Hidden Genre Gems In Alignment with the style of The Saintly Sinner: Cult Guide

Dir: Raymond Wells

During World War I, Jeanette Gontreau becomes a "godmother" to three Allied soldiers imprisoned in a German camp. Describing herself as an old woman, she sends them cheerful letters and baskets of small gifts until one of the soldiers, Harry Ledyard, informs her that he has been released and will visit her in New York. Panic-stricken, Jeanette dons a wig and spectacles, and although she convinces Harry that she is old and gray, she soon falls in love with him. Harry worships his "godmother," and when secret service agents discover coded messages on her letters, he shields her by assuming the blame. Eventually, however, Jeanette's employer, Frederick Armstrong, confesses that it is he who is guilty of espionage. Jeanette reveals her true age to Harry, who joyfully proposes to her.

Dir: Raymond Wells

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

It is about the Civil War. Dismayed it was made in Norfork Arkansas in 1928

Dir: Raymond Wells

A father arranges to have his effeminate son kidnapped by cowboys to make a man out of him.

Dir: Raymond Wells

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

Donald Naughton, the lazy son of a self-made millionaire named Bill Naughton, is sent to his father's rock quarries to replace the crooked superintendent, Mike Carney. The job at first proves difficult for Don, who does not know how to handle the rock drillers, but is made somewhat more pleasant by the presence of Shiela Dolan, the pretty daughter of Naughton's old friend Lynch, an alcoholic. Don hires a new gang of workmen, but they prove to be anarchists secretly in Carney's employ. The young boss earns the respect of the regular hands by beating Jerry Shea in a fight, but Carney and his partner, Greek Louis, succeed in stirring up a strike. After Don and his men defeat Carney's agitators in a brawl, Don saves Carney from a lynch mob. The men return to work with a new respect for their boss, and Don wins Shiela's love.

Dir: Raymond Wells

Jimmy Dolan has just been defeated in a fight with "Spider" Flynn. Jones, Dolan's trainer, had bet their whole bank role on the battle. Twenty-four hours from Paris, in the little principality of Konigstadt, lived a king and his ward. Countess Alicia, a beautiful girl, was courted by Count Conrad, the King's nephew. Prince Frederick was to pay the King a visit, and the old King planned to wed him to Alicia. Count Conrad gets a message from the Prince asking him to come to a certain café. Conrad finds Frederick in company with a Mlle. D'Orsay. He begs Conrad to say he is stricken with scarlet fever. The Count consents, but plans to be revenged on Alicia. Jones and Jimmy enter the café. The Count calls Jimmy to his table, offers him twenty thousand francs to impersonate Prince Frederick, gain Alicia's consent to marriage and thus humiliate her. Urged by Jones, Jimmy accepts, and Conrad begins to teach him courtly manners. Jones is to play the role of an Arabian bodyguard. Jimmy and Jones are presented to the King and to Alicia.. Jimmy and Alicia are promptly interested in each other. Some days later, Jones and Jimmy read in the newspaper about "Spider" Flynn's being the champion of all Europe and are indignant. He sends Flynn an insulting message, challenging him to another battle, and Flynn immediately accepts. The King decides to call on Jimmy informally, and finds Jones and his friend boxing. The King takes up boxing and has a gymnasium built. Prince Frederick and Mlle. D'Orsay quarrel. He arrives at Konigstadt the evening of a dance given in honor of Jimmy. Jones sees him at the hotel, and with Jimmy's help ties him in a chair. The Prince escapes and tells the King of the outrage. The big fight is on between Jimmy and "Spider" Flynn. A great crowd has gathered, and among them the King, Alicia and the Prince. Jimmy defeats Flynn and the King is one of the first to congratulate him. The King looks from Alicia to Jimmy, saying there is a Count's title vacant in Konigstadt and that he hasn't had a good boxing match since Jimmy left.

Dir: Raymond Wells

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

The story gets away with a bang, as the wedding of Tony the Banker is rudely interrupted by Detective Moran and the bridegroom is dragged off to the station house. Tony is tried, convicted of counterfeiting and sent to prison. Moran becomes a police captain and, shortly afterward, runs up against the most baffling mystery of his career. Laura Bowers, a new boarder at the house where he lives, is the person that excites his curiosity. He sees her open a street door with a hairpin, but is forced to believe her when she assures him she is now leading an honest life. A love affair follows. After the wedding the couple go to their own home and Moran is shot while seated at a window. Tony threatened to get even when Moran was married and the news is brought that the Italian has escaped from prison. The fact is also established that he was killed while trying to resist capture, but finger marks outside the window prove that he is implicated in the shooting of Moran. The explanations are cleverly planned.

Dir: Raymond Wells

Hal Sinclair, the chief agent at the Fort Roscher trading post in the Canadian Northwest, controls the town and cheats the trappers, until a group of independent fur traders arrives. After nearly all of the traders are killed by Sinclair's brutal henchman, Mont Brennan, Officer Jamison of the North West Mounted Police is sent to investigate. Charles Morin, a wealthy French Canadian businessman, also arrives at Fort Roscher that week with the intention of entering the fur trade, and soon falls in love with Petain Monest's pretty daughter Marie. Sinclair, who also loves Marie, commissions Brennan to kill the young trader, but Marie overhears their plans. As Brennan is taking aim, Marie shoots and kills him and subsequently is accused of murder. Jamison has also fallen in love with Marie, but realizing that she prefers Morin, he decides to stand by the young couple. With Jamison's help, Marie is exonerated and finally joined to the man whose life she saved.

Dir: Raymond Wells

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of Mr. Dolan of New York perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

George Arnold, head of the Paradise Valley Land Company, has been robbed of $10,000 by Jim Kinkaid, who has fled the country. Arnold secures the services of the Burton Detective Agency to get Kinkaid. Nellie is put on the case. She goes to the gambling house. Her ignorance of gambling nearly betrays her. Romero Valdez, Kinkaid's right-hand man, feels that everything is not on the square in regard to this woman. But Kinkaid has become strongly attached to Nellie and will listen to nothing against her. Nellie becomes aware of the goodness of Kinkaid's heart and finds the job of betraying him distasteful. She forces herself to the work and has succeeded in getting Kinkaid accustomed to cross the border with her. She then wires to New York for them to send the men to make the arrest. Letty Frank, a convict with a grudge against Nellie, manages to escape and goes to Mexico. He reaches Kinkaid's gambling house and recognizes Nellie as a New York detective. Kinkaid is told. Nevertheless, he takes his usual walk with her that evening. Seated on their accustomed bench, he tells her how he had discovered a number of foreigners on the desert absolutely destitute; they told him of how they were robbed of their life's savings by Arnold, through a crooked real estate deal. Kinkaid took care of the people and went to New York to see what he could do to get their money back. Upon asking Arnold to refund the money, he was laughed at, for the transaction was perfectly legal. Kinkaid, by force, took the money from Arnold, escaped into Mexico and returned it to the immigrants. Detectives arrive from New York. Nellie asks Kinkaid to go for a walk. Romero, not trusting her, has followed with two Mexicans, to be there in case of need. Kinkaid is arrested by Arnold and the detectives and Romero coming up with assistance, is deserted by his followers at a critical moment, and he is also arrested. In the jail, Kinkaid and Romero again become friends and Kinkaid wagers his entire possessions that Nellie will "run true to form." In her room, Nellie sees a way out of her difficulty. She steals the keys of the jail from the sheriff and opens the door. At dawn, Kinkaid, Nellie and Romero enter the town from the desert and are met by an ovation from their friends. Kinkaid gives to Romero the gambling house and everything connected with it, finding that his future and his happiness lie with Nellie, away from everything pertaining to his former life.

Dir: Raymond Wells

Cashiered out of the army by what he believes was an unjust court-martial, the man known as The Weakling wanders aimlessly in the desert and is found by cowboys from the Lazy Y Ranch. They clean him up and give him a job on the ranch as a cowboy. He soon finds love with a local dance-hall girl, and discovers that his luck may be changing in more ways than one.

Dir: Raymond Wells

Captain Jack Rogers returns home from the Civil War to find that his fiancée's father has broken his engagement to Sarah Catherwood because Jack's income is so low. Jack goes West to earn his fortune but soon hears that Pamela has wed her former suitor, Randolph. Heartbroken, Jack proposes to a widow, but their marriage is so unhappy that he leaves, taking his son John with him. In the town of Ten Strike, Jack robs a stage and is shot by a posse. The sheriff adopts little John, who grows to manhood nurturing such an intense hatred for the law that in his renowned law practice, he intentionally helps notorious criminals escape justice. Sarah's daughter, Sally Randolph, begs John to defend her lover who has been charged with murder, and John succeeds in winning his freedom, but upon the young criminal's release from prison, he is shot and killed. When John and Sally discover that their parents were in love, they marry and begin a new life together.