Film vs Film
Select two cult films to compare side by side.
The Spitfire of Seville Synopsis
As he lies dying, Don Salvador, the leader of a political outlaw band in the mountains near Seville, tells his daughter Carmelita to marry the best man in the band. After Pedro and Leonardo duel, Carmelita agrees to marry Pedro, the winner, at the Fiesta of Roses, and saves Leonardo. American artist Kent Staunton, painting in the mountains, poses Carmelita, who is dressed as a boy to compete with a friend. After she spends the night in Kent's cabin to avoid a storm, Pedro, misunderstanding, fights Kent and gets arrested. Although attracted to Kent, Carmelita vows revenge when Pedro says that Kent is a spy who killed her father. In Seville, she poses for Kent, but an impulse stops her from stabbing him. After learning that Pedro was lying, Carmelita refuses to marry him when he escapes from jail. Pedro slashes her portrait and, threatening to kill Kent, forces a marriage ceremony. Leonardo, however, learns of this and shoots Pedro. Kent and Carmelita then marry.
A Yankee from the West Synopsis
Billy Milford, Harvard graduate, goes west to seek his fortune. In .Addertown he secures a position as stationmaster of the L. & R. Railroad, but is forced out because of his drinking habits. He accidentally meets Gunhild, an emigrant Norwegian girl, as she arrives in Addertown to take up her home with Jan Hagsberg, the town's saloonkeeper. Seeking revenge on the railroad, Milford joins Jim Dorsey in a scheme to hold up the road's paymaster on his way to pay the employees of the company's mine. The holdup is carried out successfully and the loot hidden under the floor of Milford's cabin. Dorsey later returns and steals it. Then he flees the town. Milford is accused of the theft, but a search of his cabin does not reveal the money and he is freed. Gunhild, confident of his innocence, pledges her love as Milford goes east to live down the past. Two years later, Gunhild, employed as companion by a wealthy woman, arrives to spend the summer at a farm house adjoining the one operated by Milford. They meet by accident and their love is renewed. Dorsey, the strong man of a traveling show, reaches the town and insists upon forcing his attentions on Gunhild. Milford and Dorsey engage in a fistic encounter during which the latter is badly worsted. He leaves town that night. Having saved a large sum of money, Milford, accompanied by Gunhild, goes to the superintendent of the railroad and confesses his share in the holdup. Then he hands him the amount of money he had stolen from the paymaster. The superintendent, struck by Milford's honesty and the struggle he has made to make amends, gives the entire amount to Gunhild, now Milford's wife, as a wedding present. The two happy young persons then leave for parts unknown to begin life all over.
"The Spitfire of Seville" holds a slight edge in general audience appreciation, but "A Yankee from the West" offers its own unique cult appeal.
Suggested Watch:
The Spitfire of Seville