Woman in White

The first of three Herbert Wilcox productions for 1929, The Woman in White was based on the classic Gothic novel by Wilkie Collins. Promised in marriage to the despicable Sir Percival Glide (Cecil Humphries), beautiful young heiress Laura Fairlie (Blanche Sweet) stumbles into a diabolical fraud scheme cooked up by Sir Percy and the even more odious Count Fosco (Frank Perfitt). Were it not for the diligence of handsome Walter Hartwright (Haddon Mason), Laura would be doomed -- just as her look-alike, likewise enmeshed in Fosco's scheme, met her unfortunate demise. Rescuing Laura from being fraudulently confined in a mental institution, Walter confronts the clever Fosco, but it is Fosco's long-suffering wife (Mina Grey) who brings the villainy to an abrupt and final end. The Woman in White was remade in 1948 as a chop-licking vehicle for Sydney Greenstreet.