The Definitive Guide Inspired by the Vision of And the Children Pay: Cult Guide

Dir: Jacques Tyrol

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

David Belkov, a newsboy born of foreign parents who live in "New York's crucible," the East Side, admires the late Theodore Roosevelt, but when he sees a poor family being evicted, he joins the Hogan Street anarchist group, of which his father's friends and his sweetheart Yolanda Kosloff, are members. The group plans to assassinate Judge Norton, who earlier condemned one of their comrades to the electric chair. After David witnesses the bravery of twelve-year-old Mary Hogan, who sings patriotic ditties to drown out the soap box orations of the anarchists, he prints leaflets to combat the anarchist views. Mary is killed trying to thwart the anarchists' plot, and David is caught and badly beaten. After government agents, thought to be converts, break up the gang, David arrives just in time to stop Yolanda, who is dancing at a celebration at Norton's home, from dropping a bomb. David is shot by the anarchist leader, but Yolanda, realizing her error, nurses him to health.

Dir: Jacques Tyrol

Alerted to his wife's infidelity by his closest friend, Duncan Shields, Texas rancher Frank Warren shoots the lover and leaves. Sixteen years later, Warren, living in an old castle in Cuba, sends his secretary Fernwald to take his daughter Lola from his wife's influence. Lola and Shield's son, Duncan, Jr., have fallen in love, but when Fernwald arrives, Duncan mistakenly believes that Lola's warm greeting is symptomatic of a promiscuity that characterized her mother. He is saved from suicide by sailors and becomes a member of their crew. Aboard the ship to Cuba, Duncan rescues Lola from Fernwald's attempted rape. After Fernwald steals her papers, goes ashore, and watches as the boat bursts into flames and sinks, Lola and Duncan drift to an island. Meanwhile, Fernwald has his old sweetheart impersonate Lola to gain her inheritance. After Lola and Duncan are rescued and survive a wash-out on a mountain road, they are taken to the castle, where Fernwald attempts to poison Duncan. They struggle, Duncan pushes Fernwald over a ledge, Lola and her father are reunited, and Lola and Duncan embrace.