The British Silent Film Festival has done much to lift the lurid lid on the film industry before the arrival of the talkie
In November 1918, as victory bunting fluttered between lamp-posts all over London, a young British movie star had his day in court. Lionel Belcher, much more handsome than his name, the leading man of Bonnie Mary and In Another Girl's Shoes, did not emerge with his reputation intact. He had been one of the last people to speak to Billie Carleton, a West End musical comedy actress, before her drug-swashed body was discovered in her apartment next door to the Savoy hotel. The subsequent inquest revealed that Belcher was not as redeemable as some of the troubled romantics he embodied on the screen. He had deserted his wife. He was a heroin addict. Thanks in part to his father's bankruptcy, he was supplementing his earnings by dealing cocaine,...
In November 1918, as victory bunting fluttered between lamp-posts all over London, a young British movie star had his day in court. Lionel Belcher, much more handsome than his name, the leading man of Bonnie Mary and In Another Girl's Shoes, did not emerge with his reputation intact. He had been one of the last people to speak to Billie Carleton, a West End musical comedy actress, before her drug-swashed body was discovered in her apartment next door to the Savoy hotel. The subsequent inquest revealed that Belcher was not as redeemable as some of the troubled romantics he embodied on the screen. He had deserted his wife. He was a heroin addict. Thanks in part to his father's bankruptcy, he was supplementing his earnings by dealing cocaine,...
- 4/8/2011
- by Matthew Sweet
- The Guardian - Film News
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