''The Great Deception'' is a 1926 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 ...

starring Basil Rathbone,

Ben Lyon Ben Lyon (February 6, 1901 – March 22, 1979) was an American film actor and a studio executive at 20th Century-Fox who later acted in British radio, films and TV. Early life and career Lyon was born in Atlanta, Georgia, the son of Alvine ...

, and Aileen Pringle. It is based on the 1915 novel ''The Yellow Dove'' by George Gibbs about

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

era espionage, previously adapted as the 1919 film '' Shadows of Suspicion''. This film is currently 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 ...

. A ''

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 ...

'' review considered "this photoplay possesses an element of mystery and suspense".Parish & Pitts p.202

Synopsis

It portrays the activities of a British undercover agent Cryil Mansfield, who is in Germany as part of a plan to feed false intelligence to the German high command. His mission is threatened by Rizzio, a

double agent In the field of counterintelligence, a double agent is an employee of a secret intelligence service for one country, whose primary purpose is to spy on a target organization of another country, but who is now spying on their own country's organ ...

who uses Mansfield's American lover Lois as part of a scheme to entrap and execute him.

Cast

as Cyril Mansfield * Aileen Pringle as Lois * Basil Rathbone as Rizzio * Sam Hardy as Handy * Charlotte Walker as Mrs. Mansfield *

Amelia Summerville Amelia Summerville (born Amelia Shaw, 15 October 1862 – 21 January 1934) was an Irish-born American stage and silent film actress. Biography Summerville was born in County Kildare, Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster-Scots: ) is ...

as Lady Jane *Hubert Wilke as General Von Frankenhauser * Lucien Prival as Von Markow *

Lucius J. Henderson Lucius Junius Henderson (June 8, 1861 – February 18, 1947) was an American silent film director and actor of the early silent period involved in more than 70 film productions. Biography Born in Aledo, Illinois, Henderson was a classically tra ...

as Burton *Mark Gonzales as Maxwell

References

Bibliography

* Parish, James Robert & Pitts, Michael R. ''The Great Spy Pictures''. Scarecrow Press, 1974.

External links

* *
Stills from ''The Great Deception''
at silenthollywood.com 1926 films 1926 lost films 1920s English-language films Lost American drama films American silent feature films First National Pictures films American black-and-white films Films directed by Howard Higgin Films set in London Films set in Germany American World War I films 1920s spy drama films American spy drama films Remakes of American films 1926 drama films 1920s American films Silent American drama films English-language spy drama films {{1920s-silent-drama-film-stub