''Chicken Casey'' is a 1917 American silent

comedy-drama film Comedy drama, also known by the portmanteau ''dramedy'', is a genre of dramatic works that combines elements of comedy and drama. The modern, scripted-television examples tend to have more humorous bits than simple comic relief seen in a typical ...

directed by

Raymond B. West Raymond B. West (February 11, 1886 – September 11, 1923) was an American motion picture director. He joined the New York Motion Picture Company in 1910 and directed more than 70 motion pictures between 1910 and 1919 before being involved in an ...

and starring

Dorothy Dalton Dorothy Dalton (September 22, 1893 – April 13, 1972) was an American silent film actress and stage personality who worked her way from a stock company to a movie career. Beginning in 1910, Dalton was a player in stock companies in Chicago; Te ...

, Charles Gunn and

Howard Hickman Howard Charles Hickman (February 9, 1880 – December 31, 1949) was an American actor, director and writer. He was an accomplished stage leading man, who entered films through the auspices of producer Thomas H. Ince. Career In 1900, Hickman d ...

.Connelly p.47 Prints and/or fragments were found in the

Dawson Film Find The Dawson Film Find (DFF) was the accidental discovery in 1978 of 372 film titles preserved in 533 reels of silent-era nitrate films in the Klondike Gold Rush town of Dawson City, Yukon, Canada. The reels had been buried under an abandoned hoc ...

in 1978.

Plot summary

A young author, Everett Dryden Hale, has written a book of such strength and originality that it becomes one of the bestsellers. The book is entitled "Waifs" and deals with the underworld, a subject of which Hale, who is a New Englander with a Puritanical strain, knows by personal experience, practically nothing at all. The principal character is a girl nicknamed "Rags" by her associates in the dives and haunts of night-life. A leading producer is anxious to have the book dramatized and his leading woman, Mavis Mayberry, insists on her right to create the part of "Rags." Hale accedes to the manager's request, but rejects Mavis for the part, as he believes her talent is exclusively of the refined comedy order. With the aid of a dramatic critic, Mavis stages a surprise for the author and is introduced as "Chicken Casey," a typical "Rags," in a low Bowery dive. She enacts the part so well that Hale, unaware that she is a famous actress, starts to reclaim her and informs the manager that he has found his ideal heroine and "Chicken Casey" must have the star role. The play is a success. Mavis playing the part of "Rags" with the same realism with which she invested the mock creation "Chicken Casey." Hale recognizes that he has been the victim of a trick, leaves the theater hurt and indignant. Mavis, whose masquerading had given her an insight into the nobility and chivalry of the man, way finds a to earn his forgiveness and secure a happy future for both star and author, and "Chicken Cnspv" becomes only a memory.

Cast

as Chicken Casey / Mavis Marberry * Charles Gunn as Everett Hale *

as 'Dickey' Cochran *

Tom Guise Tom Guise (1857–1930) was an American actor on stage and screen. He appeared in numerous films in the decade spanning 1917 to 1927. He was one of the popular stars in the film adaptation of the controversial book '' Black Oxen''. His performanc ...

as Israel Harris

References

Bibliography

* Robert B. Connelly. ''The Silents: Silent Feature Films, 1910-36''. December Press, 1998.

External links

* 1917 films 1917 comedy-drama films American silent feature films American black-and-white films Films directed by Raymond B. West Triangle Film Corporation films 1910s English-language films 1910s American films Silent American comedy-drama films {{silent-comedy-drama-film-stub