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Lon Chaney (left) and Digby Bell.
Photograph: Silent Era image collection.
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Father and the Boys
Also known as {Father and Boys}
(1915) United States of America
B&W : [?] Five or Six? reels
Directed by Joseph de Grasse
Cast: Digby Bell [Lemuel Morewood], [?] Louise Carbasse or Louise Welch (Louise Lovely)? [Bessie Brayton], Harry Ham [William Rufus Morewood], Colin Chase [Thomas Jefferson Morewood], Yona Landowska [Emily Donelson], Mae Gaston [Frances Berkeley], Lon Chaney [Tuck Bartholomew], Haywood Mack [Major Bellamy Didsworth], H. Davenport (Harry Davenport) [Tobias Ford], Thomas Chatterton, Doc Crane, Jean Hathaway, [?] Bud Chase?
The Universal Film Manufacturing Company, Incorporated, production; distributed by The Universal Film Manufacturing Company, Incorporated [A Broadway Universal Feature]. / Scenario by Ida May Park, from the play Father and the Boys by George Ade. Cinematography by Edward Ullman. Presented by The Universal Film Manufacturing Company, Incorporated. / © 2 December 1915 by The Universal Film Manufacturing Company, Incorporated [LP7103]. Released 20 December 1915. / Standard 35mm spherical 1.33:1 format. / Bell’s film debut; Bell starred in the Broadway production of the Ade play. Louise Lovely’s American film debut.
Comedy.
Synopsis: [?] [From The Moving Picture World]? Lemuel Morewood is a wealthy businessman to whom riches bring no pleasure because he has entirely lost the sympathy of his sons, for whom he lives. Billy is society-mad and completely enthralled by Mrs. Bruce Guilford, a leader of the smart set. Tom thinks of nothing but sports; he is an amateur athlete of national prominence. Lemuel longs to see the boys interested in the business. He especially wants Tom to marry Frances Berkeley and Billy to marry Emily Donelson. But the boys will have none of them. Bessie Brayton is a Western orphan who has come to New York and taken up society entertaining for a living. Her only property is a half-interest in the Bluebird mine, which she supposes is worthless. One evening, the Morewoods employ Bessie to entertain at an exclusive dinner they are giving, and here she meets Major Bellamy Didsworth, who offers to sell her half-interest for her. Lemuel has run away from this dinner. But, goaded by Bessie’s taunts that he is old-fashioned, he gets into his evening clothes and enters into the gambling that follows. Bessie encourages him and he cleans up on Didsworth, as the others look on, staggered by his plunging. Leaving them dazed, Lemuel makes a spectacular exit with Bessie to “blow his winnings.” Lemuel keeps up the pace he has set. He goes to the races and there his conduct is so riotous, and his followers, Bessie and a sporting man, so conspicuous, that Mrs. Bruce Guildford is scandalized. She criticizes Lemuel to his son. Billy defends his father, and the quarrel results in a complete break. Bessie has a telegram from Didsworth saying he can get $1,000 for her stock. Lemuel suspects that Didsworth is planning to rob her and takes the matter into his own hands. He and Bessie go out to Nevada together. Lemuel’s sons think he has run away to get married to Bessie, and they follow, with Emily, Frances, and Ford, the family lawyer. Out in Nevada, Lemuel and Bessie find that her half of the Bluebird is worth at least $75,000, and they discover that the other half is owned by Carl Higbee, Bessie’s old sweetheart who disappeared in Alaska. On the way to Nevada, Tom becomes engaged to Emily and Billy to Frances, which is exactly contrary to what Lemuel planned. They arrive in time to stop the wedding, as they think, and are mortified to learn that they are all wrong, and that Bessie is to be married to Higbee. Lemuel is delighted that his sons are bringing the girls into the family, although they have shifted partners. Lemuel agrees to go back and help the boys run the business.
Survival status: (unknown)
Current rights holder: Public domain [USA].
Keywords: Mines - Orphans
Listing updated: 24 December 2024.
References: Edmonds-BigU pp. 74, 77; Hirschhorn-Universal p. 19; Spehr-American p. 100; Tarbox-Lost p. 254; Weaver-Twenty p. 76 : Website-AFI; Website-IMDb.
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