The Cult Collection Inspired by the Vision of The Mystery of the Ro...

Dir: Léonce Perret

A fascinating piece of cinema that shares thematic elements.

Dir: Léonce Perret

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

Mrs. Philip Mason commits suicide after she has an affair with Stephen Lee, a disreputable stockbroker, and sells her husband's securities so that Lee can buy stocks. When Lee goes bankrupt, he blackmails Helen Trent by threatening to reveal silly love letters she wrote to him before she married. Her brother, Willy Grosby, and his fiancée, Helen O'Neil, who lives with the Grosbys, go to retrieve the letters. While Willy waits outside, Lee is knifed to death as he attacks Helen. Lee's friend, Edward Wales, attempts to pin the murder on Helen by having Madame LaFarge, a clairvoyant, conduct a séance. In the darkened room, Wales, through whom Lee's spirit supposedly speaks, is about to name Helen as the murderer, but Wales, who sits in the thirteenth chair, is himself murdered. After Helen confesses to Inspector Donohue that Madame LaFarge is her mother, LaFarge, while conducting another séance, tricks Philip Mason into confessing to the murders.

Dir: Léonce Perret

Robert Hyde is a confirmed bachelor who has sworn never to marry. Not even the pleading of his two close friends, the pastor and the lawyer, will move him. But an automobile accident brings Clarice to his home and during her recovery, she and Robert fall in love. After their wedding, Clarice's happiness is marred by Robert's preoccupation with hunting and fishing. The pastor then advises her that she will never know real happiness until she has children. Shortly after this, Clarice's aunt, Mrs. Grosvenor, brings a large party of friends to the Hyde estate for a visit. They all plan to give a performance of William Shakespeare's Othello for charity, but the count annoys Robert by his lovemaking scenes with Clarice. After a startling dream in which Robert's Othello kills Clarice's Desdemona, Robert finds the count making advances in earnest, and throws him out. Robert then begins to pay more attention to his wife and soon Clarice finds herself pregnant and happy.

Dir: Léonce Perret

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

A fascinating piece of cinema that shares thematic elements.

Dir: Léonce Perret

Grand Duchess Aurora if forced into an unhappy marriage with Grand Duke Rudolph. Rudolph prepares to leave for the Congo but he is murdered by his brother. Aurora goes to Paris be with her father and enters the gay revelries there until she hears of her husband's death. She returns to the Kingdom, where she meets a tutor who falls in love with her. Together they discover her brother-in-law's treachery, and she helps her lover escape from his vengeance. War is declared and the tutor loses his life at Verdun. Aurora goes to France and places a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier with the thought the tombs may be his.

Dir: Léonce Perret

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of The Duke's Talisman perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

Playwright Harry Bryant while driving in a rural area, happens upon orphaned Kate astride a white horse, he is so charmed that he arranges for her to work at a nearby inn. Unable to tolerate the cruelty of the innkeepers, Kate runs away and seeks out Harry at his house in Story Brook farm. Charmed by her youthful exuberance, Harry falls in love with the uneducated girl and they marry. Harry soon becomes disenchanted with his illiterate wife, however, and seeks solace in his former sweetheart Diana Nelson. When he discovers that Diana is using him to further her social ambitions, Harry returns to Kate, who provokes his jealousy by paying daily visits to a mysterious apartment house. Finding out that Kate's secret rendezvous was with her tutor, Harry's love for his wife is rekindled.

Dir: Léonce Perret

Sisters Yancsi and Roszika Dolly are loved by Jack Hobson and Tom Hylan respectively, but the twins refuse to marry until they are as wealthy as their prospective husbands. Accordingly they agree, in exchange for a million dollars, to aid a celebrated psychologist who is developing a cure for an ailing maharajah. The maharajah inexplicably detests his bride, a beautiful princess, and the Dolly sisters are sent to his New York palace to learn the cause of his odd behavior. They soon discover that the maharajah has been hypnotized by his uncle, the Rajah Ismael, but the spell is broken when, after a series of dangerous adventures, one of the twins obtains a ring from the maharajah and gives it to the princess. As the maharajah takes his wife in his arms, the Dolly sisters return home with their million and prepare to marry their sweethearts.

Dir: Léonce Perret

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

Young Kitty runs away from home to avoid marrying a man she doesn't love. Her car breaks down on a country road and she meets Robert, a young artist who has just been turned down by a woman he loved madly and is about to commit suicide by lying on the railroad tracks. He sees Kitty in trouble and decides to help her. They get the car running, but it runs out of gas in front of a farmhouse. The farmer, mistakenly believing that the two are married, has them share a bedroom for the night. The next morning Kitty's father shows up looking for her and discovers that she has "spent the night" with a stranger. Complications ensue.

Dir: Léonce Perret

Lolette is the painter Rouchard's model and he wants to marry her. But she is not interested in him and falls in love with Pierre Bernier, a penniless painter.

Dir: Léonce Perret

A moneylender kidnaps the young son of an rich widow as part of a plot to cheat her of her fortune. The boy is sent away on a fishing boat with the intention of drowning him, but a kindly old fisherman intervenes.