The Petal on the Current (1919)
Directed by Tod Browning
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Synopsis by Janiss Garza
In this adaptation of a Fannie Hurst story, Stella (Mary McLaren), an innocent shopgirl, is invited to a party by some fast friends. At the party, she has one beer -- her first -- and stumbles out into the street. She runs afoul of a detective who arrests her for being drunk and soliciting, and she is sent to jail for ten days. While she is locked up, her mother (Gertrude Claire) dies of the disgrace, and when she is released, her employers won't have her back, claiming that she might "contaminate" the other girls. Alone, broke, and scorned by everyone around her, she makes her way to a park and rests on a bench, waiting for some available man to come along. One does (Robert Anderson), and although he has lost faith in womanhood, Stella's basic goodness brings it back.
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Keywords
arrest, love, party, party-animal, prison, prostitute/prostitution, romance