Hand-Picked Alternatives for Fans of With Hoops of Steel: Cult Guide

Dir: Eliot Howe

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of With Hoops of Steel perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

Spencer Wellington, a wealthy young man, who is threatened with paresis, will not take his physician's warning, and marries Grace Valient. Dr. Rand loves the same woman, but his professional honor will not permit him to tell her the secret about her husband. A child is born, a hopeless defective that dies almost immediately. The mother loses her mind for a time, and another child is substituted for the dead baby. In the meantime the husband keeps getting worse. Realizing that he cannot hold off the moment of his mental breakdown much longer, Wellington starts in on a fast round of debauchery. He keeps a number of dancing girls in a secret retreat on his estate, and one night falls dead in tin- middle of a wild carouse. Indications point to the union of Doctor Rand and the widow.

Dir: Eliot Howe

Although he is known for having the "keenest nose for news" on the Springfield Evening Times , city editor Theobald Todd lacks the assertiveness to realize his dream of becoming the managing editor when the position opens. Married to a domineering former widow who runs a boardinghouse and dotes on her overgrown, lazy son Roy, Todd is henpecked into getting Roy a job on the paper. After the owner puts Todd in charge when he goes away for a few days, Todd and his star reporter, although hampered by Roy's interference, expose a gambling ring whose members operate under the guise of stock brokers, in defiance of the newly-passed anti-betting law, led by the town's self-appointed head of an anti vice crusade. The paper's "extra" receives the commendation of the returning owner, who gives Todd the managing editor position. At home, Todd smashes the parlor furniture and proves he is "managing editor of his own establishment," thus ending his wife's reign of terror.