Masterpiece Selection Resonating with the Themes of The Man from Funeral Range: Cult Guide

Dir: Walter Edwards

Jim Gordon, a stranger to Paluski, a Western mining settlement, does not drink or gamble, and refuses dance hall girls' advances. Gonda, the dance hall queen, accepts a wager by gambling proprietor "Ace High" Lawton, who is hopelessly in love with her, that she cannot seduce Gordon. After a drunken miner attempts to shoot Gonda, Gordon protects her, but when she tries to induce Gordon to drink, he knocks her glass from her hand, thus beginning a barroom brawl. Although Gordon wins, he is injured. While Gonda nurses him, they fall in love and plan to marry, but Gordon discourages Gonda from becoming pregnant. When Gordon receives a letter from his wife back East containing a knitted baby shoe and news that he has been proven innocent of a murder charge, he leaves Gonda some gold and starts home. Thinking that Gordon wronged Gonda, Lawton throws him from a cliff. After an Indian trapper robs Gordon, Gordon attempts to rob the gambling hall but fails. He is about to be lynched when Gonda, who has discovered the letter, arranges for Gordon's escape for the sake of his son and agrees to marry Lawton, who then misleads the party trailing Gordon.

Dir: Walter Edwards

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

David Waltham is the head of a syndicate, which corners the food supply. His wife hears of her husband's operation and begs him to consider the poor, who will be unable to pay the prices that his monopoly will exact. He is merciless, however. Among those who suffer from Waltham's efforts is an engineer named John Adams. The bank in which his small funds are deposited undergoes a "run" and he loses all his money. He has previously lost his job. The Adams family is reduced to starvation and finally Adams in desperation breaks a window in a bakery and gets away with an armful of bread. He is arrested and is sent up to the workhouse for thirty days. The rent collector comes around, but Mrs. Adams is unable to pay him anything though she slaves over the washboard and her two children assist her. Seeing that the woman is beautiful, the collector gives her some money, telling her to buy her children and herself a square meal. She reluctantly accepts his gift. Little by little she descends until she even appears in a low dance hall with the man. John Adams returns from jail and goes to his humble rooms. There he finds his children in bed. Finally his wife appears in beautiful and expensive clothes. She appears disgusted with the life she leads and wipes the paint off her lips with loathing. Then she suddenly sees her husband, who is staring at her as if in a trance. She is almost hysterical from fright. He grasps her wrists roughly and demands an explanation. She tells him that she has done it for the children's sake. This plea saves her life, but the soul of John Adams is filled with bitterness. Widespread suffering and destitution prevail and bread lines are everywhere in the poorer quarters of the great city. Men and women practice deception to get a little more bread and some get into fights overcome by their own and their children's sufferings. Three desperate men invade the sanctum of David Waltham, but are quelled by his masterful manner and slink away impotently when he tells them that he will call the police if they are not gone in a minute. John Adams gets a job in Waltham's big storage house. A fellow worker points out Waltham to Adams and the latter's rage against the big monopolist is aroused to a high pitch of fury as he thinks of his wife's degradation. Adams blames it all on Waltham. That night he secrets himself in the big warehouse and telephones to Waltham saying that the police are down there, having heard of a secret plan on the part of some of the starving populace to destroy the place. He tells Waltham to leave his auto a block or two away from the building, when he comes, to avoid suspicion. Adams gets Waltham in the building and securely ties him and then leaves him to starve. That he may not be found, Adams surrounds the magnate with a big pile of boxes. In his struggles to free himself, Waltham upsets the towering piles of boxes and they topple over completely burying him.

Dir: Walter Edwards

Jane is a comely little slavey in a fishermen's village. The only two friends she has among all the inhabitants are David Holden, the aged keeper of the lighthouse, "The Eye of the Night," and Rob Benson, a young fisher lad whom she has loved with all her heart. Rob and Jane were to be married as soon as the lad could save enough to build them a little nest by the sea. But then the war broke out and Rob was the first to volunteer. Jane whispered a secret to him the day he was to leave that all but made him back out, but, like everyone else, Rob thought the war was to last only a few days and then he would be back in plenty of time, but he wasn't, and one day a nameless little waif was born in one of the big hospitals in London. In her despair Jane turned to the only friend she had, aged David Holden, and determined to ask him to take her baby and be its father. David Holden not only takes in the baby but the mother as well, to the resulting indignation of the narrow-minded townspeople, who first demand that Jane be driven out. When David refuses, they manage to secure his dismissal as keeper of the light. And so David, with Jane and the baby, move into the little cottage David has built from his savings and prepare to live out their lives. While readjusting their lives in the new home, Jane discovers that her mother was David Holden's wife and that her only protector was really her father. But David Holden's wife had run away and left him for another man years and years before and he does not give the girl, his daughter, a chance to make known her discovery to him, simply dismissing the subject of the woman the girl knew to be her mother with a word and a gesture. But Jane cherishes the secret. War comes close to the little hamlet in which David Holden and his two wards live. One night aeroplanes fly over it, dropping bombs as they sped past. One bomb wrecks the lighthouse. All the village knew that an army transport bearing wounded was making for their port. When David sees the lighthouse wrecked, he determines to guide the ship through the narrow entrance to the harbor at all costs. He deliberately sets fire to his cottage to serve as a beacon to guide the mariners. The boat reaches the harbor safely, thanks to David, and the next morning, among the first of the wounded to come from the vessel is Rob Benson. His reunion with Jane follows immediately and the tardy marriage ceremony is immediately performed. And then Jane, her own name cleared, tells David Holden that she is his daughter.

Dir: Walter Edwards

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

Wealthy John Steele has a handsome young son, Frank, on whom he pins his hopes. But riches lead Frank not into social standing and duty, but into depravity, drug-addiction, criminal activity, and finally to tragedy.

Dir: Walter Edwards

Parker, an Army lieutenant at a Western outpost, falls in love with Barbara Taylor, daughter of his commanding officer. But when Barbara rejects him, Parker fights with another soldier and deserts. An Indian attack gives him a chance to redeem himself.

Dir: Walter Edwards

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

After years on the international crime circuit, "Silver Jim" Farrel shares a comfortable and honest suburban life with Marjory, his sister, until word comes that an old friend from his thieving days is in desperate need of cash. To save his bankrupt friend from jail, Jim reluctantly executes a jewel heist, being careful not to involve Marjory or his sweetheart, who know nothing of his past, in the scheme. When Edgar Seymour, the son of the robbed jeweler, attends Marjory's wedding, Jim prevents him from exposing him on the spot only by jabbing a gun into his back during the proceedings. After the ceremony, Jim returns the jewels as promised, avoiding reprisals from the senior Seymour by reminding him of the time when he swindled Jim and caused him to serve time in prison for someone else's crime. With the help of a sliding trick door and a conveniently placed safe, "Silver Jim" escapes police detection and returns to his quiet, honest existence.

Dir: Walter Edwards

Dr. Dudley Duprez is a well-known Louisiana physician. His beautiful but wayward niece, Rose Duprez, is abducted by Paul Crenshaw, a friend of the doctor, and to prevent her shame from becoming known, Rose kills herself. Dr. Duprez learns her secret and determines to make Crenshaw expiate his crime. While traveling on a Mississippi River steamer, the doctor wins Mercedes, a beautiful slave, at cards. He takes her home and, passing her off as a distant relative, arranges it so that Crenshaw falls in love with the girl. A wedding is arranged, and immediately after the ceremony Dr. Duprez announces to the assembled guests that Mercedes is a slave and that he considers he has punished Crenshaw sufficiently by making him the husband of a "nigger." A yellow fever epidemic breaks out shortly after, and Crenshaw is shot when attempting to evade the quarantine. Dr. Duprez is told by a dying overseer from the plantation where Mercedes was born that the girl is of Spanish and American ancestry, without a drop of negro blood in her veins, and was made a slave through a conspiracy. The doctor returns home, confesses his wrong to Mercedes and is forgiven by her. In the end they are married.

Dir: Walter Edwards

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

Foster Borrum is the wealthiest man in the town of Norwalk. He practically owns everything. He has won his position by merciless grinding and is regarded by the villagers with fear and contempt. A stern man, with only one softening influence in his life, his wife, whom he idolizes. The wife dies and Borrum turns on the world with added bitterness and hatred. He is living a life of dreary isolation when one day a visitor steps off the train at the station, a little girl; also alone in the world; who has been tagged to her destination in the search of a relative who has long since disappeared. The villagers are too poor to adopt the child. In a cynical mood Borrum takes possession of the girl. Ivy Marten, and installs her in his home. Ivy, aching for sympathy, meets with no response from the austere man, whose treatment of her borders on brutality. Exaggerated reports of this reach the authorities, and Borrum is haled before them. Ivy, who loves the old man in spite of his coldness, is the prime witness for the defense and her loyal support of her guardian wins the day. A change comes over the attitude of Borrum towards the child and the world in general and with a softened heart he strives to make life happier for the orphan and for the hitherto despised inhabitants of the poverty stricken village.

Dir: Walter Edwards

Promising young lawyer Jack Dunn becomes a victim of drugs and loses his standing in the legal world. He passes his idle hours in the slums where he meets underworld figure Nan Bishop, whose influence helps to make a man out of Dunn; with her help he breaks his dependence on drugs and is successful in obtaining a position as a criminal lawyer. Years later, they meet again in a courtroom: Nan has been falsely accused of murder and Dunn is the prosecuting attorney. Learning that Dunn's professional future depends on his winning the case, Nan pleads guilty, but at the last minute, the real criminal is discovered and Nan is cleared of the crime. She then accepts Dunn's offer of marriage and together they look forward to a happy future.

Dir: Walter Edwards

When playwright Curtis de Forest Ralston becomes enamored of actress Viola Strathmore, who is to appear in his play "Vanity," Viola induces him to change certain parts and give her more lines. Curtis, who is not as talented as he thinks he is, fails at his job but is saved by his wife Anita, a former actress who has forsaken her career for marriage. Anita and her old manager, Bruce Winthrope, fashion the play to suit Viola, and "Vanity" becomes a huge success. The play's triumph enlarges Curtis's ego even further, and he deserts Anita for Viola. When the play's financial backer discovers the illicit relationship between the star and author, however, he withdraws his funds and the play closes. Still in love with Viola, Curtis attempts to continue their affair, but she kills him because she blames him for her downfall. Fearful of the police, Viola takes refuge in a tenement, and when they track her down, Viola's faithful Egyptian servant Borul slays his employer rather than let her perish at the hands of the law.