Editor's Top Picks Following the Footsteps of The Midnight Patrol: Cult Guide

Dir: Irvin Willat

Molly Townsend, engaged to Luis Riccardi, learns from Capt. John Locke half an hour before the wedding that Riccardi is a thief and a smuggler. Locke, Riccardi's rival for Molly, persuades Molly to sail away with him in his boat bound for South America. He is thrown overboard by the cutthroat crew, and crew leader Jordan nearly makes her his victim before Locke, who has saved himself, rescues her. Riccardi and Jordan, who murdered a man in the Townsend home and stole a diamond necklace, are both jailed.

Dir: Irvin Willat

Pioneer rancher August Naab finds Easterner Jack Hare in the desert and takes him home, where Naab's Spanish-Indian ward Mescal cares for and falls in love with Jack though she is betrothed to Naab's wayward son Snap. To avoid marrying Snap, Mescal flees into the desert and is captured there by desert pirate Mal Holderness, a ruthless man seeking to control the surrounding area's water rights by buying or seizing the local ranches. Because Naab has refused to sell, Holderness begins a feud, taking Mescal prisoner and killing her prospective bridegroom Snap, who has followed her into the desert. As the leader of the law-abiding community, Naab, with a group of sympathetic Indians, burns down the neighboring town serving as a hideout for Holderness and his gang. Mescal is rescued and returned to Jack.

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

Dir: Irvin Willat

Jailed unjustly for a murder he did not commit, a young man uses his amazing powers of escape to free himself and pursue the actual killers, who hold his fiancée captive.

Dir: Irvin Willat

During World War I, a professional thief known as The Lone Wolf is assigned to steal a cylinder with important information from behind the German lines and bring it to Allied intelligence headquarters. However, German agents set out to stop him, headed by the man who was responsible for the death of the thief's sister.

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

Dir: Irvin Willat

Marie Dubois, deeply in love with young lawyer Claude Lescuyer, entrusts her honor to him, but shortly before the birth of their child, he abandons her. In order to legitimize her daughter Claudine, Marie weds Flambon, the brutal owner of a Paris café. Eighteen years later, Flambon orders Claudine to work in the café, where she falls in love with Gaston, a waiter. Because Flambon owes a large sum of money to Jean, the café's former proprietor, he promises him the hand of his daughter in marriage. Claudine refuses to part with Gaston, which so enrages Flambon that he beats the girl and nearly kills Marie. To save her mother's life, Claudine shoots her stepfather and is subsequently tried for murder. The prosecutor, Claude Lescuyer, learns to his shame that the defendant is his own child, and in the courtroom, he names himself as the guilty man. The jury exonerates Claudine, and she is united with Gaston.

Dir: Irvin Willat

A young woman inherits her father's large Texas ranch and plans to begin a cattle drive to Abilene, Kansas, 1000 miles away. The crooked State Treasurer plans to attack the cattle drive and steal all of the stock so he can gain control of her ranch.

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

Dir: Irvin Willat

Alain de Montcalm is the son of a French trading post proprietor. When a murder and kidnapping occur, Alain pursues the abducted girl and her captor across the far northern wasteland of ice.

Dir: Irvin Willat

A fur smuggler's daughter asks to accompany him on his trip to the US to sell his furs. She falls for Robert, a young man who has recently been dumped by his girlfriend for a rich man. She and Robert fall in love, but her father suddenly takes her back to Canada to avoid tax agents. Robert searcher for her for a year, and when he finally finds her, he must fight both her father and her father's gang for her. Complications ensue.

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

Dir: Irvin Willat

When cowboy Nick McCredie notices in a second-hand book an inscription to "Emily, the prettiest girl in school," he writes to her and learns that she is a lonely Eastern farm girl living with her grandmother. Instead of sending his own picture to her, Nick encloses a photo of his handsome friend Pen Walton. After Nick sees Walton stealing two horses, Nick agrees to keep quiet, when Walton promises to reform. Meanwhile, Emily's grandmother dies, and her new guardian tries to force her to marry him. She writes to Nick, who proposes by letter. Nick meets her, but identifies himself as "Andy," and when she says she would be disappointed if Nick was not as handsome as his picture, he shows her the way to Walton, and rides off alone. After Walton rustles another horse and plants Nick's glove as evidence, he abducts Emily. She escapes, and riding the stolen horse, she leads the rest to the ranch in time to stop Nick's hanging. After the real identities are revealed, Nick and Emily marry.

Dir: Irvin Willat

Drakma, an international spy, seeks the possession of the triangulator (a device emitting electronic death rays), which radio expert Alan Holt invented for the United States Government. Mary Walsworth manages to smash the machine before Drakma can get it; therefore, the villain captures Alan and Mary, puts Mary on a rum-runner, and leaves Alan on an island to build another triangulator--under threat of Mary's death. Instead, Alan builds a radio and broadcasts an SOS, which is answered by Admiral Walsworth, Mary's father. Alan gets to the rum-runner on a raft, and holds off the crew until sailors arrive to the rescue.