{{short description|1919 film}} {{Use American English|date=January 2025}} {{Use mdy dates|date=May 2020}} {{Infobox film | name = The Exquisite Thief | image = The Exquisite Thief - 1919 - newspaperad.jpg | caption = Newspaper advertisement | director = Tod Browning | producer = | writer = Charles W. Tyler (story: "Raggedy Ann")<br>Harvey Gates | starring = Priscilla Dean<br>Thurston Hall | cinematography = Alfred Gosden | distributor = Universal Film Manufacturing Company | released = {{film date|1919|4|28}} | runtime = 6 reels | country = United States | language = Silent (English intertitles) }}
'''''The Exquisite Thief''''' is a 1919 American silent drama film directed by Tod Browning. Prints and/or fragments were found in the Dawson Film Find in 1978.<ref name="silentera">{{cite web |url=http://www.silentera.com/PSFL/data/E/ExquisiteThief1919.html |title=Progressive Silent Film List: ''The Exquisite Thief'' |access-date=May 5, 2008|work=Silent Era}}</ref><ref>[http://lcweb2.loc.gov/diglib/ihas/loc.mbrs.sfdb.2989/default.html The Library of Congress American Silent Feature Film Survival Catalog: ''The Exquisite Thief'']</ref>
==Plot== thumb|Surviving footage from ''The Exquisite Thief'' As described in a film magazine,<ref>{{cite journal |last=McElravy |first=Robert C. |title=Reviews and Advertising Aids: ''The Exquisite Thief'' |journal=Moving Picture World |volume=40 |issue=2 |page=[https://archive.org/details/movwor40chal/page/n298 279] |publisher=Chalmers Publishing Company |location=New York City |date=April 12, 1919 |url=https://archive.org/details/movwor40chal |access-date=August 24, 2014}}</ref> Blue Jean Billie, a prosperous young woman crook who lives apart from the denizens of the underworld, has pulled off many robberies of the high society world with the help of her pal Shaver Michael. Billie gains admission to the Vanderhoof dinner at which the engagement of their daughter to Lord Chesterton will be announced. While the dinner is in progress, Billie gags and handcuffs special officer Detective Wood, and proceeds to make a wholesale robbery of the guests. She flees in an automobile and none succeed in tracking her save Lord Chesterton. She makes a prisoner of him, but a police raid follows and she must flee. Once more Lord Chesterton succeeds in following her and again she makes him her prisoner, but she learns to trust and love him. The special agent and Shaver Michael arrive at the scene with resulting complications, but a happy end results for all.
==Cast== * Priscilla Dean as Blue Jean Billie * Thurston Hall as Algernon P. Smythe (Lord Chesterton) * Milton Ross as Det. Wood * Sam De Grasse as Shaver Michael * Jean Calhoun as Muriel Vanderflip
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== *{{IMDb title|0010102}}
{{Tod Browning}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Exquisite Thief, The}} Category:1919 films Category:American silent feature films Category:American black-and-white films Category:1919 drama films Category:Films directed by Tod Browning Category:Universal Pictures films Category:American silent drama films Category:1919 American films