Film vs Film
Select two cult films to compare side by side.
Padlocked Synopsis
Edith Gilbert, the daughter of Henry Gilbert--a wealthy but bigoted and puritanical reformer--leaves home following her mother's death to seek her fortune on Broadway. Through her boardinghouse roommate, Edith gets work as a cafe dancer. At the cafe, she attracts man-about-town Monte Hermann and also Norman Van Pelt, a youth who falls in love with her. At Hermann's suggestion, Mrs. Alcott, an unsavory society woman, takes Edith under her protective wing; and despite Edith's denials of his base suspicions, Norman leaves for Europe to forget her. Meanwhile, Gilbert, who has married Belle Galloway, a designing spinster, is shocked to learn that Edith is a cabaret dancer and has her committed to a reformatory, where she is crushed mentally and physically. Discovering that Belle is only a scheming hypocrite, however, Gilbert pays her to leave him, and he seeks out Edith to atone for the past. They go abroad, and Edith is happily reunited with Norman.
The Commanding Officer Synopsis
When Colonel Archer, the military post commanding officer, refuses to loan money to his second-in-command, Captain Waring, Waring gets the money from Brent Lindsay of the nearby mining town, in exchange for his note. Both Waring and Lindsay court Floyd Bingham, the daughter of a retired colonel, but Floyd learns that Lindsay is involved with Queen, a dance hall girl. Following the urging of her father, Floyd marries Archer, who has two children left to him by his dying sister, whom Floyd loves. When Lindsay continues his attentions to Floyd, Archer quarrels with her and leaves to go hunting. Floyd goes walking in the woods with Lindsay and his kiss is photographed by Waring, who attempts to blackmail Lindsay. When Lindsay is found dead and Archer, who suspects Floyd, is arrested, the men from the mining town almost lynch Archer, but Queen, who witnessed the murder, clears him.
"Padlocked" holds a slight edge in general audience appreciation, but "The Commanding Officer" offers its own unique cult appeal.
Suggested Watch:
Padlocked