''Lovey Mary'' is a 1926 American

comedy-drama 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 ...

film directed by

King Baggot William King Baggot (November 7, 1879 – July 11, 1948) was an American actor, film director and screenwriter. He was an internationally famous movie star of the silent film era. The first individually publicized leading man in America, B ...

, with

Bessie Love Bessie Love (born Juanita Horton; September 10, 1898April 26, 1986) was an American-British actress who achieved prominence playing innocent, young girls and wholesome leading ladies in silent and early sound films. Her acting career spanned ei ...

in the title role. It is based on the 1903 novel of the same name by

Alice Hegan Rice Alice Hegan Rice, also known as Alice Caldwell Hegan, (January 11, 1870 – February 10, 1942) was an American novelist. Her 1901 novel Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch became a play and four films. Biography Alice Caldwell Hegan was born on J ...

, a sequel to Rice's ''Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch''. It was distributed by

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by amazon (company), Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded o ...

. The film survives, but is incomplete.

Plot

Lovey Mary (Love) runs away from an

orphanage An orphanage is a Residential education, residential institution, total institution or group home, devoted to the Childcare, care of orphans and children who, for various reasons, cannot be cared for by their biological families. The parent ...

with Tommy (Combs) so that he will not have to return to his bad mother. Lovey and Tommy stay at the home of Miss Hazey (Ogden), who is about to marry a man whom she knows only from correspondence. Billy Wiggs (Haines) lives next door, and Lovey works with his sisters in a factory to earn money for herself and Tommy. On the day of Miss Hazey's wedding, her fiancee recognizes Lovey from the orphanage and reveals her true identity. Lovey and Billy plan to marry and adopt Tommy.

Cast

Production

To help her decide whether to participate in the film, MGM lent Bessie Love a copy of the novel ''Lovey Mary'' by

in 1925—then-valued at $25 (). Love never returned the book.

References

External links

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Production still
1926 films 1926 comedy-drama films 1920s English-language films American silent feature films American black-and-white films Films based on American novels Films directed by King Baggot Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer films Films based on works by Alice Hegan Rice 1920s American films Silent American comedy-drama films {{silent-comedy-drama-film-stub