Denial on AllMovie

When Dorothy (Lucille Ricksen) wants to marry Bob (Robert Agnew), her mother, Mildred (Claire Windsor), forbids the match. Dorothy angrily asserts that Mildred might reconsider if her own mother had forbid her marriage. The rest of the film is a flashback, as Mildred recalls her own youth, when her dictatorial mother (Emily Fitzroy) did forbid her to marry Lyman (a pre-stardom William Haines). Lyman enlisted with Teddy Roosevelt's Rough Riders to fight in the Spanish-American War, but was killed in battle. That wasn't the end of the stern nature of Mildred's mother. She drove her son to a life of crime, and her husband (Edward Connelly) to suicide. In the end, Mildred knuckled under and married Arthur (Bert Roach), as her mother demanded. When Mildred comes out of her reverie, she changes her mind and gives Dorothy her blessings, which is just as well -- the two young people have already secretly wed. This domestic drama was based on the play The Square Peg by Lewis Beach.