Visionary Picks In Alignment with the style of The Little School Ma'am: Cult Guide

Dir: Chester M. Franklin

The Japanese emperor's son Hanki Pan (Francis Carpenter) is in love with beautiful Fan Fan (Virginia Lee Corbin) and determined to marry her, although his father has decreed that he shall wed the Ancient and Honorable Lady Shoo, an ugly hag. Hanki Pan and Fan Fan elope and find employment as entertainers at the Wisteria Gardens. However, Lady Shoo and Fan Fan's rejected suitor, the Chief Executioner, follow in close pursuit and soon catch the young lovers. The Executioner plans to behead Hanki Pan, but when the emperor discovers the plot, he orders the villain to choose between the sword and marriage to Lady Shoo. Hanki Pan and Fan Fan are reunited, while Lady Shoo is happily wed.

Dir: Chester M. Franklin

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of You Never Can Tell perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

Rowena Jones attracts the attention of wealthy playboy William Vaughn, when trying on an expensive fur coat belonging to one of the guests at the hotel where she works as a hat check. Determined to marry a millionaire in order to alleviate her family's financial woes, Rowena accepts Vaughn's dinner invitation. That afternoon, while modeling at a fashion show, Rowena is attracted to a young man, but because he appears to be a poor chauffeur, she continues her pursuit of Vaughn. However, when Vaughn's wife appears at dinner, Rowena consents to go to a masked ball with her chauffeur. Arriving at the ball, she is pleasantly surprised to discover that her sweetheart is not a chauffeur but a millionaire, that meets her standard for a husband.

Dir: Chester M. Franklin

A kind Dutch immigrant and her bumbling father are blackmailed by a gang of counterfeiters.

Dir: Chester M. Franklin

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

A desert dancing girl fights to protect the French agent she loves.

Dir: Chester M. Franklin

Millionaire Hamilton fakes death to test wife's loyalty. His wife and brother plot to kill his children for inheritance. Hamilton warns kids through Hansel and Gretel story. Wife overhears, realizes her evil plan. Family reunites.

Dir: Chester M. Franklin

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

Adopted by the Kellys from an orphanage, Nancy is reared in dreadful surroundings and mistreated as the household drudge. She accidentally makes the acquaintance of Jack Halliday, son of a wealthy city family who is fishing near her home. When Mrs. Kelly beats Nancy for accepting the attentions of her husband, the girl escapes into the woods and conceals herself in the rear of Jack's car as he drives into the city. Arriving home, Jack discovers her and orders a beautiful new wardrobe for her. Jack's fiancée, Elizabeth, angered, recalls his parents from their trip, and while he is out buying flowers for Nancy, they persuade her that she can bring only unhappiness to their son. In her old garments she returns to the Kelly shack, where Jim Kelly tries to attack her; but Jack arrives to rescue her, and they are happily united.

Dir: Chester M. Franklin

A man and his wife both have criminal pasts, but have quit crime and are now respectable citizens. One day a member of their old gang shows up and threatens to expose them if they don't help him pull a heist.

Dir: Chester M. Franklin

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

Jack exchanges his cow for some magic beans. The beans grow overnight into a beanstalk. Jack climbs it and arrives at a castle that is his. He sets a deal with the giant in exchange for the fortune.

Dir: Chester M. Franklin

A German Shepherd puppy is "adopted" by a wolf pack in the snowy and frozen Great North and raised by them as one of their own. A few years later he comes upon a fur trapper and saves the man from certain death, and begins to feel a kinship with him that is stronger than the one he has with his adopted pack.

Dir: Chester M. Franklin

On a boat to San Francisco, Nellie Proctor is nearly caught stealing a man's wallet, but because she slips it into James Blair's pocket, he is arrested for the crime and sentenced to two years on the chain gang. Nellie, ashamed at having sent an innocent man to prison, convinces her friend Milligan to help James escape, after which all three go to an Alaskan mining town to begin new lives. While James prospects for gold, Nellie and Milligan find work in a local saloon, and Nellie takes charge of four orphaned children. Warren McKenzie, the saloon owner, is also the sheriff, and when he discovers James' identity, he threatens to turn the young man over to the law unless Nellie visits him in his cabin. To save James, with whom she has fallen in love, from a second prison term, Nellie consents, but James and the children come to her rescue.