Cinematic Discoveries Resonating with the Themes of The Road Called Straight: Cult Guide

Dir: Ira M. Lowry

Despite the "Prohibition" laws, the Skipper brews up a batch of potent "raisin cider".

Dir: Ira M. Lowry

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of Oh, Johnny! perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

A young girl inherits half of the Lost Camp Mine when her father dies. His partner tries to help her from being cheated out of her share of the mine, first by local crooks and then by a group of her greedy relatives back East.

Dir: Ira M. Lowry

The skipper advertises an auction by tacking up bills on every convenient spot while making a run from the depot and stopping every few feet, to the disgust of the passengers.

Dir: Ira M. Lowry

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

The Skipper is appointed chief of the newly organized Toonerville fire department and runs it with the same thoroughness and love of his job that characterizes his remarkably efficient control of his trolley car. There are great doings in town the first day the company parades, but the real excitement starts when an honest-to-goodness fire wakes up the town. The skipper, his book of rules under his arm, sees to it that every- thing is done according to the best authorities, even if they fail to put out the fire until the house is almost destroyed. When the engine does get to pumping it drenches everything in sight, which includes nearly every man, woman and child in the place.

Dir: Ira M. Lowry

After his assistant, Bud Lester, is killed, Texas Ranger Speedy Meade bids farewell to his girl friend, convent student Mary Dillman, and sets out to break up a gang of cattle thieves operating on the border. After arriving at the scene, Speedy dons different disguises, including that of a derelict bartender and an old man selling stolen cattle. Speedy obtains valuable information and learns that the leader of the band is Henry Dillman, Mary's father. Mary arrives and complicates Speedy's plans. He trails the gang to their secret rendezvous, but Mary causes him to lose his advantage and he is captured, bound, and gagged. Dillman is accused by the others in the gang of having betrayed them to the ranger. A fight ensues in which Dillman is shot and Mary is seized by a bandit. Speedy frees himself and knocks out Mary's assailant. Dillman confesses he is not really Mary's father, and Mary goes off with Speedy.

Dir: Ira M. Lowry

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

U.S. Marshal "High Pockets" Henderson discovers the body of Bud Blythe near the town of Farewell. After leaving his fingerprints on a photograph of Blythe's sister Joy, who traveled West with Blythe to start a ranch, High Pockets informs the sheriff. As Joy packs to go East, cattle thief Max Manon enters her home. After Joy forces him out, she goes to town, where Max's partners, Jim Stute and Bull Bellows, try to get her to drink. Recognizing her from the photograph, High Pockets intercedes and takes her to a hotel. When Manon climbs to her window, High Pockets lassoes him and drags him down. After High Pockets convinces Joy to stay and gets her work at the general store, the sheriff tries to arrest High Pockets for Blythe's murder because of the fingerprints, but High Pockets imprisons the sheriff and his aides. When Blythe's twin brother arrives, High Pockets makes Manon's sweetheart believe that the brother is Blythe's ghost. She screams that Manon was the murderer. High pockets stops Manon's escape, rounds up the others, and marries Joy.

Dir: Ira M. Lowry

The Earl of Dunhaven, who disinherited his son for marrying an American, tries, on his deathbed, to leave his estate to his nephew, the Honorable Guy Wyndham. To stop him, the Dunhaven solicitor, John Grahame, travels to America and finds the earl's grandson, Jim Dunn, a Wyoming cowpuncher. Because Jim wants a home for his motherless nephew Sam, they go to England with Grahame, taking papers which prove, because the earl has since died, that Jim is his legitimate heir. Jim's Western ways irritate his newly-found, chilly relatives. Finding himself more at home with the servants, he teaches them American customs and songs, thus shocking his aunt, Lady Caroline Croxton. After falling in love with Lady Croxton's secretary, Phyllis Barton, who warns him about a plot to rid him of his inheritance, Jim establishes his right, but tires of British life, and leaves for America with Phyllis and Sam, after renting the estate to his relatives.

Dir: Ira M. Lowry

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

A fascinating piece of cinema that shares thematic elements.

Dir: Ira M. Lowry

After Sandy Burke rescues orphaned seven-year-old Dolly Morgan from Jim Diggs, who gunned down her father, he gives her to the Widow Mackey to rear. Learning that the widow's mortgage soon is due to Digg's partner, Lafe Hinton, Sandy goes to rancher Jeff Kirby for a job, but is mistaken for desperado Slim Dillon, and captured by Kirby's daughter Molly. After Sandy proves his innocence, he masquerades as Dillon and robs a stagecoach to help the widow. Sandy wins the mortgage money playing poker with Hinton. Kirby hires Sandy to stop the thieves rustling his prize steers. Sandy suspects Diggs and Hinton, and after he rescues Molly from Diggs, he finds a letter from a packing firm which proves his suspicions. Diggs recaptures Molly, and Sandy, pursuing, falls into Diggs' trap. As Diggs prepares to brand Sandy's bare back, Molly's pleas give Sandy the opportunity to pry loose. After capturing Diggs, Sandy, who loves Molly but thinks that she loves another, says goodbye. Molly then takes his revolvers and orders him to put his hands up and around her.

Dir: Ira M. Lowry

A crooked lawyer is thwarted in his designs on the heroine by the hero, who discovers oil in the outfield of the diamond where he is playing baseball.