Masterpiece Selection Resonating with the Themes of The Village Smithy: Cult Guide

Dir: F. Richard Jones

Wild flapper Patricia Van Nuys decides to become a pilot like her husband Robert, but with a difference--she wants to become the first woman to cross the Atlantic Ocean by airplane. Capt. Endicott, a friend of Robert's, offers to teach her how to fly. One day while aloft in the plane, the craft takes a sudden nosedive and crashes. The pair walk away uninjured and find shelter in a roadhouse. Robert, upon hearing of this, becomes jealous of Pat's spending so much time with Endicott, which angers Pat. She decides to leave Robert and slips out of the house to catch an evening train, but unfortunately Endicott is also aboard the train. Robert finds out about that, too. Complications ensue.

Dir: F. Richard Jones

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

The comic difficulties encountered by the proprietor of a small hotel when he tries to run a "speakeasy" in the cellar.

Dir: F. Richard Jones

A young married couple appears before a judge to get a divorce. The wife shows the judge some pictures of her husband with his arms around another woman, as "proof" that he was cheating on her. The husband, for his part, claims that he was just innocently helping the woman and that he was being blackmailed by the photographer who took the picture.

Dir: F. Richard Jones

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of Love, Honor and Behave! perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

A young man from the country travels to the city to find his fortune. Although he has a letter of introduction from his wealthy uncle, the best job he can find is that of a street cleaner. He catches the eye of his landlady, who somehow manages to get the man to propose to her, but he then falls in love with a pretty young socialite, and when his rich uncle dies finds himself being sued by a gold-digging vamp who wants to her her hands on his inheritance.

Dir: F. Richard Jones

This short was a promo piece for Mack Sennett's Yankee Doodle in Berlin (1919), with many of the same characters in addition to the Mack Sennett Bathing Beauties.

Dir: F. Richard Jones

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

Mickey, an orphan who has been brought up in a mining settlement, is sent to New York to live with her aunt.

Dir: F. Richard Jones

An Irish washerwoman's daughter falls in love with one of America's most eligible bachelors, much to the chagrin the young doctor's fiancée. The two girls attend a masked ball in similar costumes, where Molly is mistaken for her rival.

Dir: F. Richard Jones

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of Why Beaches Are Popular perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

A fascinating piece of cinema that shares thematic elements.

Dir: F. Richard Jones

A crusade against women wearing clothes which are more abbreviated than the law allows results in policemen and jurists being captivated by their captives.

Dir: F. Richard Jones

Framed for stealing some pearls while staying at the country home of her aunt and uncle, Mr. and Mrs. Dennison, Delsie O'Dell ( Dorothy Gish ) is banished from their house. Delsie along with her bulldog, Violet, follows Oscar, the actual thief, to an old haunted house, which is the hideout for a gang of thieves. A series of humorous escapades follows as she first hides from the thieves, then pretends to be a ghost, terrorizing them. Eventually she retrieves the pearls, clears her name, and is safe once again in the arms of Bill, Dennison's secretary.