Rare Cinematic Gems Exploring the Legacy of The Lion's Mouse: Cult ...

Dir: Oscar Apfel

The defense attorney who was unable to obtain the acquittal of an innocent young man concocts a complicated and diabolical scheme to get revenge on the prosecutor.

Dir: Oscar Apfel

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

David Jenison, accused of a crime which he did not commit, escapes his guards and joins a traveling circus. Mrs. Braddock, wife of the circus owner, takes an instant liking to David and prevails upon her husband to give him a job as clown. Mrs. Braddock's daughter Christine, falls in love with David. All the performers become friends of the new clown except Ernie Cronk, a hunch-back who, himself admires Christine, takes a violent dislike to David and tries to kill him. David later saves Ernie from a bad beating at the hands of a gang of rowdies and Ernie thanking David, promises to help him clear his name of the crime charge. Ernie's friendly feeling, however, is short-lived, for in a jealous rage, he writes a note to the detectives informing them that David disguised as a clown, will take part in the afternoon performance, but Dick Cronk, Ernie's brother, learning of the latter's treachery toward David, takes David's place as a clown, while David escapes. Dick Cronk, who has learned to love Dave like a brother, goes to Jenison Hall. David's former home, and there confronts David's Uncle Frank, who he feels quite certain is the man who committed the crime David is charged with. Dick returns to the circus and tells David of his experiences at Jenison Hall. A few days later they learn that David's uncle and a notorious colored attorney have quarreled, dueled and killed each other, and in his dying confession, the uncle had completely exonerated David. David, before leaving the circus, confesses his love for Christine and asks Mrs. Braddock's permission to marry her, but Mrs. Braddock, fearing them too young, promises David that in five years, he may marry Christine if he still loves her, so David leaves, pledged to return. Col. Grand, infatuated with Mrs. Braddock and who has been following the circus about, finally through his clever scheming and the lending of money to Braddock, secures control of the circus and places Mrs. Braddock and Christine in his power. Col. Grand becomes abusive when his treatment is no longer tolerant to Mrs. Braddock and Christine. They leave the circus and return to their home in New York. Later, in New York, Braddock and Col. Grand meet and in a street fight, Braddock is arrested, accused of attempting to kill Col. Grand, and is railroaded to the penitentiary for five years. Five years have now passed and David comes to New York to claim Christine. Arriving at Christine's home, he learns that she will arrive later, from a trip to the country, and goes to the railroad station to greet her, but seeing her in the company of another young man, postpones his errand. He later meets Mrs. Braddock at a telegraph office and she gives him a wire she was just about to send him in which she tells him it is time for him to redeem his promise and he agrees to call that evening. Braddock released from prison, has sworn to kill Col. Grand on sight, and takes up a position outside the Braddock residence, and is about to enter, when Dick Cronk interferes and together, they go to a low resort where they can talk in safety. Col. Grand and Braddock meet face to face and Mrs. Braddock pleads with her husband to spare Col. Grand. Braddock does so and walks out of the house, telling them he is going to the river to end it all. During an altercation between Col. Grand, Dick and Ernie, Ernie shoots Col. Grand and when the police arrive blames it on his brother Dick, who at the trial is sentenced to death. Ernie later confesses his guilt and Dick is saved from the death chair. Braddock, instead of suiciding reforms and returns a better man. while Dave and Christine, learning of the re-union of father and mother, once again don their circus attire and together in the sawdust ring, live over in memories the days of their early love.

Dir: Oscar Apfel

Nicknamed "Wild Olive," Miriam Strange learns that her mother was an Indian, she moves to a hut near an Allegheny lumber camp. Norrie Ford, fresh from college, visits his uncle, the bullying boss of the camp, and meets Miriam. After his uncle is murdered with a knife found hidden under Norrie's mattress, Norrie is sentenced to die. He escapes a guard and, after staying a night in Miriam's hut, leaves for Buenos Aires with her letter of introduction for employment. Although he vowed to marry her, after his letters to "Wild Olive" return undelivered, Norrie, sporting a beard and an assumed name, becomes engaged to Evie Wayne, Miriam's stepsister. When Norrie is sent to be his firm's New York manager, he meets Miriam again. She sacrifices her love and agrees to marry lawyer Charles Conquest, if he will prove Norrie's innocence. After Evie learns about Norrie's past and breaks the engagement, the murderer makes a deathbed confession. Conquest releases Miriam when he sees that she loves Norrie.

Dir: Oscar Apfel

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

Little Doris Calhoun, of a wealthy English family, makes a playmate of Pierre, a crippled gypsy boy, and drifts away with him and the gypsy band on their wanderings and is seen no more. In twelve years she becomes a great favorite with the gypsies, who have named her Kilmeny, but rather than be married to a brutal fellow, Barouche, she flees the camp. Kilmeny is found wandering in the woods, by Lord Leigh, and he persuades the rather reluctant Lady Leigh to give the ragged little wild thing shelter in the manor. The child of camps and trails at first finds naive delight in mysteries like electric light switches, bath tubs with fickle showers and rugs upon which she can slide beautifully over the hardwood floors. But long dresses trip her, the butler is a thundercloud, and at night she cannot sleep in the closed-in room unless she pulls her little white bed to the window. To make it worse, Lady Leigh becomes jealous of her husband's protegee, and so does her brother, Bob Meredith, a dashing chap with whom Kilmeny is very much in love. The sensitive girl who cannot bear to hurt birds, beasts or any living thing, cannot bear to hurt her benefactors either, and so in a pathetic self-sacrifice turns her back upon the manor and returns to the angry gypsies, and to Barouche. But just as the gypsy wedding ceremony is about to begin the father of the long-lost Doris Calhoun appears and calls a halt, and proves the beautiful Kilmeny is his own daughter. To prove it, he produces the poor cripple, Pierre, who has braved the wrath of the clan to balk the brutal Barouche and carry word to Kilmeny's father of her whereabouts.

Dir: Oscar Apfel

Trader Ned Stewart's father Graehme was unjustly accused of adultery and killed. Ned sets out to avenge his father but is captured and send on "la longue traverse," the long journey to death. Virginia saves Ned, and the villain confesses Graehme's innocence on his deathbed.

Dir: Oscar Apfel

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

While engaged in battle, Pierre Duval, a French soldier, stumbles onto the mortally wounded Count de Morave. Before dying, the count begs Pierre to deliver some family jewels and papers to the Vicomte Raoul de Reyntiens. At home, Pierre places the jewels in a box that also contains a necklace given to Margot, his wife, by the Duke D'Auberg. While stealing the box, Lazare, a war correspondent who witnessed Pierre's scene with the count, attacks and kills Margot. Found guilty of the crime, Pierre is sentenced to life imprisonment but is pardoned after performing a dangerous jailhouse rescue. Mavis, his daughter, who has been adopted by the duke, falls in love with the poor vicomte but is courted by Lazare, now posing as the Count de Morave. To win her love, Lazare gives her some of the stolen jewels, including the duke's necklace, but when Pierre sees the necklace later, he exposes Lazare and wins retribution.

Dir: Oscar Apfel

Steve Baird travels West, and with miner Mike Reardon, buys an abandoned mine called The Skyrocket. Hoping to raise money to cover his notes, Steve goes to New York where he meets forger Jackson Ives. Ives gives Steve $50,000 in counterfeit money for stock in the mine just before the notes are due. When Grace Tyler and other wealthy friends see the money they also buy stock, believing that Steve is a success. Meanwhile, neighboring mine owner James Morgan discovers that The Skyrocket contains gold, and he sets off an explosion, hoping to kill Mike before he discovers it. Instead of killing Mike, the explosion uncovers the gold and everyone becomes wealthy, including Ives who now has the money to make his forgeries good. At the end, Steve and Grace are married with Ives as best man.

Dir: Oscar Apfel

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

Bob Van Buren's rescue of an upper-class Turkish girl and her duenna in Constantinople when they are waylaid by robbers paves the way for a romance between them. The romance progresses rapidly despite the hullabaloo raised by Demetra's father and by the Turk fiancé he is trying to force upon her; but the very thought of a girl, so highly educated, so gifted with needle and loom, so famously graceful as a dancer ending up in a harem instead of a respectable home, drives Bob Van Buren to desperation. At length he persuades Demetra to elope with him to America, where Demetra could be married at his mother's in New York. Getting wind of it, the malicious Osman hires a band of ruffians who make away with Bob Van Buren on the very eve of departure. With her young American mysteriously vanished, and the day of her now-all-the-more-odious wedding to Osman drawing near, Demetra can stand it no longer, and taking her duenna, flees to a cousin's in New York on the P. and O. boat on which Bob had reserved sailings. Osman pursues the little refugee, corners her in New York, and with oriental cunning sets a trap into which Demetra walks blindly. Having her in his toils again Osman summons a second Turkish priest and is just forcing Demetra to her knees before him when the door bursts open and in rushes Bob Van Buren, who had finally escaped the dungeon in Constantinople to which he had been consigned. He routes Osman and takes Demetra to his mother's. Mrs. Van Buren suggested that the lovers wait until September, but their hearts were set on June. And so, as you may very well imagine, June it was.

Dir: Oscar Apfel

While traveling incognito through his kingdom, Prince Ludwig of Saxe-Tholberg becomes infatuated with Katrina, the daughter of innkeeper Hermann Ardelheim, but their idyll is interrupted by the arrival of a courier bearing the news that Austrania has threatened war. Katrina is heartbroken to discover the identity of her sweetheart whom she can never hope to marry. After Ludwig's departure, Katrina overhears the plotting of two spies and with the help of her brother Raolf, she confronts them. In the ensuing struggle, Katrina kills one of them, who turns out to be the Austranian ambassador. Although Katrina admits her crime, Marshal von Trump plans to execute Raolf in order to pacify the Austranians. Katrina appeals to Ludwig, who pardons Raolf over the advice of his counselors causing Austrania to declare war. A crucial battle is fought near the Ardelheim inn, during which Katrina becomes a heroine by signaling the advance of Ludwig's troops. She is fatally wounded by the Austranians and is then brought to the inn where she dies with Ludwig at her side. He then eulogizes both Katrina and Raolf, who has also died in battle.

Dir: Oscar Apfel

Robert Brewster, scion of a well-to-do family, elopes with Louise Sedgewick. Peter Brewster disinherits Robert and refuses to be reconciled to the marriage, and later drives the young couple from their home. A little son, "Monty," blesses the union. When Monty is a full-grown man, Peter Brewster dies and bequeaths a million dollars to him. The newly-acquired wealth staggers young Monty Brewster, and he is about to launch into the new life as one of the predatory rich when he receives a communication from an attorney in the West, advising him that his uncle, George Brewster, has left him $7 million, contingent upon his getting rid of the million dollars left him by Peter Brewster. "Peter Brewster mistreated your mother and father and I do not want you to touch a dollar of his money. If you spend the million left to you by him and can, at the end of a year, show by receipts that you have judiciously spent, not squandered this million dollars, my attorneys will turn over to you my worldly possessions, aggregating seven millions. You must own nothing of value at the end of the year," said George Brewster, and Monty, learning for the first time that Peter Brewster had mistreated his parents, begins to spend the million. He invests the money in a sure losing proposition in Wall Street in an effort to dispose of some of his unwelcome money, and the proposition turns out a winner. He backs a flabby fat pugilist, hoping to lose, and wins. There is a clause in the will of George Brewster which says that Monty must not tell anyone of his desire to spend the million and his friends think he has suddenly lost his mind. Everything Monty touches with the hope of losing some of his money, turns out just the reverse, and he wins. He has a most terrible time disposing of the undesired millions. Finally, in a desperate attempt at magnificent spending, Monty hires a palatial yacht, invites several dozen friends to accompany him and goes on a long cruise. The friends mutiny in mid-ocean, thinking him suddenly insane the way he is squandering his wealth, and threaten to lock Monty up, but Monty, to frustrate them, runs up a signal of distress. It costs him two hundred thousand dollars to be salvaged by a passing steamer, and the end of the year rolls around with Monty flat broke. He has squandered the entire million dollars, possesses a room full of receipts to show for every dollar spent, and his sweetheart, Peggy, believing him to be a pauper, consents to marry him. His friends, believing him broke, endeavor to press money and jewelry upon him, all of which he must not have in his possession or he loses the seven million. He dodges his friends, is met by the attorney and presented with seven million dollars, and everything turns out happily.