''The White Sin'' is a 1924 silent romantic drama film directed by William A. Seiter and starring

Madge Bellamy Madge Bellamy (born Margaret Derden Philpott; June 30, 1899 – January 24, 1990) was an American stage and film actress. She was a popular leading lady in the 1920s and early 1930s. Her career declined in the sound era and ended following a rom ...

and John Bowers. It was distributed by

Film Booking Offices of America Film Booking Offices of America (FBO), registered as FBO Pictures Corp., was an American film studio of the silent era, a midsize producer and distributor of mostly low-budget films. The business began in 1918 as Robertson-Cole, an Anglo-Americ ...

(FBO).

Plot

As described in a review of the film in a film magazine, Hattie Lou Harkness’ (Bellamy) life with her aunt becomes unbearable and she runs away from the country home, finding employment as a maid with the wealthy Van Gores. Spencer Van Gore (Cooley) stages a mock wedding on board his yacht with the ship’s captain officiating. Learning of the trick, Hattie Lou leaves. Two years later she is out of work. Reading that the yacht has been wrecked and the party of Van Gores lost, she goes with her baby to the elder Van Gore’s home and poses as Spencer’s wife. Grant Van Gore (Bowers), a war invalid there, falls in love with her. Spencer turns up and Hattie Lou learns that the marriage was legal and binding, as the captain deliberately performed it outside the

three-mile limit The three-mile limit refers to a traditional and now largely obsolete conception of the international law of the seas which defined a country's territorial waters, for the purposes of trade regulation and exclusivity, as extending as far as the r ...

. Spencer dies when the Van Gore home burns, and Grant and Hattie Lou marry.

Cast

Preservation

A print is preserved in the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library ...

.''Catalog of Holdings The American Film Institute Collection and The United Artists Collection at The Library of Congress'', p. 208, c.1978 by The American Film Institute

References

External links

* * * 1924 films American silent feature films Films directed by William A. Seiter Film Booking Offices of America films American black-and-white films American romantic drama films 1924 romantic drama films 1920s American films Silent romantic drama films Silent American drama films {{silent-romantic-drama-film-stub