By Right of Birth
About By Right of Birth
Juanita Cooper, raised by Frank and Geraldine Cooper, looks for her birth parents with lawyer Manuel Romero, who wants both her and the oil under Freedmen allotments in Oklahoma. He forges a lease in the name of a missing heir, Helen Childers. Geraldine and detective Pinky Webb find that Juanita is Helen. She meets her birth mother, Mother Agnes, inherits the money, and Romero's lies end with his death.
Cast & crew
More about By Right of Birth
Harry Gant directed for the Lincoln Motion Picture Company. It premiered in Los Angeles on June 22, 1921. The original length was six reels, about 6,000 feet.
Themes
Making
In 2022, Cara Caddoo, researching at Indiana University, found that shots of Noble Johnson and Beulah Hall Jones from the 1917 Lincoln film The Trooper of Troop K had been cut into this picture.
Preservation
Earl Arnett found pieces in a basement at UCLA. What is known as consecutive scenes runs about four minutes, out of the original six reels.
Notes
- Anita Thompson plays Juanita Cooper. Lew Meehan is Manuel Romero. Webb King is Pinky Webb. Beatrice George is Mother Agnes.
- Lester Bates and Grace Ellenwood play the adoptive parents. Minnie Provost plays Minnie Childers.
- Clarence Brooks, Noble Johnson, and Beulah Hall Jones are also billed. Johnson and Jones appear in footage from another Lincoln film spliced into this one.
Scenes
- Geraldine and Pinky Webb match Juanita to the missing heir Helen Childers.
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (By Right of Birth (1921).webm)