The White Heather

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The White Heather is a 1919 American silent drama directed by Maurice Tourneur. It is based on an 1897 play by Cecil Raleigh and Henry Hamilton. The film stars Holmes Herbert, Ben Alexander, Ralph Graves, and Mabel Ballin, with John Gilbert in a small role.

Plot summary:
Lord Angus Cameron is in serious financial trouble after a stock market panic. He asks his cousin Donald Cameron for a loan, but is refused because Angus won’t arrange a suitable marriage with his class. Angus had secretly married Marion Hume, his housekeeper, on his yacht. The evidence of the marriage is underwater, where a witness is dead and another sailor is missing.

During a hunt, Angus accidentally shoots his son from that marriage. Marion reveals the marriage to save her injured son. Angus denies the marriage, and Marion goes to her father James Hume. A court case fails due to lack of proof, and Hume is ruined and dies.

The missing witness is found but Angus bribes him to disappear. The only remaining proof is papers in a chest on the sunken yacht, and divers race to recover them. In an underwater confrontation, Angus is killed when his air hose is cut. One admirer surfaces with proof of the marriage and wants Marion; the other admirer dies while confessing his love.

For many years the film was thought lost, but a copy was found in 2023. It will be preserved by the San Francisco Silent Film Festival with support from the National Film Preservation Foundation.