Visionary Picks In Alignment with the style of The Swamp: Cult Guide

Dir: Colin Campbell

When her mother elopes with a lover and her father dies cursing the name of God, Domini Enfilden attempts to forget her pain in Beni Mora, an oasis in the Sahara. At the desert hotel, she meets and falls in love with Boris Androvsky, a tormented man of mystery. Abruptly announcing his departure one day, Boris bids farewell to Domini in the Garden of Allah, but passion overwhelms them, and after making love, they are married by Father Roubier. The two are happy until Capt. De Trevignac, a dinner guest, recognizes Boris as the former Father Antoine, a priest whose irrepressible lust forced him to leave the monastery. De Trevignac says nothing, but after his departure, Boris confesses to Domini, who urges him to return to the monastery. The years pass, and Domini rears her son Boris in the Garden of Allah.

Dir: Colin Campbell

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

"Bird," a clerk in Fordham's drugstore, agrees to place a large sum of money in the store's safe for a traveler, but when the man requests a bottle of medicine, Bird poisons the remedy, and the visitor is found dead in his hotel. Bird flees with the money, but several years later he returns, the money long since squandered. Unless Fordham's daughter Eleanor marries him, he threatens, he will tell the police that Fordham committed the crime. Eleanor's sweetheart, fireman Jack Manley, is puzzled by her involvement with Bird and decides to investigate. By chance, he meets an old alcoholic who once worked for Fordham and possesses the evidence to clear the druggist and convict Bird. The latter, fearing that he will be exposed, cuts the signal wires to Fordham's house and then sets it on fire, but Eleanor telephones the fire station, and the entire department is soon on the scene. Jack risks his life to save Eleanor and the old drunk, who finally exposes Bird. Soon afterwards, Jack and Eleanor climb aboard the fire engine to ride to their own wedding.

Dir: Colin Campbell

Former college football hero Kirk Anthony, to the disappointment of his father, a railroad magnate, refuses to enter the business world. Kirk prefers to coach the university team and carouse, until he is drugged during a drunken victory party and put aboard a steamer bound for Panama by an embezzler who switches clothes with him. During the trip, Mrs. Edith Cortlandt, who has married her diplomat husband for convenience, falls in love with Kirk. In Panama, Kirk and Allan Allan, a Jamaican friend, are arrested when Kirk's efforts to use American firefighting methods cause a riot. After Mrs. Cortlandt's influence gets Kirk out of jail and into a job, he falls in love with Chiquita Garavel, the daughter of a Spanish grandee. When Mrs. Cortlandt warns Kirk not to marry Chiquita, her husband overhears. He insults Kirk in public, and Kirk vows revenge. After Cortlandt commits suicide, and Kirk, who has secretly married Chiquita, is arrested, Mrs. Cortlandt withholds Cortlandt's suicide note, but Kirk's father arrives and convinces her to help arrange Kirk's release.

Dir: Colin Campbell

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of The Ne'er Do Well perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

A man is found guilty of murdering a woman by way of circumstantial evidence, and is executed. Afterwards, it is discovered that his supposed victim is not dead at all, but working as a prostitute in a Western city. Scenario was written for the screen by Maibelle Heikes Justice, who was an outspoken opponent of capital punishment.

Dir: Colin Campbell

Miss Otis nearly hits a derelict with her car, and out of sympathy she gives him some money and advises him to "clean up and keep clean." Soon after, the derelict meets Esther, an anarchist who involves him in a plot to blackmail a banker. When he realizes that Miss Otis is the banker's daughter, the derelict tears up the banker's check but is arrested and committed to an asylum. Esther, who is in love with the derelict, helps him escape, and he resolves to attain a position of wealth and importance. After he earns his fortune, he rejects Esther's affections and asks Miss Otis to marry him.

Dir: Colin Campbell

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of Who Shall Take My Life? perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

The first of many filmed adaptations of Rex Beach's adventure novel of the Alaskan gold-rush.

Dir: Colin Campbell

Stephen Brice, a young lawyer in Civil War-era St. Louis, falls in love with Virginia Carvel, the daughter of his benefactor. But she is loyal to the South and Brice is committed to Lincoln's cause. In the course of the war, their convictions separate them, and Virginia becomes engaged to her cousin Clarence Colfax, a Confederate officer. Brice becomes an officer under General Sherman, and eventually finds himself faced with the captured Colfax, facing execution for spying. Brice must decide whether or not to intercede in his rival's behalf.

Dir: Colin Campbell

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

A scientist who is married to an amoral woman lives next door to a happily married couple. At first envying their happiness, the scientist eventually falls in love with his neighbor's wife. When her husband goes on a business trip to Africa, the scientist also goes abroad to avoid temptation but finds himself sailing from Cairo aboard the same ship as his neighbor's wife, who is traveling to join her husband. The ship is wrecked when it collides with another vessel, and the two are marooned together at the edge of the jungle, with the woman suffering from amnesia and mistaking the scientist for her husband. About to kill himself to save the honor of his neighbors' marriage, the scientist is saved by the return of the woman's memory and by the subsequent arrival of her husband. Electing to remain in the jungle, the lonely scientist toasts the couple's happiness from afar.

Dir: Colin Campbell

Daisy Brooks, wife of Roanoke Brooks, night watchman in the factory of Robert Garlan, does not love her husband or her daughter, Elizabeth. Instead, she loves his money and she enters the primrose path with Garlan in order to satisfy her love for finery. Garlan, a roué, also neglects his infant son, Wynne, for worldly pleasures. In time Daisy Brooks' double life is discovered by her husband, and she kills herself in Garlan's mansion. At the appearance of Roanoke, who has followed, Garlan jumps from a window and kills himself. Roanoke buys a little farm where he lives with his daughter. With the passing years, Elizabeth, daughter of Roanoke, reaches womanhood and is known to her father as "Sweet Alyssum." Wynne Garlan, son of Robert Garlan, has grown to manhood and has married a woman of the world. Wynne, a poor bank clerk, is unable to provide for his wife in the way she wishes and she enters into an affair with Thurlow, the cashier of the bank where Wynne is employed. Thurlow steals from the bank and causes Wynne to be suspected of the crime. Wynne, in terror of arrest, escapes, and arrives in the country near Roanoke Brooks' farm. Sweet Alyssum dreams that her father's land has developed into an immense oil field. She pleads with him to dig for oil and he does so. Wynne Garlan, who has assumed the name of Wyatt, secures employment on Roanoke Brooks' farm. Wynne, later becomes a school teacher and Sweet Alyssum, his pupil, loves him dearly. He, for a time, withstands the innocent young girl's endearments but finally succumbs to her beauty and they elope and are married. When Roanoke Brooks hears of the marriage he is overcome with anger, but as he confronts the pair upon their return to the farm, oil is discovered. Joyful because Alyssum's dream has been realized, Roanoke Brooks forgives the couple and they reside with him. Two years pass by and Sweet Alyssum has become a mother. The oil fields have prospered and all is happiness in Roanoke Brooks' home. Thurlow, the crooked bank clerk, has not prospered during these years and finally wanders to the oil fields. There he sees Wynne Garlan. Thurlow informs the sheriff of the county that Wynne Garlan, known there as Wyatt, is a crook, and that if he is married he is guilty of bigamy for he has a wife living. The sheriff, upon Thurlow's instigations, telegraphs to New York and receives a reply to hold Wynne Garlan, who is wanted by the law. The justice of the peace, who is a friend of Roanoke Brooks and of Sweet Alyssum, goes to Roanoke's home to break the sad news. Roanoke determines to take the law into his own hands. The prosecuting attorney of the county also appears to get information from Sweet Alyssum concerning her husband's actions. When Sweet Alyssum is informed that her husband is accused of bigamy, she sacrifices even her own reputation for him and exclaims: "He cannot be charged with bigamy, for we were never married." Wynne Garlan leaves the magistrate's office and goes to Roanoke Brooks' home. As he enters the gate, he is seen by Roanoke Brooks, who seizes a rifle. As he is about to fire on Wynne, Sweet Alyssum places her little child between her father's rifle and her husband. Then a message comes from the police department of the city which reads as follows: "Garlan obtained divorce two years ago. No charge against him for bank robbery. Hold Thurlow. He is your man." Then it is that the girl tells her father that what she said about Wynne not marrying her was false as she wanted to protect him from arrest. And as Roanoke Brooks gathers his beloved daughter into his arms and shakes Wynne by the hand, the magistrate and the prosecuting attorney retire from the scene and are later instrumental in capturing Thurlow.

Dir: Colin Campbell

A fascinating piece of cinema that shares thematic elements.