Summary
In the glittering ballroom of Muriel Vanderflip's engagement soirée, the enigmatic Blue Jean Billie—renowned for a string of audacious jewel capers—makes a theatrical entrance, siphoning the glittering trove before the bewildered elite. Detective Wood, dispatched expressly to thwart her, finds his authority eclipsed when Billie, with a daring flourish, commandeers the fleeing chauffeur Shaver Michael and the hapless Muriel, whose vehicle overturns in a chaotic tumble. The thief, brandishing a pistol, coerces the trio into retreat, only to discover Algernon P. Smythe, the aristocratic groom, lurking beside the wreckage. Smythe, ensnared in Billie's cunning ploy, is escorted to his own manor, where he becomes both captive and confidant. An unexpected romance ignites between the rogue and the nobleman, complicating loyalties as police raids close in. Persuaded by Smythe's earnest plea, Billie contemplates returning the stolen gems and marrying him, yet a revelation shatters her trust: Smythe is the notorious international felon known as "English Harry." In a climactic showdown, Harry subdues Shaver and Wood, imprisoning them with the glittering loot, before eloping with Billie, vowing to abandon their criminal pasts for a shared future.
Synopsis
Master thief Blue Jean Billie, the unknown perpetrator of many sensational jewel heists, robs the guests at the exclusive party marking the engagement of Muriel Vanderflip to Algernon P. Smythe, Lord Chesterton. Overpowering Detective Wood, specially stationed there to stop her, Muriel escapes with her chauffeur, Shaver Michael. After Shaver's car overturns, Billie surprises her pursuers, and at gunpoint, makes them return, but Smythe, hiding on the side of Shaver's car, accompanies them until Billie discovers him and makes him take them to his home, where she holds him prisoner. To Shaver's dismay, Billie and Smythe fall in love. After they escape a police raid, Smythe convinces Billie to send the jewels back and marry him. Although she has her doubts when she learns that Smythe is really the international crook "English Harry," after he fights Shaver and locks him and Wood in their retreat with the stolen jewels, Billie and Harry make their final escape vowing to go straight.
Review Excerpt
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A Velvet Heist in the Age of Silent Cinema
When the silver screen first welcomed The Exquisite Thief, audiences were treated to a kaleidoscopic blend of caper, romance, and social satire that still reverberates in contemporary genre hybrids. Directed by the deft hand of Charles W. Tyler, with a screenplay honed by Harvey Gates, the film positions its titular anti‑heroine, Blue Jean Billie (Priscilla Dean), as a paradoxical figure: both a consummate professional and a woman of palpable vulne..."
