Visionary Picks In Alignment with the style of The Scarlet West: Cu...

Dir: John G. Adolfi

An English aristocrat visiting Norway falls in love with Thelma, daughter of a Viking-like Norse landowner, and this first part is an idyllic story. He marries her and takes her to England. Society women, one of whom has been infatuated with the young man, are disappointed, because Thelma is not only beautiful but has pretty manners and is popular. There is a very melodramatic conspiracy to break her heart by making her suspect her husband. It works and she runs away back to her Norway home. Her husband follows and the happy ending unites the two in the old Norse homestead.

Dir: John G. Adolfi

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

Schoolteacher Frances Angel finds herself attracted to wealthy rancher Jim McPherson but finds his rough-hewn ways objectionable, so when he proposes marriage she rejects him. Her father asks her to return to his home in the East, where her former boyfriend Chet Condon now holds the mortgage on the family home and is threatening to foreclose on it unless Frances marries him. When she also learns that her recently-widowed sister Jane is also moving back east with her newborn, Frances is torn between her duty to her family and her love for Jim.

Dir: John G. Adolfi

In Washington, D.C., Betty Lansing renews her acquaintance with young Congressman Brandon Kent and a romance blossoms. Betty and her mother conduct whist games at their home, the proceeds of which are donated to charity, but at one of these parties, Drake, an embezzler, is arrested. Because Kent arrived during the party, Oakland, a rival for Betty's heart, visits the campaign headquarters of Johnson, who is running against Kent for the gubernatorial nomination, and reports that the congressman was involved in a gambling raid. When it becomes clear at the state convention that few delegates plan to vote for Kent, Betty, with the aid of suffrage leader Mrs. Ogden, mounts the platform and delivers a rousing speech exposing Oakland as a liar. Exonerated, Kent wins the nomination.

Dir: John G. Adolfi

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

Stephen Field, a Jewish financier, takes great pleasure in philanthropic work at a community service center in the U.S. His daughter Esther devotes her time to entertaining returning soldiers in a canteen. When he reads in a newspaper about massacres of Jews and Armenians in Europe, and the suffering and starvation among other peoples there, Stephen remembers having lost his own wife and young son in a massacre years earlier. At the canteen, Esther meets Robert Graham, who suffers from fainting spells, the result of a war wound. Graham falls in love with Esther, much to the chagrin of his anti-Semitic father. Esther is also courted by the brilliant Jewish surgeon, William Morris. Esther's affection for Morris leads the jealous Graham to lash out at his rival with anti-Semitic invective even though Esther gently refuses Morris' marriage proposal. Graham loses control of his high-powered car due to a fainting spell, and the car goes over a precipice and turns over on top of him. Morris is the only person who can save his life, but the surgeon hesitates, fearing that failure would be interpreted as jealousy and thus compromise his professional integrity. Esther pleads with Morris to perform the operation, and he finally consents, sacrificing his own happiness for the woman he loves. The operation is proclaimed a surgical miracle, and Esther chooses to marry the man who performed that miracle.

Dir: John G. Adolfi

The true story of Edith Cavell, a British nurse who served with the underground in Belgium during the First World War.

Dir: John G. Adolfi

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of Who's Your Brother? perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

Unable to tolerate city life, Sadie Barker leaves her husband Max and with her baby, returns to her birth village; afraid to tell her father that she plans to raise a baby without a father, she pretends that she is still childless and asks Lucy White to look after the infant for a few months. Lucy quickly agrees; hoping to preserve Sadie's secret, she claims that the child is really her own, and even conceals the truth from her sweetheart, Dave Allen. Risking the condemnation of the community, which has already ostracized Lucy for having a baby out of wedlock, Dave decides to stand by his sweetheart. He marries her after Max and Sadie are reunited and take back their child.

Dir: John G. Adolfi

French Secret Service agent and boxer Henri D'Alour uncovers a plot to con the government out of millions of francs in its purchase of machinery.

Dir: John G. Adolfi

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

A teacher begins a school in the Tennessee mountains. His prize student is a charming but uneducated young woman named June. Their relationship turns to love, but a bullying, jealous rival tries to break them up by telling her that the teacher's sister and niece are actually his wife and daughter.

Dir: John G. Adolfi

Joyce's mother keeps her younger daughter in the background so that Polly, the elder daughter, can monopolize all the eligible young men, especially Tom. Although Tom is Polly's choice, she decides to pique his interest by flirting with Harry. Joyce, who likes Tom herself, decides to defeat her sister's plan by having Tom pretend that he likes her. Soon, the pretense turns to love and Tom proposes to Joyce. To test his sincerity, Joyce jumps into shark-infested waters and almost loses her life. Tom visits her constantly in the hospital and finds that his operation on her heart was quite successful.

Dir: John G. Adolfi

Wealthy playboy Jack Edmunds spends some time in a small mountain town, where he makes the acquaintance of local girl Caprtice Talbert and invites her to his apartment. When Caprice's father finds out about it--although nothing happened--he forces the two to marry, and the newlyweds move to Jack's home in the city. Tensions arise between the two as Jack is still resentful over the "shotgun wedding" and Caprice finds that she can't bear living in the big city and wants to return home.