Pardoe Woodman Movies

Author E. Phillips Oppenheim proves here that a good novelist does not necessarily make a great screenwriter. He penned this shallow and uninteresting story specifically for the screen. Minor silent star Dave Powell both directed and starred in the British-made production. Although Gerald Dombey (Powell) is engaged to Lady Susan Farrington (Mary Glynne), he has an affair with Vera Lypasht (Ruby Miller), a girl from the village. Then, while driving to Nice, he and his friend, Christopher Went (Pardoe Woodman), see an unconscious girl by the road. She is Myrtle Sargot (Nadja Ostrovska), a peasant girl who has run away from her abusive family. Dombey decides to give the girl the riches she has always longed for, and convinces Susan to take her into her home. Susan is not thrilled with the idea, and also finds herself being more and more attracted to Went. Dombey encounters Vera once again and discovers that she is involved with Luigi (Percy Darrell Standing), who runs a gambling house. Dombey contemplates suicide, but realizes he loves Myrtle. Lady Susan, meanwhile, ends up with Went. ~ Janiss Garza, Rovi

The oft-filmed Jeffrey Farnol novel The Amateur Gentleman was first brought to the screen in 1920. Alfred Paumier plays a working-class bloke who comes into a lot of money when his rich uncle kicks off. Anxious to break into society, and incidentally to clear his father of a robbery charge, Paumier passes himself off as a nobleman-to be precise, a "Prince Regent." He eventually blows his cover, but wins freedom for his dad, not to mention the love of aristocratic Madge Stuart. When next we'd see Amateur Gentleman, it was in 1926, with Richard Barthelmess as star. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi