Florence Robie Reed Sold at Auction Prices

Florence Reed/"At Bay"/Pathe. 1915.

Florence Reed/"At Bay"/Pathe. 1915.The noir-ish portent of this Kimball design is fantastic, focusing on a woman that is equal parts femme fatale and vulnerable innocent. The shady details of the film revolve around a shyster lawyer who runs an illegal gambling house who fears the current district attorney's campaign against corruption. He arranges for one of his flunkies to meet and charm the DA's daughter-played by Reed. He does such a good job that they are secretly married. Once she realizes that the whole thing was just a plot to get some dirt on her father, she goes to the lawyer and pleads with him, but a struggle ensues and she stabs him in self-defense. Fortunately for her, there is a police officer who's secretly in love with her and manages to clear her of murder charges. She realizes she loves him as well and her secret husband winds up dying in a botched robbery. The End. Philadelphia-native Florence Reed (1883-1967) made her stage debut at eighteen and toured with stock companies, playing a wide range of roles. Gasnier engaged her for Pathe in 1921 as an ingenue in such films as "The Dancing Girl," "New York" and "Indiscretion." Kimball was noted for depicting romantic themes, most notably with images of pretty women as the ideal beauty of the American female. His work was regularly seen on the covers of the Saturday Evening Post. ALONZO KIMBALL (1874-1923)