The reel was labeled "Molly, 'The Kid'"
The Lawful Cheater, sometimes referred to as Lawful Cheaters, is a 1925 American silent crime-drama film written by Frank O'Connor and Adele S. Buffington, directed by O'Connor for B.P. Schulberg Productions, and starring Clara Bow, David Kirby, and Raymond McKee. After its 1925 U.S. theatrical release, the film was banned by the British Board of Film Censors.
Molly Burns (Clara Bow) is a young woman whose indiscreet behavior causes her to be caught and jailed in a police "round up" of suspicious characters. Her prison experience causes her to reflect upon and reform her own life. She convinces jail authorities that her two brothers and her boyfriend could be dissuaded from a life of crime. After her early release, she attempts to reform her indiscreet friends.
In American film cycles: the silent era, the film is called an "offbeat crime drama".In noting the film was a "cheaply produced melodrama" with a storyline that was "slight and trite", Hal Erickson of AllMovie.com wrote that beyond the film benefiting from actual use of New York City locations, Clara Bow acted as the film's "sole redeeming factor." He noted that at one point in the film, Bow's character of Molly Burns appeared in male drag which even if "far from convincing", was "fun to watch." (Note, these assumptions are probably based on reviews from the original release because the loan 5-6m of film that was only discovered in 2017 is fascinating!)
The Lawful Cheater, sometimes referred to as Lawful Cheaters, is a 1925 American silent crime-drama film written by Frank O'Connor and Adele S. Buffington, directed by O'Connor for B.P. Schulberg Productions, and starring Clara Bow, David Kirby, and Raymond McKee. After its 1925 U.S. theatrical release, the film was banned by the British Board of Film Censors.
Molly Burns (Clara Bow) is a young woman whose indiscreet behavior causes her to be caught and jailed in a police "round up" of suspicious characters. Her prison experience causes her to reflect upon and reform her own life. She convinces jail authorities that her two brothers and her boyfriend could be dissuaded from a life of crime. After her early release, she attempts to reform her indiscreet friends.
In American film cycles: the silent era, the film is called an "offbeat crime drama".In noting the film was a "cheaply produced melodrama" with a storyline that was "slight and trite", Hal Erickson of AllMovie.com wrote that beyond the film benefiting from actual use of New York City locations, Clara Bow acted as the film's "sole redeeming factor." He noted that at one point in the film, Bow's character of Molly Burns appeared in male drag which even if "far from convincing", was "fun to watch." (Note, these assumptions are probably based on reviews from the original release because the loan 5-6m of film that was only discovered in 2017 is fascinating!)
