The Auteur's Selection Complementing the Tone of Without Benefit of...

Dir: James Young

Helene Marie, on the run from the Russian police in St. Petersburg, plots to kill the Czar.

Dir: James Young

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

An orphan named Oliver Twist meets a pickpocket on the streets of London. From there, he joins a household of boys who are trained to steal for their master.

Dir: James Young

When a woman's husband is presumed dead in the war, her sister, for her own unscrupulous reasons, attempts to get her remarried. But the husband, it seems, is not dead after all.

Dir: James Young

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

John Maddox, a man who has little use for women, travels out West to make his fortune. On the way he rescues a pretty young woman from a narrow ledge just below a steep cliff. She turns out to be Beatrice Clive, an English girl vacationing at the family estate with her wealthy father, Lord Bulverton. Six years pass and, now a wealthy rancher, Maddox discovers that the Bulverton estate is for sale. Finding himself still attracted to Beatrice, he contacts her about buying the estate, but finds that the Bulverton family is in such dire financial straits that Beatrice has been forced to become engaged to the wealthy but villainous Sir George Trenery.

Dir: James Young

A fascinating piece of cinema that shares thematic elements.

Dir: James Young

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

Ted Vandeveer, a lawyer without clients, receives notice that he has been included in his rich uncle's will, he and his partner, James Sweeney, are excited, then they find that Ted's cousin Archie inherited nearly everything. With the $700 left after paying their creditors, Ted and James go to a fashionable resort, where the hotel clerk mistakenly puts them in the exclusive suite reserved for Archie. Passing for a wealthy man, Ted attracts many eligible girls, among them Mildred Niles, the daughter of a wealthy broker. After Mildred and Ted become engaged, James encourages him to elope before the money runs out. When Mildred's father announces that he lost his fortune in the market, Mildred's mother persuades Mildred to elope before the news is known. Three days into their honeymoon, Mildred and Ted mutually confess their poverty and unable to pay their hotel bill, until Ted learns of a codicil to the will stating that he really inherited a million dollars. It was intentionally kept secret until he married so that no woman would marry him for money.

Dir: James Young

During World War I, young Englishman Hawtrey Burke captivates New York society with his charming manner and his skill at polo, but he incurs the scorn of the woman he loves, Elinor Warden, who, having recently returned from war-torn Belgium, cannot understand why Hawtrey is not on the front lines. When shipping agent Joseph Fuhrman is murdered, Elinor's brother Dudley, who is on furlough from France, is tried for the crime based on the accusation of Eric Werner, who covets Elinor. During the trial, the lights are extinguished and Dudley is shot. Hawtrey is arrested but later released on a technicality. Later, when the British Commission sails to the United States, Hawtrey sends a wireless message to the steamer warning of a nearby U-boat, and upon the Commission's safe arrival in New York, he is revealed as a British Secret Service agent. Werner is arrested as the German spy who shot Dudley, who had been working for Hawtrey, whereupon a penitent Elinor confesses her love for the Englishman.

Dir: James Young

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of The Thousand-Dollar Husband perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

During World War I, young Dorothy Grant comes home from finishing school and informs her parents that she is going to contribute to the war effort by organizing a "Girls Aviation Corps". She has uniforms made and hires a veteran of the Spanish-American War to teach her "cadets" military routines and drills. Her father owns a munitions factory and is always telling her to be on the lookout for spies. She convinces herself that the family butler, Williams, is a spy because he cuts his grapefruit in an odd way. It turns out that Williams isn't a spy but the people whom Dorothy least suspects are in fact spies, and they discover that Dorothy knows the password to get into the factory after hours. They come up with a plan to get Dorothy to give them the password so they can blow up the factory.

Dir: James Young

After her parents death, young southerner, Barbara King, must now live with her uncle Rufus Jamison, who reminds the girl of her mother wasted life when she married an artist. Rufus forces Barbara to do housework to support himself. One day, Barbara sneaks away to exhibit her father's latest work, she meets the artist Gordon Carroll and his father, the governor. When Uncle Rufus discovers Barbara's secret studio in the attic, he destroys the statue of his father, and Barbara then fatally stabs him with a candlestick. Barbara is convicted, sentenced, and sent to a prison.

Dir: James Young

With the electric-ray machine that he invented, a scientist brings his daughter back to life after she dies in a car crash but he fails to revive her soul at the same time.