Name: The False Code
Released: 1919
Cast: Frank Keenan, Myles Mccarthy, Joseph J. Dowling, Clyde Benson, Edward J. Brady

Cast & Crew

Film Details

Also Known As

The Trap

Release Date

Sep 21, 1919

Premiere Information

not available

Production Company

Frank Keenan Productions, Inc.

Distribution Company

Pathé Exchange, Inc.

Country

United States

Synopsis

John Benton is a man of honor and the brains of a company that makes parts for ships. His partner, Henry Vance, and Daniel Grey, an employee, forge Benton's name to orders for defective boilers. Vance and Grey are in league with the man who carries insurance on the ship for which the boilers were made, and with a government inspector. After the ship sinks at sea, the inspector commits suicide. The conspirators collect the insurance money and hire a safecracker, Chicago Ed, to plant money in Benton's safe. Benton is sentenced to the penitentiary where he becomes a trustee and saves Chicago Ed from punishment. After serving twelve years, Benton is released to find that his wife has died, his daughter Anne has grown up, Grey has become a power in city politics, and Vance is wealthy. When he learns from Chicago Ed about the frame-up, Benton fights Vance, who dies after falling and hitting his head on a curb. Benton takes Vance's identity and forges his name to get his property. When Grey arrives with police to arrest Benton, Benton confronts him with Vance's code book, which Grey thinks will implicate him, but which, in reality, has no relevance to the fraud. Grey calls off the police, and after Benton learns that Anne loves Grey's son, the three leave together for South America.