Susan's Gentleman (1917) User Reviews

Violet Mersereau - Lost Drama

[PamelaShort · 15 January 2015]

After marrying Terrance Flynn ( Bradley Barker ) a groom on her father's estate, Nancy Croyden ( Violet Mersereau ) born of British aristocracy, is now wilting away in the slums of New York. Nancy dies there leaving a daughter, Susan Flynn ( Violet Mersereau ) who grows up in the Bowery. She travels to England in search of her family and she befriends Sir Bevis Neville ( William O'Neill ) an English peer in disguise. Neville becomes falsely accused of murder and Susan pretends to be the ghost of her mother to scare the real murderer Ora Tourette ( Maud Cooling ) into a confessing the crime. Susan's impersonation of her mother, causes her grandfather , Sir Jeffrey Croyden ( James O'Neill ) to recognize her as his granddaughter. Happily Susan wins Neville's freedom along with her own birthright.

This 1917 drama starring Violet Mersereau and produced by the Universal Film Manufacturing Company, now sadly remains a lost silent film.

The general tone of this picture is light

[deickemeyer · 21 July 2015]

Bluebird's release for April 2, "Susan's Gentleman," a romantic five- reel comedy drama, is a typical Violet Mersereau vehicle. Miss Mersereau is given plenty of opportunity to be cute in this picture, and she goes at her work with a knowledge of the requirements of the story and with an ability that results in a pleasing screening of her efforts. In this release we see much of Miss Mersereau in a knee-long, ragged dress. The combination of ragged raiment and tousled blonde hair is not a losing one. The general tone of this picture is light and, in a sense, frivolous. This rather lessens the weight of the more serious moments. Many of the subtitles contain a certain amount of humor. The story visualized in the film is the kind that we might expect to find in those paper-covered books that we can buy at any bookstore for ten cents; the kind that are most dear to the hearts of those who want their romance dealt out in large slices, unseasoned by logicality or anything else so long as the hero gets the girl in the end. It was written by Kate Jordan and scenarioized by John C. Brownell. In the story the daughter of an English nobleman—who of course has a big estate, elopes to America with the handsome groom. The groom is a drunkard. His wife dies when Susan is born. Next we see Susan as a child of the tenements. She is an avid reader of one of those same paper-covered novels, and always puts herself in the heroine's place. The nephew of a nobleman, who was once a suitor of the English girl, is forced to flee to America, and "by rare chance," according to the synopsis, becomes a roomer in Susan's flat. Of course he is "Susan's gentleman," and in the end they return to England and everything is straightened out to the "and they lived happily ever after." Supporting Miss Mersereau are Maud Cooling, Sidney Mason, James O'Neill, William O'Neill and Bradley Barker, all of whom are capable. The production details are fully up to Bluebird's standard. Photographed by Lewis Ostland. - The Moving Picture World, March 25, 1917