Film vs Film
Select two cult films to compare side by side.
Master Shakespeare, Strolling Player Synopsis
Unable to agree on the man responsible for the plays commonly attributed to William Shakespeare, Miss Gray, who favors Francis Bacon, and Lieutenant Stanton, who accepts Shakespeare as the author, break off their engagement. Stanton then arranges to be transferred to the Mexican border, and while fighting there is badly wounded. When she hears the news about Stanton's condition, Miss Gray faints, and then dreams that she has been transported to Elizabethan times. Then, after Bacon falls in love with her, she discovers his obsessive jealousy of Shakespeare, and learns that he has bribed a courtier to accuse him of stealing Bacon's plays. As a result, when Miss Gray wakes up, she realizes that she has championed the wrong poet, and so she immediately is reconciled with Stanton, who soon recovers from his wound.
Her Life and His Synopsis
Mary Murdock, forced by circumstances to choose between the streets and theft, is caught breaking into the home of Robert Howard. He is inclined to listen to her plea for leniency, but, urged by his cruel and selfish wife, lets the law take its course. After serving her term she is unable to secure employment, due to her prison record, and seeks the two who are responsible for her plight. She finds Howard despondent over his wife's running away with another man and about to commit suicide. To the man who wanted to die the girl who wanted to live makes a proposition, to use his fortune to better prison conditions and lending those with a prison record a helping hand. She offers her own knowledge as her half of the partnership. He accepts and the plan proves so successful that Howard is appointed warden of a large prison. But matters sail along too smoothly and cleanly to suit the corrupt political ring and they start a blackmailing scheme against Howard. Mary's intuition senses a solution to Howard's vindication and she matches her brains against the political boss and his henchmen and clears the name of the man she loves and reaps her first real happiness as her reward.
"Master Shakespeare, Strolling Player" holds a slight edge in general audience appreciation, but "Her Life and His" offers its own unique cult appeal.
Suggested Watch:
Master Shakespeare, Strolling Player