The Recommended Vault Parallel to the Artistry of The House of Intrigue: Cult Guide

Dir: Lloyd Ingraham

Following her grandfather's death, spirited young Susan Gaskell is placed in the charge of her cousin Martha Brown, the housekeeper for wealthy bachelor Bernard Marshall. Distressed by his brother Ted's involvement with adventuress Eva Thornton, Bernard decides to divert the young man's attention with Susan and hires Henri Delafaire to dress the girl in modern clothing and educate her in deportment and manners. Henri is so successful that he, Ted, and Bernard all fall in love with Susan, although Bernard conceals his affection. Susan is in love with Bernard; to please him, she agrees to marry Ted, but the night before the wedding, the young man sends Bernard a telegram stating that he has married Eva. Bernard finally confesses his love for Susan and they become engaged.

Dir: Lloyd Ingraham

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

When Geoffrey Challoner sees his new wife Robin reading old love letters, he assumes that they have been sent by a rival lover and storms out of the house. In his absence, Norman Craig, who with his wife plans to lease an upstairs apartment owned by Judge Corcoran, wanders into the Challoners' apartment, and Robin, mistaking him for a burglar, shoots him and then runs for a doctor. Returning, Geoffrey sees a man draped across his wife's bed and immediately files for divorce. Mrs. Craig and Norman, who had merely fainted, are invited to Judge Corcoran's weekend home along with the Challoners, whom the judge hopes to reunite. Norman's drunken condition brings him once again into Robin's room, however, while Geoffrey is discovered in a compromising situation with Mrs. Craig. Following a bewildering series of misadventures, including an attempted robbery by the maid and the chauffeur, Geoffrey learns that the love letters actually were his own, and the young couple are reconciled.

Dir: Lloyd Ingraham

Trying to cope with the bleak reality of the slums by indulging a taste for fiction, Maggie becomes a compulsive liar. As a result, when she pleads innocent to a shoplifting charge after the real thieves accuse her of the crime, no one believes her, and she is thrown into jail. While Bobby, a reporter who has taken an interest in her, works for her release, Maggie keeps a journal. Then, when authorities give the journal to the judge who sentenced her, he recognizes Maggie as a gifted writer, after which Bobby presents him with evidence clearing her of all guilt. Bobby and the judge rush to the prison to release Maggie; sadly, they discover that she has taken her own life in her cell.

Dir: Lloyd Ingraham

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

A small-town girl returns home from schooling in the East to find that her father's small store and indeed the whole town are in danger of being eliminated by a ruthless land developer. The developer has a son who falls for the young girl, and together they try to come up with a plan to save her father's store and the town.

Dir: Lloyd Ingraham

Nina, a blind girl, lives with her grandmother, who has taught her to make artificial flowers, which she sells at a flower-stand. Nina, and Jimmie, a crippled newsboy who sells papers on the same corner, are sweethearts. Nina's grandmother dies, and she turns to Jimmie. One day Jimmie has a fight with another newsboy, whom he thinks is hanging about Nina's stand too much, and the other boy is soon begging for mercy. Miss Fifi Chandler, an artist, happens to be passing, and becoming interested, she accompanies Nina and Jimmie to their rooms, and is surprised to find that Jimmie is an artist, having made a beautiful plaster cast of Nina. Fifi brings Jimmie and his protégé to the notice of her fellow artist, Fred Townsend, who falls in love with Nina. Fred has a great specialist examine Nina's eyes, and assured that an operation would restore her sight, takes her to his mother's home. Townsend tells the boy that the operation will be a success, and is amazed when Jimmie bursts forth in a torrent of words against his fate. Nina will know he is a cripple and not the straight, handsome youth she has pictured. He hurries from the house, and during the ensuing days, when Nina must stay in a darkened room, Jimmie cannot be found. The day comes when the bandages are removed and the operation is a success! That night, in the general hospital, the physician's attention is called to a crippled boy, who had tried to end his life by jumping in the river, but had been rescued. He recognizes Jimmie, hears his story, and a few days later an operation is performed and it becomes evident that he will go forth as straight as Nina's fancy had pictured him. Meantime Nina wonders why Jimmie does not come to see her, as she had not been told about the operation. At last he is brought to her, and Fred Townsend has his reward in watching the happiness of the two youthful lovers.

Dir: Lloyd Ingraham

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

A young man fights to overcome a piratical arms smuggler and to win the heart of a rich man's daughter.

Dir: Lloyd Ingraham

A young woman of wealth revenges herself on a young author whose peculiar ideas about women have led him to act and speak in an insulting manner. This young man isolates himself in the mountains for the purpose of writing a story on the primitive woman, where he is discovered by his friends, to whom he vows that no woman shall cross his threshold. The mischievous young woman of the story, determined to place him at her feet, goes secretly to the home of a mountain woman with whom she lives in the guise of a wild girl of the hills. Purposely sliding over an embankment where she knows she will fall in his path, she is rewarded by having him pick her up and carry her to his cabin, where she pretends to be too much injured to be moved that day. The mountain woman is sent for and the two remain in the cabin of the author for several days. Finally she is discovered by her people, when it also comes to light that the woman-hating author has fallen to the charms of his pretty visitor.

Dir: Lloyd Ingraham

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of Nina, the Flower Girl perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

When the son of a leader of a Paris underworld family known as The Apaches is arrested and tried in court, the boy's mother asks the judge for mercy, but he refuses. In retaliation, the family kidnaps the judge's young daughter and raises her to be one of their own, schooling her in the ways of crime. One day she steals a valuable pin from a young American artist; he catches her, but an attraction develops between them--and her "Apache" family is not happy about it.

Dir: Lloyd Ingraham

A mountain girl with an army-hating father, meets a handsome army captain, who teaches her how to love her country.

Dir: Lloyd Ingraham

As part of a divorce settlement, Theodore Ainsley gets custody of his older daughter Millicent, and his wife Elinor gets their younger daughter Jean. The two girls, normally inseparable, can't bear to be away from each other and run away together, but are soon caught by the authorities. Another custody hearing ensues, during which the girls' attorney Horace Craig makes an unusual, and somewhat shocking, proposal.