Deceit (sometimes referred to as The Deceit) is a 1923 American silent black-and-white film. It is a conventional melodrama directed by Oscar Micheaux.[1] Like many of Micheaux's films, Deceit casts clerics in a negative light.[2] Although the film was shot in 1921, it was not released until 1923.[3] It is not known whether the film currently survives,[4] which suggests that it is a lost film. The 1922 film The Hypocrite was shown within Deceit as a film within a film.
A tramp cares for a boy after he's abandoned as a newborn by his mother. Later the mother has a change of heart and aches to be reunited with her son.
An overly trusting young man inherits the fortune of his great uncle and his scheming relatives plot to get their hands on the money.
Larry Winthrop, the pampered son of an aristocratic Boston family, is loved by his wife, Eleanor, but she wants him to prove himself to her as a man.
Grizel is the daughter of the Painted Lady, who believes that her lover will one day return. Grizel is ostracized by the other children of the town. Tommy and his sister come to the town. Tommy is friendly, but Elspeth keeps her distance. When the Painted Lady dies, Dr. Gemmell makes Grizel his housekeeper. Time passes and after the doctor dies, Grizel, who is now twenty-one years old, loves Tommy, who is an author in London. Tommy visits the town but cannot decide whether he loves Grizel. Grizel knows that Tommy does not love her, and after he returns to London her unhappiness leads to insanity. Tommy returns and marries Grizel, although he believes that she will hate him when she gets better. After two years under Tommy's care, she regains her sanity. After Tommy lets her know that he cared for her out of his love for her; not for pity, Grizel is happy.
Mary Maddock works as a seamstress to bring home money while her husband Steve, unemployed, has no real prospects of earning money. Mary's employers, are trying to strike an oil related business deal with a rich man by the name of Nelson Rogers. The deal does not seem to be on the table, as Mr. Rogers is leaving town shortly and does not have the time to work out the details of such a deal. In an order to entice him to stay, Mrs. Mallory - wife of Mr. Mallory who is proposing the business deal - convinces Mary to be her guest at a dinner party with the intent of making Mr. Rogers fall for her and thus stay long enough for Mr. Mallory to make him agree to a business deal.
The marriage of Jim and Esther spirals downhill rapidly when Esther purchases a sable coat for herself. Hoping to live up to her expensive accessory, Esther soon is keeping company with caddish Morrell. Jim brings his wife's galavanting to an abrupt end by committing suicide. Esther as an object lesson for young Alice Kendall, returns the fur coat that she's bought on impulse.
Hugh Garth hides from the law in the frozen Canadian northwest along with his young brother Pete and Pete's former nurse, Bella, who loves Hugh unrequitedly. When a lost and snowblind girl stumbles into their camp, Hugh falls in love with her and misleads her as to the age and relationship of Pete and Bella, in hopes of keeping the girl's attentions directed at himself. But when the girl's sight returns, she realizes the truth and discovers that Pete has fallen in love with her. But Hugh's cruel nature now threatens them both.
Sacked clerk inherits £3000 a year and struggles when thrust into high society.
An alcoholic, abusive ne'er-do-well is shown the error of his ways through a legend that dooms the last person to die on New Year's Eve before the clock strikes twelve to take the reins of Death's chariot and work tirelessly collecting fresh souls for the next year.
Janosík, a friar retrained as a bandit, becomes the farmers' symbol of resistance and fight against the feudal conditions.
The film is about a woman who experiences frightening visions after visiting an insane asylum where one of the inmates claims to be Count Dracula (here following the Hungarian spelling Drakula). She has trouble determining whether the inmate's visions are real or merely nightmares.
On a farm in up-country Sweden, an enigmatic stranger comes to a conservative peasant community and seduces a farmer's wife.
Three Outlaws came across a stranded baby and must decide to save the child or escape from the law.
Eccentric inventor Charlie Jackson tries to interest wealthy investors in his girlfriend's plan to help children from poor neighbourhoods.
Camille is a courtesan in Paris. She falls deeply in love with a young man of promise, Armand Duval. When Armand's father begs her not to ruin his hope of a career and position by marrying Armand, she acquiesces and leaves her lover. However, when poverty and terminal illness overwhelm her, Camille discovers that Armand has not lost his love for her.
In a poor neighborhood of a big city, a crippled mailman is in love with a maid who lives in his building. However, she is in love with a wealthy and handsome young man, who soon disappears. The mailman provides the maid with letters that get her hopes up... but tragedy will soon befall all three.
Richard de la Croix's brother, Andreas, has been driven insane by a notorious vamp and socialite named Sappho. A friend takes Richard to the Odeon to meet her, but when Sappho actually meets him, he is unaware that she is the woman who drove Andreas to be institutionalised. Sappho genuinely falls in love with Richard, and decides to leave her vampy ways and her older lover behind her so that she can have him.
Lorenzo Carilo selects more-or-less menial jobs at which to make a living, other more "select" jobs not paying enough, and then he meets and falls in love with Vivian Forrester the daughter of a new-rich family. What's a poor boy to do? He might pose as a French Duke.
A blind cobbler is able, by dint of his extraordinary hearing, to recognize the identity of a murderer. His own son is accused of the killing, and the old man waits, knowing the murderer will return to prevent the blind man from revealing what he knows.
