Must-Watch List Comparable to the Style of The People vs. John Doe:...

Dir: Lois Weber

Envious of the wealth of her classmates at the fashionable boarding school to which her parents struggled to send her, Millicent Rankin hides the fact that her father is a plumber. She invites her friend Beatrice Deering to her home, which she describes as lavish, for the vacation, but thinks that Beatrice will refuse. The embarrassment Millicent feels when she receives a wire that Beatrice is coming causes her mother pain, but when Millicent's sister becomes ill with scarlet fever, Millicent goes instead to Beatrice's country residence where she hopes to meet a rich husband. At the Deerings', Millicent is soon disappointed with society's mores. After almost succumbing to the advances of Elmer Lacy, who secretly is carrying on an affair with Beatrice's stepmother, Millicent protects Mrs. Deering's reputation by humiliating herself. When she learns that her mother is ill, Millicent rushes home and discovers happiness with her family and her old sweetheart.

Dir: Lois Weber

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

A Broadway actress becomes a star due to the guidance of her director. The two fall in love, but are prevented from marrying due to a clause put into her contract by her producer.

Dir: Lois Weber

Mary Regan, the child of an heiress who married a handsome thief hoping to reform him, then died when he went to prison, refuses to marry New York District Attorney Robert Clifford because she fears that the family's past will hurt his career. After refusing to cooperate with her father's gang members, Jim Bradley and Peter Loveman, Mary goes to the mountains. Bradley and Loveman get Jack Morton, a dissolute youth from a wealthy family, involved with Nina Cordova, an adventuress. After winning the trust of Morton's father, Loveman takes Morton to the mountains, supposedly to get him away from Nina, but really to involve him with Mary. Morton falls in love with Mary, and she marries him hoping to effect his reform. After Morton tries to hide the marriage from his father, the gang tries to blackmail Morton, Sr., but Mary contacts Robert, and after Morton is killed in a fight, the gang is arrested. Robert then convinces Mary to be true to her heart and marry him.

Dir: Lois Weber

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

Jewel stays with her grizzled, angry grandfather while her parents are overseas on business. Family squabbling is brought to heel through love and understanding from Jewel's pure love for others and trust in Divine Love

Dir: Lois Weber

A seductive "vampire" leads otherwise decent men, and women as well, astray.

Dir: Lois Weber

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of A Chapter in Her Life perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

An inventor starts a family with his childhood sweetheart, but after he becomes successful, he becomes restless and takes up with another woman. However, the woman's true nature is revealed, he realizes his mistake.

Dir: Lois Weber

Babe Scott, a cabaret dancer who is constantly searching for sensational material to shock her customers, thinks up burlesquing a Salvation Army girl and attends mission meetings on the East Side for atmosphere. There she meets Jerry Wilson, an honest truck driver and friend of the Army captain. Although the act is a success, Babe is disillusioned to find Lonnie, a fellow worker who has been romancing her, stealing her money and making overtures to Big Bertha, the hard-boiled club hostess.

Dir: Lois Weber

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of To Please One Woman perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

Phoebe Morrison, a wealthy young lady, is shown a photograph of handsome Squire Elton by her father. Since Elton is a partner in her father's oil business, the girl goes west to meet him. The two fall in love, but Phoebe decides her prospective husband needs more polish comparable to the men she knew in the east. So Elton goes on a tour of Europe, returns a refined gentleman, and marries Phoebe. But now Phoebe feels he has lost some of his charm. Then she thinks he is having a fling with her cousin Sophia. So she decides the best solution is for Elton to return to his original environment out west. She feigns ill health, and persuades him to move, and gradually he becomes the man she fell in love with. Then Elton confesses that he had been acting the part of an Eastern gentleman to teach Phoebe a lesson.

Dir: Lois Weber

A young man, told by a psychic that he will die soon, puts his affairs in order and begins to enjoy and treasure life. However, the appointed hour of death passes without his demise, and he begins to suspect something is awry.

Dir: Lois Weber

The parallel stories of a modern preacher and a medieval monk, Gabriel the Ascetic, who is killed by an ignorant mob for making a nude statue representing Truth, which is also represented by a ghostly naked girl who flits throughout the film.