
Gossip spreads quickly throughout a small New England village when Betty Taradine extravagantly entertains wounded Colonel Preedy, billeted at her home. After a bank official suggests that Betty, deeply in debt, raise money on the life insurance policy of her husband, who left years earlier because of her extravagances, Betty sends herself a telegram announcing her husband's death.
F. Tennyson Jesse, H.M. Harwood, Frances Marion
United States

Plot in Miniature, Flavor in Excess Picture a postcard village pickled in Presbyterian virtue, then imagine a woman brandishing champagne in one hand and unpaid bills in the other; that collision is the film’s heartbeat. Betty Taradine’s mansion—half mausoleum, half cabaret—hosts Colonel Preedy, a hero whose medals cl...
Comparing the cinematic DNA and archive impact of two defining moments in cult history.

John S. Robertson

John S. Robertson
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" Plot in Miniature, Flavor in Excess Picture a postcard village pickled in Presbyterian virtue, then imagine a woman brandishing champagne in one hand and unpaid bills in the other; that collision is the film’s heartbeat. Betty Taradine’s mansion—half mausoleum, half cabaret—hosts Colonel Preedy, a hero whose medals clink louder than his conscience. A single forged telegram detonates the narrative, proving that in 1920 a sentence can weigh more than artillery. From there the tale pirouettes thro..."


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