The Auteur's Selection In the Shadow of Appearance of Evil: Cult Guide

Dir: Lawrence C. Windom

T. Boggs Johns and George Nettleton, proprietors of the Digestive Pile Manufacturing Companny agree upon a unique method to stop their quarreling: play a game of poker, the loser to act as servant to the winner for a year. If either member of the agreement reveals the circumstances of the pact, he shall pay a fine of $5,000. Boggs loses, and he must serve as butler in the Nettleton home. His sweetheart Florence Cole comes to dinner at the Nettletons' and is surprised to see Boggs acting as butler, but cannot learn what has brought about the change in his social status. Thomas J. Vanderholt, an attorney in love with Florence, lets her in on the pact and tells her that he drew up the plans. She denounces him, and she and Boggs plan revenge on Nettleton. Boggs arranges an intimate tableau with Mrs. Nettleton; this so angers Nettleton that he schemes to make Boggs the loser financially, but Florence declares that the pact, being based on a poker game, is not legal.

Dir: Lawrence C. Windom

Coaxed by sharpers, who seek to profit by his rustic innocence, the boy from the small town goes to the city with them and become, innocently enough, a successful swindler, but he learns of the deception and returns home, too ashamed to seek his old sweetheart. The crooks return to try a blackmail game, but Ernie's eyes are opened now. He cleans up in whirlwind fashion.

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

Dir: Lawrence C. Windom

The "true story" of baseball great Babe Ruth; Ruth plays himself.

Dir: Lawrence C. Windom

"Two-Bits," the price men used to pay for a haircut, isn't much money in these days with old Mr. H.C.L. at our heels, but one "Two-Bit" piece surely changed the life events of Jimmy Mason. Jimmy couldn't get an orchestra seat to see the wonderful lady in tights so he invested "Two-Bits" and went to the gallery. There he found a seat beside a wonderful girl. He sat to the finish but didn't see the show; her eyes blurred everything commonplace, and then they became acquainted when she accidentally jabbed him with a hatpin. The next night he asked her to go with him to an orchestra box. But Alice wouldn't listen. But she would go to the "Two-Bit" gallery. And they went often, but Jimmy always suffered the fear that Faulkner, his boss, would see him and think him a terribly cheap sport. But Alice told Jimmy not to waste money on seats in the orchestra. And so it went. Finally the blow falls when his employer sees him and Alice exiting from the gallery. Hope is gone when he is called before the boss the next morning and asked how long he had been patronizing the gallery, but all is well and the sun shines again when "the old man" approves and proves it with a promotion. Jimmie dashes to Alice's house and tells her about the promotion and what he thinks of a certain girl. Then Alice tells him that all along she had a definite idea in preferring 'Two-Bit Seats." You are entitled to one guess. You're Right.

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

Dir: Lawrence C. Windom

Robert Hervey Randolph receives $10,000 a year because of the inability to locate the rightful heir of a will, who would receive the money if she could be found. Madge Van Tillier jilts Robert because he does not have enough money. While riding in a taxi, Robert rescues chorus girl Imogene Pamela Thorton from her companion Duke Beamer, and takes her home. Pam turns out to be the missing heir, and Robert loses his inheritance. He then gets a job as a taxi driver. Pam receives a large portion of her inheritance from the Ajax Taxi Company. Beamer tries to ruin Ajax, but Robert foils him, becomes vice-president of the company, and wins Pam's love.

Dir: Lawrence C. Windom

When her two roommates, Maude Raynes and Helen Bartlett, become engaged, Darcy Cole invents a titled fiancé of her own, in part to ward off her friends' nasty remarks about her untidy appearance. Darcy's friend Gloria Green lends a photograph of her cousin, Jack Remsen, made up as a lord for a college play, then transforms Darcy into a stylish beauty. As a practical joke, Gloria's fiancé Tom Harmon agrees to lend his bungalow to each couple for their honeymoon. Darcy pretends to elope with her imaginary lord, played by Jack. The real and pretended honeymooners arrive in succession and are assigned bedrooms by housekeeper Veronica. When Veronica sees Jack remove his makeup, she is certain he is Gentleman Jack, the burglar she has been reading about. Finally, Gloria and Tom arrive and straighten matters out, and Darcy and Jack decide to become real honeymooners.

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of Two-Bit Seats perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

Dir: Lawrence C. Windom

When Juliet Pim, bored with her husband Archibald's habitual ardent attentions, goes to a Swami, his advice that her "individualism" is being crushed leads her to request that Pim furnish her with a "reason" for a divorce suit. Shocked but compliant, Pim rents a hotel room. Later, he finds his college friend and rival stockbroker, wealthy James Wortley Tammers, at a restaurant with his wife, who also felt neglected and went to the Swami. Pim joins them and then goes with Mrs. Tammers to a roadhouse. After Tammers locates them, and his wife returns, the two husbands engage in an all-night wine party with cabaret dancers. The next day, while Tammers sleeps, Pim manipulates the market to control Tammers' wealth. The newspaper reports of Pim's elopement with Mrs. Tammers leave Juliet valuing her husband more than her freedom. After Pim reveals he was saving Tammers from a scheme to ruin him, he sells back most of the stocks and the couples are reunited.

Dir: Lawrence C. Windom

Becky Warder constantly indulges in the telling of little white lies. In an innocent effort to ease the troubled marriage of her quarreling friends Eve and Fred Lindon, Becky meets secretly with Fred, thereby constructing a web of deceit that leads Eve to suspect Becky of trifling with her husband's affections. Eve informs Becky's husband Tom of these meetings and Tom, suspicious, accuses his wife of infamy. After denying her participation in the matter, Becky goes to Baltimore to see her father Stephen Roland, who, like his daughter, is a schemer. Roland begins to construct an elaborate plan by which his daughter can win back her husband and so sends a false telegram to Tom notifying him that Becky is extremely ill. Rushing to Baltimore, Tom overhears Becky inform her father that she will not participate in any more lies, and, elated by his wife's reformation, Tom forgives her.

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

Dir: Lawrence C. Windom

When Miriam Smith's devoutly religious aunt and uncle insist that she marry pious Simeon Althoff, she answers an ad in a matrimonial newspaper and runs away to New York to meet her correspondent. Upon learning that Miles Sprague, the man in the ad, is coming to claim her, Miriam gets cold feet and begs her experienced friend Kittie Swasher, the hotel telephone operator, for help. When Miles arrives, Kittie pretends that she is Miriam and the three go to a cabaret. Meanwhile, the detectives employed by Miriam's aunt and uncle to bring her home appear and arrest Kittie, thinking that she's Miriam. Simeon arrives soon after and identifies the real Miriam, who is then taken home and locked in her room. Kittie and Miles follow and rescue Miriam, who realizes that she has fallen in love with the man from her ad.

Dir: Lawrence C. Windom

A fascinating piece of cinema that shares thematic elements.