Directed byDonald Crisp
Wilton Welch Based onHeld by the Enemy
by William Gillette StarringAgnes Ayres
Lewis Stone Release dateOctober 24, 1920 (1920-10-24) Produced byAdolph Zukor, Jesse L. Lasky SimilarThe Way of a Man with a Maid, The Six Best Cellars, Too Much Johnson, The Poor Boob, Lost in Transit
Held by the Enemy is a lost 1920 American silent Civil War melodrama film directed by Donald Crisp and based on the 1886 play by William Gillette. The film starred Agnes Ayres, Lewis Stone, and Jack Holt. It was produced by Famous Players-Lasky and distributed by Paramount Pictures.
As described in a film magazine, Rachel Hayne (Ayres), whose husband, a Southern soldier, is believed to have died in battle, renews a former love affair with Union fighter Colonel Charles Prescott (Holt). She also cultivates the friendship of another Northerner, Brigade Surgeon Fielding (Cain), for the purpose of obtaining quinine from him to pass on to Southern soldiers. Prescott is about to avow his love when the husband Captain Gordon Haine (Stone) returns. When Hayne is recaptured as a spy, Fielding accuses Prescott of trumping up the charge to dispose of the husband. Hayne escapes from his imprisonment, but is then recaptured, and after several incidents commits suicide. This leaves the love road free for his former wife, who never loved him, and the man to whom she has given her heart.