Summary
The American Way" unfurls a delightful, if somewhat convoluted, transatlantic farce, chronicling the misadventures of Richard Farrington, the impetuous progeny of an Anglo-American aristocratic union. Dispatched to the ostensibly genteel environs of Long Island by his exasperated parents, Richard's ocean voyage from England becomes an unexpected crucible for romantic entanglement. A fortuitous encounter with Betty Winthrop, the spirited ward of the eminent Van Allen family, commences with Richard's rather chivalrous rescue of her distressed feline companion. Yet, in a moment of unwitting deception, he inadvertently proffers the calling card of John Smithers, a notorious card shark who recently divested him of his London winnings. This initial, seemingly innocuous, misstep precipitates a cascade of comedic complications. Upon discreetly shadowing Betty to her guardians' lavish estate, Richard is privy to her rather defiant pronouncement: her heart yearns for an American renegade, a man of action, rather than a perceived effete English blue-blood. Seizing upon this peculiar challenge, and driven by a burgeoning fascination, Richard audaciously resolves to embody the very criminal persona he unwittingly introduced, embracing the identity of Smithers. What begins as a calculated stratagem to secure Betty's affections rapidly devolves into a delightful maelstrom of unforeseen predicaments, where the delicate boundaries between genuine sentiment, societal expectation, and assumed identity delightfully blur with captivating theatricality.
Synopsis
Richard Farrington is the hell-raising son of an English nobleman and his American wife, and his parents send him for a visit to his aunt and uncle in Long Island, New York. On the ocean voyage from England, Richard meets Betty Winthrop, the pretty ward of the wealthy Van Allen family, after saving her cat, but in introducing himself he mistakenly gives her the card of John Smithers, a con-man who cheated him at cards in London. He follows Betty to the Van Allen estate, where he hears her declare that she would rather marry an American criminal than a weakling English aristocrat. Determined to win her over, he pretends to be Smithers, but things don't turn out exactly the way he planned.
