Woman to Woman (DVD)

During a brief respite from the horror of the trenches in World War I France, Captain David Compton falls in love with Parisian dancer Lola Boucher. Before he can marry the girl, he is ordered back to the front where he is severely wounded by an exploding shell, and robbed of his memory. Lola bears David's son and waits for his promised return, which never comes. He returns to England and becomes a prominent businessman, marrying beautiful socialite Vesta Anson. While raising little Davey alone, Lola finds fame and fortune as the premier dancer of Paris. Attending a performance, David's memory is jarred and he remembers Lola, who tearfully recognizes her long-lost paramour. The two fall in love again and she presents a shocked David with his young son. Lola and David's wife, Vesta, meet secretly in a bitter confrontation that will forever seal the fate of four people.

A three-handkerchief tearjerker from the dawn of talking pictures, Woman To Woman was a British production filmed in America, where the new state-of-the-art sound stages could be rented. Betty Compson was an 18 year old violinist when she began appearing in a series of comedies usually with Fatty Arbuckle. She became one of the biggest stars of the silent screen earning $5,000 a week in her heyday. Some of her many notable performances include The Miracle Man (1919), The Great Gabbo (1929) and The Lady Refuses (1931) as well as the silent version of Woman To Woman (1923).

• drama