The Whispered Name

1924 silent film

January 21, 1924 (1924-01-21)

Running time

50 minutesCountryUnited StatesLanguageSilent (English intertitles)

The Whispered Name is a 1924 American silent drama film directed by King Baggot and starring Ruth Clifford, Charles Clary, and W.E. Lawrence.^[1]^[2] It was based on a Broadway play that had previously been made into the 1917 film The Co-Respondent.

Plot

As described in a film magazine,^[3] Lagdon Van Kreel (Clary), millionaire, is sued by his wife Marcia (Mersch) for divorce at the instigation of her attorney, Craig Stephenson (Merkyl), who has been making love to her. They put detectives on Lagdon's trail. In the meantime Anne Gray (Clifford), a young country woman, elopes with Robert Gordon (Lawrence), a scapegrace, who seeks to victimize her. They arrive at Van Kreel's hotel, where he discovers Gordon's plans, interferes, and takes charge of the young woman. The detectives, suspecting that this is a clandestine meeting, obtain a flash photograph of the two. Anne, alarmed, flees. She does not learn Lagdon's name, nor does he hers. She obtains a position on the News, an ultraconservative journal edited by John Manning (Welch), the son of its founder. Its assistant managing editor, Fred Galvin (Stevenson), is secretly owner of the Tattle-tale, a gutter-weekly retailing scandal. Galvin is watching the Van Kreel divorce eagerly, scenting blackmail. In the meantime Anne and Manning fall in love with each other. Fred learns that Anne was the young woman seen with Langdon in the hotel and sends her to Marcia Van Kreel's home to interview her, secretly informing the latter who Anne is. Marcia denounces her. Langdon enters and insists that the girl is innocent. Anne telephones Fred Galvin, begging him to clear her, and he taunts her. John, overhearing, administers a thrashing to Fred, who confesses owning the scandal weekly, and admits that it is a blackmail scheme. He admits that he and lawyer Craig Stephenson work up divorce cases, then use the weekly to levy tribute through fear of public scandal. John Manning breaks up the ring and clears the situation up in a dramatic finale.

Cast

Ruth Clifford as Anne Gray
Charles Clary as Lagdon Van Kreel
W.E. Lawrence as Robert Gordon
Mary Mersch as Marcia Van Kreel
John Merkyl as Craig Stephenson
Niles Welch as John Manning
Hayden Stevenson as Fred Galvin
Buddy Messinger as The Office Boy
Herbert Fortier as Judge James Morrell
Joseph North as Detective Mahoney
Emily Fitzroy as Amanda Stone
Jane Starr as Mrs. Billy Shotwell
Carl Stockdale as Z. Todd

Preservation

With no prints of The Whispered Name located in any film archives,^[4] it is a lost film.

References

^ Munden p. 66
^ Progressive Silent Film List: The Whispered Name at silentera.com
^ "The Whispered Name". Universal Weekly. 18 (23). New York City, New York: Moving Picture Weekly Pub. Co.: 36 January 19, 1924. Retrieved 15 July 2021.
^ Library of Congress American Silent Feature Film Survival Database: The Whispered Name

Bibliography

Munden, Kenneth White. The American Film Institute Catalog of Motion Pictures Produced in the United States, Part 1. University of California Press, 1997.