The Essential Watchlist that Capture the Essence of War and the Wom...

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 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 pro at the shell game, Jim Blake practices his skills at country fairs, circuses, and carnivals until he becomes "J. Hatfield Blake," the promoter of phony stock and land deals which provide his beloved daughter Margaret with luxuries. Margaret falls in love with Dick Wilbur, who leaves her because Blake swindles his father out of $100,000 and Margaret sides with Blake. When Margaret meets a poor widow with starving babies to whom Blake sold some worthless desert land, she leaves him, saying she will not return until he rectifies his wrongdoings. She marries Dick, while Blake, shaken by her words, repays everyone who suffered from his dishonesty after he legitimately strikes oil. Alone on Christmas Eve, Blake invites some barroom characters to his mansion for a drunken dinner, after which, at his urging, they take his silverware and paintings. Blake continues to drink and when Margaret and Dick arrive to surprise him, they find him dead.

Dir: Ernest C. Warde

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of Gates of Brass 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

When Barbara Norton is left orphaned, she goes to live with her aunt and uncle. Time passes, now grown to adulthood, Barbara, becomes engaged to a wealthy young man who believes in pacifism. When the United States declares war on Germany, Barbara's fiance declines to enlist, and so Barbara gives him back his engagement ring and goes to France as a Red Cross nurse. En route, her steamer is torpedoed and Barbara is assumed to be drowned. Even this tragedy does not inspire the young man's patriotism and when solicited to enlist, he declares that the United States be damned. These sentiments shock an old friend of his father's, who brings the young man a copy of the book The Man Without a Country . Upon reading the book, the young man visualizes the story of Philip Nolan and is compelled to serve his country. As he is about to go to war, Barbara returns, and the two lovers embrace.

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.

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

Although John Lynch owns a ranch, he earns his living gambling in the mining town of El Monte, California. His father Elias, a Virginia gentleman chagrined by his son's gambling, leaves to live outside the town in a cabin with his friend "Twisted" Tuttle. 'Bige Rivers, a road agent who looks like John, abuses his lover Nita, a dance hall girl, who then is cared for by John and his daughter Mary. Rivers and his band rob the midnight stage of gold and kill all the passengers at the same time that John is in the vicinity to visit his father. Rivers and his gang divide the money at Tuttle's cabin where he shoots Elias. Before he dies, Elias accuses John of the shooting. Nita's screams upon discovering Rivers hiding, bring the mob, about to lynch John, too late to save her. John shoots Rivers and is then released.

Dir: Ernest C. Warde

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of The Man Without a Country 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

Lemuel Deering's son Harvey graduates from college at the top of his class, then returns home to become a partner in his father's steel business. Because Harvey appears to be an exemplary young man who neither drinks nor smokes, when bills from liquor dealers, tobacconists, and billiard emporia pour in, the proud father is mystified. Harvey stoutly denies having contracted the bills, including one for $25,000, and Lemuel, though puzzled, believes him until the workers threaten to strike and the bank places an attachment on the mill. Lemuel is about to disown his son when Harold Morrowton, Harvey's college roommate, confesses that he forged Harvey's name to the bills because his own father refused to give him spending money, and Harvey adds that because the two were fraternity brothers, he could not betray Harold's trust. Exasperated, Lemuel orders both young men to pay their debts through hard labor in the mill.

Dir: Ernest C. Warde

John Benton is the head of a company that makes parts for ships. He is a fair and honorable man, but his partner Henry Vance is not. Vance and employee Daniel Grey sign Benton's name to orders for boilers they know to be defective. Their partners in the scheme, which involve installing the boilers in the ship so it will sink at sea and they can collect the insurance, are the agent who carries the ship's insurance and a government inspector. After the ship sinks, the conspirators hire a safecracker to plant money in Benton's safe to make it look like it was he alone who profited from the scheme. Benton is sentenced to prison. He serves 12 years and is released, and when he gets out he finds out what really happened, but the men who were responsible for it are now wealthy and have become powers in city politics. Determined to clear his name, he comes up with a plan to expose the crooks by using their tactics against them.