Film vs Film
Select two cult films to compare side by side.
A Sporting Chance Synopsis
The clerks at a New York hotel near Times Square turn away customers until they approve millionaire John Stonehouse and give him room 420. While attempting suicide, John hears a shot from a nearby room. Finding Gilberte Bonheur bending over the limp body of Aaron Witt, whom, she says, she shot when he tried to assault her, John, wanting to die anyway, offers to take the blame. He escapes after recovering an emerald that Witt used to blackmail Gilberte. After Gilberte, Witt, and the clerks conspire, John helps Gilberte hide Witt, who revives and demands the emerald or its value. John writes a check and leaves taking a theater ticket given to him by Gilbert. John, who contemplated suicide because he accidentally drank a strange poison, now receives an antidote which his chemist created. Cured, he goes to the theater and sees the happenings in the hotel enacted. Backstage, Gilberte explains that the ruse was to prove to a critic that the plot could really happen. They then confess their mutual love.
Joy and the Dragon Synopsis
Young Joy ( Baby Marie Osborne ), the sole survivor of a shipwreck that killed her parents, is rescued by fishermen and then placed in an orphanage. Although reputable on the surface, the home really functions as a front for some crooks who want to keep Joy there because she carries with her all of her mother's jewelry. Joy manages to escape, but without the jewels, and then stows away on a train heading out West. After arriving, she meets Hal Lewis ( Henry King ), who has been made an outcast by his upper crust Eastern family. Hal soon adopts the little girl and, becoming stronger and more serious through the responsibilities of parenthood, he returns home with Joy. Then, after receiving his father's forgiveness, Hal breaks up the orphanage gang and retrieves Joy's jewels.
"A Sporting Chance" holds a slight edge in general audience appreciation, but "Joy and the Dragon" offers its own unique cult appeal.
Suggested Watch:
A Sporting Chance