''The Money Changers'' is a 1920 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 Jack Conway and starring Robert McKim,

Claire Adams Claire Adams (; 24 September 1898 – 25 September 1978) was a silent film actress and benefactor. She was born in Canada, studied there and in England, and developed a movie career in Hollywood. She spent the second half of her life in Austra ...

, and

Roy Stewart Roy Stewart (15 May 1925 – 27 October 2008) was a Jamaican-born British actor. He began his career as a stuntman and went on to work in film and television. In 1954 he founded Roy Stewart's Gym in Powis Square, North Kensington, and ran th ...

. It is based on a 1908 novel by

Upton Sinclair Upton Beall Sinclair Jr. (September 20, 1878 – November 25, 1968) was an American writer, muckraker, political activist and the 1934 Democratic Party nominee for governor of California who wrote nearly 100 books and other works in seve ...

Cast

* Robert McKim as Hugh Gordon *

as Lucy Hegan *

as Allan Martin * Audrey Chapman as Mary Holmes * George Webb as Monk Mullen *

Betty Brice Rosetta Dewart Brice (August 4, 1888 – February 15, 1935), known professionally as Betty Brice, was an American actress in many silent films. Early life Rosetta Dewart Brice was born in Sunbury, Pennsylvania, the daughter of Edward Lincoln ...

as Maggie O'Brien * Edward Peil Sr. as Ling Choo Fong * Harvey Clark as Chow Chin *

Harry Tenbrook Harry Tenbrook (born Henry Olaf Hansen, October 9, 1887 – September 4, 1960) was an American film actor. Henry Olaf Hansen was born in Christiania (now Oslo), Norway. His family migrated to the United States in 1892. Under the stage nam ...

as Chink Murphy * Stanton Heck as George Conley * Zack Williams as Wesley Shiloh Mainwaring *

George Hernandez George Hernandez I (June 6, 1863 – December 31, 1922) was an American silent film actor. Hernandez was born , in Placerville, California. From late 1897 through May 1899, Hernandez was a traveling Shakespearean actor with the Janet Waldorf ...

as James Hegan *

Gertrude Claire Gertrude Claire (July 16, 1852 – April 28, 1928) was an actress of the American stage and Hollywood silent motion pictures. Biography Claire was born in Chicago, Illinois, and began appearing onstage at the age of 16. She played minor roles ...

as Mrs. Mullen * Laddie Earle as Jimmy Mullen

Reception

The film industry created the

National Association of the Motion Picture Industry The National Association of the Motion Picture Industry (NAMPI) was an American film industry self-regulatory body created by the Hollywood studios in 1916 to answer demands for film censorship by states and municipalities. History The system consi ...

(NAMPI) in 1916 in an effort to preempt

censorship Censorship is the suppression of speech, public communication, or other information. This may be done on the basis that such material is considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or "inconvenient". Censorship can be conducted by governments ...

by states and municipalities, and it used a list of subjects called the "Thirteen Points" which film plots were to avoid. ''The Money Changers'', with its

white slavery White slavery (also white slave trade or white slave trafficking) refers to the slavery of Europeans, whether by non-Europeans (such as West Asians and North Africans), or by other Europeans (for example naval galley slaves or the Vikings' t ...

plot line, is an example of a film that clearly violated the Thirteen Points and yet was still distributed. Since the NAMPI was ineffective, it was replaced in 1922.

References

Bibliography

* James Robert Parish & Michael R. Pitts. ''Film Directors: a Guide to their American Films''. Scarecrow Press, 1974.

External links

* * 1920 films 1920 drama films 1920s English-language films American silent feature films Silent American drama films Films based on works by Upton Sinclair Films directed by Jack Conway American black-and-white films Pathé Exchange films 1920s American films {{Silent-film-stub