Summary
In the smoke-filled, celluloid-drenched corridors of 1920s Tinseltown, Inez Laranetta exists as a paradox: a woman whose professional identity is forged in the fires of the 'vamp' archetype, yet whose private soul is anchored by a fierce, almost monastic devotion to her sister, Fay Bartholdi. Publicly, Inez is the architect of scandal, a creature of lurid headlines and predatory screen presence designed to satiate the era's appetite for the exotic and the dangerous. Privately, she is a sentinel, guarding Fay from the very industry that feeds them and the predatory whims of a patriarchal society. When Stewart Cuyler, a scion of Manhattan's elite and the only man to pierce Inez's armor of cynicism, enters the fray, a tragic misunderstanding blossoms. Mistaking Stewart’s pursuit of Fay for the usual debauchery she sees in the studio backlots, Inez intervenes with the desperation of a cornered lioness. The resolution is a bitter draught of social Darwinism: Stewart demands the erasure of the 'scandalous' sister as the price for the younger one’s legitimacy. In a devastating act of self-abnegation, Inez dissolves into the shadows of her own notoriety, finding a muted, secondary solace in the arms of her manager, Pat Summerfield, while the world she protected continues without her.
Synopsis
Thought to be "the worst woman in Hollywood" because of her vampire roles and lurid publicity, Inez Laranetta actually is more concerned with shielding her younger sister, Fay Bartholdi, from the life she knows--especially the devastating impulses of men. Stewart Cuyler, a wealthy and socially prominent New Yorker, is the only man Inez respects, but she refuses even his attentions. When Stewart searches for the man he believes to be his rival, he falls in love with Fay. Inez learns of their courtship, assumes Stewart's intentions to be dishonorable, and hastens to the scene intending to separate the couple. Stewart explains that he wishes to marry Fay but that Inez must give up her sister. For the sake of Fay's happiness, Inez sadly withdraws and finds some consolation in the love of her manager, Pat Summerfield.
