According to IMDb, portions of this film are missing--heck, two of the six reels are supposedly missing! However, despite this, I decided to give the film a watch and was surprised that the story worked out pretty well despite the missing reels. As for the remaining ones, they're in reasonably good shape but with a little degradation here and there.
When the story begins, Duke Robert is betrothed to Simone. What's so odd about this? Well, Simone is an infant and Robert looks to be about 4!
Years pass and Robert (Buddy Rogers)goes into town (Paris) to have some pearls re-strung. Once there, he meets vivacious Nancy (Clara Bow) and they soon hit it off. The trouble is that he's engaged and so they part.
Here is where the missing reels occur.
Now apparently Nancy's been in some sort of accident and is staying in Robert's home and I assumed neither she nor he realized this. Later in one of the reels you learned she arranged this accident! Robert's father is the one who took her in and he is very taken by Nancy...as is Simone's father. Later, Nancy learns separately that neither Simone nor Robert want to marry each other but are doing so simply out of obligation. So, to help them (and herself) she hatches a scheme that might enable the engagement to be broken. This scheme includes getting engaged to one of the fathers! So how does it all work out in this light romance? See for yourself...it's posted on YouTube.
As I said above, despite missing a portion of the film, the overall film is STILL worth seeing--which is rather surprising. The story also works well because if Bow's character just schemed to split up an engagement, she would have been a jerk and the story wouldn't have worked. But instead of being just a schemer, she's quite likable and the story sweet and well done.
I would sure love to learn one day that they've found the missing reels. This HAS happened with quite a few films in recent years, so we can only hope!
