The Wolf of Debt (1915)

• 84%
• 1915
• Drama
• Jack Harvey
• Violet Mersereau
• William Garwood
• Fanny Hayes

Mrs. Stanhope, a widow in embarrassing circumstances, urges her daughter, Helen, to marry Anthony Stuart, a wealthy broker, but she refuses. Helen, the following day, meets Bruce Marsden, a millionaire, at the golf links, and at once there develops a mutual attraction for each other. In a month their engagement is announced, and before they are married, Marsden transfers his Mesupa copper stock to Helen. The broker who has Marsden's stock is losing his own Transcontinental holdings and in order to raise money, gives his client's shares as security. But the market goes down and the broker loses everything, including Marsden's stock. Notwithstanding this, Helen marries the ruined millionaire. Helen's mercenary mother is greatly perturbed at the turn of events, and persuades Stuart to try and win Helen from her husband. Stuart's plans formulated, he gives Marsden a position in his office, and begins to lavish his attentions on Helen, who refuses to have anything to do with him. Failing in this he sends Marsden out of town on business while he invites Helen and her mother to a fashionable affair. At her mother's instigation, Helen purchases an expensive gown on credit and attends the society function, where she is later trailed by her husband, who returned from his trip sooner than he expected. Becoming suspicious of his wife, Marsden secretly watches her, and when she and Stuart leave in the latter's car he does not let them get out of his sight. The car breaks down and Stuart takes Helen to a roadhouse cafe. Marsden then appears, denounces his wife, and leaves the employ of Stuart, getting work elsewhere. Mesupa stock, meanwhile, due to the finding of ore, has gone up. Stuart starts to buy so heavily it is reported that he is trying to corner the copper market. When the stock reaches 104. Marsden, through his lawyer, Roger Murdock, in whose office Helen has found employment, swamps the market with his stock which brings the selling price down to 71¾. Stuart is finally ruined, and after an explanation from Helen, husband and wife are reconciled.