Masterpiece Selection Resonating with the Themes of The Ne'er Do Well: Cult Guide

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A jealous dance-hall girl kills her lover. She escapes from the sheriff who is taking her to jail and hides out in the forest with a recluse who lives in a hollowed-out redwood. As the sheriff searches for her, a forest fire breaks out, and they must all band together if they hope to survive.

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When her mother elopes with a lover and her father dies cursing the name of God, Domini Enfilden attempts to forget her pain in Beni Mora, an oasis in the Sahara. At the desert hotel, she meets and falls in love with Boris Androvsky, a tormented man of mystery. Abruptly announcing his departure one day, Boris bids farewell to Domini in the Garden of Allah, but passion overwhelms them, and after making love, they are married by Father Roubier. The two are happy until Capt. De Trevignac, a dinner guest, recognizes Boris as the former Father Antoine, a priest whose irrepressible lust forced him to leave the monastery. De Trevignac says nothing, but after his departure, Boris confesses to Domini, who urges him to return to the monastery. The years pass, and Domini rears her son Boris in the Garden of Allah.

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Surrounded by a group of children, poet James Whitcomb Riley narrates the story of Little Orphant Annie, who loses her mother at an early age and is sent to an orphanage. Annie charms the other children with her stories of goblins and elves until her uncle comes to claim her. He and her aunt force Annie into a life of drudgery, treating her so cruelly that Big Dave, a neighboring farmer, takes her from them and places her in the charge of the kindly Squire Goode and his wife. Big Dave, who intends to marry Annie, is called away to fight in World War I. When Annie hears the news that he has been killed, she pretends to be gravely ill but wakes up to learn that it has all been a dream.

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The Pasha's servant Mohamed, is entrusted to guard the Sacred Carpet of Bagdad with his life. In New York, after banker Arthur Wadsworth forces his brother Horace to give up his inheritance, Horace joins a band of crooks and plans to rob the Wadsworth Bank by tunneling from the adjacent home of antique dealer George P. A. Jones. The gang follows Jones to Egypt and Bagdad, where Horace steals the carpet and sells it to Jones. Fortune Chedsoye, the innocent daughter of a gang member, falls in love with Jones. When Fortune discovers that Mohamed plans to kill Jones to retrieve the rug, she hides it with her mother's belongings. Mohamed forces Jones, Wadsworth, and Fortune into the desert, but they escape his torture during a sandstorm. Wadsworth then rejoins the gang at Jones' home in New York. When Fortune and Jones catch the crooks tunneling, Jones, sympathetically, gives them a two hour head-start before informing the police. Fortune and Jones keep the carpet, while in the East, Mohamed bows in resignation to Allah's will.

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Miss Otis nearly hits a derelict with her car, and out of sympathy she gives him some money and advises him to "clean up and keep clean." Soon after, the derelict meets Esther, an anarchist who involves him in a plot to blackmail a banker. When he realizes that Miss Otis is the banker's daughter, the derelict tears up the banker's check but is arrested and committed to an asylum. Esther, who is in love with the derelict, helps him escape, and he resolves to attain a position of wealth and importance. After he earns his fortune, he rejects Esther's affections and asks Miss Otis to marry him.

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Bruce Wilton has amassed a fortune which he lavishes on his wife Vera. But a note of menace creeps into their happy home. No one hears it at first, except Father Kelly, a priest and Bruce's former tutor. The priest goes quietly to work with his sharpened mental sense to find the person who is causing the adverse influence in the house-hold. When he is on the verge of discovering the cause, calamity sweeps in on Bruce; his fortune is swept away and in a manner that he believe his wife was the cause of his ruin.Husband and wife are separated, divorced and their home is destroyed, and yet the cause remains unknown. But Father Kelly, with his faith that moves mountains, goes on quietly, serenely and confident with but one purpose in mind - the happiness of those he loves.

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Daisy Brooks, wife of Roanoke Brooks, night watchman in the factory of Robert Garlan, does not love her husband or her daughter, Elizabeth. Instead, she loves his money and she enters the primrose path with Garlan in order to satisfy her love for finery. Garlan, a roué, also neglects his infant son, Wynne, for worldly pleasures. In time Daisy Brooks' double life is discovered by her husband, and she kills herself in Garlan's mansion. At the appearance of Roanoke, who has followed, Garlan jumps from a window and kills himself. Roanoke buys a little farm where he lives with his daughter. With the passing years, Elizabeth, daughter of Roanoke, reaches womanhood and is known to her father as "Sweet Alyssum." Wynne Garlan, son of Robert Garlan, has grown to manhood and has married a woman of the world. Wynne, a poor bank clerk, is unable to provide for his wife in the way she wishes and she enters into an affair with Thurlow, the cashier of the bank where Wynne is employed. Thurlow steals from the bank and causes Wynne to be suspected of the crime. Wynne, in terror of arrest, escapes, and arrives in the country near Roanoke Brooks' farm. Sweet Alyssum dreams that her father's land has developed into an immense oil field. She pleads with him to dig for oil and he does so. Wynne Garlan, who has assumed the name of Wyatt, secures employment on Roanoke Brooks' farm. Wynne, later becomes a school teacher and Sweet Alyssum, his pupil, loves him dearly. He, for a time, withstands the innocent young girl's endearments but finally succumbs to her beauty and they elope and are married. When Roanoke Brooks hears of the marriage he is overcome with anger, but as he confronts the pair upon their return to the farm, oil is discovered. Joyful because Alyssum's dream has been realized, Roanoke Brooks forgives the couple and they reside with him. Two years pass by and Sweet Alyssum has become a mother. The oil fields have prospered and all is happiness in Roanoke Brooks' home. Thurlow, the crooked bank clerk, has not prospered during these years and finally wanders to the oil fields. There he sees Wynne Garlan. Thurlow informs the sheriff of the county that Wynne Garlan, known there as Wyatt, is a crook, and that if he is married he is guilty of bigamy for he has a wife living. The sheriff, upon Thurlow's instigations, telegraphs to New York and receives a reply to hold Wynne Garlan, who is wanted by the law. The justice of the peace, who is a friend of Roanoke Brooks and of Sweet Alyssum, goes to Roanoke's home to break the sad news. Roanoke determines to take the law into his own hands. The prosecuting attorney of the county also appears to get information from Sweet Alyssum concerning her husband's actions. When Sweet Alyssum is informed that her husband is accused of bigamy, she sacrifices even her own reputation for him and exclaims: "He cannot be charged with bigamy, for we were never married." Wynne Garlan leaves the magistrate's office and goes to Roanoke Brooks' home. As he enters the gate, he is seen by Roanoke Brooks, who seizes a rifle. As he is about to fire on Wynne, Sweet Alyssum places her little child between her father's rifle and her husband. Then a message comes from the police department of the city which reads as follows: "Garlan obtained divorce two years ago. No charge against him for bank robbery. Hold Thurlow. He is your man." Then it is that the girl tells her father that what she said about Wynne not marrying her was false as she wanted to protect him from arrest. And as Roanoke Brooks gathers his beloved daughter into his arms and shakes Wynne by the hand, the magistrate and the prosecuting attorney retire from the scene and are later instrumental in capturing Thurlow.

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Living with her cruel and greedy father on their Indiana farm, Pretty Patience Thompson, is a "girl with a singing soul," However, her life of drudgery is brightened by John, the hired hand, but when he asks for her hand in marriage, the old man flies into a rage and discharges him. Soon an aged but wealthy widower courts Patience, and although she still loves John, her father orders her to marry the widower. Aware of her unhappiness, the kindly squire and his wife arrange for John to hide in the Thompson home on the day of the wedding. With all of the guests assembled, Patience runs from the room and pretends to escape on a horse, and while the two old men search the fields for her, she quietly marries John.

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A fascinating piece of cinema that shares thematic elements.

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Caleb Conover, a railroad section boss, marries Letty, the daughter of a man of higher social standing, after rescuing her from harassment in a rough Italian neighborhood. By unrelenting force and tenacity, Conover becomes the corrupt political boss of his county, and the railroad president. His son Gerald refuses to work, and marries a chorus girl who is after his money and who retains her former lover. When Conover's daughter Vera returns from Europe supposedly married to a prince, Conover throws an elaborate reception and drunkenly nominates himself for governor. Anice Lanier, Conover's trusted secretary, to whom he is attracted, likes Clive Standish, a lawyer Conover cannot corrupt. After she steals compromising letters Conover wrote to his broker, Conover learns that Anice is the daughter of a man he earlier ruined. When Letty informs him that Vera's "prince" was untitled, the marriage not legal, and that she is starving in Paris, Conover, his drive now gone, loses the election to Standish.