The Auteur's Selection In the Shadow of The Little Terror: Cult Guide

Dir: Rex Ingram

Julian Randolph, a dishonest attorney whose specialty is furnishing phony jurors, is offered a judgeship if he clears Clifford Nordhoff, the brother of powerful politician "Boss" Nordhoff, of a murder charge. With the aid of his usual tools, Randolph succeeds and is given a position on the bench. Here he is expected to obey the commands of the men who secured his appointment, but Ranoldph falls in love with Laura Nelson, a girl of upstanding social position, and resolves to follow the straight path. He breaks off with Roxana Frisbee, an adventuress who had assisted him in his shady schemes, and refuses to hand down a decision in favor of the political machine. In the end, Randolph upholds justice, wins Laura as his wife, and has the gratification of seeing Roxana also go straight.

Dir: Rex Ingram

The captain of a sailing ship has an affair with the wife of one of his passengers, and gets mixed up in a mutiny at sea and a revolution.

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

Dir: Rex Ingram

Bill Carson is sentenced to 12 years for housebreaking. He vows that he will, upon ending his term, have vengeance upon George Devereaux, the prosecuting attorney whose speech swayed the jury to conviction. Carson's little daughter Peggy is being raised by his pal Skinny McGee; the mother died of shock after Carson's conviction. When Skinny dies, the girl Peggy turns to picking pockets for a livelihood, Skinny having brought her to proficiency in this line as her only education. There is a scene pictured in the board rooms of a reform organization. Devereaux accepts a challenge that he cannot take a criminal and reform him by improved and beneficial surroundings. Peggy is brought into a police station on charge of picking pockets, and is chosen to be the one upon whom Devereaux shall practice his experiment. Taking her to his palatial home, Devereaux seeks for two years to train Peggy in the better way. His efforts are variously successful, and finally a young man proposes marriage to Peggy and is accepted. Upon arriving at the church Peggy discovers that she is in love with Devereaux, and flees from the wedding party in consternation. She decides to return to her old life, and departs from the Devereaux home without making her intentions known. About this time Carson ends his term of imprisonment. He seeks to conclude his vengeance by shooting Devereaux, and for that purpose waits for him to come from his house. Carson is hiding behind a tree, when he is recognized by Peggy and when, on the instant that Carson is about to fire a revolver at Devereaux, the girl throws herself before her father and receives in her own body the bullet intended for Devereaux. The story acquires its ending in the recovery of Peggy, the avowed reformation of her father, and the final picture shows Peggy once more established happily in the home where we are led to believe she will, in legal and ceremonial form, eventually become a permanent resident.

Dir: Rex Ingram

An extended family split up in France and Germany find themselves on opposing sides of the battlefield during World War I.

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

Dir: Rex Ingram

To teach his fickle daughter, Jacqueline, the dangers of faithlessness, novelist Léon de Séverac reads her his latest story: In maneuvering for the favors of Zareda, a captivating Parisian adventuress, Baron de Maupin sends his son, Ivan, to war and takes the poison he intended for the Marquis Ferroni. Zareda marries the marquis, but she causes him to duel with Ivan, her true love, when Ivan returns. Ferroni is vanquished but lives long enough to imprison Zareda and kill Ivan. Jacqueline is impressed by this story and accepts her faithful suitor, Henri.

Dir: Rex Ingram

Joe Bascom, only son of a widow, lives in a Connecticut village. He loves Elsie Tillinger, daughter of the deacon, the wealthiest man in town; but the deacon forbids Joe to speak to her. Joe leaves home to make his way in the world, but his employer, Mr. Morgan, a wealthy racehorse owner, accuses him unjustly of stealing. Actually, Morgan's son, Lester, is guilty of the crime, but Joe is sentenced to a prison term; there he becomes acquainted with Mugsy and Gilly, two crooks. Meanwhile, though courted by young Morgan, Elsie remains faithful to Joe. Mrs. Bascom, who makes superlative peach jam from her orchard, is in debt to the Deacon Tillinger, and he intends to buy her orchard and make Lester head of a jam industry. But Joe arrives with his crook friends, outwits the deacon, and takes over the peach orchard. Mugsy and Gilly are reformed by the goodness of Joe's mother and fall in love with Betty and Jessie; and after exposing Lester Morgan's deceit, Joe marries Elsie.

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

Dir: Rex Ingram

After losing his father, a playboy moves in with his miserly uncle, who seeks to cheat him out of his inheritance.

Dir: Rex Ingram

At a meeting of the Hop Sing Tong, a Chinaman chooses the red bean and is destined to kill one of his countrymen. Later this Chinaman kills his condemned countryman, and the gang manage to throw the officers off the track of the murderer. However, the police suspect that it is the work of the Hop Sing Tong and are instructed by the chief to arrest Charley Sing, as one Chinaman is as good as another. Big Tom Hogan, the Tammany leader, is visited by Buck Mahoney, a gang leader, a friend of Charley Sing's, who has come to get Hogan to have the Chinaman released, for he knows he is innocent. Hogan forces the Governor to pardon Charley Sing. Samuel Savinsky, the keeper of a pawnshop, is thought much of by his wife and family, who never suspect his affair with Neva Sacon. He gives her money and jewels, and becomes jealous of Harvey Wilson, a reporter. Paul Rasnov, a sculptor and a dope fiend, pawns valuable trinkets at Savinsky's store to buy opium at the store of Ah Wong, the leader of the Three Brothers Tong. Tea Rose, Ah Wong's wife, consents to run away with Paul. Buck meets Harvey and says he will show him secrets of Chinatown if Harvey will expose the Boss in his paper. Buck guides Harvey into the building of the Hop Sing Tong. Harvey is enthusiastic over a silver flower, and Buck, seeing no one is looking, tells him to keep it. That evening Harvey gives Neva Sacon, the café dancer, the poppy, the Flower of Doom. The next day Harvey and Neva go to Chinatown and stop at Ah Wong's store to eat. The proprietor sees Neva and makes plans to kidnap her. While Harvey is in another room, a panel opens behind her and she is pulled through the opening. When the reporter returns a servant tells him that the lady has just left. He hurries to tell Buck about the strange disappearance. The Chinamen leave Neva in a small room. Left alone with a Chinaman at one time, the girl offers him a curious ring which Savinsky has given her, if he will deliver a message to Harvey at the newspaper office. The Chinaman is informed that the reporter is not in, and thus satisfied, the Chink goes to Savinsky's pawnshop to get rid of the ring. The pawnbroker recognizes the ring and forces the Chinaman to tell now he got it. With a policeman Savinsky starts for Ah Wong's, but when the officer threatens to break down a door, Savinsky is frightened, and hurriedly leaves the place. Buck appeals to Charley Sing to find Neva, and following Charley's suggestion, Tea Rose is kidnapped while a letter written in Chinese is sent to Ah Wong telling him of Tea Rose and offering her in exchange for Neva. Ah Wong consents, and that evening Neva is restored to her people and Tea Rose to her husband. Savinsky, seeing Neva again in the company of Harvey, realizes he has lost and goes to her to demand the jewels he has given her. Harvey returns with Neva, and when Savinsky begins to quarrel about his rights, the reporter throws him out. Harvey proposes to Neva who accepts his offer. Warned by a spying Chink that Tea Rose and Rasnov are going to run away that evening, Ah Wong plans to spoil their party. He hides in the place where the girl is expecting to meet Rasnov, and springing on her drags her into a room and strangles her. Rasnov waits for Tea Rose, and Ah Wong rushes in at him. They fight, and the Chinaman lifts Rasnov up to hurl him against the wall when his foot slips and his skull is crushed against the stone steps of the grating. Having lost Tea Rose, Rasnov consoles himself with opium.

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

Dir: Rex Ingram

Pastor Spener, a missionary in Wallos, learns that Captain Gregson has closed his café to prove his earnestness as a Christian. Spener's daughter, Matilda, is in love with a handsome young native chief. Her father favors a marriage with Gregson, who is really a villain. The girl and her lover attempt to journey to his home, but their plans fail, and separation seems inevitable. The captain is killed.

Dir: Rex Ingram

Brothers Nat and Martin Berry have shared the farm at Shore Acres and attended to the lighthouse on the rocky coast for many years until banker Josiah Blake induces Martin to speculate in oil, lending him the money and taking a mortgage on the farm as security. When Martin loses his money, Blake suggests that he would overlook the debt in exchange for the hand of Martin's daughter Helen in marriage. However, Helen is in love with clerk Sam Warren, and with Nat's help, the couple escape Helen's arranged marriage. Boarding a vessel obtained for them by Nat, they sail out to sea when a storm hits. Martin, enraged by their betrayal, refuses to rekindle the lantern in the lighthouse, and the couple's boat crashes into a reef. The next morning Martin, filled with remorse, discovers the couple clinging to the wreckage, and the family is happily reunited.