Fools and Their Money (1919)

Overview

Although her husband and children want to continue living modestly after they acquire a fortune from munitions, Mrs. Tompkins has social aspirations and persuades them to move into an exclusive country neighborhood and send their son Dick to Yale. When Mrs. Tompkins mistakes Louise Allenby, the daughter of her aristocratic neighbors, for a maid, Louise in jest pretends to be the Allenby social secretary. Dick, returning home, hears some girls giggling about Louise's joke on the Tompkins family and for revenge he becomes a groom for the Allenbys, but he and Louise fall in love. During a party, swindler Cholly Van Dusen steals some of the Allenby jewels and blames Louise who is put under arrest until her parents return. Cholly is then caught, Louise and Dick with revealed identities announce their love, and the Tompkinses are accepted socially.