Beauty's Worth (Silent)

Marion Davies plays Prudence Cole, a devout Quaker brought up by her two elderly aunts. She is content with her conservative lifestyle until she is visited by Henry Garrison, a childhood sweetheart who has become a successful businessman. The millionaire playboy invites Prudence to an upscale seaside resort, where her dowdy attire makes her the laughingstock of Henry's friends. Humiliated, she befriends Cheyne Rovein, a starving artist who resents the upper class. Hired to produce a stage play for the vacationing rich, he gives Prudence the Starring role. Dressed in revealing costumes, the formerly modest girl drives the audience wild. Soon, she is the darling of the jet set, and Henry is proposing marriage. But the now-glamorous young woman discovers that it is Cheyne who she truly loves...

Beauty's Worth serves as a showcase for the oft-neglected talents of the lovely Marion Davies (1897-1961). Raised in poverty in Brooklyn, Davies' trim figure got her work as a Ziegfeld girl when she hit her late teens. Discovered by a movie producer, she was cast in her first film, Runaway Romany, in 1917. Roles in The Burden of Proof, Beatrice Fairfax and Cecilia of the Pink Roses followed the next year, during which Davies gained a reputation as a comedienne. She also began a relationship with newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst, who started Cosmopolitan Pictures solely to finance Davies' films. Even though the actress preferred comedic parts, Hearst preferred to see her in dramatic roles, much to Davies' chagrin. Beauty's Worth finds the young star caught between her own wishes and Hearst's demands, with a storyline see-sawing between drama and comedy. Later that year, Davies would re-team with Beauty's Worth director Robert Vignola on the historical drama When Knighthood Was in Flower, the most expensive movie production to date (thanks to Hearst's bankroll). Afterwards, Davies divided her time between extravagant dramas she felt unsuited for and hosting parties at Hearst's mansion in San Simeon. Frustrated with the career path that Hearst had dictated, the actress eventually retired from film altogether after the advent of sound. Hearst and Davies' relationship later inspired Orson Welles's masterpiece Citizen Kane (1941).

• silent