You Never Can Tell 1920
Bebe Daniels is charming in this light comedy, based on a Saturday Evening Post story by Grace Lovell Bryan.
Bebe Daniels is charming in this light comedy, based on a Saturday Evening Post story by Grace Lovell Bryan.
A French orphan girl is adopted into the home of wealthy Americans. There she becomes romantically involved with a farm worker and at the same time entangled in the deteriorating marriage of the American couple who rescued her.
Mary Miles Minter is the title character. Pat (Minter) is a little orphan who has been raised around the circus. Her foster father is Toto the clown (Neely Edwards). Toto hopes to marry Pat until the day the circus comes to a Southern town and she meets handsome Dick Beverley (Jack Mulhall). Beverley falls in love with Pat and takes a job as trick rider just to be near her. Beverley's aristocratic parents (Winter Hall and Helen Dunbar) find out about his new job and insist that he come home. Two of the five reels survive.
Countess Natalya is a glamorous refugee from the Bolshevik revolution. Supporting herself and her ailing sister by dancing in a Shanghai dive, she's is talked into a marriage with a wealthy Chinese gentleman. She has been led to believe that this marriage of convenience is not binding, thus she sees no reason not to marry American diplomat Kenneth Harlan once she's arrived in the States.
Ed Simpson has been raised in an orphanage where he has caused much trouble. He can't stand living there anymore and runs away. On the streets, he finds a friend in newsboy Mike. Mike teaches him how to survive, but inevitably Ed gets hauled into court. The judge sees potential in him and hands him over to be adopted by a young politician.
Itinerant magician Balzamo arrives in the town where Dr. Emerson and his pretty young wife live. Smitten with Mrs. Emerson, Balzamo places her under a hypnotic spell and takes her away with him. Many years later, as she lies near death, she warns her daughter Dorothy to flee from the evil Balzamo.
Cora and Frank Rodham are happily married until Frank lands a lucrative position. He doesn't want to see his pretty wife slaving away at domestic chores so he hires servants to do the work for her. As a result, Cora becomes fat and lazy. Frank is very unhappy with his wife's change in attitude and appearance and starts to take an interest in her friend, Lila Drake, who is secretly just as lazy.
Pansy O'Donnell, a salesgirl, is given a two-week vacation at a summer resort, where she advertises clothing made by her company. The hotel clerk mistakes her for movie actress Marie La Tour, and gossip spreads that she is staying incognito.
New York police sergeant Jim Dark is determined that his daughter, Jenny, will be shielded from any knowledge of evil. Consequently, she lives in a dream world, imagining herself to be a descendant of Saint Jeanne d'Arc, but has a loyal friend in reporter Pep Mullins. Her school friend, Adele, also raised by overly protective parents, is ejected from her home when she becomes inebriated after spending an evening with a disreputable young man.
Barnabetta Dreary's grim life of slaving for her Pennsylvania Dutch father Barnaby and her two brothers, is surprisingly changed when Barnaby marries Juliet Miller. Known as Erstwhile Susan, she becomes fond of Barnabetta, and because she retains control of her fortune, induces the other Drearys to relieve Barnabetta of some of her drudgery.
Folly Vallance marries millionaire Anthony Bond for his money, but he insists on a marriage in name only. Entering the social scene she befriends Bond's close friend Keene Mordaunt. When Count Svensen tries to extort Folly into running away with him, Keene pursues them to a country house where they meet Anthony, who accuses his friend of treachery. Folly finally recognizes her love for her husband and explains the cause of her actions; Bond forgives her leading to their reconciliation.
Removed from an orphanage, Nance Olden is taken to live at Mother Hogan's boarding-house for crooks. There she becomes Tom Morgan's partner, helping him steal a jewel from Edward Ramsey at Union Station.
The wife of sculptor Roger Heath is killed by a maniac because of Roger's madly jealous admirer Olivia Larkin. To care for his home and son Peter, Roger hires Irish immigrant Nora O'Hallahan as a nursemaid whom he realizes is possessed by the soul of his departed wife.
A woman struggles to overcome a cabal of blackmailers, but learns that the boss of the blackmailers is none other than her own father.
The eldest daughter of a poor preacher, Penelope Penn leaves her country home to seek her fortune in the big city.
Lady Marjorie Donegal becomes a nurse in hospital, much to the dismay of her aristocratic family. She falls in love with one of her patients, a commoner labor leader.
Living in Cuba with her parents and grandmother, Inez Hastings, does not care for Lavendera, her persistent suitor. Contrary to her father's wishes, she attends a cockfight and makes the acquaintance of Rush Thompson, a United States revenue officer assigned to track down Cuban bootleggers. Their romance awakens the jealousy of Lavendera, who attempts to kill Rush.
Lizbeth Palmer is known as "The March Hare" among her friends, and the daughter of a Los Angeles millionaire, comes to New York with a chaperon to visit her aunt. After betting the chaperon that she can live on 75c for an entire week, she assumes the part of a flower girl in a restaurant and there makes a hit with young millionaire Tod Rollins, who invites her to his home.
Anne Shirley, an orphan, is taken into the lives of a generous farmer and his sister. She grows from an adventuresome young lass into a charming and much sought-after young lady.