Cinematic Discoveries Following the Footsteps of The Vicar of Wakef...

Dir: Ernest C. Warde

Lear is an old man blind to his weaknesses. He decides to divide his kingdom among his three daughters according to who recites the best declaration of love. Goneril and Regan pretend to love him but treat him cruelly. Cordelia is loyal but, confusing honesty with insolence, he disowns her.

Dir: Ernest C. Warde

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

When the circus comes to town, a mild-mannered man, whose good nature is viewed as weakness by wife, has the chance to prove himself when a lion escapes.

Dir: Ernest C. Warde

A murderer is driven slowly insane by a sequence of coincidences and suggestive events which will not allow him to escape his own sense of guilt for his crime.

Dir: Ernest C. Warde

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

Spoiled, lazy Harold Chester Winthrop Gordon finds that he has been disinherited, barred from seeing his sweetheart, and expelled from his club. He decides to reform himself and begins by crossing out his first three names with an "x." Thereafter known as "Three X Gordon," he says goodbye to pretty Dorrie Webster and sets out with his friend Archie for the West. Because they are penniless, however, they get only as far as a New Jersey town, where they become farmhands. Shocked at first by the long hours and hard labor, Three X and Archie soon find the work so physically and morally beneficial that they decide to establish a farm for the regeneration of millionaires' sons. The plan is a success, and Three X even makes a man of Dorrie's lazy brother. With the declaration of World War I, Three X proudly leads his clients into his country's service, promising to return to Dorrie.

Dir: Ernest C. Warde

After learning that her stepfather, John Braun, is a spy, Ruth leaves him and starts out upon a cross-country journey. In her travels, she sees a plane crash to earth and rushes to assist its pilot, John Barker. The two fall in love and are married. In the midst of their honeymoon, war breaks out and John is called to his post, leaving Ruth alone with only the servants to protect her. In John's absence, the enemy invades the countryside, commandeers the Barker house and imprisons Ruth in her room. Meanwhile, John takes leave to search for his wife. Managing to get through the enemy line, he arrives just as Ruth, enraged at the action of the invaders, dynamites the cellar of the house. As the building explodes, Ruth and John escape in his plane.

Dir: Ernest C. Warde

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

Wealthy businessman Carson Burr discovers first-hand the problem of social unrest when he loses his cook and his chauffeur and he is insulted by a waiter. Burr runs for mayor to improve the labor situation and is elected. The editor of The Red Messenger organizes the streetcar drivers to begin a general strike, but Burr manages to break up the strike by personally running a streetcar and backing it up with armed guards. The anarchists capture his son, but Burr will not back down. He calls together leading businessmen and proposes a cooperative plan that brings together capital and labor and puts a stop to future strikes. Capital and labor are also brought together when Burr's daughter becomes romantically involved with his valet turned personal secretary.

Dir: Ernest C. Warde

"In Hidden Valley," Valkyrien is a white goddess who has been captured by savage blacks in South Africa. She is found by a young missionary, played by Boyd Marshall, and rescued from a sacrificial altar. Valkyrien was selected as the most perfectly formed girl in Denmark in a competition conducted by the government. The dance of the white goddess before the natives is one of the most beautiful scenes in the production. The Moving Picture World, August 5, 1916.

Dir: Ernest C. Warde

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

In Hong Kong, William Neal helps Kirk Marden fight off a group of rowdies. Back in New York, Kirk again turns to William's assistance when his father's rivals plot to take control of the Marden railroad. William teaches Kirk how to open safes so that Kirk can procure papers outlining the takeover plans. While Kirk is robbing the safe, Janet Leslie, daughter of one of the conspirators, enters, and Kirk forces her to marry him so that she cannot testify against him. Kirk succeeds in reconciling his father with his rivals and in winning his new wife's love.

Dir: Ernest C. Warde

Sailor Jesse, shipwrecked off the Texas coast, naively becomes involved with a cattle rustler. Because the sheriff believes in his innocence, Jesse finds work as a cowboy, but soon becomes infatuated with Polly, the medium for fake hypnotist Bull Brooks, and marries her. When he learns that Polly married to win a bet, Jesse attempts to take her from the town's influences to open spaces, but Brooks falsely reports that she killed herself rather than go. In the mountains, Jesse meets Kate Trevor, an opera singer who moved there to help her alcoholic husband who abuses her. After Trevor drowns trying to cross a river when he sees Jesse and Kate together, they marry, have a child, and are happy until Polly and Brooks arrive. Kate and Jesse separate, but when Jesse learns that Brooks is attacking Kate, Jesse fights him. Polly shoots Brooks, but before he dies, he reveals that Polly was married to another man when she married Jesse.

Dir: Ernest C. Warde

Burke Harlan an artist, saves Anne Warren from auto thieves, but he is wrongfully arrested and accused of stealing her car. The girl's father is a criminologist and has Harlan released into his custody as he would like to try to reform the young man. Harlan finds this highly amusing and goes along with the idea, mainly because it will allow him to be nearer lovely Anne. He does his best at convincing he is a delinquent, however Anne has a beau who is the police commissioner. But the clever Harlan outwits everyone and elopes with Anne before revealing his true identity.