The Hope Chest

{{More citations needed|date=November 2014}} {{Use mdy dates|date=November 2014}} {{Infobox film | name = The Hope Chest | image = The Hope Chest (1918) - Ad 1.jpg | caption = Ad for the film | director = Elmer Clifton | producer = | writer = M.M. Stearns (scenario) | based_on = {{based on|''The Hope Chest''|Mark Lee Luther}} | starring = Dorothy Gish<br>George Fawcett<br>Richard Barthelmess<br>Sam De Grasse | music = | cinematography = Lee Garmes<br>John W. Leezer | studio = New Art Film Company | distributor = Paramount Pictures / Artcraft | released = {{film date|1919|12|29}} | runtime = 5 reels | country = United States | language = Silent (English intertitles) | budget = | gross = }} '''''The Hope Chest''''' is an American silent comedy-drama film released in 1918, starring Dorothy Gish. The film was directed by Elmer Clifton and based on a serialized story (and later novel) by Mark Lee Luther, originally published in ''Woman's Home Companion''. It is not known whether the film currently survives.<ref>[http://www.silentera.com/PSFL/data/H/HopeChest1918.html Progressive Silent Film List: ''The Hope Chest''] at silentera.com</ref>

==Plot== Sheila Moore (Gish) takes a job at a candy store to support her father, an out-of-work vaudevillian. She attracts the romantic attentions of the store owner's son Tom (Barthalmess) and marries him, incurring the wrath of Tom's parents.

==Cast== {{Cast listing| * Dorothy Gish as Sheila Moore * George Fawcett as Lew Moore * Richard Barthelmess as Tom Ballantyne * Sam De Grasse as Ballantyne, Sr. * Kate Toncray as Mrs. Ballantyne * Carol Dempster as Ethel Hoyt * Bertram Grassby as Stoughton Lounsbury }}

==Production== ''The Hope Chest'' was shot in Los Angeles, with production wrapping in late-September, 1918.<ref>[http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=search&d=TS19181123.2.9&srpos=1&e=-------100--1-byDA---0%22hope+chest%22+gish-- News of the Movies] ''The Star''. Issue 12483. 23 November 1918. p 3. Retrieved 15 January 2016</ref>

==Release== The first screenings of ''The Hope Chest'' in New Zealand appear to have been in Wellington, where it played simultaneously in two theaters in August, 1919.<ref>[http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=search&d=EP19190808.2.14.5&srpos=5&e=-------100--1-byDA---0%22hope+chest%22+gish-- Pictures and Music!]. ''The Evening Post''. Volume XCVIII. Issue 33. 8 August 1919. p 2. Retrieved 16 January 2016</ref> The film played at the Strand Theatre in Christchurch in early September, 1919.<ref>[http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=search&d=TS19190906.2.6.2&srpos=10&e=-------10--1----0%22dorothy+gish%22-- Amusements, Etc.] ''The Star''. Issue 12738. 6 September 1919. p 1. Retrieved 15 January 2016</ref>

==References== {{reflist}}

==External links== {{commons category|The Hope Chest}} * {{IMDb title|0010269}} * {{TCMDb title|495757}} * [http://www.silentfilmstillarchive.com/hope.htm ''The Hope Chest''] at the Silent Film Still Archive

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hope CHest, The}} Category:1918 films Category:American silent romantic comedy-drama films Category:American silent feature films Category:American black-and-white films Category:Films directed by Elmer Clifton Category:1910s romantic comedy-drama films Category:1919 comedy films Category:1919 films Category:1918 comedy films Category:1918 drama films Category:1919 drama films Category:1918 American films Category:1918 English-language films Category:English-language romantic comedy-drama films