The Recommended Vault Deeply Connected to The Price Woman Pays: Cult Guide

Dir: George Terwilliger

Factory owner John Gray takes ill during a strike at his factory. His doctor suggests that John's brother David, who looks just like him, take his place at home and at the factory. Although the two are look exactly like each other, in temperament and personality they are exact opposites--John is cruel and brutish to both his family and his employees, while David is considerate, thoughtful and kind to everyone. When John sees the effect that David has on his employees--and his wife--by treating them humanely, he begins to re-evaluate the way his own life has turned out, and why.

Dir: George Terwilliger

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

A fascinating piece of cinema that shares thematic elements.

Dir: George Terwilliger

A fascinating piece of cinema that shares thematic elements.

Dir: George Terwilliger

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

A fascinating piece of cinema that shares thematic elements.

Dir: George Terwilliger

A peasant girl marries a Russian nobleman against the wishes of her parents. A son is born to them and the husband takes him away from her so he can be reared in luxury. The wife spends two years searching for her husband, intending to kill him. She is known as the "mad woman," her mind being partially clouded by grief. But when she finds the husband, a reconciliation follows his promise to restore their son to her.

Dir: George Terwilliger

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

A fascinating piece of cinema that shares thematic elements.

Dir: George Terwilliger

Following a prologue which shows that animals frequently desert their young, a jilted prehistoric suitor murders the child of the woman he loves. During the age of the Roman Empire, a soldier has a brief affair with a shepherdess, and long after he has left, she has their child. The shepherdess looks for the father, but returns brokenhearted after finding him with another woman, and then dies while saving her child from a poisonous snake. During the Elizabethan era, a wayward son seeks spiritual redemption through war, and is killed in battle. In modern times, a young, impoverished husband refuses to start a family, despite the pleadings of his wife. Then, when he finally starts earning enough money to consider children, his wife has an accident that makes it impossible for her to become pregnant.

Dir: George Terwilliger

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

A father flirts with an actress in order to teach his son a lesson and himself falls in love with her.

Dir: George Terwilliger

John Carter is a good fellow. In fact, his good fellowship is Carter's one great fault, for the highballs and cocktails which go with it too frequently make him forget his more serious obligations and are cause for anxiety on the part of his charming fiancée Marybelle. Marybelle's little brother, Billie asks Carter what is making Marybelle so sad. Carter replies evasively, "It's a Ringtailed Rhinoceros." Billie vows to kill the rhino. When Carter fails to appear on time at a dinner which was planned to announce his engagement to Marybelle, and finally arrives intoxicated, her parents in anger force her to break the engagement and forbid Carter the house. Marybelle's rejection of Carter hits him hard. When he returns to his rooms, he finds little Billie, who has come to seek his assistance in his hunt for the rhino. Taking Billie on his knee, Carter tells him they will kill the rhino, and they begin to plan how to do it. Billie falls asleep. So does Carter. And Carter dreams. In his dream Carter has become what a harsh creditor predicted, a bum. Then he is shanghaied by pirates and made to scrub decks. Then the ringtailed rhinoceros appears to him and leads him to the captain's rum. The pirates chase him around the ship and finally make him walk the plank. Carter floats and floats and finally crawls out on an island. A guard appears and chases him. Dozens of soldiers appear by magic and all chase him until he falls at the feet of a little prince and begs to be saved. The prince saves him from the soldiers and takes him to see his sister, "The Weeping Princess." She must always weep until the ringtailed rhinoceros has been slain. Carter promises to kill the rhino, so, although the frowning king and queen trust him not, the prince gives him an eight-legged horse, "Resolution," and Carter starts on his hunt. He meets the rhino, but, instead of a killing, they have quite a party together in the king's wine cellar. This continues night after night for some time, Carter deceiving the royal family into believing he is after the rhino, until the Counsellor Bird, failing to make Carter ashamed of himself, "squeals" to the prince about it. They want to cut Carter's head off, but the little prince once more intercedes for him and at Carter's pleading, sets out with him to kill the rhino. The rhino and his "cronies" plead, threaten and cajole with Carter, but the prince's influence is stronger. Through the rhino's domain they plunge, firing at their tempters and not even stopping to "wet up" at the "River of Drinks," which is so inviting to Carter. Seeing that Carter is at last in earnest, the rhino calls his crowd together and they attack the castle. Carter and the prince hasten back to the rescue. On the way Carter finds a bottle of wine. Just as he is about to put it to his lips, the prince commands: "The rhino is here. Kill him!" and as the dreaded beast plunges into the throne room, Carter sends the bottle hurtling at its head. The Rhino falls dead. The princess stops crying, and throws herself gladly upon Carter's manly bosom. The king, queen and all the court hail Carter as a hero. And although this prophecy is made in a dream, it is fulfilled in real life, for Carter comes out of his dream a saner and sober man and tells Billie and Marybelle that he has killed the ringtailed rhinoceros.

Dir: George Terwilliger

A fascinating piece of cinema that shares thematic elements.