DbcultAccessing Vault...
Recommendations
Senior Film Conservator
Witnessing the stylistic evolution of Harry A. Pollard through The Dragon is profound, this cult landmark continues to dictate the rules of its category. If the cast impressed you, these next recommendations will too.
The synthesis of form and function in The Dragon to maintain its cult relevance across several decades.
Messalla, the embodiment of youth and innocence, lives in an old house in Washington Square, New York City, with her father, who has been ruined financially and lost his wife through the lure of Fifth Avenue. He tells Messalla that the thoroughfare is a dragon lying in wait for victims. Messalla starts out to find the dragon and goes up the avenue. Her meetings with various people bring destruction and death to those who had wrought her father's ruin, although she is unconscious of the effect she is having on their lives. Messalla escapes the wiles of the white slaver. She allows a discarded flame of a big merchant to take her place at dinner to which she has been invited, and the merchant suffers at the hands of the discarded woman. A policeman's attention is attracted to Messalla and a man is killed by an automobile while he is looking at her. At a lacemaker's shop a wealthy young woman is tempted to take a bit of lace because Messalla has admired it, but she is caught and jailed. There is a robbery affecting some papers which have been taken and replaced by a bomb, and Messalla gives the package to a woman who turns out to be her father's lost wife; the house is destroyed after the woman and Messalla leave. There is a reconciliation. All those injured were people who had injured her father, and the dragon has been slain by Messalla's youth and innocence.
Based on the unique stylistic flair of The Dragon, our vault has identified these titles as the most compelling follow-up experiences for fans of cult cinema:
Dir: Harry A. Pollard
The "Kid'' is abroad. First he has a couple of rounds with old King Booze which results in his girl giving him a K. O. punch. In the big scene he fights a Frenchman who puts dope on his gloves which causes the Kid to be unable to see distinctly. He gropes around with his eyes nearly closed and takes a good beating while resting his eyes, but finally comes back with a mighty wallop and wins the fight.
View Details
Dir: Harry A. Pollard
On the steamer going over to London the "Kid" falls in love with a senator's daughter and his manager is too sick to keep him in any training. After a week or two of training the "Kid" enters the ring only to find that his rival is one of his sparring partners. Knowing all the "Kid's" punches the opponent scores many points during the combat but suffers a punch in the jaw which loosens a tooth. The "Kid" waits for the moment when the terrible fighter must turn his head to spit out the tooth before he gives him the final knock-out punch. The agreement has terminated between the champion and his manager but is renewed by a hand-shake at the close of the final reel.
Dir: Harry A. Pollard
Dan Blair, a retired cattle magnate's son, is one of the many youths of Red Rock, Montana who is attracted to soda water-stand operator Sarah Townley. One day, Dan partakes of six chocolate sodas in succession. When an operatic impresario, forced to stay in town overnight, hears Sarah sing at a church social, he signs her to be trained to become a diva. Three years later, after Dan's father has died, Dan visits Lord Galore, a family friend, in London and becomes involved with the Duchess of Breakwater, who, although she loves the lord, needs Dan's money. Dan hears the famous Letty Lane sing and recognizes Sarah. Although Dan courts Sarah, when he thinks that she loves Prince Ponitowsky of Russia, he proposes to the duchess. After he sees the duchess embrace Lord Galore, however, he breaks the engagement, to Sarah's relief. Joshua Ruggles, the friend and partner of Dan's father, arrives to look after Dan. After he falsely tells Sarah that Dan is broke and proposes to Sarah himself, he sees Sarah's true love for Dan and allows them to marry.
View Details
Dir: Harry A. Pollard
The Leather Pushers were a charming series of eighteen 2-reel comedies based upon the story of a prize-fighter from the Colliers articles by H.C. Witwer. Each episode was self-contained and complete in itself. Formerly wealthy Kane Halliday (Reginald Denny) finds he must support himself with his fists in the ring after his father goes suddenly broke. A great mix of comedy and action set against the gritty world of the old New York boxing scene.
Dir: Harry A. Pollard
When a young bride, newly entered into society, discovers she is pregnant, she consults an old friend on the most effective means of abortion. The friend gives her a potent drug, and that night the woman locks herself in her room, presses the potion bottle to her lips, falls across her bed and begins to dream. In her dream, her husband finds out about her abortion and demands a divorce. Years pass and the woman, now decrepit and alone, is visited by the ghost of her "Child-That-Might-Have-Been." The ghost takes her on a spiritual journey where she sees her husband, who is remarried and happy with his own family, hundreds of smiling babies wrapped in flowers in Babyland, and finally her own death and damnation. At her demise, she wakes from her nightmare, joyful to find the drug untouched, and rushes to tell her husband about her impending motherhood.
Dir: Harry A. Pollard
A college man, engaged to a society girl, is compelled to enter the prize ring when his father's finances are swept away in Wall Street.
View Details
Dir: Harry A. Pollard
Miss Jackie Holbrook is the daughter of wealthy Californians. She is noted for her frolicsome nature, and is the favored of all but Captain Robert Crowne, U.S.A., whose ship is anchored off Coronado awaiting further orders. Jackie decides to make Crowne fall in love with her, and her opportunity comes when she hears of a new sailor going to ship with Crowne to the Isle of Vergania, to quell a native uprising. The girl dons sailor clothes and sails with the ship. She is the butt of Big Bill Blount's jokes and jeers because of her effeminacy, and causes the others on board much laughter. When they arrive at Vergania she is one of those chosen to go into the interior and is the one that saves Crowne's life. Her identity is discovered to the delight of the sailors, and Crowne asks her to marry him immediately.
Dir: Harry A. Pollard
In New Orleans, Kid Roberts is lured to a rooming house just before the fight, where he is bound hand a foot, and it looks as though all bets would be forfeited. A free-for-all fight is staged as a preliminary, and while this is going on Kid Roberts gains his freedom and arrives in time for the feature event. At a given signal the lights of the hall were to be turned off, and this have his adversary a chance to knock the Kid out, in the second round. The Kid is mad clear through, however, and knocks his man through the ropes in the first round and wins the fight.
View Details
Analysis relative to The Dragon
| Film Title | Atmosphere | Complexity | Similarity |
|---|---|---|---|
| Young King Cole | Gritty | Linear | 88% Match |
| Whipsawed | Ethereal | Layered | 90% Match |
| The Girl from His Town | Tense | Dense | 87% Match |
| Round Two | Tense | Abstract | 97% Match |
| The New Breakfast Food | Gritty | High | 89% Match |
This guide was algorithmically generated using the cinematic metadata of Harry A. Pollard's archive. Last updated: 6/20/2026.
Back to The Dragon Details →