Handle with Care is a 1922 silent comedy of marital complications and mix-ups.
Handle with Care is a 1922 silent comedy of marital complications and mix-ups.
1922-01-22
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A picture for the henpecked husband, the single man who "might" be on the way to the "Henpecked" stage and not know it. For the woman who thinks her husband neglects her and the single girl who -well- here is a laugh for everybody.
Upon striking oil on his farm, Silas T. Pettingill (Charles Eldridge) moves to Park Avenue at the behest of his social-climbing wife Maria (Kate Blancke) and daughter Helen (Emmy Wehlen). But like Jiggs in the comic strip, Pettingill never loses his common touch, and one evening he goes out on a toot with his new chauffeur Hubert Stanwood (Paul Gordon).
Spanish coquette Tula Moliana finds herself encumbered with two husbands, and to get a divorce from the first, Senator Wakefield, she engages Jim Blake, the fiancé of Helen, the senator's daughter, to be her correspondent. Jim agrees to help her but finds himself entangled in a web of deceit and has difficulty in making excuses to Helen for the numerous adventures in which he becomes involved, especially when a jealous rival pursuing Tula threatens his life. Matters are cleared up when Helen discovers he has been victimized, and Tula accepts her first husband. This film is lost.
This musical comedy with an all-black cast imagines what television entertainment will be like in the near future.
Young lovers Hero and Claudio, soon to wed, conspire to get verbal sparring partners and confirmed singles Benedick and Beatrice to wed as well.
"'Boxcar' Simmons, a tramp, represents himself as a mining millionaire in a small town. The population accepts him at his own valuation, and two of the town's 'slickers' make desperate efforts to 'take him for his roll.' One of their schemes is to sell him a worthless ranch, but he turns the tables on them by making them believe that the ranch is a veritable bed of silver ore, and then, after they buy it, he presents the major part of the proceeds to the girl who owns the place and with whom he had fallen in love." (Moving Picture World, 24 Jun 1922, p. 736.)
Sir Brian, an irascible old gentleman, who suffers from gout, receives a note saying his son Gerald is very ill at college, and asking him to come to Dublin. He is too ill to go so he gets his friend, Captain Jenks, to go instead of him. Jenks finds Gerald being nursed by a pretty girl and soon discovers that Gerald is in love with her.
Brooks, a publisher and his publicist decide to boost the sales of a wartime book of flying experiences. They credit the book to popular author Robert Street, who is completely ignorant about aviation. Robert gets into all sorts of trouble in attempting to carry on the ruse, saving his friend's business but also attracting the attention of aviation-mad Grace Douglas. At first, he is able to carry out simple publicity events, but when he accidentally starts up an aircraft, his incredible aerobatics end with a landing in a haystack. When a race is staged between him and French ace Major Jules Gaillard, it ends with Robert confessing he is no pilot, but still winning Grace's heart. Considered a lost film.
During a lawn party at his New York home, steel magnate Theodore Morton claims he is bankrupt as a deterrent to Lord Dormer and the Duke of Medonia, two fortune hunters competing for his niece, Betty. After the suitors depart, unscrupulous Carl Gates is informed by his fiancée, banker's secretary Adele Shelby, that Theodore was lying. Carl pursues Betty, who accepts his proposal with the belief that the marriage will benefit her uncle. During a yachting expedition with Carl, Betty falls overboard and is rescued by architect Tom Waring, who is competing in a race. Tom wins with Betty on board, and a romance develops.
Goldie, the bright young daughter of Farmer Meadows, is engaged to marry Harold Montaine, a romantic young farm hand. Along comes Jim Bludsoe, a regular villain, whose polish and citified manners impress Goldie so that she is induced to elope with him.
Silas Brown, a close-fisted country hotel-keeper in Hicksville, has a pretty daughter, Betty, who has a devoted suitor in Otis Perkins, a typical country town boy. The curiosity of Betty is excited by a package marked for Francis King, "to be called for." For three weeks the package remains without a claimant.
On the promise of marriage, Sylvia Smith, a simple girl from Lone Meadows, follows her lover to the city only to discover that he already has a wife.
Little Betty has a luxurious home, an army of servants and the costliest of toys. But she hasn't what a child wants most of all, other children to play with. The result is that she runs away and joins a group of children from the ghetto district on the beach. In play she exchanges clothing with a little boy. That evening Betty doesn't return home. Her maiden aunt, an over-zealous guardian, is frantic. She notifies the police. The same evening the father of the boy, who has lost his position and is facing starvation, decides to turn burglar. He steals into the home of Betty's father. The household is awakened and the intruder captured.
A young man joins the army to impress his girlfriend. He soon finds out that his sergeant is actually an enemy spy, but before he can take any action, he and his girlfriend are kidnapped by enemy soldiers, and devise an unusual method of escape from capture.
During World War I, Jeanette Gontreau becomes a "godmother" to three Allied soldiers imprisoned in a German camp. Describing herself as an old woman, she sends them cheerful letters and baskets of small gifts until one of the soldiers, Harry Ledyard, informs her that he has been released and will visit her in New York. Panic-stricken, Jeanette dons a wig and spectacles, and although she convinces Harry that she is old and gray, she soon falls in love with him. Harry worships his "godmother," and when secret service agents discover coded messages on her letters, he shields her by assuming the blame.
Returning from France after the war, John Tabor informs Palma May of her brother's death and offers the penniless girl his help, but she refuses it, preferring to work as a cabaret dancer. Later, John and Palma meet again, marry, and go west to manage a lumber camp, as instructed by John's wealthy father, Jarvis Tabor. Displeased by John's choice of wife, the elder Tabor tests the couple with difficult living conditions, which eventually discourage Palma, and she accepts the party invitation of Keith Merwyn, manager of the cabaret where she starred. Meanwhile, Merwyn effects a disturbance among the lumbermen, endangering John.