Film vs Film
Select two cult films to compare side by side.
The Dixie Merchant Synopsis
Goodnatured J. P. Fippany loses his home and takes to the road on a chicken-wagon with his wife and daughter. The wagon is wrecked in an automobile collision involving Jimmy Pickett, who falls in love with daughter Aida, and through a misunderstanding involving Marseillaise, Fippany's racehorse, his wife Josephine and Aida go to live with relatives. The disconsolate Fippany sells Marseillaise to Jimmy's father, sends the money to his wife, then disappears. Meanwhile, Jimmy finds Aida and convinces her of his love. Marseillaise, badly driven in a race, loses a heat, but Fippany emerges and rides her to victory, following which there is a reconciliation between husband and wife.
The Shoes That Danced Synopsis
Shopgirl Rhoda Regan is in love with the Harmony Lad, the leader of a New York street gang called the Hudson Dusters. After two gang murders are committed in the Pepper Box, a local cabaret, the Harmony Lad promises his worried sweetheart that he will abandon the gang for a singing career, and true to his word, he soon accepts a job on the Pepper Box stage. When Stumpy Darcy, the new leader of the Dusters, kills rival gang leader Wedge Barker, who had flirted with Stumpy's girlfriend, Mamie Conlon, the Harmony Lad flees to New Jersey to escape police interrogation. In order to throw the police off the track while her lover escapes, Rhoda dances all night long with Stumpy, who has come to a masked ball dressed as Charlie Chaplin. Stumpy follows Rhoda home, where the police, imagining him to be the Harmony Lad, arrest him. His name cleared, the Harmony Lad marries Rhoda and embarks on a promising career in vaudeville.
"The Dixie Merchant" holds a slight edge in general audience appreciation, but "The Shoes That Danced" offers its own unique cult appeal.
Suggested Watch:
The Dixie Merchant