The Price of Pleasure

The Price of Pleasure
The Price of Pleasure
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Directed by	Edward Sloman
Written by	J.G. Hawks; Raymond L. Schrock
Story by	Elisabeth Sanxay Holding; Marion Orth
Produced by	Carl Laemmle
Starring	Virginia Valli; Norman Kerry; Louise Fazenda
Cinematography	John Stumar
Production; company	Universal Pictures
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Release date	March 15, 1925;
Running time	70 minutes
Country	United States
Language	Silent (English intertitles)

The Price of Pleasure is a 1925 American silent drama film directed by Edward Sloman and starring Virginia Valli, Norman Kerry, and Louise Fazenda.^[1]^[2]

Plot

As described in a film magazine,^[3] Garry Schuyler (Kerry), a young millionaire, is charmed by Linnie Randall (Valli), a department store clerk whom he hears sighing for at least one week of real pleasure. He takes her up on that, just for a lark. From then on her life is one round of delights after another. He takes her to his palatial home, now empty because his mother and sister are out of town. At the end of the week, the very evening when she is to return to her dreary room, he takes pity on her, realizing that now her unhappiness is to be greater than ever. He proposes marriage and saves her feelings. When they return to his home, his mother (Lester) and Grace (Astaire), his sister, unexpectedly return, unknown to the newlyweds. Linnie goes upstairs and is ordered out of the room by Garry's sister, who thinks she is one of the maids. Then it is that the mother and daughter make life miserable for Linnie. One night she dashes away from the table, into the blinding night rain. Garry follows and accidentally runs her down in his car. Early in the morning, believing she is dead, he falls in a faint, and thereafter has brain fever. His people take him to Europe to recover and forget. Linnie has a child, and supports herself by doing fashionable dancing at a leading Broadway cabaret. Garry returns with his mother about a year later. A word from his faithful butler (Barrows), and he begins to stir about in search of his wife, whom he finds being attacked by her dancing partner. The latter proves to be a crook, whom the family lawyer had hired in order to get sufficient evidence so as to get a divorce for Garry without consulting him. A swift unravelling results as the pair is happily reunited.

Cast

Still with Valli and Kerry

Virginia Valli as Linnie Randall
Norman Kerry as Garry Schuyler
Louise Fazenda as Stella Kelly
Kate Lester as Mrs. Schuyler
George Fawcett as John Osborne
T. Roy Barnes as Bill McGuffy
James O. Barrows as Jenkins
Marie Astaire as Grace Schuyler

Preservation

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

References

^ Munden p. 954
^ Progressive Silent Film List: The Price of Pleasure at silentera.com
^ "Price of Pleasure". Universal Weekly. 20 (19). New York City, New York: Moving Picture Weekly Pub. Co.: 40 December 20, 1924. Retrieved August 26, 2021.
^ Library of Congress American Silent Feature Film Survival Database: The Price of Pleasure

Bibliography

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