The Auteur's Selection In the Shadow of Rowdy Ann: Cult Guide

Dir: Al Christie

A fascinating piece of cinema that shares thematic elements.

Dir: Al Christie

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

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of Tell Your Wife Everything perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

Dir: Al Christie

A fascinating piece of cinema that shares thematic elements.

Dir: Al Christie

The mayor of a town out in Texas receives word that his niece from the East is about to pay him a visit. The young woman is shown on the train, then landing in the town. Here she finds that the place is literally going to the dogs. The sheriff cannot keep order, and a bandit is in the habit of riding into town and robbing it whenever he takes the notion. Her uncle is about to lose his office, and matters are in a bad way for him. Determined to help him out of his troubles, the girl has the mayor appoint her sheriff. With the help of a female police force, she starts a reform administration which amounts to a moral whirlwind. The bandit is captured after a terrific fight, and the girl herself, finding that the ex-sheriff is in league with the robber, goes gunning for him. She wakes up in the middle of a lively shooting match, to find herself still on the train. Apprehension of what the town may be like has caused her bad dream. Met at the station by her uncle, she discovers that the place is as quiet and well-behaved as a New England village.

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

Dir: Al Christie

A fascinating piece of cinema that shares thematic elements.

Dir: Al Christie

Bobby had been instrumental in having Dorothy Invited to a weekend party that he might propose to her in ideal surroundings. There were other chaps in the competition, however, and Dorothy was a bit coy when Bobby tried to monopolize her society. In fact, she seemed more than willing to have the other fellows do the monopolizing. Sympathetic girl friends of Bobby told him that the slogan of the tanks, "Treat 'Em Rough," was the proper rule in love making - and so Bobby tried it. He kidnapped Dorothy in a motor, drove her to the mountains and forced her by wielding the "cave man's club" to don tiger skins as dress and submit to his commands. That Dorothy liked the idea was evident when the entire weekend delegation followed them forthwith to the mountain cave, bringing along a minister to tie the knot.

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

Dir: Al Christie

A company of barnstormers goes on strike in the middle of a performance and a number of local amateurs are prevailed upon to furnish the show, which they do in more ways than one.

Dir: Al Christie

A fascinating piece of cinema that shares thematic elements.

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

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

Rosie is a Y. W. C. A. gym instructor in the East. Coincident with her getting a little too rough with one of the girls, knocking her out and being fired from her job as athletic director, Rosie is advised of the fact that she has acquired a piece of real property in the form of the Rough Neck Rancho. There is nothing for her to do but go West, going Horace Greely one better by setting out for the Rough Neck Rancho with the idea of bringing it up right and proper with deft feminine touches. These touches turned out to be deft, but scarcely feminine, inasmuch as they were blows from Rosie's husky mitt. Naturally, a bunch of bewhiskered and devil-may-care cowboys resented the innovation of a woman manager, and when Rosie ordered the foreman and all the rest of them to shave their mustaches, it was a little too much for hard boiled Bill and his gang of leather-necked cowboys. Rosie imported a bunch of strikebreakers, some of her own girl pals, who were nicely settled in the ranch house. Bad Bill hit upon the brilliant idea of hiring a bunch of Indians to attack the ranch house, scare the wits out of the Eastern young ladies and otherwise maintain the morale of the men folks around Rough Neck Rancho. It was a bad day for the Indians and a worse day for the cowboys, as it turned out, for after Rosie and her cohort of Sure-Shot Susie's finished mopping off the Indians out of the barricades of windows, and after three or four Indians had bitten the dust after good old-fashioned melodramatic style, the redskins turned around and licked the tar out of all the cowboys for putting them up to such a hazardous undertaking. By this time one or two of the cowboys had fallen for the lure of the women folks and had sacrificed their flowing whiskers, their sole pride and joy, under the telling fire of Cupid's darts. Red Bill, the burly foreman, was finally vanquished by Rough Neck Rosie in a fist fight which was not exactly fair but thoroughly effective. Bill got the final wallop when he wasn't looking by one of Rosie's pals planted behind a carpet before which the fight took place. At the end of the second reel of desperate milling Rosie and her pals are victorious and the Rough Neck Rancho settles down to peace and quiet and every clean-shaven cowboy has a little milkmaid on his arm. Motion Picture News, November 1, 1919