Film vs Film
Select two cult films to compare side by side.
Children Not Wanted Synopsis
When her best friend dies and leaves her four-year-old daughter Betty in her care, orphan Dorothy Crane, feeling unwelcome in the home of her aunt and uncle, takes her charge and heads for New York City. There she discovers that children are not wanted by landlords, and so experiences difficulty finding a place to live, until kindly Mrs. Farley offers her a room. Through the want ads, Dorothy becomes a receptionist for gem dealer Marcus Hazzard, and at her job meets Robert Barrington, a collector. The two fall in love, though Hazzard is also attracted to Dorothy, arousing the jealousy of his business partner, Madame Duval. One day, because Mrs. Farley is ill, Dorothy takes Betty to the office. Calling Dorothy into his private office, Hazzard begins to make sexual advances when a shot rings out, and Hazzard falls to the floor. Dorothy turns in amazement to see Betty standing in the doorway, a smoking pistol at her feet. Believing that the child shot Hazzard, Dorothy takes her and flees. Madame Duval and her Hindu servant, Ali Bey, tell the police that Dorothy killed Hazzard, until Ali finally reveals that Madame Duval fired the shot out of jealousy, thus freeing Dorothy to find happiness with Barrington.
The Hawk Synopsis
The Hawk, Count George De Dazetta, preys upon society with the aid of his beautiful wife. She seems to be in love with a young French nobleman, who is the real aggressor in this triangle. De Dazetta finds that the young nobleman's love for his wife is changing her for the better, that she begins to abhor his gambling profession and his inroads upon society. However, he continues to use her beauty as a lure to his gaming tables and wins heavily. In the meantime the nobleman breaks with a young woman aristocrat whom his mother wishes him to wed. During a transaction with an American from whom he borrows money to repay his gaming losses to De Dazetta the nobleman learns of the Hawk's love for his wife, and that she is helping her husband to win. Marina, the wife, washes her hands of the whole earning enterprise and is accused of infidelity by her husband, who tried to kill the nobleman. Failing, he leaves, and the nobleman protects the wife while attempting to locate the gambler and get his consent to a divorce. Finally this is effected, and Marina herself pleads for the divorce, that is until she learns that De Dazetta is now penniless, having lavished his every cent upon her and really loves her, and has consented to give her up only because he thinks it best for her future welfare. Her womanhood comes to the surface and she goes to him, renouncing the nobleman, her love for the latter having been without sin throughout.
"Children Not Wanted" holds a slight edge in general audience appreciation, but "The Hawk" offers its own unique cult appeal.
Suggested Watch:
Children Not Wanted