Lila Lee seemed to be in every other movie during the 1920s, she was cute and bubbly, a perfect ingénue and when sound arrived it proved she had a lovely speaking voice also. But the amount of talkies she made early on (17 movies in 3 years) brought on a nervous breakdown and she suddenly found herself a hasbeen at 33."The Adorable Cheat" found her at the top of her game - it is a very cute movie about Marion Dorsey who always manages to twist her father around her little finger. He owns an agate factory (enamel ware) but is having trouble with her brother who would rather run after showgirls than work. When Marion hears her father confess that he is getting a little old and tired she decides to help him out by working at his factory incognito - don't quite understand how that would help but anyway. It is a chance to set the plot in motion and as "Marion Collins" she finds a job as an audit clerk and a new love interest in head shipping clerk George Mason. For a while things go swimmingly. George invites her home for dinner and she wows his family (his dad almost stealing the movie) but when an old school friend visits her at the office she concocts a plan where old school friend, posing as Marion Dorsey, is to give a week-end party and invite George and Marion along. Sounds simple enough!! Young Will is also there and after losing heavily at cards breaks into the safe to steal pearls to cover his debt. George catches him red-handed and convinces him to return the pearls but in the morning they really have been stolen and Howard Carter who is the real thief and a card cheat as well sets up George as the fall guy.Quite a short film (my copy is only 42 minutes long), there doesn't seem to be any scenes obviously missing and it flows pretty smoothly but the other review (Gwynplaine's) description fills in some of the missing plot and explains why Marion felt the need to become an "adorable cheat". Dorsey Snr. discovers the theft next morning but there is no "so you are really the boss's daughter, how can I trust you" etc. George goes home with his parents (they have suddenly appeared at the big house!!) and things are soon speedily resolved. Lila Lee shows why she was such a popular player and why she could have had a big talkie career, if sickness hadn't intervened and it definitely looked like Gwen Lee as one of Marion's pals trying to persuade her to come to the beach (I know in 1928 she was an MGM player but it sure looked like her)!!!

Paramount groomed super-beautiful Lila Lee as a replacement for temperamental Gloria Swanson. Lila starred opposite Valentino in Blood and Sand (1922) and headed the cast of The Midnight Girl (1925) opposite second-billed Gareth Hughes (who was earning a colossal salary of $2,000 a week at this stage, so who knows how much Lila Lee was being paid). Yet here she is in a Chesterfield production. Fortunately, by the humble standards of Poverty Row, this is a well-produced agreeable little comedy-noir. The plot is nothing new, but the players give it a good degree of interest and even charm. In fact, late-entering Harry Allen almost steals the show as the hero's dad. And the good news is that Alpha offer a good print of the 5-reel Kodascope cutdown. A noir? Yes, although basically a romantic comedy, the film qualifies as a noir because of a secondary plot involving a black-mailer and our heroine's brother.

Lila Lee was an attractive and talented actress in the late silent era. She married James Kirkwood, a star of silent westerns, at a time when he was a bigger star than Lee ... but her career prospered while his diminished. When talkies arrived, she proved to have a pleasant speaking voice and some ability with dialogue. Her stardom briefly continued into the sound era, but she managed her career badly and faded into obscurity. She is remembered for being Lon Chaney's leading lady in his only sound film, and also as the mother of the playwright who wrote 'A Chorus Line', James Kirkwood Jnr.'The Adorable Cheat' has an unfortunate title: I dislike it when a movie *tells* me outright that I'm meant to find the heroine adorable; I prefer to make that decision for myself. But this is a fine light drama (with some comedy touches), supplying an excellent showcase for Lila Lee's charm and talents.Marion (Lee) is the daughter of Cyrus Dorsey (the dependable Burr McIntosh), a manufacturing magnate. Her brother Will is an irresponsible playboy. Level-headed sensible Marion is clearly better suited than Will to take over the reins of the company, but their bloody-minded father believes that the board room is no place for a 'girl'. (Although he's got plenty of women working on his assembly line.)To acclimatise herself with every aspect of her father's business, Marion disguises herself as a prole and gets a job in his factory. While passing as a working-class woman, heiress Marion meets George Mason, a lowly shipping clerk who also works for her father. Love ensues, to the point where she reveals her true identity to him. Hoping to get her father's approval for their marriage, she invites George to a party at the Dorsey mansion. But then someone robs Cyrus Dorsey's safe during the party, and the evidence points to George being the culprit. Will justice prevail?Lila Lee gives an excellent performance in what might arguably be a dual role: she ably establishes herself as an heiress born to privilege, yet is equally convincing in her disguise as a pink-collar employee. What weakens this movie are the poor script and stolid direction. The identity of the real thief is blindingly obvious, and several of the supporting characters seem to be archetypes rather than human beings: Cyrus Dorsey is the bloated plutocrat, whilst George Mason's parents are salt-of-the-earth homespun folks. Mostly on the strength of Lila Lee's vivacious performance, and some good photography, I'll rate this movie 7 out of 10.