The Cheaters (1930)

Paulette McDonagh’s pioneering silent romantic melodrama. Set in Sydney with the director’s sister as the daughter of a criminal mastermind.

An embezzler, Bill Marsh, swears vengeance on a businessman, John Travers, who has turned him in to the police. Twenty years pass and Marsh emerges from jail, establishing himself as head of a powerful crime empire, with his daughter, Paula, serving as bait to attract wealthy victims. Paula falls in love with Lee Travers, the adopted son of Marsh's old enemy, and begins to have doubts about her life of crime. Only after a series of tragic incidents is she set free to marry Lee and start life anew.

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