Film vs Film
Select two cult films to compare side by side.
The Cry of the Weak Synopsis
After District Attorney Dexter and his neighbor, Judge Creighton, play chess and continue their long-standing argument about crime - the Judge says that criminals can be rehabilitated, while Dexter argues that they should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law - the Judge, on entering his house, is shot in the arm by two thieves. Dexter's wife Mary hides one of the thieves from the police, but after they leave, the boy, attempting to escape, is shot in the shoulder by Dexter. Mary identifies the thief as her brother Budd and tells Dexter of their hard background that made the weak-willed Budd an easy prey to the criminal elements. Her pleas and the discovery by the police that the other thief fired at the judge, soften Dexter's attitude and he recommends a light sentence for Budd. Later Mary reads a letter from Budd about the progress that he is making on a Western ranch and Dexter acknowledges that he was wrong about criminals.
Via Wireless Synopsis
Marsh, a draughtsman in the gun factory of John Durant, is swindled by Edward Pinkney, Durant's general manager, out of the huge royalty to be paid should a gun of Marsh's invention prove a success. Pinkney loves Maisie, but is far outrivaled by Lieut. Somers, U.S.N. Somers also has invented a gun which he gives to be cast by the Durant Iron Works, and which, if successful, will do Pinkney out of his expected graft on the Marsh invention. Pinkney takes good care that the Somers gun is "killed" in the making. He then misrepresents Somers to Maisie and her father, and though Maisie loves the Lieutenant, she feels she must give him up. Accompanied by her mother and Pinkney, she goes in the Durant yacht for a cruise in Turkish waters, formally engaging herself to Pinkney. The Durant yacht hits a mine, and in the rush to leave her, Maisie is trapped in the wireless room. With the water surging up about her shoulders, and every means of escape barred she sends out the S.O.S. signal taught her by Lieut. Somers. The lieutenant, aboard a U.S. cruiser, protecting American interests in Turkey, gets the signal, and arrives at the side of the doomed ship just in time to make a sensational rescue. Here follow a mass of complications as the plot gradually resolves itself to its end.
"Via Wireless" is currently leading in ratings, making it a stronger choice for newcomers to the genre.
Suggested Watch:
The Cry of the Weak