title: The Hope Chest
text: # The Hope Chest
  
  The Hope Chest is an American silent comedy-drama film released in 1918, starring Dorothy Gish. The film was directed by Elmer Clifton and based on a serialized story (and later novel) by Mark Lee Luther, originally published in Woman's Home Companion. It is not known whether the film currently survives.
  
  ## Plot
  
  Sheila Moore (Gish) takes a job at a candy store to support her father, an out-of-work vaudevillian. She attracts the romantic attentions of the store owner's son Tom (Barthalmess) and marries him, incurring the wrath of Tom's parents.
  
  ## Cast
  
  * Dorothy Gish as Sheila Moore
  * George Fawcett as Lew Moore
  * Richard Barthelmess as Tom Ballantyne
  * Sam De Grasse as Ballantyne, Sr.
  * Kate Toncray as Mrs. Ballantyne
  * Carol Dempster as Ethel Hoyt
  * Bertram Grassby as Stoughton Lounsbury
  
  ## Production
  
  The Hope Chest was shot in Los Angeles, with production wrapping in late-September, 1918.
  
  ## Release
  
  The first screenings of The Hope Chest in New Zealand appear to have been in Wellington, where it played simultaneously in two theaters in August, 1919. The film played at the Strand Theatre in Christchurch in early September, 1919.
  
  