Film vs Film
Select two cult films to compare side by side.
The Woman in Politics Synopsis
When Dr. Beatrice Barlow, who has recently been appointed to the city health commission, disregards a warning about denouncing as unsafe and unsanitary a tenement which Mayor Glynn owns, she is fired. After learning that the city's newspaper is also owned by Glynn, Dr. Barlow writes to the governor and is granted a hearing the next month. Upon finding a case of smallpox in the tenement, Dr. Barlow unsuccessfully attempts to have it quarantined. When she puts up a quarantine sign herself, a health official struggles with her, but a man appears and thrashes the official. Although the mayor and his cronies hide a man in her hotel room to compromise her, the man who helped her learns of the plot, and it is foiled. When the tenement catches fire, the man rescues Dr. Barlow, but she is then lured to a sanitarium and imprisoned. The man finds her, arrests her keepers and brings her to the hearing in time to present evidence against the mayor, who is imprisoned. Finally the man reveals himself to be the governor's private secretary.
The Mill on the Floss Synopsis
High spirited daughter of Miller Tulliver, the owner of the "Mill on the Floss," Maggie Tulliver goes to visit Tom, her brother, at his boarding school and becomes acquainted with Philip Wakem, Tom's crippled schoolmate. After Philip's father, a prosperous lawyer, schemes to take over the mill, Tom forces Maggie to end her liaison with Philip. To satisfy his father's dying wish, Tom maneuvers to reclaim the mill, which legends say will cause the Floss River to flood if it is lost to the Tullivers, but throws Maggie out of the house when he hears spurious reports about her friendship with Stephen Guest, her cousin's fiancé. Although she loves Stephen, Maggie decides to give him up and mend her relationship with Tom. On her way to his house, the Floss begins to overflow, threatening to destroy the mill. Bravely Maggie struggles to save her brother, but the river overcomes them, and they die, clasped in each other's arms.
"The Woman in Politics" holds a slight edge in general audience appreciation, but "The Mill on the Floss" offers its own unique cult appeal.
Suggested Watch:
The Woman in Politics