''The Pauper Millionaire'' is a 1922 British silent
comedy film
A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending (black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the ol ...
film magazine
Film periodicals combine discussion of individual films, genres and directors with in-depth considerations of the medium and the conditions of its production and reception. Their articles contrast with film reviewing in newspapers and magazines whi ...
, American millionaire John Pye Smith (Hallard) secretly sails for England with the intention of investigating the young woman his son Harry (Roberts) insists on marrying, concerned she may be a gold digger. An accident deprives him of his valet, without whose trained aid he is singularly helpless. In London, while waiting for a train, his beard is shaved off. A porter refuses to give him his suitcase, not recognizing him as its bearded owner. He goes on without it and then discovers that it contained his passport, money, and bankbook. After his trunk is stolen, no one believes his story of misfortune, and he is stranded in London. After undergoing several hardships, he tries to get work and accepts charity from drunken old Sally (Emery) and gets a job washing windows. He falls from a ladder and, injured, is taken to a hospital. There matters mend when his nurse turns out to be Hilda Martin (Blair), the young woman his son intends to wed. She has a
cable
Cable may refer to:
Mechanical
* Nautical cable, an assembly of three or more ropes woven against the weave of the ropes, rendering it virtually waterproof
* Wire rope, a type of rope that consists of several strands of metal wire laid into a hel ...
from his Harry to the effect that he and his mother (Whalley) are sailing to England. His troubles at an end, John Pye Smith accepts Hilda as his future daughter-in-law.
Norma Whalley
Norma Whalley (? – 1954) was an Australian theatre and film actress active in the United States and Britain.
Biography
Whalley was the daughter of Henry Octavius Whalley, a doctor working in Sydney, Australia.
During the late 1890s she toured ...