The Cult Collection Comparable to the Style of The Poor Simp: Cult ...

Dir: Victor Heerman

When eccentric Colonel Wynn threatens to kill Joe Benson if he marries his daughter Dorothy, the couple wed secretly. Their honeymoon at a resort is interrupted by Barbara Dow, a friend who threatens to expose the marriage unless Joe announces that Barbara is his wife. Then Myra Gray, a divorced friend of Joe, appears, followed by her enraged ex-husband, who believes that Joe has stolen his wife's affections. Joe and Dorothy attempt to escape the ensuing chaos, and after a series of misadventures, the colonel becomes enamored of Myra and accepts his daughter's marriage.

Dir: Victor Heerman

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

Tom Clark, the part owner of a luckless gas station in New York, returns to his place of birth for Old Home Week, posing as the millionaire president of the Amalgamated Oil Co. He is chosen as the orator for the homecoming banquet and given complete financial control over an oil well drilled in the town by Coleman and Barton, a pair of oily swindlers. Tom discovers that the well is a fake and has it connected secretly with the local reservoir. A wire from Tom's partner is intercepted, and Tom is exposed as a fraud. Coleman and Barton are about to leave town when Tom fakes a gusher and quickly sells the well back to the swindlers at a profit. The swindlers realize that they have been outsmarted, and their anger convinces the townspeople that Tom has acted in the best interests of the community. Tom is again the toast of the town, feted by its inhabitants and rewarded with the kisses of his sweetheart.

Dir: Victor Heerman

Rudolf Rassendyll returns to Ruritania, to play the King once more.

Dir: Victor Heerman

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

A European royal couple come to New York to sell some of the royal family's crown jewels. A gang of international jewel thieves plans to steal the gems, so a private detective is assigned to guard them. Unfortunately, the private eye turns out to be a bumbling, inept fool--or so everyone thinks.

Dir: Victor Heerman

Anthony Churchill, about to marry Helen Griggs, is on six months' probation imposed upon him by Helen's father, who knows Anthony has been wild in his earlier days. Marion, a forgotten flame, turns up with incriminating love letters which Anthony has written and threatens a breach of promise suit. Anthony represents himself as already married, using the janitor's wife and some hired children as his supposed family. Marion seems convinced, but Helen is heartbroken when she discovers what she considers the proof of Anthony's perfidy. Anthony and his chum try to steal the incriminating love letters from Marion's room and are caught in the act. At the psychological moment Marion and her attorneys are identified as a couple of blackmailers engaging in a plan to mulct Anthony and the Griggs family of some of their money.

Dir: Victor Heerman

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

Searchlight Doyle, lightweight boxing champion of the United States Navy, is shanghaied into the fleet of Sainte Cassette, an island republic, as a replacement for a wealthy slacker who must serve his country to receive a $2 million inheritance, a scheme concocted by attorney Gabriel Grabowski. All his shipmates, except Hyacinth Nitouche, assume that he is indeed the wastrel he purports to be. Doyle falls in love with Adrienne, the most beautiful of the captain's daughters, and wins her affections by treating his comrades in her teashop. Admiral O'Brien, grandfather of the man Doyle is impersonating, comes to visit, and mistaking him for a civilian, Doyle throws him overboard and to everybody's surprise is complimented on his vigilance. But his real identity is exposed by some American sailors, and he is suspected of killing young O'Brien; he is cleared of suspicion, however, and is reinstated by the admiral, thereby gaining Adrienne's love.

Dir: Victor Heerman

A fascinating piece of cinema that shares thematic elements.

Dir: Victor Heerman

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of Love Is an Awful Thing perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

Upon being released from prison, Lawrence Hilliard takes the name of John Smith and looks for work, and falls in love with Irene Mason, a social secretary, but is reluctant to tell her about his past.

Dir: Victor Heerman

In seventeenth-century England, Barbara Winslow helps her rebellious brother, Rupert, to escape the King's forces. Barbara is captured while disguised as Rupert, but Captain Prothero becomes enamored with her and sets her free. Later, when Barbara and the captain are imprisoned, they discover a secret passage that enables them and their fellow captives to escape. Barbara then secures a pardon for herself and the captain by revealing a plot against the king. Prothero is exiled from England, and Barbara goes with him.

Dir: Victor Heerman

Mayhem and zaniness ensue when a valuable painting goes missing during a party in honor of famed African explorer Captain Spaulding.