Essential Cult Cinema Mirroring the Impact of Alice in Wonderland: Cult Guide

Dir: Cecil M. Hepworth

A soldier's tunic button, made from Aladdin's lamp, grants his wishes.

Dir: Paul Terry

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

Farmer Al Falfa is a patrolman rollerskating through the park. A day of misadventures climaxes with a monkey stealing his clothes.

Dir: Bud Fisher

Mutt and Jeff go on strike and make their own film.

Dir: George Fitzmaurice

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

Architect Peter Ibbetson is hired by the Duke of Towers to design a building for him. Ibbetson discovers that the Duchess of Towers, Mary, is his now-grown childhood sweetheart. Their love revives, but Peter is sentenced to life in prison for an accidental killing. Mary comes to him in dreams and they are able to live out their romance in a dream world.

Dir: Joe May

Irene saves Herbert and the two help Princess Savitri flee the palace.

Dir: Emmett J. Flynn

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

In 1921, a young man, having read Mark Twain's classic novel of the same title, dreams that he himself travels to King Arthur's court, where he has similar adventures and outwits his foes by means of very modern inventions including motorcycles and nitroglycerine.

Dir: Fred Niblo

Cardinal Richelieu, engaged in intrigue at the court of Louis XIII, attempts to rule by threatening the queen, who is secretly in love with the Duke of Buckingham. From Gascony comes D'Artagnan to join the King's Musketeers in his quest for adventure. He wins the right to membership by proving his prowess with the sword and forms an eternal alliance with Athos, Porthos, and Aramis, the Three Musketeers. After many adventures, he embarks on a dangerous mission to England to recover a diamond brooch, a gift of the king, which the queen has given to Buckingham as a token of affection. He recovers it and returns in time to save the queen from the wrath of Louis, defeat the cardinal's intrigue, and win Constance, the queen's seamstress.

Dir: Fritz Lang

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of Mysteries of India, Part II: Above All Law perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

When a woman's fiancé disappears, Death gives her three chances to save him from his fate.

Dir: Winsor McCay

Fragment from an unreleased film that was presumably produced between 1918 and 1921. In it, Gertie the dinosaur encounters the modern era. She has an encounter with a cable car and tells her dinosaur friends about it.

Dir: Jacques Feyder

Two men, lost in the desert, meet Queen Antinea, ruler of Atlantis.