Anna Christie (1923)

This silent drama is based upon a Eugene O'Neill play and chronicles the exploits of a sea captain's daughter. Her loving father, wanting a better life for her, sends her to a Minnesota farm to live with her cousins. Unfortunately, they are cruel to her and she runs away to Chicago and ends up becoming a hooker. Later, she decides to make a better life for herself and heads for New York where she ends up working as a maid on the coal barge her father helms. She keeps her checkered past a secret from her father and the handsome sailor she falls in love with, but it is a heavy burden. When her father objects to her love for the sailor, the girl finally tells him the truth about her life and though it is rough sailing after that, things eventually settle down and all ends happily.