The Life of the Party (1920)

The Life of the Party (1920)

„The Life of the Party“ is a 1920 silent comedy drama film directed by Joseph Henabery.

Milly Hollister, the secretary for the Better Babies League, consults Judge Voris for advice in her fight against the Milk Trust, unaware that he is in collusion with the Trust. The Judge refers Milly to attorney Algernon Leary, whom he regards as an incompetent buffoon. Algernon Leary is a very successful lawyer, thanks in part to his complete lack of ethics as he will do anything to win a case!

But, before Algernon can cash the retainer check from the milk folks, he’s visited by a group of concerned women who want him to fight the Milk Trust! The corpulent attorney is so smitten with Milly that, although impoverished, Algernon tears up the Trust’s HUGE check and accepts the case for nothing. When the case comes to trial, under Judge Voris, he makes Algernon appear ridiculous and throws him out of court.

Angered, Algernon denounces Voris, now a Mayoral candidate, as a tool of the trust, and with the backing of Milly’s organization decides to run for Mayor himself. Now, with his reputation cleaned up, Algernon runs for office as a reform party candidate against the local machine politicians.

To discredit his opponent, Voris hires an attractive young notorious woman, ’French’ Kate, to compromise Algernon. She thrusts the „Pure Milk“ candidate for Mayor into a compromising situation so that he can be destroyed in the ensuing scandal that ensues and alienates Milly, who announces her betrothal to Voris.

Some society women involve Algernon in their charity drive to obtain milk for the local schoolchildren. They throw a charity ball in honour of the schoolchildren: all the adults invited to the party are told to arrive dressed as little children. Roscoe arrives, decked out as a four-year-old boy, and he’s the life of the party. Then something goes wrong, and Roscoe ends up in a snowstorm while dressed as a toddler. Algernon is robbed of his fur coat, leaving him bare legged and wearing rompers going home in a blizzard. Algernon takes refuge in the first building he can reach, creating havoc in various apartments due to his appearance.

Eventually he gets back into long trousers, but now he’s got to deal with the election and those crooked politicians. After a series of misadventures, Algernon blunders into the rival candidate in a compromising situation with a vamp and forces him to withdraw, ensuring Algernon’s election as mayor after a whirlwind campaign, and Algernon wins back Milly.

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