The Definitive Watchlist For Devotees of The Soapsuds Lady: Cult Guide

Dir: Arthur Rosson

A fascinating piece of cinema that shares thematic elements.

Dir: Charley Chase

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

A young married couple volunteer to take charge of several orphans after the asylum has burned down. Of course they find their hands full with their troublesome charges.

Dir: Edgar Jones

A mail-order bride arrives at a Maine lumber camp but doesn't like her prospective husband.

Dir: Henry Edwards

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

A millionaire bets £25,000 that he can earn his own living for six months.

Dir: Arthur Rosson

Cassidy, a derelict suffering from tubercular lungs, who is stranded in San Francisco, realizes that death is imminent and desperately seeks to return to his home town of New York. Determining to rob a house in order to procure the funds to complete his journey, Cassidy breaks into District Attorney Grant's home but is caught by Grant. After hearing the boy's story, Grant is so touched that he gives Cassidy money to return home. Cassidy is able to repay his debt that very night when the district attorney's daughter is kidnapped by his political enemies. Learning the girl's whereabouts from his friend, the bartender, Cassidy rescues her and takes her home. Then, badly wounded, he makes his way to the railroad station where he dies.

Dir: Maurice Campbell

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of The Amazing Quest of Mr. Ernest Bliss perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

Carver Endicott, a young sophisticate, is rejected by his fiancée for being too foppish and dull. When she feigns an interest in his father, Carver attempts to disgrace his family name by working as a farmhand and later as a busboy in a hotel. However, the newspapers only praise him for his self-sacrificing principles; and finding that he cannot bring shame to the family through menial labor, he takes up with a notorious actress. But when this maneuver also fails, he returns to his former fiancée, who has no further complaint about his being an inexperienced dullard.

Dir: Arthur Rosson

Millionaire spendthrift Sam Morgan marries Constance Winwood, who tries to break Sam's spending habits by convincing Downer, the trustee of Sam's inheritance, to pretend to abscond with Sam's money. During their honeymoon, Sam spends his $10.30 pocket money, then discovers that his checks are bouncing. Unable to pay an increasingly-large taxi fare, Sam and Constance keep the cab and its sleepy driver engaged after they are thrown out of a hotel. After a friendly thief gets Sam a job in a herring refinery, Sam uses his rudimentary knowledge of Spanish to buy a shipload of herring from a South American dealer and sell it to the refinery's directors, who know no Spanish, thus making enough profit to pay his now-exorbitant taxi bill. Constance confesses her scheme, and although it seems that Downer really has absconded, he finally returns. Wealthy again, Sam and Constance adorn their bedroom with taxi meters and headlights.

Dir: Arthur Rosson

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

Dreamer dairyman Phineas Dobbs of Cow Hollow suddenly acquires a fortune when oil is discovered on his ranch, and celebrates by throwing a party for the whole town. One day a young woman comes to town, delayed by train trouble. Dobbs rescues her from the town bully, and agrees to follow her to San Francisco. The woman is actually a princess who is being forced into a marriage with a man who wants to share her throne. Dobbs rides by Market Street to the St. Francis Hotel in his Western garb, and performs daring stunts to rescue the princess in distress. Together they free the princess' father. Dobbs then returns to Cow Hollow, and the princess gives up her throne to become Mrs. Phineas Dobbs.

Dir: Unknown Director

A fascinating piece of cinema that shares thematic elements.

Dir: Ralph Ince

A fascinating piece of cinema that shares thematic elements.