Must-Watch List in the Vein of The Saleslady: Cult Guide

Dir: Frederick A. Thomson

Caroline Rogers, a spirited young girl with a taste for highly romantic novels, comes home from boarding school to attend her sister Ethel's wedding. Having read a particularly lurid novel entitled Twin Souls recently, she arrives at the rehearsal wearing a daring gown in the hope of ensnaring a "soul mate." Because of his poetic name, Caroline becomes involved with Reginald Van Alden, a married fortune-seeker. On the morning of the wedding, she abandons her old sweetheart, Bob Worth, to take a ride with Reginald, but when he takes her to a disreputable roadhouse, she escapes and then tries to commit suicide by drinking cologne. Later she becomes engaged to Bob and attends his bachelor party disguised as a cabaret dancer. At the party, the two are married in a mock ceremony, but the next day Bob reveals that the friend who presided at the "wedding" is a real judge, and that he and Caroline are legally married.

Dir: Frederick A. Thomson

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

Tom, a young man in a small town, wants to marry his sweetheart Jane, but Jane's father won't allow it until Tom proves he can support her. Tom heads to New York City to make his fortune and prove to Jane's father that he has what it takes, but he meets and falls in love with Amy, a chorus girl who already has a wealthy suitor. Complications ensue.

Dir: Frederick A. Thomson

When Wall Street dynamo Richard Strong rescues Edwin Rossiter from financial ruin, Rossiter is so grateful that he persuades his daughter Elinor to marry their benefactor, although she does not love him. Instead, Elinor favors her distant cousin, Charles Dalton, a dissipated member of the aristocracy who weds Zoldene, an actress, on the day of Elinor and Strong's wedding. Soon after, Dalton wearies of Zoldene and renews his attention to Elinor, now estranged from her husband. Meanwhile, Strong and Zoldene's names are linked together in the scandal sheets, alienating Elinor even more from her husband. Dalton enters into a pact with Daniel Brewster to ruin Strong, but Elinor, finally realizing her love for her husband, assists in defeating his enemies. Their problems thus reconciled, Elinor and Strong face a happy future together.

Dir: Frederick A. Thomson

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

Clara Angelo does not really love her husband, David, a distinguished Roman banker, who is old, ugly and bent. Unknown to her husband, her mother, Mrs. Brunschaut, has involved her in a foreign conspiracy, in order that she may add to the extravagance of her living. David Angelo becomes aware of the intrigue, but before he can discover just what it is, he is called to Naples on business. He leaves his fortune in care of his partner, Stroggi, to be given to Mrs. Angelo in case anything happens to him. On his trip back home he stops to see Vesuvius, and is caught by a sudden eruption and smothered under the hot ashes. He is, however, rescued, and under the treatment of a great scientist, is restored to health; his physical disabilities have also been removed, and he is straight and rejuvenated in appearance, so much so that the doctor tells him he would not be believed if he declared himself to be David Angelo, and he decides to let the world believe that he is dead. He returns to Rome and startles the national treasurer by his brilliant suggestions in connection with finance, spies on the conspirators who are seeking to compromise his wife, is introduced in his own home without being recognized, and prevents his wife's fortune being stolen by his former partner. He also wins his wife's love, and, upon consenting to marry him, she rejoices to learn that he is really the supposedly dead David Angelo.

Dir: Frederick A. Thomson

Count von Herbeck, chancellor to the Grand Duke of Ehrenstein, is married but keeps it a secret because of his high ambitions. His dying wife writes him a letter urging him to make their young daughter a great lady. To this end, he arranges to have Torpete, a gypsy, to kidnap Gretchen, the daughter of the GRand Duke. He takes the coat and locket belonging to the little Princess and then sends his own daughter, Hildegarde, away. During the abduction of Gretchen she is wounded in the shoulder by a bullet. Fifteen years later Von Herbeck tells the Grand Duke he has found the Princess, and produces the coat, locket and Hildegarde as proof. Meanwhile, the real Princess has been abandoned by the gypsies and adopted by peasants, and has grown up as a "Goose Girl." The young King Fredrick of Jugendheit is officially betrothed to the fake Princess but he does not wish to marry a woman he has never met. He disguises himself as a Vinter and travels around the countryside, meets the Goose Girl, and rescues her from the insulting attentions of a vicious Count, and longs to marry her. But since he can not marry a peasant, true love seems doomed. Or does it?

Dir: Frederick A. Thomson

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

Blake Waring, a financier, whose life code is to have the best of everything at any cost, is surrounded with every conceivable luxury, but he wants a wife to complete his happiness. He is desirous of obtaining a beautiful picture, "The Chattel," owned by Roger Carvin, another financier, who cannot be induced to sell it. Later, Carvin, in stringent circumstances, is forced to part with it at an auction where Waring obtains it. Here he sees Leila Bard, and is attracted to her. At the opera he is presented to her by Mrs. Delavan. Determined to have Leila, he lavishes attentions on her until she is deceived into believing he loves her, and finally consents to marry him. On the eve of the wedding, her father confesses his financial ruin in a letter, explaining his present position was held through dishonesty. He then kills himself. Waring, nonplussed at first, decides to possess Leila in spite of all this and conceals Bard's suicide, making restitution under promise of secrecy. As time passes. Waring begins to grow distant and exacting. Waring, on Leila's birthday, presents her with a lovely necklace, but the sentiment is driven away when she finds that it has been selected by a friend of Waring's. When Leila returns to her home late one afternoon after spending the time at a matinee with Mrs. Delavan, she is reproved by her husband for not being home before him. He is overheard by Harding, Waring's closest friend, who is astonished at Blake's manner. A few days later, Waring, trying to engineer a great financial deal to impress his associates, invites them to dine with him at home. Harding, who is also invited, finds he has a previous engagement which cannot be put off, and stops at Waring's house to tell him. Waring is not at home, but his wife receives Harding's message. As Harding is incidentally telling Leila to overlook her husband's brusqueness, Waring appears and accuses his wife of making love to Harding. Harding goes away crestfallen. Leila and Blake have a dramatic and pathetic scene where Waring tells her that she is "his chattel," and that he cleared her father's name. Leila tells him she will be no man's chattel. The guests arrive, and Waring repents his bitterness toward Leila, for fear she will refuse to see his guests. Leila professes interest in business matters and finds out the inside information concerning the business deal. After the departure of the guests, Waring feels pleased with Leila's generosity and admires her, but won't relent. Leila is disappointed and the next day she departs for town with her jewels where she goes to the president of the Consolidated Trust Company and negotiates a loan of $75,000 on them. With the money she buys the stock under an assumed name. The stock rises higher and higher and finally she sells it to Waring. She takes the money to Waring with the jewels and tells him: "The chattel has come to buy back her freedom." Then she leaves. Leila, knowing she is not legally free, goes to Mrs. Delavan's cottage. When Waring, after an illness, is brought home he destroys the picture "The Chattel." After a month he sends for Mrs. Delavan and questions her as to Leila's whereabouts. She is moved by the change in Waring and confides in him. When strength returns, he hires a little cottage near Leila's and there lives alone. Sammy, a small boy, brings provisions to both Leila and Blake, who is living under the name of Hope. She does not know that her neighbor is her husband. After a short lapse of time, he slips up to her cottage in the night and leaves flowers on her steps. Waring keeps Leila's picture on his table. Sammy notices the resemblance to Leila in the picture and tells her of it. Sammy tells Waring what he has said to "the lady next door," and Waring has Sammy write a note to her asking if he may visit her. As she is answering the letter that night, she accidentally knocks over the lamp. The fire spreads rapidly and Waring rushes to her rescue, and the past is forgotten. They begin life anew.

Dir: Frederick A. Thomson

While her eccentric father perfects his latest invention, Nancy Fane wonders how she will clothe her brothers and sisters, and Mammy contemplates stealing the neighbor's chickens for dinner. One day Nancy hears a noise in the abandoned house next door and summons the sheriff, who reveals that the intruder is really Dick Ives, the house's owner. A novelist who hopes to win a prize for his new novel, Dick becomes so convinced of the value of Mr. Fane's invention that when a crooked promoter tries to buy it for a very low sum, Dick spirits it away to his room. Believing him a crook, Nancy shuns Dick's company, even after he contracts pneumonia while rescuing her sister from drowning. When Dick's contact with an engineering firm leads to a large check for her father's invention, however, Nancy enters the sick man's room and rushes his manuscript to the publisher, with the result that Dick wins both the prize and the girl next door.

Dir: Frederick A. Thomson

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

Seth Cartwright abandons his mistress Bernice Archer and their child, Loma, and returns to his wife and son. Bernice, in a daze, leaves Lorna, who is adopted by Cartwrght's wife, who knows full well who the child's father is. Unfortunately, she and her husband are killed in a shipwreck, but it turns out Loma and her real mother are reunited because of the wreck, and settle in a small seaside town. Matters get complicated when Seth Jr. arrives in the town for a vacation and falls in love with Lorna--not knowing that she is his half-sister.

Dir: Frederick A. Thomson

Standish, a wealthy Northerner, deserts his untutored Southern wife shortly after their daughter Primrose's birth, preferring to wed the cultured but haughty Emily. After her mother's death, Primrose is placed in the care of her uncle, who rears her as a refined and educated young lady. Longing for his daughter, Standish sends for her, and although Primrose, deeply resentful of her father, exaggerates the role of the uncouth mountain girl, he and his ward, Jack Wilton, come to love her deeply. Jack, who secretly married a dancer named Marie in a moment of drunken infatuation, reforms under Primrose's influence, but Newton, a broker to whom Standish is deeply in debt, demands her hand in marriage as his repayment. Primrose rejects Newton, and at a ball, she appears as her true self and offers her father some of her oil rich lands. After Standish has repaid Newton, his secretary recognizes Marie as his long-lost wife, leaving Jack free to marry his "wild" Primrose.

Dir: Frederick A. Thomson

John Howland travels to the frozen North to build a branch of the Hudson Bay Railroad. There he meets and falls in love with Meleese Thoreau who warns him that her three bloodthirsty brothers--Max, Pierre, and François--have sworn vengeance against a man named John Howland, the son of a man who killed their mother, and that torture and death await him along the route to his station. Just as Meleese said, Howland is pursued by the vengeance starved brothers. Captured and near death several times, Howland manages to escape with the assistance of Meleese and the Jean Croisset, until the brothers discover that they have been pursuing the wrong Howland, and all ends happily with the union of the two lovers.