A broke racecar driver, a soiled reputation, and one flat tire standing between true love and transactional sin.
Chorus girl Mary Brown promises to give herself to playboy cad John Duane in exchange for $2500 so she can pay back a theft her brother made from his employers. Her sweetheart, race-car driver Jimmie, learns about it and gives her a check for $2500, but the check is worthless unless he can win the Big Race that afternoon. He leads through every lap but blows a tire on the last lap and finishes fourth. It appears that Duane will soon be hugging sweet Mary, unless Jimmie can find a buyer for a race-car with a flat tire.
Stunts
Real race footage integrated with staged melodrama.
Production
Pre-Code frankness about sex work economics.
Director
Fred Windemere
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
The title 'Soiled' refers to Mary's threatened virtue, reflecting 1920s anxiety about working women's sexual autonomy in cities.
Mildred Harris was Charlie Chaplin's first wife; her casting as 'Pet Darling' adds meta-textual bite to this tale of compromised women.
US
