''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. The drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular ...

starring

Basil Rathbone Philip St. John Basil Rathbone MC (13 June 1892 – 21 July 1967) was an Anglo-South African actor. He rose to prominence in the United Kingdom as a Shakespearean stage actor and went on to appear in more than 70 films, primarily costume drama ...

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 W ...

, and

Aileen Pringle Aileen Pringle (born Aileen Bisbee; July 23, 1895 – December 16, 1989) was an American stage and film actress during the silent film era. Biography Early life Pringle was born into a prominent and wealthy San Francisco family and educate ...

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

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

era espionage, previously adapted as the 1919 film ''

Shadows of Suspicion ''Shadows of Suspicion'' is a 1919 American silent thriller film directed by Edwin Carewe and starring Harold Lockwood, Naomi Childers, and Helen Lindroth. It is based on the 1915 novel ''The Yellow Dove'' by George Fort Gibbs, which was later ...

''. This film is currently a

lost film A lost film is a feature film, feature or short film in which the original negative or copies are not known to exist in any studio archive, private collection, or public archive. Films can be wholly or partially lost for a number of reasons. ...

. A ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' 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 organi ...

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

Cast

as Cyril Mansfield *

as Lois *

as Rizzio * Sam Hardy as Handy *

Charlotte Walker __NOTOC__ Charlotte Ganahl Walker (December 29, 1876March 23, 1958) was a Broadway theater actress. Stage actress Walker made her stage debut as a teen in 1893. At nineteen 1895 she performed in London, England in a comedy called ''The Mumm ...

as Mrs. Mansfield * Amelia Summerville as Lady Jane *Hubert Wilke as General Von Frankenhauser *

Lucien Prival Lucien Prival (July 14, 1901 – June 3, 1994) was an American film actor. He appeared in more than 70 films between 1926 and 1953. Born in New York City, Prival was the son of a German mother and a Russian father. From 1912-1919 he lived w ...

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 trai ...

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