Masterpiece Selection Resonating with the Themes of Who's to Blame?: Cult Guide

The Who's to Blame? Phenomenon

With Allen Curtis at the helm, Who's to Blame? became to reinvent the tropes of cult cinema for a global audience.

Mr. Popp was promised a raise. But the prospects were bad, so he decided to bust up the business by coming down late and going home early. At eleven Mr. Popp strolled into the dining-room to find the table littered with baby clothes. This was a great shock to him, for he didn't know - that his wife was making dresses for the Red Cross dollies, so he departed for the office with the happy thought that he was about to become a father. Soon he received a phone call from the maid, asking him to come home, that there was a surprise awaiting him. Mr. Popp came home to find the baby sitting up in the carriage, smiling happily. He phoned the office and asked the boys to come over to see the baby. Then, to his dismay, he learns that it is not his baby. Here was a perplexing situation for poor Popp. After sister and her baby had gone, Popp and Mrs. Popp rushed out to find a baby for the time being. Seeing a baby carriage near they wheeled it into their home, just as the boys arrived. "Doesn't the baby resemble its mother?" queried the apparently happy father: but the bunch couldn't see it, for, on close inspection, the baby was found to be a Jap. Suddenly the sky broke, and the owner of the child rushed in and claimed its own. But Popp would get his raise, so he adopted a whole orphan asylum and succeeded.

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of Who's to Blame? perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.