The American Beauty
Cast & Crew
William D. Taylor
Myrtle Stedman
Elliott Dexter
Jack Livingston
Adelaide Woods
Edward Ayers
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
During a fire on an ocean liner, Mr. and Mrs. Martin Ellsworth, a prosperous American couple returning from Newfoundland, are separated from their infant daughter. After the baby is found in a lifeboat by Cleave, a fisherman, he and his childless wife attempt to locate the parents, but when the attempt proves unsuccessful, they rear the girl themselves and name her Ruth. Twenty years later, when Mrs. Cleave, now a widow and charwoman to wealthy American artist Paul Keith, falls ill, Ruth, who has been discharged from a sweatshop, takes her place. Meanwhile, Keith is searching for a model who captures the American soul to pose in an international beauty competition sponsored by dissolute Herbert Lorrimer. He persuades Ruth to model, and although Keith's painting, The American Beauty wins, Ruth's Canadian nationality is discovered and the painting is disqualified. After Lorrimer lures Ruth to his apartment and drugs her, Keith saves her from rape. Thinking herself inferior socially, Ruth declines Keith's proposal, but because of the painting's controversy, Ruth's parents learn of her existence, and at the end, Ruth asks Keith if she would make a model wife.
Director
William D. Taylor
Cast
Myrtle Stedman
Elliott Dexter
Jack Livingston
Adelaide Woods
Edward Ayers
Film Details
Technical Specs
