Essential Cult Cinema Drawn from the Same DNA as The Purple Highway...

Dir: Alexander Butler

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

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: Dallas M. Fitzgerald

Confidence artist Flossie Golden attempts to fleece foolish but wealthy James Venable with a breach-of-promise suit. Venable's shrewd attorney, Richard Harding, outwits Flossie by proposing that she marry Venable and live on an allowance of $3,000 per year. Flossie is determined to get even with Harding for ruining her plans. In an attempt to con him, she poses as Innocence Page, but falls in love and marries him instead. Larry, Flossie's former accomplice, endeavors to blackmail her with her errant past, but Harding is already cognizant of the facts and Larry fails.

Dir: Eduardo Notari

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

A crime drama in the Gennariello-series. The police detective in Naples that is confronted with modern gangsters and crime events.

Dir: Henry Kolker

After receiving $50 for performing a dangerous dive at a swimming fete, Mira Sacky, the daughter of a music master whose legacy to her was the potential to be a great singer, decides to pursue others ways of getting money. When she rescues a boy from drowning, wealthy Michael Ordsway, a friend of the boy's mother, tells Mira to name her reward. Remembering her father's advice not to accept money from any man to whom she does not have a just claim, Mira requests, to Michael's discomfort, that he marry her. He gives in when she calls him a welcher, and she offers to leave if he will give her $10,000. He refuses and after a misunderstanding, they separate. Michael's father, encouraging her to seek voice training, gives her the money. Three years later, Michael, searching in vain, visits his sister in Rome and discovers that Mira has become a famous singer. They confess their love and resume their marriage.

Dir: Robert N. Bradbury

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

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: Bruno Ziener

A fascinating piece of cinema that shares thematic elements.

Dir: Edward LeSaint

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

When famous opera singer Elinore Duane undergoes an operation on her throat, she has a series of ether-induced visions. In one, she is transported to ancient Rome where she appears as a much-admired woman in love with Paul, a young heretic, and at odds with Lutor, the high priest. To save her love, she poisons Lutor with her ring. After several other visions which involve variations on this love triangle, Elinore awakens to discover that Lutor is actually her doctor, Sascha Jaccard, and that Paul is the son of a friend who has come to visit the recovering prima donna.

Dir: Wilfred Lucas

Brian O'Farrell (Snowy Baker), is an English 'new chum' who takes a job at an Australian cattle station. He is teased by station hands because of his appearance (including spats and a monocle) but he soon impresses them with his skills at riding and boxing. The station manager, John MacDonald (Wilfred Lucas), takes O'Farrell to Sydney to meet his daughter Edith (Kathleen Key) who is working in the slums. Edith is kidnapped by criminals after witnessing a crime but O'Farrell rescues her. It is later revealed he is the owner of the station.

Dir: Reggie Morris

A fascinating piece of cinema that shares thematic elements.