Must-Watch List Comparable to the Style of The Tomboy: Cult Guide

Dir: Wilfred Lucas

Brian O'Farrell (Snowy Baker), is an English 'new chum' who takes a job at an Australian cattle station. He is teased by station hands because of his appearance (including spats and a monocle) but he soon impresses them with his skills at riding and boxing. The station manager, John MacDonald (Wilfred Lucas), takes O'Farrell to Sydney to meet his daughter Edith (Kathleen Key) who is working in the slums. Edith is kidnapped by criminals after witnessing a crime but O'Farrell rescues her. It is later revealed he is the owner of the station.

Dir: Carl Harbaugh

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of The Other Man's Wife perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

Three New York families are introduced: wealthy Fred Hartley and his wife, who, feeling neglected, encourages the attentions of debonair J. Douglas Kerr, the middle-class Moore family, consisting of mother, daughter, and son Jimmie who supports them, and the Simons, an East Side Jewish family. When America enters the war, Hartley, Jimmie, and Davy Simon enlist. When Jimmy says goodbye to his sweetheart Becky, one of Davy's three sisters, her father refuses to consider him as a future son-in-law. Kerr sends Mrs. Hartley a cablegram reporting Hartley's death in the war. She puts off responding to Kerr's proposal, and after the armistice, Hartley finds her trying to break free from Kerr's embrace. When Kerr hastily exits, an irate butler grabs his trousers. Mr. Simon accepts Jimmie as Becky's fiancé, and Kerr is last seen squatting so that his overcoat covers his backside.

Dir: Carl Harbaugh

Hezekiah Dill is a meek clerk in a store in a small town. One day a pair of criminals robs the store safe, but Hezekiah manages to lock them in the safe, and begins to pick up their intended loot. He suddenly realizes that all this money would enable him to become the "Broadway Sport" he's always wanted to be, so he goes for it. Complications ensue.

Dir: Carl Harbaugh

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

Marie Grandon, one of the multitude that labor in a big New England oyster cannery, meets "Iron" Lloyd, millionaire financier and tenement owner, whose yacht is cruising off the coast near the town where Marie works. Lloyd is visiting the little city incognito. He gets into a fight and is injured. During his illness he becomes acquainted with Marie, and as he convalesces their friendship ripens into love. Marie tells him that if she had the means she would wage battle against the oppressive tenement lords and carry on a campaign of reform. To test her, Lloyd, whom she knows as Strange, has his lawyer transfer a fortune to her. Marie thinks the money is a legacy from a long lost relative. The girl goes to New York and does what she vowed she would do. She concentrates her fight on Lloyd and his tenements. Ogden Deneau, Lloyd's business rival, associates himself with Marie, claiming interest in her work, but really to crush Lloyd. But Marie also has old scores to settle with Deneau, and in her plan to ruin both of these financiers enlists Strange's aid. Strange, or Lloyd, helps her gladly, and on the evening of the day the grate coup is to be made, meets her. He tells Marie that Deneau is bankrupt. When she asks about Lloyd, he informs her of the deception he has practiced. At first she is furious. Later she hears his explanation of the test and finally agrees to start life over again with him, a life not to be marred with sordid tenements.

Dir: Carl Harbaugh

Sarah Maitland is consumed by two interests, managing her steel mill and raising her children, Blair and Nannie, to be honest and caring. As a result, she is shocked when Blair seduces Elizabeth Ferguson away from his best friend, Doctor David Ritchie, and marries her. Elizabeth soon realizes her mistake and begs David to take her back, but his mother Helena, calling upon personal experience, warns the couple against an extra-marital affair. Then, Sarah is injured in a mill accident and doctors predict that she will die in a few hours. David manages to save her, however, and when Blair comes to see her, he vows to divorce Elizabeth so that she can marry the man she really loves.

Dir: Edward LeSaint

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of A Rich Man's Plaything perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

When famous opera singer Elinore Duane undergoes an operation on her throat, she has a series of ether-induced visions. In one, she is transported to ancient Rome where she appears as a much-admired woman in love with Paul, a young heretic, and at odds with Lutor, the high priest. To save her love, she poisons Lutor with her ring. After several other visions which involve variations on this love triangle, Elinore awakens to discover that Lutor is actually her doctor, Sascha Jaccard, and that Paul is the son of a friend who has come to visit the recovering prima donna.

Dir: Bruno Ziener

A fascinating piece of cinema that shares thematic elements.

Dir: Reggie Morris

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

A fascinating piece of cinema that shares thematic elements.

Dir: Carl Harbaugh

Shirley Reynolds returns home from boarding school to find that her mother, weary of her husband's philandering, has filed for divorce. Hoping to effect a reconciliation, Shirley visits her father's apartment, where she interrupts a riotous party held in honor of his new mistress, Lola Wayne. Shirley prevents Lola's outraged father from killing her own father, but later, Wayne decides to wreak his revenge through Shirley and hires the lecherous Trask to lure her to ruin. On a particular evening, Wayne persuades Shirley to visit Trask's disreputable roadhouse, where Lola has arranged to meet with Reynolds. Suspicious, Shirley's sweetheart, Richard Ormsby, follows her to the inn. Reynolds hears Shirley struggling with Trask behind a locked door but is unable to assist her until Richard arrives. Trask, in his struggle to escape the two men, leaps from a window to his death, after which Wayne takes Lola home. Shirley then convinces her mother to forgive her remorseful husband.

Dir: Carl Harbaugh

Robert Booth travels to Pittsburgh both to negotiate a million-dollar war contract with a foreign prince and to marry his sweetheart Ruth Hunneywell. Robert's rival Chester Firkins hires thugs to kidnap Robert so that he can win the contract for himself. Robert, however, escapes from the kidnappers, and after a series of adventures, during which he is pursued by the police and nearly blown up by a stick of dynamite, the daring Robert rescues Ruth, saves the prince's life and obtains the prized contract.