The Millionaire's Double (1917) [NR]
Featuring:
Lionel Barrymore, Evelyn Brent, Harry Northrup
Written by:
June Mathis
Directed by:
Harry Davenport
Release Date:
April 30, 1917
Original Title:
The Millionaire's Double
Genres:
Crime | Drama
Production Companies:
Rolfe Photoplays
Production Countries:
United States of America
Ratings / Certifications:
US: NR
After his wife has run off with another man, New Yorker Bide Bennington decides to stay in Europe. After hearing of his wife's death years later, he returns home but finds it lonely there and heads West. While he is gone his house is robbed, and the leader of the crooks, Richard Glendo, leaves Bennington's coat and identification on an East River pier. The newspapers pick up on this and announce Bennington's "suicide." Since he is now officially deceased, Bennington decides to start life all over again -- but first he must foil a scheme by a gang of con artists, who have forced pretty Constance Brent to pose as Bennington's widow so that they can lay claim to his estate.
Upon finding out his faithless wife has died, millionaire Bide Bennington decides that it is time to return to New York from abroad. He arrives on Christmas Eve, and confronted by his desolate, empty home, decides to continue traveling across the continent. After he leaves, a robber breaks into Bennington's house and steals his fur coat and wallet. The burglar is then ambushed by thugs, who kill him and throw his body into the river. When the coat is found by the pier and Bennington is presumed dead, the thug's leader, Richard Glendon conceives a plan. Glendon approaches Constance Brent and threatens to expose her father, an escapee from a English prison, unless she impersonates Bennington's widow and claims the estate. To save her father, Constance reluctantly agrees, and when Bennington reads of his own suicide, he decides to return incognito and investigate. Impressed with Bennington's resemblance to the supposed dead man, Glendon enlists him in his scheme to collect the estate. Bennington gladly complies, outwits the crook and falls in love with Constance. When Constance receives word of her father's death, she confesses all to Bennington, and after Glendon's arrest, becomes Mrs. Bide Bennington in reality.
