Masterpiece Selection that Capture the Essence of The Play Girl: Cult Guide

Dir: Arthur Rosson

A fascinating piece of cinema that shares thematic elements.

Dir: Maurice Elvey

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

A lady marries a horse trainer but withholds herself until her crippled brother is cured.

Dir: Arthur Rosson

Parisian music hall celebrity Mignon marries young American civil engineer John Stanley. When John is suddenly assigned to undertake an engineering project in the Sahara, Mignon accompanies him and her son to the desert, although she is accustomed to a life of frivolity. After months of discontent, Mignon leaves her husband and son for Russian Baron Alexis, who establishes her in a palace in Cairo. Brokenhearted, John becomes a drug addict. Mignon later runs across her husband and son, who have become beggars. She is filled with remorse and returns to the desert to nurse her husband. John recovers slowly, reconciles with his wife, and the family finds happiness together.

Dir: Raoul Walsh

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

Dave Henderson, an orphan who has become the beneficiary of a rich man's will, falls in with race-track crooks Martin Tydeman and Bokky Sharvan who bilk him out of his $100,000 inheritance. In retaliation, Dave steals the money from Tydeman's safe, but is caught and sentenced to five years in jail. In prison, Dave becomes friendly with Millman, who is about to be released, and reveals the money's hiding place to him, arranging to rendezvous at the end of Dave's term. Once released, Dave is hounded by members of Tydeman's gang as well as the police, who are waiting for him to retrieve his bounty. While taking refuge at the house of Capriano, an old bomb maker, Dave falls in love with the old man's daughter Teresa. However, Capriano sets a trap for Dave, who awakens in a drugged state to find the $100,000 missing. With the help of Millman and Teresa, Dave recovers the money, turns it over to the police and resolves to go straight.

Dir: Lloyd Ingraham

While walking along the street one day, Arthur P. Hampton, an impoverished young doctor, and his chums, Stub Masters and Johnny Stokes, are persuaded to part with their last remaining funds by tag day solicitor Mary Jane Smith, with whom the doctor promptly falls in love. Doc's friends then hit upon a get-rich-quick scheme. Knowing that his Uncle George has promised a large sum of money upon his nephew's marriage, they persuade Doc to send out fake wedding invitations naming Mary Jane as the blushing bride. Uncle George, elated at the good news, writes to Mary Jane's aunt, Angelica Burns, an old sweetheart, to invite Mary Jane and Angelica to be his guests on an ocean voyage. Meanwhile, Mary Jane pays a visit to the doctor's office and, upon seeing the wedding invitations, becomes so flustered that she trips and sprains her ankle. Doc comes to her rescue and then begs her to pose as his wife. She agrees, but at ship-side, Stub and Johnnie confess all to Uncle George, who flies into a rage until Doc announces that he and Mary Jane have chosen a wedding at sea.

Dir: Arthur Rosson

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

Doc Saunders, an alcoholic, leaves his little daughter Mayme in the care of his sister and goes West to start a new life. In the little town of Sago, Doc becomes an avowed prohibitionist, thus earning the enmity of Art the saloon keeper. Back East, Mayme grows to adulthood and marries reporter Jimmy Baggs who has just been hired by the newspaper in Sago. When Jimmy begins to drink heavily, Mayme appeals to the town doctor for help. Doc Saunders, recognizing her, chooses not to disclose that she is his daughter, but instead invites them to move into his house for treatment. Jimmy reforms until one day he is sent to the saloon to get a statement on the liquor question for his paper. When Jimmy returns home drunk, Doc, enraged, invades the saloon brandishing a gun and shooting wildly. Doc is arrested and tried, but pronounced not guilty by a jury that sympathizes with him. With Art's power finally broken, Doc confesses to Mayme that she is his daughter, and the family sees an end to their troubles.

Dir: Maurice Campbell

Carver Endicott, a young sophisticate, is rejected by his fiancée for being too foppish and dull. When she feigns an interest in his father, Carver attempts to disgrace his family name by working as a farmhand and later as a busboy in a hotel. However, the newspapers only praise him for his self-sacrificing principles; and finding that he cannot bring shame to the family through menial labor, he takes up with a notorious actress. But when this maneuver also fails, he returns to his former fiancée, who has no further complaint about his being an inexperienced dullard.

Dir: Richard Smith

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

Two female candidates for Chief of Police live across the hall from each other, and their political rivalry follows them home, leading to plenty of hi-jinks.

Dir: Hal Roach

An American book salesman (Lloyd) is persuaded to go to the kingdom of Thermosa to impersonate the Prince. He is greeted by a peasants' revolt before the real prince shows up to claim his throne and princess. The revolution succeeds, and the American is elected president of the new republic.

Dir: F. Martin Thornton

In Paris an orphan cartoonist loves a man with a mad wife, who dies in time to prevent her marriage to a jilted Comte.