The Auteur's Selection In the Shadow of The Heart of the Blue Ridge...

Dir: James Young

In Tokyo, Japanese poet Akira loves American Ruth Vale, who was placed in Akira's father's care when her missionary parents died. Ruth returns Akira's affections until she meets Edward, but the American proves an unfaithful husband. Three years later, Ruth is gravely ill while Edward amuses himself with his new lover, Adrienne Chester, but Akira comforts the dying woman with the promise that he will protect her little daughter Blossom. Later Edward marries his mistress, and with Akira in charge of Blossom, they return to America, where Adrienne renews an old affair. When Edward discovers his wife with her lover, he kills him, but Akira accepts the blame to shield Blossom from humiliation. One night Akira breaks out of prison to visit Blossom and although a guard shoots him, he manages to reach Blossom. Carrying her in from the rain, Akira plays with the child until his strength finally deserts him and he dies.

Dir: James Young

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

Robert Strickland, the self-confessed murderer of Gerald Trask, refuses to defend himself on the witness stand. His attorney, however, cross-examines Strickland's wife and by questioning his daughter Doris as well, he exposes the fact that years earlier Trask had seduced Mrs. Strickland. This evidence is sufficient to call for a verdict of not guilty from eleven of the jury, but the twelfth member holds out because money disappeared from Trask's safe the night of the murder, and evidence points to Strickland as the thief. When Glover, Trask's secretary, is cross-examined, however, he breaks down and confesses to the robbery, thus clearing the way for Strickland's acquittal and his reunion with his family.

Dir: James Young

An orphan named Oliver Twist meets a pickpocket on the streets of London. From there, he joins a household of boys who are trained to steal for their master.

Dir: James Young

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

When a woman's husband is presumed dead in the war, her sister, for her own unscrupulous reasons, attempts to get her remarried. But the husband, it seems, is not dead after all.

Dir: James Young

A fascinating piece of cinema that shares thematic elements.

Dir: James Young

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

A little country village comedy in which Mr. Costello plays a young grocer's clerk. This clerk and the daughter (Clara Kimball Young) of a G.A.R. fire-eater (Mr. Eldridge) are in love, much to the old man's disgust. He wants his daughter to marry a brave man, a soldier. AN unexpected denouement makes the clerk seem to be a hero. Moving Picture World

Dir: James Young

Helene Marie, on the run from the Russian police in St. Petersburg, plots to kill the Czar.

Dir: James Young

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

Doris Moore is the daughter of a minister living at a small country town a few hours' distance from New York. She helps her father in his work among his congregation, teaches in the Sunday school and plays the wheezy old organ in the church. The household is thrown into a mild state of excitement on receipt of a letter purporting to come from an organ supply company in New York, but which in reality is from a band of crooks who use this as one of the fraudulent schemes whereby they obtain money from the unwary. The letter offers to supply a beautiful pipe organ on receipt of an installment of one third of the cost, the balance to be paid on time. The matter is laid before the deacons and they decide to consider the offer. The minister writes to the organ company and the chief of the crooks, Harry Leland, a handsome, dashing man of the world, arrives and explains in glowing terms the advantages of the organ. While waiting for the deacons to collect the first installment of two hundred dollars, Leland pays considerable attention to Doris, who is much fascinated by him, representing as he does a totally different type of man to what she has been used to. In the meantime, the crooks in New York have received information from out west that Will Lake, a young eastern college man who in two years has made a fortune of fifty thousand dollars, is returning east, and will stay in New York for a week. They decide to try to blackmail Lake on his arrival and at once communicate with Leland, who replies that he will return immediately as soon as he gets the organ money. Leland has become attracted by the freshness and beauty of Doris and decides to lure her to New York and then make use of her in the crooks' nefarious schemes. He protests violent love for her and proposes marriage, and Doris consents. Immediately after receiving the two hundred dollars from the deacons, he approaches Doris as she leaves Sunday school and with well-simulated despair tells her he has received very bad news and that he is threatened with ruin and begs her to go to New York with him as she alone can save him. After much persuasion, Doris' scruples are overcome and she returns with Leland who takes her to the boarding house run by 'Frisco Kate, a house which is used by the crooks as a meeting place. It is decided to have Doris act as a decoy and to get Lake to visit a flat which has been prepared beforehand. She is therefore told that Lake has defrauded her lover Leland of a considerable sum of money and that if he could be seen, things might be arranged satisfactorily. She is told to speak to Lake, who will be pointed out to her in the hotel, and tell him that her mother who has friends in Goldfield wishes to ask his advice about mining stock. The plan succeeds and Lake unsuspectingly goes to the flat and while alone with Doris, Leland with two other crooks rush in and accuse him of being in a compromising position with Doris whom he calls his wife, much to her amazement, and says that Lake must pay in money to avoid scandal. Lake intuitively feels that Doris is innocent and refuses. A furious fight ensues in which Lake is knocked unconscious, robbed of all his money and locked in the room, the crooks making good their escape with Doris, whom they take to their hiding place. Their plans are defeated, however, by one of their own band, Laylock and 'Frisco Kate, who, hardened crooks though they have been, refused to be parties to the dragging down of an innocent girl. They release Lake and go along with him to the police and lead a raid on the crooks' hiding place who are all captured and receive their just deserts. Doris meets her father at the police station, he having come to New York to trace her. Lake, who is much interested in them, invites them to his hotel to meet his mother and sister. There is a pretty ending to the story when Will Lake, who to celebrate his good fortune and has made the church a present of a beautiful organ, pays a visit to Doris and her father, and a love romance, the seeds of which were set when she innocently acted as a decoy, is happily consummated.

Dir: James Young

With the electric-ray machine that he invented, a scientist brings his daughter back to life after she dies in a car crash but he fails to revive her soul at the same time.

Dir: James Young

American surveyor William MacDonald comes to an Ojibway village in the Canadian Northwest. He seduces half-breed girl Annette while her fiancé Baptiste and half-brother Jules Beaubien are away on a trapping expedition. After his work is over, MacDonald spurns Annette and leaves. When she realizes that she is pregnant, Annette wanders delirious into the forest and is devoured by wolves. On returning, Jules persuades Baptiste to let him avenge Annette's death. Jules and Baptiste go to the cabin of Andrew MacTavish, a wretched, self-exiled Scotsman who continually berates his daughter Hilda, whom Jules loves, because her mother left him years earlier. MacDonald arrives and convinces MacTavish that he will take Hilda to his mother in Scotland to educate her, after which they will send for MacTavish. Jules discovers MacDonald's identity when he drunkenly boasts of his previous conquests. Jules fights MacDonald and MacTavish, and escapes with Hilda in a canoe. After MacDonald's pursuing canoe smashes in the rapids, Jules duels with him and kills him.