The Power of the Press (1914)

• 71%
• 1914
• Drama
• Lionel Barrymore
• William Russell
• Vivian Prescott

An innocent man, serving a sentence of five years in prison through the perjured testimony of the real criminal, Steve Carson, foreman of a shipyard, strikes up a warm friendship with his cellmate, Harold Norwood, a defaulting paying teller. No less strange than their friendship is the befriending of Steve's wife, Annie, by Julia Seymour, prima donna, who is Norwood's wife. As a reward of good behavior, the men are released on Christmas morning. Annie is bewildered by the receipt of a bank book which shows that large deposits of gold have been made in her name and that of her sister, Mary, by their uncle, George Hosford, who, dying in Alaska, has entrusted the book to Joe Hawes, a fellow prospector. Hawes, coming to New York, has met Turner Morgan, Steve's predecessor as foreman of the shipyard, who bears Carson a lasting grudge and has fastened upon him the crime for which he was imprisoned. Morgan has tried to get the money, failed and lost the book. Anstey, a cub reporter on a daily paper, gets wind of the case and by clever work discovers the truth. In his big story, through "the power of the press," Steve is vindicated, and Morgan's infamy bared to the world after his counterfeiting den is raided by the police.