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A minor mystery melodrama, producer Philip Goldstone's creaky The Verdict employed the oldest cliché of them all. Yes, the butler did indeed do it! Employers of a fashion emporium, Carol (Louise Lorraine), a sales girl, and Jimmy (William Collier Jr.), the young bookkeeper, find their innocent romance rudely interrupted by the owner's callous son, Victor Ronsard (Lou Tellegen), who wants Carol to himself. After attempting to convince Carol that Jimmy is cooking the books, Ronsard is found murdered. Arrested, tried, and sentenced to the chair, Jimmy is granted a last minute reprieve when Carol, to save her lover, confesses to the murder. Happily, the Ronsard butler (Paul Weigel) comes forward at that moment to plead guilty. The leading man of one diva (Sarah Bernhardt) and married to another (Geraldine Farrar), Dutch-born Lou Tellegen's notoriety as a ladykiller remained firm by 1925 but his professional career was in shambles. Tellegen did not handle the reality of aging very well, a fact that led to an especially messy suicide in 1934.