A dead man's widow is an actress, his real wife is a fraud, and 1920s Alabama is the messiest character.
Rich Southerner John Stanley Hale meets flirtatious actress Elizabeth Roddard, she induces him to marry her, but after several days of quarreling, he flees to Russia. After John's vessel is sunk in mid-ocean and he is reported dead, Elizabeth convinces her destitute and ailing friend Betty Blair to pose as John's widow in order to inherit his fine home in Alabama.
Acting
Sylvia Breamer's fragile dignity as the proxy widow.
Production
J. Stuart Blackton's ambitious ocean disaster sequence.
Director
J. Stuart Blackton
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
This is one of the earliest surviving works directed by J. Stuart Blackton, British-American pioneer who co-founded Vitagraph Studios and helped invent the animated film.
The 'lost at sea, returns unexpectedly' plot was so common in 1920s melodrama that trade papers joked about checking steamship manifests before believing any death report.
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