An American Widow (1917)

Genres - Drama  |   Release Date - Dec 17, 1917 (USA - Unknown)  |   Run Time - 55 min.  |   Countries - United States  |   MPAA Rating - NR
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Synopsis by Hal Erickson

Actor/director Frank Reicher, most familiar to modern movie fans as "Captain Englehorn" in King Kong (1933), wielded the megaphone for the 1917 silent American Widow. In one of her very rare silent-film appearances, Ethel Barrymore plays a young widow who marries a man she doesn't love in order to earn an inheritance. She plans to quietly annul the marriage, then wed the man of her dreams, a European aristocrat. Soon, however, she learns that her new husband was the right man for her all along. This yarn was old in 1917, but Ethel Barrymore brings a welcome-if a bit overplayed-touch of artistry and class to the proceedings. Always a Widow was adapted from a play by Kellett Chambers.

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Keywords

actor, America, class [social], decency, forbidden-love, golddigger, inheritance, lady, love-choices, lover, marriage, nobility, opportunity, wedding, widow/widower, youth