Deep Archive Finds in the Vein of The Iron Man: Cult Guide

Dir: Tod Browning

Doris Standish's father insists upon her marriage to aging millionaire Cyrus W. Hopkins, but just before the wedding, the young woman runs from the house and leaps into a parked car, ordering the chauffeur to drive her quickly away. The driver is Jimmy Nevin, who, because Hopkins financially ruined his father, has agreed to help a gang of crooks in their plot to steal the bride's jewels and wedding presents. Realizing that Doris is not Mary Butler, his accomplice, Jimmy offers to accompany her home, but when she refuses to return, he takes her to the thieves' hideout. Mary and her henchmen try to rob Doris, but she escapes and notifies the police. Doris, her father and Hopkins return to the hideout just before the police arrive to arrest all of the thieves but Jimmy, who has grown extremely fond of the runaway bride.

Dir: Tod Browning

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of Peggy, the Will O' the Wisp perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

Peggy Desmond, the daughter of an Irish magistrate, loves Captain Neil Dacey, but is pursued by Terence O'Malley, the nephew of Squire O'Malley, a wealthy landowner. Although the squire offers to pay off the Desmonds' debts if Peggy were to marry Terence, Peggy refuses. After Neil invokes the name of Rory O'More, the "Will o' the Wisp," a legendary Irish Robin Hood, Peggy dresses up as a highwayman and robs Squire O'Malley, then gives the purse to one of the squire's poor tenants. As the local law officer, Neil is assigned to capture the bandit, but is robbed himself by his clever incognito sweetheart. When the squire turns up dead, Neil, whose gun is found next to the corpse, is arrested and jailed. To free her love, Peggy disguises herself once more as a highwayman and forces Terence to confess to the murder at gunpoint. Once released, Neil deduces that Peggy is the bandit and makes good on her promise to marry the man who succeeded in unmasking the "Will o' of the Wisp."

Dir: Tod Browning

Master thief Blue Jean Billie, the unknown perpetrator of many sensational jewel heists, robs the guests at the exclusive party marking the engagement of Muriel Vanderflip to Algernon P. Smythe, Lord Chesterton. Overpowering Detective Wood, specially stationed there to stop her, Muriel escapes with her chauffeur, Shaver Michael. After Shaver's car overturns, Billie surprises her pursuers, and at gunpoint, makes them return, but Smythe, hiding on the side of Shaver's car, accompanies them until Billie discovers him and makes him take them to his home, where she holds him prisoner. To Shaver's dismay, Billie and Smythe fall in love. After they escape a police raid, Smythe convinces Billie to send the jewels back and marry him. Although she has her doubts when she learns that Smythe is really the international crook "English Harry," after he fights Shaver and locks him and Wood in their retreat with the stolen jewels, Billie and Harry make their final escape vowing to go straight.

Dir: Edward LeSaint

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

When famous opera singer Elinore Duane undergoes an operation on her throat, she has a series of ether-induced visions. In one, she is transported to ancient Rome where she appears as a much-admired woman in love with Paul, a young heretic, and at odds with Lutor, the high priest. To save her love, she poisons Lutor with her ring. After several other visions which involve variations on this love triangle, Elinore awakens to discover that Lutor is actually her doctor, Sascha Jaccard, and that Paul is the son of a friend who has come to visit the recovering prima donna.

Dir: Tod Browning

Roma Wycliffe, a high-spirited girl bored with the lavender-and-old-lace atmosphere of her Aunt Henrietta's estate, discovers that her grandmother was a gypsy and decides to become one herself. Wearing gypsy clothing, she runs away to New York, where she is arrested on the suspicion that she is Gypsy Nan, a thief. Mrs. Roberts, whose poodle had attracted Roma's attention, intercedes for the girl and, promising to care for her, takes her to her lavish home. Young John Roberts falls in love with Roma, but the "gypsy" imagines him too stodgy. To win her love, John declares himself the leader of a band of gypsy thieves and then hires a gang of ruffians to prove his claim. When the thugs actually rob a bank, John has them arrested, and Roma, realizing the darker side of gypsy life, marries John.

Dir: Tod Browning

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

Powerfully built Greek Philip, falls in love with Toinette, a French girl whom he meets when she is injured in an auto accident. She is hospitalized, operated upon and then recovers, but a hospital attendant misinforms Philip that Toinette has died. The Greek, keeping a pledge to his love, continues to sing beneath her hospital room window every night at midnight. Meanwhile, a gang has been terrorizing a park near the hospital, and one night during a confrontation with the police, the leader is stabbed and he is taken to the same doctor who had arranged for Toinette to enter the hospital. While at the hospital, the leader recognizes Philip as the person who slipped him a pack of cigarettes when he was earlier hospitalized, during Toinette's stay. The gangster informs Philip that his love is alive and well. The Greek rushes to Toinette, who had been told that Philip had returned to Greece, and the lovers are reunited.

Dir: Tod Browning

Alisa Graeme travels from Scotland to America to visit Jeremiah Wishart, an old wealthy friend of her grandfather. The invalid Jeremiah is charmed by Alisa and decides she would make a good wife for his favorite nephew David. Without meeting Alisa, David refuses the arrangement and runs away. Later, Alisa also runs away rather than wed another of Jeremiah's nephews and meets a young billboard painter in the country. The two form a partnership, travel the countryside together painting billboards and gradually fall in love. When the painter tells Alisa that he won't marry until his finances are secure, she leaves him in anger and heads for Jeremiah's house. From his wheelchair, Jeremiah sees first his wayward nephew painting a nearby billboard, then a young woman stopping to help him. Jeremiah's initial anger at David mellows when he recognizes the woman as Alisa. Once Alisa and David realize the other's identity, they happily reunite.

Dir: Tod Browning

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

Jim Bludso is engineer of the Mississippi River packet the "Prairie Belle." He has a home in Gilgal, Ill., and a wife and twelve-month-old baby at the time the story opens, in 1861. A call is received for volunteers and he joins the Northern army. His wife is a Southern girl, and she opposes his joining the Union forces. The quarrel results in a separation and Jim goes to war. Ben Merrill, an unscrupulous contractor, meets Jim's wife in Natchez, her home town, and induces her to go with him to New Orleans. She deserts her baby and goes. In New Orleans a levee contractor comes to Merrill with the proposition that they take the contract for a new levee to be built at Gilgal. Merrill accepts and leaves New Orleans without telling the woman where he is going, and she is left to take care of herself. After the war Jim returns to Natchez and finds that his wife has deserted their little boy, and no one knows where she is. He takes the boy, Little Breeches, and Banty Tim, a negro, who has saved his life during the war, and returns to Gilgal. He is welcomed by Kate Taggart, the daughter of the village storekeeper. Jim's wife yearns for her baby and returns. Jim forgives her for the child's sake. The high waters are coming on and Merrill is afraid that the levee will not hold. He plans to lay the blame on Jim and the negro. He arouses the suspicion of the townspeople against the negro and Jim is forced to fight for Banty Tim on several occasions. Merrill meets Jim's wife and induces her to loosen the sandbags and leave the water into the village. She escapes in a boat, the bottom of which has been cut by Merrill. In the middle of the stream the boat begins to sink and Banty Tim goes to her rescue. The negro is accused of breaking the levee and then escaping. Jim offers his life as a forfeit if the negro does not return by sunrise. The next day the village people are at Indian Mound, and the men are about to hang Jim because Banty Tim has not come back. Just then he comes on with Little Breeches, who tells of his rescue by the negro. A year later Jim is again engineer of the "Prairie Belle." In a race with another boat the engines become overheated. Merrill is aboard and Jim has him locked in the oil room. When the boat takes fire Jim goes and opens the door of the oil room and finds his son there with Merrill. While they are trying to escape the boilers explode. Jim is rescued from the debris by Banty Tim. Some time later Jim's wife having died, he and Little Breeches and Kate and Banty Tim are united in a happy family.

Dir: Bruno Ziener

A fascinating piece of cinema that shares thematic elements.

Dir: Tod Browning

Princess Marya and her brother, the Grand Duke Paul of Russia, are studying in the U.S. when word reaches them that Rasputin is to be killed. Paul is seized by Russian secret service men, but through Marya's appeal to Captain Rodney Willard, he is released. In Russia, Marya participates actively in the Revolution, while Willard, with whom she has fallen in love, joins the Allied Commission. Deeply troubled by the influence of German agents in Russia, Marya organizes the Legion of Death, a fighting unit of peasant women, and leads them into battle against the Germans. The legion suffers defeat and Marya is captured, but in the end, she wins her freedom.