''The Beautiful City'' is a 1925 American silent

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super ...

directed by Kenneth Webb and starring

Richard Barthelmess Richard Semler Barthelmess (May 9, 1895 – August 17, 1963) was an American film actor, principally of the Hollywood silent era. He starred opposite Lillian Gish in D. W. Griffith's ''Broken Blossoms'' (1919) and ''Way Down East'' (1920) and w ...

Dorothy Gish Dorothy Elizabeth Gish (March 11, 1898June 4, 1968) was an American actress of the screen and stage, as well as a director and writer. Dorothy and her older sister Lillian Gish were major movie stars of the silent era. Dorothy also had great s ...

, and

William Powell William Horatio Powell (July 29, 1892 – March 5, 1984) was an American actor. A major star at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, he was paired with Myrna Loy in 14 films, including the '' Thin Man'' series based on the Nick and Nora Charles characters cr ...

. For their mother's sake, a man takes the blame for a robbery committed by his brother and his brother's gangster boss.

Plot

As described in a film magazine review, Tony, a young Italian flower vendor who is in love with Mollie, a young Irish neighbor woman, becomes involved in a series of dangerous events by trying to reclaim his brother, who has fallen under the influence of a gangster-theatre manager. After hard fighting, the youth’s brother is turned from evil. Then the flower seller learns the beauty of his city and finds happiness with the young woman.

Cast

as Tony Gillardi *

as Mollie *

as Nick Di Silva *

Frank Puglia Francesco Giuseppe "Frank" Puglia (9 March 1892 – 25 October 1975) was an Italian-American film actor. He had small, but memorable roles in films including ''Casablanca'' (a Moroccan rug merchant), ''Now, Voyager'' and ''The Jungle Book''. ...

as Carlo Gillardi *

Florence Auer Florence Auer (March 3, 1880 – May 14, 1962) was an American theater and motion picture actress whose career spanned more than five decades. Life and career Born in Albany, New York, Auer began her career on East Coast stages at the turn ...

as Mama Gillardi

Reception

Mordaunt Hall Mordaunt Hall (1 November 1878 – 2 July 1973) was the first regularly assigned motion picture critic for ''The New York Times'', working from October 1924 to September 1934.The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'', calling ''The Beautiful City'' "quite a disappointing production. ... the story would have to be greatly improved to make it entertaining." However, he did note that, "William Powell makes the villainy as impressive as possible."

Preservation

With no prints of ''The Beautiful City'' located in any film archives,Library of Congress American Silent Feature Film Survival Database: ''The Beautiful City''
/ref> it is a

lost film A lost film is a feature Feature may refer to: Computing * Feature (CAD), could be a hole, pocket, or notch * Feature (computer vision), could be an edge, corner or blob * Feature (software design) is an intentional distinguishing char ...

References

External links

* * *
Still with Richard Barthelmess
at gettyimages.com American black-and-white films American crime drama films American silent feature films Films set in New York City 1925 crime drama films 1925 films 1920s American films Silent American drama films {{1920s-silent-drama-film-stub