| A Child for Sale | |
|---|---|
Movie poster |
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| Directed by | Ivan Abramson |
| Starring | Gladys Leslie, Creighton Hale |
| Release date(s) | 1920 |
| Running time | 6 reels (approximately 60 minutes) |
| Country | United States |
| Language | Silent English intertitles |
A Child for Sale is a 1920 silent film directed by Ivan Abramson, starring Gladys Leslie and Creighton Hale.[1]
Contents |
Charles Stoddard (played by Hale) is a poor artist living with his wife and two childen in Greenwich Village. Destitute after his wife dies, he is forced to sell one of his children for $1,000 to a childless rich woman. He soon comes his senses however, and backs out of the deal. From there, the story takes a number of twists and turns involving Ruth Gardner (Leslie) (the wife of Dr. Gardner who treats Stoddard's child for illness) and Ruth's parents -- whose father is also Stoddard's landlord and mother is later revealed to be Stoddard's long-lost mother from a prior marriage.[2]
The ad campaign for the film included a faux advertisement for selling a child.[3][4][5]
Critic Burns Mantle noted some shortcomings of the film in his review of the "melodramatic opus" in Photoplay,[6] stating that "Ivan Abramson's idea of what constitutes a coherent and convincing dramatic story, taking this picture as a sample, offer many opportunities for the raucous hoot and the mirthful snort. ...His picture is an inartistic jumble of unrelated incidents to me ..." Other contemporary reviews were of a more non-specific and generally positive nature, such as the review by the New York Clipper which described the picture as "intensely interesting from start to finish."[2]