Visionary Picks Drawn from the Same DNA as The Libertine: Cult Guide

Dir: Joseph A. Golden

An actress with a wild reputation finally settles down to a sedate, pleasant marriage. One of her former lovers, an architect, arrives to disrupt her happiness by renewing their affair. She humiliates this suitor in public with her rejection, and he seeks revenge--revenge that catapults her into tragedy.

Dir: Joseph A. Golden

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

A young girl, reared in luxury, is thrown penniless upon her own resources. She becomes secretary to a great artist, who, in younger and poorer days, married the landlady's daughter. In need of inspiration, the artist turns to his charming secretary. Believing that she loves him, the girl submits, but finds her mistake, when, meeting a flourishing physician, she learns true love. Both the physician and the artist want to marry the girl, the latter promising to get rid of his present encumbrance. Fearing that the physician will learn of her past, the girl refuses his offer of marriage. The artist, having a weak heart, drops dead at her feet upon learning that she does not love him; whereupon the girl becomes the physician's bride. The artist's widow, seeking vengeance, after a protracted discussion between the physician and his wife, secures the position of housekeeper in their home. She plants seeds of jealousy within the wife by telling her the physician loves his adopted child, whom he has brought up from infancy. The wife flies in a rage, charging her husband with infidelity; whereupon the widow, making her revenge complete, reads a diary to husband and wife foolishly kept by the artist, telling of his relations with the former secretary. In her frenzied protestations, the wife also reveals the fact that it was her rejection of his love that caused the death of her lover. Attempting suicide, the wife is prevented by her maid, who shows her the folly of such an act. The wife, impressed by the recital, decides to live down the past, and try to win back her husband's love.

Dir: Joseph A. Golden

A fascinating piece of cinema that shares thematic elements.

Dir: Joseph A. Golden

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

Temptation to cheat comes in the way of a young couple in reward for which the wife can escape from the bitterness of life on $25 per week in a New York suburb, i.e., Staten Island. There are no "classy," well-dressed people in New York south of Thirty-Fourth Street. Jane Reynolds, the aspirant after Fifth Avenue fine feathers thought this way, when the tempter came along and persuaded her to induce her husband to pass on an inferior quality of cement for a great dam then in course of construction. "Bob" Reynolds fell for the bribe and Jane got her fine feathers. The gambling mania got "Bob" and he was financially ruined in double quick time. The bursting of the dam, due to the bad cement, completed the tragedy of "Fine Feathers." The chief culprit, the tempter, committed suicide, and the young couple resolved to commence life all over again and go straight.

Dir: Joseph A. Golden

Senator Rivers of the State of Missouri comes to the United States Senate, and meets Silas Denman, who has been unsuccessful in the prosecution of the Denman Claim, a relic of the Revolutionary War. Denman's daughter, Mabel, who teaches music, meets Mrs. Hillary, a widow, who aids her in many ways. At Mrs. Hillary's home she meets Count von Strahl, and Armstrong, the Secretary of State, at whose home she is introduced to Senator Rivers. Mabel develops a liking for von Strahl. Her father is excited over the prospect of such valuable aid in getting his claim through, and Rivers makes a powerful speech in its favor, incited by regard for Mabel as well as by the justice of the claim. The Senator is stunned by the remark of Mrs. Hillary that Mabel is engaged to von Strahl, but in order to give her a dowry, redoubles his efforts on the Denman bill. The Senator and Mrs. Hillary are on good terms, and learn that Mrs. Armstrong and von Strahl are planning an elopement. The Senator sends Ling Ching, the Chinese Ambassador, to the Armstrong home to intercept Mrs. Armstrong, and before she can get rid of him, her husband arrives, he having been told that von Strahl's carriage had gone to his house. Senator Rivers turns the tables on von Strahl in a neat way, and hurries back to the Senate. By a neat trick he puts the Denman bill through, but is afraid of Mabel's marriage with the Count, as he knows his character. Developments satisfy Mabel as to the rascality of the Count. She realizes that she is in love with Senator Rivers, who in spite of his age, appeals to every particle of her nature. She appreciates the force of his actions regarding Mrs. Armstrong and Count von Strahl, and at the end the Senator has won the claimant as well as the claim.

Dir: Joseph A. Golden

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

The husband is bored to death by years of association with his wife, whom he deems old-fashioned and settled. A governess, young and beautiful, comes to the house. The father, master of the house in every sense of the word, is infatuated with the governess's description of life in the city where one remains young even at four-score years. Many conversations occur between the man and the governess, and one day he tells his wife that he is tired of her and that he is going away to the city with a younger and prettier woman. Time passes and the master of the house sees the other side of the governess. Her family is a lot of parasites who live on him. The man, broken in health, his spirit revolting against present conditions, feels a longing away down in his heart for his old-fashioned wife and their three children and the old home that is a home. In a frenzied burst of anger he strikes her, casts aside the woman and the unpleasant associations with her and, older, wiser, sadder and penitent, he returns to his wife and fireside.

Dir: Joseph A. Golden

A fascinating piece of cinema that shares thematic elements.

Dir: Joseph A. Golden

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

Alice Grayson's uncle develops a wireless torpedo that can be controlled by radio. After he announces his invention to several of his colleagues, two of them murder the scientist, steal the blueprints and prototype, and make plans to sell both to the highest bidder. When Alice discovers the identity of the thieves, the intrepid heroine, with the help of Bob Moore, her two-fisted boyfriend, desperately tries to recover the plans and torpedo before enemy countries can unleash the torpedoes against American ships.

Dir: Joseph A. Golden

Inez Valenti is the niece of Grant Thorne, who runs a gambling house. She acts as a lure for her uncle's den. Barry King becomes infatuated with her, and this gives her a violent aversion to the life she has been living "behind closed doors." Elsa Montford, daughter of the Judge, is saddened by King's attentions to Inez. Thorne also becomes jealous of King. They fight in the gambling house; Thorne is shot, and King throwing the pistol away, runs, but is caught. Elsa has seen the affair and tells her father who takes her to the police station, where she identifies Barry among the other prisoners. Inez is in despair when she learns that there was a witness to the affair whom the State has in charge, and refuses to leave the city while he is in danger. She sends for Elsa, and tries to bribe her to keep silent, but on refusal offers her a glass of wine which has been drugged, but Elsa breaks the glass and escapes. Inez tries to get Barry to jump his bail, but Elsa pleads with him to stay and fight it out. He agrees and writes to Inez telling her he loves Elsa. Inez, in despair, writes out a full confession of her life, and declares that she and not Barry killed Thorne, Barry having kept silent as to having taken the pistol from her in order to avoid incriminating her. Elsa reads the confession. When she has finished she phones to the district attorney and together they go to Inez's room where they find her a suicide.

Dir: Joseph A. Golden

Ed Andrews, a young shipping clerk, is in love with Dora Birch, and has as rival Tom Matthews, but wins the girl, much to his mother's satisfaction. A raise in salary hastens their marriage and two years later their baby arrives. Andrews, celebrating the event, goes to the corner bar with George Gardner, his chum, and, after several drinks, Gardner gets into a fight with Jim Matthews, Tom's brother, knocking him down with a blow, Matthew's head striking the pavement, causing his death. George runs away, and Ed bends over Matthews, trying to raise him. The crowd threatens him and he starts to run, but is soon caught. In the morning he is fined for disorderly conduct, and is near freedom when word comes that Matthews is dead, and he is held for murder. Tom is a ward detective, and four months after the arrest, swears that Jim was killed while resisting highway robbery. Ed is sentenced to death, and the shock kills his wife, his mother taking the child and rearing her. She pleads with the Governor, and in view of the evidence he commutes Ed's sentence to imprisonment for life. His mother tells him of his wife's death, and, with his nerve crushed, he begins his prison life. Nineteen years later his daughter falls in love with Paul Matthews, son of the man who had sworn away his life. Ed's mother continues her efforts in his behalf, and Gardner, dying in a distant city, tells the truth about the assault. Ed is pardoned and meets his daughter for the first time in the warden's office. Ed and his daughter are having luncheon on the beach when he sees a man fall from a boat, swims out to save him and brings him to shore, but the man is dead and Ed recognized the body as that of Tom Matthews, the brother of the man his friend had killed, and on whose evidence he had spent twenty years in prison. Then he feels that while nothing can give him back his lost youth, his wasted life and the wife he loved, he has overtaken the man who was responsible for his troubles.