Dream Street (1921)

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D.W. Griffith garnishes this romantic fable with a dreamy gauze of Victorian melodramatic sensibility. As an intertitle of the film states: "Sometimes dreams do come true. Not by accident their dark path emerges into the light, for dreams are our inner selves and perhaps all would come true if we but dream aright." Carol Dempster stars as Gypsy Fair, a music-hall dancer in the Limehouse section of London. She attracts the eye of roughhouse bully Spike McFadden (Ralph Graves). But his shy composer brother Billy (Charles Emmett Mack) is also in love with her. Also gloating over the girl and lurking in the shadows is an insidious Chinaman -- Swan Way (Edward Piel). When Swan Way makes his desires known to Gypsy Fair, she rejects him, inadvertently causing the police to raid his gambling den. Enraged, Swan Way seeks revenge on Gypsy Fair. This he accomplishes by accusing her of killing one of his underlings. In fact, however, it was Billy who killed the henchman in self-defense after a robbery attempt. To protect Billy, Spike tells the police that he committed the crime. At the inquest, the authorities have to sort out who actually killed Swan Way's henchman. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi