The Global Archive For Devotees of The Thirteenth Chair: Cult Guide

Dir: Léonce Perret

Robert Hyde is a confirmed bachelor who has sworn never to marry. Not even the pleading of his two close friends, the pastor and the lawyer, will move him. But an automobile accident brings Clarice to his home and during her recovery, she and Robert fall in love. After their wedding, Clarice's happiness is marred by Robert's preoccupation with hunting and fishing. The pastor then advises her that she will never know real happiness until she has children. Shortly after this, Clarice's aunt, Mrs. Grosvenor, brings a large party of friends to the Hyde estate for a visit. They all plan to give a performance of William Shakespeare's Othello for charity, but the count annoys Robert by his lovemaking scenes with Clarice. After a startling dream in which Robert's Othello kills Clarice's Desdemona, Robert finds the count making advances in earnest, and throws him out. Robert then begins to pay more attention to his wife and soon Clarice finds herself pregnant and happy.

Dir: Léonce Perret

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

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 moneylender kidnaps the young son of an rich widow as part of a plot to cheat her of her fortune. The boy is sent away on a fishing boat with the intention of drowning him, but a kindly old fisherman intervenes.

Dir: Léonce Perret

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

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

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

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of The Accidental Honeymoon 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

Valentin Marquis de Sombreiul, alias Monsieur Simon, is known as the great master because he is the leader of a band of Parisian Apaches who mete out their own private justice to individuals who have violated their code in a secret tribunal known as the court of St. Simon. In an effort to cure Eugene, a young American longing for excitement, Valentin induces the young man to witness these horrors with the result that the youth is drawn into the Apache gang and sentenced to prison for one of their crimes. Later, after the master has disbanded his secret society and married Virginia Arlen, a charming girl from an aristocratic family, he discovers to his horror that the boy whose life he has ruined is his wife's brother. When Virginia learns the truth, she refuses to forgive Valentin, but after a period of separation, the two are reconciled by their child.

Dir: Léonce Perret

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

At a house party given by Doris Parker, the daughter of a retired sea captain, Doris' friends congregate to receive mail from their "adopted" soldiers in France. When one of them suggests that Doris write to Harry Townsend, who has no family or friends outside of the army, she writes a note and he sends her a friend's photograph since he has none of himself. Harry's letters awaken a love in Doris which causes her to deny the ardent entreaties of Captain Jack Tims. After Harry is wounded and thinks he will die, his farewell note inspires Doris to visit. After Doris convinces Tims to take her aboard his transport ship against naval regulations, a submarine attack results in Tims' death and burial at sea. Finding Harry's face covered with bandages, Doris nurses him to health, and then discovers that he is not the soldier in her photograph, but she realizes she loved him because of his letters. After the armistice they marry.

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

Separated since birth, twins Violet and Daisy White are unaware of each other's existence. Violet, the idol of her indulgent father Harry has everything her heart could desire while Daisy, reared by her indigent mother, is poorly clad and underfed. This fragile child of the slums is not aware that John Bent possesses certain papers which confirm her true relation to Harry White. By hiding from Daisy's father the truth of her existence, Bent is able to manipulate the twins to his own best advantage; they become his pawns. After hiding Daisy away in school, he substitutes her for Violet, whom he has forced into marriage, when the latter dies. Then he disposes of Daisy by declaring her insane and placing her in an asylum. It appears that Bent will win the game until Bob Anderson, who is in love with Daisy, comes to her rescue and checkmates the black knight.