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Miss Cecil Spooner, a popular and charmingly athletic stage and screen star of the pre-WWI years, played the title role in Nell of the Circus. Spooner also directed this backstage look at circus life, wherein a beautiful equestrienne is menaced by various sinister forces. The chief villain hopes to keep secret the fact that the heroine is actually a long-lost heiress. But the truth is finally revealed, allowing the girl a happy ending and consigning the bad guy to the sorry fate he so richly deserves. Inasmuch as the villain was the best-looking man in the picture (some thought he was even more attractive than the heroine), certain filmgoers were undoubtedly disappointed by the denouement of Nell of the Circus.