Elwyn Barron's novel Marcel Leviget was the source of the Wallace Reid vehicle The House of Silence. Reid stars as wealthy young criminologist Marcel Leviget, who as the story opens is seen forcibly dragging his fellow clubman Dr. Rogers (Winter Hall into a House of Ill Repute. In one of the back bedrooms of the bawdy house, an old friend of Marcel's, a prominent attorney, lies near death. Dr. Rogers is also acquainted with the dying attorney, and while Marcel's back is turned, Rogers discovers a distinctively designed hatpin imbedded in the patient's heart. For reasons left unexplained for the present, Rogers decides to hide this piece of evidence. Ultimately, however, Marcel comes into possession of the hatpin and instantly recognizes it as belonging to Rogers' own daughter Toinette (Ann Little). At first suspecting the daughter of murder, Marcel slowly but surely uncovers the truth about the whole affair, saving Toinette's good name while simultaneously falling in love with the girl.
by Hal Erickson
synopsis
