The Blot [DVD] [1921]

Lois Weber was generally championing something or someone in her films; this time around it's underpaid white-collar workers. Professor Griggs (Phillip Hubbard) can barely afford to support his wife (Margaret McWade) and daughter, Amelia (Claire Windsor). Amelia works at a library and she has three suitors -- carefree college boy Phil West (Louis Calhern), the boy next door whose father is a well-to-do shoemaker, and a poor minister. When Amelia is taken ill, the doctor advises her mother that she must have nourishing food. Since this is beyond what she can afford, Mrs. Griggs steals a chicken from her next-door neighbor. Because of the theft, Amelia returns to work early so that she can pay for the bird. Although West is loved by a girl of his own social station (Marie Walcamp), he prefers Amelia. She refuses to encourage him until he changes his frivolous ways. Not only does he decide to settle down, he also convinces his father, who is on the college board of trustees, to give Amelia's father a raise. Eventually the couple unite.~Janiss Garza