The Dividend

Important note: This is not a film review. I hope to be able to find and add as many silent film synopsis of films that have a survival status of unknown or presumed lost. I try to do as much research as I can and it is not my intention to deceive anyone, for sometimes the film does exist and some presumed lost films are still being discovered. I am more than delighted if someone has knowledge of a film listed as lost but survives, as I wish all silent films did survive. I hope the reader enjoys this brief synopsis.

Widowed businessman and slum lord John Steele ( William H. Thompson ) vows to stockholders that his corporation will earn its greatest dividend ever, and to make good on his boast, he cuts wages, charges his tenants for more and more rent and refuses to give his college-educated son Frank ( Charles Ray ) a job for anything more than subsistence wages. Completely neglected by his single-minded father, Frank becomes a drug addict and John eventually throws him out of the house. Then, on the night that John announces his fantastic profits, Frank, having been shot in a gang fight, returns to John's home and, just before dying, forgives his father, who finally realizes the price he has paid to guarantee the success of his business.

This 1916 silent drama was produced by the New York Motion Picture Company and starred William H. Thompson and Charles Ray. The survival status of The Dividend (1916) is listed in the American Silent Feature Film Database as; No holdings located in archives.