Rare Cinematic Gems Exploring the Legacy of White Tiger: Cult Guide

Dir: Tod Browning

Railroad president John Houston, along with his daughter Marjorie and his fiancee, Elinor Craig, are aboard the express train when it is held up by a gang of outlaws. Outlaw Dan Tracy is attracted to Marjorie, who, filled with dreams of romance, returns his interest. They exchange rings and later meet secretly in the city. When Houston learns that his daughter's new suitor is an outlaw, he hires a detective to investigate. The investigation indicates that Tracy is Houston's son by a former marriage, and Houston, mortified, allows the outlaw to escape. Tracy then persuades Marjorie to elope with him and takes her to his shack in the hills where she is rudely awakened to the realities of outlaw life. Houston arrives to save his daughter, and after Tracy is killed by Rosanne, the woman he betrayed, it is revealed that Tracy was not his son but an offspring of his former wife and an outlaw.

Dir: Tod Browning

Jacala, a strong-willed, temperamental ranch girl, inherits her father's millions and moves from Montana to New York, determined to earn a place in society. There she meets and is strongly attracted to Kenneth Hyde, but believing him to be a worthless man-about-town with a neglected wife, she hires Tony Dewey to pose as her fiancé. Tony wants a wealthy wife, and when his attentions toward Jacala are sternly rebuffed, he spreads scandalous stories about her. Jacala learns that Kenneth's supposed wife is actually his sister, and he, in turn, believes her claims that Tony's stories are untrue. With Kenneth, Jacala retreats from the superficial society life she had once coveted.

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

Dir: Tod Browning

Henri Labordie's wife dies after giving birth to twin children, Jacques and Jeanne. Before he takes the children to the Canadian woods to live he makes an agreement with his friend Duval Hebert that when Jeanne is old enough she shall marry Hebert's son Louis. In their new home Labordie lavishes all his affection on Jacques, a weak and sickly youth. Francois, a half-breed, worships Jeanne as she grows up to winsome womanhood. Donald Duncan, a government surveyor, meets Jeanne. He becomes infatuated with her, and she with him. Jacques tells his father, now totally blind, and Labordie forbids Jeanne to see Duncan. Love finds a way, however, and Jeanne promises to wed Duncan when he has completed his work for the government. Jacques, who has injured his hand, persuades Jeanne to take him canoeing in the St. Lawrence. Francois sees the canoe upset. He saves Jeanne, but her brother is drowned. Jeanne has been warned that any great shock would kill her father, and so the girl cuts off her hair and tells her father that Jeanne is dead and that she is Jacques. When Duncan returns for his bride he is told of the death of Jeanne. On his deathbed Labordie asks Jeanne, whom he believes is Jacques, to go to Montreal to Duval Hebert, and resuming her own dress and name she does so. Hebert tells Jeanne that it was her father's wish that she marry his son Louis, a dissipated youth. She is horror-stricken, but to keep her father's vow consents that the marriage be celebrated after Louis' returns from the North where he has gone to settle a question concerning his father's land. In the north woods Louis meets Duncan, who is working for the Hebert firm, and when the young man quarrels with a guide, Duncan saves his life. Young Hebert insists that the surveyor return to Montreal and receive the thanks of his father and fiancée. Duncan accepts the invitation and he and Jeanne meet again. At first he believes that Jeanne tricked him, but when he has learned the truth, Duncan takes the unhappy girl in his arms and tells her again of his love. Louis, half intoxicated, sees them and insults Jeanne. Francois resents the affront to his idol, and throws Louis out of the room. Louis tries to get at the half-breed, but falls over the banisters and is killed. Not knowing this, Duncan goes away, fearing to cause Jeanne trouble. Months later, once again in the north woods, Francois is surprised to see Duncan riding toward him. The young surveyor asks whether Louis and Jeanne are happy in their marriage. By remaining silent, Francois might keep Jeanne and Duncan from meeting, and perhaps in time win her for himself. But his love for her is so sincere that he prefers her happiness to his own, and Jeanne and Duncan are reunited in the northern woods where they first met.

Dir: Bruno Ziener

A fascinating piece of cinema that shares thematic elements.

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

Dir: Tod Browning

Stella Schump is a shop girl and very devoted to her mother, who desires her to marry. Stella befriends her shoe store co-worker Cora Kinealy, who invites Stella to a party to meet the hero of a munitions plant fire. The young man does not attend, and Stella is pressured into over-drinking. She wanders into the street, is picked up by a detective, taken to night court, and sentenced to ten days in jail. Stella writes to her mother, and the shock of the news causes her mother's death. Upon release, Stella is relieved of her job and without a home. While wandering the streets, she is picked up by a man and taken to a Salvation Army home. The man is John Gilley, the munitions plant hero. The two find happiness together.

Dir: Tod Browning

Peggy Desmond, the daughter of an Irish magistrate, loves Captain Neil Dacey, but is pursued by Terence O'Malley, the nephew of Squire O'Malley, a wealthy landowner. Although the squire offers to pay off the Desmonds' debts if Peggy were to marry Terence, Peggy refuses. After Neil invokes the name of Rory O'More, the "Will o' the Wisp," a legendary Irish Robin Hood, Peggy dresses up as a highwayman and robs Squire O'Malley, then gives the purse to one of the squire's poor tenants. As the local law officer, Neil is assigned to capture the bandit, but is robbed himself by his clever incognito sweetheart. When the squire turns up dead, Neil, whose gun is found next to the corpse, is arrested and jailed. To free her love, Peggy disguises herself once more as a highwayman and forces Terence to confess to the murder at gunpoint. Once released, Neil deduces that Peggy is the bandit and makes good on her promise to marry the man who succeeded in unmasking the "Will o' of the Wisp."

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of Eva, wo bist du? perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

Dir: Alexander Butler

In Alberta, Canada, a Cornish emigrant unmasks a rustler posing as the girl's "blind" father.

Dir: Tod Browning

Jim Bludso is engineer of the Mississippi River packet the "Prairie Belle." He has a home in Gilgal, Ill., and a wife and twelve-month-old baby at the time the story opens, in 1861. A call is received for volunteers and he joins the Northern army. His wife is a Southern girl, and she opposes his joining the Union forces. The quarrel results in a separation and Jim goes to war. Ben Merrill, an unscrupulous contractor, meets Jim's wife in Natchez, her home town, and induces her to go with him to New Orleans. She deserts her baby and goes. In New Orleans a levee contractor comes to Merrill with the proposition that they take the contract for a new levee to be built at Gilgal. Merrill accepts and leaves New Orleans without telling the woman where he is going, and she is left to take care of herself. After the war Jim returns to Natchez and finds that his wife has deserted their little boy, and no one knows where she is. He takes the boy, Little Breeches, and Banty Tim, a negro, who has saved his life during the war, and returns to Gilgal. He is welcomed by Kate Taggart, the daughter of the village storekeeper. Jim's wife yearns for her baby and returns. Jim forgives her for the child's sake. The high waters are coming on and Merrill is afraid that the levee will not hold. He plans to lay the blame on Jim and the negro. He arouses the suspicion of the townspeople against the negro and Jim is forced to fight for Banty Tim on several occasions. Merrill meets Jim's wife and induces her to loosen the sandbags and leave the water into the village. She escapes in a boat, the bottom of which has been cut by Merrill. In the middle of the stream the boat begins to sink and Banty Tim goes to her rescue. The negro is accused of breaking the levee and then escaping. Jim offers his life as a forfeit if the negro does not return by sunrise. The next day the village people are at Indian Mound, and the men are about to hang Jim because Banty Tim has not come back. Just then he comes on with Little Breeches, who tells of his rescue by the negro. A year later Jim is again engineer of the "Prairie Belle." In a race with another boat the engines become overheated. Merrill is aboard and Jim has him locked in the oil room. When the boat takes fire Jim goes and opens the door of the oil room and finds his son there with Merrill. While they are trying to escape the boilers explode. Jim is rescued from the debris by Banty Tim. Some time later Jim's wife having died, he and Little Breeches and Kate and Banty Tim are united in a happy family.

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

Dir: Tod Browning

Master thief Blue Jean Billie, the unknown perpetrator of many sensational jewel heists, robs the guests at the exclusive party marking the engagement of Muriel Vanderflip to Algernon P. Smythe, Lord Chesterton. Overpowering Detective Wood, specially stationed there to stop her, Muriel escapes with her chauffeur, Shaver Michael. After Shaver's car overturns, Billie surprises her pursuers, and at gunpoint, makes them return, but Smythe, hiding on the side of Shaver's car, accompanies them until Billie discovers him and makes him take them to his home, where she holds him prisoner. To Shaver's dismay, Billie and Smythe fall in love. After they escape a police raid, Smythe convinces Billie to send the jewels back and marry him. Although she has her doubts when she learns that Smythe is really the international crook "English Harry," after he fights Shaver and locks him and Wood in their retreat with the stolen jewels, Billie and Harry make their final escape vowing to go straight.

Dir: Tod Browning

Doris Standish's father insists upon her marriage to aging millionaire Cyrus W. Hopkins, but just before the wedding, the young woman runs from the house and leaps into a parked car, ordering the chauffeur to drive her quickly away. The driver is Jimmy Nevin, who, because Hopkins financially ruined his father, has agreed to help a gang of crooks in their plot to steal the bride's jewels and wedding presents. Realizing that Doris is not Mary Butler, his accomplice, Jimmy offers to accompany her home, but when she refuses to return, he takes her to the thieves' hideout. Mary and her henchmen try to rob Doris, but she escapes and notifies the police. Doris, her father and Hopkins return to the hideout just before the police arrive to arrest all of the thieves but Jimmy, who has grown extremely fond of the runaway bride.