The Definitive Watchlist For Devotees of Meet the Folks: Cult Guide

Dir: Al Christie

Jay made the fatal error of trying to make his wife believe that he had all the money in the world.

Dir: Al Christie

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of He Married His Wife perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

Edith and Neal have just been divorced and the judge ordered Neal to pay $300 a week alimony. Neal tried to slip out of the country on the first alimony day, but was caught in an airplane chase. Then next alimony day he got what he thought was a brilliant idea. He left his clothes on the beach and pretended to have killed himself. So Edith took possession of the house and the judge started courting her. Then Neal was informed by his lawyer that he was legally dead and his wife automatically inherited everything and in order to get his money back he would have to marry her again. So Neal disguised himself with whiskers and had a couple of thugs accost Edith so he could play the hero with her. But in the sham fight one of the thugs apologized to Edith for hitting her husband so hard and spilled the beans generally. So Edith took him in the house and nursed him back to health and he proposed. After telling him how like her poor, dear, dead husband he was, she consented, and he had to wear a suit of her supposed dead husband's to get married in. The "guests" were all detectives, the minister himself being a detective. Just as Edith was about to say "I do," she said "I don't " instead and disclosed Neal's identity. The lawyer arrived just then and said in reading over the old will he found a clause saying that quarrels in the family would have to be patched up or the money would go to charity. So they were married all over again - by the judge of the divorce court. Motion Picture News, November 1, 1919

Dir: Al Christie

At a choir festival, country girl Sally is kidded by traveling show people into believing that she has a grand opera career. The twist to the story of the ambitious girl going to the city and getting into the chorus comes when she proves to be a "boob," gets ejected from the theater, and is returned to the cows and chickens far from Broadway.

Dir: Al Christie

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of Sally's Blighted Career perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

Ann is one tough cowgirl. After she beats up Hank, her parents send her East to college, hoping she'll come back a lady.

Dir: Al Christie

A fascinating piece of cinema that shares thematic elements.

Dir: Al Christie

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

A fascinating piece of cinema that shares thematic elements.

Dir: Al Christie

Alice undertakes to present an amateur performance at the local small town opera house. After turning down Ibsen, Shaw, Oscar Wilde and Shakespeare, Alice decides the only way to get a good play is to write one herself.

Dir: Al Christie

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of Cupid's Hold-Up perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

Bobby, a clerk, is sent on a hurry trip by his boss to deliver a $5,000 check to Mr. Brown. Bobby meets a girl while on the train. At the junction they miss another train, wait three hours, arrive at the home of Brown - and then the plot deepens when another plot in the making makes it appear that the girl is Brown's wife.

Dir: Al Christie

A fascinating piece of cinema that shares thematic elements.

Dir: Al Christie

A fascinating piece of cinema that shares thematic elements.