The Auteur's Selection In the Shadow of The Man Above the Law: Cult Guide

Dir: Raymond Wells

Cashiered out of the army by what he believes was an unjust court-martial, the man known as The Weakling wanders aimlessly in the desert and is found by cowboys from the Lazy Y Ranch. They clean him up and give him a job on the ranch as a cowboy. He soon finds love with a local dance-hall girl, and discovers that his luck may be changing in more ways than one.

Dir: Raymond Wells

A fascinating piece of cinema that shares thematic elements.

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

Dir: Raymond Wells

Jimmy Dolan has just been defeated in a fight with "Spider" Flynn. Jones, Dolan's trainer, had bet their whole bank role on the battle. Twenty-four hours from Paris, in the little principality of Konigstadt, lived a king and his ward. Countess Alicia, a beautiful girl, was courted by Count Conrad, the King's nephew. Prince Frederick was to pay the King a visit, and the old King planned to wed him to Alicia. Count Conrad gets a message from the Prince asking him to come to a certain café. Conrad finds Frederick in company with a Mlle. D'Orsay. He begs Conrad to say he is stricken with scarlet fever. The Count consents, but plans to be revenged on Alicia. Jones and Jimmy enter the café. The Count calls Jimmy to his table, offers him twenty thousand francs to impersonate Prince Frederick, gain Alicia's consent to marriage and thus humiliate her. Urged by Jones, Jimmy accepts, and Conrad begins to teach him courtly manners. Jones is to play the role of an Arabian bodyguard. Jimmy and Jones are presented to the King and to Alicia.. Jimmy and Alicia are promptly interested in each other. Some days later, Jones and Jimmy read in the newspaper about "Spider" Flynn's being the champion of all Europe and are indignant. He sends Flynn an insulting message, challenging him to another battle, and Flynn immediately accepts. The King decides to call on Jimmy informally, and finds Jones and his friend boxing. The King takes up boxing and has a gymnasium built. Prince Frederick and Mlle. D'Orsay quarrel. He arrives at Konigstadt the evening of a dance given in honor of Jimmy. Jones sees him at the hotel, and with Jimmy's help ties him in a chair. The Prince escapes and tells the King of the outrage. The big fight is on between Jimmy and "Spider" Flynn. A great crowd has gathered, and among them the King, Alicia and the Prince. Jimmy defeats Flynn and the King is one of the first to congratulate him. The King looks from Alicia to Jimmy, saying there is a Count's title vacant in Konigstadt and that he hasn't had a good boxing match since Jimmy left.

Dir: Raymond Wells

During World War I, Jeanette Gontreau becomes a "godmother" to three Allied soldiers imprisoned in a German camp. Describing herself as an old woman, she sends them cheerful letters and baskets of small gifts until one of the soldiers, Harry Ledyard, informs her that he has been released and will visit her in New York. Panic-stricken, Jeanette dons a wig and spectacles, and although she convinces Harry that she is old and gray, she soon falls in love with him. Harry worships his "godmother," and when secret service agents discover coded messages on her letters, he shields her by assuming the blame. Eventually, however, Jeanette's employer, Frederick Armstrong, confesses that it is he who is guilty of espionage. Jeanette reveals her true age to Harry, who joyfully proposes to her.

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of Mr. Dolan of New York perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

Dir: Raymond Wells

Captain Jack Rogers returns home from the Civil War to find that his fiancée's father has broken his engagement to Sarah Catherwood because Jack's income is so low. Jack goes West to earn his fortune but soon hears that Pamela has wed her former suitor, Randolph. Heartbroken, Jack proposes to a widow, but their marriage is so unhappy that he leaves, taking his son John with him. In the town of Ten Strike, Jack robs a stage and is shot by a posse. The sheriff adopts little John, who grows to manhood nurturing such an intense hatred for the law that in his renowned law practice, he intentionally helps notorious criminals escape justice. Sarah's daughter, Sally Randolph, begs John to defend her lover who has been charged with murder, and John succeeds in winning his freedom, but upon the young criminal's release from prison, he is shot and killed. When John and Sally discover that their parents were in love, they marry and begin a new life together.

Dir: Raymond Wells

A father arranges to have his effeminate son kidnapped by cowboys to make a man out of him.

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

Dir: Raymond Wells

Failing to get a loan from Nicholas Eyre, the Steel King and friend of his wife's father, Robert Lathrop induces his wife to beg for the money he plans to spend upon his mistress. He is given a check. Hurrying to Lola's apartments, he finds her in the arms of her lover, Haskell. In the fight that follows, Lathrop is killed and left in the park. Believing her husband to be a suicide because Eyre refused to advance him funds, the wife plans to revenge what she considers his murder, but enlightenment comes after terrible damage has been done.

Dir: Raymond Wells

Hal Sinclair, the chief agent at the Fort Roscher trading post in the Canadian Northwest, controls the town and cheats the trappers, until a group of independent fur traders arrives. After nearly all of the traders are killed by Sinclair's brutal henchman, Mont Brennan, Officer Jamison of the North West Mounted Police is sent to investigate. Charles Morin, a wealthy French Canadian businessman, also arrives at Fort Roscher that week with the intention of entering the fur trade, and soon falls in love with Petain Monest's pretty daughter Marie. Sinclair, who also loves Marie, commissions Brennan to kill the young trader, but Marie overhears their plans. As Brennan is taking aim, Marie shoots and kills him and subsequently is accused of murder. Jamison has also fallen in love with Marie, but realizing that she prefers Morin, he decides to stand by the young couple. With Jamison's help, Marie is exonerated and finally joined to the man whose life she saved.

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

Dir: Raymond Wells

It is about the Civil War. Dismayed it was made in Norfork Arkansas in 1928

Dir: Raymond Wells

The story gets away with a bang, as the wedding of Tony the Banker is rudely interrupted by Detective Moran and the bridegroom is dragged off to the station house. Tony is tried, convicted of counterfeiting and sent to prison. Moran becomes a police captain and, shortly afterward, runs up against the most baffling mystery of his career. Laura Bowers, a new boarder at the house where he lives, is the person that excites his curiosity. He sees her open a street door with a hairpin, but is forced to believe her when she assures him she is now leading an honest life. A love affair follows. After the wedding the couple go to their own home and Moran is shot while seated at a window. Tony threatened to get even when Moran was married and the news is brought that the Italian has escaped from prison. The fact is also established that he was killed while trying to resist capture, but finger marks outside the window prove that he is implicated in the shooting of Moran. The explanations are cleverly planned.