''The Price of Pleasure'' is a 1925 American
silent drama film
In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...
directed by
Edward Sloman
Edward Sloman (19 July 1886, London - 29 September 1972, Woodland Hills, California) was an English silent film director, actor, screenwriter and radio broadcaster. He directed over 100 films and starred in over 30 films as an actor between ...
and starring
Virginia Valli
Virginia Valli (died September 24, 1968) was an American stage and film actress whose motion picture career started in the silent film era and lasted until the beginning of the sound film era of the 1930s.
Early life
Born Virginia McSweeney in ...
,
Norman Kerry
Norman Kerry (born Norman Hussey Kaiser,"United States World War II Draft Registration Cards,registration for Norman Hussey Kaiser, Los Angeles, California, April 27, 1942 This document lists his full name as Norman Hussey Kaiser, noting the na ...
, and
Louise Fazenda
Louise Fazenda (June 17, 1895 – April 17, 1962) was an American film actress, appearing chiefly in silent comedy films.
Early life
Fazenda was born in her maternal grandparents' house in Lafayette, Indiana, the daughter of merchandise broke ...
.
Plot
As described in a
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 ...
, Garry Schuyler (Kerry), a young millionaire, is charmed by Linnie Randall (Valli), a department store clerk whom he hears sighing for at least one week of real pleasure. He takes her up on that, just for a lark.
From then on her life is one round of delights after another. He takes her to his palatial home, now empty because his mother and sister are out of town. At the end of the week, the very evening when she is to return to her dreary room, he takes pity on her, realizing that now her unhappiness is to be greater than ever. He proposes marriage and saves her feelings. When they return to his home, his mother (Lester) and Grace (Astaire), his sister, unexpectedly return, unknown to the newlyweds. Linnie goes upstairs and is ordered out of the room by Garry's sister, who thinks she is one of the maids. Then it is that the mother and daughter make life miserable for Linnie. One night she dashes away from the table, into the blinding night rain. Garry follows and accidentally runs her down in his car. Early in the morning, believing she is dead, he falls in a faint, and thereafter has brain fever. His people take him to Europe to recover and forget. Linnie has a child, and supports herself by doing fashionable dancing at a leading Broadway cabaret. Garry returns with his mother about a year later. A word from his faithful butler (Barrows), and he begins to stir about in search of his wife, whom he finds being attacked by her dancing partner. The latter proves to be a crook, whom the family lawyer had hired in order to get sufficient evidence so as to get a divorce for Garry without consulting him. A swift unravelling results as the pair is happily reunited.
Cast
Preservation
With no prints of ''The Price of Pleasure'' located in any film archives,
Library of Congress American Silent Feature Film Survival Database: ''The Price of Pleasure''
/ref> it is a lost film
A lost film is a feature or short film that no longer exists in any studio archive, private collection, public archive or the U.S. Library of Congress.
Conditions
During most of the 20th century, U.S. copyright law required at least one copy o ...
.
References
Bibliography
* Munden, Kenneth White. ''The American Film Institute Catalog of Motion Pictures Produced in the United States, Part 1''. University of California Press, 1997.
External links
*
*
Still and advertisements
at silentfilmstillarchive.com
at silenthollywood.com
1925 films
1925 drama films
Silent American drama films
Films directed by Edward Sloman
American silent feature films
1920s English-language films
Universal Pictures films
American black-and-white films
1920s American films
English-language drama films
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