Lovely Mary

{{short description|1916 film by Edgar Jones}} {{Use mdy dates|date=March 2025}} {{Infobox film | name = Lovely Mary | image = Lovely Mary Advertisement.png | caption = | director = Edgar Jones | producer = Louis B. Mayer | writer = Richard Barry | narrator = | starring = Mary Miles Minter | music = | cinematography = | editing = | distributor = Metro Pictures | released = {{film date|1916|3|13|United States}} | runtime = 5 reels | country = United States | language = Silent<br>English intertitles | budget = | gross = }} '''''Lovely Mary''''' is a 1916 silent drama film directed by Edgar Jones and starring Mary Miles Minter. As with many of Minter's features, it is thought to be a lost film.<ref name="Library of Congress">[https://memory.loc.gov/diglib/ihas/loc.mbrs.sfdb.7125/default.html The Library of Congress/FIAF American Silent Feature Film Survival Catalog: ''Lovely Mary'']</ref>

==Plot== thumb|Mary Miles Minter in "Lovely Mary" (1916) As detailed in film magazines,<ref>{{cite journal |title=Current Releases Reviewed: ''Lovely Mary'' |journal=Motography |volume=15 |issue=13 |page=[https://archive.org/details/motography151elec/page/706] |publisher=Electricity Magazine Corp. |location=Chicago |date=March 25, 1916 |url= https://archive.org/details/motography151elec }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |title=Reviews of Current Productions: ''Lovely Mary'' |journal=Moving Picture World |volume=27 |issue=12 |page=[https://archive.org/details/movingpicturewor27newy/page/2022] |publisher=Chalmers Publishing Company |location=New York City |date=March 25, 1916 |url= https://archive.org/details/movingpicturewor27newy }}</ref> the film is set in the Florida Everglades in 1901, at which point state law permitted citizens to employ convicts. Mary Lane is the last heiress of a southern family, whose inheritance consists of a plot of land. Manning and Dempster, representatives of competing real estate firms, bid to buy this land. Dempster schemes to buy the land at a price far below its worth, and when a neighbour discovers, Dempster shoots the neighbour and frames Manning for the crime. Manning is found guilty and sentenced to hard labour.

Mary, who has fallen in love with Manning and does not believe him to be guilty, convinces the governor to let her employ him on her estate. Meanwhile, a fight between Dempster and a witness to the murder, and a dying confession, result in the evidence of Manning's innocence. The film ends with Manning's release, his marriage to Mary, and the promise of their happy future on the plot of land, which they have decided to keep.

==Cast== *Mary Miles Minter as Mary Lane *Frank DeVernon as Claiborne Ogilvie Lane *Russell Simpson as Peter Nelson *Schuyler Ladd as Oscar Nelson *Ferdinand Tidmarsh as Wade Dempster *Myra Brooks as Aunt Becky *Harry Blakemore as Uncle Joe *Thomas Carrigan as Ronald Manning

==References== {{Reflist}}

==External links== *{{IMDb title|0006958}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lovely Mary}} Category:1916 films Category:1916 American films Category:1916 drama films Category:1916 English-language films Category:1916 lost films Category:American black-and-white films Category:American silent feature films Category:English-language drama films Category:Films directed by Edgar Jones Category:Films shot in Florida Category:Lost American silent drama films Category:Metro Pictures films