Must-Watch List in the Vein of The Drug Store Cowboy: Cult Guide

Dir: Maurice Campbell

Carver Endicott, a young sophisticate, is rejected by his fiancée for being too foppish and dull. When she feigns an interest in his father, Carver attempts to disgrace his family name by working as a farmhand and later as a busboy in a hotel. However, the newspapers only praise him for his self-sacrificing principles; and finding that he cannot bring shame to the family through menial labor, he takes up with a notorious actress. But when this maneuver also fails, he returns to his former fiancée, who has no further complaint about his being an inexperienced dullard.

Dir: Unknown Director

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

The Judge needs a present for his wife's birthday, so Harry suggests a new corset. They go to the shop, but he's so embarrassed to ask the saleslady he hides in a phone booth.Harry goes in, but finds a GUY wearing one, and runs out.They both dress as women to get back in, but Mrs. Rummy gets there and chases him out.

Dir: Richard Smith

Two female candidates for Chief of Police live across the hall from each other, and their political rivalry follows them home, leading to plenty of hi-jinks.

Dir: Unknown Director

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

A fascinating piece of cinema that shares thematic elements.

Dir: Hal Roach

An American book salesman (Lloyd) is persuaded to go to the kingdom of Thermosa to impersonate the Prince. He is greeted by a peasants' revolt before the real prince shows up to claim his throne and princess. The revolution succeeds, and the American is elected president of the new republic.

Dir: Park Frame

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

In the African desert, a white man, embittered at an injustice, turns his back on his kind and becomes the leader of a band of outlaws. But a chance encounter with a lovely young woman restores his faith in his race.

Dir: George B. Seitz

The adventures of a gentlemanly crook of astonishing resourcefulness.

Dir: Maurice Elvey

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

A lady marries a horse trainer but withholds herself until her crippled brother is cured.

Dir: Park Frame

Bruce Winthrop, disguised as a clerk in the American consulate near the Mongolian border, is actually a secret United States government operative sent to quell a Chinese rebellion led by Tai Chen. His fiancée, Beryl Addison, the daughter of an antique collector, unaware of his mission, cannot understand why Bruce is so attentive to the seductive Tai, and calls off the engagement. Bruce accepts Tai's offer of a position in the interior of Mongolia and learns of revolutionary plans to put Tai on the throne. Tai confesses her love for Bruce and offers him a high position. Bruce succeeds in reading the secret list of revolutionaries, but when the list gets in the hands of Beryl's father, he and Beryl are captured and threatened with death. Bruce rescues them, and the revolutionaries return home. In the end, Tai kills herself, and Winthrop and Beryl are reunited.

Dir: Park Frame

The unscrupulous attempts by speculators Dr. West and Jim Prince to have a railroad pass through lower California are met with opposition by Spanish landowners led by Dona Maria Saltonstall, who tries flirting with West to restore their property. Pereo, a religious fanatic who works for Dona Maria, believes in the curse of the Gray Wolf's Ghost: if a member of Dona Maria's family mates with an alien, fortune and life will be lost. Meanwhile, West's son Harry, whom he deserted years before, comes to avenge the wrong done to his mother. After West refuses to recognize Harry and publicly denounces him as a blackmailer, West is murdered and Prince, who wants the West fortune, accuses Harry. Harry is about to be hanged when the first train the lynchers have ever seen passes by. Pereo, thinking that the train is a god, confesses that he killed West and is dragged to death after lassoing the locomotive. Harry restores compromising letters to Dona Maria and receives her consent to marry her daughter Maruja.