Top-Tier Alternatives In the Shadow of The Power of Silence: Cult Guide

Dir: Wallace Worsley

Mary Thorne, a quarter-breed Native American, returns home from the East with a college degree and an air of refinement, although she relishes the freedom of her father Marshall's mountain cabin. When Mark Hamilton and Chester Martin visit the cabin on a hunting expedition, Mary, in a spirit of mischief, dons her Indian clothing and convinces them that she is full-blooded. Mark falls deeply in love with the girl, while Chester, contemptuous of her Indian background, though attracted to her, decides to possess her. While her father is hunting for gold at Lost Lake, Chester enters Mary's room and attacks her. Mark rescues her, after which he realizes, by the modern décor of her room, that Mary is a cultured young lady. Later, Marshall is killed by an Indian guard at Lost Lake, but Mary inherits the gold he discovered and marries Mark.

Dir: Tom Collins

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

When milk magnate Jacob Strauss is found murdered in his library, the guilt points to Strauss' secretary, Harry Gray, who the previous day was fired when his employer discovered that he was secretly engaged to his daughter Sybil. Arrested for the crime, Gray asserts that he arrived in time to witness the attack on Strauss by a masked man who escaped through the window. When the secretary's story is ridiculed because the window is sixteen stories above ground, Sybil appeals to Tex to take the case. After a long search, Tex summons a number of suspects to his office and accuses Blake, whose apartments are above those of the murdered man. It transpires that Blake, who held a grudge against Strauss for losses he suffered in the milk pool on the exchange, killed him and made his escape by means of a rope. Thus exposed, Blake leaps out the window to his death, clearing Gray of guilt and freeing him to face a happy future with Sybil.

Dir: Marcel Perez

Ralph Barr refuses to lend more money to Trent, who has been rejected by Judith Reynard and is now engaged to Barr. When Trent insults Judith, Barr threatens to kill him. Then Trent calls on Barr, threatening to kill himself and make it appear that Barr killed him if Barr will not lend him the money. Later it seems that Trent has committed suicide and Barr is suspected of the murder, but disappears. A series of complications follows which make it appear that Barr did kill Trent, but it turns out that he was killed from a shot behind the portieres. Another murder takes place and more mystery develops. Finally it is determined that Barr is not guilty, and Judith's loyalty saves him.

Dir: Wallace Worsley

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

An orphan boy from the Kentucky hills joins the Union Army and rescues his adopted family from Morgan's raiders. He learns his real identity when he returns after the war.

Dir: Wallace Worsley

After Alice Dane, a poor English schoolteacher, witnesses Sir John Turnbull throw an adversary over a cliff, Turnbull offers her money and marriage, because a wife cannot testify against her husband. To support her invalid father and for desired luxuries, Alice accepts, but she finds her husband humiliating and insulting. When Bobby Ralston, the superintendent of Turnbull's South African mines, reports that Turnbull's interests are endangered by a Zulu uprising, Turnbull takes Alice to Africa. After Turnbull shoots an emissary of Zulu chief Cetygoola carrying a flag of truce, Alice is taken hostage, to be burned at the stake unless the messenger's killer is offered. Knowing that Ralston loves Alice, Turnbull dares him to offer himself, which he does, but the Zulus realize he is not the guilty party. During the Zulus' subsequent attack, Ralston and Alice escape to an observation balloon. Reinforcements defeat the Zulus, but Cetygoola hides and kills Turnbull. Ralston and Alice are then free to marry.

Dir: Wallace Worsley

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

Wealthy heiress Diane Westfall, bored with her life, hops into a green van and sets out to seek adventure. She doesn't know that four men are pursuing her--her cousin Carl, who wants her inheritance; Baron Tregar of the small Balkan country of Houdania, who believes that Diane may be the rightful heir to the Houdanian throne; Prince Ronador, who also believes she may be the heir to the throne but wants to kill her so he can get control of it; and Philip Poynter, a young American friend of Baron Tregar's who has met and fallen in love with Diane, and sets out to protect her.

Dir: George Beranger

John Fenton visits a fortune-teller to gain insight into his parentage. While there, a police raid occurs, and he climbs the fire escape to the apartment above. There he finds a girl standing over the body of a young man who has just shot himself. The girl, Belle Charmion, explains that her half brother, Gordon Brewster, had stolen some jewels from their uncle and, fearing that the police would capture him, had attempted suicide. Fenton conceals the brother in another room and impersonates him when the police arrive. Later, he and Belle take Brewster to his uncle's home. In the excitement, the jewels have been forgotten, and Fenton returns to search for them. By this time, the family butler, who is a member of an underworld gang, has tipped off his friends, who then steal the Fenton jewels. At the butler's home, a scuffle ensues; Fenton recovers the jewels and learns that he is actually a distant relative of the Charmions, having been kidnapped in infancy by a crook. With both mysteries thus resolved, Belle and Fenton become engaged.

Dir: Tom Collins

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

When the body of Wall Street broker Norman Temple is found dead in his office, the police arrest contractor James Borden for the crime on the testimony of Temple's secretary that Borden had threatened her employer over an unpaid note. Also under suspicion is Temple's Japanese valet, who quarreled with his employer the day before the murder. Tex, a detective, enters the case, following his own leads which prove the valet innocent. Tex finally deduces that Minkin, one of Temple's clerks, shot his employer when he interrupted the clerk robbing his safe. With Tex's revelation, Minkin's room is searched, the stolen bonds found and Borden is freed.

Dir: Wallace Worsley

Adele Bleneau is a young nurse who assists her father, a renowned surgeon/. While in Washington, DC, she meets and falls in love with a British army officer, Capt. Fraser. While traveling by ship to France with her father, she meets Count von Schulling, a German diplomat who is an acquaintance of her father. Von Schulling falls for the pretty young Adele. While in France, Adele organizes a rescue party to save Capt. Fraser, who has been on a secret mission behind enemy lines and has been wounded. In a twist of fate, Adele finds the wounded Fraser and takes him to a hospital, but Count von Schuling, who has also been wounded, is placed in the same room as Fraser. When the hospital is overrun by German forces, Adele is placed in a delicate position by von Sculling: either spy for the Germans or Fraser will be shot.

Dir: Wallace Worsley

A deformed criminal mastermind plans to loot the city of San Francisco as well as revenge himself on the doctor who mistakenly amputated his legs.