Film vs Film
Select two cult films to compare side by side.
Idols of Clay Synopsis
Faith Merrill lives in the South Seas where she has been reared by her father Jim, a pearl-smuggling recluse who has kept his daughter completely innocent of the ways of the world. One day Faith finds Dion Holme, a sculptor who left England after a devastating love affair with Lady Cray, adrift on the beach, and brings him home. Under Faith's influence, Dion is regenerated; he begins sculpting again and returns to England, unaware of the girl's love for him. Upon her father's death, Faith follows Dion to London where he has become a famous sculptor. Lady Cray, jealous of Faith's youth and beauty, conceives a plan to destroy the girl by introducing her to a life of dissipation and drug use. Lady Cray's scheme works when at a banquet, Faith performs a risqué drug-induced dance that repulses Dion. After Lady Cray commits suicide, Faith, fearful that she will be suspected of murder, flees to the Limehouse District where she takes refuge in an opium den. Meanwhile, Dion, discovering that he loves the girl, rescues her, and they return together to the paradise of the South Seas.
The Hunting of the Hawk Synopsis
Steaming across the Atlantic, loaded with passengers of every description, came one of those mammoth ocean liners headed for New York. On board was supposed to be the Hawk, a notorious international thief. Diana Curran, secretary for a wealthy society woman, received a proposal of marriage from Desselway, an unknown on board. She loved him, but the memory of the past interfered. Diana's father labored unsuccessfully to sell his engravings. His work was not in demand, until one day to him came a stranger who, posing as a member of the Treasury Department, gave him a commission to make duplicate plates of government notes. While her father was working on the plates, Wrenshaw, the supposed treasury man, made love to Diana, and they were married, but on the morning of the marriage the secret service raided the rooms of Pinna's father, and in the ensuing fight her father was killed and she believed that she had killed a man herself. Arriving at the country estate, she found that Wrenshaw, whom she had left the day after her marriage, was employed as secretary to her mistress' husband. Also Desselway was invited for the house party. Then things began to happen around a necklace. Wrenshaw's gang were among the servants. Desselway secured the necklace by force. An escaped counterfeiter, one whom Wrenshaw double crossed years back, in the neighborhood. In the chase Wrenshaw was killed by a shot through the window, Desselway's real character was revealed, and Diana saw the man whom she thought she had killed.
"Idols of Clay" holds a slight edge in general audience appreciation, but "The Hunting of the Hawk" offers its own unique cult appeal.
Suggested Watch:
Idols of Clay