The Auteur's Selection Complementing the Tone of The Only Woman: Cu...

Dir: Robert N. Bradbury

A simple country girl, brutally mistreated by her stepfather, awakens first the sympathy, then the love, of The Boy. The Spider, who lusts after The Girl, makes a bargain with the stepfather and takes her to the city where, kept prisoner, she is soon broken in health and spirit. Cast out and near death, she is taken in by The Boy. Following the demise of The Spider, The Boy takes her to church, where he prays, and after many hours she is restored to health.

Dir: Sidney Olcott

A fascinating piece of cinema that shares thematic elements.

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

Dir: Sidney Olcott

A fascinating piece of cinema that shares thematic elements.

Dir: Edgar Jones

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

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

Dir: Alexander Butler

In Alberta, Canada, a Cornish emigrant unmasks a rustler posing as the girl's "blind" father.

Dir: Sidney Olcott

An account of the life of Jesus Christ according to the New Testament, told as a series of tableaus interspersed with Bible verses.

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

Dir: Harley Knoles

Jim McDonald, the foreman of a shipbuilding plant and head of the labor union, strives to combat the anarchistic propaganda being put forth by Klimoff, the leader of a Bolshevik gang whose goal is to disrupt the country with strikes and anarchy. Despite McDonald's efforts, a strike is called, resulting in chaos. McDonald's child is knocked down by runaway horses abandoned by their striking driver, and dies. Mob scenes take place in America, as well as in Russia. Eventually, the unrest is quelled with an armistice called between Capital and Labor for a year, during which time wages are to be increased to reflect the cost of living, and leaders are to work out a common plan for their mutual advantage. The strikers now realize that they have been pawns of the Bolsheviks and call off the strike, agreeing to the plan.

Dir: Sidney Olcott

Mici is the middle of seven sisters who all believe if a younger sister marries first, the older sisters are all doomed to be old maids. The older sisters conspire to have the younger, pretty Mici sent away to a convent school. Mici manages to slip away and attend a fancy party, where she meets Count Horkoy. They fall in love and to the delight of Mici's sisters, the Count also finds suitable husbands for all of them.

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

Dir: Sidney Olcott

Barbara Rand, the daughter of a poor but proud Southern widow, loses her sight after leaping through the window of a notorious roadhouse to escape an assailant. Her sister, Natalie, reluctantly abandons her fiancé, Ned Gardiner, and marries Oliver Landis, who can provide the money needed for Barbara's operation. Unaware that Oliver was Barbara's attacker, Natalie places the blame on his business partner, Howard Pollard, who was with Barbara on the night she was injured. As Natalie holds Howard at gunpoint, her husband arrives and promises to deal with the supposed villain. A struggle ensues between the two men, and Howard falls from a cliff to his death. After Barbara is released from the hospital, Oliver tries to blind her once again by removing her bandages prematurely. Natalie threatens him with a pistol, but Oliver wrests it away from her. He then realizes that he can no longer hide his guilt from Natalie or the police and shoots himself. Barbara has been avenged, and Natalie is free to marry Ned.

Dir: Sidney Olcott

A little girl is kidnapped by the Mafia in revenge for her father's help in capturing one of the mobsters. She is presumed dead, but in reality is spirited away to Italy, where she is raised as the daughter of a kindly couple. When she is betrothed to the cruel padrone, she disguises herself as a boy and stows away to America, where she finds herself once again in the clutches of the mobster who originally kidnapped her. But this time luck and her own pluck are with her, and the tables are soon turned.