Top-Tier Alternatives In the Shadow of Romantic and Crazy: Cult Guide

Dir: Robert Z. Leonard

"The Five O'Clock Girl" was a successful Broadway play starring Mary Eaton and Oscar Shaw. Marion Davies' Cosmopolitan Productions bought the rights for the play and filmed it as a feature talkie. The plot revolves around Pat, a shop girl in a cleaners, and a local plumber named Gerry who she falls in love with. Publicity stills from the film show Marion trying on clothes people have brought in for cleaning and doing impersonations of the clothes' owners.

Dir: Manuel Noriega

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

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.

Dir: Edward F. Cline

A lighthouse keeper finds a little girl who is washed ashore tied to some wreckage. He adopts her and they become inseparable. Eventually her real family finds her and tries to take her away.

Dir: Harry Beaumont

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

A pair of sisters from the vaudeville circuit try to make it big time on Broadway, but matters of the heart complicate the attempt.

Dir: Ub Iwerks

Mickey Mouse is a mischievous deckhand on a riverboat that is under the command of the tyrannical Captain Pete.

Dir: Unknown Director

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

Gus Van and Joe Schenck sing a few songs with piano accompaniment.

Dir: James A. FitzPatrick

An innkeeper's daughter loves a shepherd boy and will not listen to her father's plea that she marry a rich young Londoner. The Londoner pleads with the girl, but she will not hear him. He goes back to London and the girl is happy with her shepherd.

Dir: Frank Urson

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

A wild jazz-loving and boozing wife Roxie Hart kills her boyfriend in cold blood after he leaves her.

Dir: Arturo Carballo

Film based on variety shows of the 20s 'Arco Iris', 'La feria de las hermosas', and 'Las maravillosas', all of them created by Eulogio Velasco.

Dir: James A. FitzPatrick

A Scots lass parts regretfully from her lad as he goes to make his mark in the world. The lad meets an old man who warns him against leaving his beloved. He returns to her and they are married. Then the old man, who loves the girl's mother, asks that she be his wife. Thereafter another marriage is arranged.