Souls for Sale

Souls for Sale is a 1923 American silent film written and directed by Rupert Hughes, following a woman who escapes a murderous husband by jumping from a moving train in the desert and, drifting into the film industry, rises from extra to star. The film is notable as an early and unusually candid Hollywood-about-Hollywood production, filmed partly on real studio backlots and featuring cameo appearances by working directors including Charlie Chaplin, King Vidor, Fred Niblo and Erich von Stroheim. Critic Roger Ebert later described it as representative of the well crafted mid-range entertainment the studios were producing at the time, noting that Hughes signaled his awareness of his own plot's absurdity through his title cards.