Film vs Film
Select two cult films to compare side by side.
The Eternal City Synopsis
David Rossi is an orphan in Rome, and is taken care of by a homeless man, Bruno. The wealthy Dr. Roselli adopts David and raises him with his daughter, Roma. When they grow up David and Roma become engaged. Dr. Roselli dies, and David and Bruno join the army when war erupts. Roma becomes a well-known sculptor, backed by Baron Bonelli, who is secretly the head of the Rome branch of the Communist party. Returning from the war, David becomes a follower of Benito Mussolini. Complications ensue when David finds out that Roma is backed by Baron Bonelli, his arch-enemy.
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.
"The Eternal City" holds a slight edge in general audience appreciation, but "Via Wireless" offers its own unique cult appeal.
Suggested Watch:
The Eternal City