Gaiety Girl on AllMovie

Mary Philbin, whose performance in The Merry-Go-Round had earned her critical raves, stars in this rather lightweight Universal "Jewel." William Tudor (Joseph J. Dowling) is so overloaded with debt that he is forced to give up the family castle, Pencarreg. After selling it to John Kershaw (Dewitt Jennings), a war millionaire, he goes to London with his granddaughter, Irene (Philbin). Owen (William Haines), Tudor's nephew and Irene's sweetheart, travels to South Africa to oversee his father's mines. Irene finds work as a chorus girl at the Gaiety Theatre, and Christopher Kershaw (Freeman S. Wood), John's womanizing son, falls in love with her. She refuses to have anything to do with him, but then her grandfather falls ill and she hears that Owen has been killed in South Africa. Tudor's doctor suggests that a return to the family castle may prolong the old man's life, so Irene accepts Christopher's marriage proposal. Just after the wedding, Owen (who clearly wasn't dead after all) shows up at Pencarreg. The castle bears a curse, which falls upon Christopher when a huge chandelier crashes down on his head. He is killed, so Irene and Owen are able to reunite. Owen buys the castle back from John Kershaw, and Irene's grandfather returns home. This drama was based on the novel The Inheritors by L.A.R. Wylie.