Film vs Film
Select two cult films to compare side by side.
The Top of New York Synopsis
Hilda O'Shaunnessey lives in a New York City tenement with her younger, invalid brother, Mickey, and relatives Mr. and Mrs. Brady. Because of Mickey's frail health, the boy spends most of his time on the roof, and Hilda works as a clerk in a department store toy department to raise enough money to send him to a sanitarium. Mickey befriends a little girl, Susan Gray, who lives with her single, artist father, Emery Gray, in a bungalow on the adjoining roof; when Emery meets Hilda, he is impressed by her devotion to her brother. As Christmas season approaches, Hilda takes an extra job in the toy department dressing up as animated dolls. Soon she catches the attention of the store's leering proprietor, Gregory Stearns, who makes several advances toward the young beauty, and asks what gift she would like for Christmas. Knowing what the older, wealthy man has in store for her, and seeing a way out of her troubles, Hilda asks for an expensive fur coat. When Stearns delivers the gift, Hilda pawns it to pay for Mickey's treatment at the sanitarium, then hurries to the roof to commit suicide before yielding to her employer's desires. However, Emery Gray prevents her from jumping, and exposes Stearns as the man who stole his wife. Emery asks for Hilda's hand in marriage, and Mickey is cured in the hospital.
He Fell in Love with His Wife Synopsis
A widowed farmer, failing in his efforts to find a woman capable of running his household, decides to marry a young woman he believes can fill the bill. Wat he doesn't know is that she is running away from a brutish and violent husband, whom she has discovered is also a bigamist, and that her angry and vengeful husband is looking for her.
"The Top of New York" holds a slight edge in general audience appreciation, but "He Fell in Love with His Wife" offers its own unique cult appeal.
Suggested Watch:
The Top of New York