Perpetua (1922)
Synopsis
Orphan Perpetua is adopted by artist Brian McQuee and she travels with him to France before entering a convent to complete her education. When Perpetua leaves the convent, her reunion with McQuee is marred by the arrival of her real father, an unscrupulous man who subsequently forces his daughter to marry a millionaire named Mender. When Mender is poisoned, suspicion falls on Perpetua, who is the beneficiary of the will, and she is imprisoned. Eventually her father confesses to the murder and Perpetua is released. She is now free to live with McQuee, whom she has fallen in love with.[1]
Production
Perpetua was directed by John S. Robertson, and was released as Love's Boomerang in America.
It was written by Josephine Lovett and Alfred Hitchcock designed the intertitle cards.
The film starred Ann Forrest as Perpetua, along with Bunty Fosse, David Powell, John Miltern, Roy Byford and Florence Wood.
Contemporary newspapers reported on an incident which occurred during filming circus scenes on Hampstead Heath — sudden winds demolished a tent housing two elephants who then escaped and "for over half an hour the bewildered elephants careered around the Heath in the rain at the unearthly hour of two in the morning".[2]
Preservation
The film is now lost.
