, Ralph vengefully vows to find "The Flame." After Anitra convinces him instead to enter politics to cleanse the city of sin, Ralph is elected mayor. When he introduces his father to Anitra, she faints. After John has a heart attack and dies, Anitra confesses that she is "The Flame." Ralph says that he loves her and that they should strive together for a better future.

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

Dir: John G. Adolfi

Schoolteacher Frances Angel finds herself attracted to wealthy rancher Jim McPherson but finds his rough-hewn ways objectionable, so when he proposes marriage she rejects him. Her father asks her to return to his home in the East, where her former boyfriend Chet Condon now holds the mortgage on the family home and is threatening to foreclose on it unless Frances marries him. When she also learns that her recently-widowed sister Jane is also moving back east with her newborn, Frances is torn between her duty to her family and her love for Jim.

Dir: John G. Adolfi

A teacher begins a school in the Tennessee mountains. His prize student is a charming but uneducated young woman named June. Their relationship turns to love, but a bullying, jealous rival tries to break them up by telling her that the teacher's sister and niece are actually his wife and daughter.

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

Dir: John G. Adolfi

Harry Ogden - ne'er-do-well - is caught by a sheriff's posse and is about to be hung when he is saved by Betty, the daughter of a Kentucky Colonel, who is traveling in the West for his health. Ogden is addicted to a morphine habit and Betty, who is a doctor, hides him in their house and nurses him back to health. Ogden asks Betty to be his wife, and he is returning to his family home to get some money. The Colonel, mistaken for Ogden by Taylor, a rival for Betty's hand, is shot and killed by Taylor, who leaves evidence pointing to Ogden as the killer. Betty plans to turn him over to the law when he returns. Meanwhile, Taylor is killed by Choo, who is secretly in love with Betty, and she learns through Choo that Ogden is innocent of her father's murder.

Dir: John G. Adolfi

Mary Ann, an orphan leading a life of drudgery, falls in love with a promising but equally penniless composer, John Lonsdale.

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

Dir: John G. Adolfi

Dana Thornton's niece Eleanor is friendly with Cynthia Carew, a Senator's daughter. After a ball one night, Cynthia finds her father dead in their automobile. While the ball was in progress Cynthia was with naval officer Lieutenant Lane; he asks her father for her hand, is refused, and a quarrel ensued. It later transpires that before going to the ball, Carew wrote a letter to the Secretary of State saying he knows a certain American who is selling his country's secrets in South America. The letter goes on to say that the name of the spy cannot be divulged yet. Immediately following the writing of this letter the old man was found dead, showing that someone thought him dangerous. Cynthia is prostrate and Eleanor Thornton and her uncle come over, the man to take charge of Carew's affairs and the girl to comfort her friend. Eleanor has a mysterious maid who is acting the part of the spy. Douglas Hunter, a secret service agent, is sent to help Detective Brett on the Carew case. The lieutenant who quarreled with Carew is under suspicion and Cynthia feels that he must be guilty and refuses to see him. Carew's nephew, Phil, is also suspected, because he had been seen quarreling with the Senator. Then the Stranger appears. He is Harry Thornton, brother of Dana, and his exact counterpart. Harry visits the Secretary of State, learns of Carew's death and has an attack of vertigo. When the Secretary goes to get him a drink he rushes down the hall. Later Dana visits the Secretary, steals the important papers and the stranger, who rushed away, is suspected. Eleanor sees Barry shrinking in the grounds and aiming a gun at the window. This is during a visit of the whole party as the guests of Dana. Phil is seized with illness. It transpires that Cynthia and Eleanor have identical kimonas. One of them, or so it seems, visits Phil and gives him medicine and he, in delirium, tells where the missing plans are. She goes downstairs and finds them and tears her kimona. Hunter, the detective, sees her as she goes upstairs. The girl's kimonas are examined next day, but no trace of the tear can be found. Consequently it was not one of the girls that was downstairs the night before. Brett and Hunter search the maid's room. There is found the torn kimona and they believe that she was the mysterious girl of the night before. The doctor discovers that Phil is being systematically poisoned. Lieutenant Lane, Cynthia's sweetheart, is arrested for Carew's murder. Dana sees Eleanor's maid listening at the door and finds her stealing papers in the library. That night Harry Thornton comes into the Thornton house and secrets himself in an untenanted room. No one sees him or knows he is there but an old colored servant. Cynthia tells Eleanor of a dream wherein she sees a door with panels in the shape of a cross. She goes to the door and tries to get out but cannot. She awakens screaming in terror. She also tells Cynthia that when she has this dream something terrible always follows. The mysterious maid lies down for a sleep and an arm reaches through the wall and extinguishes her light, leaving the gas on. She dies. Cynthia, coming down, passes the door and seeing the panels in the shape of a cross, screams and several men, to quiet her, force the door open and the body of the maid is found. In the girl's closet is the torn kimona and the missing plans which she stole on the night Hunter saw her. The maid was a secret service spy. All gather in the drawing room. Phil rushes in and accuses Eleanor of the murder of Carew and of poisoning him. He tells how he saw her go down to the machine on the night of the murder and return to the house frightened. She did this because she saw Dana, her uncle. commit the crime. A letter to the Secretary of State is found in a book. It was written by Carew before his death and forgotten. This is sent to the conference in the drawing room, where it is opened and the name of Dana Thornton is found therein. He is the spy. He jumps into a car and is followed by Detectives Brett and Hunter in another car. Dana jumps out of the car and hides, while the car then goes over a cliff. He rushes home and comes face to face with Barry. Barry gives him a gun and tells him it is the only honorable way. Dana shoots himself and falls dead. The crowd rushes in and Barry says: "He has paid the penalty." Eleanor recognizes Barry as her long-lost father and rushes to his arms. Barry tells about the time, years before, when he and Dana were in Panama, he followed him to a saloon where friends of Dana's hit him on the head, and he is sent to jail. He is offered his freedom by soldiers of the small republic for certain secret codes in his possession, but he refuses. He escapes by changing clothes with the guard of the jail. Then he goes to his own country to be revenged on his brother. Hunter and Brett arrive and they learn that Dana did not go over the cliff in the machine, but that he lies dead in the drawing room. Cynthia and Lieutenant Lane are brought together and Hunter and Eleanor have fallen in love, and the long-lost father gives his blessing to their union.

Dir: John G. Adolfi

Stephen Field, a Jewish financier, takes great pleasure in philanthropic work at a community service center in the U.S. His daughter Esther devotes her time to entertaining returning soldiers in a canteen. When he reads in a newspaper about massacres of Jews and Armenians in Europe, and the suffering and starvation among other peoples there, Stephen remembers having lost his own wife and young son in a massacre years earlier. At the canteen, Esther meets Robert Graham, who suffers from fainting spells, the result of a war wound. Graham falls in love with Esther, much to the chagrin of his anti-Semitic father. Esther is also courted by the brilliant Jewish surgeon, William Morris. Esther's affection for Morris leads the jealous Graham to lash out at his rival with anti-Semitic invective even though Esther gently refuses Morris' marriage proposal. Graham loses control of his high-powered car due to a fainting spell, and the car goes over a precipice and turns over on top of him. Morris is the only person who can save his life, but the surgeon hesitates, fearing that failure would be interpreted as jealousy and thus compromise his professional integrity. Esther pleads with Morris to perform the operation, and he finally consents, sacrificing his own happiness for the woman he loves. The operation is proclaimed a surgical miracle, and Esther chooses to marry the man who performed that miracle.