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For the Defense

1916 · 50 min

A creaky but earnest silent melodrama that builds quiet suspense through mistaken identity and a determined heroine's undercover gambit.

Overview
Two playboys stumble drunkenly home, where the owner falls asleep and the other attacks the maid. The butler intervenes and a fight results in the death of the assailant. A French girl, escaping from a pimp who kidnapped her, witnesses the crime. The butler convinces his master he is the killer, and must flee. He joins the girl but is caught. She helps police expose the real killer by going undercover as another maid.

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In the UKNo streaming, rental or purchase options known.
In your watch list

How it feels

Written by AI. It can be wrong.

Tone
  • tensestrength 2 of 3
  • melancholicstrength 1 of 3
  • earneststrength 2 of 3
  • darkstrength 1 of 3
Pacing
measured, 2 of 4, from slow-burn to relentless
Attention
engaged, 3 of 4, from background-friendly to demanding
Themes
  • justice
  • deception
  • betrayal
  • survival
  • love
Places
  • big city
  • single country house
Era
period
Audience
adult
Form
  • twist ending
Content intensity
  • Gore none
  • Language none
  • Violence mild
  • Sex mild
All scales, 0 to 10
Scales, 0 to 10
ScaleValue0 to 10
Action3
Horror2
Humour2
Realism6
Romance4
Tension6
Darkness5
Complexity5
Emotional weight5

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Where to watch in the UK

No UK streaming, rental or purchase options are known.

Streaming data from JustWatch.TMDB

Details

Genres
drama
Directed by
Frank Reicher
Written by
Hector Turnbull, Margaret Turnbull
Starring
Fannie Ward, Jack Dean, Horace B. Carpenter, Camille Astor, James Neill, Gertrude Kellar, Paul Byron
Runtime
50 min
Country
United States of America
Languages
No Language

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