“an idle, worthless person; a person who is ineffectual, unsuccessful, or completely lacking in merit; good-for-nothing.”
‘No pictures. Tired of being sick,’ wrote Margaret on 28 June. By that weekend, she had recovered well enough to see The Ne’er Do Well at the Crystal Palace.
If she had enjoyed The Rosary earlier in the year, it would seem to follow that The Ne’er Do Well would also be to her taste, as the third in a series of films featuring the same major cast, director and production company, Selig.
Based on a novel by Rex Beach, who also wrote The Spoilers, The Ne’er Do Well is the story of Kirk Anthony (Wheeler Oakman), “an irresponsible, but likeable young male animal of good nature and heavy sex-punch,” according to the Sunday Times. One night, he is drugged and finds himself on a ship bound for Panama. Here, he meets the unhappily married Mrs Cortlandt, played by Kathlyn Williams and described as “a pretty woman, at what [playwright] Karen Michaelis termed ‘the dangerous age’” The two begin an affair.
