Top-Tier Alternatives In the Shadow of The Law of the Yukon: Cult G...

Dir: Charles Miller

While covering a sensational divorce case, reporter Janice Salsbury becomes disillusioned with the institution of marriage. Convinced that her impending marriage to fellow reporter Billy Williams will result in a loss of her freedom, Janice breaks her engagement and enters a period of Bohemian living. Her mentor, elderly Phillips Hartley, sadly watches as Janice's friends lose all respect for her and finally succeeds in effecting a reconciliation between Billy and Janice.

Dir: Charles Miller

A homely young girl, lonely and unhappy because she alone of all the girls in her town does not have a soldier sweetheart, pretends to be the fiancée of a famous combat aviator. When the flyer's mother learns of the "engagement," she accepts the girl as her future daughter-in-law, just in time for complications to arise in the form of the truth.

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

Dir: Charles Miller

Margot Hughes is a butterfly society girl who sells herself to the highest bidder. Her husband does not press his ownership "by right of purchase," and she misunderstands his delicacy and she things that love is lost to her. She goes to France to serve the cause of humanity. There they meet again and understanding comes. For the Program: A loveless marriage that turned out differently. - Moving Picture World, February 2, 1918.

Dir: Charles Miller

Just before mountain girl Barbara "Bawbs" Colby's aunt dies, she reveals that Bawbs' deceased father had left her $5000, but to watch out for men because they would only be interested in her for her money. Her aunt's warning is tested when Bawbs falls for a new arrival in the mountains named Ralph Gunther, who says he is an author who's there for the peace and quiet he needs to write.

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

Dir: Charles Miller

Jim Morrison, an English army officer who comes from a very old and prominent family, marries the ravishingly beautiful but unscrupulous Cleo, who has no qualms about using her sexual allure to get the luxuries she wants but that her husband can't provide. When Jim is sent off to war, Cleo embarks on a series of affairs, one of which results in her becoming the love slave of a German spy--the very spy that her husband has been assigned to track down.

Dir: Charles Miller

In a prologue, Wilhelm II is born into opulence to continue the Hohenzollern dynasty of his father Frederick III, while Woodrow Wilson is born into the modest manse of his father, a Presbyterian reverend who tells his wife that the boy must be brought up "in the fear of the Lord." Conrad Le Brett from Alsace-Lorraine is forced to fight for Germany because his land has been conquered. Conrad, seeing other soldiers take girls into a church to rape them, kills one who murders a baby, and is then shot and taken to a Brussels hospital run by famous nurse Edith Cavell. He and his American nurse, Amy Gordon, fall in love. After Cavell helps Amy escape the pursuance of General von Bissing, the German governor, von Bissing has Lieutenant Ober execute Cavell. Learning of the Kaiser's order that all unmarried women be given to soldiers so they can bear sons for the army, Ober returns to Alsace-Lorraine, where he earlier insulted Conrad's sister Vilma. Ober kills Conrad's grandfather and rapes Vilma. Conrad honors her dying request that he go to America and defend Alsace-Lorraine's reputation. He marries Amy and convinces President Woodrow Wilson that Alsatians should be allowed to enlist. Fighting with the "doughboys," Conrad kills Ober, and after the armistice, returns to Amy.

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of Bawbs O' Blue Ridge perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

Dir: Charles Miller

Sylvia Maynard is a stenographer for a theatrical producer and tries to prove to her boss, that she can act by posing as a society woman at a lavish house party. Don Meredith, the struggling playwright who wrote the work in which Sylvia wishes to star, also masquerades as a famous writer at the party in order to prove that the central thesis of his play is valid: that one can pose in any role in high society and get away with it. Sylvia, introduced as the widow of Captain Milton Brown, falls in love with Don, but her joy turns to panic when her supposedly dead husband suddenly appears. The amused captain allows Sylvia to continue her impersonation for a time but advises her to leave the party. Don, heartbroken, also leaves, but after several adventures in which he helps Sylvia retrieve papers stolen during the party by a German spy, the two lovers are reunited in their true identities, and the play debuts successfully.

Dir: Charles Miller

The Flame, a dance hall girl who rules the Midas Café, is notorious from Nome to Dawson. She meets her match in a youth named George Fowler, whose good looks and raw nerve compel her to grubstake him and go straight while awaiting his return from the gold fields. One day, a young girl and her baby arrive at the camp, looking for her husband, George Fowler. Shaken, the Flame takes the girl home and when the youth returns he is informed that the Flame is dead. Forlorn, the boy decides to break the bank but the saloon's proprietor plans to rob him instead, and only the Flame's appearance with her six guns saves his life. Not having the courage to tell the boy about his wife and child, the Flame takes her lover to the hotel where she battles with her conscience. Her better nature finally wins, however, and the Flame discovers that there are actually two George Fowlers and that the one she loves is single.

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

Dir: Charles Miller

Wee Lady Betty rules the O'Reilly castle with a stern hand and a big heart until she learns that Roger, the O'Reilly heir, is coming to take possession of his estate. Unable to provide for her aged father, Betty conceives of a scheme. Feigning to leave the castle, she returns after dark with her father and installs him in the haunted chamber. The next day when Roger arrives with his mother, he is met by villagers angry at Betty's banishment. In the guise of a maid, Betty shows the O'Reillys through the castle, laying special emphasis on the haunted chamber. That night, while bringing food to her father, Betty hears Roger opening the chamber door. Attempting to frighten him away, she jumps behind a suit of armor, but he shoots at the "ghost." Meanwhile the villagers storm the castle and Roger goes to appease them. Betty saves Roger by commanding them to leave, and her future at the castle seems secure when she and Roger embrace.

Dir: Charles Miller

Janet sets out to find her circus ringleader father, who her mother abandoned believing him to be unfaithful. Along the way, Janet and her friend Peter join Colonel Simmonds's circus, she as a trick horse rider and he as a clown, but Janet cannot help but wonder why she finds Simmonds so familiar.