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HISTORY

The 23 March 1918 Motion Picture News announced that Metro was filming Kenneth L. Roberts' short story, Good Will and Almond Shells, under the title The Shell Game.
       The National Film Preservation Board (NFPB) included this film on its list of Lost U.S. Silent Feature Films as of February 2021. ...

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The 23 March 1918 Motion Picture News announced that Metro was filming Kenneth L. Roberts' short story, Good Will and Almond Shells, under the title The Shell Game.
       The National Film Preservation Board (NFPB) included this film on its list of Lost U.S. Silent Feature Films as of February 2021.

Less

SOURCE CITATIONS
SOURCE
DATE
PAGE
Exhibitors Trade Review
26 Jan 1918
p. 664
Exhibitors Trade Review
2 Feb 1918
p. 779
Exhibitors Trade Review
9 Mar 1918
p. 1112
Exhibitors Trade Review
27 Apr 1918
pp. 587-88
Motion Picture News
23 Mar 1918
p. 1740
Moving Picture World
9 Mar 1918
p. 1416
Moving Picture World
23 Mar 1918
p. 1704
Variety
8 Mar 1918
p. 43
Wid's
21 Mar 1918
p. 1026
CAST
PRODUCTION CREDITS
NAME
PARENT COMPANY
PRODUCTION COMPANY
DISTRIBUTION COMPANY
NAME
CREDITED AS
CREDIT
DIRECTOR
PRODUCER
WRITER
PHOTOGRAPHY
SOURCES
LITERARY
Based on the short story "Good Will and Almond Shells" by Kenneth L. Roberts in The Saturday Evening Post (22 Dec 1917).
LITERARY SOURCE AUTHOR
DETAILS
Alternate Title:
Good Will and Almond Shells
Release Date:
4 March 1918
Production Date:

Copyright Info
Claimant
Date
Copyright Number
Metro Pictures Corp.
25 February 1918
LP12099
Physical Properties:
Silent
Black and White
Length(in reels):
5
Country:
United States
Language:
English
SYNOPSIS

Acting on his belief that most people become sentimental at Christmas time and are therefore easy prey, New York confidence man "Silk" Wilkins ingratiates himself with millionaire Lawrence Gray, whose wife and little daughter Zelda were lost in a flood eighteen years earlier. After promising to find Gray's daughter, Silk returns to his boardinghouse, where he finds Alice Sheldon attempting to escape her desperate financial straits through suicide. Silk convinces Alice to pose as Zelda Gray and then notifies Lawrence via a note placed in an almond shell that he has found the lost daughter. Lawrence treats Alice so kindly that when Silk demands payment from her on Christmas morning, she refuses. Lawrence, who has overheard the conversation, enters and laughingly reveals that he had known of the frame-up all along. Grateful to Silk for finding him a wife, Lawrence writes the confidence man a large ...

More Less

Acting on his belief that most people become sentimental at Christmas time and are therefore easy prey, New York confidence man "Silk" Wilkins ingratiates himself with millionaire Lawrence Gray, whose wife and little daughter Zelda were lost in a flood eighteen years earlier. After promising to find Gray's daughter, Silk returns to his boardinghouse, where he finds Alice Sheldon attempting to escape her desperate financial straits through suicide. Silk convinces Alice to pose as Zelda Gray and then notifies Lawrence via a note placed in an almond shell that he has found the lost daughter. Lawrence treats Alice so kindly that when Silk demands payment from her on Christmas morning, she refuses. Lawrence, who has overheard the conversation, enters and laughingly reveals that he had known of the frame-up all along. Grateful to Silk for finding him a wife, Lawrence writes the confidence man a large check.

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Legend
Viewed by AFI
Partially Viewed
Offscreen Credit
Name Occurs Before Title
AFI Life Achievement Award

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The American Film Institute is grateful to Sir Paul Getty KBE and the Sir Paul Getty KBE Estate for their dedication to the art of the moving image and their support for the AFI Catalog of Feature Films and without whose support AFI would not have been able to achieve this historical landmark in this epic scholarly endeavor.