Rare Cinematic Gems Exploring the Legacy of The Stimulating Mrs. Ba...

Dir: Jerome Storm

Ne'er-do-well Homer Cavender ventures to the city from Mainsville in an effort to find fame and fortune. Both elude him, and after clerking for two years, Homer returns home for a vacation. Impressed by his flashy clothes, the townspeople assume that Homer has achieved success. Attempting to win Rachel Prouty from his rival, Arthur Machim, Homer continues the deception by announcing that his employer, Kort and Bailly, has dispatched him to enroll stockholders for a proposed new plant to be built in Mainsville. Machim discovers the sham and denounces Homer as a crook. Meanwhile, Homer returns to New York, convinces his employers of the merits of his plan and comes home triumphant, with a proposal for both the new plant and for Rachel's hand in marriage.

Dir: Charley Chase

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.

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

Dir: Edgar Jones

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

Dir: Unknown Director

The Judge needs a present for his wife's birthday, so Harry suggests a new corset. They go to the shop, but he's so embarrassed to ask the saleslady he hides in a phone booth.Harry goes in, but finds a GUY wearing one, and runs out.They both dress as women to get back in, but Mrs. Rummy gets there and chases him out.

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

Dir: Mrs. Sidney Drew

Jimmy fusses around with the unconventional Maida until his wife gets home, and then goes back to being a good and faithful husband while his wife smiles to herself at his small digressions from the straight and narrow path.

Dir: Mrs. Sidney Drew

Henry tells a little white lie to Polly, then must tell another to protect the first, and so on, until he has wrapped himself in a web of falsehood too tight to unravel.

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

Dir: Reggie Morris

A fascinating piece of cinema that shares thematic elements.

Dir: Mrs. Sidney Drew

Jimmie gets interested in an actress who was a former sweetheart, with the emoting lady finally deciding to cure him by pretending to reciprocate and, in so doing, recites to him a long speech of romantic flavor, intermixed with free love doctrines from her next play. Jimmie gets alarmed when he finds himself apparently accepted, and beats a hasty retreat back home to wife and babies.

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

Dir: Richard Smith

Two female candidates for Chief of Police live across the hall from each other, and their political rivalry follows them home, leading to plenty of hi-jinks.

Dir: Mrs. Sidney Drew

Metro comedians Mr. and Mrs. Sidney Drew, after reading over an assortment of scenarios, decide to film a melodrama entitled Pay-Day , in which Sidney plays the role of the dapper but evil Kirke Brentwood. Although Kirke is wealthy, he forces Doris Fenton, the poor working girl who hopes to marry him, to steal for him, and while she serves time for the crime, he blithely marries another woman, Isabel. Upon Doris' release, she returns to Kirke just as he is strangling Isabel, and his accusation sends Doris to prison for life. After five years, she escapes and confronts Kirke, who has married yet another woman, Ruth. Softening, Doris suggests that they forget the past, but after kissing him, she reveals that she has leprosy and that they must both spend the rest of their days together in a leper colony. Back in their office, the Drews are informed by Metro president Richard A. Rowland that the film would be a huge financial success and should be produced.