Essential Cult Cinema Drawn from the Same DNA as The Invisible Ray:...

Dir: Maxwell Karger

Horace Parker is a wealthy young man who is exceedingly selfish and self-centered. He is engaged to Minnie Talbotr who has discovered his selfishness and she is on the brink of calling off the engagement. On Christmas Eve, a messenger from Mars comes to Earth to show Parker the error of his ways.

Dir: Harry A. Pollard

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

Leander Potts, a burlesque manager, has brought his Frivolous Frolickers to Greenville for a one-night stand at the Opera House. But there are bigger things ahead for Leander in Greenville. The natives have mistaken him for the Potum of Swat, a sturdy centenarian, who with his daughters, ranging in age from 70 to 85 years, is to give a lecture on how to live a thousand years. Leander and his burlesquers are given a royal welcome, and then and there he decides to assume the identity of the real Potum.

Dir: Rudolf Liebscher

A mad scientist, an Indian fakir and a Japanese conman walk into a lab - and try to resurrect a dead alchemist in order to discover the secret of creating gold.

Dir: Bruno C. Becker

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

It is the year 1950; women have taken over men's jobs and have become the aggressors in romantic situations. Lizzie Hap stuffs the ballot box, defeats her opponent, Minnie Fish, and is thereby elected Fire Chief of the all female fire department, and succeeds in winning the hand of her fair loved one, Willie Wart.

Dir: Harry A. Pollard

Messalla, the embodiment of youth and innocence, lives in an old house in Washington Square, New York City, with her father, who has been ruined financially and lost his wife through the lure of Fifth Avenue. He tells Messalla that the thoroughfare is a dragon lying in wait for victims. Messalla starts out to find the dragon and goes up the avenue. Her meetings with various people bring destruction and death to those who had wrought her father's ruin, although she is unconscious of the effect she is having on their lives. Messalla escapes the wiles of the white slaver. She allows a discarded flame of a big merchant to take her place at dinner to which she has been invited, and the merchant suffers at the hands of the discarded woman. A policeman's attention is attracted to Messalla and a man is killed by an automobile while he is looking at her. At a lacemaker's shop a wealthy young woman is tempted to take a bit of lace because Messalla has admired it, but she is caught and jailed. There is a robbery affecting some papers which have been taken and replaced by a bomb, and Messalla gives the package to a woman who turns out to be her father's lost wife; the house is destroyed after the woman and Messalla leave. There is a reconciliation. All those injured were people who had injured her father, and the dragon has been slain by Messalla's youth and innocence.

Dir: Eugenio Testa

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

The Italian adaptation of the famous novel about Dr. Frankenstein and his monstrous creation.

Dir: Harry A. Pollard

Motherless Phyllis Ladd runs the household of her father John, a railroad president, who loves her but dreads the day that she will marry and leave. To make her social debut, Phyllis leaves her hometown of Carthage and accepts the invitation of Mrs. Fenshaw, a Washington social matron, to live with her. Phyllis soon tires of the stuffy life and boring suitors and returns. At a matinee road-show performance, Phyllis becomes infatuated with actor Cyril Adair. When she invites him for tea, the vain actor accepts, hoping to seduce her. After more meetings, Cyril's discarded lover informs Ladd, who demands that the romance cease. Phyllis elopes with Cyril, who, touched by her devotion, marries her. Although their life is plagued by Cyril's alcoholism, firings and inability to get new roles because Ladd influences theater managers to reject him, Phyllis patiently tries to bring out the best in her husband. When Phyllis and Cyril refuse Ladd's bribes to end the marriage, Ladd relents, backs a show in which Cyril is to star and is reconciled with the couple.

Dir: Harry A. Pollard

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

Miss Jackie Holbrook is the daughter of wealthy Californians. She is noted for her frolicsome nature, and is the favored of all but Captain Robert Crowne, U.S.A., whose ship is anchored off Coronado awaiting further orders. Jackie decides to make Crowne fall in love with her, and her opportunity comes when she hears of a new sailor going to ship with Crowne to the Isle of Vergania, to quell a native uprising. The girl dons sailor clothes and sails with the ship. She is the butt of Big Bill Blount's jokes and jeers because of her effeminacy, and causes the others on board much laughter. When they arrive at Vergania she is one of those chosen to go into the interior and is the one that saves Crowne's life. Her identity is discovered to the delight of the sailors, and Crowne asks her to marry him immediately.

Dir: Jan S. Kolár

A fascinating piece of cinema that shares thematic elements.

Dir: Harry A. Pollard

Peggy Brockman's idyllic life with her oil-magnate father is disrupted when he remarries and arrives home with his bride and her two snobbish daughters. The new Mrs. Brockman reads that Lord George Raleigh is anchored off shore in his yacht, and regarding him as a possible conquest for one of her daughters, issues him an invitation to a garden party. In quest of his seclusion, his Lordship sends his butler Wiggins to attend in his place. Peggy is banned from the party, and in revenge, sneaks aboard the yacht where she meets the real lord who is enchanted by her. For her prank, Peggy is banished to college and the lord enrolls also. One night by mistake, Peggy climbs into the boys' dormitory and finds herself in Raleigh's room. To prevent a scandal, they elope, but on the way from the justice's house are arrested and thrown in jail. Peggy's horrified family arrives just in time to witness Lord Raleigh disclose his true identity and announce that Peggy is his bride.