The First Degree

Frank Mayo plays the kind-hearted sheep farmer Sam Purdy, who is mercilessly blackmailed by his jealous half-brother Will. The story is told largely in flashbacks, with the tension between the two brothers mounting and finally erupting in a dramatic confession of murder in the courtroom. Like many feature films from the silent era, THE FIRST DEGREE was thought to be lost until a print was found in the collections of the Chicago Film Archives in 2020. The musical accompaniment was composed by the Chicago rock band Quasar Wut-Wut.