BEYOND THE RAINBOW
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PRESERVATION STATUS: 6 reels exists at The UCLA Film Archive in video and 16mm.

R-C Pictures. February 19, 1922 (copyright: February 19, 1922; LP17703)j. Silent; b&w. 35mm. 7 reels, 6,500 ft. (Also 6 reels)

Directed by: William Christy Cabanne. Adoptation: Eustace Hale Ball, Loila Brooks. Photographed by: William Tuers, Philip Armand. Art Direction: Frank Champury.

Cast: Harry Morey (Edward Mallory), Billie Dove (Marion Taylor), Virginia Lee (Henrietta Greeley), Diana Allen (Frances Gardener), James Harrison (Louis Wade), Macey Harlam (Count Julien de Brisac), Rose Coghlan (Mrs. burns), William Tooker (Dr. Ramsey), George Fawcett (Mr. Gardener), Marguerite Courtot (Esther), Edmund Breese (Inspector Richardson), Walter Miller (Robert Judson), Charles Craig (Col. Henry Cartwright), Clara Bow (Virginia Gardener), Huntly Gordon (Bruce Forbes).

SOCIETY MELODRAMA. Source: Solita Solano, "The Price of Feathers" (publication undetermined).

Marion Taylor, secretary to Edward Mallory, a Wall Street magnate, supports her invalid brother, Tommy, who is ordered to the mountains by his doctor. Marion has resisted her employer's advances, but she resolves to seek his aid. Frances Gardener, daughter of a prominent society couple, is admired by Louis Wade, an old friend, and by Count de Brisac. Wade, intent on making Frances jealous, meets Marion and persuades her to come to the ball in the role of Miss Chandler, a famous belle, agreeing to pay her the $250 needed to send Tommy to the mountains. She is a sensation at the ball; meanwhile, Virginia, Frances' younger sister, who has been forbidden to attend the ball, sends anonymous messages among the guests, telling each that his secret is known. When the lights are extinguished, Mallory is shot. The police suspect Bruce Forbes, but the guilty man proves to be Robert Judson. Mallory recovers, and Marion finds happiness with Forbes and her cured brother, Tommy. (From "The American Film Institute Catalogue of Feature Films".)

NOTES: Clara's screen debut occurred in BTR. Her cousin David Decker loaned her $40 to purchase 2 dresses for the film. She played a flirtatious sub-deb who stirs up trouble at a fashionable New York ball by sending all the guests there the messege: "Consult your conscience. Your secret is common gossip." Billie Dove was the star of the programmer. Clara's sequences were cut out of the initial release prints because her performance was thought too amateurish and her movements much too jerky. Later, when she became a movie personality, the feature was reissured with her scenes reinstated. She was paid $50 a week for her intitial movie work.

(Variety Film Reviews 1921-1925): "The feminine characters form a galaxy of beauty. Lillian (Billie) Dove has a wealth of brunet loveliness and makes an attractive contrast to the other two beauties, Virginia Lee and Clara Bow, both blondes and both beauty contest winners."

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