Hand-Picked Alternatives Movies That Echo the Spirit of The Merry Jailbirds: Cult Guide

Dir: Fred Hibbard

Dr. Cutup paid so much attention to sport that his bank-roll was getting low and he was forced to devise an unusual means for getting business. Baseball was his great diversion and when the Female Giants hove into sight he deserted business for the ball grounds. But his wife and baby needed money so he hired Mrs. Joe Martin to carry out his pet scheme of filling the office with business. He made Mrs. Joe Martin dress up as office boy and sent her out for a dozen bananas. "Eat them and shatter the peels right in front of my door". The scheme was successful beyond even his expectations and the accidents which happened on banana paved side-walk brought a golden trickle into his till. Highly satisfied with the business Dr. Cutup put on his hat and decided to go out for an evening's entertainment, when kerflop. he went broke on his own business scheme.

Dir: Fred Hibbard

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

The picture opens with Brownie in a tuxedo, eating an elaborate meal and finishing with the proper use of his finger bowl. It is all a dream, however, as he is but the assistant to an itinerant glazier who ties a stone to Brownie's tail and has him break show windows for his master to repair. The glazier combines business with a clothes cleaner and Brownie with his mud-smeared tail, rubs up against people and brings in plenty of business.

Dir: Fred Hibbard

Brownie spends a good part of his time avoiding the dog-catcher. Later he make friends with the detective and they start after a burglar.

Dir: Fred Hibbard

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

It is Teddy's duty to awaken his master in time to deliver milk; he must pull the little milk wagon over its route, and to round out a complete life for the day - he must take care of the goat that gives up forty quarts of "milk without a prescription." Teddy is constantly on the job. He frustrates the villain's plan to sour the milk with a lemon and changes the bottles before any harm can come to the master. Teddy, furthermore, saves the goat from being kidnapped - and he is finally commissioned to pull the wagon in which his master and his sweetheart are seated.

Dir: Fred Hibbard

Merta and Bud were two great big grown up kinds, claiming as their parents, a four-foot Daddy, and a three-foot Ma. However, they do not escape spankings, etc., from their Dad, who was a near relative of Simon Legree. Buddy catches Dad making love to the nurses and then the fun begins! The nurse had a better half, like all nurses. The better half invites Dad and Bud to come to his beauty parlor to be improved upon. They go there, are given some nice gentle massages by the chief bully, Blue, the colored heavyweight champion of the town. When they get through with the treatments, they don't know whether they are on the head or feet. Like all country towns there was a circus, and while Mert and Bud are chasing each other in and out of the tents, they accidentally chase through the lion's cage and leave the door open. The lions escape and some of them find their way into the Beauty Parlor, where several damsels are indulging in the Fountain of Youth, etc. A little colored boy, the mascot of the Parlors, tries to escape the lions and hides in a filing cabinet, but Mr. Lion manages to open the drawer. Picky escapes through the transom of the door, but not before another lion has discovered him. He is chased for miles and miles by the wicked lions. He gives them the slip and is calmly eating pumpkin pie when his Dad, Blue, arrives. All ends in a happy peaceful way; the lions fall into the tank in the beauty parlor and sink to the regions below.

Dir: Fred Hibbard

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

Weazel Tail Bend was so crooked it couldn't see straight. The sheriff and his deputy had the habits of Jesse James, and he also robbed the country by teaching school. The weekly train was the town's only sport. The engineer knew Weazel Bend- so he didn't even hesitated. They had a nice soft mattress on the station platform to catch the passengers that chanced that way. But one day the town was brightened considerably by the arrival of Miss Betsy Beautiful, whom the School Trustee sent to relieve the sheriff of one of his duties-teaching school. Her sweetheart Hiram Biff, had followed her, how ever, riding on his nerve and the engine rod. "Big Kick Kitchen," was the place where society mixed soft drinks with hard fists. Even the bad guy, Pineapple Pete, didn't look so hard, sipping a soft drink. However, looks are not everything. Pineapple decided to pay the bank an unofficial visit to draw out some cash he had never deposited, but he was interrupted by our friend the Sheriff, who demanded half of the loot. Everything was going lovely, when who should appear but Hiram. He rounded up the crooks in fine shape, grabbed the money with one hand, his girl with the other and they both grabbed the first train going the other way.

Dir: Fred Hibbard

We'll call the lady Milt for short because she impersonates a young sailor lad. Milt's captain was a baseball fiend and had to have his ball games on board. For a target he used an ebony head, but the target was held in place by the first mate who had a whip in hand. Milt was a regular jazz baby. He shimmied and jazzed and played his ukulele all day long. Landing Day arrives and Milt is as signed to tie up the ship at the dock. The captain, as all sailors do, had a sweetheart in every town. In this particular town, Edith Roberts was his sweety. But she had more than one suitor. There were three, four and five hanging around her door at all times, and dad kept his shotgun busy chasing them. She falls in love with a dude and they elope; but little do they know they escape on an enemy's ship. Her sweetheart's rival was no one else but the captain and when he discovers who is on board, the fun begins. The sweetheart is thrown into prison, and the girl is put on K. P. Milt was the chief chef and Edith was made his assistant. While Milt has his back turned, Edith puts some gun-powder in the cake dough, and blows poor Milt to smithereens. She helps her lover to escape and they both jump overboard. They are picked up by a cruiser and the guns are trained on the pirate ship. The boat sinks with all the bad men, but Milt manages to escape in a rowboat. He takes off his civvy clothes and swears never to leave the jungle again.

Dir: Fred Hibbard

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

Betty leaves the child at the County Orphan Asylum while she delivers the weekly laundry to the bachelor's home. But the kid escapes and slides down a chute from the second story landing in the basket which Betty is dragging along behind her. At the bachelor's the baby is turned over to Brownie, the valet, who gives the baby a bath, filling the small tub with water and placing a screen around the outdoor bathroom. Later the baby roams out into the street where she is picked up by an officer. Brownie saves his little playmate as the baby is about to be placed in the wagon and taken to the Children's Society Home, by substituting another baby who looks like his pal. Betty and the bachelor find Brownie coming down the street with the baby. The child says that she wants the man for a a daddy, and with Brownie tugging at his trousers' leg and the baby 'pulling "at his coat lapel, he could hardly resist, and the baby's wish is granted.

Dir: Fred Hibbard

A fascinating piece of cinema that shares thematic elements.

Dir: Fred Hibbard

A burglar constantly gets the "papers" when he is after the pearls, and a spy endlessly gets the pearls while he is after the "papers," and the jealous husband of a flighty wife lives in what he calls a "house full of lovers," consisting of the spy, the burglar, and some detectives, all in hiding, all trying to avoid him and one another.