A silent bean empire drama where legumes fueled corporate warfare — and somehow it slaps.
Brewster, the bean king, has an option of renewal on a certain bean canning plant owned by Ellis. Ellis does not want to renew so hires shyster lawyer Wingate to help him. Brewster sends Betty to renew the contract but Ellis declines. Later Brewster sends his lawyer along with Ellis' man to persuades her that he isn't crooked. There follows plot and counter-plot, but innocent Betty carries the day.
Production
Surviving fragments suggest surprisingly ambitious staging for a bean drama.
Writing
Wingate the shyster lawyer: silent cinema's most hatable bean antagonist.
Director
John Francis Dillon
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
This is considered a partially lost film — only fragments survive in archives, making Betty's victory permanently incomplete.
1918's obsession with contract dramas reflected real anxieties about America's shift to corporate capitalism; beans were serious business.
US
