The Ordeal (film)

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The Ordeal
Still with Agnes Ayres and Conrad Nagel
Directed by	Paul Powell
Screenplay by	Beulah Marie Dix W. Somerset Maugham
Produced by	Adolph Zukor
Starring	Clarence Burton Agnes Ayres Conrad Nagel Edna Murphy Anne Schaefer Gino Corrado Adele Farrington
Cinematography	Harry Perry
Production company	Famous Players–Lasky Corporation
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release date	May 21, 1922 (1922-05-21)
Running time	50 minutes
Country	United States
Language	Silent (English intertitles)

The Ordeal is a lost^[1] 1922 American silent drama film directed by Paul Powell and written by Beulah Marie Dix and W. Somerset Maugham. The film stars Clarence Burton, Agnes Ayres, Conrad Nagel, Edna Murphy, Anne Schaefer, Gino Corrado, and Adele Farrington. The film was released on May 21, 1922, by Paramount Pictures.^[2]^[3]

Plot

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As described in a film magazine,^[4] Sybil Bruce (Ayres) agreed to a marriage with her older drunken and abusive husband George Bruce (Burton) to provide for her invalid sister and young brother. The husband's physician Dr. Robert Acton (Nagel) is regarded as a rival and is not permitted in the house. A will is drafted that stipulates that the wife will forfeit her claim to the husband's wealth if she remarries after his death. When the husband dies, Sybil believes that in failing to provide him his medicine, she had murdered him. The money she inherits allows her to pay for an operation that restores her sister's health. But her sister becomes headstrong and wasteful, and her younger brother follows the same path. Dr. Robert Acton returns, but the sister and brother prevent the natural marriage. There is a big scene at a roadhouse where an aged, former family nurse saves Sybil and tells her that she poisoned the deceased husband. There follows a happy ending with Sybil and the doctor.