The Cheerful Fraud

The Cheerful Fraud is a 1927 American silent comedy film directed by William A. Seiter and starring Reginald Denny, Gertrude Olmstead, and Otis Harlan. It was produced and distributed by Universal Pictures. It is based on a 1925 novel of the same title by British writer Kenneth Robert Gordon Browne.

Plot

Sir Michael Fairlie pretends to be the new employee at the residence owned by the Bytheways, in order to spend time with their social secretary, whom he has encountered in a London rainstorm,. Meanwhile, a notorious crook turns up at the house pretending to be Sir Michael, with an eye on stealing family jewels. The confusion is compounded when a blackmailer also arrives.

Preservation

The film is preserved at the UCLA Film and Television Archive.