Essential Cult Cinema Mirroring the Impact of Sis Hopkins: Cult Guide

Dir: Clarence G. Badger

A naive young Swede is repeatedly victimized by predatory women. When he finally meets a young woman who seems sincere and true, he wonders if he can trust her.

Dir: Clarence G. Badger

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

Jimmy Betts angrily remonstrates with his wife for a letter she has written to Count Henri Duval, while she bristles at the attention that Jimmy has lavished on Mrs. Ella Rice, an aging but nonetheless charming widow. Exasperated, Ruth decides to accept the count's invitation to dine on his yacht, but on her way, she overturns her rowboat and loses consciousness. In her delirium, Ruth dreams of the happy days of her marriage, before Jimmy went away to handle Mrs. Rice's business affairs. Because she missed him so much, Ruth finally left her Aunt Sophronia to be with Jimmy, whom the love struck Mrs. Rice hoped to win for herself. In order to drive the young people apart, Mrs. Rice then introduced Ruth to Count Duval, who soon professed his love for her. Aware of Mrs. Rice's schemes, Ruth frightened the widow from her bedroom late one night so that Jimmy could see her for the "painted interloper" that she really was. Ruth then wrote her letter to the count. Jimmy rescues Ruth and carries her aboard the yacht, where she finally awakens from her dream and happily kisses her husband.

Dir: Clarence G. Badger

A young woman goes to visit friends but mistakenly rings at the wrong address. She is greeted and taken in out of the storm by a handsome young man to whom she is immediately attracted. What she does not know, however, is that this young man has been fleeced by her father and has sworn vengeance against him.

Dir: Clarence G. Badger

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

An easy-going tramp with a love of food and an aversion to work suddenly gets deeply involved in the life of a farmer and his daughter.

Dir: Clarence G. Badger

Alec Lloyd is a cowboy who has successfully managed to arrange romances for other lovesick cowhands, but has a lot more trouble managing his own love life.

Dir: Clarence G. Badger

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

Whistling Dick, a hobo known for whistling classical tunes, arrives in New Orleans, Louisiana, to discover that fellow hoboes plan to rob the Lovejoy plantation on Christmas night. Their accomplice is Richmond, a guest and suitor of young Nadine Lovejoy, who loves the overseer, Hunter. On the road, Dick encounters Nadine, Hunter, and Richmond, who offer him a ride and give him a package, which they believe to be a new smoking pipe. After arriving on the plantation, Dick opens the package to find a pair of women's stockings. Richmond's gang of robbers fear that Dick will reveal their plot to the Lovejoys and abduct him. Dick warns his hosts by wrapping a message around a rock, placing it in one of the stockings, and throwing it through a window. It lands on the dining room table during a Christmas dinner party and the plot is thwarted. Dick is welcomed as a guest, given new clothes, and offered a job; but the next morning he resumes his wandering.

Dir: Clarence G. Badger

Ort Hutchins is a confirmed loafer who spends all of his time fishing while his wife toils over the washtub. One day, while digging for worms, Hutch uncovers a box containing $100,000 in bills, the loot of a bank robbed in the next town. Realizing that he cannot spend the money without arousing suspicion, Hutch resigns himself to taking a job for cover. Accepting an offer from banker Hiram Joy to work his abandoned farm in exchange for a share of the land, Hutch finds himself successful and the farm prospering. Returning to retrieve his treasure, Hutch is sickened when he finds the box gone and in its place a note from the robber. However, Hutch makes an abrupt recovery when he is offered $10,000 for his share of the farm, an offer that forces him to realize that he has become a self-made man.

Dir: Clarence G. Badger

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

An English nobleman falls for and marries a beautiful young chorus girl. When he brings her home to the castle to meet his family, she is horrified to learn that she is niece, aunt, and/or cousin of all twenty-three of the staff of servants.

Dir: Clarence G. Badger

A burlesque dancer overcomes the puritanism of a repressed small town.

Dir: Clarence G. Badger

A young lady designs a wonderfully received bathing suit and saves her employer from financial disaster. In the course of this, she falls in love with her employer's son, who is in danger of ruin from a romantic scandal.