A Faustian Pact - George Arliss and his $4.8 Million Lawsuit

By: Robert Fells

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

George Arliss was an actor, author, playwright, and filmmaker who was active from 1887 to his retirement in 1939. This genial gentleman spent much of his life in the Victorian Era, and in many respects, he was a child of his times. However, as the 20th century advanced, Arliss realized that times had changed. By the 1910s a contraption called “motion pictures” was competing with his domain of the legitimate theater in which he was one of its most popular stars. Arliss realized that films could no longer be ignored when he received several persistent offers to star in them. When he began negotiations with rising film director Herbert Brenon, Arliss assumed that his handshake was as good as his bond. It wasn’t. Offended by the blatant dishonesty of the director, Arliss for the first and only time in his life sued for damages in a New York Court. Using the actual trial transcripts from 1917, this book tells the story of the events that led up to the litigation and the ironic fate that followed the parties.