Essential Cult Cinema Drawn from the Same DNA as The Sting of Victory: Cult Guide

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

Episode 1: "The Tragedy" Mary Page, actress, is playing the leading role in "The King's Daughter," in rehearsal at the opening of the story. The show is secretly backed by David Pollock, man about town, who is in love with the girl. Mary is in love with Philip Langdon, a young lawyer. Pollock attends every rehearsal. He is really watching Mary. Philip Langdon, attorney-at-law, one day, keeps an appointment with Mary. He is talking to her on the stage when they are discovered by Pollock. Pollock is overcome with rage and orders the manager to show Langdon out. Langdon smilingly leaves the theater and waits outside. Mary goes to her dressing room. Pollock follows and attacks her. He is worsted in a fight by Langdon, who hears Mary's cries. On its premier, the play is declared a huge success and Mary attends a banquet given for the company. She is accompanied by Langdon, who waits in the hotel lobby. Pollock also goes to the hotel and engages a room, drinking heavily. He sends a bellboy to Mary with the message that Langdon wants to see her and she comes to the room. There she discovers herself trapped. Langdon, meanwhile, sees Mary leave the dining room and follows her. While he is trying to find out where she went, he hears a scream and a shot. He leads the crowd to Pollock's room, where he finds him dead. Mary is arrested.

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Although nearly every family has its night workers, the day-world gives little thought to the unnaturalness of their existence. A boy escapes from an orphanage, and after a few weeks in a country printing office, reaches the city where he obtains work as an office boy on a newspaper. About him everywhere are men who at forty have lived their lives and are ready for the discard. But at fifteen he little heeds the warning. In ten years he has become an excellent reporter, but possessed of the irresponsibility of his night life. The girl, also a reporter, interests herself in him and repeatedly saves him from disgrace in his work. Under circumstances distasteful to him he encounters his parents, who learn his identity but conceal their own. The girl, discovers who he is, but keeps it to herself. In the moment of their greatest "scoop" the girl learns that her grandfather, the editor of an up-state weekly, has died. She persuades the boy to help her edit the paper. Under the spell of living by day his whole attitude changes, and he tells her of his love and his desire to remain in the little country town.

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

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Despite the malicious effects of a former plantation overseer, Virginia remains true to her sweetheart who serves in the Union army.

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A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

Dr. Henry Jekyll experiments with scientific means of revealing the hidden, dark side of man and releases a murderer from within himself.

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Stuart Northcote, a London adventurer, slays the president of a mythical South American republic, and establishes himself at its head. Mercia Solano, daughter of the slain official, leads a conspiracy to avenge her father's death by killing Northcote. The adventurer escapes to London, however, after looting the republic's treasure chest. He is pursued by Mercia and a band. The adventurer, perceiving his deadly peril, employs Jack Burton, an impoverished young Englishman, to act as his double. The girl shoots at the double, and other fiendish plots are carried out to kill him. Burton frustrates them all. Then the conspirators penetrate his masquerade. Mercia falls in love with Jack and repudiates her accomplices. The latter discover Northcote's hiding place and slay him. To avenge themselves for Mercia's betrayal, they accuse her and Burton of the crime. The two are brought within the shadow of the gallows, but finally are vindicated by the testimony of a valet who witnessed the murder.

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

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The house of Thomas Chatterton is divided against itself. His son Joseph is an inebriate; his daughter Anne is a social butterfly who neglects her baby and husband; the old man lives in solitude. Edith Conway comes to visit the Chattertons and finds herself distinctly out-of-place, of a different type. Thomas Chatterton finds in Edith a long-wished-for companion. Joseph accuses the girl of designs on his father's wealth; in a delirium, he attempts to stab his father, but Edith stops him. From then on the girl exercises a peculiar influence over the entire family. Slowly she spreads the gospel of love and kindness hitherto unknown there. Anne is drawn back to her baby and husband on the eve of becoming entangled with a designing young society man, Joseph renounces his alcoholic yoke and weds Edith, and the house of Chatterton is no longer divided against itself.

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Miss Cornelia Alster, a wealthy spinster, secretly makes George Swan, a poor lawyer's clerk, executor of her estate. That night, she goes to a theatre and returns home unexpectedly, discovers her two wards, Beatrice and Linda, in what she thinks is an affair with two men. As a matter of fact, Linda is fighting Keith, the butler, who is using some knowledge of her to force her to give him money. Beatrice is entertaining her sweetheart, Allen Longstreet, a young inventor. Miss Alster waits in her room, determined to see who the men are. The next day she is found murdered. Trask, a noted detective, is put on the trail. He runs down five clues, the last leading to the criminal. It is a baffling story and an unexpected denouement. The criminal is in the cast. Which one do you think committed the crime?