Cameron C. Coffey

Passing Through is a 1921 American silent comedy drama film, directed by William A. Seiter and written by Agnes Christine Johnston, and Joseph F. Poland.

Mary Miles Minter is the title character. Pat (Minter) is a little orphan who has been raised around the circus. Her foster father is Toto the clown (Neely Edwards). Toto hopes to marry Pat until the day the circus comes to a Southern town and she meets handsome Dick Beverley (Jack Mulhall). Beverley falls in love with Pat and takes a job as trick rider just to be near her. Beverley's aristocratic parents (Winter Hall and Helen Dunbar) find out about his new job and insist that he come home. Two of the five reels survive.

Polly Hopkins belongs to a family of squatters living in Silent City. The poor squatters are constantly at odds with the wealthy "hilltoppers," but Polly's grandmother has gone against popular opinion by teaching Polly to love everybody. Polly keeps the faith, even when her sister's husband is railroaded into jail.

Mira Sacky (Bessie Barriscale) will inherit a fortune if she is able to come up with ten thousand dollars for lawyers' fees. Since she has no money of her own, the only way she can think of raising the funds is to marry someone wealthy. When she gets the attention of Michael Ordsay (Jack Holt), she quickly asks him to marry her. It seems to be a mismatch, so Mira obtains the needed money from his kindly father (Tom Guise), and heads for Rome, where she undergoes voice training and becomes an operatic star.