The Auteur's Selection Complementing the Tone of Humanity: Cult Guide

Dir: Gilbert M. 'Broncho Billy' Anderson

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

The film centers on a social gathering at a wealthy home. When a guest expresses concern about having thirteen people at the dinner table (believing it brings bad luck), the host, Mr. Smith, asks the gardener, played by Stan Laurel, to join them to make a fourteenth guest. This decision leads to a series of chaotic and comedic events. A notable sequence involves a long game of pool featuring various gags, including Stan accidentally eating the billiard chalk.

Dir: Gilbert M. 'Broncho Billy' Anderson

Stan Laurel plays a book salesman who has a series of encounters, mostly revolving around a young woman who might be evicted by her lecherous landlord. Along the way, Stan dresses up as a dog, gets chased down Sunset Blvd circa 1922, and keeps running into an annoying woman who gives this short film its title.

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

Dir: Gilbert M. 'Broncho Billy' Anderson

The handy man pays ardent attention to the plump cook, who is really the lost wife of a mysterious stranger. He finds out in time to divorce her.

Dir: Gilbert M. 'Broncho Billy' Anderson

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

A fascinating piece of cinema that shares thematic elements.

Dir: Gilbert M. 'Broncho Billy' Anderson

Mrs. Graham and her baby boy are on their way from the east to an uncle's ranch in Wyoming, and they have completed the long journey in safety up to the time they are to take the stagecoach to Snakeville, near which the ranch is located. Through an accident Baby "Bumps," as he is fondly called by his mother, is carried off by the coach and Mrs. Graham left behind. The baby is the only passenger and fails to explain to the driver that they have run off without mother, who, in an effort to catch the coach, runs down the dusty road in pursuit. Arriving at Snakeville, the driver turns the baby over to a hotel keeper, who in turn assigns Broncho Bill as nurse, and instructs Bill to take care of the baby and try to put it to sleep. While one cowboy is sent off to milk a cow, another is routed out of his bed and the baby put in it. The baby refuses to go to sleep and Bill has his hands full in endeavoring to keep quiet the roistering cowboys in the dance hall and gambling palace below stairs. Bill is "all in" and about ready to do something desperate when Mrs. Graham, dusty and exhausted, and with gathering wrath, comes into the room and snatched her darling boy to her heart, and goes out of the room after giving Broncho Bill a piece of her mind.

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

Dir: Gilbert M. 'Broncho Billy' Anderson

A fascinating piece of cinema that shares thematic elements.

Dir: Gilbert M. 'Broncho Billy' Anderson

A young man is lured into a cardgame by a crooked dealer. He is about to lose all the money that was given to him to get medicine for his mother when a local cowboy comes to his rescue.