AllMovie

A typically low-budget British silent melodrama, Sonia starred American expatriate Evelyn Brent. Known in New York film-making circles under her real name of Betty Riggs, Brent had arrived in London in 1919, where she somehow managed to convince the theater establishment that she was a major American stage star. In between starring in West End productions such as the comedy The Ruined Lady, Brent did her share of British films. In Sonia, her leading man was Clive Brook and the two would meet again under more ideal circumstances in Hollywood films such as Underworld (1927) and Interference. Miss Brent later remembered being paid an average of 30 pounds a week working in British-lensed pot-boilers like Sonia, "which was phenomenal for me and which I only got because I had American experience." Director Denison Clift was another American who later worked for Cecil B. DeMille.