Smiles of Fortune (1914)

Silas Gregg, a wealthy old grouch, who thinks he is about to die, sends for his nephew and heir. Ezekiel Grubb, and warns him to come smiling, as he (Silas) is sick of long faces. Zeke is in despair, his face is naturally so solemn that a smile is impossible. He seeks the assistance of a beauty doctor, who adorns his features with a broad grin, which is guaranteed never to come off. Uncle Silas is wild with rage when Zeke presents himself at the bedside smiling with apparent delight. He decides not to die at all, and drives the disowned and miserable, but still smiling, Zeke from the house. Zeke is engaged to his cousin, Amanda, whose face is naturally as solemn as Zeke's. In the hope of pleasing her lover by always greeting him with a smile, she, too, has taken treatment with permanent results. Silas sends for her, writing that she shall inherit his fortune. Zeke, at the sight of her face, is broken-hearted, thinking she will receive the same treatment accorded him, but there is no help for it, and Amanda goes, smiling. Meanwhile, the old man's other relations, thinking to take a tip from Zeke's experience, have shown him nothing but faces of gloom. Amanda's radiant smile is like sunshine in a dark room. Silas is so pleased with her that he at once makes her a deed of gift to a bulk of his property, and she at once marries Zeke. Old Silas' first emotion is rage, but two such smiles together cannot be resisted, and he embraces the young people with a grin as broad as their own.

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GenresDocumentary Short