When Wealth Torments (1912)

• 55%
• 1912
• Francis X. Bushman
• Mildred Weston
• Helen Dunbar

Mrs. Mahoney has a charming daughter, Maggie, who is loved by Jim O'Brien, a stalwart young chap. Mrs. Mahoney is only too glad to accept Jim's attentions to Maggie until one day she receives a telegram stating that a deceased uncle has left her a fortune of half a million. Immediately Jim is ordered to keep away from the house and Mrs. Mahoney moves both herself and Maggie into a fashionable hotel. Maggie is heartbroken at the loss of Jim, and secretly manages to see him on several occasions, but always to he found out by her watchful mother, who drives poor Jim away. A friend now proposes a scheme to Jim to cure Mrs. Mahoney of her airs. Jim has heard her declare that Maggie shall marry a foreign title, so he sends his friend to her as a matrimonial agent representing a French count and a German baron, both of whom Mrs. Mahoney is eager to see. Thereupon, Jim disguises first as the count and calls. Maggie is disgusted with his actions until he reveals his identity, then she aids him in carrying out his plan. Jim's manners are shocking, and Mrs. Mahoney finally orders him out. Rigging himself out as the baron, Jim calls an hour later and proceeds to still further disgust the frantic Mrs. Mahoney with his actions until she drives him away and bemoans the fact that poor Jim is now lost to Maggie forever. Removing his disguise in the hall, Jim quickly returns in his true character and Mrs. Mahoney is so thoroughly cured of desiring foreign titles that she readily consents to a renewal of the engagement, entirely unsuspicious of the trickery that has been played on her.