Film vs Film
Select two cult films to compare side by side.
Bill Apperson's Boy Synopsis
The motherless son of mountaineer Bill Apperson, Buddy (Jack Pickford) falls in love with Martha Yarton (Gloria Hope), who must take care of her widowed father and six brothers. When Bill remarries and Buddy sullenly refuses to call the new bride "mother," Bill hits him with a stick and immediately regrets it. Buddy leaves home and wanders toward the Yarton house where he follows a thief inside and shoots. The thief escapes, but Buddy is caught and only escapes a jail sentence when Martha says she saw the thief. Buddy and Bill are reconciled, but the town, still suspicious, shuns Buddy. Meanwhile, Mary, Bill's wife, had left rather than come between a father and son. Buddy calls her "mother" and she returns, but he is uneasy when his father embraces her. When Martha says she does not love him, he leaves town for a year, but returns to find that the thief has confessed, Bill and Mary have a baby, and Martha still loves him.
The Heart of Jennifer Synopsis
Even though he had saved her father from a financial crisis, Jennifer Hale refuses to marry wealthy Stephen Weldon, who tries to ruin the Hales. They leave for their summer home in the woods where Jennifer falls in love with wealthy James Murray, a lumber camp foreman. After Weldon finds them and threatens Hale with exposure unless Jennifer marries him, Murray marries Jennifer. Weldon then convinces him that Jennifer and he had a secret romance, and that she married Murray for his money. Murray's sister Agnes becomes Weldon's lover, and when he prepares to leave, she kills him. After Jennifer takes the blame to save Murray from learning of Agnes' disgrace, Murray, although he now hates her, takes Jennifer to the mountains to escape the law. Just as the posse overtakes them, a man rides up with the news that Agnes fell over a cliff and confessed before she died. Their love renewed love, the couple are now reunited.
"Bill Apperson's Boy" holds a slight edge in general audience appreciation, but "The Heart of Jennifer" offers its own unique cult appeal.
Suggested Watch:
Bill Apperson's Boy