The Definitive Watchlist Seeking the Same Brilliance as Beautifully Trimmed: Cult Guide

Dir: Marcel De Sano

Sylvia Palprini is a waitress at The Black Beetle, the leading bohemian café in New York City's Greenwich Village. Among the eclectic customers is artist George Duray, whom she admires from a distance. A jealous suitor, Movros Tarkides, attacks Sylvia and she strikes him with a chair. He is later found dead and she is accused of the murder. Sylvia takes refuge in George's studio, where she is eventually discovered by the police. However, a notorious thug confesses to the murder, freeing Sylvia to find love with George.

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of The Girl Who Wouldn't Work perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

Dir: Marcel De Sano

When thirty-one-year-old Arthur learns from the lips of his mother that "there ain't no Santa Claus," his disillusioned soul begins to see the necessity of feminine companionship, and to safeguard him against the dangers to which his male ancestors had all been exposed, he is sent to a military academy. There he falls in love with the daughter of the General whose regard for the cadet is not what it should be. After many amusing incidents, Arthur gets Marie into the church and all ends happily.

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

Dir: Marcel De Sano

Tired of a dull job and an even duller fiancé, Mary Hale is fired from a department store after flirting with philandering socialite Gordon Kent. She leaves home following a quarrel with her father, William Hale, and moves into Gordon's apartment while he takes up residence at his club. Gordon's former mistress, actress Greta Verlaine, finds Mary at the apartment and forces her to leave. The distraught William traces Mary to the apartment and accidentally shoots Greta, mistaking her for his erring daughter. Although Gordon is blamed for the murder, William confesses, and the wealthy playboy spends his entire fortune to win an acquittal. After Mary and Gordon are married, he settles down to work for a living.

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

Dir: Marcel De Sano

Claire Tree is a singer/dancer who goes after what she wants in a straight-forward, no-nonsense manner, so when she finds herself in the New York City hotel-suite, in fashionable Peacock Alley, of Stoddard Clayton, she wastes no time. Claire wants to get married. But, Stoddard, whom she cares for very much, has several proposals directed at her, none of which sound remotely like a marriage proposal; Claire tells him, in her straight-forward, no-nonsense manner that she wants to get married because, in her words: "I'm running away from the doubts and uncertainty and problems of a woman who isn't married." Stoddard thinks that nuptial bonds is a stupid old-fashioned tradition and fatal to romance. She says any man who says that is lying, and when she departs his suite at the crack of dawn, she seems convinced Stoddard indeed believes what he said he believed. But Claire has another option awaiting her...a Texan from home, and she promptly accepts his marriage proposal. But the house detective comes along after the ceremony and tells Tex his version of what he thinks goes on when a woman stays in a man's suite until the crack of dawn, and that doesn't jibe with his definition of a moral woman, and he ups and leaves her. Stoddard comes along and he thinks Tex has made a mockery of the marriage vows he took a short while ago, and he tells Claire that he will marry her, as soon as she can get an annulment from that day's ceremony, and they will make a go of it because they are 'different.' Somewhere in the 24-hour setting of this film, Claire plays a piano and sings a song called "In My Dreams, You Still Belong To Me," and then does a tango with a partner; and then does a solo-dance performance, interpreting a bullfighter...in costume...in 2-strip Technicolor.

Dir: Marcel De Sano

Young Irish boxer James Carabine arrives in New York from Ireland, his way having been paid by Peggy Nolan, a girl from his hometown who's sweet on him. Unfortunately, James falls for the trampy Marcolina, who hooks up with him when her boxer husband loses a fight due to the shady doings of friends of fighter Blanco Johnson. Peggy sets out to rescue him from the bad crowd he's hanging with and get him back into prime boxing form.