Mary Wayne (Constance Talmadge) is left alone and penniless in New York City after her father dies. She desperately needs a job after being thrown out of her apartment for causing a small fire while cooking.


A century ago, when the nickelodeon reeked of coal dust and violet perfume, Good References slipped into theaters like a forged calling card—deft, glittering, gone before the usher noticed. Watching it now is to eavesdrop on Roaring-Twenties Manhattan at the precise instant its fault lines cracked: chorus girls, boot...

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Comparing the cinematic DNA and archive impact of two defining moments in cult history.

Roy William Neill

Roy William Neill
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" A century ago, when the nickelodeon reeked of coal dust and violet perfume, Good References slipped into theaters like a forged calling card—deft, glittering, gone before the usher noticed. Watching it now is to eavesdrop on Roaring-Twenties Manhattan at the precise instant its fault lines cracked: chorus girls, bootleggers, and society matrons all rubbing sequined elbows in the same velvet darkness. Plot in the Key of Smoke & Mirrors Constance Talmadge’s Mary Wayne begins the film amid floa..."
Dorothy Farnum, Burns Mantle, E.J. Rath
United States


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