Hidden Genre Gems for Fans of The Silent Master: Cult Guide

Dir: Léonce Perret

Leroy Trenchard loves Therese Verneuil, and when Leroy enters the army goes to France to fight, Therese follows as a Red Cross nurse. But suspicion arises that Therese is actually Princess Sonia, a German spy.

Dir: Léonce Perret

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

Grand Duchess Aurora if forced into an unhappy marriage with Grand Duke Rudolph. Rudolph prepares to leave for the Congo but he is murdered by his brother. Aurora goes to Paris be with her father and enters the gay revelries there until she hears of her husband's death. She returns to the Kingdom, where she meets a tutor who falls in love with her. Together they discover her brother-in-law's treachery, and she helps her lover escape from his vengeance. War is declared and the tutor loses his life at Verdun. Aurora goes to France and places a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier with the thought the tombs may be his.

Dir: Léonce Perret

Vania, the daughter of Russian revolutionary Serge Ostowski, escapes to America when her father is blown up by one of his own bombs. There she marries Clifford Howard, a drug-ridden man whom she comes to despise. One night while in a drunken rage, Howard attacks her, and Vania shoots and kills him. Her attorney, Hugh Mason, believing her innocent, falls in love with his client. Vania does not tell him the truth for fear of losing his love. Meanwhile, revolutionaries have pursued Vania to America to obtain her father's papers. In defense, Hugh hires detectives to protect her. One night, a revolutionary breaks into her house and is shot by the detective. Before dying, he confesses that it was he who fired the shot that killed Vania's husband, thus freeing her to accept Hugh's love.

Dir: Léonce Perret

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

A fascinating piece of cinema that shares thematic elements.

Dir: Léonce Perret

Young Kitty runs away from home to avoid marrying a man she doesn't love. Her car breaks down on a country road and she meets Robert, a young artist who has just been turned down by a woman he loved madly and is about to commit suicide by lying on the railroad tracks. He sees Kitty in trouble and decides to help her. They get the car running, but it runs out of gas in front of a farmhouse. The farmer, mistakenly believing that the two are married, has them share a bedroom for the night. The next morning Kitty's father shows up looking for her and discovers that she has "spent the night" with a stranger. Complications ensue.

Dir: Léonce Perret

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

Lolette is the painter Rouchard's model and he wants to marry her. But she is not interested in him and falls in love with Pierre Bernier, a penniless painter.

Dir: Léonce Perret

Sisters Yancsi and Roszika Dolly are loved by Jack Hobson and Tom Hylan respectively, but the twins refuse to marry until they are as wealthy as their prospective husbands. Accordingly they agree, in exchange for a million dollars, to aid a celebrated psychologist who is developing a cure for an ailing maharajah. The maharajah inexplicably detests his bride, a beautiful princess, and the Dolly sisters are sent to his New York palace to learn the cause of his odd behavior. They soon discover that the maharajah has been hypnotized by his uncle, the Rajah Ismael, but the spell is broken when, after a series of dangerous adventures, one of the twins obtains a ring from the maharajah and gives it to the princess. As the maharajah takes his wife in his arms, the Dolly sisters return home with their million and prepare to marry their sweethearts.

Dir: Léonce Perret

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

Mrs. Philip Mason commits suicide after she has an affair with Stephen Lee, a disreputable stockbroker, and sells her husband's securities so that Lee can buy stocks. When Lee goes bankrupt, he blackmails Helen Trent by threatening to reveal silly love letters she wrote to him before she married. Her brother, Willy Grosby, and his fiancée, Helen O'Neil, who lives with the Grosbys, go to retrieve the letters. While Willy waits outside, Lee is knifed to death as he attacks Helen. Lee's friend, Edward Wales, attempts to pin the murder on Helen by having Madame LaFarge, a clairvoyant, conduct a séance. In the darkened room, Wales, through whom Lee's spirit supposedly speaks, is about to name Helen as the murderer, but Wales, who sits in the thirteenth chair, is himself murdered. After Helen confesses to Inspector Donohue that Madame LaFarge is her mother, LaFarge, while conducting another séance, tricks Philip Mason into confessing to the murders.

Dir: Léonce Perret

Matthew Versigny, the head of an American diamond concern, travels abroad with his sister Marguerite to learn the source of some imitation stones which are so perfect that even his company has purchased them. In Paris, they join forces with Paul Bernac, a special agent of the French Secret Service, and Andre Zarnoff, the chemist who invented the formula for the fake stones. The trail brings them into contact with Arthur Graves, the master mind of the counterfeiting ring, who determines to eliminate Versigny. After kidnapping his adversary, Graves employs the Baron de Lambri, Versigny's former manager, to steal the secret formula from Versigny's safe, thus making it appear as if Versigny had decamped with his company's papers. Versigny finally escapes and, with the aid of Bernac and Marguerite, tracks Graves down and captures the villains.

Dir: Léonce Perret

Count Fernand De Keramic plots against his niece in order to acquire her wealth to pay his debts.