The Faithful Heart

20 years after saying goodbye to a young waitress and embarking on a war-bound ship, a naval officer discovers he has an adult daughter.

The sailor’s “girl in every port” is given a twist in this melodrama based on Monckton Hoffe’s play of the same name. After saying goodbye to a brief fling with a young waitress 20 years earlier, Waverley runs into Blackie who claims to be his daughter. Now a Colonel, he must choose between the consequences of his past actions and a status-building marriage to a wealthy socialite.

The decision to cast the same actress as the mother and the daughter seems very unlikely today – particularly when the actors playing father and daughter (Herbert Marshall and Edna Best) were married in real life. Digitisation supported by the Mohamed S. Farsi Foundation.