The Definitive Watchlist For Devotees of The Old Maid's Baby: Cult ...

Dir: William Bertram

A fascinating piece of cinema that shares thematic elements.

Dir: William Bertram

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of Milady o' the Beanstalk perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

Dora Tompkins divorces her alcoholic husband and moves to the city to look for a job. Her little daughter Marie dreams one evening of the "Jack and the Beanstalk" tale, which prompts her to climb up the fire escape to the apartment above. There she meets prizefighter "Giant" Jim Walton, her mother's former suitor, and soon he finds Dora a job in a florist's shop. They resume their love affair, and upon his promise to quit the ring, she agrees to become his wife. When Marie, however, in trying once again to scramble up the "beanstalk," falls and is seriously injured, Jim breaks his promise and wins a fight in order to pay for the child's operation. Unaware of Jim's motives for entering the ring, Dora spurns him, but when she learns the truth, she gratefully returns to him.

Dir: William Bertram

Blossom Ruggles, the fiercely independent daughter of Arizona cattleman Hank Ruggles, loves neighboring rancher Asa Harris. To pique Asa, however, she flirts with mining engineer Frank Stimpson, who unknown to her, has deceived pretty half-wit Amelia Young. While riding the range, Blossom is attacked by a Mexican bandit, but manages to overpower him, and deliver him to Asa and the cowboys, who throw him from a cliff. Later, the bandit is found unconscious by the sheriff and taken to jail. Learning of the half-wit's plight, Blossom mounts a posse, apprehends Frank, and forces him at gunpoint to marry Amelia. After the ceremony, Asa and Blossom are also wed.

Dir: William Bertram

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

Dolly lives with her aunt, who is a seamstress. The child is sent home from school because she has been naughty, and finds her aunt in the act of making a Red Cross costume for a huge mechanical doll. The doll can walk and talk and excites Dolly's interest intensely. Some of her playmates come and run away with the doll, which is later smashed by a runaway horse. Dolly then dresses in the Red Cross costume, hides in the big box, and is taken to the rich woman's home. She reveals her secret to the daughter, a little girl who is sick. The fairy story touches thrown in here are very fine and will appeal to the imagination of small observers. Dolly carries out her deception successfully at the Red Cross bazaar, but later is kidnapped by a gang who have been raiding the house of the wealthy woman. Dolly assists in rounding up the gang.

Dir: William Bertram

A fascinating piece of cinema that shares thematic elements.

Dir: William Bertram

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of Dolly Does Her Bit perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

Little Marie, terrified after her drunken father beats her mother, flees from the house. Finding herself alone after her father is arrested for the assault and her mother rushed to the hospital, Marie becomes attached to a little dog that she finds in the park. The maid who is walking the dog is unable to part the two, and so she brings the little girl home to the Greer mansion where Mr. Greer, desperate for the child that his socialite wife is too busy to give him, insists upon adopting Marie. After Marie's mother recovers, she is reluctant to deprive her daughter of the riches she may inherit, and so obtains the position of governess in the Greer household in order to be near her own child. Gradually, a deep attachment develops between Mr. Greer and Marie's mother. After Marie's father is killed during a jailbreak, and Mrs. Greer, suffering from her superficial existence, commits suicide, Greer marries Marie's mother and the reconstituted family begins a new life.

Dir: William Bertram

The usual ranger played by Maloney, and he has the usual old mother that he takes care of. The girl is the daughter of the impoverished and aged prospector, who still holds faith in a hole in the ground that he has dug. The bold, bad heavy is the general storekeeper, whose advances have been repulsed by the girl. To get even he first tries to blow up the old man and fasten a murder on the favored suitor, who is the ranger. There is the regulation stuff that has its horse features, its automobiles ... and the heroine making her way down a log chute to be in at the death. ... At the finish is the usual fade-out with the hero clasping the heroine to his manly bosom.

Dir: William Bertram

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

Episode 1: "The Woman Alone" Horace Kennedy, a successful lawyer, is drifting from his attentive and loyal wife, Mary, for no apparent reason, save that she is fading and he is losing interest in her. On the charge made by Margaret Warner, a struggling magazine writer, Kennedy disbars Attorney Doyle, contending that as a man must protect the honor of his wife and home, so must we guard our courts from prowling jackals. Because of his masterly handling of the disbarment case, a magazine requests Kennedy to write twelve articles dealing with the subject. Mary, his wife, persuades him against his wishes, to write these articles, suggesting that she will take his dictation on the typewriter. She proves an inefficient helper and the first night on which they work she falls and sprains her wrist, making it necessary for Kennedy to look elsewhere for assistance. Margaret, living in a cheap boarding-house is poor, as her short story manuscripts are returned day after day by the magazines. Desiring to help her Kennedy engages her for the work. Doyle, forced out of his profession, continues his work in the field of crooked-stock jobbing, taking the hard-earned savings of the poor for bogus mining stock. The last night of their joint work, Kennedy accompanies Margaret home, but on their way they are caught in an accident. Kennedy escapes injury, but Margaret faints. Calling to her to speak to him, Kennedy, with Margaret in his arms, rushes to a physician. Is the girl he is beginning to love to be thus taken from him?

Dir: William Bertram

When Charles Lind is stricken blind, his brother John takes charge of his business affairs, while his little niece Marie reads his mail to him each day so that he may recite his replies into a Dictaphone. After John confesses that he has lost a great deal of Charles' money on the stock market, the two quarrel, and John nearly strangles his brother. Later, a shot rings out, and John is seen crouching by Charles' lifeless body. Following John's arrest, the detectives guarding Marie's house recognize Briggs, the butler, as a wanted criminal, and when he attempts to escape, they shoot him. Marie, in playing with her uncle's Dictaphone, discovers that his murderer's voice was captured on the recording. Played at the dying butler's bedside, the recording leads to Briggs's confession and John's release from prison.

Dir: William Bertram

Sally Lou, the small daughter of village blacksmith Jim Davis, uses her sawdust doll to take the place of a real mother. Her father proposes to Rose Budd, a beauty expert who has been stranded in the town. Rose marries Jim in order to have a home, and shows no love to her new stepdaughter. Jim enlists in the army, thinking Rose will care for Sally Lou, but instead Rose plans to elope with the local druggist Raynor. Sally Lou learns Raynor is really a German spy who plans to wreck the troop train carrying Jim. Sally Lou tells Rose and the two rush to the rescue. Sally Lou sets fire to her sawdust doll and uses it as a torchlight to warn the oncoming train. The train is saved, and Rose resolves to be a good mother to their stepchild.