Film vs Film
Select two cult films to compare side by side.
A Girl at Bay Synopsis
After Mary Allen drops a blood-stained knife, Judge Robert Craigin's dead body lies next to her. Mary secures a secretarial position with Judge Bruce Craigin, the dead man's younger brother. Professor Galt, a criminal psychologist, and Detective Hooker believe that Mary committed the crime. Craigin and Mary fall in love and are married. Galt persuades Craigin to let Mary furnish their new home because a clue to the solving of the murder is the artistic furnishings of the room in which the murder victim was found. The similarity between the decor of the house and the crime room convinces Craigin that Mary murdered his brother, but Thomas Gray confesses to the crime. He had been in the room waiting to avenge his wife's wrongs on Craigin. When Craigin attacked Mary, she lifted her paper-knife and fainted, and Gray killed Craigin, leaving the murder weapon in Mary's hand. Mary and Bruce find happiness together.
The Duplicity of Hargraves Synopsis
Old Major Pendleton Talbot of Mobile moves with his daughter Lydia to Washington, D.C., where he works on his book of reminiscences about Alabama, while Lydia scrimps to keep up appearances. Although the young government clerks ridicule the Major's dress, vaudeville actor Henry Hopkins Hargraves, the Talbots' boardinghouse neighbor, cultivates their friendship and listens attentively to the Major's stories. When a new Southern play opens, the Major splurges and buys tickets for himself and Lydia. Hargraves, playing the lead, imitates the Major's dress, mannerisms, and speech, and delights the audience, while infuriating the Major. He castigates Hargraves, who leaves, to Lydia's dismay. Later, when the Major is broke and refuses to seek a loan, an old slave from the Talbot plantation, Uncle Mose, arrives and gives the Major $300 which, he claims, is payment for a pair of mules which the Major's father gave him. The Major soon finds a publisher for this book, and Lydia gets a letter from Hargraves revealing that he, as Uncle Moses, repaid the Major for his help with the role.
"A Girl at Bay" holds a slight edge in general audience appreciation, but "The Duplicity of Hargraves" offers its own unique cult appeal.
Suggested Watch:
A Girl at Bay