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The influential New York critic Mordaunt Hall declared this circus melodrama a "light after-dinner entertainment which won't tax the mentality of a babe." Based on a 1910 British novel by William J. Locke, Simon the Jester starred Eugene O'Brien as a young member of Parliament wounded in the war. Given only months to live, Simon leaves his his seat and the larger part of his fortune to his friend Dale Kynnersly (Edmund Burns), who in return must marry his benefactor's fiance. Kynnersly, however, is infatuated with circus bareback rider Lola Brandt (Lillian Rich), whose horse is cruelly killed by her husband (Henry B. Walthall. Simon, who has fallen in love with Lola, chases the husband to Tangiers and is injured in a fight. Told by a local doctor that he will now live, Simon returns to the circus to once again confront Brandt. The latter is fortuitously killed by Midget, the clown (William Platt), leaving Simon and Lola free to plan a life together. A typical Edwardian melodrama, Simon the Jester had been filmed by Universal in 1915 starring Edwin Arden in the title-role.