Lilies of the Streets

1925 American film

May 3, 1925 (1925-05-03)

Running time

7 reelsCountryUnited StatesLanguageSilent (English intertitles)

Lilies of the Streets is a 1925 American silent drama film directed by Joseph Levering and starring Virginia Lee Corbin, Wheeler Oakman, and Johnnie Walker.^[1]^[2]

Plot

As described in a film magazine review,^[3] Judith Lee is a young woman of indulgent parents and is allowed to have her own way. After she is arrested by mistake and dishonored by a blackmailer, and with her mother is on the verge of compromise, the blackmailer is murdered by one of his victims. Judith Lee, believing her mother is guilty, assumes the blame and is about to be convicted when her fiancé, a lawyer, obtains the confession of the real killer.

Cast

Virginia Lee Corbin as Judith Lee
Wheeler Oakman as Frank Delmore
Peggy Kelly as Nita Moore
Johnnie Walker as John Harding
Irma Harrison as Margy Hopkins
Mary E. Hamilton as Mrs. Hamilton (herself)
Elizabeth J. Monroe as Self (assistant to Mrs. Hamilton)
Dorothy Cumming as Mrs. Lee^[4]
Theodore Babcock as Mr. Lee^[4]

Production

Mary E. Hamilton, a New York City police officer whose work was in the "rehabilitation of wayward girls", arranged for the creation of Belban Productions for a film in which she could appear as herself and promote police work to suppress the white slave trade.^[5] At her insistence, the plot turns on a male police officer mistakenly arresting flapper Judith for being a prostitute.^[5]

Preservation

With no prints of Lilies of the Streets located in any film archives,^[6] it is a lost film.

References

^ Munden p. 437
^ Progressive Silent Film List: Lilies of the Streets at silentera.com
^ "New Pictures: Lilies of the Streets", Exhibitors Herald, 21 (7): 72, 9 May 1925, retrieved 7 February 2022 This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
^ ^a ^b "Lyrio das ruas". A Scena Muda (in Portuguese) (279). Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: Copanhia Editora Americana: 26–27. 29 July 1926. Retrieved 6 January 2024.
^ ^a ^b Tsika pp. 69-70.
^ Library of Congress / FIAF American Silent Feature Film Survival Database: Lilies of the Streets

Bibliography

Munden, Kenneth White (1997). The American Film Institute Catalog of Motion Pictures Produced in the United States, Part 1. University of California Press.
Tsika, Noah (2021). Screening the Police: Film and Law Enforcement in the United States. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19757-775-2.