Film vs Film
Select two cult films to compare side by side.
Gimmie Strength Synopsis
Jimmie, a young newspaper man, has just been fired for a grave error in reporting-and the editor is still sore. As the ex-reporter is leaving the office, stretcher-bearers carry in another reporter who had been sent to get a photograph of the famous Doctor Paine and his patient, "Soapy Bill." The editor calls Jimmie back and tells him that if he can get those photographs he can have his job back. Jimmie gets to the sanitarium just in time to see a half dozen other reporters thrown out-and he decides to use strategy. He enters and is met by four doctors. They ask him if he is "Soapy Bill" and Jimmie says that he is. The four doctors decide to cure him and each takes turns with his favorite method. Each of the doctors is jealous of the others and they individually conspire to prove that each of the others is wrong, and Jimmie is given four courses of treatment calculated to cure his burglarious tendencies. Hypnotism fail. The next doctor tries chiropractic treatments and Jimmie twisted into more curves than a pretzel. Electric treatments also fail. The last doctor is a believer in steam treatments and Jimmie is locked in a steam cabinet nearly roasted alive before he makes off with cabinet and all. As he rushes into the hall the real Doctor Paine makes his appearance and explains that the four "doctors" are "nut" patients of his and in apology offers to do anything he can for Jimmie to square accounts. Jimmie asks for his photograph-but forgets all about it in his interest in a girl reporter there on the same errand.
An Amateur Devil Synopsis
Carver Endicott, a young sophisticate, is rejected by his fiancée for being too foppish and dull. When she feigns an interest in his father, Carver attempts to disgrace his family name by working as a farmhand and later as a busboy in a hotel. However, the newspapers only praise him for his self-sacrificing principles; and finding that he cannot bring shame to the family through menial labor, he takes up with a notorious actress. But when this maneuver also fails, he returns to his former fiancée, who has no further complaint about his being an inexperienced dullard.
"Gimmie Strength" holds a slight edge in general audience appreciation, but "An Amateur Devil" offers its own unique cult appeal.
Suggested Watch:
Gimmie StrengthBoth films share