Father and the Boys

Lemuel Morewood is a wealthy businessman who hopes someday to see his two sons take over his business. He wants Tom to marry Frances Berkeley and Billy to marry Emily Donelson, but the boys have different plans. Tom is just interested in sports, while Billy is obsessed with high society matters and spends all his time with Mrs. Guilford, the leader of the smart set.

Bessie Brayton is an orphan from Nevada who comes to New York and gets a job as an entertainer at high society parties. She owns a half-interest in the Bluebird Mine, which she believes is worthless. The Morewoods hire Bessie one night to entertain at a party where she meets Major Didsworth, who offers to sell her mine shares for her. Bessie taunts Lemuel that he is old-fashioned, so he gets into his tuxedo, wins a large sum of money gambling with Didsworth, and goes off with Bessie to blow his cash. Lemuel keeps up his wild pace; he goes to the racetrack where his wild behavior infuriates Mrs. Guilford, and she criticizes Lemuel's behavior. Billy defends his father, ending his friendship with Mrs. Guilford.

Bessie receives a telegram from Didsworth offering her $1,000 cash in exchange for her mine stock. Lemuel suspects that she is being cheated, and he goes back to Nevada with her. The boys think their father has run off to elope with Bessie and they follow them, along with Emily, Frances, and Tobias Ford, the family lawyer. Out in Nevada, Lemuel and Bessie learn that her half of the mine is actually worth a fortune, and they learn that the other half is owned by Tuck Bartholomew (Lon Chaney), Bessie's old sweetheart who disappeared years ago up in Alaska.

On route to Nevada, Tom becomes engaged to Emily and Billy becomes engaged to Frances—exactly the opposite of what their father had planned for the boys. They arrive at a wedding ceremony just in time to stop their father from marrying Bessie, only to learn that Bessie is actually marrying her old flame Tuck Bartholomew, who has come back from Alaska. Lemuel and his two sons return home to New York to run the family business, together with Emily and Frances.

• Digby Bell as Lemuel Morewood
• Louise Lovely as Bessie Brayton (credited as Louise Carbasse)
• Harry Ham as Billy Morewood
• Colin Chase as Tom Morewood
• Yona Landowska as Emily Donelson
• Mae Gaston as Frances Berkeley
• Lon Chaney as Tuck Bartholomew
• Hayward Mack as Major Didsworth
• Harry Davenport as Tobias Ford, the lawyer (credited as H. Davenport)
• Tom Chatterton
• Doc Crane

"George Ade's comedy is pleasant, genuine and funny. The dialogue being absent, it is not such a sidesplitting affair as it was several years ago on the stage, but it is a lively comedy. An excellent five-reel comedy....Digby Bell, ther? veteran character actor is seen in the leading part. He is supported by a good cast.... A very pleasing comedy number." --- Motion Picture News[7][8]

"Ida May Park, the scenario writer, and Joseph De Grasse, director, are to be congratulated on getting this comedy over without either padding or loss of action. It runs smoothly and clearly from scene to scene and preserves the undercurrent of genial humor throughout. The supporting cast is very pleasing." --- Moving Picture World[9]

• Father and the Boys at IMDb
• Father and the Boys synopsis at AllMovie
• a scene with Lon Chaney and Digby Bell