Deep Archive Finds in the Vein of Way Down East: Cult Guide

Dir: D.W. Griffith

The Stoneman family finds its friendship with the Camerons affected by the Civil War, both fighting in opposite armies. The development of the war in their lives plays through to Lincoln's assassination and the birth of the Ku Klux Klan.

Dir: D.W. Griffith

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

John Logan leaves his parents and sweetheart in bucolic Happy Valley to make his fortune in the city. Those he left behind become miserable and beleaguered in his absence, but after several years he returns, a wealthy man.

Dir: D.W. Griffith

Prevented from dating his sweetheart by his uncle, a young man turns his thoughts to murder.

Dir: D.W. Griffith

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of The Avenging Conscience: or 'Thou Shalt Not Kill' perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

A dramatic comparison between the mating habits of animals and the way humans choose their own partners.

Dir: D.W. Griffith

Susie, a plain young country girl, secretly loves a neighbor boy, William. She believes in him and sacrifices much of her own happiness to promote his own ambitions, all without his knowledge. Eventually he rises to a position of success and sophistication, and Susie realizes that she has through her own efforts raised him to a level where he is inaccessible to her.

Dir: D.W. Griffith

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

Four historical tales depict the ongoing human struggle against prejudice and inhumanity.

Dir: D.W. Griffith

Young lovers in a French village are torn apart with the coming of the Great War.

Dir: D.W. Griffith

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

A religious woman seeks to save her people from destruction by seducing and murdering the enemy leader, but her plans get complicated once she falls for him.

Dir: D.W. Griffith

Frank Andrews is a successful businessman. He has always found pride and joy in the company of his wife, son and daughter. He suddenly finds himself enthralled by the advances of a gay young woman siren, who lives in the same apartment house as he does. So marked an influence does she have over him as time progresses that at last he quite forgets his home ties, neglects his family, and goes the way of many other men who have forgotten the meaning of paternity and blood ties. The story is advanced through many scenes enacted with the accompanying notes of New York's night life, and the denouement comes when the faithful wife discovers her husband's infidelity. At this time the mother's mind nearly loses balance, while Jane, the beautiful daughter, crazed by the grief of her mother, determines to take part in the tragedy. With revolver in hand she steals up to the apartment of the woman, but her frail nature is overcome by the temperamental anger of the woman and her mission fails. However, the errand is not fraught with failure for the father, coming in at this moment, finds his daughter being made love to by the sweetheart of the young woman, and realizes the road upon which he has traveled. When he confronts his daughter and says, "You, my daughter, what are you doing here?" The daughter answers, "My father, what are you doing here?" The realization is brought home to the father's mind that the law of moral ethics that governs a woman's life necessarily governs that of wan as well. Reformation comes in his character. He takes his daughter away with him and together they go back to their home of happiness and content.

Dir: D.W. Griffith

A romantic bandit named Alvarez, wanted for raids on the mining camps of the California gold rush in 1849, is reformed by the love of a good woman.