Film vs Film
Select two cult films to compare side by side.
The Ordeal Synopsis
Sybil marries George Bruce, an alcoholic 20 years her senior, to provide for her crippled sister Helen and her brother Geoffrey. Bruce becomes jealous of Sybil's attentions to young physician Robert Acton, and when Bruce suffers a heart attack and calls for Digitalis, Sybil allows the vial to break and he dies. She inherits her husband's fortune, which she retains on the condition that she does not remarry, and has Helen cured by an operation. Although Sybil and Acton fall in love, he refuses to commit himself without a legal marriage. Meanwhile, Helen, who has drifted into a dissolute life, is abducted and is about to be forced into marriage when Sybil and Acton rescue her from a fire. Family nurse Minnie confesses in her dying moments that she poisoned Bruce. Realizing that her money has yielded more grief than happiness, Sybil consents to give up the fortune and marry Acton.
Up from the Depths Synopsis
Revivalist Davids persuades Daire Vincent to elope with him. Within the year, inspired by his associates to seek a held of greater grafting possibilities, he deserts her without having made her a wife, and goes to New York, where he meets with great success. Daire has a child, and after many failures, becomes a dance hall singer to support it. In New York she is approached by Davids' confederates who ask her to help them in raiding the Mozart dive in which she works. She thus discovers Davids' present whereabouts and activities, and, taking her child, confronts him. Davids' young wife is dying, childless. The sight of his own son, whom he cannot claim, stirs him deeply and with a regenerating effect. The wife dies. Davids, insistently urged by the Purity League to do this, makes a raid on the Mozart. He is wounded. Father White, a slum worker, striving for Daire's spiritual upliftment, hears her life's story and intercedes with Davids to legitimatize the child. Davids and Daire go through a marriage ceremony. Later each is shown rising from the depth to a fuller and better knowledge of life.
"The Ordeal" holds a slight edge in general audience appreciation, but "Up from the Depths" offers its own unique cult appeal.
Suggested Watch:
The Ordeal