''Prodigal Daughters'' is a 1923 American silent societal

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 ...

produced by

Famous Players-Lasky Famous Players-Lasky Corporation was an American motion picture and distribution company formed on June 28, 1916, from the merger of Adolph Zukor's Famous Players Film Company—originally formed by Zukor as Famous Players in Famous Plays—and t ...

and distributed through

Paramount Pictures Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film and television production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the main namesake division of Paramount Global (formerly ViacomCBS). It is the fifth-oldes ...

. The film stars

Gloria Swanson Gloria May Josephine Swanson (March 27, 1899April 4, 1983) was an American actress and producer. She first achieved fame acting in dozens of silent films in the 1920s and was nominated three times for the Academy Award for Best Actress, most f ...

and was directed by

Sam Wood Samuel Grosvenor Wood (July 10, 1883 – September 22, 1949) was an American film director and producer who is best known for having directed such Hollywood hits as ''A Night at the Opera (film), A Night at the Opera'', ''A Day at the Races (fi ...

. It is based on a novel of the same name by

Joseph Hocking Joseph Hocking (7 November 1860 – 4 March 1937) was a Cornish people, Cornish novelist and United Methodist Free Churches, United Methodist Free Church minister. Life Hocking was born at St Stephen-in-Brannel, Cornwall, to James Hocking, ...

Plot

As described in a film magazine review, Swifty Forbes becomes a

flapper Flappers were a subculture of young Western women in the 1920s who wore short skirts (knee height was considered short during that period), bobbed their hair, listened to jazz, and flaunted their disdain for what was then considered acceptab ...

when her father J.D. Forbes becomes rich during the

War War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular o ...

. She lives a life of unrestrained pleasure and is loved by Roger Corbin, an aviator, and Stanley Garside, a gambler. Her sister Marjory follows the same trail and, when their father protests, they leave home to lead their own lives in

Greenwich Village Greenwich Village ( , , ) is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street to the north, Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the south, and the Hudson River to the west. Greenwich Village ...

. Forbes, the father, in despair leaves the business in the hands of the young Corbin. Swifty loses all her money in Garside's card room and plays the cards for the cancelation of her debt against her marriage to Garside. She loses and must marry Garside within sixty days. While in the cabin of a new locomotive produced at her father's works, the thing starts and kills Garside, who was in an automobile. She ends up rescued by Corbin, who goes after her in an airplane and the two marry.

Cast

Production

Some portions of this film were shot in Swanson's own palatial Hollywood mansion. A young and then unknown

Mervyn LeRoy Mervyn LeRoy (; October 15, 1900 – September 13, 1987) was an American film director and producer. In his youth he played juvenile roles in vaudeville and silent film comedies. During the 1930s, LeRoy was one of the two great practitioners of ...

appears unbilled as a newsboy. He later directed Swanson in her early talkie '' Tonight or Never''.

Preservation

With no prints of ''Prodigal Daughters'' located in any film archives,The Library of Congress American Silent Feature Film Survival Catalog: ''Prodigal Daughters''
/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

External links

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Lobby card and still
at silenthollywood.com 1923 films 1923 drama films Silent American drama films American silent feature films American black-and-white films Famous Players-Lasky films Films based on British novels Films directed by Sam Wood Paramount Pictures films Lost American films 1923 lost films Lost drama films 1920s American films {{1920s-silent-drama-film-stub