Distributed by W.H. Productions and States Rights
Released in the UK in January 1921 as And He Never Knew
Genre: Drama/Propoganda
Alice Calhoun stars as "Mildred Arden" with Charles Richman as "Tom Oakes".
Mildred Arden is the editor of The Daily Record. She becomes friends with two soldiers, back home from World War I, Tom Oakes and his blind friend, David. Tom is working for the paper as a compositor and quickly acclimates to civilian life back home, but David is struggling to adjust. Tom meets a man named Armstron who is a zealous patriot and manufacturer, and has just received a lucrative government contract. However, Armstrong becomes the target of alien powers that try to undermine his company by sending Bolsheviks, posing as llabor delegates, into his employee work force. Meantime, poor David, who is unaware that Mildred has a secret crush on Tom, has fallen in love with her. The group who is targeting Armstrong then leaks a false story, which is printed in The Daily Record. However, Mildred discovers the truth and threatens to publish an expose. The tension builds to a dangerous level, and poor David is inadvertently killed. Fortunately, he never realized that Mildred did not love him. But the culprits are caught and arrested, and Mildred and Tom can live happily ever after.
This film was previewed at the offices of the W.H. Productions Co. in July of 1919, but not released to the public until five months later. The film's purpose was to combat Bolshevism and promote Americanism. It tried to show that America won the respect of the world by supressing the danger posed by socialism, and the need to "run the Reds out" as one news item put it. The film was recommended by the National Security League, Inc., and an American Legion chapter in Detroit acquired the distribution rights in Michigan to help promote it.
According to an official of the W.H. Productions Co. "all the governors of the United States, all the mayors of the principal cities, and every senator and representative in Congress heartily endorse" the film. H.C. (Harry Charles) Witwer (a popular humorist) wrote a novelization of the film's story that was to appear in Sunday supplements in newspapers throughout the country, and Louis Weslyn was hired to write a song to tie in with the film's release.
(c) W.H. Productions LU13746
