Quincy Adams Sawyer

• 1922

• Watchlist

Based on the popular novel of rural life by Charles Felton Pidgin, this motion picture featured most of the star names that Paramount had in 1922. After meeting a pretty girl in the park, Quincy Adams Sawyer, a young, up-and-coming lawyer, is called to the village of Mason's Corners by his father's friend, Deacon Pettengill (Edward Connelly). An older woman, Mrs. Putnam (Claire McDowell), is being swindled by her lawyer, Obadiah Strout (Lon Chaney, who was a master villain with or without makeup). The woman's daughter, Lindy (Barbara LaMarr), tries to vamp Sawyer, but he discovers that the girl he met, Alice (Blanche Sweet), is Pettengill's niece, and she has gone blind since the time they met. A romance develops between Alice and Sawyer nevertheless. Strout, afraid of being exposed, convinces the village blacksmith, Abner Stiles (Elmo Lincoln), that Sawyer means him no good, so Stiles offers his aid. Lindy leads Alice onto a ferry, and Stiles cuts the rope and sends the little boat adrift. Lindy, however, repents her actions and tells all to Sawyer, who goes to Alice's rescue. He saves her just before the ferry goes over the falls. In the excitement, Alice's eyesight returns. Stiles, discovering that he has been duped, kills Strout.