Top-Tier Alternatives Exploring the Legacy of The House of Fear: Cult Guide

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Joe and Eleanor Woodbury lead an unhappy married life: she is fond of the gay life, and he is not. Together, they visit Nadia, a lovely young woman who tells the future by gazing into a crystal ball, and Joe and Nadia fall in love at first sight. Although Eleanor is having an affair with Gene Deering, a lounge lizard, she wants to stay married to Joe and therefore tells Nadia that she is pregnant. The diminutive crystal-gazer promises to stop seeing Joe, and Eleanor resumes her illicit relationship with Deering. Following a raid on a roadhouse where they are carousing, Eleanor and Deering are involved in an automobile accident and she is slightly hurt. The doctor who attends her later informs Nadia that Eleanor is not expecting a child, and Nadia telephones Joe to tell him of his wife's double deception. Joe then tells Eleanor that he is going to divorce her and goes to Nadia.

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Janet Newell learns that her husband Raoul is a crook and leaves him. However, when he offers her a position as companion to the wealthy Richard de GIles and his wife, she accepts, believing that they hold a property deed that rightfully belongs to Raoul's friend Langstreet. Janet is established in the de Giles' Long Island estate, where she falls in love with the kind old couple's nephew, Hugh Maxwell. Soon Raoul appears, and although Janet now realizes that she has been a pawn in his plan to rob the de Giles' jewels, she is forced into silence by his threat of revealing her marriage to Hugh. On the appointed evening, Ross, the butler, drugs the de Giles' coffee and joins Raoul, who has opened the safe with ease. As they are about to escape, however, the de Gileses--who are actually detectives assigned to capture Raoul's gang--appear, bearing guns and pronouncing the crooks under arrest. Raoul grabs a gun but is shot and killed. Janet is left a single woman, but only temporarily.

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

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Alias "the Dancer," fashionable society crook Jimmy Burke is hot on the trail of the Brent diamonds. Upon learning that Molly Brent and her diamonds are the stars of an amateur play, Jimmy obtains the leading man's part and devises a plan to steal the jewels. Molly falls in love with her leading man, who plans to switch the gems with fakes during the performance. After the play, the police question the couple and Molly declares that the robbery was part of the drama. When she discovers Jimmy's deed, she begins to cry and "the Dancer," realizing that he is in love with his victim, renounces his profession.

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Cyril Maitland and Henry Everard, friends since childhood, are of contrasting temperaments, the former hot-headed and rather impractical, the latter cool-tempered and possessed of a sane viewpoint. Cyril, studying for the ministry, is engaged to Henry's sister Marian, and Henry, studying medicine, is engaged to Cyril's sister Lillian. Unable to resist temptation, Cyril ruins a girl of his parish, Alma Lee, and when a child is about to be born, her father swears to kill the man, but Alma conceals his name. On the night the child is born, Alma's father is found dead. Cyril, being about Henry's build, has worn his clothes, and witnesses see him in the vicinity of the woods where the crime was committed. Henry is convicted of the crime of which Cyril is guilty. Lillian alone believes him innocent, and is sent to prison. Alma declares him to be her child's father. Cyril, believing his calling in the church above all other things, keeps silent, but at the last moment, about to speak, is held back by his father, who thinks him unstrung. Cyril marries Marian, but his conscience tortures him almost beyond endurance and his life becomes a living hell. Finally Henry is released after 20 years in prison, and he attends the cathedral presided over by Cyril, who has become the great Dean Maitland, the most eminent preacher in the country. Cyril sees Henry in the congregation and there is a powerful scene. Cyril meets his son, with a letter from Alma asking for his education, then Alma dies, and her son, learning his identity, renounces his father. Marian dies, and Cyril's troubled soul is grief and conscience-stricken. Henry, seeing the terrible pain of recognition in the cathedral, and remembering his old love for Cyril, now so changed, writes a letter of forgiveness to him, when beyond all endurance, Cyril's pride now broken, repentance enters his soul. The next day, Sunday, his sermon is at first a trite appeal to repentance, and then a dramatic confession of his own sins, when, falling from the pulpit, he drops dead. And after the storm, the sunshine: Henry and Lillian live happy in their true and undying love.

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

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Unknown to her, Mary Manchester is a double for the ailing Mrs. Adelaide Rutherford, a wealthy woman who has been driven insane by her husband's cruelty. Rutherford is in league with Jasper Haig and Dr. Babcock. Together these men hold in trust sixty million dollars which upon Adelaide's death will revert to her brother Stanford Gorgas. Fearful of Adelaide's imminent death, the conspirators plan to substitute Mary in her place, thus preventing Gorgas from inheriting the money. After imprisoning Mary in Adelaide's house, their plan backfires when Gorgas meets her and, suspecting something is wrong, learns of Mary's plight. After Gorgas helps Mary escape, she is recaptured by Haig, who decides he must now eliminate Gorgas. Assuming that a fluttering behind the curtain is his adversary, Haig takes aim and shoots, only to kill Rutherford instead, thus freeing Mary to spend her future with Gorgas.

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Shrewd crook Boston Blackie is determined to go straight. At a celebration held on the eve of his marriage to Mary Dawson, Fred the Count plants a stolen jewel and Blackie is arrested and sentenced to twenty years in jail. Fred the Count tries to win Blackie's fiancée, but the honorable Mary rejects him. Blackie's only hope for escape is from the hospital, so he manages to get into a weakened state. He escapes from the hospital, but is trailed by the warden. Blackie refuses to shoot the defenseless man, and the warden recognizes Blackie as an honorable person and allows him to escape. Blackie frames the Count, and leaves for Honolulu with Mary.

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

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Philip Eaton is a passenger in a Pullman sleeping car headed to Chicago. However, he's not quite what he seems to be--he's actually Hugh Overton, who has just escaped from prison to clear himself after having been falsely convicted of murdering Matthew Latrone, a corrupt financier who cheated Hugh's mother out of her estate. It turns out that Latrone is still alive and sends out a killer to eliminate Hugh. Complications ensue.

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When Mary Worthington will not sign a document absolving the executors of her late father's estate from the loss of money due to mismanagement, they lock her up to force her to comply. Meanwhile, Danny Abbott, a press agent for Mary's friend, Gloria Morning, and two East Side Jewish backers, worry that Gloria's failing musical, The Purple Pagoda , will ruin them. Danny persuades his friend Robert Garrison to kidnap Gloria and release her before showtime, thus creating a news item to attract ticket buyers. When Mary escapes and approaches Gloria's apartment, Garrison, thinking that she is Gloria, kidnaps her. Mary plays along to escape the executors and falls in love with him at his cabin where they fight off Gloria's would-be rescuers. After the executors find Mary and take her to an insane asylum, Garrison saves her, they marry, and Gloria's show becomes a success.

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

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Thanya is a woman around whose presence there revolves an atmosphere of mystery. She is located in the Russian Capital, where she meets Vance Holden, an American artist. Although deeply in love with him, she is coquettish, and he, believing she is trifling with him, leaves her. Alexander Bagroff, Grand Duke of Russia, sees Thanya pass in her carriage and desires to know her. He arranges with a mutual friend to go to her apartment. He becomes infatuated with her but she dislikes him, not only because he is a man long past the prime of life, but for other and more important reasons. At midnight, after her guests depart, Thanya, in disguise, steals out to a small tavern where she meets Boris, her brother, leader of a club of social revolutionists. The gang is just about to choose a marked coin which will brand one as the man chosen to carry the next mission of death to a ruling power, in this case the most hated man in Russia, Bagroff. Boris draws the marked coin. Thanya falls in a swoon. In an agony of fear, she asks Boris to forsake his society. When he tells her it will be his pleasure to strike at the most hated man in Russia, the Grand Duke, Thanya is startled. Telling Boris of Bagroff's infatuation for her, she promises to assist him in his mission. Thanya is invited to attend a ball given by Bagroff. She notifies Boris to strike that night at twelve. Boris gains admittance into the grounds, but is discovered near the house. A shot is fired, the guests are terrified. Thanya surmises the cause, she controls herself. Boris, cornered, attempts to gain admittance into the house and lose himself among the guests. As he enters he is shot. Bagroff, believing someone among his guests has betrayed him, orders his soldiers to tie Boris to a pillar, strip him to the waist and lash him with the Russian pronged whip. As the blood streams down Boris' back, Thanya rushes to him, informing Bagroff that she is the traitor. They are both placed in a cell, where Bagroff offers Thanya her liberty if she will but become his mistress. He is rebuked, and both are sent with a train load of other prisoners to an exile in Siberia. During a storm, they escape and go to Paris. Vance, after leaving Russia, comes to Paris and here he and Thanya are brought together again, reconciled and married. Boris leaves for America. Vance encounters difficulties in selling his paintings. The following winter Bagroff comes to Paris. A Parisian doctor attending Vance, tells Thanya that he can bring her a client for Vance's pictures. He brings Bagroff, who tells Thanya that through the Prince Kenla he can make all the people of Paris patronize Vance, providing she pay the price herself. Desperate to obtain the welfare of her husband, Thanya resolves to give herself to Bagroff for a night. The Princess sits for Vance. He becomes popular as if overnight. The Princess, going to a week-end party to the country, implores Vance to accompany her. Thanya remains alone in the city and unbeknown to Vance, prepares herself for the terrible ordeal with the Grand Duke. The appointment is made. Bagroff dismisses his servants, Thanya comes, disrobes. As he looks upon his prey with the lustiness he has nourished for years, he is suddenly seized by Boris, who, upon returning from America, learns of Bagroff's presence there, and seeing his servants leave together, enters through a window in time to save Thanya. Pulling out his revolver, Boris makes short work of Bagroff, and immediately sets sail for America. The news of Bagroff's mysterious death causes the Princess to hurry back to Paris, and Vance returns with her. He finds Thanya in his den, prostrated. He raises her up, but, as she had promised Boris, she tells him nothing of her night's experience. Thanya and Vance open the window, and the sunlight pours into the room, an omen which prophesies a life of uninterrupted happiness for both of them in the future.

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Young society girl Joyce Lyndon is engaged to energetic Grant Garrison, who lures the judge's daughter to a roadhouse for the night and meets his death at the hands of an abandoned wife. Joyce escapes in fright and meets Martin Antrim, who protects her in exchange for an introduction to her circle of friends. Antrim elicits a confession from Garrison's widow, and Joyce recovers an incriminating handbag from the innkeepers when they attempt to blackmail her.