The Honeymoon
Summary
A Niagara mist still clings to this 1923 one-reeler, its celluloid bridal veil shimmering with mischief rather than moonlight. Susan Lane, veiled in orange-blossom innocence, exchanges vows with Richard Greer only to discover that the real sacrament is suspicion: a single whispered conversation between groom and bridesmaid detonates her trust like a bootleg firecracker. What follows is a Keystone-cascade of mistaken rendezvous, forged telegrams, and a divorce decree that arrives with the brisk cruelty of a February wind ripping through a summer porch. Uncle Jimmy, part shaman-part-shyster, tries to stage-manage heartbreak as if it were a parlor trick, yet the legal machinery clatters beyond his grasp, granting a dissolution that nobody—least of all Susan—truly wanted. Despair pools so thickly that even the falls outside seem to hush; remorse hurtles the elders into a midnight scramble for a second minister, a second ring, a second chance. The film ends where it began: two trembling hands re-knotted beneath a canopy of orange crate chrysanthemums, the honeymoon rebooted like a phonograph record whose needle has been warped by too much frantic skipping.
Synopsis
Immediately after Susan Lane becomes Mrs. Richard Greer, she grows jealous when she sees her husband talking to Marion Starr, one of her bridesmaids. Susan's brother Phil wishes to marry Marion, but is entangled with actress Maizie Middleton. Consequently, Dick Greer agrees to see Maizie, whose troupe is playing Niagara, and attempts to buy her off. Susan follows Dick to Marion's dressing room, returns to the hotel and wires her Uncle Jimmy to file for divorce. Uncle Jimmy, resolved to cure Susan of her jealousy, intends to allow Susan to believe that she has been divorced, without actually filing. His law partner rushes the case through the courts, however, and the divorce is granted. Susan suffers such despair at the news of her separation from Dick that Uncle Jimmy rushes out and secures a minister, the couple are remarried and begin their honeymoon again.
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