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Select two cult films to compare side by side.
The Man Who Was Afraid Synopsis
Young Benton Clune is not a coward at heart. He is a victim of over-zealous mother love which has grown to exert too great an influence over him. When the President's call to arms comes, Clune's regiment of National Guard prepares. Mrs. Clune is terror-stricken. She induces Benton to resign from the unit. His comrades brand him a "slacker," and the girl he loves spurns him. The regiment moves off to war. Lacerated by the taunts which greet him on all sides, Clune's manhood finally asserts itself and he hastens to the front. He finds his regiment in a desperate plight. The enemy, in overwhelming numbers, is threatening to annihilate it. The colonel calls for a volunteer to make a perilous trip for reinforcements. Those who had jeered at Clune held back from what seemed inevitable death. The man they had called "slacker," steps forth. His trip through the enemy lines forms a series of hairbreadth escapes but proves successful in the end. Thus Benton redeems his honor and wins the girl he loves.
The Trufflers Synopsis
Sue Wilde has "kicked out" or the sanctimonious atmosphere with which her venerable father, Dr. Hubbell. Harkness Wilde, has surrounded her, and is luxuriating in life which knows no conventions, nor goal except that where the limelight shines brightest. She is an actress in one of those problems plays which scoff at the existing order of things, when Peter Ericson Mann meets her. Mann, a playwright, falls in love with Sue. Sue permits herself to become engaged to him, yet the lure of the limelight calls her. A motion picture magnate promises to make her the nation's idol, and she forsakes the writers love for fame on the screen. Driven desperate by jealousy, Peter betrays to newspaper men the secret that Sue's father has embezzled his church's funds. The old man, unable to bear the disgrace, ends his life. It is the shock which jolts Sue out of her selfishness, and back into woman's sphere. She weds Henry Bates, "The Worm," who, unlike Peter and the other "trufflers," has a job and is honestly working for a living.
"The Man Who Was Afraid" holds a slight edge in general audience appreciation, but "The Trufflers" offers its own unique cult appeal.
Suggested Watch:
The Trufflers