Masterpiece Selection that Capture the Essence of The Man Who Would...

Dir: Unknown Director

The Judge needs a present for his wife's birthday, so Harry suggests a new corset. They go to the shop, but he's so embarrassed to ask the saleslady he hides in a phone booth.Harry goes in, but finds a GUY wearing one, and runs out.They both dress as women to get back in, but Mrs. Rummy gets there and chases him out.

Dir: Richard Smith

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

Two female candidates for Chief of Police live across the hall from each other, and their political rivalry follows them home, leading to plenty of hi-jinks.

Dir: William Parke

Bruce Wendell, the son of West Virginia coal mine owner James Wendell, graduates from West Point and prepares to lead a fighting unit to the front during World War I. As his father lies dying, however, he convinces Bruce to remain at home and guard the mine. Bruce's fiancée Ann Blair assumes that he is a coward and breaks off their engagement, but her brother Bobbie remains Bruce's loyal friend. Meyer, a German agent, persuades railroad president Parrish to refuse to transport Wendell's coal, but when Bruce adamantly refuses to close the mine, the spy's men decide to blow it up. While Ann is being abducted by Meyer, Bobbie is buried in an explosion at the mine. Bruce rescues Bobbie and then sends a plea to Lieutenant Parrish to rescue Ann. Meyer and his gang are captured and Ann renews her vow of love to Bruce.

Dir: Dallas M. Fitzgerald

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

Confidence artist Flossie Golden attempts to fleece foolish but wealthy James Venable with a breach-of-promise suit. Venable's shrewd attorney, Richard Harding, outwits Flossie by proposing that she marry Venable and live on an allowance of $3,000 per year. Flossie is determined to get even with Harding for ruining her plans. In an attempt to con him, she poses as Innocence Page, but falls in love and marries him instead. Larry, Flossie's former accomplice, endeavors to blackmail her with her errant past, but Harding is already cognizant of the facts and Larry fails.

Dir: Edward LeSaint

When famous opera singer Elinore Duane undergoes an operation on her throat, she has a series of ether-induced visions. In one, she is transported to ancient Rome where she appears as a much-admired woman in love with Paul, a young heretic, and at odds with Lutor, the high priest. To save her love, she poisons Lutor with her ring. After several other visions which involve variations on this love triangle, Elinore awakens to discover that Lutor is actually her doctor, Sascha Jaccard, and that Paul is the son of a friend who has come to visit the recovering prima donna.

Dir: Edgar Jones

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

A mail-order bride arrives at a Maine lumber camp but doesn't like her prospective husband.

Dir: Paul Hurst

Episode 1: "The Lumber Pirates" "Dollar" Holmes, so called because of his greed for money and power, is a small timberland owner in a region where both the trust and a tribe of Klamath Indians hold similar lands. He is under contract to the combine to deliver to it 10,000,000 feet of timber by a specified date. It is a rich deal. His wife is about to become a mother, and Holmes has set his heart fiercely on a boy to inherit the fortune he means to pile up. A forest fire sweeps away half of Holmes' standing timber. Greer, president of the trust, learning of this, writes a sneering letter hinting at Holmes' ruin unless he fulfills his contract on time. This he cannot do unless he obtains possession of the Indian lands adjoining his. Sleepy Dog, chief of the tribe, refuses to sell. Holmes' wife gives birth to a daughter, and he in a wild rage of double disappointment curses her and the babe, and rushes out of the cabin into the deep woods. He comes upon Dill, a bootlegger, surreptitiously selling whiskey to his loggers. Holmes promises to forebear punishing him if he will go into the Indian camp, from which Sleepy Dog is absent on a trip, and sell his stuff to the savages. The Klamaths are made drunk, and when they demand more whiskey Holmes offers them $100 apiece if they will deed their timber lands to him. They do so, and Holmes wires Greer that he will fulfill his contract; also that with acquisition of the Indian lands he has obtained exclusive right to use of the region's one river for log-floating purposes, thus cutting off the trust's lands from the market. The trust capitulates and accepts Holmes' terms, by which he is given a heavy interest in the combine and made a director. Sleepy Dog returns. Holmes quarrels with him, murders him and throws his body over a cliff. The crime is witnessed by Holmes' wife, a fact which he discovers. In terror of her life, the woman flees the cabin, carrying her infant in her arms. In trying to reach the farther bank of the river over a jam of logs she is hurled into the stream when a blast of dynamite blows up the king-log, and is whirled away in the current, clinging to a log and holding the babe in her arms.

Dir: Paul Hurst

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

Episode 1: "The Jackaroo" Maud Norman, the owner of the G Block Station, an Australian sheep run, points out to her manager, Glover, that her flocks have been seriously ravaged by the continued droughts of the past year. But her financial difficulties are somewhat lessened by the arrival of Jack Tabourdin, whose father sends Maud a check for one hundred pounds in payment for taking his son on as a "jackaroo" or apprentice on the sheep run. The following April when a payment of 500 pounds is due on the purchase of the sheep station, and Maud, foreseeing that, she will be unable to meet the payment, advertises for sale her favorite horse, Polly. Stingaree, the gentleman bushranger, and his partner, Howie, read this advertisement, and Stingaree decides that he must have Polly. Tabourdin, the jackaroo, overhears Maud and Glover discussing the sale of Polly. He remembers a handbill advertising 500 pounds reward for the capture of the bushranger, Stingaree. He wonders if he could spare Maud the loss of her favorite horse by capturing the outlaw. He receives an opportunity to do so, when, during the absence of Maud and Glover, Stingaree and Howie arrive at the station to get the horse. He fires at them as they are entering the stable. They run away, but by a subterfuge they make the jackaroo a prisoner. They take him to their camp, and are overjoyed to find that the jackaroo pursued them on the horse they had sought. In camp the jackaroo tells Stingaree the reason for his attempt to capture the bushranger. Stingaree, always too chivalrous to see a woman in trouble, proposes a plan to Howie and sends him away to the Kangaroo Hotel at Topanga. Then, feigning carelessness, he allows the jackaroo to make him a prisoner and take him to the troopers' quarters at Topanga, where Stingaree is locked up, and the jackaroo departs with his 500 pounds reward. Howie bursts into the Kangaroo Hotel at Topanga and holds up the bar. There is a trooper present, and Howie allows him to sneak away to give the alarm to the other troopers. The troopers rush away from the barracks, leaving only one man to guard Stingaree. Arriving at the hotel, they see what is apparently Howie riding away. They give pursuit and overtake the horse, only to find it is carrying only a dummy of straw, which Howie has rigged up for the occasion. Howie hurries to the barracks, where he overpowers the one trooper left in charge of Stingaree, and helps his partner to escape. Stingaree and Howie ride back to their old haunts, while the jackaroo returns to the G Block Station and persuades Maud to accept the 500 pounds as a loan to pay off the note on the sheep run.

Dir: Charley Chase

A young married couple volunteer to take charge of several orphans after the asylum has burned down. Of course they find their hands full with their troublesome charges.

Dir: Charles Horan

While working as a flower girl in Devlin Maddox's nightclub, Nellie Vaughan meets wealthy young Pelton Van Teel and falls in love. Maddox, desirous of using Nellie to blackmail Van Teel, spreads a rumor that she is his mistress. This makes Nellie uncomfortable, and she demands that Van Teel marry her immediately, to which he agrees. Meanwhile, Van Teel has been losing money gambling to Maddox, who threatens to break up the marriage by producing a worthless check that the young husband has written. Venturing to Maddox's apartment for a showdown, Nellie pulls a gun and demands the check, accidentally shooting Maddox when he throws a lamp at her. Maddox plans to charge Nellie with assault, but when the police arrive, his butler, actually a detective employed by the elder Van Teel, exposes Maddox, who is then arrested, clearing the path for the couple's happiness.