Curated Recommendations Similar Cinematic Experiences to Betty in Search of a Thrill: Cult Guide

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A rich merchant, Antonio is depressed for no good reason, until his good friend Bassanio comes to tell him how he's in love with Portia. Portia's father has died and left a very strange will: only the man that picks the correct casket out of three (silver, gold, and lead) can marry her. Bassanio, unfortunately, is strapped for cash with which to go wooing, and Antonio wants to help, so Antonio borrows the money from Shylock, the money-lender. But Shylock has been nursing a grudge against Antonio's insults, and makes unusual terms to the loan. And when Antonio's business fails, those terms threaten his life, and it's up to Bassanio and Portia to save him.

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Newly elected police court judge John Fairbrother is impassioned when it comes to the laws affecting the dives and cabarets of the city, and promises equal justice for all. The source of his crusading passion is the loss of his own sister to the lure of the notorious Johnson Café years earlier. His wife Grace's two prominent brothers, newspaper editor George Ferguson and Episcopal Bishop William Ferguson, worked hard to elect Fairbrother to office, and although they are initially puzzled by the judge's intent to shut down dance halls and cabarets, they agree to stand behind him after he confides to them about his fallen sister. However, on the day when Fairbrother takes his seat on the bench, he is called upon to sentence Mace and Lily, two young women arrested for disorderly conduct during a police raid on the same Johnson's Café that claimed the purity and ultimately the life of his sister. Lily is a brazen city girl, while Mace is a shy "country mouse" who fell into bad company. When the judge demands to know the names of the men who accompanied Mace and Lily at the time of their arrest and are therefore guilty of the same charge, the arresting detectives shock him with the revelation that one is Charles Ferguson, the son of the editor, and the other is the nephew of the bishop. Enforcing his principles, Fairbrother demands that the young men be sentenced with the women. This causes much consternation, but the judge devises a fair method for solving the double standard. He declares all four defendants guilty, but then suspends their sentences pending good behavior. He convinces Mace to return home to the country, and secures an office job for Lily. Discovering that the young ladies' apartment building is owned by his wife's family, Judge Fairbrother realizes that the roots of evil sometimes grow close to home.

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

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Inspired by the true story of immigrant Charlie Stielow who was currently on death row for a double murder. The movie was released 2 years before the conclusion of his case, and was purposely made to sway public opinion about the death penalty.

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A woman runs a birth control information bureau until police intervene. Though wealthy have access to this knowledge, the poor don't. She defies speaking bans, gets arrested, and wins over her doctor husband and a judge.

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

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Mrs. Forbes, longtime housekeeper at the country mansion of disappointed, embittered aristocrat Mr. Evringham, who is almost a luxurious recluse, is worried: the household has been turned upside-down by the advent of the wife of Evringham's dead son Lawrence, who has arrived with her daughter Eloise. The mother is a schemer who, reduced to her last penny, is pulling every wire to induce wealthy young Dr. Ballard to marry Eloise. It looks as if she is going to succeed and the need for success is imperative because Mr. Evringham is set against his female dependents, whom he might expel from his home at any moment. Then word comes from another son, Harry Evringham, who writes that he and his wife must make a business trip abroad and he asks his father to take Jewel, the child he has never seen, into his home until they return in six weeks. Old Mr. Evringham reluctantly agrees to his son's request. He hates children and is gruff, unresponsive, and self-centered. The only reason he agrees to take the child is because his daughter-in-law, the widow, tries to get him to refuse. He hates this daughter-in-law; therefore takes Jewel in to spite her. Upon her arrival, Jewel meets with a very cool reception. She finds that, according to the Christian Science teachings with which she is familiar, that she has entered a household of hatred and discord. She puts the scriptures and Mrs. Eddy's teachings to practical use and proves to all scoffers that she has found and can demonstrate the truth. Jewel takes a strong liking to her bluff, stern, old grandfather and he finds his heart softening under her influence. She cures herself of a fever which she says came o because a shadow of hatred passed over her for the house's inmates. She wins the heart of the grim housekeeper when she redeems her drunkard son from the grip of the liquor demon, she converts Eloise to the truth of Divine Science, and she proves to everyone that Science can win in spite of all. She reaps a harvest of good from a bleak, barren soil, uniting the strained and jarring household by chain after chain of love.

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John Wall meets his new sweetheart and takes her to the movies; his neglected wife Anne follows them there. Molly, disobeying her parents, meets her boyfriend at the same theater. A working man with his wife and children, all obsessed with the sordidness of their lives, also attend the movie, as does a dishonorable young man. They watch a film called 'Life's Mirror' in which they see their own lives turned into dramas, complete with possible "final curtains.": Molly, who refuses to listen to her parents, sees her motion-picture surrogate give birth to an illegitimate child after she is abandoned by her boyfriend; Anne Wall, tired of the phoniness of John's wealthy family and friends, deserts him and their children to return to the slums and do charity work for the needy. After the movie, John, sadder but wiser, leaves his sweetheart and goes home with Anne, Molly decides to apologize to her parents, the working man's family realizes that they must look to the future, and the young man promises to lead a more responsible life.

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of The Hand That Rocks the Cradle perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

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A woman's husband is taken by his wife's suitor to see a play in which events from the husband's marriage are recalled, in an attempt by the suitor to convince the husband to relinquish his wife.

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A District Attorney's outspoken stand on abortion lands him in trouble with the local community.

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

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Fenella, a poor Italian girl, falls in love with a Spanish nobleman, but their affair triggers a revolution and national catastrophe.

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K is a mysterious man who settles into a small town and becomes a beloved figure there. However, when the life of his rival in love suddenly depends on K's previously unsuspected abilities, his past life is revealed.