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Her Bitter Self
(1916) United States of America
B&W : Two reels
Directed by Grace Cunard
Cast: Grace Cunard [Yvette], Jack Holt [Jack Trevor], Irving Lippner [Paul], Genevieve Abbot [the bride], Roy Russell [the groom]
Victor Film Company production; distributed by The Universal Film Manufacturing Company, Incorporated. / Produced by Grace Cunard. Scenario by Grace Cunard, from a screen story by Grace Cunard. / Released 19 January 1916. / Standard 35mm spherical 1.33:1 format.
Drama.
Synopsis: [?] [From The Moving Picture World]? Yvette, known as a society woman, but in reality a leader of a gang of crooks, sits at the telephone, laughing at the impulsive young man at the other end. Yvette still laughs when Ralph threatens to kill himself if she does not promise to marry him. Hearing her mocking laugh over the wire, he pulls the trigger and ends his life just as the crook robbing his safe a few feet away sees him and pulls his own gun to protect himself should Ralph see him. At the other end of the wire, Yvette stops laughing long enough to pick up the receiver to tell the young man he may call, unaware of the tragedy. Jack Trevor, in his studio just above his brother Ralph’s library, is about to bid his friends goodnight when they are startled by a shot. They burst into the library to find his brother on the floor dead, with a still warm revolver clasped tightly in his hand. Rushing to his brother, he finds him dead, just as his friends discover the open safe, and all come to the conclusion that he was shot in self-defense. Jack asks his friends to leave him to himself, and he continues his search for some evidence of the murderer, when he finds on his brother’s desk a half finished note reading: “Yvette: I can’t stand it any longer. If you don’t marry me, I’ll kill myself.” Yvette meets Jack, and not knowing he is a brother of Ralph, becomes strangely attracted to him. He asks to paint her portrait. Yvette is surprised to find herself really in love with him. Knowing it would hurt him if he knew that she cared but was unworthy, she assumes a careless air. Arriving home, she is about to break down, when she hears someone enter the room. It is Jack. He pleads, but she only laughs. He is about to go, when he notices on a small table a portrait of his brother. He reads the inscription: “To Yvette, with love from your boy.” He denounces her. As Jack leaves by the front door, several of the crooks of her gang enter by the secret panels in the back of the room, and tell her of a big haul that can be made at a society wedding the next day. She decides to help the gang for the last time. The next evening Yvette goes to the fashionable wedding. On the outside of the house several of her gang wait for her signal that the coast is clear for the robbery. Yvette sneaks to the French windows, and unlocking them, she gives a signal to the awaiting crooks. The theft is discovered and confusion reigns over the place. Jack, with two of the plain clothes men, discovers a secret door in the crook’s dive, and opening it, is surprised to find himself in Yvette’s own room, just as she enters by the front door. She tries to plead with him that he is accusing her unjustly and that she really loves him, out he only throws her from him. A crook secreted behind the curtains, sees and overhears this, and really in love with Yvette himself, determines to avenge her. Drawing a gun, he awaits an opportunity to get Jack. Yvette sees Paul’s hand with the gun come through the curtains and take aim at Jack. Realizing it is too late to stop him, she throws herself in Jack’s arms as Paul pulls the trigger, and Yvette falls limply to the floor.
Survival status: (unknown)
Current rights holder: Public domain [USA].
Listing updated: 26 November 2022.
References: Spehr-American p. 4 : Website-IMDb.
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