Deep Archive Finds in the Vein of The Wrong, Wrong Trail: Cult Guide

Dir: Jerome Storm

Ne'er-do-well Homer Cavender ventures to the city from Mainsville in an effort to find fame and fortune. Both elude him, and after clerking for two years, Homer returns home for a vacation. Impressed by his flashy clothes, the townspeople assume that Homer has achieved success. Attempting to win Rachel Prouty from his rival, Arthur Machim, Homer continues the deception by announcing that his employer, Kort and Bailly, has dispatched him to enroll stockholders for a proposed new plant to be built in Mainsville. Machim discovers the sham and denounces Homer as a crook. Meanwhile, Homer returns to New York, convinces his employers of the merits of his plan and comes home triumphant, with a proposal for both the new plant and for Rachel's hand in marriage.

Dir: Vernon Stallings

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

Krazy Kat is held in jail and Ignatz finally bails him out after encountering "guilt".

Dir: Joseph Henabery

An attractive young woman thrusts an attorney into wild adventures.

Dir: Unknown Director

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

The Judge needs a present for his wife's birthday, so Harry suggests a new corset. They go to the shop, but he's so embarrassed to ask the saleslady he hides in a phone booth.Harry goes in, but finds a GUY wearing one, and runs out.They both dress as women to get back in, but Mrs. Rummy gets there and chases him out.

Dir: Charley Chase

A young married couple volunteer to take charge of several orphans after the asylum has burned down. Of course they find their hands full with their troublesome charges.

Dir: Joseph Henabery

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

Mountaineer Pap Clayton has promised his daughter Sairy Ann (Dorothy Gish) to his cousin Jed Martin, but Sairy Ann loves Dr. Richard Cavanagh (Sam DeGrasse), the son of Judge Lee Cavanagh. In the midst of a feud between the Claytons and the Jacksons, a jealous Jed sets out to kill Richard. Jed shoots a deputy who gets in his way and is taken before Judge Cavanagh, whom the Claytons have threatened to kill if Jed is convicted. The Claytons are true to their word when Cavanagh finds him guilty, and Richard immediately vows to kill Jed, who has escaped. Sairy Ann, however, reminds Richard that he has railed against family feuding and has said that only the law can take a life. A sobered Richard captures Jed and hands him over to authorities; then, after he has forgiven the Claytons, he and Sairy Ann become engaged.

Dir: Reggie Morris

A fascinating piece of cinema that shares thematic elements.

Dir: Maurice Campbell

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

Carver Endicott, a young sophisticate, is rejected by his fiancée for being too foppish and dull. When she feigns an interest in his father, Carver attempts to disgrace his family name by working as a farmhand and later as a busboy in a hotel. However, the newspapers only praise him for his self-sacrificing principles; and finding that he cannot bring shame to the family through menial labor, he takes up with a notorious actress. But when this maneuver also fails, he returns to his former fiancée, who has no further complaint about his being an inexperienced dullard.

Dir: Joseph Henabery

Whenever The Young Fellow is troubled or undecided, The Hunch, a miniature version of The Young Fellow, perches on his shoulder offering common-sense advice and encouragement. Consequently, when The Young Fellow, recently hired as a cub reporter for The New York Herald , is assigned to interview a noted financier who earlier refused to admit a star reporter, he screws up his courage, scales the millionaire's wall and forces the interview from him at the point of a gun. The editor, much impressed, then asks the young man to unearth the facts concerning a scheme to defraud a group of minor stockholders in the town of Melford. Unless certain papers in the possession of an old bachelor are delivered to a board meeting, the villainous financier will win complete control of a local company, and the stockholders will lose their investments. With the aid of his Hunch, the aging bachelor's attractive secretary and The Young Fellow's spinster landlady, the determined reporter thwarts the millionaire and his gang of thugs, delivers the papers on time and obtains a sensational story. In the process, he captures the secretary's heart, while the spinster wins the kindly bachelor.

Dir: Lloyd Ingraham

While walking along the street one day, Arthur P. Hampton, an impoverished young doctor, and his chums, Stub Masters and Johnny Stokes, are persuaded to part with their last remaining funds by tag day solicitor Mary Jane Smith, with whom the doctor promptly falls in love. Doc's friends then hit upon a get-rich-quick scheme. Knowing that his Uncle George has promised a large sum of money upon his nephew's marriage, they persuade Doc to send out fake wedding invitations naming Mary Jane as the blushing bride. Uncle George, elated at the good news, writes to Mary Jane's aunt, Angelica Burns, an old sweetheart, to invite Mary Jane and Angelica to be his guests on an ocean voyage. Meanwhile, Mary Jane pays a visit to the doctor's office and, upon seeing the wedding invitations, becomes so flustered that she trips and sprains her ankle. Doc comes to her rescue and then begs her to pose as his wife. She agrees, but at ship-side, Stub and Johnnie confess all to Uncle George, who flies into a rage until Doc announces that he and Mary Jane have chosen a wedding at sea.