Finally got to see 1934's Beggars in Ermine staring Lionel Atwell and a very young Betty Furness (just 18 at the time). The plot of the movie concerns a steel mill owner and his business rival. Atwill's rival causes an "accident" that cripples him and then he steals his wife and business. Reduced to becoming a beggar who sells phamlets that contain his business ideas, he comes to see the worth and power of others like him. Atwill meets a blind man who befriends him and encounters characters like Milligan the Miner who survives by selling soap, the sign on his sales tray reads "If I had hands I'd use this soap". In time his character decides to found a national fraternal organization to empower the disabled. The only requirement for membership is that you have to have a real disability.
I won't tell the rest of the plot but the script contains some wonderful old fashioned ideas; ideas like fair treatment of workers by big business, business knowledge gained from starting at the bottom and working your way to the top, and the film had characters who showed what can be achieved by working together for a common cause. Beggars in Ermine has a running time of 72 minutes and contains good performances by all concerned. Of note is Henry B. Walthall, whose career began in the silent era, he was especially good as Marchant the Blind Man. We watched this movie via Roku on the Movie Vault channel.
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