Essential Cult Cinema Mirroring the Impact of New Movietone Follies of 1930: Cult Guide

Dir: Mikhail Fokine

The last moments in the life of a swan.

Dir: Benjamin Stoloff

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

An ex-doughboy, now living in the luxury his wealth permits, devotes his life to a search for "Sweet Marie," a French girl he has loved since meeting her while at war. Sure that she is in this country now, our hero sets out each day to comb the city in the hope of finding her. Fate takes a hand and leads him into a cabaret where Marie dances and which is owned by the hero's former top sergeant. The latter is in love with Marie and wants to keep her for himself. A fight ensues in which the hero, with the aid of his dog Pal, subdues the big brute and makes off with the charming Marie.

Dir: Benjamin Stoloff

When the shortcomings of a member of the Bachelors' Club are revealed to him for becoming engaged, he wagers the club president that the latter cannot spend a week at a designated inn without becoming engaged. The president takes the bet and finds the inn run by women and with only women guests, most of them of the beauteous sort. That she may avoid an unwelcome suitor, one of the guests is disguised as a boy. The bachelor persuades her to don girl's attire, thinking her a boy, and to represent herself as being engaged to him, so that he may avoid the other girls. By the time he discovers she is really a girl, he has fallen in love with her. He helps her to evade the rejected suitor and her father and mother, who have made the match for her. The girl and the bachelor are finally married in the middle of the lake at the height of the chase.

Dir: Benjamin Stoloff

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

Sid is a postman in a hilly country. He climbs a long set of steps only to find that the family is on vacation. Then a mother calls him up another long flight to tell her child she'll put him in the postman's bag if he isn't good. Sid finally gets home and relaxes for a good vacation. But wifie thinks otherwise and forces Sid on a hike. They meet up with their in-laws and hike some more. All in all, Sid gets no rest for his weary feet, even after they arrive at the cabin, for rain floods the place and the occupants have to flee.

Dir: Benjamin Stoloff

A parody of The Thief Of Bagdad, but with the main characters played by monkeys.

Dir: Benjamin Stoloff

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

Harold appears as a simple college youth who is taken to a hunting lodge for initiation into a college fraternity headed by Bud. The other members, to scare him, dress as various birds and animals. Earl is sent out after chicken and stumbles on a lion farm and accidentally frees one of the animals. Then follows a general mix-up with the lion, hero, heroine, Earl, and the various masquerading characters chasing or seeking to avoid each other, ending in the place being set on fire and the girl, Judy, rescuing the hero when he is overcome seeking to find her after she has already gotten out.

Dir: Benjamin Stoloff

A short film about the legendary baseball Hall-of-Famer Babe Ruth.

Dir: Benjamin Stoloff

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

A fascinating piece of cinema that shares thematic elements.

Dir: Benjamin Stoloff

Tom Mills's buddy, Ricardo Deane, is killed in France during the war, and after the war Tom is invited to visit Deane's family on the Mexican border. There he discovers that Ed Bardin, Deane's brother-in-law, has been unfaithful to his wife, and that he is a bandit, posing as Tom. Following a stage holdup, a runaway rescue, a near hanging, a rodeo, and cliff and river riding, the gang is captured and Tom wins the heart of Concha, his buddy's sister.

Dir: Manuel Noriega

A woman who arrives Madrid fleeing from their abusive stepmother tries to help her cousin, who has an illegitimate child, pretending to be the real mother.