The Gold Diggers (1923 film)

The Gold Diggers
Directed by	Harry Beaumont
Produced by	David Belasco
Written by	Grant Carpenter
Based on	The Gold Diggers by Avery Hopwood
Starring	Hope Hampton Wyndham Standing Louise Fazenda
Edited by	Frank Mitchell Dazey
Production company	Warner Bros.
Distributed by	Warner Bros.
Release dates	September 22, 1923 (1923-09-22)
Running time	80 minutes
Country	United States
Language	Silent English intertitles

The Gold Diggers (1923) is a lost Warner Bros. silent film directed by Harry Beaumont with screenplay by Grant Carpenter based on the play The Gold Diggers by Avery Hopwood which ran for 282 performances on Broadway in 1919 and 1920. Both the play and the film were produced by David Belasco. The film stars Hope Hampton, Wyndham Standing, and Louise Fazenda. It was also the (uncredited) film debut of Louise Beavers.

The story of The Gold Diggers was filmed again as a talkie in 1929 as Gold Diggers of Broadway, which is now lost, and also in 1933 as Gold Diggers of 1933, with musical numbers created by Busby Berkeley. Three other sequels followed: Gold Diggers of 1935 (1935), Gold Diggers of 1937 (1936), and Gold Diggers in Paris (1938).

Plot

Wally Saunders (Johnny Harron) wants to marry chorus girl Violet Dayne (Anne Cornwall), but his uncle, Stephen Lee (Wydham Standing) thinks that all chorines are gold diggers (people who date others to get money from them) and refuses to give his approval. Violet's friend Jerry La Mar (Hope Hampton) is not a gold digger, but she agrees to go after Lee so aggressively that Violet will look tame by comparison. Of course, the uncle and the friend fall in love and get married, even after he knows the truth about her, and he gives permission for Wally and Violet to get hitched too.

Cast

• Hope Hampton as Jerry La Mar
• Wyndham Standing as Stephen Lee
• Louise Fazenda as Mabel Munroe
• Gertrude Short as Topsy St. John
• Alec Francis as James Blake
• Jed Prouty as Barney Barnett
• Arita Gillman as Eleanor Montgomery
• Peggy Browne as Trixie Andres
• Margaret Seddon as Mrs. La Mar
• John Harron as Wally Saunders (as Johnny Harron)
• Anne Cornwall as Violet Dayne (as Ann Cornwall)
• Louise Beaudet as Cissie Gray
• Edna Tichenor as Dolly Baxter
• Frances Ross as Gypsy Montrose
• Marie Prade as Sadie

Preservation status

This film is now lost. In February 1956, Jack Warner sold the rights to all of his pre-December 1949 films to Associated Artists Productions. In 1969 UA donated 16mm prints of some Warner Bros. films from outside United States. No copies of The Gold Diggers are known to exist.

External links

• The Gold Diggers at IMDb
• The Gold Diggers at the TCM Movie Database
• The Gold Diggers at AllMovie