The Glorious Lady

Because his family is as old as dirt, Matt Moore is the Duke of Loame. He's also the last of his line. Fortunately, he's fallen in love with the daughter of his estate's largest tenant, Olive Thomas. When it turns out she is barren, everyone is all atwitter, because she can't carry on the line. Evelyn Brent sees her chance to become a wealthy Duchess, and persuades Miss Thomas to seek a divorce, because Moore loves her too much to do so himself.

This sort of gossipy nonsense is the sort of thing that Selznick figured would carry Miss Thomas to stardom. She was a beautiful young woman, discovered by Ziegfeld for his Follies in 1915, had been appearing in the movies since 1915..... but it would be the next year that she would hit the heights with The Flapper. Then she would die of mercury poisoning in Paris while vacationing there with husband Jack Pickford, only 25. Gossip pursued her in death as well as life, and her ghost is said to haunt the New Amsterdam Theater, where Ziegfeld staged the Follies.

This movie is a well-constructed and produced trifle.