City Park (DVD)

On the brink of starvation, pretty young Rose Wentworth paints her lips red and pretends to be a prostitute, hoping to wind up in jail where she will be fed. Eccentric old Colonel Ransome witnesses the girl's arrest from his park bench and intervenes. Claiming to be the girl's relative, he arranges for her release. Determined to rescue Rose from her circumstances, the Colonel installs her in an apartment next to his own and hires her to be his maid. Searching for a long-term solution, he pays Rose's former hometown boyfriend, Charlie Hooper, to come to the city and propose marriage. But the plan backfires when Charlie turns out to be an unconscionable scoundrel.

This Chesterfield production features memorable performances from Henry B. Walthall and Sally Blane and strong support from character actors Lafe McKee and Claude King. Henry B. Walthall is best remembered for his role as "The Little Colonel" in D.W. Griffith's masterpiece The Birth Of A Nation. Bearing a strong resemblance to her sister Loretta Young, actress Sally Blane co-starred with Rudy Vallee (The Vagabond Lover, 1929), Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. (Little Accident, 1930), Walter Huston (The Star Witness, 1931), and Buster Crabbe (She Had To Choose, 1934) before marrying director Norman Foster and choosing domestic life.

• comedy