The Recommended Vault Deeply Connected to They Shall Pay: Cult Guide

Dir: Eduardo Notari

A crime drama in the Gennariello-series. The police detective in Naples that is confronted with modern gangsters and crime events.

Dir: Martin Justice

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

John Lorison, self-exiled to New Orleans, meets Norah Greenway in a cheap restaurant. They soon become friends, but each night, Norah inexplicably leaves John at 8 o'clock at the same corner. One night, Lorison realizes that he is no longer willing to be left on the corner of life alone and, dreading her reaction, he tells Norah that he loves her but that his past is marred by a charge of theft and that he dare not ask an untarnished woman to marry him. Norah eases his mind by disclosing that the crime of theft also lurks in her past. The night of their marriage at Father Rogan's house, Norah asks Lorison to leave her at the corner for one last time. His suspicions aroused, Lorison interrogates the priest who takes him to Norah's home where the new husband is confronted with a little child who tells him that the girl has promised that this is the last night she is going to stay out. These circumstances lead Lorison to believe that his wife is a street walker until the priest takes him to the dressmaking shop in which Norah has been laboring day and night in order to earn enough money so that she might brighten the life of her little brother. Father Rogan then explains that Norah had told a beautiful, desperate lie.

Dir: Maurice Elvey

A lady marries a horse trainer but withholds herself until her crippled brother is cured.

Dir: Martin Justice

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

Maida and Grace of the Busy Bee Department Store, are chums, but rivals for the hand of Mr. Ramsey, head clerk at the store. They both consider him extremely eligible and a good catch, for he is about to be taken into partnership. Old Bachman, the proprietor, always gives a Thanksgiving dinner to his employees, and for this particular occasion, Maida has managed to buy the material for a purple dress. She tells Schlegel the tailor that she will pay a balance owing of four dollars the night before Thanksgiving. Her friend Grace had spent her room rent on a new dress to attend the Thanksgiving dinner, and so Grace will not be thrown out of her room, generous Maida advances to her the small sum she had put aside as the final payment on her purple dress. After the dinner she leaves and goes to the tailor, and to her surprise he gives her the dress. She discards her old one and starts forth with the new purple beauty. On the way she meets Mr. Ramsey, and she makes such an impression on him that he decides that now is the time to get married.

Dir: Martin Justice

This story revolves around a young woman who loses her job and a young man who has been unable to make a success as an art photographer. A fire breaks out in the house where the woman is rooming, and she rushes to the street en dishabille, just as the man appears. Immediately he has visions of a fortune, and persuades her to pose as a wild Greek girl. He has her arrested for performing Grecian dances in the street in her scanty attire. After she is freed, she causes a sensation in a restaurant, and by the next day is headlined in all the newspapers, with the result that the bright young man succeeds in securing a contract for his "star" at a big salary.

Dir: Bruno Ziener

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

A fascinating piece of cinema that shares thematic elements.

Dir: Edgar Jones

A mail-order bride arrives at a Maine lumber camp but doesn't like her prospective husband.

Dir: Martin Justice

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

Towers Chandler saves a little out of his weekly pay from an architect's office and uses it to have a night on the town every few weeks. On one outing he meets a shop girl. When he boasts of his yachts and polo ponies she disdains his lack of a worthy purpose in life. The shop girl, though, is in reality the daughter of a tycoon. Her father decides to build a country house and employs the firm where Towers works. He brings the architectural plans to the tycoon's house and when the girl sees him meaningfully employed she realizes his does have a purpose in life.

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: Martin Justice

Nevada Warren is a poor girl who can neither read nor write and suddenly finds herself surrounded by luxury. Nevada's father dies, and she is sent to live with his wealthy brother in New York. Her cousin, Barbara, soon becomes jealous of the attentions that Gilbert Ross, an artist, is paying her, and when he sends Nevada a note about some flowers, Barbara tells her it is a request for her to come to Gilbert's studio at midnight. Nevada goes, thinking Gilbert is ill. He is surprised to see her, but as he really loves her, and learns of Barbara's deception, proposes an immediate elopement, to which Nevada agrees with alacrity. She confesses to Gilbert that she cannot read or write, but he says that can easily be remedied, and that the note about the flowers proved to be the best letter he ever wrote.