The Great Secret (1917)
Directed by Christy Cabanne
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Synopsis by Hans J. Wollstein
The leading romantic team of the 1910s, on as well as off the screen, Francis X. Bushman and Beverly Bayne experienced a major failure with this serial released in 18 chapters by Louis B. Mayer. The screenplay, by Fred de Gresac, was the already then hoary old story of a beautiful heiress who must fend off a series of usurpers before she can collect the reward and marry Prince Charming. Serial audiences, alas, didn't take to the Bushman/Bayne team, who was better equipped for stolid society dramas than rough-and-tumble chapterplay shenanigans. The Great Secret, in fact, marked the beginning of a rapid decline for the couple, whose careers were soon in the doldrums.
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Keywords
athlete, fortune [wealth], gangster, inheritance, villain